A
Guru’s first visit to his
Mother-in-Law’s Shrine to
Grotesque Sparkly Trinkets
was enough to put him off
nicknacks forever, so he tends to
simply pile things dangerously in
the corner of his office. For you,
though? Take a trip to Ikea (and
sadly you’ll need to go in person,
given that the delivery fees for
single items are quite prohibitive)
and grab the ultimate icon of
Swedish furniture engineering: the
Billy bookcase. Specifically the
more compact 40cm-wide variety;
add on a Morliden glass door (£25),
some Vaxmyra LED spotlights (£9
for two), and you’ve got yourself a
pretty neat display case, son. They
have other options too (the mostly
glass Detlof likely being an
attractive option) but you can’t
beat a bit of Billy.
For smaller stuff, you can always
look for more bespoke creations;
things like the OYOBox (around
£120), a fancy glass-topped watch
box with grooves so you can run in
your smartwatch charging cables.GADGET GURU’S MAGIC BOX
A
Since the medical
community remains
steadfast in its refusal to
certify Guru’s patent-pending
Kabonginator for clinical use,
let’s talk about lesser inventions
that aren’t ‘highly illegal’ and
which won’t ‘potentially lead to
a broken skull’.
Premier amongst these is the
recently released Dreem 2. It is
equal parts cumbersome and
expensive, being a rather
conspicuous headband that costs
a newly reduced £300, so you’ve
really got to be into the whole sleep
hacking vertical to pick one up. But
if that’s you? Don’t, er, sleep on it.
The Dreem 2 tracks your
respiration and heart rate through
the night. So far, so pedestrian, but
GaGu knows of no other sleepthing
that can match its combination of
sensors and trackers. It has a
four-sensor EEG, pulse oxymeter
and accelerometer for collecting
that critical data. It’s smart enoughthat its data can apparently match
up to that generated by dedicated
sleep clinics. It will soon be able to
detect breathing irregularities, too.
It also does bone conduction
audio, though the manufacturer
does go to great pains to sell the
fact that there is no Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi here; an odd boast usually,
but in a device one might want to
strap to their head each night that
might tick some paranoid boxes.
But you don’t have to go
head-mounted for good sleep
tracking – there are pulse oxymeter
devices out there that go on your
thumb, can detect the signs of
sleep apnea or extreme snoring
and give you a little vibration alert
to help train your body to shift
itself. There are also other head
bands, like the more cumbersome
Muse S (itself £300) though that
one in particular is more focused on
pre-sleep meditation. Get that bit
right, though, and you might find
sleep itself is far easier to achieve.Help me, Guru! I’m having huge
problems sleeping
GREG CASSIDY, HOVE
How can I
display my
favourite stuff?
KEV, VIA EMAIL
OCTOBER 2020 T3 29Gadget guru
ABOVE
Sleep that
sometimes seals
up sorrow’s
eye... and can be
cleverly trackedThe fine folks at Flare spotted Guru talking
about their ear adulterators last issue, and
were kind enough to send him a couple of
things to try. Note that Guru is an anxious
man spooked by loud noises or too many
voices going on at once, and he has also
given himself some level of hearing damage
and tinnitus via a misspent youth, so he’s
basically the target market for this stuff.
First up, the Flare Audio Isolate 2s, a set
of fancypants ear plugs. They’re a
combination of a metal stalk which acts as
some kind of acoustic baffle – in Guru’s
case it’s the Natural Aluminium flavour, but
coloured versions and a higher-end
Titanium variety are available – and a foam
tip which you jam into your ear hole. And
they’re just about the best ear
plugs GaGu has tried; there’s little
of the ‘fluids sloshing
about your
own head’
sound that
upsets him
about
many others, they’re genuinely comfortable
even to sleep with, and they let just the
subtlest sound in.
The most intriguing product, though,
was Flare Audio’s Calmer... things.
Waveguides? They’re little rubbery silicone
doodads that you pop in your ear, which
basically give sound a narrower channel
through which to reach your ear drum.
They’re designed to remove distortion from
louder sounds, reducing the triggers and
helping you to focus on the sounds you
want to hear. And by golly these things
work too, and they’re comfortable enough
that Guru tends to forget about them after
half an hour’s wearing. That’s great until you
jam your little finger in your ear and find it
occupied. There are claims that
they can help some people
with tinnitus,
but sadly
not for
GaGu;
his ears
ring on.