It is a right pain when your lamp refuses to work whilst you are trying to write a report on your laptop. Sure, there is no problem when you do it at a desk or in the daylight. But recently I have been using my laptop in bed to do my write ups. Last night whilst I was writing the gottahave blog, my lamp stopped working. The bulb is fine; it’s the actual lamp that’s gone. So I decided on getting a USB Computer Lamp.

A USB Computer Lamp would be practical for me to have whilst writing things in bed and much more economical than having the big light on all the time. So, saving a bit of energy and reducing my carbon footprint ever so slightly. I decided to go with nice red one from John Lewis as it only cost £10 with free delivery.

The USB Computer Light is handy because it plugs into any spare USB socket that you have and draws all its power needs from there too. No separate power supply needed. I has a couple of bright LED bulbs at the top of it’s bendy neck which give more than enough light to allow you to see what you are writing without having to strain your eyes. And because the neck is bendy you can point it anywhere you like, which is great for getting the light exactly where you want it to be.

I hope mine arrives soon; it’s difficult to write by the light of the screen alone.

If you are anything like me you have too many remote controls for various devices and gadgets. I had a count of how many remotes I have and it totalled 5. That seems like a lot to me. The solution to all the clutter is to get a Universal Remote Control.

Having one remote to operate several devices seems like a good solution to me. I don’t know how many times I’ve been unable to locate a particular remote. The convenience of having a Universal Remote Control are vast. Replacing all your remotes with one is obviously the most prominent benefit. Costing a tiny amount over £25 the Universal Remote Control is going to be of use to any true gadgeteer. Obviously there will be some devices that you will not be able to operate with the Universal Remote Control, but it is a tiny amount. Having a learning mode is another plus point to owning the Universal Remote Control. You can teach it any functions of your original remote control.

The Universal Remote Control will operate up to 5 devices, which is perfect for me. The Universal Remote Control is going to make your life so much easier. No longer will you have to be surrounded on the sofa by a mountain of remotes.

This is one gadget that is going to make your life easier on a daily basis, and I hope that all the gadgets I mention will do this in some way. You will see the benefit of owning a Universal Remote Control from the first time you use it. Definitely highly recommended.

Do you have trouble getting up in the morning? Well worry no more. The Flying alarm clock will solve your problem. Actually, you’ll not have a choice but to get up.

With the Flying alarm clock you have to get up in order to stop it. If you’re like me and love your duvet then the Flying alarm clock is the perfect alarm clock for you because of this.

I’ve always struggled to get up in the morning, and it is no different today. I used to have a wind up one, but I would forget to wind it up. Then there was the time I got decided to use my mobile as an alarm, and forgot to charge it…. need I go on…

I suppose you’re wondering why this alarm clock is called the Flying alarm clock. The reason it’s called the Flying alarm clock is simple really. When the alarm goes off, the propeller part flies off and the alarm rings… and rings…. and rings…. In fact, it will continue to ring until you get out of your bed and replace the propeller in the base. Only then will it stop ringing.
Trust me when I say that it’s infuriatingly annoying when you can’t find the propeller. And never, ever place it anywhere near an open window… The milkman doesn’t need to see you in your PJ’s.

Costing under £15, the Flying alarm clock is the ideal solution for the stubborn. And it’s great for students too, provided they remember to plug it in to the electricity supply.

On Tuesday the 9th September, Apple had a special event. At this special event they unveiled a couple of new things. One of them was a new, redesigned Apple iPod Nano. As you can see from the picture they’re very sleek and shiny. So what exactly is new about them? Well, the new iPod Nanos come in nine vibrant colours from yellow to pink. Also there’s the Genius function. This function allows you to create a playlist by searching through your entire music collection and playing songs that go well together. Another new and quite frankly, pretty amazing addition that Apple demonstrated was the “shake to shuffle” feature. Just shake the iPod Nano and a random song from your collection will be played. This is all down to the new accelerometer that they’ve built right in. Having this new feature also lets you play games that have been specifically designed for the iPod Nano.

In addition to all these cool new features, there’s a high resolution, 2-inch widescreen display, so you can watch TV shows and videos on the new iPod Nano. This also means that you can view your favourite pictures too, whether they are landscape or portrait. Just rotate, the Nano will automatically display your picture in the correct format. The new Nano even has CoverFlow. This will allow you to scroll through and view all your album art.

What I haven’t mentioned yet is that the new iPod Nano is beautifully curved. This alone makes me want to go out and buy one.
The battery life is impressive too, with 24 hours for music playback and 4 hours for video. All this packed into a device that’s less than half an inch thick. It’s the thinnest iPod ever. The new Nano comes in 8Gb or 16Gb capacities and costs from £109

If you can’t wait for the new iPod to become available on PriceGrabber, then have a look at the existing range of Apple Nanos that are available to buy today.

I’ve started a kind of green and power saving theme, which isn’t a bad thing I suppose. Writing about the credit crunch has also become somewhat of a habit. Today I’m going to write about Solar powered fairy lights. I know we haven’t had much of a summer to make much use of these under a canopy, but they still have their uses. They’re ideal if you want all year round lights somewhere, but not the cost.

The Solar powered fairy lights come with a remote control unit too, which will allow you to control what mode they are in.
There are 6 different modes in total: constant, fast flash, slow flash, fast flicker, chasing and combo. Which is enough for any of your indoor or outdoor events. Hang them on the tree in the garden and make it look stunning all year round.

Setting up the Solar powered fairy lights couldn’t be easier. Place the solar panel where it will get the best exposure to sunlight and string the lights where you want them. The battery is waterproof obviously and a five hour charge will give you eight hours worth of light.

Conserving energy has never been so stylish and they’re cheap as chips, get the Solar powered fairy lights from £29.95 now.

The Eco Button is one of those gadgets that you never knew existed. It’s a simple way of helping you save energy, and better still, save money. And we all want to save money these days with the credit crunch.

The Eco Button is simple to install and use too, all you have to do is plug it in to an available USB port, download the software and you’re ready to go. It is a clever gadget too. The Eco Button will make sure that your computer only uses the power it needs, which can be as little as 1.8 watts. That’s pretty amazing. It does that by intelligently closing down functions that don’t need to be running.

Costing under £15.00, the Eco Button is really a gadget that people who normally put their machines into stand-by mode often really do need. For your initial investment the Eco Button can save you up to £50 a year. It’ll pay for itself in the first year.

The Eco Button will work on any PC with a free USB port, a minimum of 256Kb of memory, and 5Mb of free disk space.

Efficient, green and a money saver - you can’t go wrong. Get yours now.

I recently discovered this great little gadget whilst I was searching for ways to charge my mobile phone when I was away from a power source. The Freeloader Solar Charger meets all my needs, and then some. By far it is one of the best gadgets that I’ve written about. It’ll charge my mobile with no problems at all. It will actually power a mobile for 44 hours. But that’s not why I love the Freeloader Solar Charger. Not only will it power the largest list of mobile phones that I have ever seen, but also iPods, PSPs, PDAs, digital cameras and GPS systems. The list is truly phenomenal.

I quite like walking in the mountains around my home town, and having a device like the Freeloader Solar Charger is an absolute must. Having the power available when you want it is a joy. I can strap it to my backpack as I walk and let the sun charge the internal batteries.To fully charge the internal battery of the Freeloader Solar Charger takes about 8 hours, or 3 hours if you use the USB cable, which is supplied.

Costing just under £30, this gadget will pay for itself many, many times over. And it’s not going to add any substantial weight to your hiking kit at 185 grams, but it’s unfair of me to say that this item is only useful if you enjoy walking. The Freeloader Solar Charger should be in every home.

I highly recommend that you get one of these today. You’ll wonder how you ever survived without it.

Continuing with my theme of back to school, an essential piece of equipment that every student needs in secondary school is a calculator. The Casio Scientific Calculator is by far one of the best valued scientific calculators available. With a price tag that’s just shy of £11.50 you can’t really go wrong. I like bringing gadgets and equipment that I think are good value for money to your attention. Hopefully I’m succeeding in this task.

The Casio Scientific Calculator has a whole host of functions that you’d expect from a scientific calculator, plus more! In total it has 300 functions, which is a lot. It has true algebraic logic, standard deviation, sin/cos/tan, hyperbolics, polar/rectangular conversions, linear regression, permutation and combination, brackets, random numbers, square, factorial, angle units (DEG/RAD/GRA), fractions… the list goes on…

What I like about this calculator is that it has it’s own hard case that slides over the buttons and screen, making it ideal for the busy student who just throws things into their bag… it gives great protection, and piece of mind for you. Another great thing about the Casio Scientific Calculator is the dual power functionality, it has both battery and solar power which makes it exceptional value for money. You won’t be replacing the battery every couple of months with this one.

Students really do need a calculator for school, college or university because maths plays a big part in all three institutions. So why not go for one that you know will perform well and has an attractive price tag. Come September, the Casio Scientific Calculator will be in my arsenal.

I think it’s always a wise move to buy good protection for your most expensive gadgets. Especially if that gadget happens to be an iPod touch. It’s not a gadget that you buy and put in the corner of the room or place neatly on your desk. If you’re like me, you’re constantly picking it up, putting it in your pocket and putting it back down again. As you may or may not know, the iPod touch has a metal body - it’s shiny and scratch free when you take it out of the box. I’d like for mine to stay that way.

So how do you protect it? Well, my suggestion would be for you to buy a silicone sleeve case for it. The one I’d go for on PriceGrabber is the Belkin iPod Touch Silicone SLVE and, at less than £10 you can’t go wrong.
Under ten pounds to protect a prized piece of technology isn’t much. You’ll be glad you did. Once that metal casing starts to get scratched there’s not much you can do to restore it. OK, it might make the iPod touch a bit thicker, but it’s going to protect it really well from knocks, bumps and heaven forbid, a drop. It’s made of tough silicone, so it has a bit of give in it. Enough to protect the iPod from an accidental dropping.

So my advice to you if you’re planning on buying an iPod touch for yourself or as a gift. Buy the Belkin iPod Touch Silicone SLVE sleeve too. You’ll be glad you did.

Yesterday I wrote about the USB VHS Converter, which was a great gadget for converting VHS to Digital format.
Today I want to write about another really cool gadget along the same lines. The Plus Deck Cassette Converter converts audio cassettes into digital files.

Cassettes were great weren’t they? The good old days when everybody used to spend Sunday evening recording the Top 40 from the radio. Waiting patiently with your finger hovering over the pause button, ready to stop the tape when the DJ began to talk. Ahhh the memories….. I still have boxes full of these cassettes. They’re in the attic, taking up space. There are even cassettes of me and my brother and sisters playing and singing when we were small. Then there are all the cassettes of my mother winning umpteen competitions on the radio. All those memories stored on fragile cassette tapes.

With the Plus Deck Cassette Converter, I can put all of these precious moments on to my computer in MP3 format. After installing the Plus Deck Cassette Converter into a spare 5.25″ drive bay on your PC, it’s just a case of clicking a button and it will convert both sides of your tape for you. No longer will you have to worry about keeping all those cassettes in pristine condition. You can have them in glorious digital format. Being digital, it means that your memories will no longer be prone to degradation by time.

I know I say it a lot, but this is a must have piece of technology if only for saving your precious memories. And once in a digital format you can burn them to CDs to share with your family.