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Published: 20/03/2007 - Filed under: Archive » 2007 » April 2007 » Lifestyle » Features » Lifestyle » What to buy »

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K3000 Sound Traveller

This tiny speaker measures just 97x37x37mm, making it perfect for music lovers with little room in their luggage for anything but the necessities. IPod users can dock their player straight into the speaker, while an audio-in socket means it is compatible with almost all types of portable music devices. The K3000 will provide up to 12 hours of continuous playback from one solitary AA battery (included), and comes with a mains/ USB charger. Available in blue, red, silver, black or pink, priced at £45, from powertraveller.com.

Nokia N95

Why carry around a separate PDA, MP3 player, digital camera and sat nav when one device includes them all? The Nokia N95 packs all of this into a relatively compact slider smartphone, while still providing a 2.6-inch QVGA 16 million colour display. Integrated GPS is the buzz phrase for this year, and the N95 comes with maps for over 100 countries and 15 million points of interest, including public transport locations and major landmarks – additional features such as city guides and voice-guided navigation can be purchased as add-ons. And if you want to listen to music on the move, the device has built-in stereo speakers, a standard 3.5mm audio jack (unlike some phones where only compatible earphones can be used), and a microSD card slot for extra storage space. The N95 also uses the latest S60 Symbian OS operating system, allowing users to personalise their device by downloading Nokia-compatible applications.

The camera is an impressive 5-megapixels with Carl Zeiss optics, and thanks to a TV output and plug-and-play technology you can easily view your Kodak moments on your television – video recording and playback is also included. Staying connected is not going to prove an issue with this smartphone either, with pretty much every acronym covered from GSM, WCDMA, HSDPA, EDGE and WLAN, to a USB connection and infrared and bluetooth compatibility. Oh, and it makes phone calls as well. Unsubsidised price starts from around £375, nokia.com.

Brooks Brothers

Ideal for that important boardroom meeting, this Italian navy pinstripe suit is made of Super 110s wool, meaning it contains 110 wool threads per square inch, resulting in a very soft and crease-resistant fabric. The jacket (£259) has two mother of pearl buttons and a light crepe de chine silk lining, and can be matched with either trousers or skirt (both £119). Brooks Brothers has an online store at brooksbrothers.com, or head to the recently opened flagship UK branch on Regents Street, with two floors of men's, women's and boy's wear, along with a bespoke tailoring service.

New & Lingwood

If you're going to spend nearly a grand on a pair of shoes then not only had they better be fantastic quality, but they ought to have an impressive story to go with them. Thankfully these 200-year-old Russian calf shoes tick both boxes.

In 1786 a 53-tonne Danish brigantine sank in bad weather off Plymouth Sound, taking its cargo with it, including rolls of prized Russian calf leather. There it sat until 1973, when a team of divers searching for the wreck of HMS Harwich came across the encrusted hull of the Danish vessel. It was decided to sell the ship's contents to finance the excavation of the brig, and amazingly craftsmen were able to restore the calf leather (which had been partially preserved in mud and silt) to its former glory, with no loss of water-resistant qualities or its trademark musky aroma.

This is an immense tribute to the original manufacturing process, which involved the leather being cured in baths of rye or oat flour and yeast, and hand-finished and soaked in wood liquor, before being curried while still wet and soaked in seal oil and birch tan oil, giving the leather its distinctive aroma. Russian calf leather has become particularly sought-after over time as its secret production process was lost in the early 1900s following the Russian Revolution.

The resulting hand-stictched shoes still bear the tanner's initials, are available in a range of colour varieties from light tan to rich coffee brown, and come complete with wooden shoe trees. New & Lingwood, Jermyn Street, from £950, newandlingwood.com.

Shure

Any regular traveller will know that it's well worth investing in a set of sound-isolating earphones, if only to drown out the snoring of the passenger sat next to you on your 12-hour flight. Shure has been in the professional audio business for over 80 years, and its new range of sound-isolating earphones brings the latest in personal-audio technology to the iPod generation.

The SE420 model features Dual TruAcoustic MicroSpeakers (a tweeter and a woofer to the uninitiated). Lower and higher frequencies are sent to dedicated drivers, resulting in a distinct, accurate reproduction of all the "details" of your music.

To ensure a personalised, secure fit and achieve maximum sound isolation, a "premium fit kit" is also included with the SE420 model, with three spare pairs of each of the disposable black foam, soft flex and triple flange sleeves, as well as a 91cm cable, volume control, carry case, airline adaptor and wax guard. Now all you'll need is some decent music to play through them. Priced at £249, shure.com.

Tech Air

Overnight travel is made simple with Tech Air's new Weekender case. Its compact design (54x36.5x16.5cm) has three compartments plus a useful removable laptop slipcase, and a detachable shower-proof compartment that removes the need to take a separate toiletries bag. The case also comes with a 12-month subscription to ITRAK, a luggage-tracking service that will alert the owner by SMS when their lost bag has been located. Around £90, techair.co.uk.

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