Hotwired: Rainy-day saving

A Next Base DVD Player

Summer's here, allegedly. You're possibly considering a long drive up to the bach or campground to get away from the crowds. Let me tell you: the trip will take three hours longer than anticipated and it will be raining when you get there.

So what's a family to do? Christmas has been and gone and here are three things we should have told you about sooner (sorry about that) but didn't. Time to start saving now for next Christmas - there are only 343 shopping days left, you know.

Next Base Dvd Player

Rear Seat Entertainment is importing these beasts and, by golly, you should rush out today and give them your hard-earned cash.

It's a DVD player for your car that you strap to the back of the front seat so the youthful media connoisseur can watch Finding Nemo and leave you in peace. This is a godsend for anyone with children. It can turn that nightmare "Are we there yet, I'm bored, I'm hungry, Jasmine's been sick, Arborio is hogging all the Cheezey Wotsits" scenario into a leisurely drive in the country, just like the ending of Blade Runner.

Each unit comes with a power lead, a satchel thing that straps on to the headrest, and a tiny speaker. There are leads to connect it to the car stereo, and it has an earphone jack and remote control. The screen is gorgeous and even if the sun hits it, Pixar never looked better.

Price: $899

Fujifilm Digital Mobile Printer MP-100

You've bought someone something that needs batteries, eh? Well that was a silly idea, wasn't it? Next year, stick to DVDs and jewellery. It will save a lot of anguish.

In the meantime you might want to consider rechargeable batteries. I know, I know, they take a dog's age to recharge and little Jasmine and Arborio get upset waiting for the flashing and the beeping and the electronic blurting to start up again.

Well, not any longer. The Varta PS6 Charger will blast the juice into its special AA or AAA batteries in only 15 minutes. Peace will reign before you know it, although there'll never again be an excuse for a break from that electronic noise.

Well, you can't win them all.

Price: Charger costs $49.99 and the batteries are $16 for two, but they last for ages. Bond & Bond

Varta PS6 Charger

So you upgraded your phone to one able to take photos. Now what do you do with them? Once you've sent them to someone you might want a copy for yourself, but they're tiny wee things.

Fujifilm comes to the rescue with its Digital Mobile Printer. Most Vodafone cellphones have an infrared port on them and you can beam your photo to the printer, which then spits out a tiny instant photo, a bit like a Polaroid camera. Wave it in the air for a few seconds and your camera phone photo is a real life photo.

This is great if your old-fashioned relatives believe phones are for calling people and so don't have PXT. You can hand them a copy and walk away happy.

Price: $299, paper $24.95 for 20 photos.