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Not CeBIT

Tech Digest Not fussed about the CeBIT techfest? Well, here are some fluffy and friendly gadgets - courtesy of Shiny - that you may well not see in Hannover:

Fido Robot Luggage

Fido bagWe've all experienced the joys of hauling luggage across busy streets/tube stations/airports. It's enough to put you off the whole holidaying experience (if it weren't for the holiday part). Fido Luggage is the solution, but sadly the robot luggage is still just an idea, conceived in the fertile grounds of architect Peter Yeadon's mind.

The thinking runs thus: put on a special watch controller and the suitcase will follow your lead, trailing after you using a wireless signal or listening out for your voice command. The wheels work independently for smoother control and the sensors ensure you won't take out any old ladies en route. A great idea that will probably never make it past prototype. After all, airports aren't likely to be too keen on a suitcase with a mind of its own.

iPod shower system

Can't bear to live without some form of entertainment with you at all times (I could be guilty of this myself...)? Maybe some of the most hardcore of you have wished to take your iPod into the shower with you. Well whaddya know, now you can! Stick this thing up by your shower, plug in your iPod (or similarly-sized mp3 player) into the water-tight slot, and off you go. Should you not be brave enough to stick your £200-odd player so close to water, it still has and AM/FM radio - so there's always Chris Moyles or Terry Wogan.

The mirror stays fog-free, so you can stand in the just-woken-up stupor and see your dazed self clearly, instead of gazing into pesky mirror-fog which shows only your outline and none of your blemishes. If you can't resist, get it here

Memory ball alarm

It's a shame the design of this radio is a bit on the boxy side because the way it works is a neat idea. To change radio stations on the Memory Ball Alarm you roll the magnetised ball to one of the spaces on the grid. Each space is a pre-set station, and you can program up to 18 stations, so presumably each gap doubles up. A nice little design conceit, but probably a tad on the impractical side - unless you were very good at playing that card game Pairs as a child.

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Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, TV Scoop features all that’s cool in British telly and Propellerhead answers your PC queries.

Suffering from CeBIT fatigue? Struggling to take in the enormous number of phones Samsung has launched? Thinking WTF are HSDPA and IPTV? ®