5 of the best party gadgets

Having your house trashed and new carpets soiled are a small price for the sheer fun a party can bring. But being a good host involves more than just supplying most of the booze and sticking ornaments down with superglue. Besides acid wit and paying celebrities to turn up - real ones, not stars from Made in Chelsea - you can enhance the festivities with a splendid gadget or three.

TDK Wireless Charging Speaker

£400, TDKperformance.com
Slapping your iPod, iPad or iPhone music collection on shuffle can be a embarassing move but it sure beats changing CDs all the time. The problem is, many speaker docks struggle to fill a room with sound – but that's not a problem for the TDK Q35, a compact cube that connects with your phone over Bluetooth and pumps out omnidirectional room-filling sound through four speakers and a subwoofer. Plus, if you've got a phone with wireless charging tech, you can just pop it on top to recharge.

iDJ Live

£80, Play.com
Pal it up with the djay iOS app and this portable DJ rig brings the art of mixing, scratching, cutting and dubbing to your iPad. You'll be beat-matching with the best of them – until you hit that Steps track you drunkenly bought in a bid for ironic amusement. Yeah, we believe you – it's your sister's, blah, blah.

Le Whaf Carafe

€130, The Lab Store
If your party needs a touch of Willy Wonka wonderment, this is just the thing for you – it turns food and drink into flavoured clouds of vapour using an ultrasound generator, which you pour out and sip with a specially-designed straw. Perfect for sticking to your New Year's resolution – you get all of the flavour with none of the calories.

Choc Edge

£2,500, Choc Edge
Who needs a fondue set or chocolate fountain when you can print out chocolates with a 3D printer? This insanely expensive gadget will print out any shape you want – but unlike a typical 3D printer the final result will be edible. Just about any chocolate can be melted, too, making it pretty versatile. Just remember you'll need marshmallows – and a working knowledge of CAD software.

Breakfast Station

£71, Overstock
As you overindulge on multicoloured drinks, you probably won't be thinking about the morning after. But when you wake up with the mother of all hangovers, you'll be praying for a good coffee, toast and a sausage, egg or bacon butty to get you back on your feet. That's where the space-saving 3-in-1 Breakfast Station steps in and delivers. Delicious.

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