Many of us can claim to have owned an illuminated globe at some point in our lives, but never before has there been a globe quite as good as this one.

The Night n Day illuminated globe gradually rotates in real time and only lights up the part of the planet that is currently in daylight. The rest of the globe remains in darkness, representing the night time.

This clever globe is even tilted on its axis, like our planet, so also correctly represents the different seasons, showing how the difference between the longest and shortest days of the year come about.

This is a must have for any study, kids bedroom, office or class room.

Night n Day Globe

And speaking of the longest day, this year’s has already passed us by in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning that each day is now slightly shorter than the day before and that, I’m afraid, it won’t be very long before most of us will again be getting up for work in the dark each morning.

For those of you who need a little help getting out of bed on those dark mornings, you may want to invest in the Sunrise I.Wake Up Clock from Oregon Scientific.

This clock comes with a built in light, which is used to simulate the sunrise by gradually getting brighter for a period of 30 minutes before your alarm is due to go off. This is designed to help you wake up more naturally and relaxed on those dark, cold mornings.

Sunrise I.Wake Up Clock

If however, like me, you have trouble getting up for work on bright, sunny mornings, I’m afraid there isn’t really anything here we can offer to help you!

But when you do finally fall out of bed and head to the kitchen for your boiled egg and toast soldiers, you could brighten up the start of your day by getting rid of your boring old egg timer and egg cup and replacing them with these:

	Soldier Egg Cup
	Hour Glass Clock

Before you leave the house you’ll probably want to know what the weather is like. Is it too warm for a coat? Will I need my umbrella later? You know the sort of questions that us mere mortals have to deal with whenever we step out into the elements. The Evolution Plus Remote Weather Station could help you decide though. With its 12-hour forecast, animated weather symbols, temperature and humidity displays, you can’t go wrong.

And just in case you wish to go swimming in the sea in the middle of the night, the weather station also displays information about the tides and the current phase of the moon.

Evolution Plus Remote Weather Station

With all this rushing around in our daily routines, we tend to miss a lot of what’s going on around us. All the finer details of the world we live in usually go unnoticed in our technology driven lives. But here we have a gadget that can change this.

The Veho USB Microscope plugs directly into your PC or Mac, turning your computer into an instant window into the detailed world we wouldn’t normally see.

With a magnification of 20-200x and four controllable LEDs to light your chosen specimen, the microscope can be used to take photos and videos of whatever you discover.

USB Microscope

Is it a bird? No.
Is it a plane? Not bloody likely with all this volcanic ash around.
Is it an alien abduction bedside table lamp? Well… yes, actually.

The novelty UFO lamp, made from stainless steel and perspex, appears to hover over a patch of grass while beaming it’s light down on a poor unsuspecting cow.

As well as the light beam, the UFO also has pulsating green and yellow lights, plus a family of glow in the dark aliens peering through the spaceship’s windows.

The cow can also be removed and replaced with other objects, such as toy cars or little plastic people, so you can create your own alien abduction scene!

Find Me A Gift: Alien Abduction Lamp

The shorter days and longer nights that this time of year brings us is not popular with everybody, but they do have one benefit. If you take a step outside on a long, clear Winter’s evening and look up at the night sky, you will be greeted with a truly incredible display of millions of twinkling stars, bright orbiting planets and other assorted gassy objects. But you may also notice that it’s a tad chilly out there.

If you want to recreate the magic of the stars in the warmth and comfort of your own home, then this is the ideal gadget for you.

The Star Theatre Planetarium certainly isn’t the first home planetarium to ever be invented, but this is by far the sleekest and most advanced we have ever seen. With its modern style and mains operated capability, this planetarium projects 10,000 stars on to your ceiling or wall and slowly rotates them to mimic the night sky. It even has an optional ‘shooting stars’ feature.

The planetarium comes with two projection discs. One shows the stars as they actually appear, the second maps out the constellations. The only thing that’s missing are any aliens!

But if you like the planetarium you will almost certainly like the similarly sleek Space Invaders Alarm Clock.

What could be more exciting than being woken up in the morning by a fully-fledged alien attack. With flashing lights and classic game sound effects, it’s up to you to save the planet from the Space Invaders!

	Firebox: Star Theatre Planetarium
	Firebox: Space Invaders Alarm Clock

Every household needs one of these. Just think how great it would look alongside the mini bar!

The Arcade Mania games machine features over 150 retro arcade games (see the games list here) but with an ultra modern look and feel. With brilliant, crisp digital sounds, amazing colour and dynamic graphics and a toughened glass surface that’s safe enough for resting your pint on (if you would dream of doing such a thing).

Allowing one or two player modes, with controls on both sides of the table, the only thing missing from the Arcade Mania machine is the coin slot that eats up all of your loose change. Admittedly, the initial drain on your pocket money may seem a bit extreme, but just look at this as a worthwhile investment for years of fun. Plus, you’ll instantly be the coolest kid on the block!

Available from:

BoysStuff – £1799.95

Fans of Formula 1 motor racing will surely know that Ferrari are having a bit of a crap season so far this year.

We aren’t saying that we think we could do any better, but we certainly had a lot of fun pretending with this brilliant remote controlled F1 replica.

The car is fully licensed by Ferrari so is completely accurate and is made to a whopping scale of 1:7. This means the car is 66 cm (26 inches) long, and has a top speed of 6 mph (10 km/h).

BoysStuff – £59.95

Following on from our previous post about the VBeat Air Guitar and Air Drums, we have now recruited another member to the Gadget Spectrum house band.

Piano Hands allows you to knock out a tune on the piano wherever you desire. All you need is any hard surface and to be wearing the gloves provided, which include sensors in the finger tips to work out which notes you are playing.

Other instruments are also available using the gloves, including a guitar, trumpet and drum kit.

 
Availability and prices correct at time of posting.