This week's motoring gadgets
Bedside Booklight
Price:€44
Buy:firebox.com
Perhaps the most expensive bookmark we have ever come across, but a charming idea nonetheless, the bedside booklight is house-shaped, and as well as being an attractive lamp, it allows you to put down your book, creating the “roof” of the house and therefore keeping your place in the book, allowing you to take up where you left off the following night. The 11W bulb doesn’t get too warm, so you won’t burn your book either.
JVC KD-R301:
Price:€199.99
Buy:halfords.ie
Few of us use CDs in our cars any more, but many of us need some way of connecting an iPod or other MP3 player in the car. If you want to go the whole hog and just change your audio unit then this JVC version is good value, and offers decent performance too. You can enjoy decent sound too, with 4x50W MOS-FET power amp and 24-bit DAC, and even adjust settings with cEQ presets.
Seecode Vision
Price:€119
Buy:micksgarage.ie
The Seecode Vision is a flexible Bluetooth hands-free kit that allows you to make and receive calls from a position in the car that is most convenient for you. It comes with three different universal fixing devices – a goose-neck suction holder, an air-vent clip, and an adhesive base – to allow you position the device practically anywhere in the car.
Canon Powershot A3100 IS
Price:€210
Buy:Leading camera shops
The Powershot A3100 IS is Canon’s new value compact, available in blue, red or silver, and comes with a 12.1 megapixel sensor and Canon’s DIGIC III processor, as well as a 4x optical zoom lens and an image stabiliser.
The large 2.7in screen at the back allows you to review your images much more easily, which makes this a very good camera for those who want to just point and shoot. There is a Smart Auto mode, which uses “scene technology” to recognise up to 18 different scenes and apply the best settings. Plus, i-Contrast technology ensures your pictures have the right contrast.
This is a great camera for those who want little fuss, and it performs particularly well in low light conditions.
