Dear LJ, I'm going on holiday to New York, but I know it's around an 8 hour flight. Are there any gadgets that could make my journey more bearable? Carl, Chigwell Dear Carl, For long flights, the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 Headphones with Noise Cancelling technology means you can blot out the outside world, whether you're in the airport, on the plane or stuck in a hotel room above 'karaoke night' in the bar.
These headphones aren't cheap - however, the phase-cancelling technology is incredibly clever, and works by sampling the outside world and creating the opposite sound to cancel it out… best of all, you can plug these into your music/video player, and Bose also provide airline adapter plugs for use in most aeroplane seats. You can even use these headphones without the cable if you just want to snooze.
Also, if your knees jiggle in the queue at the supermarket, let alone waiting in the departure lounge, the Sandisk 8GB Lil Monsta mini video and music player (with clever compression technology) allows you to store hours of video and music to absorb at your leisure with a 20 hour battery life to boot. It's only little, but with an impressive 8GB of expandable flash memory, this Lil Monsta is a giant, gadget-wise. Hmmm, watching 8 episodes of my favourite sci-fi before arriving at the Big Apple would be a rather stylish way to travel.
Dear LJ, I get bored in the hotel room when my partner goes to bed – there's nothing on the telly and I don't really feel like going out – any ideas? Dave, Coventry Dear Dave, A new product called Slingbox allows you to watch your own TV from anywhere in the world with your laptop and an internet connection. This means you can access your digital, cable or satellite subscription in your hotel room.
It works by plugging an output from your V+ box (or freeview box) into your Slingbox, which is then plugged into your home router. With the provided software on your laptop, you can watch and control your telly from anywhere with an internet connection. If you have a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) you can even pause and rewind live TV as if you're in your armchair. Why wait until you get home to catch up on CSI? Just remember to use headphones so you don't wake up your other half…
Unless you're multi-lingual, TV abroad can be a little bewildering - and if you have a V+ box at home, chances are it's storing up lots of lovely telly to watch as soon as you get back to the house – and probably running out of space, come to think of it… Quick, watch Stargate on your laptop, then delete it to make space for Heroes!
Dear LJ, I'm shortly to embark on a driving holiday through France – any ideas on how to keep me awake during the 15 hour trek? Alex, Tooting Dear Alex, I take it you won't be doing this in one go! Whether you're hiring a car, or taking your own, bringing a huge CD collection with you is a bulky solution - lucky that 15 CDs (one for each hour) will fit on most 1GB MP3 players.
You mention that you have an Ipod, so I'd recommend the Kensington Pico FM Transmitter and Car Charger, which plugs into your car accessory socket (cigarette lighter adapter) and broadcasts your tunes to an unmanned FM radio station (say, 88.3FM in London). You then tune your car's FM Radio to the same station, and the device also charges your ipod at the same time. Now you can listen all the way through France to the Eagles, Chicago or the Prodigy round those hairpin bends instead of searching fruitlessly on the radio for driving classics.
If you have any gadget and tech enquiries you'd like LJ to answer send them in here.
