Pay R249 for a Shady Beats iPod and MP3 Speaker and Sunglasses case, valued at R450 (save 45%)

Technological advances might be responsible for the demotion of Pluto from planet to large rock floating through space, but they have made certain aspects of life far easier and more compact. While carrying a boombox on your shoulder might have become passé and out-dated, you can keep the effect without looking like a throw-back to the eighties and pay R249 for a Shady Beats iPod and MP3 Speaker and Sunglasses case.

With winter on its last legs, people everywhere are shedding the bulky overcoats that double as handbags and getting ready to hit the beaches and other large bodies of water. While it’s all well and good to carry around a handbag with all your earthly possessions in it, when you’re kitting out for a day of shenanigans in the sunshine, you don’t really want to be carrying around a bag that’ll just weigh you down. Also, they have yet to design a Gucci wrist-bag with built in speakers.

Shady Beats solves both problems stylishly with a compact, funky design and built-in NXT high-end flat-panel speakers. While you might think that 19mm speakers couldn’t do much damage, anyone who’s given them a go has been more pleasantly surprised than a kid on Christmas morning. Besides the fact that it provides an easy way to carry loud music with you wherever you go, the Shady Beats case proves itself perfect for the outdoorsy types by being robust and hard-wearing; the protective EVA case has a water-resistant exterior and anti-scratch lining to protect both your shades and your beats. There’s also an interior pocket for money and credit-card storage, and you could probably get your car-keys in there too if you’re interested, making it just as useful as a small-handbag.

With ten hours of battery life, if you took it to the beach you’d probably turn a lovely shade of burnt before the music died on you. It doesn’t even matter what sort of portable music player you have, because the Shady Beats case works with most of them.

While it’s great to be able to listen to your beats from wherever you are without hassling with earphones, it would mean nothing if the case wasn’t at least good to look at, even it does provide revolutionary sound and protection from scratches, sand, dirt and water. Luckily, the Shady Beats comes in six funky designs, to match whatever your wardrobe usually looks like, with everything from army camouflage to black and guitar-spangled.

    

High-tech Fact: Half a bouncy ball which had been modified to work as a boom-box was discovered in the UFO that crashed on Roswell and provided scientists with evidence that aliens might have been in contact with human beings for the purpose of trade. Inside the wrecked ship, they also discovered three pairs of socks and a leather jacket.