Necksound is the ears-free music player that might just save your life

OK, that sounds good. Does it have radar?

Nope. In fact, it’s more about what the device doesn’t have: headphones, or, indeed, any means of entirely blocking your ears. The idea is you wear Necksound around your neck, and its speakers pump audio your way, while leaving your ears free to hear, say, large vehicles moving in your general direction, or a worried onlooker yelling “you’re about to step off a cliff edge, you idiot”.

That is handy. So what does Necksound have?

The unit is made from a lightweight malleable material that’s dust and sweat resistant, and there’s an adjustable magnetic attachment system. In theory, this stops the thing bouncing about when you’re being physical. As for the tech, you get 4 GB of storage, stereo speakers, six hours of continuous play time, vibration alerts, and a bunch of buttons.

Buttons?

Yep. Playback and volume controls are at the front of the device, which strikes us as a tad inelegant if you’re bombing along on a bike. So they’re probably best avoided, as is the headphone port, which may as well have been labelled the ‘negates much of the point behind this wearable when used’ port.

Still, quibbles are offset by the safety angle, and the device will potentially protect your ears from damage, too. And if all else fails you can cunningly hurl it across a squash court to distract an opponent when you’re about to lose.

This is all very weird. I must have one.

Necksound’s already funded on Kickstarter, and you can secure one from €80. But you’ll have to wait until March 2017 for it to arrive. So don’t go walking into traffic while listening to loud music before then, eh?

WHAT’S THAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THIS BANGING BIEBER REMIX!

Sigh.