Gizmoville acquires taste for pizza-flavoured laptops

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Tech Digest Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, while Bayraider keeps tabs on the best and worst of eBay.

Shiny has also just launched two new blogs: HDTVUK – the first high definition TV news site for the UK - and PopJunkie. From Frank Sinatra’s odd concept album from 1969 Watertown to Cathy Dennis' Brit Pop album Am I that kind of Girl? Each day PopJunkie offers a mini review of a great lost pop album.

But enough of that, here are this week’s gadget stories:

Accessory of the Week: Laptop pizza box

Nice as designer laptop bags are, they're really only asking for trouble. You might as well stick a loud hailer on your head with a recording saying "Hi! I'm carrying a laptop bag! It's designer! Whoopee for you! There's also a good chance I'm wearing totally impractical foot attire and won't be able to run from you! Please feel free to mug me at your convenience." But this! This, on the other hand, is likely to prove bait only for food addicts desperate for their next fix, and I'm pretty sure you can outrun a pizza-loving podge no matter how inappropriate your footwear. The Powerpizza laptop box is "anti-theft, anti-shock and anti-style". It's waterproof as well, so you'll be able to store your laptop in a safe home, whilst looking like a bit of a food addict yourself. I'm struggling to think of anything better.

Traditional "how did that get on eBay?" Story: Apple watch

Correct us if we're wrong, but as far as we're aware, Apple doesn't make watches. Imagine if they did though - you'd be able to carry your MP3 collection around on your wrist, although the screen would probably crack every time you put your hand in your pocket. Ho ho just kidding. Anyhow, we found these Apple-branded 'Think Different' watches on eBay, although we're unsure whether they're an official promotional product, or a crafty bootleg. Sadly no MP3 functionality, although unlike iPods, they come in a choice of black or white.

OTT Home Entertainment stuff: Roll up piano

The trouble with choosing a piano, as opposed to taking up say the trumpet, is that it isn’t exactly purpose-built for off the off the cuff musical interludes. So while your guitar savvy mates can happily sit around the campfire strumming Ging Gang Goolie, up until now the only keyboard pianists have played while gazing into the flames are air keyboards. I’m discounting those nasty hang round your neck guitar style keyboards so beloved by 80s American hair rockers as they are way too expensive. Well now there’s an easy way for pianists to get portable and that is the rollup keyboard that has been developed by Nevada Music. On sale for £80, the Roll Up Travel Piano does exactly as it says rolling up into a small ball making it easy to carry and then roll out when the Kids From Fame moment takes hold. There are on board speakers for sharing sounds at the campfire knees up or an earphones socket for the more bashful. It comes equipped with a MIDI output and can be connected to a computer to use as a controller keyboard (much easier than composing or arranging with a mouse). It also has 128 General MIDI sounds, 100 built in rhythms and 20 demo songs too. More from here.

Vaguely useful Gadget of the week: Eyezone massager

After a heavy night out on the sauce what could be beter than one of these Eyezone Massager things. Aside from making you look like a cut-price superhero, the eye mask massages your temples, stimulating nerves to "improve microcirculation and reduce stress". Apparently, it's great for relieving eye strain caused by extensive use of computers or long periods of driving. The site also claims that it will reduce swollen or puffy eyes and dark rings, which sounds like just the thing I'm after. Pop the goggles on and a unit on the bridge of the nose will vibrate gently, helping you to have a good night's sleep after just 3-5 minutes' use. More from here.

Glad they thought of that gadget of the week: Wi-fi enabled digital cameras

Looks like it's digital camera goes wireless month in the UK. On sale from now are the £349 Nikon Coolpix P1 and £279 P2 - the company's first Wi-Fi enabled snappers. The theory being they can send images from the camera or its memory card wirelessly to a PC. The models have a fairly similar design, the key differences being the P1 (an exclusive to Jessops in the UK) can take eight mega pixel images while the P2 takes five. Both feature a 3.5x zoom capability and powerful 36-126mm Zoom-Nikkor lens (35mm equivalent) and sport 16 handy Scene Modes. Meanwhile Kodak has launched its Easyshare-One compact camera. It has two very cool features – a touch screen that flips out mobile phone style and integrated Wi-Fi. Unlike the Nikon models this means you can not only transfer images wirelessly from the camera but also send images via email from your home wireless network or from a hot spot. The four mega pixel camera is going for a very pricey £400.

Quick Picks:

• NTL and Telewest hint at a date for HDTV
• Samsung’s hand warming mobile
• The best album The Beatles never made
• Canon’s SED TV technology – it really might be better (and cheaper) than LCD
• Tape of early Dylan recordings on eBay
• Philips’ very clever lighting prototypes
• Samsung and B&O’s mobile phone

Loads more of this stuff at Tech Digest, Shiny Shiny, Green consumer blog HippyShopper and Bayraider which delves into the dark side of online auction sites.