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Gadgets: HP Photosmart P100, Toshiba PDR-M71, TiVo, Motorola V70
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Your support makes all the difference.HP Photosmart P100
Mini-Printer
£129
Hewlett Packard
08705 474747
While the British public may be getting into digital photography, we're traditionalists at heart and still demand a good-quality, four-by-six picture to stick on the mantelpiece. Which is why HP is on to a winner with the P100.
This neat little package lets you print out your snaps wherever you are by either inserting the camera's memory card or connecting it to your computer via its USB cable. Press the print button, and in 90 seconds you'll have a high-quality photo, with full edge-to-edge colour. Even if your computer already has a colour printer, at this price, its portability and ease of use is hard to refuse.
Toshiba PDR-M71
£299
Toshiba, 08704 424424
www.home-entertainment.toshiba.co.uk
As soon as I laid my hands on the PDR-M71, the question that came to mind was: why would anyone buy such a monster when there are so many silver beauties on the market?
The answer is that it has a lot of features. It provides an impressive 3.2 mega-pixels, you can record 3min movies with sound and it has a stonking battery life – around 300 shots from four AAs. It's fairly easy to use (I did refer to the manual on occasion) and you can copy, resize or change the compression of stored images within the camera itself.
But I still don't get Toshiba's choice of finish. Its looks and build remind me of a tank: indestructible, but not something you'd pick as the family motor.
TiVo
£299 (plus subscription)
TiVo, 08702 418486
OK, so you may be tired of hearing about how great TiVo is: how it doesn't have tapes (it has a hard disk), how you can pause live TV for up to 30min, and how it will change the way you watch television. But its all-new software gives you even greater control over your viewing habits.
I finally gave in to the box's charms, and I have to admit to having fun with it. You can instruct the TiVo to record a whole series – something I've never managed to do with VHS. You can also create a wish-list of your favourite programmes, actors or genres, and it will hunt them out and automatically record them – so it actually learns your preferences.
It does take time to suss you out fully. In the first week, it decided I was a fan of the Chuckle Brothers. But you can easily amend its choices by giving each recorded programme a thumbs up or down. With 40 hours' recording time at its lowest quality, you can find something of interest to watch at any time. Has it changed my life? Not quite, but I have found myself watching far fewer depressing soaps, which can only be a good thing.
Motorola V70
£225 with Orange contract
Orange, 0800 801080
Tired of playing third fiddle to Nokia and Siemens, Motorola has pulled the strangest of mobiles out of its hat. The V70 is aimed at the fashion market and designed to turn heads – which it will. Its cover swivels through 360 degrees, rather than flipping open; to take a call, you nudge it with your thumb, turning the cover into the earpiece. It uses the same software as the V60 and V66 – both of which I'm rather partial to. It's easy to navigate and uses GPRS for quick internet access.
So does all the styling make it an attractive package? No. I applaud Motorola for the V70's innovation, but I won't be rushing out to buy the V70 when it hits the shops in April – though I suspect I'll be in the minority.
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