Being a student myself I found this to be really amusing. I don’t know why it’s amusing though, because the Eatmecrunchy Bowl has solved a great problem - soggy cereal.

The Eatmecrunchy Bowl is made from Melamine and is dishwasher safe so no need to worry about it being just a “novelty” bowl. A lot of these things are great for the first few uses, but after a couple of washes they start to fall apart, or they’re just not safe to put in the dishwasher.

The Eatmecrunchy Bowl works by having a shelf inside that covers 70% of the bottom of the bowl. You put your favourite cereal in as normal and pour the milk on as normal but, and here’s the clever bit, 70% of your cereal stays on the shelf  and 30% goes in to the “well” at one side of the Eatmecrunchy Bowl where it gets mixed with the milk. How cool is that. As most inventions, it’s a blazingly simple idea that works exceptionally well.

The Eatmecrunchy Bowl has got to be one of the best non technology gadgets that I have seen for a very long time. Simple idea to a great problem. Not only is it an extremely great invention, but it’s cheap too - only £4.95 for a single or £7.95 for two. A great bargain if ever I did see one.

Now all they need to invent is a disposable version for us students so that we don’t have to do any washing up.

I’m not sure if the Sound Asleep Pillow is a good gadget or not. But either way, it definitely caught my eye. I’m one of those people who doesn’t like noise when they’re trying to sleep. In fact, even the sound of the mobile phone vibrating when a text message arrives is enough to wake me from sleeping.

Having said that, If I’m in a really noisy environment I’ll pop my headphones in to help me get off to sleep. The Sound Asleep Pillow takes the place of those headphones by playing music directly through its internal speaker. Before you ask, no, you can’t feel the speaker when you’re lying on the Sound Asleep Pillow.

The Sound Asleep Pillow is easy enough to use. You just plug in your device (iPod, MP3 player, radio or even the TV) in to the 3.5″ jack plug that’s built in to the Sound Asleep Pillow and you’re ready to go. There’s no mention of any control over the volume of the internal speaker, but I guess you’d use the device’s sound settings.

Whilst your device is plugged in to the Sound Asleep Pillow, only you can hear the output making this an ideal gadget to get if you’re a bit of an insomniac but don’t want to wake up the whole household at 3am. Costing from £12.99 it’s a great addition for any bedroom or indeed, for anyone going on a long flight.

Grab yours through PriceGrabber today!

I’ve been intrigued by the Amazon Kindle for a while now, but haven’t yet bought myself ’round to getting my hands on one. So when I stumbled upon the COOL-ER eBook Reader my interest was renewed in these gadgets.

I’m a big fan of reading and can often be found in my local library searching out autobiographies (I’m currently reading “Dear Fatty” - Dawn French’s one) and Colin Forbes books.

So what is it that keeps bringing me back to these devices? I’m not quite sure to be honest. I think it may be the portability of them compared to an actual physical book. But saying that, it’s nice to hold a real book and turn pages. The anticipation of what’s going to happen on the next page drives me on to read more.

So, back to the COOL-ER eBook Reader. This eBook Reader is apparently set to become the iPod of the eBook world according to some. The COOL-ER eBook Reader’s ability to store between 500 - 800 novels may be something to do with this.

Not only is it paper thin (excuse the pun), but it extremely lightweight too. The 6″ screen is comparable to looking at an actual page of a book and because it uses e-ink it’s pretty easy to read, even in direct sunlight. Putting eBooks on the COOL-ER eBook Reader is as simple as downloading, dragging and dropping.

The COOL-ER eBook Reader battery will charge in about three hours and is good for 8000 page turns. If you leave the COOL-ER eBook Reader unattended for whatever reason, it’ll shut itself down to save battery life. The COOL-ER eBook Reader is available in 8 different colours and a price tag of just under £190. Will this be the device that will finally get eBook readers to the masses? We can only wait and see.

Now this is something that I really, really want. It reminds me of a toy I used to have as a child called “Big Trak”. The “Big Trak” was a sort of futuristic tank that you programmed to move around your home by pressing a keypad on the top of it.

Things have definitely moved on from then (it was about 20 years ago!) and I think of the Rovio as a sort of sibling to the Big Trak. They look kind of similar too. But the Rovio is much more advanced obviously. The technology is better these days. Heck, the Internet didn’t even exist!!

So the Rovio has a pretty hefty price tag to go along with it’s great features. £250 is steep for a “toy” robot. But you do get a lot of bang for your buck. It’s not like it’s some sort of simple radio controlled car.

The Rovio has a built in webcam and microphone and is WiFi enabled. You can control it from anywhere in the world with almost any device that is web enabled. It has three wheels that allows for greater movement and built in GPS. Having the built in GPS allows the Rovio to go to any location at the click of a button (I’m wondering if it can climb stairs?).

Obviously the Rovio runs on batteries and it’s intelligent enough to know when it needs to recharge and will find it’s docking station in order to do so. I’m absolutely drooling over this new gadget and it’s going to be difficult to resist temptation and get a hold of one. I will obviously be using PriceGrabber when I give in.

A few days ago I posted about getting an Apple Extreme Base Station in order to share my external hard disks over the internet. Well yesterday I went about setting up the Apple Extreme Base Station in the house. Everything was going great to begin with. The setup process was a walk in the park, or so I though…

Whilst I was at the house everything was working fine; I could access the disks and printer over the wireless network with no problems. But when I went to my girlfriends flat and tried to access the attached devices I wasn’t able to. I could connect to the Apple Extreme Base Station remotely, but not gain access to the disks (which was the main reason for getting it).

Now I’m not an expert on wireless networks so I’m a bit stumped as to what’s wrong. I did a lot of research on the Internet to see if I could find the cause of the problem but alas, no solution was forthcoming. I even signed up for a full MobileMe account after discovering that a trial account wouldn’t work. I’m going to try a few things out tomorrow when I go back home to see if I can get it to work. I think that turning off the BT Home Hub’s Wireless connection might solve some of the issues.

If that doesn’t solve it, I think I may have to do a factory reset of the Apple Extreme Base Station and do a fresh setup. As I said in my previous post I didn’t want to take the Apple Extreme Base Station with me to Bolton, but it looks likely that I’ll have to if I can’t get this sorted. It will be usefull at Bolton too though because I’ll be able to plug the University network into it and share it wirelessly with my MacBook.

Hopefully though I can get it sorted soon. Wish me luck.

I was browsing the Internet for something completely different when I saw this nifty little gadget. The WoodStation is a motion sensitive LED clock and weather station the likes of which I’ve personally never seen before.

Made from wood with a laminated finish, the WoodStation displays the weather in a cool and instantly recognisable way. You won’t have to do this by studying numbers on the WoodStation’s surface, oh no, this displays actual graphics so that you can see at a glance what your day is going to be like.

The WoodStation can be placed on a table top or hung on the wall and has quite a few features:

• Barometer: weather symbols; sunny - partly cloudy - cloudy - rainy / snowy and stormy
• Temperature (interior)
• Humidity (interior)
• Hour
• Calendar
• Alarm / snooze

There is a drawback to this glorious device and that’s the price. It’s not cheap at nearly £90 but if you’re in to your novelty items then this would be a great addition. The WoodStation would also be a great gift to anyone who’s interested in the weather.

I don’t know if I’d buy this personally, because I’m not that into the weather, but though it would be a good thing to post about for the benefit of you guys. I’m sure that someone will find it useful. To be honest, it’s hardly done anything but rain over the summer and I don’t fancy looking at the rain clouds on a piece of wood that’s sitting on my bedside table.

Ok, yesterday I decided to hook up the Nintendo Wii to the Internet over the wireless connection. The first problem I had was that I didn’t remember what the parental control passcode was. Not a good start really, but a quick search on the Internet showed me how to reset that.

The next thing was setting up the Wireless connection, which was easy enough to do. The Nintendo Wii did mst of the hard work there with me only having to enter the WAP passcode. I had to download a new update for the Nintendo Wii which took an absolute age. Once this was done I was connected.

I wasn’t that impressed with it to be honest. Sure there were good things, but I didn’t have any games that I could play online. So the next step is to get hold of some games for the Nintendo Wii that I can play over the Internet.

It wasn’t a bad experience really and I can see that many people must get enjoyment from connecting the Nintendo Wii to the Internet (ones who have games to play online obviously), the set up process is simplicity in itself.

Suggestions for games to buy in order to make the most of the Nintendo Wii’s connection would be appreciated. Leave comments on this post for me. I can assure you that I do read all of them.

I’ve decided to buy one of these. It’s an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station. I got thinking the other day when I was looking at the portable hard drive to use as a Time Machine, that an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station would be a good idea to get.

I don’t really want to take all of the external hard drives that I have with me to Bolton when I move in a month or so, so I decided that a Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station would be a good idea. It can be used as the broadband hub in the house, and in addition to that, I can connect a USB hub to it and then share my external hard drives through it and the printer. This means that I’ll be able to access my drives and printer wirelessly when I’m in the house.

Another major advantage is that I’ll be able to access these drives and printer over the Internet (you need a MobileMe account to do this) so my information will be available to me wherever I am. Investing in an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station is a good idea for anyone who’s thinking of doing the same thing.

As I said, it’s a great solution for me because when I’m home I’ll be able to have access to the drives physically (although wirelessly) and when I’m away I’ll have access to the files.

PriceGrabber, as always have found the best prices for the Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station so that you don’t have to. Pick yours up today.

I seem to have an obsession with buying Western Digital Drives. This will be the fourth one that I have. I don’t know what it is about them that I like so much. The Western Digital MyBook that I have has served me well for over two years now, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to quit any time soon.

I have two passport drives too, which I use to transfer various files related to my studies and other work. I like to keep things separated, so that I don’t get confused as to what I’m doing. All my Western Digital Passport drives are different colours for that reason.

I’m now about to purchase a new one and I’ve decided to go with a 500Gb White Western Digital Passport this time. I chose white because I’m going to be using it as a Time Machine for the MacBook. I considered getting a Time Capsule, but the funds don’t stretch that far at the moment and I don’t want to use my credit card to get it.

The thing about Western Digital drives is that they are so quiet when you use them. I’m sat in a room with the MyBook and one of the Passport drives plugged in to the MacBook and I can’t hear any of them. The only sound I can hear is the rain hitting the window as I write, which is nice.

The 500Gb should give me more than enough space to Backup the MacBook safely. I’ve not found a drive that I like more than the Western Digital range yet, but if you have any recommendations on any that are as quiet or reliable as these, then please let me know by commenting on this post.

I remember seeing something like this when I was a young boy many years ago, and was surprised to see them back (or still around maybe?).

The way I remember these were in pouches come to think of it. You pressed a “button” in the corner of the pouch and the food was heated up for you. I had no idea how they worked then.

HotCans are available (as far as I can see) in three varieties:

• Beef Casserole
• Sausage and beans
• Vegetable Chilli

A great selection if you’re planning on going away for the weekend camping and don’t want to carry a barbecue or cooking stove with you. You don’t even have to wash up after yourself. Simply pop the empty can in a bag and recycle it when you get home.

So how do the HotCans work? Well, it’s as simple as heating them up on the stove at home, but not the same method obviously. Firstly you take the plastic lid from the top of the HotCan and place it on the bottom. Secondly, you use the supplied key to pierce the outer jacket of the can. Thirdly, you peel back the lid and wait for 12 minutes whilst your meal heats up. How simple is that! They work by exothermic reaction which is super safe.

I’ve been caught out on (although I don’t like to admit it) a number of occasions when I’ve forgotten the igniter for the stove or it’s started to rain and these HotCans would have been the ideal solution. Obviously, do remember to pack the knife, fork and spoon so that you can actually eat the delicious contents of the HotCans.

These simple, delicious and quite frankly ingenious foody gadgets are a must for any camping trip and, as always, they’re available through PriceGrabber for as little as £4.50 - great value!!