Sony have announced that it is to call time on it's MiniDisc range this September, as the number of physical-media portable music players drops ever more steadily.

Continued poor sales of the hardware in all territories outside of Japan meant the MiniDisc's demise was inevitable, which will join the cassette Walkman in Sony's tech mausoleum.

With the digital music trend showing now signs of slowing, and with the rise of cloud-based music set to explode jsut over the horizon, the whirring discs of the MD were looking ever-more aged, with little of the retro, rose-tinted charm that even cassettes had. The last MiniDic player up on Sony's website is the MZ-RH1, but even that is lacking a price tag and seems currently unavailable.

Sony has promised to continue to sell the actual MiniDiscs themselves still however, even if the players are headed the way of the dodo. They're still used quite a bit in radio rooms thanks to their reliability.

Which leaves only the portable CD player as a physical-media player in Sony's portable music arsenal.

I love my sleep. I love my Tetris. But the two just should never mix; playing the classic Gameboy game while doozy will leave you with a blocky mess of a screen before you can even begin to hum "Korobeniki".

Obviously nobody told that to Instructables member nolte919, who has constructed the most sadistic alarm clock of all time; one that wont stop beeping until you've taken on four lines of Tetris.

You can hit the snooze button for thirty seconds of peace, but once that's up you're going to have to clear those lines if you ever want to relax again.

Hit the video above to see it in action and get an idea of how it was put together.

It's been one of the toughest years in Sony's history, what with the high-profile hack attack on their PlayStation 3 PSN network, the production difficulties caused by the Japanese tsunami/earthquake disaster and a so-so showing at the E3 games conference. But it seems to have hardly made a dent to their public image in their home continent; a new survey across ten Asian markets shows Sony to still be the region's "most valued brand".

The survey, part of the TNS Top 1000 Asia-Pacific Brands research program, polled 3,300 people aged between 15-64 to ask their most valued brands across a range of product categories which ranged from specific areas of fashion to phones, TV sets and pretty much every consumer item inbetween.

Sony overall was top of the rankings, helped in no small part by the sheer breadth of their product catalogue, covering everything from stereos to smartphones to TVs and, of course, gaming with the PSP and PS3.

There's also brand and regional loyalty to factor in too; as Thomas Isaac from survey conductors TNS says, "In most Asian countries, the man on the street has not heard of Louis Vuitton, but he has heard of Sony."

Other brands in the upper echelons of the list include Panasonic, Samsung, LG and Canon, while a few non-Asian companies, including Chanel, BMW and Rolex.

Via: WSJ

Archos are further fuelling the Android invasion of your home with the release of the Archos 35 range. Cramming the Google Android OS into a radio and a home phone, the Archos 35 Home Connect and the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone will both be vying for spots in your home.

The Archos 35 Home Connect is a web-based radio that can access 50,000+ stations through TuneIn. Built in apps include a clock, weather and traffic updates as well as news widgets.

The Home Connect unit can also connect to android app stores to increase its functionality, letting you grab games from the Marketplace, while a web cam opens the radio up to video conferencing apps too.

Next up is the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone, which, as its name suggests, opens up smartphone functionality to your static home phone. You'll have access to apps and email on the device, as well as also offering video calling functionality. A little pointless, you may argue, as anyone who'd want a smartphone would also porbably want the flexibility of being able to take it out of the house too.

Both units are set for release in September, with the Home Connect selling for £119, and the Smart Home Phone costing £129.

Want to work out how far or how well you are swimming? Until recently you had to remember how many lengths you'd swum and how long it took just to be able to get this basic information.

But if, like me, your mind wanders when you swim, trying to recall how many lengths you have done is tricky - let alone how many strokes per length, which is the usual measurement of swimming efficiency.

Thankfully, there are now swimming gadgets which will do this for you. Swimovate introduced an automated swimming watch over a year ago. Now Speedo has followed suit with its own neat looking watch.

Dubbed the Speedo Aquacoach, it automatically tracks lengths, distance, speed, calories burned as well as the number of strokes per length. Unlike earlier models it works, we understand, by detecting a break in stroke pattern when you turn around in the pool - hence it isn't designed for open water swimmers (they would probably require a watch with a built in GPS).

It can also automatically detect how many times your hand enters the water during a length in order to calculate the number of strokes you make per length - the lower, the better. It will work with all strokes: front crawl, backstroke, breastroke and, even, butterfly.

Due out in July it will retail for £99 or 130 Euros. But Facebook users can win one here: http://www.facebook.com/speedo?sk=app_170464336338914

www.speedo.co.uk

In my day you'd be lucky if a toy gun made a clicking sound when you pulled the trigger, but the wonders of augmented reality tech make the AppBlaster plastic pistol a far more exciting prospect than the shooters of old.

By downloading a corresponding iOS app and clicking your iPod Touch or iPhone into the AppBlaster's casing, your touchscreen becomes a viewfinder into a secret alien inavasion taking place in your real-world surroundings. It's up to you, and your fake gun, to take them out.

Basically, the gun turns your living room, or anywhere you may take the AppBlaster, into a real world first-person shooter game, with the aliens appearing to fly into the screen from your very surroundings. As the gun uses rubber stamps on a mechanism to tap buttons on your touchscreen as you pull the trigger, there's no actual electronics at work in the AppBlaster, keeping its cost low.

Available for pre-order now from Red5.co.uk, it'll set you back just £20, with units due to be shipped by July 7th. Just make sure you don't try any Bruce Willis-style action hero rolls while playing with the gun, if you value you're Apple device's dainty screen!

Each year Orange come up with a barmy, green-friendly gadget to coincide with the UK's Glastonbury music festival. For instance, last year they revealed the "Hot Stepper Power Wellies" that charged mobile phones just by using the heat from your feet. They've really out-done themselves this year though; this morning they have revealed the Orange "Sound Charge" t-shirt that powers your mobile phone by using sound waves!

Using the same piezoelectric film that's found in hi-fi speakers, the Sound Charge absorbs the kinetic energy of sound waves, which are then converted by quartz crystals into charge stored in a connected battery.

Orange have calculated that sound levels at Glastonbury will average out at around 80dB over the weekend generating 6 watt hours of power. So, if you wear the shirt at all times and have your phone sitting in the front pouch connected to the charging pin, you should be able to fully power two regular mobile phones or one smartphone.

We can't think of a better place to test the Sound Charge, though wearing an item of clothing that's powering an electrical current during Glastonbury's almost customary downpours may not end with the desired results!

Check it out in action in the video above.

Tokyo Flash are back with another crazy watch idea to make your wrist-wear a talking piece as well as a time piece.

One for those who rightfully fear the dangers of drinking and driving, the watch comes equipped with a breathalyzer, relaying your blood alcohol levels on a touchscreen. Rather than using osmosis however, the watch has a fold out port to blow into which gauges how fit you are to drive.

It's just a concept for now so no word on when (or if, even) it will ever be released, but Tokyo Flash do have a good track record for turning their madcap designs into real-life products.

What they don't have a good track record for however is making watches that you can actually read the time on. Few people can ever make out the wacky watch faces, and God only knows who will be able to read one of them when they're pissed.

More info here.

We've seen USB ports on pretty much everything by now; from desk fans to little portable vacuum cleaners. But this is definitely one of the more bizarre items to have the ubiquitous port on it.

The humble cooking pot gets a 21st century makeover, using a USB connection and a thermoelectric material developed by TES NewEnergy Corp to turn excess heat into juice for your gadgets. It's a phenomenon known as the Seebeck effect, and uses uses the difference in temperature between the heat source (~ 550 ° C) and water boiling (~ 100 ° C) to create an electrical current of around 200 ~ 250 mA.

That much power would charge a smartphone in about 4 hours though, so be prepared for some very tender stewed meat or soggy vegetables if you want your iPhone fully powered.

USB Cooking pot Hatsuden-Nabe is available in Japan now for around the $280 mark.

Name: Livescribe Echo smartpen

Type: Smartpen with built-in audio recorder and digital note taking functionality

Software System Requirements and Specifications: Click here

Price: From £99.99 (subject to built-in storage size)

A significant step up from a trusty old Bic, the Livescribe Echo smartpen takes note taking to a whole new level by allowing you to sync audio to your scribbles and send them all over the web in just a few simple steps. But can it achieve results any more accurate than a fast hand and attentive ear couldn't manage just as well with a humble biro? Read on to find out.

Whether you're a seasoned journalist carrying out a career-making interview, or a fresh-faced undergraduate sitting in on your first university lecture, the accuracy of note-taking can make or break you. Whether it's down to poor handwriting or an inability to keep up with the information being thrown your way, it's almost always impossible to catch everything. Or at least it is if you're using a standard pen and dictaphone combination. The Livescribe Echo smartpen range is both of these items and much, much more, pulling your scribbles slap-bang up to date with 21st century tech.

Available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB sizes, Livescribe Echo smartpens are a fair bit chunkier than your average biro, and as a result take some getting used to before you're writing as fluently as you usually would. This is easily forgiven though considering the onboard storage and inclusion of a microphone audio recorder, built directly into the pen, as well as a 96x18 pixel OLED screen for browsing stored audio files, a 3.5mm headphone jack for listening back to recordings directly from the pen with a pair of headphones and the microUSB port on the flat end used for transferring files and powering the rechargeable battery.

But these additions are hardly the most impressive elements of the Echo pens. Making use of a supplied dot-paper pad, each Livescribe Echo smartpen also features a tiny infra-red camera near its tip that also records the exact handwritten notes that you are taking, making them available as a digital file. Thing get really special when used in conjunction with the afore-mentioned audio-recorder; syncing your notes and recordings with the Livescribe's software lets you view them combined as "pencasts", interactive pages that show your notes and the exact audio being recorded as they were written. Simply taking the pen and taping on your handwritten notes then allows you to clarify specific audio clips saved at that precise time of writing, meaning you can write one thing and still keep an exact note of what you may have missed being said at the moment you were frantically scribbling a separate thought.

It's a superb idea that ensures your notes can be doubly accurate, preventing you from missing the nuances of speech or atmosphere that a hastily hand-written note can. It also lets you focus more on what's actually being said to you; take only minimal notes during the interview, meeting or lecture, sync the audio being recorded and then play it back later on, fleshing out your notes and continuing to add to the real-time pencast at a latter hour.

This concept has already been used impressively in the earlier Livescribe Pulse smartpen range, but the inclusion of a £100 entry-level model here makes the new units far more affordable for the student population among those most likely to benefit from its usage.

The Livescribe Echo range however also comes with an updated software suite. You can now create a standard PDF of a pencast compatible with Adobe Reader 10, and email it to pals using Adobe's SendNow function. "Launchline" features, like hand-written gesture controls, let you scribble lines back and forth across the special dot pages, and write a command above them that will then be carried out by the pen as soon as it is synced. Setting up "Launchline" shortcuts therefore can see your files instantly shared to specific email contacts, or turned into a Google Docs page, or an Evernote note, or even shared among all your Facebook pals if you so desire, the next time you sync the pen.

It's a great product, but not completely without fault. Firstly, as we previously mentioned, its size is a little unwieldy (158mm long, 19.7mm at its widest point and weighing 36 grams). You wouldn't want to be writing out a lengthy novel with one of these things, but that's not the point here anyway we suppose. The microphone also too often picked up the scratchy sound of our note jotting whilst in quieter recording situations.

Getting hold of the dotted pads could also potentially be a cause of frustration for those who don't conserve page space when writing. While these pads are only marginally more expensive than everyday stationary (a four-pack of A5 notebooks will set you back no more than £15, and you've always got the alternative of printing off your own dot-paper if you have a 600dpi Postscript colour printer) , we still wish they'd figured out a way of getting the pens to work with regular paper, if only for the sake of convenience. You're unlikely to find these special notepads on the highstreet if you misplace one at an inopportune time.

Verdict:

The Livescribe Echo is a niche product if ever we've seen one. If you're just into making quick doodles in a pad while out and about or looking to keep a personal diary, this tech filled pen is almost certainly surplus to your requirements. However, for students, journalists or those who often have to take precise notes from situations like conferences or meetings, it's an absolutely invaluable tool that will make your quotations and scribbles more accurate than you could possibly manage using traditional methods.

Name: AVerTV Volar HD A835(Aver Media)

Type: Digital TV tuner for PC and Mac

System Requirements: Click here

Price: £18.99 from Amazon

With most of the functionality of a fully-fledged set-top box, the AVerTV Volar HD A835 digital TV tuner for PC and Mac has a lot going for it. But is it relevant in this age of catch-up TV and high-definition television?

The AVerTV Volar HD A835 unit consists of a set-up software CD and a USB drive, which a supplied TV antenna can be plugged into. Considering the USB stick has to accommodate a chunky aerial connection, it manages to stay fairly slim, though you may have trouble squeezing in other USB devices should your ports be closely bunched together. The aerial itself is little bigger than a thumb drive too, housing two telescopic, rotatable antenna and comes with two mounts; a suction pad and a clip for sticking the unit to the top of your monitor.

Once the quick software installation is complete and the AVerTV Volar HD A835 USB unit is plugged in, a surprisingly fast and accurate channel scan will have you watching Freeview channels and listening to digital radio within minutes. Though image quality will depend somewhat on the quality of your monitor, we were pleased to find our viewing session to be clear and free of noise. However, despite the HD suffix, you wont be able to get any high-definition Freeview channels; though it supports H.264 transmissions, which are widespread in Europe for high-def shows, it isn't compatible with the DVB-T2 transmission system Freeview HD is based on. An update has been promised for some time, but we were unable to access the channels during our review.

Though here you negate the need for an internet connection in order to watch shows, it's also worth noting that in this age of streamed catch-up TV on computers, we've forgotten how frustrating trying to pick up a good TV signal is. The AVerTV Volar HD A835 had us standing with the aerial over our heads in order to maintain a decent image. A quirk of our tuner or simply the fact we're in something of a coverage blackspot, it's worth remembering before committing your cash.

The software accompanying the drive is full of functionality, including a full EPG, timeshift modes and a number of recording and scheduled recording options. We particularly liked the fact you're able to record in iOS compatible formats, meaning getting your favourite shows direct from the telly onto your Apple mobile media devices won't be a problem. It's a shame though that visually the software is very bland, with a design more like shareware rather than a retail product.

Verdict:

With most of the major Freeview destinations now having robust video-on-demand services backing them up online, TV tuners for PCs are beginning to feel a little redundant. The AVerTV Volar HD stick makes itself more useful than some by offering video recording modes directly compatible with iOS devices, but a bare-bones software interface and lack of Freeview HD channels, paired with the frustrations of picking up a decent signal, ultimately let it down. Having said that, it's a cheap and small solution for those watching the pennies our with little space to play about with, so it may find an audience with students or backpackers.

Supermarket giants Asda have launched a new online service that will allow their customers to trade in their unwanted gadgets for cash.

Pledging to beat direct rivals Envirofone, Mazuma, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Boots on trade-in rates, Asda will accept everything from games console to sat-navs.

Click here to check out the new service.

Phil Stout, Asda's Electronics Service Manager said: "We reckon that the average UK home has hundreds of pounds worth of old gadgets that could be traded in for cash. There are more mobile phones in the UK than people, for example, so there is a lot of cash out there waiting to be released. Our tech trade-in service means customers can now save even more on their gadget purchases at Asda or use the bounty to save on the cost of day-to-day living."

Asda plan to roll the scheme out instore over the course of the year too.

Magellan have marked their return to UK stores by launching the new eXplorist GPS range, looking to earn a place in every outdoor adventurer's rucksack.

Four new models have been revealed, with the entry-level model being the eXplorist GC. A dedicated geo-caching device, it has a 2.2 inch colour display, pre-loaded worldwide mapping, with new geocaches available through Magellan VantagePoint software.

Next up are the eXplorist 510, 610 and 710 models. With all the features of the GC model, they improve open the entry-level version in a number of ways, including a 3 inch touchscreen, as well as packing a camera, speaker and microphone for taking audio notes and geotagging photos.

On top of that, the 610 and 710 models add advanced navigations tools such as a 3-axis electronic compass, barometric altimeter and a Summit Series Topographical map, while the top-of-the-range 710 model also features turn-by-turn street directions from Navteq.

Pricing starts at £179.99 for the eXplorist GC, the 510, 610 and 710 are £299.99, £399.99 and £499.99 respectively.

Magellan are also launching a premium iPhone 3G and iPod Touch case called the ToughCase. Waterproof for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 metre, it features a built-in high sensitivity SiRFstar III GPS chipset to enhance the accuracy of location-based and GPS applications, as well as doubling battery life with an integrated 1840 mAh battery. It costs £179.99.

Losing your most prized gadget on a bus or in the back of a taxi may become a thing of the past thanks to a new scheme from gadget insurers Protect Your Bubble.

They've teamed up with TagBak, who offer a novel way of getting your tech back to you should you misplace it when out and about. Print off a little TagBak sticker with a unique ID and TagBak contact number, attach it to your phone, MP3 player or other gadget, and should someone come across it they can contact TagBak who will send out a courier to collect it and return it to you.

Of course it depends on the honesty of the stranger who found the gadget in the first place, but a reward is offered and clearly stated on the TagBak sticker, meaning it's potentially "win/win" for all parties involved.

TagBak support usually costs £12.95, but Protect Your Bubble are offering TagBak recovery for three gadgets, free of charge when you sign up for insurance with them.

"We've found that although gadget insurance from Protect your bubble softens the blow of losing your phone or laptop, nothing can replace the original gadget with all the phone numbers and data stored on these expensive devices" said Stephen Ebbett from Protect Your Bubble.

"We're thrilled to offer our customers a fantastic way to get your original gadget back to stop our customers losing a device which may have taken them months to set-up properly."

For more info, head over to the Protect Your Bubble website.

Summer is nearly here, so "necking" a few pints in the sun is likely high on a fair few people's sunny agendas. But what if your bored of cans of Fosters, and your local public house has only a meagre range of real ales. It'd be high-time to start brewing your own alcoholic concoctions in our books, and there's none-more-stylish a brewing kit than the WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery.

Built from stainless steel, it'll handle every single step of the brewing process, from fermentation, to carbonation and serving thanks to hits mug-friendly spout. After a week's worth of mixing and over beer-magicry, you'll have an ice cold beer, chilled by the unit itself.

There is a catch of course, and that's the price tag. At $4,500, it'll probably be the most expensive beer you'll ever drink, and paired with all the trouble of grabbing hops and leaving the brew to ferment, a trip down your local Weatherspoons may end up being the more sensible option.

Via: Slashgear

People don't buy Kindle e-readers because they are gadget buffs; "the reason people choose the device is that they love reading," Amazon's vice president of Kindle Content, Russ Grandinetti, said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

It's taken a while for the digital reading device to hit the mainstream, but it looks like Amazon has managed to do it with the Kindle. Now on its third version, the device has become increasingly versatile, cuter in size and easier to use - and most importantly - there is now lots to read in the digital format. The Kindle was not available in the UK until October 2009, but it seems like Grandinetti might have a point: what's happening now is people who couldn't care less about the latest gadgets are all of a sudden popping out their Kindles.

Still work to do
There is still work to be done on the book-buying side of things; you can't buy someone an ebook as a gift, for example. Availability of older titles is still not perfect, presumably as there is lots to work out in regards to rights and territorial issues, not to mention fees down the publishing chain.

"As the business grows it makes it more possible for publishers to invest in digitising books. I'd expect a very healthy growth rate in availability of books," says Grandinetti. Amazon's goal is to make any book ever printed available digitally in 60 seconds.

The e-reader itself now has WiFi capabilities, meaning you can download a new book directly onto the device. There are a host of other internet-related services the Kindle could potentially have in the future, such as a notification system for new titles.

"We're still in the very early innings of thinking about and building new features that digital books allow," says Grandinetti. "The list of features we'd like to build is longer than the list of things we can build."

The tablet threat
Chances are that Amazon will push on with inventions for the Kindle, as its research shows that Kindle users buy more books than other customers.

Tablet computers could potentially pose a serious threat to the e-reader market in the future; certainly if you have an iPad you don't need a Kindle. But at around the £100 price mark, the Kindle has the upper hand on tablets in terms of price. This holds especially true if Grandinetti is right in his assessment that the core Kindle users is not gadget-savvy and just wants to read. If that's you then an e-reader is probably just about perfect - not to mention the use of e-ink that makes reading a Kindle as close an experience to reading paper as you can get.

But just in case that's not how it's going to play out, Amazon has issued Kindle apps for tablets, so you can pick up where you left off on your Kindle if you don't want to carry both. Not to mention the fact that if you move your e-reading onto the tablet exclusively, Amazon can still collect on the sale on e-books.

There are plenty of tech-y April Fool's gags doing the rounds on the net today, but we've got a real soft spot for the RC Eagle i, a "concept product" by Thumbs Up.

Scheduled for release this Autumn (don't hold your breath), it's a solar powered eagle robot that would soar above the city, with a built in camera to let you view your iPad or iPhone-controlled flights.

Think the Parrot AR Drone with more feathers and a taste for field mice.

Wojtek Kolan, Business Development Director and Co-founder of Thumbs Up, said: "We're really excited about the RC Eagle i, never before will so many people be able to experience the world by sitting comfortably at home. It's our greatest invention yet - it's truly unbelievable."

Here's a link to the "product page". Pester the Thumbs Up team and who knows? Maybe we'll have our solar-powered-iPhone-eagle yet!

Mother's Day is just around the corner in the UK (Sunday the 3rd of April to be exact) and, if you're anything like me, it's going to be a last minute dash to the shops to pick up something she'd like. Chocolates, flowers and a Michael Bublé CD are the staple gift choices, but what if Mum deserves something a little bit more adventurous this year? Gadgets are increasingly being tailored towards technophobic users with kit like the Kindle 3G, iPad 2 and Nintendo 3DS now billed as family devices rather than just for hardcore users.

And while we're sure there are plenty of mothers out there who know their way around a smartphone or tablet like the back of their hands, there are just as many who think an iPad is something you get from an optician. How will you know which gadgets would be suitable for them?

By following the advice of Tech Digest's Mum, that's how! Falling somewhere between the gadget-phobic and gadget-literate categories, we put five top bits of tech into Bernadette's hands (a Nintendo 3DS, an iPhone 4, a Kindle 3G, a Robert's colourSTREAM DAB and Internet Radio and an iPad 2) to see which device she'd most like to own.

Left on her own with each device for an hour, with only minimal input from us tech-heads, read on to see what she thought of each.

Nintendo 3DS - £187 from Amazon

It's the handheld games console that all the kids are clamouring for, and our full review awarded it a more-than-respectable score of 4/5. But what does our near-sighted mother make of glasses-free 3D?

"That 3D top screen is really good. I'm surprised to see that it actually works like they say in the adverts, but I'm not sure if I'd like to use it for too long. I think it would hurt my eyes. It's a nice size too, and all the little characters who keep popping up are funny. It's fairly simple to use and the 3D camera is a nice feature, but I honestly can't keep up with all the controls in these games. That Pilotwings one was far too difficult to steer, and all the other ones were too fast to keep up with. The speed of them made it difficult for my eyes to focus."

Apple iPhone 4 - starting at £510 from Apple

Despite being almost a year old, Apple's iPhone 4 is, signalling issues aside, still the smartphone to beat. With all those apps and a vibrant Retina display, have Apple done enough to pique Mum's interest?

"This is very nice. I like its size and design; it looks very clean and tasteful. That screen is really nice too, and I like all the cookery tools and news applications are on there. I really like looking up songs on YouTube too so it's good that that is in there too. It's a bit fiddily for me though; I don't want to have to swipe through loads of screens just to make a call, and I don't think I'd be able to figure out the internet settings stuff by myself. I can see why people would like it, but it's a little bit too complicated for me to have more than just a passing interest in."

Amazon Kindle 3G - £152 from Amazon

The wave of tablets that has washed over the tech world in recent months has done little to dent the popularity of Amazon's Kindle ereader devices. The 3G version is the top-spec model, offering a free mobile internet connection and book downloads straight to the device without the need for cables. But will it convince Mum to drop her paperbacks?

"At first the way the screen turns black before every page turn was quite off-putting, but once you get used to that quirk, the Kindle is great. I much prefer buttons over touchscreens, and the way you can buy books straight from the reader is a great idea. It's light too, and a good size for taking out; I could see myself happily reading on this in the park. The Twitter and Facebook bits don't interest me much, but I like how you can search for information on Wikipedia with it, as I find that website very useful."

Robert's colourSTREAM DAB and Internet Radio - £189.95 from Amazon

With thousands of internet radio stations, an iPod dock, USB port, DAB capabilities and a colour touchscreen, the Robert's colourSTREAM radio is one of our favourite music-boxes out there. It's not without its flaws though, and Mum is quick to spot them.

"That touch screen on the radio was a chore to use. It often didn't do what I wanted it to, or was too slow to react to things I thought I'd already selected. I don't think I'd be able to connect it to the internet by myself either, and some of those menus are full of things that I'd never use, like the sound settings. The number of radio stations is incredible though, and I like that I'm able to plug an mp3 player in (via a line-in port - Ed.) if I wanted to. It looks great, but it's just too much like hard work to use for me."

Apple iPad 2 - starting at £399 from Apple

The iPad 2 needs no introduction, being the top tablet on the market at the moment. Access to thousands and thousands of apps, equipped with dual cameras and significantly lighter than its predecessor, this dual-core sequel is a showstopper. Mum's smitten, but will the price tag sway her choice?

"This is lovely. It's like the iPhone but bigger I suppose, but I'd feel far more comfortable sitting down with this than the phone because of the size. The screen is nice and easy to read, and I like the App Store and iTunes and all the videos and simple games there are on them. It's a pity lots of them cost a couple of quid, especially since this thing costs so much money. You shouldn't spend over £500 on a gadget unless you're really going to use it a lot, and to me I could find plenty of things more interesting for that amount of money. I can totally see the appeal, but this is a sort of special gift, the kind you should reserve for Christmas or my birthday."

Mum's Verdict: Kindle 3G takes the crown

With all five gadgets tested, Mum goes for what many would consider the underdog of the pack - the Kindle 3G.

"They've each got little things I like and don't like about them. The Nintendo looks unlike any screen I've ever looked at, but I think it'd hurt my eyes after a while. I'm never really going to sit down and play Mario or whatever on it either really, am I? I like how much you can do with an iPhone, especially YouTube videos, but it looks like all the best of those app things have to be bought afterwards and I can't be bothered spending more money on something once I've already paid lots of money for it in the first place. The same goes for the iPad, though it's far too expensive in the first place; anyone spending that much money on me for Mother's Day needs to get their head checked. The Robert's radio was really good actually, but I've already got a radio that suits me fine, and the touchscreen wasn't as good as on the other gadgets.

"The Kindle would probably be the one I use most often I think. You don't need to faff around with it like the others to get it to work, and the screen was the easiest for me to read. It's a shame it isn't in colour, but I like how simple it is to use and how light it was too. I feel like there's less I could do wrong with the Kindle, and it'd probably make me read more because of the text size choices. The price is reasonable too. If the iPad was cheaper I'd lean towards that, but I think the Kindle is enough for me."

So there you go; if you're looking for a techy-toy for your old dear come this Sunday, it appears the Kindle 3G may be the gadget of choice. The iPad 2 is a close runner-up, and if money is no option, that too is more than worth a look.

This great photograph has just landed in the Shiny mailbox - a tricky photo to take, requiring a top-end camera, surely? Apparently not. This picture was taken using a mobile phone, specifically the Nokia N8. The photographer is Jason Hawkes, a professional aerial photographer who has created an image series for the Nokia HD Horizons project. "By its very nature, aerial photography is very difficult to do, so we're pushing the limits of this camera as far as we can go," said Hawkes about the 12-megapixel phone camera. But it's fair to say phone cameras have come a very long way - begging the question: does this spell the beginning of the end for compact cameras?

Technological convergence - such as putting a camera on a phone - could see other familiar devices become redundant as well. We make some suggestions below for items that could go the way of the Betamax:

- Compact cameras
If the Nokia experiment is anything to go by, compact cameras are marked for death. Not to mention the hassle of transferring photos from them - shouldn't they have web capability by now, so we could just move pictures directly onto the internet?

- Sat-nav devices
Google Maps does this for free now - there goes the market. For the moment the likes of TomTom can still differentiate themselves by adding 'clever' navigation that avoids tiny roads and traffic traps, needed by professional drivers. But Google is probably working on that.

- UBS sticks
Fiddly little things, always breaking apart in you bag too. It's all cloud now - the big USB stick in the sky - and we like it.

- Video cameras
Again a market where a mobile phone will probably be enough for most of us: the amateurs and holidaymakers. Battery life may be an issue for any significant amount of filming, but that will change in time. In the future, top-notch batteries may threaten the music player market too, as your mobile will have enough juice to keep the tunes coming all day without running out.

- Chargers
Forget the universal mobile charger (by the way, what's taking so long on that? Heel-draggers.). It's going to be wireless charging in the future. LG has already started working on a charging pad, where you put your device on top of it for charging, not to mention Powermats and Duracell's myGrid. How efficient.

Name: Transcend GPS (Zeal Optics)

Type: GPS-enabled snow goggles

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £449.99 from Firebox

Zeal Optics are really upping their game with their latest pair of ski-googles, the Transcend GPS model. With a whole host of location-aware features, these shades are one-part eye protection and one-part fighter-pilot HUD techy-goodness. But is the addition of a screen little more than a novelty, or a full-blown Robocop-on-the-slopes experience?

As a straightforward pair of ski-goggles, the Transcend GPSs are surprisingly comfortable. Despite the added bulk of the onboard screen tech and battery, they manage to sit snugly on the head without little noticeable neck strain from the extra weight. A fully adjustable elasticated strap means the headset will fit over most helmet and head sizes, with rubberised grips to stop them slipping.

Two lens options are available; a fixed tint SPX set or adaptive SPPX lens which changes depending on conditions. It's not as varied a range as you'd get from regular ski googles, but as we're going to explain, these are no regular ski-shades. Plenty of air gets behind the well ventilated frames, and our sweaty testing session produced little fogging on the inside of the goggles.

The magic lies with the 320 x 240 resolution display that sits in the bottom right corner of the Transcend GPS goggles. This will pump information including GPS location, temperature, altitude and speed into the goggles, allowing you to keep track of your performance on the snow. At first I was a little disappointed with the placement of the screen. I'd hoped for a wider view of the information directly ahead of me rather than tucked away in the corner, but in all truthfulness, it's probably for the best; lots of information flashing up unavoidably in front of your eyes would likely make you a danger on the slopes. The goggles themselves do however make you lose a tiny bit of peripheral vision.

The bright screen is easy to read despite its small size, helped along by a sensible array of icons visually describing the many features included. Three chunky buttons on the side of the goggles, easily pressed with thick gloves on, let you scroll through and select menu options including a speedometer, current and average speeds, altitude levels, a stopwatch, environmental temperature and coordinates amongst others. It can take a while however for the goggles to catch up with dramatic changes in your movements; slowing down suddenly doesn't always see the corresponding figures appear on screen, and we'd imagine the same would happen were you to (heaven forbid) fall off a cliff with the altitude monitor.

Tracking our movements reasonably well then, the GPS system onboard can be hooked up with a PC software suite called Recon HQ, which is arguably the best part of using the Trancsend GPS headwear. Pulling the GPS data from the goggles via microUSB, it uses Google Earth and a proprietary tracking system to display your runs through the Google mapping service. It's an excellent way of showing pals the details of your trip, including your statistics at specific points along the route, making it a great tool with which to plan your next outings.

You'll get 6 hours worth of use out of the Zeal Optics Transcend GPS goggles from a single 4-and-a-bit hour charge, which should be enough time for a day's worth of play. The goggle's premium price tag also allows for another luxury to be included; a hard travel case that will protect the lenses when not in use or when packed away in a suitcase.

Verdict:

There is no denying the Zeal Optics Transcend GPS goggles are a niche purchase, not least of all because of the whopping price tag attached to them. Regular skiers may do better to snap up a cheaper pair that allow for a wider range of lenses to be used, as well as being a little lighter on the head. Having said that, the Transcend GPS goggles are comfortable to wear despite the tech inside, and there's an undeniable sci-fi charm to being able to measure your speed and then download your journeys once you get home. Half a grand's worth of charm however takes quite a passion for both the slopes and tech to stomach though, and we're expecting only hardcore geek-skiers to be donning these in Aspen next season.