I found this when I was doing some online Christmas shopping and thought it would make the ideal gift for someone in my family, best not to reveal who in case they read this blog.
The Slanket looks like a great gift and during these harsh times, is a gift from the Gods. The credit crunch is affecting us all but energy prices aren’t coming down, so what better way to keep warm than to wrap up in a Slanket.

Made of 100% polyester, this fleece blanket is going to keep you nice and snug when you’re lounging around on the sofa watching TV, or as the picture shows, reading a book. And guys don’t worry, it comes in three different colours; Chocolate Brown, Lavender Pink and Alaskan Blue, so you’ll not get embarrassed if your mates come round and see you in this. Unless you like pink that is.

Costing under £35 it is an ideal Christmas gift. I know that I keep going on about Christmas gifts, but there’s not much time left now is there. We all need to get our lists in to Father Christmas. At the time of writing this, there are 24 shopping days left until the big day, so best get your skates on. I’m determined to do all of my Christmas shopping online this year, but will probably be running around the shops on the 24th buying gifts for everyone… apart from one lucky person who’s getting a Slanket.

I don’t know why I haven’t written about the Leatherman Micra Multi Tool before. It is one of the few gadgets that are an absolute must have in any toolbox and indeed; any self respecting gadget nerd should not be without one. These used to cost hundreds of pounds, and indeed there are Leatherman tools out there that still do, but the Leatherman Micra Multi Tool costs under £25 and that make it an ideal Christmas gift.

It’s just like a Swiss Army Knife but better in my opinion and the Leatherman Micra Multi Tool has many exciting features that are handy in day to day situations:

• Scissors
• Clip-Point Knife
• Tweezers
• Nail File / Cleaner
• Flat Phillips Screwdriver
• Extra Small Screwdriver
• Medium Screwdriver
• Bottle Opener
• Ruler (Inch / Metric)
• Key Ring Attachment

The Leatherman Micra Multi Tool is one of those gadgets that you can easily overlook, like I did, but they are definitely worth getting. I wouldn’t leave home without mine and neither should you. Indeed, every household should have one of these in the kitchen drawer.

Now I don’t know about you but I was forever looking for a screwdriver and could never find one. The Leatherman Micra Multi Tool is too large to misplace easily so there’s no longer any searching. It is, as I said earlier a must have gadget.

Now, I don’t know how the 2.5% reduction in the amount of VAT we pay affects us politically, and I don’t think I want to.
I do however know that a reduction of 2.5% means that I’ll have more money in my pocket, if only for 13 months. The VAT change from 17.5% to 15% takes place on Monday, but a lot of retailers have made the change early, which is a great thing for us gadget lovers… Getting things for 2.5% cheaper is a great thing.

It couldn’t have happened at a better time either to be honest, just before Christmas when everyone is feeling the pinch of the credit crunch makes it that little bit easier to swallow. I’m guessing that we’ll all have to pay for this in 13 months time, but we should make the most of it.

So if you can, try and avoid buying anything until Monday, or go with a supplier who has already made the 2.5% cut. Amazon and Dixons are two companies who have made the change to the lower VAT rate.

So how much can you save?
If you purchased an item for £100 and added the 17.5% VAT to that it would cost £117.50, with the new VAT rate the same item would cost £115, a saving of £2.50

Apple have a sale on today on their online store. I’d never heard of this one day event before, but it seems to happen every year. There are a lot of people Twittering about it, so I thought it would be a good idea to let all of you gadget lovers know about it.

The temptation to buy an iMac or MacBook today is quite intense. But, I know that in January there’s going to be an announcement by Apple which will include a new updated iMac becoming available. I could save £31 on a new 20″ iMac or nearly £61 on a new MacBook.

So if you fancy getting an Apple product for less, then today’s the day to do it.
Head over to the Apple website and grab yourself a bargain.

The Philips Shaver is one of the best shavers I’ve seen in a long while and is definitely going to be under my Christmas tree this year. Not only does it give you a super smooth shave, it also moisturises your skin whilst doing so.
Whilst you shaving, the Philips Shaver dispenses Nivea for Men moisturiser directly on to your skin making for a really comfortable shave. And it also has self sharpening blades which lift the hairs away from the face before cutting them.

I’ve always been a wet shave kind of person, but being a student I’m finding the cost of the blades to be a bit pricey, so the solution would be for me to get an electric shaver. I used to have one before, but it didn’t really do the job for me. I have sensitive skin and it would always end up red and blotchy after a shave.
The Philips Shaver, I’m hoping will be much better because of its ability to moisturise the skin.

There’s only one way to find out really isn’t there. And I’ll have to wait until Father Christmas has been and completed his rounds to find out, but you can be sure of one thing: I’ll blog about it here first. The Philips Shaver is currently going for just over £70 - which is a great price. I’ve seen this retail at £150 in one store recently. Best grab it whilst you can.

I had to write a post about this gadget. The PowerGorilla is a charger like no other. It claims to give you an additional 6 hours of battery time for your laptop, which makes it a good enough reason to buy one on its own. The time is obviously determined by the specification of the laptop you’re using. I could do with a PowerGorilla right now as my mobile phone has run out of charge. It doesn’t seem to keep a charge these days… Roll on March so I can get my hands on a new mobile.

The PowerGorilla isn’t cheap though, costing just under £150 it’s on the slightly expensive side. But saying that, the amount of gadgets that this can charge is phenomenal - and it even comes with a huge array of plugs and adaptors to fit most things.  You can chose which voltage you require and it will be displayed on the built in LCD screen.

Being able to charge almost any device wherever you are will come in handy for us gadget nerds, the PowerGorilla will replace all of your other devices. In my opinion this is well worth spending the money on. I can see it becoming an invaluable addition to my kit. You can even charge multiple devices at the same time.

The PowerGorilla is definitely going on my wish list of things to buy in the New Year.

This gadget will definitely come in handy when my assignment deadlines are looming ever closer. I’ve actually got a deadline next week for 3D Design, but it’s all good because I’m ahead of myself in that module. However, having said that I’m going to have to burn the midnight oil soon because I’ve got another 3 deadlines coming up.

It doesn’t matter how organised or how good at time management I am there’s always something that crops up to disrupt the flow. This is where the Desktop Coffee Maker will come in handy. I’ve only recently started drinking coffee again and I love it. I think I started about a week ago, and have been having a few mugs a day.

Having coffee in my opinion, keeps the brain active whilst the rest of your body isn’t. The Desktop Coffee Maker will be the ideal addition to my desk now that I’ve moved my printer. Space was at a premium but now I have a few inches to spare for this marvellous gadget. No longer will I have to walk up and down two flights of stairs to get to the kettle and fridge.

I’ll need a fridge next then, to keep the milk in. I might get one next week - one of those mini ones.
Look out for it as a blog topic if I do decide on it.

Anyhow, I’ve found that I can work much better after a nice warm cup of coffee inside of me, but I have also realised that sleep gets less and there are frequent visits to the little boys’ room. Being a student I obviously don’t want to be spending masses of cash, so the Desktop Coffee Maker is ideal at £19.95. Everyone should have a coffee maker in the house, so why not go for a Desktop Coffee Maker instead?

Back in October Steve Jobs, the Apple Inc. CEO announced a new 24″ LED Cinema Display would go on sale in November. Well, that time has arrived and the display is now available to purchase. With a screen resolution of 1,900 x 1,200, built in iSight camera and mic, 3 USB ports, integrated speakers, DisplayPort and a MagSafe adapter, Christmas has come early for many Apple fans out there.

Retailing at £649 this monitor is slightly out of my budget at the moment. Not having a MacBook doesn’t help things I suppose, but the MacBook situation might change in January depending on the announcements during MacWorld 2009 (I hear that there are new iMacs on the way).

A large display is a necessity these days if you’re in to design. Personally I would benefit from this display to aid me with my 3D Design work, which I’m currently doing on an extra monitor I’ve hooked up to the laptop. It just makes things easier, trust me. Having struggled in the past with a tiny 15″ monitor, going up to a 17″ was a dream. Going from a 17″ to a 24″ would be even better.

But alas, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have the hardware yet to justify this display. Being the good blogger that I am, I thought it was worth mentioning that the 24″ LED Cinema Display was now available for purchase.

The new 24″LED Cinema Display has a new connecting cable which allows you to plug straight in to your MacBook with ease. Sporting a MagSafe connector, USB Plug and the new DisplayPort connector means that you only have to have the display plugged in. The cables all connect up to your new MacBook and allow you to charge it via the MagSafe connector.

This is the reason so many people love Apple products. They’re beautiful and easy to use. Roll on January.

When I first saw these I had no idea what they were. I assumed they were some weird looking sun glasses. Little did I know at the time that they were in fact Vuzix iWear glasses. They are definitely a gadget to put on your Christmas wish list if you’re a fan of movies.

The Vuzix iWear glasses are truly one of the great gadgets around right now. So what do they do? Well, they allow you to watch and hear movies on the move. But, the Vuzix iWear glasses give you the equivalent of a 44″ screen right on your nose. I don’t even have a 44″ TV screen in the house. Imagine watching one of the latest movies on these, or maybe playing a game on your PS3 or XBOX 360. You can also hook them up to your home DVD player. The Vuzix iWear glasses can even be hooked up to your iPod, so if it has movie playback features you’re laughing. I know that the iPod Classic and iPod touch have this functionality.

Battery life on these is reported to be 7 hours with a single AAA battery and a whopping 17 hours with a lithium battery.
That’s more than enough power to watch a couple of movies back to back.

I don’t own a pair of these yet, but I’m sure I will at some point during 2009 and then I can give you a proper run down of how good they are. The only bad thing I can see (no pun intended) with the Vuzix iWear glasses is forgetting you’re on the bus or train and missing your stop. That would be embarrassing. There’s a pretty healthy price tag attached to the Vuzix iWear glasses, but its well worth spending the £130 asking price in my opinion. Where else are you going to get a 44″ screen?

One of the best films of 2008 by far has got to be Wall-E. This cute little robot captured the hearts of children and adults all over the globe. The latest film in the highly successful collaboration between Disney and Pixar, Wall-E is sure to become a huge seller when it comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray later on this month. It actually comes out on the 24th of November if you must know.

Having watched this movie in the cinema I just had to have a figure of Wall-E, so what did I do? Well, I had a look on PriceGrabber and found this Wall-E Transforming Figure. You can transform him in to a cube and back again. In addition to this you can put him in various poses. I decided to get mine because of character research for my SFX Degree. I thought that the Wall-E Transforming Figure would be the ideal gadget to help me build up a portfolio of sketches.

In actual fact it has more to do with me adoring this little fellow. Once you see the film you’ll know what I mean. You’ll not be able to get “Walllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” out of your head for an absolute age. The Wall-E Transforming Figure will bring you hours of fun and at less than £15 you can’t go wrong.