Decide what to buy

We’ve come across a few strange ones in our time but this little gadget is as strange as it is genius. For years we’ve been telling the time in the same, boring way but now, John Maushammer has a new take on the humble wrist watch.

The Pong watch tells the time by totting up the outcome of an ongoing game of ping pong. The hours and minutes change depending on which side wins the current game.

The watch took Maushammer two years to complete. You can see his progress in the video below:

This week’s gadget watch is possibly one of our favourites. If you’re a peanut butter fiend, read on.

The Peanut Butter Machine allows you to create your own buttery peanutness at home! Just add peanuts! And it will take care of the crunchy/smooth debate too - just pick which kind you like and it’ll deliver it in minutes. You can use any kind of shell nut so you can create your own nutty buttery mixtures and best of all, you’ll know exactly what’s going in them - no additives or other nasties. Try macadamia or even cashew butter for a really interesting spin on a classic.

These fabulous machines are available for US $49.98 and will soon be working their way over to the UK. We’ll keep you posted!

Cars aren’t the greenest of things so we’re always glad when we find something that we can use to save energy in them. This week’s Green Piece is all about the Sunsei 150 solar car battery charger. It will trickle charge a 12v car battery but can also be used in tractors, small boats, motorbikes and other small vehicles.

It’s ideal if you’re trying to use your car less or take it off the road but you’re worried that the battery will go flat. It will also save electricity if you need to charge your battery via a mains charger. And, of course, it will help all of us who don’t have that handy bleeping noise that alerts us to the fact that we’ve left our lights on when we get out of the car.

All in all, a pretty handy green gadget. You just mount the panel on the inside of your car window, using the suction cups and connect it to the cigarette lighter or directly to the battery with the crocodile clips provided.

You can pick one up here for £29.99 if you’re in the UK or here for $48.88 for US readers.

If you’re always getting lost, you may also want to invest in a sat nav - just think how much petrol you waste and how much CO₂ you emit when you’re correcting ‘navigation malfunctions’!

Pure Digital Technologies are the force behind Flip - pocket-sized, affordable camcorders. Flip fans will be pleased to know that they’ve gone one step further by producing a high definition model, the Flip MinoHD - the world’s smallest HD camcorder. It looks much like the Flip Mino but is a touch larger and is capable of capturing high-definition footage in 1280×720 pixel resolution, compared to the Mino’s 640×480 pixels.

It also boasts MPEG-4 encoding and 4GB of internal memory which will store an hour’s worth of video. And so that you can upload all your vids to your favourite sites, the FlipShare editing software will very handily compress them all for you too.

At only 3.3 ounces, it’s pretty light and small enough to fit in your pocket or handbag (H 3.94″ x W 1.97″ x D 0.63″). It has a 1.5″ screen, touch-sensitive capacitive buttons and an internal lithium-ion rechargeable battery.

It claims to last two hours between charges and takes approx three hours to charge via USB but this is reduced to two if you use its power adaptor.

You can even customise your MinoHD by designing its cover yourself of by choosing from one of the great designs on the Flip website.

This HD member of the Flip family will need to compete against the popular Kodak Zi6 which is currently on sale in the UK for around £120. The Flip MinoHD is not yet available in the UK but watch this space because it’s bound to make a big impact when it gets here. You can buy it in the US from here.

Have you ever felt so knackered after a night out or shopping trip that you felt your own legs didn’t have the energy to take you home? Did you wish that you could just magic yourself to your comfy sofa? Well, the boffins over at Honda have been dabbling in some robot magic and have produced these rather interesting looking robot legs.

They will reduce the load on your legs by supporting your weight as you walk. You just sit on the unicycle-type seat and the leg frames bend like knees. They run on two motors which are controlled by signals from the sensors inside the shoes. It all sounds great but I must say that when I first saw those pictures, I did wonder how the boys might fare…

The legs were initially intended for assembly line workers (to enable them to stay in crouched positions all day) and the elderly (the aging population in Japan - Honda’s mother ship - being another inspiration for the invention). But we could soon see these chained up outside pubs and shopping centres. However, a word of advice, since these legs haven’t been invented with GPS yet, you may also want to invest in a sat nav and make sure you always have a mobile phone at hand : )

We’ve been talking about saving money and budget buys recently so we had to share the ultimate triple-use product. Save even more money by buying one product that works as three - like this HDTV which houses a Blu-ray player and a PC!

Named Allio, it has just launched in the US and comes in 32 and 42 inch models. The PC doesn’t have a bad spec at all - Intel Core Duo E8400 processor, 1TB hard drive and 4GB of RAM. It also comes with Windows Vista Home Premium and there are plenty of USB ports and wired / wireless network options.

The HDTV isn’t terrible either. It’s a 1080p panel with 2,000:1 contrast ratio, 400 cd/m2 brightness and twin 12-watt speakers. You can even watch your Blu-ray content as Picture-in-Picture or split-screen.

It’s not available in the UK yet but we’ll keep you posted. In the US, the current prices are:

32″ - £950

42″ - £1800

Low-cost versions are also on the way - even better!

More info here

It’s time for another installment in our What to buy series. We looked at What to buy Dads last week and this week it’s the turn of another tricky customer…the teenage boy.

If you need inspiration, just take a look at these:

For the music lover - Everyone loves music. Get them an MP3 player and they can take music with them wherever they go. The top rated MP3 player on Reevoo at the moment is the 8GB iPod Touch. It’s currently around £100. If you were looking to spend a little less than that, the second highest rated player is the £70 Sony NWZA816 4GB. And for a complete bargain buy, grab some CDs. Prices start from as little at £2.

For the gamer - Why not go for a games console like the PlayStation 3 (£289)? If they already have a console, they might like a gaming chair (£100). It’s comfortable for extended gaming sessions and you can feel the action through it. It can also be used to listen to music and watch films. There are also lots of console accessories, like this PS3 charging station for £15. For smaller gifts, you could go for a video game (prices start at £2).

For Mr Sociable - A mobile phone so that they can keep in contact with all their mates. For a phone packed full of features, how about the Nokia N95 or N96? Or for a more classy option, how about the Samsung Tocco or the new iPhone? (All phone prices vary according to contract)

For the sporty ones - Some tickets to a football or rugby match will make a great gift. For something more original, why not try this Garmin Forerunner 405 (£169) GPS-enabled sport watch, which tracks your training and sends the data to your computer or for trips to the coast this fishing starter kit (£32)?

For gadgety types - A Wind-Up Torch with Mobile Phone Charger (£7) or some travel speakers for your iPod (£9).

And for the boy that has everything? - Give them this Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock (£24) - guaranteed to wake the laziest of teenagers.

All done. Pretty painless, just as shopping should be.

If you’re purchasing online, follow our top tips for online shopping this Christmas.

For all you original iPhone owners who’ve been fed up with your battery life, this new product may ease the pain a little. The iPow, although it sounds like something out of a Batman comic, is actually an external battery case for the original iPhone (3G version on the way).

It can be charged up at the same time as your iPhone and will apparently double the battery life. It also provides a leather top which closes with a magnetic clasp and mini stereo speakers which are twice as loud as the ones on the iPhone.

It’s not the prettiest of things and in my opinion, makes the iPhone look a little clumpy. It’ll also add 98 grams to your handbag or pocket but if you’re after more juice, then I suppose it’s not so bad. You can pick one up at twistedcarbon for £49.99.

This week’s Gadget Watch is all about trees. Metal trees, that is. This fab looking sculpture will not only be an interesting addition to any room but it will also be your one stop shop (or tree), for charging MP3s, mobile phones, cameras and other small, battery operated devices.

How? Well, each of the leaves is actually a solar panel. These 54 solar panels or photovoltaic panels, to be exact, will store energy that can then be used to charge you favourite gadgets.

Pretty different, hey? Each piece is also movable so you can make it even more original by creating your own shapes.

A fun and great looking product that will save you money and give you that nice warm feeling to know that you’re helping to save the planet too.

It was designed by French genius, Vivien Muller and is not yet on the market but we’ll keep you posted.

There’s a wintery theme to this week’s Gadget Watch. As it’s been getting freezing of late, I’ve found something that might make the commute into work on those cold and frosty mornings a little easier - battery powered heated gloves. Just turn them on a few minutes before you leave the house so that they’re all nice and toasty when you put them on.

You lose a lot of heat through your head and your extremities like your hands and feet so these should warm you up a treat.

A few of the battery powered heated glove reviews have mentioned that they use up batteries pretty quick so may I suggest using the rechargeable kind? You can get your hands on a whole heap of batteries here.