Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

There’s a real treat in this week’s Green Piece. You may have heard about it already but I thought it still needed a mention. Wind-up radio king Trevor Baylis has upped the ante to bring us a wind-up media player. We had an interesting stat about batteries in a previous Green Piece - just to recap, according to WRAP, around 600 million UK household batteries (22,000 tonnes) – the equivalent weight of 110 Jumbo Jets – are sent to landfill unnecessarily every year. So anything that we can do to alleviate the environment of that burden would be a good thing. That’s why this media player is so great. For one minute of winding, you get 40 minutes of audio play. When fully charged, which you can also do through the USB port on your computer, you’ll get around 20 hours of constant music, or around 10 hours of video play.

It only has a 2GB memory but you can use SD cards and it’s got a 1.8 inch, full colour screen. OK, so it’s not the biggest of screens but if you’re all for helping the environment, it’s not too much of a sacrifice.

Back onto the positives – It’s got a FM radio, it can act as an audio and voice recorder and it can even charge your mobile phone. If that wasn’t enough, it also has an awesome torch!

I think this is a great green gadget that will solve the endless MP3 charging saga in the evenings. Just think of all the batteries and hassle you’ll be saving. They’re £129.95 at the Ethical Superstore.

Today’s Gadget Watch is for all you camera lovers and it’s one of my favourite gadgets so far. It’s a bendy tripod that you can attach to your camera, called a Gorillapod. It’s really frustrating when you can’t take the perfect shot because your tripod won’t stay steady or because it won’t fit into hard-to-reach places but the Gorillapod solves all that.

It has three legs that can wrap around anything, even trees and lampposts, so you can get angles that you never dreamed of obtaining with a traditional tripod. Great news for happy snappers.

There’s a compact version and a larger SLR/camcorder version, priced at £14.95 and £34.95 respectively. You can read 21 reviews for the compact version over on Reevoo and you can pick them both up at Paramount Zone.

If you’re still looking for a camera, check out the camera reviews to help you to decide what to buy.

I think we can now officially say it’s summer, so to celebrate, I’ve picked out a few summer essentials to help you make the most of the weather before it’s too late.

You can’t enjoy summer without a lovely fruit juice at your side so I’ve checked out which juicer shoppers consider the best. At the moment, the Philips HR1861 is top with 8.6/10. It’s a 2 litre stainless steel super machine that pulverises whole fruit into juice in seconds. Shoppers hardly have a bad word to say about it. Check out the juicer reviews to see for yourselves.

As gadgets are always on my mind, I feel the need to insert a gadget I saw the other week that would be a perfect accompaniment to this juicer. Unfortunately, I can’t find the exact equivalent in the UK but for all of our US readers, you shouldn’t have a problem finding one. It’s a radio controlled drinks and snack holder for the pool. Summer can be a hot and sweaty business so don’t exert yourself, deliver snacks to friends in the pool without even having to move from your chair, or get snacks delivered to you on your lilo without having to get wet. For those of us in the UK, here’s an equivalent snack and drinks float that’s unfortunately not radio-controlled but it’s still pretty cool. All for £19.95.

If you don’t have a pool, how about one of these. It’s a 15 foot pool that can be put anywhere and it comes complete with a cover, ladder, pump and ground cloth. It’s £170 but surely it’s worth it for 3 days of sunshine a year?

And you’re going to need something to chill those drinks in. One of the best rated mini fridges is the Woolworths Micro Chiller. It’s a bargain at £14.

You’ll also be needing somewhere to sit, so how about this eight piece garden furniture set? It’s £199.99 and at the moment, it comes with a free sun lounger, worth £29.99.

And finally, no self-respecting sun worshipper can do so without some tunes. We featured the wireless outdoor iPod speaker a few weeks ago and I think it would be the perfect addition here. The speaker comes with a small transmitter that you plug your iPod
into. You can then apparently wander up to 240 feet away from the
speaker and still enjoy your favourite tunes. Perfect for the garden and wire free.

Some summer selections there. Here’s hoping we get some summer to enjoy them…