Is Panasonic's new CF-U1 really the toughest computer available? We take it to the Australian Outback for some punishment, including desert heat, rock drops, and H20.

A remarkably tough machine that will endure almost anything thrown at it, although this comes at a price.

A rough, tough laptop with serious attitude, but its keyboard proves an Achilles heel.

Lightweight, resilient laptop with reasonable performance at a price tag that doesn’t break the bank.

An uninspiring board with no strong selling point

The first thing you notice about the Kyocera Samurai 2100DG is the shape of the camera.

The Toshiba e740 (review on the PC Authority Web site) boasted great features such as Type II CF and SD/MMC card slots, and the optional expansion pack which includes a VGA output and USB port, allowing the connection of a keyboard and a projector. The e750 goes two steps further. You can now send 16-bit colour to a projector at a resolution of 800 x 600, and this WiFi version connects wirelessly to a suitably equipped Toshiba projector. Another WiFi enhancement is support for Voice-over-IP with an enhanced microphone socket so a microphone headset can be used.

We’ve had a sneak peak at the big camera expo in Brisbane this week to see what’s in store for photographers this year.

Leigh Dyer explains how to do it, including pairing and sharing Blueooth devices under GNOME.

The tiny Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 1200 is a sleek, portable, flatbed scanner tailor-made for scanning small items with minimal hassle. Weighing in at a tiny 680g with a scan bed of only 10 x 15cm it's perfect for scanning photos. Features include 1,200 x 1,200dpi optical resolution, a USB 2.0 port, CompactFlash card and shared MMC/SD slots. Power is by the USB 2.0 port, or by four AA batteries when unplugged

Very compact and incredibly cheap for an A3 all-in-one, but speed and print quality are only average

While the epithet 'multimedia PC' used to be bandied about to over-hype any PC in the mid-'90's that was capable of playing music, rudimentary video, and games, the descriptive was overused so much on sub-par PCs that the impact of any real multimedia capabilities was diminished in the wash of pretenders.

The Canon A300 is an entry level 3.2-megapixel camera with rather plain specifications and an average range of photgraphic features.

Once the lens shutters are opened, the Canon PowerShot S50 powers up and welcomes you with a tone. Similar to the smaller Canon IXUS 400 in terms of features, it too ships with a 32MB CF card and AV cables. With fairly easy to navigate menus, the S50 also features video capture and a thumb-sliding preview mode.

If you had asked me a few weeks ago what the advantages of eight megapixels (MP) were over five, I would have said very few. However, that was before I discovered the fun factor in being able to play with an image that is up to 115cm by just over 86cm (72dpi).

Sanyos line up of digital cameras falls at the budget end of the spectrum and the VPC-R1 is no exception.With a 1.3- megapixel CCD, the camera is large compared to the current crop of mini-cameras available.

The latest high-tech gadgetry for when you’re tangling with nature

Do you have a business or are in charge of a business’ tech security? Get some tips from PC Authority’s experts.

All the options you could want, although it’s pricey

Along with the Sony Cyber-shot P-93, the Canon Powershot A95 is the big lad of this roundup with a pretty decent 5-megapixel CCD. The rest vary from 3-4-megapixel. While this does give the Canon a bit of an edge over the competition in terms of resolution and functionality, it's the camera's other attributes that cemented this unit in the top three.