ADAM HARVEYrounds up the latest travel gadgets
The colourful VTech Kidizoom digital camera should survive being dropped on the floor, covered with food and drenched in liquid. It has big buttons and a simple operating system, and will let photographers digitally decorate their subjects with silly hats and outfits. Forget the kids’ market – this is the perfect camera for a night out in Temple Bar. €49.99, www.vtechuk.com, Smyths nationwide.
Fresh falls in the Alps last week have extended the best snow season for 10 years, but the combination of mild temperatures and four-plus metres of snow are creating risky conditions on off-piste slopes. The Mammut Pulse Barryvox Avalanche Transceiver is an exceptionally good search-and-rescue device for those heading outside the marked trails. It’s simple to use – arrows tell you the direction and a numeric readout gives the distance of the buried person. Even novice users can find buried transceivers in about three minutes. £270, www.mammut.ch.
In response to criticism that this column needs more products for women – as if pocket knives and heated wetsuits are gender- specific – we’ve searched for something to appeal to the female traveller who has almost everything, and come up with the oh-so-stylish Survival Straps anklet. By day it’s a hip fashion adornment. But when needed, the anklet can be unfurled into five and a half metres of military- grade paracord, to be deployed whenever you need a bit of rope. Imagine the uses: you could lash a canoe, bind a broken leg or trap a stray dog. $16.95, survivalstraps.com.
