Compiled by CIARA O'BRIEN
Motorola Defy+, €249.99 on prepay
Motorola has been absent from the Irish market for some time, but it’s making a comeback with the Defy+. The Android-based handset claims to be a cut above your average smartphone, running faster and being generally all-round tougher than most. It’s water-resistant, dust-proof and has scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass, but doesn’t look any bulkier than any normal phone. It also comes with a CardioTrainer application preloaded, which means you can follow your new year resolution progress on the high-resolution 3.7-inch screen. And its 1GHz processor claims to run 25 per cent faster, even if you don’t, making it better to browse or multitask.
Lumie Bodyclock Active 250, €107
There’s no getting away from it: early mornings are tough. And early mornings in January are tougher than most. You get up in the dark, you go to work in the dark; it’s just one long month of bleakness. And what makes it worse is waking to the sound of a clanging bell or a siren. Even your favourite music risks turning to an object of hate if you use it as an alarm. Which is why the Lumie Bodyclock Active is a good investment. The sunrise alarm clock wakes you naturally, gradually brightening over a period of your choice between 15 and 90 minutes. If you’re sceptical that the sunlight won’t shift you, there’s a dawn chorus and rooster alarm call on it too. And if you have trouble sleeping, there is a sunset feature on it that gradually darkens the room, plus white noise and wave sounds to lull you to sleep.
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IK Multimedia StealthPedal, €175
One for the musically minded among us, the StealthPedal is an audio interface in pedal form. It has two functions: it gets your guitar output in and out of your computer, and it also multitasks as a controller. It looks, for all intents and purposes, like a wah pedal guitar players are used to. The StealthPedal, however, can also work as a volume pedal, gain control, treble booster, pitch shifter . . . you get the idea. The device connects your bass or guitar to your computer via USB, and you can assign different functions to the pedal as you see fit – and within the software’s capabilities.
