Travel Gear: app-controlled light bulbs with smart extras

BeOn Smart Bulbs For those who haven't come across them yet, smart bulbs usually plug into regular light sockets (often screw-in) and can be controlled remotely by an app on your smart phone. So they're useful when you're travelling to keep home looking inhabited. Mainstream brands like Philips and GE make them, as well as more niche outfits like BeOn here. Its point of difference (or, eh, light bulb moment) is the yellow smart module insert, which has a sound detector and back-up battery built-in. It can be triggered automatically by a doorbell ring or smoke alarm activation if you want; and they've about five hours of self-powered lighting in the case of a power cut. Otherwise they've all the standard app-based control and settings, including learning your lighting behaviour, which they'll mimic while you're away.

Kit with three LED Bulbs (60W equivalent) and three smart modules, $130 from amazon.com

Sklz Hydro-Roller

Using a foam roller to work and stretch one’s aching limbs has virtually become an indispensable part of today’s fitness regime. Largely the promise is more pain, but good pain. Sklz has combined a roller with possibly the most universal piece of workout kit, the water bottle, for a space-saving, two-in-one alternative. The core is its stainless steel bottle and outside a high-density ridged foam roller.

$40 from sklz.com

Car Hammock

Car Hammock has a knowing, tongue-in-cheek quality to its website messaging, as it probably realises it’s a product for a certain kind of individual. Anyway, it does what it says on the tin: a hammock for your car. The makers say it’ll fit most four-door saloons or SUVs, with straps that wrap round the front and rear of the car to hold it securely, even for a couple.

$70 from carhammock.com @tomtomkelly