FOrm smarT swIm GOGGles

Well, it was bound to happen eventually! Now everyone can feel like they’re living in the future or they’re some kind of superspy or something. When you’re swimming that is but what good Superspy doesn’t spend some time in the water, eh? Of course, these aren’t spy goggles but they are pretty good at giving you up to date information about your swim without the need to stop and check a watch or have someone else shouting stats at you when you get to the end of your length…

You can choose what data to see and which eye lense to display it in (handy if, like me, you have one strong eye and one not so great) and can choose to show time, distance and pace as well as set your chosen swimming style. The goggles will track how far along you are and can act pretty much as a coach, including recommended rest times and even progress updates that give you encouraging messages part way through – well, I count being told I’m on the final stretch as an encouraging message anyway! As well as this, you can link the goggles up via Bluetooth to the App and sync your swims – they’re also compatible with Smart watches from Apple and Garmin if you have those already.

The goggles themselves are solidly built with FDA-Certified silicone around the lenses and 7 different bridges provided along with adjustable straps so you can get your fit just right. A special chemical coating on the inside prevents fog build up so you can always see the data you need and the battery life is good at about 16 hours. And for those who don’t just swim in safe, comfortable pools? Well, you can also use these in open water so improving your swim for that next triathlon is even easier.

For more information on the Form Smart Swim Goggles click here p rOs

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Having worked in a call centre myself in the past I can safely say that one of the key things that can affect morale in the office is that feeling of being ‘chained to your desk’. Constant monitoring of your time away from desk (among many other unhealthy ‘performance trackers’) never led anyone to feel valued or looked after, leading to a high staff turn-around, which simply isn’t good for business. Now, I’m not saying a wireless headset is going to solve all these problems by itself, but just having that freedom of movement as a call-centre operator can make a surprising difference to how you feel at the end of the day when clocking out.

So, now we have established it’s a good idea, what does this wireless headset have to offer? To start with, it has a pretty decent range of 55 metres which should be plenty of distance in any office these days so if people are needing to go and talk to a specialist or team leader while on a call, the waiting time for a customer can be greatly reduced leading to better resolution times overall. Couple this with noise cancellation technology in the microphone allowing you to have a clear conversation despite any background noise and your customer is far more likely to hang up happy.

The headset itself has the option of being worn with both ears or you can go for a single ear coverage, depending on preference and the base unit the headset sits on is small and compact, taking up minimal space on the desk and making hot-desking that much easier, especially given its prevalence post-Covid. It can also connect directly to whatever phone system you are using or straight to your PC’s depending on how you receive your calls making it pretty adaptable.

reIshuNGer dIGITal rICe COOker

That’s the thing with rice cookers, they cook rice. And just rice. Well, normally. I mean you can just shove something in one and hope for the best (nothing wrong with a bit of experimenting in the kitchen sometimes!) but don’t expect it do a great job if it’s not rice! But then, this thing comes along and suddenly, your ‘avant-garde’ style of cooking is suddenly normalised…

Not only does it have 7 settings for 7 different styles of rice (I had no idea there were that many, did you?!) including Persian Tahdig (a style of rice slightly burnt for a crispy texture) and congee (rice porridge) as well as your standard wholegrain, peeled or sushi styles but it has further settings that allow you to cook things that aren’t rice! You can make soups, cereals, knock up some quinoa, steam your favourite vegetables/fish/meat and even bake a cake should you so desire. With a 1.5 Litre capacity you should be able to fit enough of anything in to happily feed a hungry family of four although if you do use it to cook rice you can get about 8 standard size servings (feels like an added bonus for using it for what it was originally designed for…).

From a practical point of view the internal pot has a stainless steel base and a double non-stick ceramic coating so you can easily get whatever you’re cooking in there out and clean it easily with a non-abrasive sponge. It lifts straight out for ease of serving and cleaning courtesy of well placed handles and you also get a measuring cup, rice spoon, ladle and steamer insert so you can do those vegetables nice and easy. And to top it all off, the LED touchscreen is a decent size and easy to use.