The Powermat: No, it’s not one of those vibrating things you stand on that gets rid of your cellulite, it’s a wireless charging system for your phone, ipod or other small electrical device. As slight tech-phobes here at MFL for him our initial thought was, what? No wires?! But as we’ve discovered it’s a bit like wearing a brogue without a sock and adding a trouser turn up – it shouldn’t work but it does, see the evidence here.

So basically you take your iPhone/ Blackberry/ Nintendo DS/ other electrical device… (delete as appropriate) slip a receiver on it, and stick it on the Powermat to charge. At the moment you can get receivers that are designed especially for the Apple iPhone, Apple iPod touch, Apple Dock, and the Blackberry Bold, Curve and Pearl, and for the rest of your phones/devices you can get the Powerdock which includes 8 tips for a whole range of devices. Pretty simple, eh?. We could tell you how it works but the fact that it magically charges without wires is enough to keep us fascinated for a while at least.

But on to the important stuff – the mat itself comes in two styles, the travel version that folds into three and comes with handy US and EU adaptors and the sleek home and office version that’s designed to be a discreet addition to your surroundings – we can imagine playing the ‘guess the gadget’ game with it could be quite fun, as long as it doesn’t get mistaken for a super-sleek, super-long coaster, that is.

So if wires are simply too last season for you then we can highly recommend the Powermat, prices start at £69.99 for the Home and Office mat, £29.99 for the Powercube, and £34.99 for the iPhone receiver. Available from Powermat and Amazon.