It's always the same - as soon as you buy a new mobile, it's superceded by another model. So if you want to keep up, you could end up with a drawer full of old mobiles that are unlikely to see the light of day ever again. So how about trading them in for some cash, in-store credit or a contribution to charity?

One firm, Envirofone.com, has so far paid out more than £250,000 this year alone to people recycling their old mobiles since the beginning of the year. They pay cash, credit that can be used at Argos or you can nominate a charity to benefit. The firm then reconditions the handsets for use overseas, where the cost of new phones is too high for the average person.

JVC has introduced two new portable music players - the alneo XA-F107 and XA-F57 - with up to 1GB of storage and in an eye-catching set of colours.

The F107 has 1GB of storage, while the F57 has 512MB. Apart from that, they're pretty much identical. each is available in four different colours and are compatible with MP3, WMA, and WMA-DRM files. And both players use drag-and-drop file transfer with a USB connection. In addition, both players feature direct recording from your home audio devices via line in input, automatically converting analogue audio to MP3 format.

We've covered the Slingbox many times here at Tech Digest, usually with the line "heading for the UK". Well, the wait is over, Sling Media's location-free TV system is now available in the UK, just in time for the World Cup.

The European version of the Slingbox is tailored for the UK market, featuring an integrated PAL analogue/digital tuner with DVB-T support, giving  access to Freeview programming, as well as the ability to connect to digital cable, Sky boxes or a PVR/VCR. It uses the ethernet port to connect to a router or broadband modem to transmit out across the net, with signals accessed by a PC or Windows Mobile device running the Slingbox software. Which means you have control over your home TV wherever you are - as long as you're online. There's also a remote to control the Slingbox's tuner and other connected devices.

If you are still using Windows 98 SE and ME then Propellerhead suggests that you make a note in your diaries for July 11th. That's when you will be finally cast adrift as it's the date paid for support for the operating system and Critical Security Updates come to an end. The good news is that Online self-help support will continue until at least July 10th next year. If you have any other ageing Microsoft products you might like to take a look at the MS Lifecycle Information site, which details the start, retirement and extended support dates for all of its products. It makes interesting reading, for example Office 2000 was retired two years ago but Extended Report continues until July 14th 2009, and MS was still responding to cried for help with Windows 3.1 right up until then end of 2001. Don't forget there's hundreds more great Windows tweaks at PCTopTips

Veteran TechDigest readers may recall this news item about Be's Unlimited 24mbps broadband - then as now the fastest available in the UK - back in August of last year.

Like a good little guinea pig I signed up in early Spetember as a regular subscriber - no special favours here (yet!) - and waited for activation.

And waited. And waited. Eventually, on the 11th of May 2006 my Be broadband went live. Broadband installations are frequently delayed due to unavoidable issues between the ISP and BT. In this case though, I really could have created a whole new human being in the time it took between signup and logon. That, however, is pretty much all the bad news: It really is the fastest ADSL you can buy in these British Isles right now.

Regular visitors will surely be familiar with that sloven's friend, the Roomba autonomous vacuum cleaner.

Of course it wouldn't be exciting enough if it just pottered around sucking up dust while you were out which is why Tod E.Kurt over at TodBot has converted his Roomba into arguably the world's silliest musical instrument. The tiny speaker that emits Roomba's status chirps provides the top end and the droning vacuum motor handles the indispensable droning vacuum motor sound. if that sounds like your kind of music there's a video of the RoombaMidi in action over at MusicThing: On the face of it, a musical robot vacuum cleaner doesn't sound like a world-beating technological advance but they probably laughed at the gas-absorbing cushion once too...

RoombaMidi [via MusicThing]

Not to be confused with the BBC's iMP initiative, or any of the iRiver media players, or tiny black sweets, the IMP is a standalone internet radio that can browse RealPlayer (well, RealOne if you're being pedantic) streams from all over the world and deliver over 2000 radio stations to your kitchen.

With a 2 line LCD display you would be forgiven for assuming that setup would be a tricky affair but in fact the procedure for dialling in a WEP code to connect the IMP to your broadband router takes less than a minute and once that's done you could be listening to stations from halfway around the world in perfect clarity.

  With Microsoft building MSN search into its forthcoming IE7 web browser, Google has hit back by signing a deal with Dell, which will result in millions of Dell computers leaving the factory with Google software already installed on them, including a Google toolbar, desktop search and a co-branded homepage.

The deal with Dell is a significant move in Google's fierce rivalry with Microsoft. In practice, most people stay with the default programs and search technology that comes with their machine. In the past, Google has mostly had to rely on people downloading its software or bookmarking its page.

With so many devices carrying so many difference sources of data, it can be a pain moving information around between hardware, especially if you're on the move. Both the TravelLink and TravelSync from Memorex can ease ease your data dilemma.

With the TravelLink and TravelSync, you can transfer digital photos, data, music or other digital files between flash cards, USB flash drives, digital cameras, external hard drives, MP3 players, and most other USB mass storage devices - all without the use of a computer.

We featured the Humax free-to-air HD satelite receiver recently for those who wanted the BBC's coverage of the World Cup in HD without the monthly fees. It's not the only option, you can do the sae with this Pace HD set-top box, retailing for around the same price.

The Pace HD set-top box comes with DiSEqC 1.2, for easier satellite scanning and programming, and a CI slot for use with a range of conditional access systems. Pace claims the box is one of the first in the world to use advanced H.264 HD hardware decoding, delivering high quality pictures while making efficient use of available broadcasting bandwidth. There's also HDMI with HDCP for secure connectivity to HD-ready displays.

I've not seen any new iPod-based clothing of late (apart from Nike's iPod trainers that is), so here's a new range of jackets for men from Koyono that incorporate iPod controls.

According to Koyono, each garment is designed to "seamlessly balance work, travel and entertainment with maximum ease, style and comfort". Or more specifically, each features ElekTex, a smart fabric technology integrated into the lapels as iPod control pads, which allows you to leave an iPod tucked away safely inside a specially-designed pocket, whilst still offering full control of the iPod - the buttons on your garment controlling volume, track changes, even the power switch.

That's right, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is giving stuff away. No rocket jet packs or free rides on the shuttle I'm afraid, but if you head over to the Glenn Research Centre website you will find a great selection of free software. There's something for everyone, especially all of you budding aeronautical engineers and jet engine designers out there, but if, like Propellerhead, you fancy a crack at creating a kite or flying a model rocket then take a look at KiteModeler and RocketModeler and RangeGames is a fun way to work out the fuel usage, acceleration and velocity of aircraft... But seriously the software should be of real interest to students, graduates and those involved in the study of making things fly and even if you're not into the science stuff, there are plenty of other things to see and do around the site. And don't forget there's a full archive of tips, and lots of new ones to try out on the PCTopTips website.

Apparently some sort of football tournament is about to happen and I'm not sure why decidedly non-sporty Propellerhead has been alerted to this new website, but just in case you've arrived here from our sister Word Cup site, or you fancy a game of footy, without having to get wet, muddy, understand the offside rule or get up off your bum then have a look at BinballWizard. It comes to your courtesy of Reed Personnel Services -- hence the office connection -- and the idea is to hike a football into a wastebasket. You are playing against the clock and there are prizes up for grabs for high-scorers

After a successful £84.3m joint bid with Sky, BT has won the right to show Premier League football "on demand", via its broandband TV service, BT Vision.

The three year deal with the FA gives BT the rights to show 242 "near-live" Premier League football matches each season - essentially every match not already being shown live. The deal commences with the 2007-8 season. Matches will be available "on demand" via broadband from 10pm on match days, with a windown time of up to 50 hours to watch the match.

I've seen some strange World Cup gadgets recently, but this one really takes the biscuit - or should that be sausage? It's a Peperami Fanimal - ranting, sausage-shaped match-time buddy, which can express your pain through the most agonising World Cup moments.

The Fanimal is 30cm tall, with a built-in sound chip. When the pressure becomes too much, just chuck your Fanimal against something hard to hear it scream a rather sharp-tongued football rant, including "Who's the sausage in the black", "Whose flaming side are you on?" and "The referee's a veggie!"

1 R2D2 needs some serious bodywork. In Revenge of the Sith seen on Sky Movies HD he appears to be covered in dents and scratches.
2 Nothing gets documentary film-makers more excited than the possibility of one animal chasing and killing another. It is on all the doc HD channels (National Geographic and Discovery) all the time and yes it is gross.
3 A crap film in SD is still in a crap film in HD. Exhibit A Jersey Girl. Is this really directed by the same man who helmed Clerks?

Just launched is a new website covering the best of cult movies and TV from the throughout the years and across the genres - Cinedelica. The site will feature the best in cult movies, from long lost vintage classics, through to modern day gems worthy of your attention. All brought to you with tongue firmly placed in cheek.

As well as the latest DVD reviews, Cinedelica will highlight the latest showings at UK cinemas, cult classics showing on the small screen, the quirkiest movie clips on YouTube, as well as features and articles covering the best - and worst - of film and TV and much more.

Want to know more? Head on over to Cinedelica now.

Propellerhead has just found something scary on the F-Secure website. The World Map of Viruses. It's just like a weather map but instead of fronts and anticyclones it shows waves of nasties like Netsky32 and Trojan Downloaders sweeping across globe, heading for your PC. It shows in real-time the current threats, where they are coming from, and depressingly, where they are going to in an easy to understand colour-coded display. You can select hourly, daily monthly or yearly views and monitor the whole world, or just your part of it. There's an Alert Level display -- graded from Quiet to Epidemic -- plus a regularly updated list of the day's top threats. If you like that then you really should take a look at the hundreds of great Windows tips at www.PCTopTips.co.uk

Pure Digital is boosting its range of Evoke-1XT DAB radios by releasing a new range of the Prestige Edition models in time for summer.

The EVOKE-1XT Prestige is hand-crafted from high-quality materials and receives not only DAB digital radio broadcasts, but also FM with RDS. It's available in Bird's Eye Maple, Burnt Redwood and Piano Black finishes, all in a high-gloss lacquered coat. 

There might be good reason why you can't reach your iPod - maybe it's in your bag or pocket and you can't be bothered fumbling around for it. Well, if there's any reason at all why you might need one - there is one now available in the UK, with the CruiseControl from GEAR4, a remote with a 50 metre range.

The company claims it's something of an "industry first" - being the first in the UK that is compatible with the iPod nano. CruiseControl works off the iPod dock connector, with a headphone amp and port on the bottom, allowing you to plug their headphones in - other dock-connector remotes have covered up the nano's headphone port.