Crafty Christmas gifts: 10 kooky gadget accessories

Inspired by the Muff-phones - knitted covers for headphones, we delved into the treasure-chest of cute that is etsy and came with ten crafty gadget-accessorising gifts that would be great for Christmas. Or just for having, lying around, adding some DIY sweetness to the gleaming metal and plastic of your gadget collection. Click on the…

IDAPT's charger with tips lets you charge multiple gadgets

A new device promises an end to the multiple gadget chargers and snarls of wires that the gadget fan has to put up with. Instead of dumping six differently shaped chargers in one corner of your bedroom and trying each one in any given gadget - as you might do, iDapt's multi-tipped plate can sit…

Shiny Competition: Win the Electronic Pictionary Man game

We have one of these wacky 21st century games of Pictionary to give away. Electronic Pictionary Man costs £30 from Mattel, but they've given us one to donate to a Shiny reader. To enter, send an email to [email protected] with "Pictionary Man Competition" in the subject line and tell me the hardest (imaginary or real)…

The future of texting? Swype's Genius Texting technology

A feature on Samsung's new Omnia II phone that lets you use your finger like a "magic wand" could change how we text for ever. Called Genius Texting and designed for touchscreens, the technology means you don't have to lift your finger off the screen to text. Described as "like waving a magic wand" you…

The Loudest Telephone ever, at 149dB, it's louder than jet take-off

A new phone from Geemarc claims to be the loudest in the world. A piercing highly audible ring isn't always a quality you look for in a telephone but this landline fills a gap in the market. Intended for the hard of hearing, the AmpliPOWER50 phone rings at to 81dB, 3 times the volume of…

Muffphones? er… knitted earphone covers give you music plus the warm ear experience

Bringing two wonderful things together: headphones and err.. ear muffs, skate, surf and snowboard headwear company Neff have created a headphone that come with a knitted case. Less useful in a surf context - these is hardly bikini-accessorising stuff, this would certainly be good for skiing, snowboarding and just wandering around in the winter, looking…

Wake up to a beeping bomb with the grenade alarm clock

These chuck-it against the wall alarms have always been popular, and gadget4all have given the old concept a slight twist with the introduction of a grenade-shaped one. Hurl the 75g plastic alarm at the wall and it switches off. Seriously though, that wouldn't work for me. I would just throw it against the wall and…

Peer through holes and into walls with a night vision borescope

Fuel your private detective fantasies and uncover the mysteries of your loft space by purchasing this strange wall-penetrating periscope from usbfever. It's a borescope - a gadget honed for the sole purpose of looking into walls, crevices, floorboards and other dark places. The retailer's blurb outlines a scenario when a borescope could be exactly the…

A Cordless phone?? yes, new range of cordless landlines from John Lewis

A wireless telephone? What is this wonder? Err, yes, we've all got mobile phones so the excitement of being able to walk around while talking on a phone has worn off rather. But for those who want to have a landline - and there are advantages to this retro concept - wireless phones make the…

The worst driving gadget in the world: a steering wheel laptop desk

Don't even buy this for your worst enemy. While a gun might be more obviously life-threatening, this laptop steering wheel rest really is almost as dangerous. As suggested by the wise writer on RedFerret.net, attaching your laptop to your steering wheel like this will result in death and mass destruction. It's a common truth that…