If you’re fed up carting around handfuls of chargers for your gadgets, this gizmo could be the best Christmas present you’ll ever receive…

It’s undeniably a pain having to carry round a charger for your mobile phone, your PDA and yet another for your digital camera or MP3 player. Research by hotel chain Travelodge shows that 89 per cent of the 2,000 Brits surveyed constantly carry a charger with them, and more than one in ten carry two every day. Incredibly, 46 per cent claim to have between five and 15 chargers rattling around their home for various devices.
If that includes you, it’s time to embrace the latest labour-saving technology and get yourself a multi-charger. One of the most advanced on the market is The Synch, invented in the US and launched in the UK at the start of November. It charges two electrical devices of your choice at the same time, including BlackBerrys, games consoles and Bluetooth headsets.

Best of all, it also has USB 2.0 capability, which basically means you can transfer documents, photographs, video and playlists between devices and computers at high speed while they’re charging. Combine that with the ability to charge from three sources – a wallplug, car cigarette lighter or computer/laptop – and the benefits are blindingly obvious. And there’s even an international travel adaptor so it will work in the USA and Europe if you can’t bear to be without your Blackberry on the beach.

Travelodge like The Synch so much they’re making it available to guests free of charge on a trial basis in ten UK hotels. Chief operating officer Guy Parsons says, ‘Our receptionists get many requests for spare chargers, as customers often leave theirs at home.’
The Synch costs from £20 and can be ordered at www.the-synch.co.uk