Musical bathing companion introduces shower power
Hong Kong might be a shopping paradise but there are some must-haves, simply to-die-for novelty items, you will never find here. Where in Hong Kong can you buy a CD player that will survive in the shower with you, even if it is placed right under the water jet? Thanks to San Francisco-based retailer Sharper Image, you can now have high-fidelity accompaniment when you sing in the shower.
com, which specialises in innovative gifts and ships to Hong Kong, you can get the CD Shower Companion. The company claims it is the first and only water-resistant stereo CD player made for use in the shower.
The price tag is US$189 but you have to pay more for handling charges and shipment.
The CD Shower Companion hangs from the shower curtain rod and delivers sound through dual speakers. It holds one CD at a time and has a built-in AM/FM stereo radio.
Despite its small size, the unit has many of the control features of larger CD players. The player can be programmed to repeat single tracks, play the entire album, select favourite tracks and play in specified or random order.
The radio offers digital tuning and 10 station presets.
The CD Shower Companion has a large liquid-crystal readout screen and large buttons for easy manipulation.
It can also play the audio portion of television programmes on its VHF band.
You don't have to leave the shower CD in the shower. It comes with a countertop stand, a wall-mount bracket and hanging hooks. It runs on four C batteries, or it can be plugged into a wall outlet with an AC adapter. (The adapter doesn't come with the basic system but can be ordered separately.) It is compatible with standard headphones and measures about 26 by 16 by 5 centimetres. It weighs 794 grams.
It makes sense to buy more from Sharper Image at one time because you don't pay more for handling charges and shipment.
As Sharper Image invents most of its products, you will probably never find the same thing from another place.
It also has the most unbelievable innovations such as a telephone that can tell if the party on the other end of the line is lying.
The $129 Telephone with Truth.Quest Function features a technology described on the site as an 'exclusive patent-pending electronic circuitry' that can sense subtle variations in voice modulations not discernible to the human ear.
The description went on to claim 'the involuntary stress on the vocal cords is triggered by attempts to deceive'. The phone will flash red twice when 'severe stress is detected'. Yellow suggests caution and green is OK.
The Ionic Closet Dry Cleaner at $89 is a clothes freshener that will neutralise lingering odours in fabrics. It hangs on the closet wall or from a clothes rod. I can tell from personal experience that this item works very well.
Another product is the Turbo-Groomer, a shaver that goes to obscure places and can snip away hair to a close 'a sixteenth of an inch without ever touching sensitive skin' and has 'twin surgical stainless-steel cutting edges' that whirl faster than 4,000 rpm.
For those sceptical of the reliability and longevity of these products since they don't come with warranties, please rest assured because Sharper Image is an established retailer in San Francisco.
The site is one of the best retail sites I have come across. Each product sold on the site can be 'seen' and 'touched'. In collaboration with Macromedia Shockwave and US-based Internet company Shells Interactive, the products are 3D-enhanced. You can turn the product around any way you want it and even hit the buttons and test the functions.
This site totally changes an on-line shopper's experience.
