This review is part of the 1 Pound Challenge – can you find a decent gadget in a pound shop?

This unbranded (other than the ITP Imports name in small print on the back – this appears to be a range exclusive to PoundWorld) retractable has been designed to connect your iPhone or iPod to your PC. It has a 75cm cable which winds onto a reel, in a similar way to the reTrak products. The difference here, initially, is the price – retract equivalents are ten times the price at least. In fact on inspection the reel mechanism seems very similar to the reTrak version so I had high hopes of a product well worth the pound.

The cable reeled in and out without a problem even after repeated use. The mechanism felt a bit rougher to me than the reTrak, but my daughter felt this was easier to use.

The plastic connectors on either end let it down though – they appear to made of very cheap white plastic which you feel wouldn’t last very long. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the biggest problem. After some initial problems getting the iPod connector to fit into my daughter’s iPod Touch we got it to connect to the computer. That was the first and last time it did – after that nothing happened. It would appear that it simple failed after one successful use.

This came from PoundWorld but an equivalent Signalex branded version can be bought at Poundland.

Summary of Retractable USB iphone & ipod Cable

For a pound the reeling mechanism works well but the connectors on the ends are so cheap that failure is always imminent. Save the pounds and get a quality version with a guarantee!

Reviewed by David Artiss on 23rd January 2012.

This review is part of the 1 Pound Challenge – can you find a decent gadget in a pound shop?

Yes, the keyboard is very mucky!

I’m not sure what to make of this one. It works well and seems excellent value, but I’m not sure what do use it for.

This is the Signalex USB LED light. It costs £1 from Poundland. It plugs into a USB port and has a flexible arm (and of good quality too), about 20cm long, on which is a cylindrical tube, just over 16cm long, containing 5 bright white LEDs. Plug it in and it lights up.

But light up what?

The cylinder appears to be stuffed with a curl of silver card so the LEDs bleed through to the back, meaning that if the lights are turned away from you, you can still see them. Besides, any laptop screen will reflect the light back. The arm isn’t long enough to have the lights reflecting down on the keyboard without it getting in the way of viewing the screen.

So what do you use it for?

I’ve found one use – my keyboard at work has a USB port in the back and plugged in there I can get it to illuminate my keyboard. However, light at work isn’t a problem so I’m unlikely to use it. But, I guess, it’s a start.

Summary of Signalex Ultra Bright USB 5 LED Light

It works. Very well. The lights are bright and the whole thing is of a reasonable quality – certainly worth £1. But what do you use it for? If you can think of something, then it’s worth the money.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 1st January 2012.

This review is part of the 1 Pound Challenge – can you find a decent gadget in a pound shop?

The microphone built into a laptop can often be a compromise – providing a basic facility, whilst keeping it as small as possible. And if you’ve got a desktop then you may not even have a microphone.

So, can one for just £1 do the job?

The Signalex Computer Microphone, available from Poundland, doesn’t get off to a good start – get it out of the green and white packaging and you have a drab looking black microphone made of very cheap plastic. In fact the plastic wasn’t quite cut properly on mine so there was a sharp “shard” sticking out of the very top. Although it boasts that it “pivots on base” this simply means that it tilts forward. Because the base isn’t very heavy you don’t have to tilt it very far before it starts to fall over.

At full height it stands at 21cm tall and has a 1.5m captive audio cable on it. Near the top of the microphone is an “on/off” slider which cuts the sound off when in the “off” position. This switch is of very low quality and, very stiff, I couldn’t tell which position it was in most of the time.

All of this sounds bad which, to be honest, it is. Until you use it.

Here are recordings I made with an in-build laptop microphone and then with the Signalex (click on either to play)…

Summary of Signalex Computer Microphone

Poor quality plastic, falls over easily just generally looks and feels awful. But it’s a vast improvement of built-in microphones and, hence, well worth a pound. Recommended!

Reviewed by David Artiss on 28th December 2011.