Why the Withings Body Scan Leads the Smart Scale Upgrade | Vol. 7

Most scales offer a number, a brief personal reckoning, and then a chance to blame the flooring. The Withings Body Scan Connected Health Station has loftier ambitions: it is a Wi-Fi connected scale with BIA body-composition analysis, reporting body fat, muscle mass and water percentage, plus electrocardiogram measurement. Apparently the bathroom now has a data department.

We think that makes it a particularly compelling pick for people who genuinely want more context than one blunt figure can provide. The appeal is not that it can settle every health question from beside the bathmat; the supplied information simply supports a broad set of measurements in one device. Still, that is a far more coherent proposition than buying several gadgets and allowing them to breed cables in a drawer.

There is some welcome domestic restraint amid the health-station energy. Its rechargeable lithium-ion battery is rated for up to one year of typical use per charge. A device this information-hungry being less dependent on disposable batteries is sensible, even if it does not make the whole enterprise any less earnest.

The caveats are properly important. Pregnancy can affect the accuracy of body-composition, Nerve Health Score, vascular-age and ECG measurements, and the product guide advises speaking to a doctor during pregnancy. Cleaning also needs a little ceremony: warm water on a cloth only, because detergents and cleaners may damage the conductive coating on the glass. Your bathroom cleaner has finally met an opponent it cannot bully.

There is a particular sort of blank wall that begins harmlessly, then slowly turns into the visual equivalent of an unanswered email. The Nanoleaf Elements Hexagons Expansion Pack is for people who have already decided that wall lights should also be geometry, and would now like their arrangement to spread a little further.

This pack contains three wood-look hexagon panels for an existing Nanoleaf Elements Smarter Kit. The wood-effect approach is the point: it offers a less overtly futuristic look than the usual luminous command-centre aesthetic, which can be a blessing in a living room that is otherwise trying very hard to remain a living room.

It is also firmly an add-on, not a cunningly affordable way into the system. That makes it a useful complementary purchase rather than a first purchase: an existing Elements setup can be extended in modest, manageable increments, while newcomers need the Smarter Kit first. A tiny detail, admittedly, but the sort that ruins an otherwise excellent evening of overconfident online decorating.

We think the appeal lies in that controlled escalation. Three modular, dimmable panels can make an existing composition feel intentional rather than like it ended mid-sentence; they simply cannot begin the sentence themselves.

Coffee away from home normally involves one of three grim compromises: instant powder, a café queue long enough to alter the route plan, or pretending the service-station machine is “fine, actually”. The OutIn Nano portable electric espresso machine exists for people who have decided that this is no longer acceptable behaviour from civilisation.

Its appeal is admirably specific. The listing puts it in camping kit, hiking bags, cars, RVs and offices, while the self-heating design and USB-C connection suggest a compact coffee ritual rather than a full countertop shrine. We think that makes it a useful extra option for trips and workdays where a proper espresso has somehow become operationally important.

More sensibly, it accepts ground coffee as well as NS-compatible capsules. That keeps the OutIn Nano from becoming one of those tiny gadgets that only works when you have remembered its one obscure consumable, packed it, and not left it on the kitchen table beside the dog lead.

There is still a limit to the fantasy. This is a portable espresso machine, not an excuse to recreate a café in a lay-by, tent or crowded office kitchenette. Its value lives entirely in taking coffee seriously when space and circumstances are being rather less accommodating.

A normal clock has one task: tell you the time, then sit there being quietly judgemental about how late it is. The LaMetric TIME LM 37X8 saw that modest remit and decided a desk needed weather, timers, radio, notifications, social counters and pixel graphics as well. Excessive? Clearly. Rather charming? Also clearly.

This is an indoor LED Wi-Fi clock built around a 37 x 8 white display, plus an 8 x 8 colour panel on the left. It can scroll text, handle Latin, Cyrillic and Japanese characters, and adjusts its brightness automatically through an ambient-light sensor. The result is less “clock radio from a hotel drawer” and more miniature public-information board for your own mildly chaotic life.

We think it earns its place beside more single-minded desk gadgets because it consolidates the small status checks that otherwise lead to an accidental 20-minute phone scroll. Time, weather and a timer can live at eye level; Bluetooth 4.0 also supports music streaming and smartphone notifications. Your phone remains available for its main modern purpose: being somewhere under a receipt, three cables and a biscuit crumb.

There is setup involved, naturally. Configuration needs an iPhone with iOS 10.0 or later or an Android phone with Android 5.0 or later, and the supported Wi-Fi network is 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz. This is not a lump of reassuringly dumb clockwork. It is a little connected display with opinions about your network.

Camping mugs are usually acquired in one of two ways: received free with a logo on them, or rescued from a kitchen cupboard because nobody can find the actual camping box. Snow Peak’s MG-052FHR is for the person who has decided that their tea deserves a more considered accommodation than a chipped enamel relic.

It is a 300 ml titanium mug, measuring 76 mm across and 86 mm high, with a folding handle and a double-wall construction. An air layer sits between those walls, which Snow Peak says improves heat and cold retention. The whole thing weighs 92 g, so it makes a credible case for joining a packed bag without starting a debate with the sleeping mat.

The deliciously over-specific appeal is that it upgrades one of camping’s least glamorous rituals: holding a warm drink while standing around waiting for someone to locate the tent pegs. Titanium gives the MG-052FHR its unusual, pared-back character; the double wall gives it a practical reason not to be merely expensive-looking cup jewellery.

There is, however, a very clear boundary between “camping mug” and “cookware”. Snow Peak says it must not be placed directly over an open flame because the double-wall construction may burst. That is not a charming quirk to overlook at 7 am before coffee. Treat it as a drinking vessel, and it is a wonderfully nerdy little luxury; treat it as a pan, and the day takes an unnecessarily dramatic turn.