] GADGET MAGIC [

CONVENIENCE on tour
Wrist Calls Travel gadgets are small, portable, fancy and make life a little nicer. From bags that can do more than just store passports or lipstick, a dinky sleeping mask for on-tour siestas to a photo frame that switches your holiday snapshots faster than you can book a ticket for your next escape, SkyBlue browses the latest range of nifty tools for you.
You expect the all-determining call of your life but you are in a meeting with your phone on mute and have no chance to look at it. Sony Ericssons MBW-150 Music Edition Bluetooth wristwatch can save you. Its display discreetly shows your callers ID so that you can chose whether to answer or reject. Moreover, it gently vibrates when a new message arrives. If you own a music phone, you can easily change tracks and pump up the volume by pushing a button on your wristwatch, even if you are 10 metres away from your mobile phone. But we nearly forgot: it also shows the time. EUR 269 www.sonyericsson.com

Take a Straw

Did any of your holidays or business trips ever get spoiled by an illness? Perhaps your stomach was upset by the water quality at your travel destination. Never worry again about drinking tap water or putting ice cubes in your cocktails the lightweight iStraw has a special membrane to filter out 99.999 percent of all water-borne bacteria, promise the inventors.And since you can reuse it for up to 500 litres of water, you can help the environment by avoiding disposable straws, right in line with your green conscience. 19.95 www.istraw.co.uk
SKYBLUE inflight magazine 4 2007

Picture perfect

Mementos anywhere and anytime: Samsungs SPF-72V digital photo frame eases collecting your visual souvenirs, whether as JPEG, MP3 or MPEG4. Thanks to different memory card slots, a USB port and Wi-Fi, transferring your pictures from a camera or PC into a frame will be faster then ever. Moreover, the built-in flash memory can hold several hundreds of images and the integrated speaker allows you to add music to your nostalgic photo moments. And, instead of turning over the pages in your old paper school album, multiple slideshow programs portray snapshots in sequence on the silver-framed, 7-inch LCD display. About EUR 219 www.samsung.com
BRAG WITH YOUR BAG Email in a Bag
Logstoffs bags are truly communicative. Choose the form, material and colours online and your messenger, record or sports bag is delivered with an email address: a sequence of six letters with alternating vowels and consonants lomobo, selage, turofu, etc.You can show the address to the rest of the world in the little viewing panel on the bags lid; and if someone behind you at the check-in desk falls for you, you could at least receive an email. Logstoff offers an online portal to store your emails and talk to others with another bag of the brand. Prices start from EUR 24 www.logstoff.com
Veer towards the Showplaces
Dont want to look like a tourist walking around with a folded city map, searching for the way to the next sightseeing attraction? British industrial designer Gail Knight has something for you. Like other navigation systems, Veer uses GPS and an electronic compass. Enter the postcode of the destination into the main device and slip one of the two rings over each hand; the directions are communicated through vibrations.Take a right when the right ring pulses; turn around when both rings tremble.Veer is programmed to take you via the fastest route but you can also tell the gadget to choose a scenic, safe, touristy or secret course instead. So stop looking at the map! Not yet on sale www.gailknight.co.uk

Energy everywhere

You are en route and your mobile phone, music player or digital camera runs out of battery charge.There is no longer a hassle searching for a socket.The DaoChu Swiss bag with the red solar panel on its lid collects energy from the sun while you are strolling around even in somewhat shady spots. Just connect your charger inside the bag to the cigarette lighter plug similar to those in cars and refresh your electronic devices. A selection of adapters for different gadgets comes with the fashionable truck tarp bag. Energy daochu (thats Chinese for everywhere). About EUR 180 www.daochu.ch

Sleep well

Pigeons sometimes sleep with one eye open. And although people eventually achieved the art of flying like birds, we still have to close both eyes to get our beauty sleep.The cosy sleeping masks by euleDesign from Hamburg in Germany encourage the sleepyheads among us to believe it is time to snooze whenever a nap is needed. The padded masks are handmade and light-blocking and can be easily adjusted to the size of your head and nose. Strap on one of the funky midnight or fairytale models and doze away. From about EUR 36 www.schlafbrille.de