Gadgets: Making travel easier

Dyson Cordless Vacuum
What with the crisps, the sand and the crumbs, your average family car or caravan has been shipping some collateral damage in the recent good weather. Dyson's DC44 might just be the tool to sort it. Handheld, super-light and cordless, it features James Dyson's cyclone technology, meaning no suction-sapping bags to fill. The most powerful cordless vac on the market, it's got all the attachments for a valet-finish.
Around €330 from electrical shops

PocketStrings
It's hard to know whether this is a genius thought or a perfect way to prompt ridicule from on-lookers. PocketStrings is a gadget to practice your guitar chords on, with six strings and real frets. It doesn't actually make a sound, of course, but there is a strum-pad to beat out the rhythm. So budding guitarists get to master their Beatles medley and nobody has to suffer the learning process.
4 fret version $24.95 or 6 fret for $29.95 from pocketstrings.com

Finis Neptune
If you want to listen to your playlist as you crank out the pool lengths, the Neptune from Finis is worth a listen. But look: no earbuds. Instead the Neptune uses bone conduction to deliver the sonics. Clip the two speakers onto your goggle straps against your cheekbones and physics does the rest, with the sounds carried on the bone directly to your inner ear. It's how they think dolphins hear. The rest of the hardware is at the back of your head, with 4GB memory and an OLED display. €135 from finisinc.com

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