Summer holiday gadgets
These days we rarely leave the house without some kind of tech, and summer holidays are no different. If you're heading off to sunny climes this season, these are the gadgets that could prove to be invaluable.
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Snap happy
Sun, sea and sand are all very well, but they can play havoc with your tech. If you're a sucker for holiday snaps, it's worth investing in a camera that won't succumb to the likely dangers of days spent sunning yourself on the beach, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 is an excellent bit of kit for the job. Compact but built to survive being dropped and dunked, this 16.1MP camera takes great shots, including underwater, and boasts Wi-Fi for fast sharing, and NFC that pairs it directly to a phone or tablet. It's not cheap at a starting price of £295.99 but it'll keep going when other cameras have cried enough.
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E-reader
Gone are the days of lugging two weeks worth of paperbacks onto the plane - e-readers mean literature lovers can jet away armed with a library-full. Starting at just £109, the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is perfect for your hols, since its 24 brightness settings mean it works in the dark whilst also avoiding the glare of the sun problem. Amazon insist the Paperwhite has up to eight weeks of battery life - a bonus should you forget the charger - and there's storage for more than 1,000 books.
Solar power
Forget having to take seven different chargers and an adaptor to get them to work abroad - if you're off to a sun-drenched country, a solar charger is all you need. The Solar JOOS Orange sucks up all that sunlight and, with USB connection, can connect to just about any piece of tech. Rumour has it, the JOOS can charge an iPhone from dead to full battery in just one hour.
Talk is cheap
For anyone who can't keep the kids off their mobiles, or simply wants to stay in touch with the folk back home, a travel SIM is a must. Roaming charges are notoriously pricey, but with the likes of TravelSim and WorldSIM you get free incoming calls from a wide variety of countries and it slashes roaming charges by up to 85 per cent. Plus, they're prepaid so you won't arrive home to a hefty bill on the doormat.
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Handy guide
If you're city-bound for your summer hols, make sure you make the most of your break with the TripAdvisor app. Available for 80 cities worldwide, it'll guide you through points of interest, public transport, attractions, bars, eateries and hotels, many of which have been rated and reviewed by holidaymakers who have been there and done that. Not only does it work offline, avoiding expensive data roaming charges, but it's free for both iOS (iPad and iPhone), Android, Windows Phone and Nokia.
What is your essential summer holiday gadget? Leave your comments below...
