Five gadgets you cannot live without - maybe

In my opinion, by far and away the majority of the electronic gadgets on the market are a complete and utter waste of time. Most of them seem to have been made for the sole purpose of persuading you that your old one is out of date and needs to be replaced with something “new.”

But, occasionally something comes out that is genuinely different and fulfills a genuine need. I am not going to cover the Apple iPhone, because that should be on the list, but so much has been written about it – I don’t think I could say anything new. There are also a few here that I completely fail to see a need for.

This actually works. No matter what the advertising, it is not quite the same as reading from a paper book, but used correctly it could actually save some damage to the environment and if you have to carry a lot of books around – say on an airplane, it could help there as well.

I doubt it will take off in a big way, but if it does, there are some issues to be considered that make me wonder. First of all, you can say goodbye to all those used book stores and it will be awfully difficult to lend a book to a friend if all your books are in one place on a Kindle. The same issues that are arising now with the recording industry trying to control how you use music and videos that you “own,” will arise with this in the future. Do I really want to be told who I can lend my books to? – No, I don’t think so. So, as you can see, I have not quite made my mind up yet. I like the idea of doing away with paper and all the costs associated with it, but I do not like the idea of giving some company control over me.

Now, you might be saying – “What the hell’s he doing talking about vacuum cleaners?”

But, I used to own one similar to this, and I can tell you – these things are all but indestructible. Seriously, this is the sort of thing you will be able to pass on to your kids. It makes much more sense to me to buy something that will last forever than it does to buy something that needs replacing every two years. There is nothing exciting about vacuum cleaners but to hear the usual rubbish from most of the makers is annoying. It’s a tool – a time saving tool, nothing else. All I want is it to pick dirt up and last a long time.

So that is a couple that are worth buying. Here are a few that make me laugh

Time magazine thought this was one of the best inventions of 2006. Good grief – it is a shirt that replicates the feel of someone’s hug when they phone you. It works by being connected to a Bluetooth phone and having heat pads in it that replicate the hug by getting warmer. What happens if they are phoning to have an argument – does it beat you up?

These are probably my favorite garbage gadgets (pun intended) – A hands-free stainless steel automatic trash can. No, it doesn’t recycle the garbage. No, it doesn’t decompose the garbage. In fact, all it does is open the lid when you get your hand within six inches by using an infrared sensor. According to the makers, it creates a “germ free, odor free,” environment. Just quite how it is supposed to do that is beyond me, because you still have to empty the thing. It never ceases to amaze me the way companies create completely useless things that serve almost no purpose – and we are daft enough to buy them. If you are daft enough, there is a link to Amazon here – at least I’ll get a few cents commission. They have loads of different ones – I had no idea there were so many “automatic” trash cans available.

Pro idee is a British gadget company that seem to devote all their attention to selling unnecessary rubbish. I was hard pushed to pick one from their selection, but the Sofa Guard – a device that sets off a 105 decibel alarm if your cat jumps on the sofa in the middle of the night, and the vibrating pillow came close. I settled for this “Pet Step” – a fiber glass, reinforced plank that will set you back about $140 plus postage. So, if it’s too much trouble to persuade your dog to jump into the back of the car, this is for you. And I love the fact that they have a young healthy looking dog with a young, healthy looking woman owner.

I guess you could make the argument that some really old dogs with very infirm owners might just get some use from this, but my thinking is - If you are incapable of lifting your dog into the car and the dog is too old to get in itself, what are you doing driving in the first place?Not nearly as bad as some of the new kitchen gadgets I see littering the sales pages of Amazon lately - but still.