Technological Innovation

It was not quite what we were expecting, even so, some of the more recondite attachments hint at a world of possibility yet unexplored through this medium of the humble domestic appliance.

Still, having said that it does seem to need recharging every ten minutes or so, or five minutes if the GPS function is enabled, which does seem to somewhat mitigate its claims to be portable, especially as you are advised to employ the optional three Sherpas needed to carry it, at - what seems to the casual user - a somewhat rather high annual fee, as well as the cost of the yak's milk needed to keep the Sherpas in tip-top form.

This does tend to make the GPS function rather surplus to requirements as you can never get far enough away from familiar ground - without it running out of power - to get lost, for even the most geographically-challenged do tend to know where the other end of their own street is... more or less.

As for the attachment for getting the stones out of horse's hooves – the manufacturer's claim this is mostly to maintain backwards compatibility with the Swiss army knife, is these days little more than a conversation piece – that is if you are ever unfortunate enough to be trapped into a conversation with someone who takes an interest in such obscure attachments.

Still, though, the integrated hand whisk/TV remote does turn out to be of more use than we first expected, even though it does have rather an annoying habit of changing channels to QVC whenever the user attempts to whisk up a Yorkshire pudding mix.

However, the manufacturers have said they will be bringing out a hotfix for this in the next firmware update which should resolve the problem, as well as the device's tendency to emit an ultrasonic beep that annoys all dogs within a twelve-mile radius which can be somewhat dangerous, especially if you are halfway home from the butchers with a pound of sausages at the time. Although, it did give me a chance to test both the pedometer function and the stopwatch to prove I broke my personal best for the 200 metres, although we did – tragically – lose one of the Sherpas to the slavering pack of hounds.

Fortunately, though, the device was still under guarantee and so the Sherpa was replaced at no extra cost.