Tech tools

Compiled by CIARA O'BRIEN

HTC Cha Cha

HTC’s “Facebook phone” tries to combine the best of both worlds: a qwerty keypad for typing and a touchscreen for everything else. The Cha-Cha also comes with a dedicated context aware Facebook button, allowing you to access your social network at the touch of a key.

Like many of HTC’s new phones, the Cha Cha is a unibody device, and comes with the latest version of Android – Gingerbread – pre-installed. Once you sign into your Facebook account, you can share a photo, update your status or even share what music you’re listening to, all at the touch of the Facebook button. Your conversations and friends’ status updates are also integrated into the phone.

htc.com

LaCie Porsche Design P9000 Hard Drives

From $119

There is very little you can do with an external hard drive to make it look a bit more appealing. It does what it’s supposed to – stores your files – unless, of course, you happen to have one of the LaCie Porsche Design P9000 Hard Drives. Available in both desktop and mobile versions, LaCie has taken a pretty mundane piece of equipment, wrapped it in aluminium and given it a sleeker finish than your average file store.

It’s not just about looking good though. The aluminium casing also helps to dissipate heat, and the drives comes with USB 3.0 technology to make everything work that little bit faster. You’d expect nothing less from a Porsche.

lacie.com

Mugz Ice Cream Maker

€11

Cheaper than a kitchen ice-cream maker and more fun than buying it from the shop next door, the mini Mugz Ice Cream Maker allows you to make your own ice cream in about three minutes. All you need is one of the aforementioned Mugz, some salt, fresh water and some ice cream mix (or whatever you want to throw in there). Shake it about and, by some sort of ice cream wizardry, you’ll have your own ice cream in three minutes. No power required.

The Mugz come in four types, so all that’s left to do is decide if you’re more of polar bear person or a dog lover, choose your favourite flavour and you’re ready to go. firebox.com

Blog: irishtimes.com/ blogs/ minibyte