The perfect fan for the home office – and more

Dyson PureHumidify+Cool
Overly dry air indoors is horrible. It affects everything from your skin to your breathing to your home’s paintwork. While there’s nothing much you can do about dry air in the office, the WFH revolution gives you the chance, among other pluses, to get the air in which you work perfect. Five years ago, after spending £37.5m on development, Dyson introduced its remarkable AM10 home humidifier, which I know from readers’ emails I received at the time was a game-changer for many. Being able to live and sleep with air controlled to a perfect 45 per cent humidity (or whatever percentage you prefer, controllable from an app) made people feel exceptionally well. And seeing as it was a complex Dyson product, engineered to within an inch of its life, the fine mist of humid air it pumped out wasn’t laden with just any water – it was Dyson water, filtered, purified from dust, pollen nitrogen dioxide and benzene, and disinfected with ultraviolet light to kill bugs. The reason not everyone – even confirmed Dysonistas – was a fan, however, was that the AM10 humidifier wasn’t a fan. I know that a lot of people on hot, dry summer days would have it on alongside, or across the room from, a tall Dyson cooling fan. Even then, Dyson was working on a way to integrate a fan and a humidifier, and the result is the Pure Humidify+Cool, a sample of which is wafting 320 litres per second of cool, luscious air over me as I write this. And yes, said the engineer who briefed me, it even works – if a little less powerfully – when you have windows open. Is there a warm- and cool-air humidifier in development? The engineer wouldn’t say, but it would seem a logical step. £600, dyson.co.uk

Logitech StreamCam
We have grown accustomed over recent weeks to TV interviewees appearing in fuzzy vision, with their web camera pointing up their nose. It’s understandable that few of them are great camera operators, and the fact that most are using the built-in camera on their laptop makes this awkward shooting angle near-universal. A separate webcam is a bit of a retro accessory. But the StreamCam has been introduced by Logitech with perfect timing and is probably the best you can get. It can be mounted at heights and angles more seemly than the dentist’s-eye view; a tripod is a good way to keep the view natural, as is clipping it to the top of a laptop screen. It’s also exceptionally easy to set up and use. £139, logitech.com

Aicok kettle
How ironic would it be for a Brit to learn to brew a better cup of tea in Silicon Valley? Well, it happened to me. I was at the Los Altos home of Alan Adler, inventor of AeroPress, the £30 coffee maker loved by many coffee nuts, when we got to talking about tea. Alan suggested the British are wrong to insist on using boiling water. It should be 80-90°C. He recommended getting a temperature-controlled kettle – something I didn’t know exists. I bought one of the few available, by Aicok, and it’s been a revelation. You can heat water to 40°C, 60°C, 80°C (perfect for green tea) and 90°C (ideal for English Breakfast) – and the tea is 100 per cent better than I’m used to. A life-improving gadget. £44, amazon.co.uk

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo
A lot of people say this innovative new Asus laptop is the best they’ve used – and I can see why its earliest adopters love it. Laptops were essentially the same as they were 25 years ago until this. The ZenBook Pro Duo is beautifully built and finished, but its USP is its dual screens – one as normal that folds up vertically, but another on the horizontal above the keyboard. You may consider it a solution in search of a problem. But if, say, you’re working on a boring task on the top screen, and having a Spotify-fest while you do it, it’s refreshing to have Spotify open in full view. To make the ergonomics still better, the bottom screen is touch-sensitive. From £2,100, asus.com

Netgear Orbi WiFi 6
It’s never felt more important to have the best home WiFi possible. Netgear’s Orbi system distributes signal around the house using the “mesh” system, where a central router pumps out internet to satellite routers in strategic spots and these satellites further splay it out. Mesh is the best solution to local dropouts and coldspots, and the Orbi mesh, which I first tried in 2018, is the best I’ve come across. It’s a WiFi blunderbuss. But the latest Orbi uses the new WiFi 6 protocol, which quadruples the max capacity of 2018. Up to 12 people can stream at the same time – if your connection is up to it. It will work with all your old gadgetry and the devices of the future too. Nothing not to love here. From £700, netgear.co.uk

@thefuturecritic