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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle

10 gadgets to make your life easier

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From quality speakers to smart thermostats, we’ve rounded up the gadgets you won’t want to live without.

Listen to music with clarity on high-end speakers

(MonitorAudio)

High-quality in-home entertainment can take many forms. It might be a multi-purpose media room for movies and games, a dedicated home cinema room for dynamic film sound, or even background music throughout your home, both indoors and outdoors. Designed and engineered in the UK, Monitor Audio’s speakers are built to last. The company is so confident with its products’ performance, reliability and robustness that it offers anything between five years and a lifetime warranty. Whatever your home-entertainment preference, don’t be afraid to ask a professional installer for advice, as every space has different requirements. The installer should be able to assist with design, setup and calibration among other things.

Find out more at monitoraudio.com

Sell your home with ease thanks to property experts

(WeBuyAnyHome)

We Buy Any Home Experts promises to purchase your property anywhere, in any condition, whatever the reason for your sale. Unlike its competitors, We Buy Any Home Experts will buy the property with its own readily available cash funds. There won’t be multiple viewings, no chains, no lender’s enquiries to satisfy and no waiting. Unlike selling on the open market, all the variables that lead to a sale collapsing are taken out of the equation. Selling your property to We Buy Any Home Experts is safe and secure, and regulated by The Property Ombudsman.

Find out more at webuyanyhomeexperts.com

Buy a Danish-designed Bluetooth speaker, perfect for your home and garden

(Dali)

Offering class-leading sound alongside stylish looks, the Danish-designed Dali katch G2 portable Bluetooth speaker, priced at £329, is a must-have for music lovers. Users can connect their device wirelessly via Bluetooth 5.0 and enjoy music via the excellent audio quality of aptX, aptX HD and AAC, or plug in directly using the 3.5mm mini-jack analogue input. Featuring a powerful 3300 mAh battery, the katch G2 offers up to 30 hours of wireless playback. To enhance your listening experience even further, you can also connect two katch G2s in true wireless stereo mode. The Dali katch G2 was announced as the “best portable wireless speaker over £200” in the 2021 What HI-FI?Awards.

Find out more about the Dali katch G2 at dali-speakers.com/uk

Manage your energy consumption with a smart thermostat

(tado)

With energy bills continuing to rise, everyone is looking for ways to reduce their energy usage and costs. What if there was a solution to limit energy consumption while still enjoying a warm home at the same time? With the smart thermostat from tado, you can manage your heating directly from an app. All you have to do is replace your old thermostat and thermostatic radiator valves with tado to enjoy a whole new level of comfort and control — while saving energy consumption by up to 31 per cent. It’s easy to self-install tado, which is compatible with 95 per cent of central-heating systems as well as Amazon Alexa, Apple homekit and Google assistant.

Buy now and start saving energy at tado.com

Transform watching films at home with a smart home-projector

(XGIMI)

Elfin, a smart home-projector by XGIMI, is giving TVs a run for their money. Producing an FHD image of up to 200”, with Dolby and DTS audio and an entertainment centre offering more than 5,000 apps powered by Android TV 10.0 and Google Play, it gives you a home theatre of your own. The Elfin is equipped with a set of easy-to-use functions, including auto keystone, auto focus, intelligent obstacle avoidance and intelligent screen alignment, enabling a perfect plug-in and play experience in seconds. Combined with 60Hz motion compensation (MEMC), this means no single detail of any action movie or sports game will be missed. With a sleek, minimalist, award-winning design, Elfin breaks up the bulky, old-fashioned impression of traditional projectors, and easily fits in your home interior.

Find out more at uk.xgimi.com

Sleep better with a phone charger that blocks radiation

(SleepHalo)

SleepHalo is a wireless charger that blocks any radiation emitted from your mobile while you sleep. Pioneered by Dave Clark, who has a track record in inventing groundbreaking products, the concept of SleepHalo was born when his wife experienced night-time migraines and they found moving both of their mobile phones well away from the bed helped relieve her symptoms. SleepHalo can be used on either side of the bed and comes complete with a USB lead and mains plug. The product has also been shown to improve customers’ quality of sleep: in a 2021 survey, 89 per cent of respondents said they slept better with SleepHalo. Visit sleephalo.com and use the code “Single5” to save £5 on a single device or “Twin10” to save £10 on a twin pack. Offer valid until 31 May 2022.

Shop at sleephalo.com now

Elevate your musical creativity with ultra-low latency wireless headphones

(AIAIAI)

The AIAIAI TMA-2 studio wireless+ ultra-low latency wireless headphones are designed for music production. The headphones empower music creators with the freedom to produce wirelessly, by enabling them to move around easily without being restricted to one piece of hardware. The headphones feature W+ Link technology, which has been specifically developed for wireless audio, with ultra-low latency and uncompressed audio in a stable and robust connection. Alongside the game-changing W+ Link technology is a standard Bluetooth 5.0 option with more than 80 hours of playback for casual listening. These modular headphones are designed to last, so you can upgrade and expand as technology and your needs evolve, extending the functionality of the headphones while creating less waste for the planet.

Find out more at djkit.com/aiaiai-headphones

Upgrade your BBQ in time for summer

(Kamado Joe)

Take outdoor cooking to the next level with a Kamado Joe barbecue. With a red ceramic shell providing unbeatable insulation for long, slow cooks, the barbecues are perfect for grilling, roasting, hot-smoking and slow-cooking, and a couple of handfuls of charcoal could see you through a 10-hour cook and still be used again. The newest model in Kamado Joe’s innovative range is the Kettle Joe the first in the kettle-grill category to include a ceramic firebox for prime heat retention, fuel efficiency and smoking ability. You can also fit a SlōRoller, Kamado Joe’s revolutionary innovation that enables you to transform the grill into an oven or smoker. The 57cm kettle grill has a “divide and conquer” system, allowing you to cook at different temperatures.

Check out Kamado Joe’s range of ceramic BBQs at kamadojoe.co.uk

Monitor your fitness progress with an innovative watch

(Coros)

The PADE 2 from COROS is the perfect training partner for athletes aiming for a new personal best. At its launch it was named the lightest GPS watch on the market, weighing just 29g. Along with the new COROS nylon band, this watch has a 20-day battery life and 30 hours in full GPS mode. The watch features running, cycling, swimming, cardio, strength and watersports modes with ongoing support and updates. While you’re busy working up a sweat, the watch will record your optical heart rate and also features a barometric altimeter, accelerometer and thermometer, with 24/7 heart rate monitoring, sleep, step and calorie tracking. There is also interval, structured, triathlon and strength-training modes with programmes and plans created by COROS athletes and coaches, available free at coros.com.

Shop at coros.com now

Find the perfect PC to suit your lifestyle

(ScanComputers)

PCs are capable of a lot more than the spreadsheets and word processing functions you use them for at work every day. Did you know that consoles use the same core technology as PCs? But the specification of consoles only gets refreshed every five years or so, whereas new PC tech is coming out all the time. This means PC gamers benefit from the latest technology immediately, such as vivid NVIDIA RTX ray traced graphics, which result in a superior gaming experience. Scan Computers can customise your gaming PC in a huge variety of shapes, styles and colours. But PCs aren’t just for gaming – they can be an indispensable tool for musicians, film makers and artists, who all benefit from the power of modern PCs.

Start your PC gaming journey at scan.co.uk

This content is brought to you by Living360, a new digital lifestyle destination keeping you up to date with health and fitness, food and drink, homes and gardens, beauty, travel, finance and lifestyle trends.

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