Ahh Valentine's Day, the shops are filled with pink fluffy rubbish, your loved up friends are discussing over-priced restaurant options and all your single friends are either desperately stalking Facebook for a date or they're planning on completely ignoring the romantic festivities altogether.

If you have a special someone to buy a present for this year (yes, your cat counts), then why not find something they'll actually use rather than a cute and completely ridiculous teddy bear holding a heart or a singing cushion. Eww.

Here's our list of Valentine's day treats, most are pretty useful, a few are admittedly a bit pink and silly, but we're pretty sure they'll put a smile on any geeky girl's face either way... Awh.

This morning we came across a study that claimed women check their phones first thing in the morning and don't look at their partners enough (so what?!), and now this afternoon we've found some more female-slamming research, which claims women know plenty about household gadgets and very little about any other kind of tech. Charming.

No, you haven't been transported back into the 1950's, the research comes from a report commissioned by Amica kitchen appliances into the way men and women use gadgets and what they have trouble working.

According to the research that polled 2,000 adults, women have a hard time turning on their children's games, getting smart phones to work properly and figuring out what that elusive PC does, but feel comforted by household gadgets, such as (you guessed it) hoovers, ovens and washing machines.

Now we don't doubt that there are valid reasons why some women may be able to use kitchen appliances yet struggle with other products, but the general assumption that we're all much more comfortable away from the real world in the kitchen just frustrates us and doesn't set a good example for young girls considering a career in tech.

According to the study, these are the top ten gadgets us useless women just can't get our teeny tiny brains around:

Laptop - The little tray we provide our husbands with so they don't spill food on themselves?!
PC - A policeman?
iPhone - A phone for your eyes?
Blackberry - Oh like the fruit? We have a neat pie recipe that includes them!
iPad - Like a plaster for your eye? We'll go into our medicine cabinet to get you one...
Mobile Phone - I have one, I don't know where the on/off button is though...
MP3 - Is this our address?
Sat Nav - Is this the name of a new sci-fi film?
Games Console - A board game?
Digital Camera - I have one, I don't know where the on/off button is though...

[Image via Mike Licht]

As it's the beginning of January you can guarantee that everyone is thinking about, talking about and trying to stick to their resolutions for the new year. So, over the next few days we'll be looking into gadgets, apps and online services that help you stick to those resolutions, you just need the will power to actually make them work in the long run, because there's unfortunately not really an app for that...

If your resolutions are about getting your body into gear, whether you want to get out running, lose some mince pie weight or wake up feeling happy and energised every day, then we've collected together our favourite health and fitness gadgets to get you on the right track. Some are a little pricey, others seem a bit gimmicky, but they'll certainly point you in the right direction when it comes to sticking to your resolutions and making a lasting change.

Check out the full article 10 gadgets to help you stick to your new year's resolutions on our sister site Connected Health.

Earlier in the week we wrote up a list of the top 5 WTF weird apps of the year and felt it was only right to pull together a list of our top 5 WTF weird gadgets of 2011 as well. So here they are, we have a rotating male sex toy, a light-to-brain ear headset and a jet pack. Enjoy.

Yes the iPad 2 is increasingly popular, everyone wants a Kindle and Nokia's new Lumia handset looks pretty damn good, but what about the cool and quirky gadgets that had us "ooo-ing" and "ahh-ing" throughout 2011?

We come across a lot of weird and wonderful gadgets here at Shiny Shiny and decided to sum up our top 10 of the year. Granted they're not all really popular or particularly useful, but they're clever and a little bit different, which is why we love them so.

ShinyShiny and sister site TechDigest have teamed up with the O2 Recycle team this Christmas in order to raise some money for a pair of great causes.

Collecting all our old tech gear from the Shiny Media towers, the O2 Recycling gurus are going to re-sell the items, and ethically dispose of the ones that have no value, pushing all profits made to two separate charities.

The Tech Digest/Shiny Shiny profits will be going towards the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, who work tirelessly to help our little loved ones battle illness. O2 will be giving their share to Think Big, their initiative which empowers youngsters up and down the country, giving them funding to run their own community projects

But we can't do it alone! We need your help to raise as much cash as we possibly can for these two great causes.

According to the O2 Recycle team's research, we throw away 17.5 million perfectly usable gadgets every year, with a potential value of £750 million!

We're asking if you can pool together any unwanted gadgets lying around your house to put towards the fund raising effort. Just pop them into the post, to the address found at this link, and we'll do the rest. We'll make sure that the owner of each profitable item sent gets credited on the site, so that you're hard work is recognised.

O2 offer a full price-match service on your recyclable gadgets too, meaning if you're offered a better price for the item elsewhere, they'll match it to the penny.

The recycling scheme can of course also be used personally if you've got a charity you'd like to support, or just need a little extra cash of your own. But you'd be helping out a great cause by teaming up with the Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny teams!

For more info, check out the video below, and then head over to www.o2recycle.co.uk to get started

The worst thing ever has happened. Your laptop has been stolen and you're freaking out. Obviously you're meant to go straight to the police, but if you knew you had a tracking app on your laptop, would you be tempted to go and find it yourself first?

Well if you answered yes to that question you're not alone, with a huge 75% of Brits claiming they'd take the law into their own hands and attempt to retrieve a stolen laptop or smart phone themselves.

The study from LoJack for Laptops found that many people would be willing to go to great lengths to get their favourite gadgets back, with 37% admitting they'd beg, 20% would pay a ransom and a crazy 14% would even fly to another country to get it?! Come on guys, we get gadgets are expensive and important, but you're not Superman.

Interestingly women are nearly as likely to take the law into their own hands too, with 65% of them admitting they'd try to retrieve their gadgets in comparison to 74% of the men questioned.

Of course this doesn't just show a lot of the population fancy themselves as super heroes and really care about their gadgets, but it also points to the growing availability of tracking technology, like iCloud's Find my iPhone or the Hidden app.

The research was carried out by LoJack for Laptops in an attempt to show customers that they shouldn't just download any old tracking technology. LoJack for Laptops actually has a dedicated Theft Recovery Team on hand (we're not sure what that means but would like to think they have X-Men super powers and live in a lair), which work alongside the police to recover stolen laptops instead of encouraging people to go on a Kill Bill style mission of vengeance.

2,000 consumers took part in an independent survey from OnePoll on 28th October 2011.

When it comes to Christmas gifts we're all rather predictable creatures really, cuddly toys for kids, books for dads, cosmetics for mums, you get the picture.

Well this year we're daring you to push the boat out a little and try experimenting with a few different types of presents. Over the past few weeks we've been collecting together ten new products and gadgets that you (probably) never knew existed, yet they're all cool, quirky, practical and most importantly all make great gifts.

No you dirty minded people, we're not talking about 'naughty' gadgets (not today anyway), we're exploring a few gadgets, apps and even pieces of furniture that will make falling asleep and waking up that little bit nicer.

Duracell doesn't just make batteries, it's also launched a range of charging solutions to make sure you're never caught with zero battery no matter where you are or what you're doing.

We've all been there, your phone has been hovering at around 10% battery all day and then suddenly you have none and the screen goes dark. It's usually when you're following directions or desperately need to call someone and you get that scary, sick, panicky feeling that YOUR WORLD HAS ENDED. OK, just me?!

Regardless of how much you depend on your mobile phone, it's still really annoying to find you have no juice left. So Duracell wants to give you a lifeline with a range of small and compact charging solutions which you can use on the go, whether you're just commuting to work or travelling further afield.

We were sent a 5 Hour Portable Charger which plugs directly into our handsets and a Speedy Charger which charges up your batteries within an hour.

5 Hour Portable Charger

The handy little Portable Charger can be initially charged up from a normal plug socket and then it's kind of small enough to be kept in your handbag or laptop bag in case of emergencies. It has two USB ports, which means you can charge two gadgets at once whether it's a mobile phone, a music player, an eReader or even a Bluetooth headset.

Speedy Charger

The Speedy Charger charges up AA and AAA batteries within an hour, so whatever you need to power you can do so quickly and easily.

We know you'd rather be spending your pennies on something much more exciting, but the Portable Charger is so easy to carry and the Speedy Charger is handy for travel, so it's much better to be safe than sorry!

The 5 Hour Portable Charger is available from Amazon for £39.99.

HP has announced a new collaboration with big publisher Conde Nast, which means that subscribers can schedule the delivery of content straight to their printer from titles such as Allure, Glamour and Wired.

The new print-at-home service provides publishers with a new way to get their content seen and read. Julie Michalowski, the senior vice president of consumer business development at Condé Nast says, "this project is one of the many ways Condé Nast is using emerging technology to engage consumers [...] with this new HP pilot program, consumers will be able to have their favorite Condé Nast content at their fingertips."

The collaboration makes sense, but do we really want to print out our magazines?

When the Kindle was first launched there were those who lamented the death of the book and said that nothing beats reading words from physical bits of paper and I imagine there'll be plenty of people that feel the same way about magazines who the new service may well appeal to.

However, I do wonder whether the rise and rise of tablet devices means the publishers behind our favourite titles should spend less time giving us ways to read content physically and instead continue to develop their mobile and tablet offerings.

Would you ever print out your favourite magazine or just download the app?

[Image via]

Here's rather an interesting new product for cyclists. The makers of the HIOD One claim that it is the world's first sports communicator. It uses a Bluetooth-based system called PalTalk to provide an instant link with up to five other cyclists who can be up to 400 metres apart. It also works with mobile phone to enable the user to make and receive calls and stream music.

The device is compatible with voice activated phones, so you can simply bark your instructions to make and receive calls etc.

The HIOD One is designed to be attached to a bike's handlebar and sports a OLED display. There's also a control unit and earphones and microphone.

There's no details on price - if you are interested you need to email the manufacturers who are based in Sweden.

The Westfield Group opened its latest HUGE shopping centre in Stratford, East London earlier this month. It's got a cinema, a large hotel and its packed full of restaurants and shops.

Now we don't doubt that the centre would be ideal for shopping fans and fashion lovers, but here at Shiny Shiny we're much more interested in technology, so what does Westfield Stratford have to offer?

Well it's got an Apple store, Bose, GAME and Currys as well as a few more of our favourites, but today we were invited to look around the technology section of the John Lewis department store and we were really impressed with the hands-on shopping experience and huge range of products on offer.

Wacom is well known for its clever tablet and pen solutions, which aim to make all kinds of activities, from sketching to game development to image editing as easy and intuitive as possible.

The brand creates different kinds of interactive pen displays for specialist industries, the Cintiq range for animators and designers and we can't forget its impressive new Inkling product, which is basically the stuff an illustrator's dreams are made of, transforming images from ink-to-digital with one small pen.

However, Wacom also has a range of tablet and pen products called Bamboo, aimed at "normal" people who want to move around their computer with ease, annotate their work and dabble in Photoshop now and again. This week the Bamboo tablets have been re-launched, re-vamped and refreshed, so the devices don't just look much sleeker, but they're also even more responsive and impressive than their predecessors.

The new range consists of the Bamboo Pen & Touch, a black and lime wireless enabled tablet with a chunky stylus and express keys and the Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch, which is similar but comes with an impressive software suite of Photoshop and Artrage and a very MacBook-esque silver finish.

As I've got a MacBook and I'm not too keen on lime green, I decided to trial a medium-sized Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch for a few weeks and although it took a few days to get used to it, I found it made everything much easier and more intuitive. Although I'd like to hold it personally responsible for the fact I spent around five days in total just aimlessly doodling tattoo ideas and eyes.

The tablet

One of the biggest things to point out about the tablet itself is its super responsive multi-touchscreen with a range of multi-touch gestures that allow you to navigate around your PC or Mac quickly and easily.

The tablet also has a number of "express keys" down the left hand side, which at first I found a bit pointless, but once you've customised them yourself they become really useful and can save you a lot of time (well, a lot of seconds).

I was surprised at how slim and lightweight the Bamboo was, so it didn't prove too much of a pain to slot alongside my laptop while I've been on the move.

Oh and let's not overlook the fact it looks LOVELY, with its streamlined design, subtle silver finish and shiny black edging.

The pen

The stylus is really light and although it's a bit chunkier than a standard ball point pen it is very easy to hold and move around the tablet.

You simply slide your hand a centimetre or so above the tablet to move around the screen or tap it to scroll or click on something.

Just like the tablet's express keys, the pen has two buttons on its side that you can customise, so it's worth playing around with them.

Actually using it

In the past I've found that sometimes the devices which look and sound amazing don't really deliver in the long run, or just don't prove to be very useful on a daily basis.

Although the Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch does take some time to get used to, it makes photo editing and drawing a lot easier and everything else just generally much more fun.

I know a lot of people like to use Bamboo tablets for all kinds of things, scrolling, navigating, writing notes, you can use it for pretty much anything you can think of, especially since its advanced multi-touch screen means that it's very responsive to all kinds of gestures. However, I'm weirdly content with the MacBook's trackpad, so for me it was all about the drawing, photo editing and annotating. The surface of the tablet feels smooth, but almost paper-like, so once you've got the hang of the pen, drawing actually comes quite naturally.

The Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch comes with Photoshop and what I noticed the most was how working with a pen when I'm editing images as apposed to a mouse makes everything feel so much easier and more precise, going back to my trackpad just won't be the same :(.

If you feel a little intimidated by the Bamboo at first, then you can play around with a few of the product's dedicated apps, which let you practice and get used to the feel and rhythm of using a pen and tablet.

The range is available now from the Wacom website. The Bamboo Pen & Touch is £89.80, the Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch is £99.90 for the smaller version and £199.90 for the medium size we trialled.

According to recent statistics, people just aren't getting enough sleep, whether it's our crazy lifestyles, too much social networking or non-stop worrying, it seems our tired little heads are really paying the price.

The important thing is, getting good quality sleep every night doesn't just make you feel more refreshed the next day, it also has a direct impact on your overall health and wellbeing.

So, you can try some simple home remedies right now, like sprinkling lavender oil on your pillow, getting a warm bath or turning off all kinds of computers, phones and tablets before 8pm. But surely in this day and age isn't there an app to help us out?

Well, yes. There are plenty of applications available that are specially designed to help you monitor your sleep and wake up at the optimum time for your body, like Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock and Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock.

Although some people probably find these apps work well for them, at the end of the day they're only apps and there's only so much they can tell us.

A new product called Zeo Sleep Manager aims to go one step further than most of the solutions currently available and brings us a comprehensive system which will monitor how much sleep we're REALLY getting every night.

Already super successful in the States, the Zeo launches in the UK this week and we got the chance to have a hands-on (or heads-on!?) with the product.

The Zeo Sleep Manager Mobile consists of an app (both iOS and Android), bedside device and headband. Basically you wear the headband and its built-in sensors detect what's going on and send all kinds of information about how you're sleeping via Bluetooth to the app, meaning you can wake up in the morning and review how you slept. You can view how much time you spent in REM and Deep Sleep and also get a Zeo score which will tell you how well you're sleeping in comparison to other people your age.

However, the system isn't just about presenting you with flashy data, if you visit the MySleep section on the Zeo website you can keep track of your sleeping, as well as find online coaching tools to help you improve your sleep and find out what's going wrong.

We tried the Zeo out for ourselves last night and found it worked really well and gave us a VERY easy-to-understand reading with different colours representing different stages of sleep. The only thing I'd say is girls (or guys) with long hair should wear it up or you'll have a weird hair band, crease thing the next morning.

According to Zeo's CTO and co-founder, Ben Rubin, it takes a week to get a really accurate picture of how you're sleeping, so watch out for our views on the Zeo after we've tried it out for a whole seven days, as well as a hands-on video with the device and its app friend.

The Zeo Sleep Manager Mobile is available to pre-order now for £89.00.

In my eyes, Bose is all about the big, fancy speakers and headphones, the type of things I'll begin to think about when I'm a proper "grown up" and have money to throw away on pretentious electronics. But up until now they've always been put in the "out of my league box", along with designer shoes and Tom Hardy.

However, the brand's new speakers, which have been designed to pair up with any mobile device or MP3 player, are pretty special.

We got to have a hands-on session with the brand new SoundLink speakers at a preview event last night and although they do still come with a hefty price tag, the impeccable sound quality, robust casing and slick design means they're definitely worth saving up (or selling an organ) for.

Being mobile speakers, they've been specially designed to give you brilliant sound quality wherever you are and you can connect up any phone or MP3 device via Bluetooth. We tested out the speaker with a range of different tunes and even took it a good ten metres away from our phones and the quality wasn't compromised.

Another of the SoundLink's USPs is that it's SUPER durable. To prove this the crazy kids at Bose threw it around, pressed all the buttons hundreds of thousands of times with a special button pressing robot (who knew, eh?) AND exposed it to some homemade sea fog and it still looked good and worked well.

Now, although sound quality and durability is important, I do like things to look good too and Bose has done a good job at appealing to a few different kinds of people.

There's a premium version with chrome edging and a range of leather cases, which I don't doubt look fancy but aren't really my cup of tea. I was much more interested in the slightly cheaper nylon-covered models in cherry red and deep purple. You can also change your case if you get bored, playing up to our current obsession with personalising things and putting cases on ALL of our gadgets.

Now my only con would be (and I don't know if this is a testament to my weak arms), that the speaker was a little heavy, particularly if I'm taking it away with all kinds of other bags and things too. But, I'm willing to put that aside (for now) because it does sound amazing, better than my own ears in fact.

The SoundLink speakers come in at £259 for the nylon-covered model, and £299 for the premium LX version. They have different trims, different cases and different coloured speakers inside, but we were assured that the technology is EXACTLY the same.

We'll bring you a more detailed review in the next week or so.

British teenagers know their Apples
But not the ones you eat! A survey has found that 13- to 18-year-olds don't really know how much staple food items like eggs and a loaf of bread cost, but are bang on when it comes to knowing the cost of Apple gadgets. 80% of those survey knew the exact price of the iPhone4 in 8GB and 16GB writes theguardian.

Britain's cheapest tablets revealed
When it comes to tablets you usually get what you pay for but if you like many others can't justify spending £399 on an Apple iPad you'll be happy to learn there are good devices out there that won't cost you half a month's rent (if you live in London!). ShinyShiny's editor Becca has done the legwork for you and collected five tablets that are available NOW for under £100. Check out the complete list here.

iPhone 5 to be released on 15 October?
From an Orange to an Apple, it could be that the iPhone 5 is to be revealed in about a month's time after Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange's parent company France Telecom, let it slip that October might be it. Cue Apple's iPhone 5 PRs looking for ways to put a gagging order out.

Microsoft shows off Windows 8
Like a proud parent, Microsoft has been showing off the latest build of their Windows 8 operating system this week. If you weren't one of the lucky developers who got a glimpse of the OS's new tricks and features fret not, TechDigest can give you some insight on how to try Windows 8 before its official launch date. Or alternatively visit The Telegraph for some pretty images.

Pentax launches Optio RZ18 18x compact ultra-zoom camera
We love cameras here at ShinyShiny, so are understandably excited each time a new one hits the shelves. This week Pentax has launched a digital camera boasting an 18x optical zoom that fits in your pocket! It is available in black, pearl and orange and will be in-store from mid-October just shy of £200. Click here to find out more about the features.

Google brings voice command to British phones
Here's one for the lazy; British mobile phone users can now speak instructions to their phones with a little help from Google. The search giant has launched 'Voice Commands' that will allow you and I to dictate entire messages or issue instructions such as 'Navigate to' so that phones can show driving directions and behave like satnavs, writes The Telegraph. We only wonder how quickly the novelty will wear off and be taken over by annoyance of people wandering around shouting commands to their phones...

Home phones are losing out to mobile phones
A new study by TalkTalk has found that using the landline has been overtaken by mobiles, but that users still prefer voice calls to social networking. While those aged 25-34 have the most frequent contact with friends and family online, with 40% of the overall population saying the mobile phone was their communication tool of choice.

ASUS U46 laptop sports world's thinnest screen
There's always talk about fashion models being too thin, but can gadgets be too thin? At just 5.5mm thick, the 14-inch screen panel can tilt over the keys at different angles to widen the viewing angle. The notebook has a Sandy Bridge Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. Too techie for you? Yes, I snoozed off when I started talking about processors and RAMs... What would be its competitor in Supersized vs. Superskinny: The Tech Special?

HTC brings out Sensation XE
Looks like HTC is churning out handsets faster than we can type... well handsets. Sensation XE is scheduled to hit shops later this September and boasts a 8MP camera and a front-facing camera for video calls. And to add to the splendour comes with a pair of lush Beats Audio in-ear earphones for listening to those tunes.

Another HTC - this time the leaked images of HTC Rhyme or the HTC Bliss
Aimed at female gadget geeks the Rhyme handset will arrive in a shade of silver and as the name suggests has changed to be a little bit less patronising. The launch event is planned for 20th September so expect more on this next week.

Should mobile phones be banned on public transport?
We've all been there. It doesn't matter what time of day it is or where you are, there is always someone around ready to annoy his or her fellow London commuters with mobile phone. Many of these will be inconsiderate people playing their favourite (non-)music on the speaker - what ever happened to investing in a good pair of headphones? - but then there are those who decide to answer a phone call on the bus, overground and sometimes tube only to continue to talk LOUDLY until you or they get off. If just the mere thought of this makes the anger build up inside, know that you're not alone. A recent study found that more than 22% of commuters would welcome an outright ban on mobile phones on public transport. If this is the right way forward we don't know, but let's get the discussion going.

Back to school or uni or college gadget lists that tell you iPads are cool and smart phones are useful aren't just a little condescending, but they've been done to DEATH.

So, we've collected together a list of gadgets that will help you get through some of the top dilemmas we've all faced during our time in education, from falling asleep in a lecture to spending way too much money during fresher's week.

You keep falling asleep in lectures

Lecture theatres are often a bit hot and stuffy, the seats are comfy in a rubbish, old cinema kinda way and the lecture itself is more often that not pretty dull, why would you NOT fall asleep from time to time?

But, falling asleep means you'll miss something important, so get yourself a dictaphone.

Yes it may seem a little geeky at first, but a lot of people had them when I was at uni a few years ago, so I imagine they'll be even more popular now.

You can get something cheap and cheerful, like the Sony ICD-BX112 with hundreds of hours of recording time and super simple functionality, available from Amazon for £23.50.

Or you can get a device which will do a lot of other things too, like Native Union's cute and quirky Play, which lets you record, audio, video and make to-do lists.

If you don't want to invest in a dictaphone or special device, then just try a few different audio apps and see which works the best for you, like iDictaphone, Dragon Dictation or ShoutOut.

You can't pay attention to everything

When there are 5746534736 things going on in your head it's hard to stay focused all of the time, particularly when you're trying to flick through a text book, take notes, listen to a lecture AND find out what's happening on Facebook.

Livescribe has a range of pens that aim to make note-taking much much better, by linking the notes you write on paper to the audio that you could hear at the time. All of this information can then be transferred to your computer for you to look at again later. The Livescribe pens currently come with free membership to popular note-taking app Evernote premium too, which makes their pretty hefty price tag a little more bearable. The Livescribe 4GB Titanium Pulse Smartpen APX-00004 is available from Play.com for £144.99.

You've spent all of your money on alcohol / clothes / food

As soon as you get a bit of freedom and an overdraft it's OK to go a bit crazy, but far too often students find themselves insanely broke and living on a diet of baked beans and cheap cider.

Unfortunately there's no kind of money growing gadget we can send your way (although we would admittedly be keeping it to ourselves if we had one), but there are a few useful apps that could help in the long run. Start to use free messaging and calling apps like WhatsApp and Viber to keep in touch without breaking the bank. It'd also be really handy to get a few apps which alert you to coupons and discounts, so you can still have a social life even if your bank balance is scarily low, we like Voucher Cloud and My Voucher Codes.

There are HUNDREDS of personal finance apps too, so just download a really simple one to keep track of your bills and outgoings, like BillMinder or Spend Budgeting.

You're late, disorganised and generally failing at life

Late night revision sessions coupled with late night drinking sessions can lead to crazy sleeping patterns and a messy, disorganised little head.

If you're constantly exhausted then try downloading an app like Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock which will wake you up when you're in your lightest sleep phase, making you feel a little less groggy when you wake up.

To make yourself a bit more organised try a few of our top apps for productivity and to keep an eye on your body, get your hands on one of Jawbone's Up bracelets which are being released in the next few months. They're specially designed to monitor your movements, eating habits and sleep patterns, hopefully making you a better human being in the long run.

You can't afford a fancy tablet like everyone else

We all know that iPads are incredible little things, but unfortunately they're pretty expensive too. This is irritating, particularly when everyone around you seems to have one, but it doesn't mean you can't find something similar.

Lenovo launches the IdeaPad A1 soon, which will be just over £100, bringing you a simple but fully capable tablet device that you can actually afford.

If your budget won't stretch higher than a few pounds then make peace with the fact you can't afford a tablet and opt for the second best thing, a big, bright Moleskine.

Amidst all of the new Samsung products being announced at IFA this morning comes a bit of a quirkier device from Native Union.

The Play is an interesting mix of a high quality video camera, audio recorder and a 2.4 inch colour LCD screen. The brand suggests it would be brilliant for to-do lists and memos, but I can see it taking on a life of its own and being used by bloggers for sound bites and ideas for posts or even as a way to store cute messages for loved ones (OK, so maybe that last suggestion is a bit too sickly sweet).

The gadget is made all the more appealing as its packaged up in a bright shell and available in ALL kinds of colours, although I have my eye on the purple one.

The Play seems like a brilliant idea and as it's retailing at £49.99 it's definitely affordable, although I can't guarantee that I wouldn't end up turning back to my trusty pen and paper a few months down the line.

The Play is expected to be available from the end of September from the Native Union website and Amazon.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the specs:

• Three minutes total record time on 256Mb of memory
• Built in microphone, speaker, camera, LCD monitor
• Magnetised backing, included magnetic wall tape pad, and hand strap
• Bright LED message indicator
• Operates on 3 AAA batteries with 40 day standby time and 3 hours play/record time

One of the saddest things in our society at the moment, and it has some pretty serious competition, is the way that large movie franchises are oblivious to the fact we are in the midst of austere times and continue to fleece parents. Buy anything for a small child that has appeared in a film and you can be sure you'll be coughing up quite a premium for the privilege.

Somehow though I thought that Harry Potter, with its environmentally-conscious actors and socially progressive writer, might be different. How wrong was I? In fact when it comes to massively overpricing toys from the film Harry is just wizard.

Exhibit A is this reasonably new Hermione Granger wand. It is the type of thing that the film's younger fans simply must have and I know this from painful personal experience. So a wand that's a bit of nicely moulded plastic with a light at the end in a presentation box that can't be too expensive right? £10-15 would be ok. £20, well those bulbs can be a tad pricey, but any more would be a bit of a ripoff. Well I can imagine that Dumbeldore is probably turning in his grave because the Hermione Granger wand currently retails in Hamleys for - get this - £36! It is cheaper online too, but not by much.

I honestly can't believe that the wand itself cost more than £1 to manufacture and, sure the box is quite attractive, but £36! Is that all going on profit for the manufacturers Noble (company strapline: Uncompromising Value)? Or is it because the film company Warner Brothers charges Noble ridiculous amounts to licence the product? We really need to know.

Ultimately I think this reflects very badly on JK Rowling. She seems like a lovely person and her Who Do You Think You Are? programme on TV the other night portrayed a sensitive intelligent and wonderfully warm woman. How she (and Emma Watson for that matter) can sanction this kind of rip-off (I'd like to think that have no idea this is going on) is beyond me.