Play: Pimp your veg with 3D add-ons
Hi-tech meets lo-tech in the Open Toy project. Designed by Samuel Bernier and his team at le FabShop, these plastic add-ons can be knocked up with a 3D printer and popped on to almost anything, aubergines included, to instantly transform the mundane into the magical. Featuring components including propellers, wheels and wings, it only takes a moment to make a marrow mobile in the guise of a submarine, helicopter or rocket. The plans are open source and free to download from platforms including thingiverse.com. Go on, play with your food!
Sport: Intelligent sportswear with plenty of punch
Sure to be a hit on Kickstarter this month, sportswear firm MM8 has produced a smart collection for boxing and martial arts. Featuring a range of gloves, punch bags and punch pads, each piece of kit contains battery-powered sensors that collect data about the speed, force and knock-out power of your jabs – together with the number of calories you’ve burned. The info is then sent, in real time, to an app on your phone. But you’ll have to be quick to get your mitts on this kit – a limited number of items are on offer to backers before 3 February, provided you have at least £75 to throw into the ring.
Cooking: Get the Drop on creating the perfect cake
If your New Year’s resolution to take over the kitchen is hanging in the balance, the Drop scales and recipe app could be the answer. Consisting of a set of scales hooked up to your iPad, Drop guides you through each step of your bake to help you whip up a cake that would make Mary Berry proud. Instead of weighing each ingredient individually, you simply sling them in, sequentially, to the same bowl and Drop will tell you when you’ve reached the right amount. Besides offering scrumptious ideas, the app can rescale recipes to suit and offer suggestions for replacement ingredients should your store cupboard run short of an item. Available for around £65, it could prove to be a helpful bake-mate.
Learning: Become a code breaker and build a virtual tablet
Getting your kids interested in coding is one thing, but helping them stick with it is another. Luckily the brains behind Bitsbox have a plan. Aimed at youngsters aged seven and up, this coding kit comes with a booklet packed with exciting apps – all you have to do is pop online to make use of a “virtual tablet” and follow the instructions to build, customize and download it. Every month a new kit arrives, replete with booklet, stickers, trading cards and toys to fuel the momentum. Currently up for funding on Kickstarter, the first kits are expected to ship in the spring for around £25, but if you can’t wait, pop along to bitsbox.com and have a go for free.
Health: Can’t decide between jogging and cycling?
If you’re planning to earn your go-faster stripes this year, check out the Bionic Runner. Resembling the love child of a bicycle and a treadmill, its creators, Run4, say it allows your legs to move as if running, while reducing the risk of injury. The upshot is a machine that “allows you to train harder from day one” while its foldable design makes it perfectly portable, offering another option for that morning commute. Complete with a 12-month warranty, it’s due to be available online this month for around £780, but if the price leaves you in need of a sit down, beware – the Bionic Runner doesn’t come with a saddle.
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Tech that turns aubergines into submarines and other great gadgets
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