A round-up of this week's gadgets
Helio Pressure Shower
There are plenty of portable showers on the market, but here's one with a little premium edge, it's a packable power shower. Of sorts. Obviously it's not going to deliver thumping jets of water, but using the foot pump means you can keep a decent steady stream of pressure to hose off the grime of your latest adventure or perhaps help with a camping wash-up. The pump means you don't have to hang up the reservoir to carry out your ablutions. The 11 litres of water is enough for a five- or six-minute shower depending on how energetic your pumping is. As you empty the tank, a few more kicks will top up the pressure. And it packs up neatly in its own lightweight pouch. Helio Pressure Shower $100 (€80) from nemoequipment.com
Moby1 RT Expedition Trailer
Moby1 make a range of expedition trailers that up the campsite comfort quotient. The RT model is a road-touring trailer, with an anodized aluminium outer that gives it a look of the fabled Airstream, if somewhat scaled-down. The basic RT trailer comes with a full-sized galley kitchen, with presses and other cabinetry. Inside, pick a mattress bed width from a cosy 48 inches to a party-ready 60-incher. The trailer itself is really just the core of the Moby1 system, which lets you customise yours, with everything from awnings to solar panels to air con available as optional add-ons. You can even specify what sort of vehicle you're likely to tow with and the road conditions, and they'll recommend the wheels and tyres to suit. Moby1 RT Expedition Trailer Prices start at $8,500 (€6,805), moby1trailers.com
Kindle Touch
As holidays beckon, the books versus e-books debate fires up again. The tactile pleasure of the paperback is being somewhat tempered by ever-rising luggage charges. The Touch is Amazon's latest version of its bestseller, a response to the touchscreen tablet revolution. It tackles touch differently, using infra-red beams to offer an intuitive page-turn, but there's a resultant sluggishness tablet users may find irritating. New features include X-Ray, a sort of live glossary of key characters and terms in the book, linking through to the relevant Wikipedia page or to the Kindle browser. The high contrast screen is better for reading in sunlight and it's much cheaper than a tablet if you're just using it for reading and monochromatic browsing. Kindle Touch about €154 for WiFi; about €200 for WiFi 3G, from amazon.com