Gadgets: making travel easier

Skullcandy Fix Ear Buds
In the festive aftermath there's an understandable tendency to start making all sorts of well-intentioned, if unlikely, plans to do more exercise. Cue a shopping opportunity: you'll need ear buds that won't fall out when you imagine yourself pounding the pavement to your latest Spotify playlist. Most ear buds won't stick the pace. Skullcandy have the Fix. The sounds are good for mid-market earphones.
€50 from skullcandy.com

Columbia Omni-Heat Slippers
Great to be able to pull out a pair of these when you're snowbound as they're perfect for chalet lounging after a day's clumping about in plastic boots. They're lined with tiny silver dots that reflect your body heat back onto your tootsies, boosting the cosy-factor. Columbia calls it Omni-Heat technology. And although they're slippers, you can use them outdoors as well, thanks to robust baffle- stitched nylon uppers and rubberised soles.
€43 from 53degreesnorth.ie

Satechi Smart Travel Router/Adapter
Satechi's Travel Router takes the idea of a multi-standard travel adapter up a notch by combining it with a simple wireless router. It can fit virtually any of the regular sockets you'll find worldwide and lets you power your gadgets by AC or USB, so it's good for most phones and cameras. The router can extend the range of existing wifi or you can conjure up your own local network if there's an Ethernet port. It handles 802.11n/g/b up to 150Mbps, so hardly lightning to stream hungry HD, but perfectly respectable given it all slides away to leave a neat cube.
$45 from satechi.net

betweenideas.blogspot.com