travellers' checks

Rebranded last month under the Hyatt Hotels & Resorts Andaz ('personal style' in Urdu) label, the hotel, which was closed in 2000 for a refit by British designer Terence Conran, is positioning itself as a 'non-traditional, design-focused living space that is more like a home than a hotel'. Guests are greeted by staff who use tablet PCs to check them in. The hotel is close to the arty areas of Hoxton and Shoreditch and it supplies pre-loaded iPods with audio tours of the district compiled by policemen, artists and other locals. An East London Art Tour package is being offered on the Andaz Liverpool Street website that includes one night's accommodation, a guided tour with a Royal College of Art or Royal Academy of Art graduate, brunch and luxury transport for GBP198/GBP276 (HK$3,200/HK$4,430) single/double occupancy. Visit www.london.liverpoolstreet.andaz.com for details.

The Eco Media Player (left) is the latest useful invention from the garden shed of English boffin Trevor Baylis, the man who gave the world the revolutionary (no pun intended) wind-up radio a few years back. Perfect for travellers venturing towards ever more remote corners of the globe, the new device is an all-in-one MP3 player, phone charger, video player, photo viewer, FM radio, voice recorder, 'super-bright' LED torch and external disk drive, which can be charged by hand-winding or from a laptop computer with a USB connection. Just one minute of manual cranking provides enough stored power for about 40 minutes of audio playback, according to www.ecomediaplayer.com, where you can also find a list of stockists selling the device for about GBP150 (HK$2,400).