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When I’m not hunched over my keyboard here at Gadgets Towers there is little I like more than to stand in front of the TV in my lounge with a small plastic guitar and pretend to be a rock star.

Yep, I have been bitten by the Guitar Hero bug! I have happily whiled away days, if not weeks over the course of the three titles. Clicking away at the strum bar, moving my fingers at blurringly quick speeds across the fret buttons, and whammying the whammy bar. So when I was passed product information about a pocket sized portable version I was instantly salivating at the thought of being able to put to good use those hours wasted each week commuting.

You get some sort of idea of scale of the item in the picture above, with the neck folding down to reduce it’s size even further (from 7 ¾” to 4” by 3”) for even greater portability. You can also see that although there is no strum bar, the game keeps the five fret buttons, and the idea is to hit the correct fret as the note reaches the bottom of the LCD screen. There is also a ‘Whammy Bar’ button which can be held down on the longer notes to amass more points.

There are five different volume levels.  So although you can’t turn it all the way up to 11, you can still give those annoying teenagers on the back of the bus a run for their money.

The game consists of riffs from ten songs from Guitar Hero I and II. These songs being “Smoke on the Water”, “Rock this Town”, “Cherry Pie”, “Killer Queen”, “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin”, “Miserlou”, “Heart Shaped Box”, “Message in a Bottle”, “Jessica”, and “Surrender”. As you successfully complete the riffs the difficulty increases.

More info on this and a review once we receive it. I’m just hoping now that this lives up to my expectations!

As you may or may not be aware a couple of weeks ago one of the big trade fairs of the year, the Spring Fair, was held at Birmingham’s NEC between 3rd and 7th February.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend on the Tuesday. This was my first trade fair, my only previous experience being when I blagged a ticket to a Video Games Show a few years back merely as an interested party. Spring Fair was on a whole different scale using 16 of the halls in the NEC, I really wasn’t quite prepared for how massive it was. I also wasn’t expecting quite the range of goods that were on show either, and with that came the people from different companies also obviously attending, from the family groups presumably from smaller more specialist shops to buyers for the likes of Tesco. It was most certainly a beneficial experience getting to meet and talk to the various suppliers regarding their products, and see a lot of the ‘coming soon’ items working and ‘in the flesh’.

I thought I’d share some of the items that I know we will be stocking here at Gadgets Towers that I am personally looking forward to:
1. First up the “Picco TandemZ Chinook Micro Remote Control Helicopter”. For me personally the Chinook is a very cool helicopter, so to be able to have a mini remote control version would be great! Although I saw these at the show and there were fully functional I haven’t yet been passed product information, but as soon as they arrive I feel I shall need to ensure I get to have a test of this particular flyer.
2. Then there were the “500XL Speakers”. These caught my eye due to the style they had chosen. It’s such a simple idea taking normal earbud style earphones and ‘blowing them up’ to make desktop speakers, but then I don’t believe anyone else has come up with them yet and it’s certainly something I’d have on my desktop.
3. The other item that caught my eye and made me think I’d like to see that on my wall was the Huge Wall Clock. Again I find it hard to believe it’s not something that anyone has come up with before, but they haven’t.

Right, as I started to write this post it was originally going to be about Valentines day, and possible slightly modern takes on some of the classic gifts. For example instead of flowers how about a Flu Fleur, or a Flip Flap.

Realising about halfway through that I had probably somewhat missed the punch and the window of opportunity on this one somewhat I flicked forward a few pages in my diary and came to Mothers Day! I then sat wondering what sort of Gadgety take I could get for mothers day.

I thought back to last year when I was trying to find something different for my own Mum, and after rejecting flowers, chocolates, ornament, cuddly toys, I decided finally upon a MoodBeam.

Again this year I’m stuck for what to get, suffice to say there will be a card, but what else? Well there’s the ‘gift experience’ such as these. These days can work out quite pricey though so maybe through a bit of improvisation you could give your mum a bit of a pamper day at home, for example, some nice smelling bubbles in a hot bath (run by you obviously), some spa lights, a nice bottle of wine (or her favourite tipple), and a Limpet Bath Holder so she can soak in a soothing environment and relax.

Not really my Mum’s thing though, so I racked my brains, and Google, a bit more. Mums love plants, so how about a Bonsai Trees Grow It Plant Starter Kit. At the current moment I’m not sure if we will actually get stock of these in time for Mothers day, but at least I have an idea now!!!

Note – These Grow it kits are now available at Gadgets.co.uk

Being as how in today’s world most of us spend about 8 hours a day (or maybe even more) sat at our desks slaving away at our PC’s it’s really no wonder the up-surge in ‘USB Powered’ gadgets available. Ranging from things that are quite useful (such as USB Fridges), to items whose sole aim is obviously to distract from that deadline that is looming ever closer (such as USB Remote Controlled Cars and Missile Rocket Launchers!)

Whatever their purpose desks all over are becoming more colourful, noisy, and cluttered with small devices. I believe in some offices it actually gets quite competitive with everyone wanting the most novel, new, funky gadget on their desktop.

With it’s charging capability negating the need for batteries it’s certainly an attractive ‘format’ for manufacturers’ and consumers alike. The low cost of a lot of the items ensures they tend to be great novelty items, ideal for ‘secret Santa’ gifts round the workplace at Christmas. Alternatively some of the more useful and better quality items are also suited to be more costly presents for friends and family.

With the ever increasing number of incarnations of these gadgets gradually appearing surely it can’t be long before USB gadgets, as they are now, will come to the end of the line and evolve into something else. The question is just where the USB gizmo could progress to from here?

Well with the widespread appearance of Wireless USB not too far over the horizon, this would eliminate the current problem of trailing wires. On the other hand it surely would negate the advantage of these articles not requiring batteries or an external power supply, which is a benefit some of the more ‘novel’ items rely on to make them attractive to the consumer. Therefore until some clever soul comes up with some new and innovative way of evolving the humble USB gadget it would appear that it will continue its existence pretty much as-is.