The rCube is portable, easy to use, and its sound quality is pretty exceptional. Just launched in cool white this summer, it’s funky cube design is physically smaller than your average handbag and has been designed to fit in with the décor of most rooms.

Features

Take your music with you – Built in carry handle and batteries that last up to 8 hours mean you can enjoy your music anywhere – relaxing in the bath, drinks in the garden, whipping up a storm in the kitchen, entertaining in the dining room or wherever takes your fancy.

Wireless – Nifty rWand dongle allows you to stream music wirelessly from your iPhone, iPod or iPad from up to 15 meters away.

Unlimited music and radio – Don’t have a iPhone? The rWave USB dongle allows you to wirelessly listen to whatever’s playing on your computer from up to 100 meters away. Whether it’s the radio, an online music library or a party playlist.

World class sound – Unique speaker system delivers exceptional clarity and room-filling sound.

Mix and Match – If you ever get bored of your tracks, you can stream music from friends and family’s iPods or pass the rWand around at a party to share soundtracks.

Easy to use – Can be operated from your iPhone or the pocket-sized remote control.

Price around £500

The new Sky Go App brings together online and mobile TV in a single, simple service for Sky TV customers. You can now get flexible access to Sky content across iPad, iPhone and iPod touch and it is now available in the App Store.

Sky Go lets you watch live channels (in line with your subscription) while on the move in the UK and Ireland. On iOS devices, Sky TV customers can access all five Sky Sports channels, ESPN and Sky News, with further channels to be added over time. This means that Sky Sports customers will be able to watch a top line-up of live sports on the move for free and a  selection of Sky Movies.

Sky Go brings together two existing services, Sky Player, Sky’s online TV service and Sky Mobile TV, the UK’s largest mobile TV service – the services now rebranded as Sky Go.

The Sky Go App is now available for free from the App Store on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

Say hi to a world of beach, sun and music with the hi-Sun beach towel. It’s essentially a beach towel with built in speakers and when you’re done sunbathing it becomes a backpack. The perfect solution for the beach, camping of just chilling in the park  so you can soak up the rays listening to your favourite tunes.

It’s compatible with iPhone®, iPod® or any other MP3  player that has a 3.5mm universal jack, and when it needs washing simply remove the speakers and pop it in the machine.

Available from http://www.hi-fun.com/en

Spec

• Dimension: 180 cm x 80 cm
• Material: 100% cotton
• Speaker power: 2W/4ohm X 2
• Frequency response: 100HZ—20KHZ
• Output:4.2V/250MA
• Li-ion battery
• Colors: red, black, blue, pink

Smartphones, iPads, iPhones, mp3 players – few of us can get through the day now without tapping or swooshing on those oh-so-cool touchscreens, marvelling at how a little swipe of the finger can open an app or zoom through a cluster of status updates. For all their cleverness, however, there is one major drawback to these modern wonders – reliant on your skin’s natural conductivity of electricity, they require bare fingers. Not such a big deal if you live in a friendly climate, but for those of us who spend several months of the year bundled up against the elements, using your phone or tablet outside involves an elaborate off-again, on-again, off-again juggling of gloves, generally resulting in freezing fingers and a mouthful of dirty fluff from pulling your handwear off with your teeth.

Now, though, a few companies have recognized this problem and come up with various solutions that let you leave your gloves on to text or scroll, by altering the glove to allow for the needed conductivity. Some versions merely have a small slit in the thumb and index finger that permit you access to your bare skin with minimum exposure to the cold. More sophisticated recent styles either weave conductive thread into the fingertips, or place conductive fabric on top.

Firebox.com offers the Touchscreen Glove and the Isotoner SmarTouch Glove (from £12.99), both of which have conductive thread woven into the thumb and index finger. Fivepoint Gloves (£24.99) from Etre work on a similar theory, but weave the conductive material into all five fingertips on each glove. Dots Gloves ($20.00) have little dot-shaped patches of conductive fabric on the index and thumb, while North Face Etip gloves (£22.00) also opt for patches of fabric. Not to be outdone, Apple have naturally created their own patented iGloves (from £13.99), which would appear to work on similar principles to the others by incorporating special conductive material in the fingertips.

All sounds too good to be true? Some of the drawbacks reported with these gloves include complaints that the conductive thread can sometimes unravel pretty easily; others find that, while allowing you to text and email, they don’t actually keep your hands that warm in more serious weather. Overall, however, they seem to provide a good option to the numb-fingered among us.

If you don’t want to buy a separate pair of gloves you can always take the DIY approach by sewing conductive thread into the fingertips of any pair you already own. GloveTips ($19.99) are a product based on this idea, providing you with a kit which includes three buttons, conductive material, and a special installing needle that lets you turn your favourite pair of gloves into a techie’s winter delight.

As for this techie, my fingers are still cold. The problem? These products have proved so popular, most of the stores are sold out. More stocks are promised by the end of January.

Until next time..

Loloknows

If you want to find out more about our guest blogger click here

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/laurence-bouvard/b/770/4a8

Long gone are the days when technology was considered purely functional, there to do the job in hand. Back in the dark ages (ok, the 90’s) mobile phones were bog-standard black or silver, and cases and shells were businessman dull. But as gadgets get smaller and sleeker, the accessories we buy to house them get ever *chic*-er, with high end designers such as Burberry, Chanel and Gucci all clamouring to clothe your beloved new iPad. Whatever make or model you champion, there’s a product out there to turn your geeky gadget into a symbol of style. But not all of us have the bank balance to match our fashionista cravings.

Step forward Cath Kidston. With her new collection of ‘Mini Gems’, accessories designed to fit your iPhone/Pod/Pad, Blackberry, or even Nintendo DSi Lite, all emblazoned with her signature, kitsch prints in numerous colour combos, gadgets will never feel naked again. And best of all, with change from a £20 note, they’re not getting  illicit angry calls from the bank manager. Who could resist?

I certainly couldn’t. A firm believer in styling my technology as I do myself (fairly well too, I might add!), I first opted around a year ago for the Mini Dot Nintendo DS Cover to add a touch of vogue to my sugar pink console.

Delighted with my purchase, and wanting to beautify my never-put-down iPhone, I recently purchased the Provence Rose Phone Case, a delicate floral print in warm pink oilcloth that hugs your phone tight, yet adds a touch of class. Utterly gorgeous, and so feminine.

Oh, and what more excuse to splurge on an iPad do I need than the prospect of wrapping it in the (slightly more expensive) Blue Mini Dot iPad Case? Hmm, time to count the pennies…

stylespylou x

To find out more about our guest blogger, check out stylespylou’s fashion and beauty blog at : http://stylespylou.blogspot.com/