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5 New Year's resolution gadgets

Finding it hard to stick to your New Year’s resolutions? Don’t worry, says Russell Deeks, there’s probably a gadget out there to help you…

WHAT WE LOOKED FOR

Value for money
Everyone's hard up for the first few months of the year, so you don’t want to be forking out too much of your hard-earned cash.

Effectiveness
‘Does it work?’ is the basic question we’re asking here. Will it really make it easier to stick to your resolution, or is it just a gimmick?

Longevity
Will the device in question help you put your good intentions into practice in the long term? Nine-day wonders need not apply.

Design/build quality
It could be the most brilliant, life-changing thing ever invented, but if it looks and feels like a piece of cheap plastic tat, who’d want one? Not us.

Bed of NailsBed of Nails

www.firebox.com

£39.99 (mat)/£19.99 (pillow)

Also known as a shakti or yantra mat, this is a modern-day take on a relaxation tool used for centuries in India. Those gurus don’t just lie on beds of nails to show off, you know: the application of pressure at multiple points (in this case, 6210 on the mat, 1782 on the pillow) is said to boost energy levels by encouraging the release of endorphins and oxytocin – your body’s ‘feel-good’ chemicals. The mat is genuinely prickly, so some might find it too uncomfortable, while others will enjoy the pointed caress of thousands of tiny spikes.
 

Boggle FlashBoggle Flash

www.firebox.com

Price: £24.99

If the kids are more interested in TV and their games console than in spending time with you, you’ll need something suitably techy to lure them away. This is a computerised version of the classic word game Boggle, in which you have to form words from a random selection of letters. There are one-, two- and multiple-player versions and it truly is ‘fun for all the family’ – though for how long may be in question, not least because of the very basic, monochrome LCD. Then again, kids are easily pleased, aren’t they?

 

Nike+ SportBandNike+ SportBand

www.nikeplus.com

Price: £40 (Nike+ running shoes from £65)

Designed for runners, the SportBand system helps you exercise more effectively and keeps you motivated. It consists of the SportBand, which you wear on your wrist, and a pair of Nike+ enabled running shoes. A sensor in the shoe feeds data (on pace, distance covered and time taken) to the SportBand, and once you get home you unclip the USB gizmo from the band, stick it in your PC or Mac, and upload the data to the Nike+ community website for storage and analysis. But it can’t pick you up off the couch in the first place.

 

QuitKeyQuitKey

www.innovate4u.com

Price: £35.95 

The premise here is simple. For the first week, you smoke as normal, pressing a button on the QuitKey each time you light up. Based on that smoking ‘timetable’, it then creates your personal quit plan; for the next four weeks you’re only allowed a cigarette when it beeps at you – which it does less and less frequently. It’s a cunning idea, and it’s a good-looking, clever little piece of kit. But willpower is still required, and a gradual reduction doesn’t work for everyone. It does come with a helpful 50-page tips book and access to a telephone support line, though.

 

Philips airfryerPhilips airfryer

www.philips.co.uk/kitchen

Price: Nike+ iPod sports kit £200

Once a certain ex-boxer convinced us to grill, not fry our burgers, the next step had to be the chips side of the equation. Philips’s solution? The airfryer. Essentially, this is a rather smart-looking grill that uses ‘Rapid Air Technology’ (literally a load of hot air!) to give foods that fried taste… only more quickly than frying, and with an 80 per cent reduction in fat. And guess what? It actually works! Anything that lets us gorge on chips and call it ‘healthy eating’ is fine with us and you can even bake with it. The price is pretty steep, though.

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