I bought the garden vacuum and find it very useful - it works well, and shreds the leaves/grass etc so I can add them to the compost.
Some downsides -
It's a bit heavy and very noisy to use.
If you've got a large garden (or your front verge is a distance from the house) the vacuum might not reach - I've got to use an extension cable in addition to the cable on the vacuum and it won't reach the verge outside my house.
It was a bit of a pain to assemble - the nozzle comes in two parts and didn't fit together too easily!