Travel Gear: a phone-camera, a self-warming bottle and a giant inflatable beach ball

Giant Inflatable Beach Ball

Sometimes you'll find a solar-powered gizmo here to sterilise water or the latest in pocket-sized bicycles. This week there's a giant beachball. It does what it says on the tin, and is sure to be an unavoidable beach toy this summer. After all it's a 3m wide inflatable beach ball. What could possibly go wrong? Except, of course, if you try to blow it up without a pump. Split the cost with your mates. $140 from thinkgeek.com

Panasonic LUMIX CM1

The competitive camera-phone or phone-camera mongrelisation continues with the smart new Lumix CM1 from Panasonic. As well as running an Android operating system for instant sharing, the CM1 has a 1 inch sensor, the sort of hardware usually only available in much higher spec standalone cameras, capturing 20MP of picture. In fact it can shoot 4K video (3840 x 2160) too, and it's all squeezed into a slim pocketable body. Approx €900; see panasonic.com for availability

Iiamo Go Self-warming Bottle

This Danish invention makes travelling with newborns just that bit more manageable. It uses a natural, self-heating capsule that warms milk to the recommended 37º in just four minutes. It needs no electricity, no gas: Iiamo Go's capsule simply mixes water and salt to create a thermo-chemical reaction, keeping it warm for about a quarter of an hour, while it's safely disposable afterwards. €30 from iiamogo.com