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SkyMall Pillow Solves Age-Old 'Breathing While Asleep' Problem

When we first saw this picture we assumed it was a posture-fix for people who get so drunk on the plane they pass out as soon as they get to the hotel (don't judge - we've all been there). But it turns out that the 22-in Relax 'N Nap Traveler is a patented system for ensuring you breathe fresh air while you're asleep. Quote: "Patented 'air portal' ventilation system allows you to rest face down in comfort while breathing fresh clean air."

Getting air while you're sleeping apparently counts as a problem now, and this is apparently the solution.

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Would You Wear Pool Floaties On A Plane If It Meant Better Sleep?

Time for another "comfortable inflatable pillow or absurd monstrosity" post, wherein we weigh the marginal benefit of a cozier trip vs. the marginal cost of publicly looking like a tool. Today's subject: child pool floaties as in-flight pillows, the suggestion of MIT blogger Star Simpson. You inflate them at the airport, slip them around your hands, and ostensibly enjoy a snug respite.

Simpson doesn't suggest you carry around regular naked floaties into airports at least. Instead she makes the critical suggestion that you wrap them up in an old t-shirt. Inspired, but it still doesn't solve our central concern, which is that you're walking around an airport wearing pool toys.

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Dress Your Family In Eurostar Remnants and Virgin Hot Air Balloons

A couple years ago, we were all able to live our greatest dream of wearing repurposed airline seat covers, thanks to Worn Again, which turned worn-out covers from Virgin Atlantic planes into bags and accessories.

This year, they've taken the collaboration several steps further by branching out from Virgin to include Eurostar, and hiring UK designer Christopher Raeburn to create the products. And for the first time, all of the products are completely made in the UK.

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Man's Best Friend: A 3-In-1 Shower Gel For Especially Light Packing

We regularly get pitches for the newest "shampoo for hikers" or "conditioner for the female road warrior," most of which are just plain old shampoos and conditioners rebranded for the niche travel market. The new NIVEA for Men Active3, on the other hand, actually makes traveling less of a hassle by combining shampoo, body wash, and shaving gel into a single product.

It's not going to revolutionize travel gear, but it might make packing for your next trip just a little bit easier if you're a dude.

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SkyMall Now Selling Air For $300

It is only 33,000-feet up and halfway through your second chardonnay that products like the following begin to make sense.

SkyMall's Tranquil Sounds Oxygen Bar takes the natural air that humans have been breathing for millions of years and runs it through a bunch of filters, boosting the oxygen mix from 21% to 30%. Owners are then invited to strap the included headset to their faces, turn on any of the machine's four built-in "ethereal musical patterns," and lose themselves in relaxation. The product is now available for $299.99 before taxes.

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Seattle, Chicago and London Get A Preview Of Starbucks' New 'Via'

How many times have you sat there thinking "you know, I could really go for a cup of Starbucks coffee right now, but none of the corporation's 16,120 locations are close enough for me to get to." If that sounds like a problem you encounter regularly, Starbucks has launched a new line of instant coffee that you can carry everywhere. Problem solved.

The new product is dubbed Starbucks VIA Ready Brew—"via" like "road," apparently—and comes in either Colombia Medium or Italian Roast Extra Bold. Just add hot or cold water. The only brick and mortar stores stocking the mix are in Seattle, Chicago, and London. If you do want desperately to try a cup though, you can order online from their website.

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SkyMall's Bacon Genie Makes Absolutely No Sense

Wherein we engage in what the academics call "close reading," in a desperate and probably futile attempt to figure out what could possibly be going on with this SkyMall product. The setup is straight-forward enough: another piece of clutter to add to your counter top, performing a task that only seems relevant during the last 20 minutes of a blurry transcontinental red-eye. But then things begin going downhill:

Do you shy away from frying bacon because it leaves a greasy mess? Then you'll appreciate the Bacon Genie. It's the healthy way to cook bacon in the microwave. Simply drape up to twelve slices of bacon over the "hanger" and input the cook time. No monitoring is necessary so you can be preparing the eggs while the bacon is cooking. Even better, the grease gets collected in the dish below, so you won't have to drain or dab the cooked bacon on a paper towel. Easy pour spout lets you easily discard the collected grease, making clean-up a breeze!

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Komfort Kollars Support Your Neck On Flights, Make People Point And Laugh At You

On Skymall there's a picture of this monstrosity and then next to it there's a dropdown box labeled "Select Your Style." Everything else aside, do you think they're using "style" facetiously?

The Komfort Kollar was designed by "a leading spinal surgeon" who promises that it will "support your cervical spine from every angle." It's not often that you come across bondage gear endorsed by medically licensed professionals so in a way this is a sweet deal even if you're not a frequent flier.

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Make Mini Memories On Polaroid's Bluetooth PoGo Printer

We know, we know; no one needs more mobile tech crap to have to lug around with them on a trip, but we have to admit to being dazzled by gadgets that will in any way add to our travel photography while still being pocket-sized. Enter the Polaroid PoGo Mobile Printer, which debuted last year but still seems to be hanging on as far as blatantly unnecessary accessories go.

That's right, we said "blatantly unnecessary." Sorry Polaroid, but let's face the fact that you are good at one thing only: artsy, white-framed instant snapshots, and you don't even produce that film anymore! With the PoGo, which is happily about the size of an iPhone, a bluetooth device such as a smartphone with nice camera capabilities can wirelessly send its shots to be printed as 3x2-inch stickers from this dohicky.

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A Fueltank For Recharging Your Gadgets: The Callpod Battery

Recharging peripherals on the road is easily the bane of our traveling life. An mp3 player or cell phone without batteries can turn an already hectic travel day into an excruciating death march filled with screaming children on airplanes and missed connections on the ground, but carrying different chargers for each peripheral is just outright inconvenient.

One solution is to carry around a rechargeable li-on battery, and preferably one that's not too heavy. We've reviewed several such options in the past.

The latest travel battery vying for your attention and your plugs is the Callpod Fueltank. The battery can charge two different USB devices at the same time and has an indicator light in the center showing overall capacity. Even so, the entire thing still weighs less than 8 ounces.

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The Seat Soother Travel Pillow: Pieces Of Wood, Glued Together

You know how marketers sometimes sit around hotel bars, joking that yuppies will buy anything if it's advertised with psuedo-scientific "Eastern wisdom" babble? This advertisement for a $25 wooden cushion pretty much proves that, in addition to providing an excellent argument against democracy:

Seat Soother (tm) relieves back and neck tension with shiatsu-style massage. Based on a centuries-old acupressure system, this therapeutic seat cushion uses a matrix of wooden beads laced together to help increase blood flow during long flights or road trips. It can also be used to relieve tension in the back, lumbar area and neck, and to soothe tired feet.

We like the phrase "matrix of wooden beads." It sounds so much better than "mass-produced chunks of wood glued into a square." Plus "matrix" gives the blurb an ultra-modern flair, while "wooden beads" still has that resonance of ancient wisdom, even if Shiatsu—from the Japanese shi, meaning finger, and atsu, meaning pressure—is a modern massage method. It emphasizes hands-on kneading, eschews instruments like beads, and isn't a centuries-old anything.

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Lightweight Travel Keyboard Has Us Rethinking Our Travel Gear

We can't help but chortle whenever we're on a bus, train or plane and see a fellow passenger pull out a full-size keyboard to supplement their laptop. Secretly though, we're always a little jealous. Difficult as they are to make space for, portable keyboards sure are easier to use than tiny netbook keys.

So we're drooling a little over the new Goldtouch Go! Travel Keyboard, which looks like it just might perfectly bridge that divide. The 14-inch keyboard has keys the size of a large laptop, but is compact enough to fit over a netbook's keyboard. How, you ask? It's separated into two halves that can be snapped apart and mounted just above your netbook, and the back is made of rubber that they claim will rest slip-free on top of your netbook keyboard, giving you a good deal more typing space.

Plus, the whole thing only weighs one pound. We're not chortling at that!

Related Stories:
· Goldtouch Go! Travel Keyboard [Official Site]
· Travel tech coverage [Jaunted]
· Laptop travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Goldtouch]