Mighty Music Player
Although this has something of the outward aesthetic of the now-unavailable iPod Shuffle, its application is quite different. The Mighty is designed to let you bring your Spotify playlists (or at least 1,000 tracks of them) with you offline. So no data charge worries or blotchy signal to contend with, say, in a subterranean gym. Or while flying. Simply pair it with your Spotify account, set the quality and sync up to 8GB of music. Thanks to WiFi and Bluetooth, you can go wireless with headphones, though the range is tight. Otherwise, controls are Shuffle-like, but em, without the shuffle.
$86, see bemighty.com
VanMoof Electrified S Bike
Perhaps the first thing that strikes about VanMoof’s latest electric bicycle is that it doesn’t look much different from its pedal-powered models. Albeit that those are quite distinctive in themselves. Here its signature frame secretes away a battery that drives the 250W front wheel motor. This offers a nippy 25km/h top speed, with a range up to 120km. Plenty of smarts too: a touch display built in, as well as e-lock, GPS tracking and tamper sensor. Of course, given the rapacious nature of our bike thieves, another large lock or two might be in order.
€2,900 from vanmoof.com
ViewRanger App with Skyline
ViewRanger is probably familiar to many hillwalkers as a free app that turns smartphones into decent handheld navigators, though detailed maps are extra. It's recently added quite an engaging function that may interest even sedentary travellers, with Skyline. This identifies and labels mountains, lakes, towns and more on a live view on your phone. A practical application of augmented reality, its database covers 80 per cent of the planet, though not Russia, Canada or the Poles.
Free for iOS and Android
@tomtomkelly