The 10 Best back-to-school gadgets

Whether they're heading for the classroom or the lecture hall, these hi-tech study aids will help scholars large and small...

Samuel Muston
Thursday 30 August 2012 02:20 EDT
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1. LaCie RuggedKey 3

£34.99, lacie.com/uk/

The bottom of a student's bag is dangerous place,so make sure their data is always safe with this rugged 150MB USB stick that resists heat, water and knocks.

2. Aviiq Ready Clip

£9.99, aviiq.co.uk

With iPhones and iPods now doubling as notepads it's important to have a way to sync and charge on the go, and you can do both with these bendy USB leads.

3. Griffin iPad binder insert

£20, griffintechnology.com

This ingenious little insert slots cleverly into a ring binder, securely holding your iPad in place next to all those other lecture notes.

4. Iris Scan Book 2

£129, irislink.com

There's no need to tear that page from a reference library book. This baton-sized gadget acts as a mini scanner, working in colour and black and white.

5. Samsung W300 HD

£119, samsung.com

From creating multimedia projects to recording sporting triumphs, this pocket-sized, HD camcorder is something older students may find useful.

6. LiveScribe Echo 2GB

£79, livescribe.com

Have trouble taking down accurate notes? This gadget has a tiny computer with a mic and digital audio recorder which synchs the notes with the audio recording.

7. Amazon Kindle

£89 (£149 with 3G), amazon.co.uk

When you consider that the average textbook costs around £30, an electronic library with a 3G connection seems good value.

8. Clocky alarm

£29.49, iwantoneofthose.com

If getting your children up is a traumatic experience get them one of these alarm clocks that races away on wheels and doesn't shut up until it's been captured.

9. HP Deskjet 1000

£34.99, comet.co.uk

Avoid the rush for the school printer with this home model. It fires up in seconds and is good enough to produce pixel-perfect text and decent colour images.

10. Huawei Mifi

£108.40, play.com

This MiFi (a device that gives internet access on the go) lets you preload a prepaid allowance on it and has download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps.

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