Implementing an in-car MP3 player can often mean an expensive overhaul to your audio system, or at the least buying a fiddly, cable-strewn cassette adaptor for an existing MP3 player like an iPod. This assumes that you do have an MP3 player already though.

The major difference with the Net MD MZ-N1 and previous MD players is that it features PC connectivity. The only way you could connect previous MiniDisc players to a PC was either with an optical digital output from your soundcard (and then manually record the audio signal on your player) or by purchasing an expensive accessory from Sony.

A funky set of  Bluetooth headphones. Connect to a variety of audio sources or use the built in MP3 player.

The Nomad Jukebox Zen is Creative-s go at aping the Apple iPod (November 2002, page 40), an MP3 player built around a notebook hard drive, and has done a remarkable job of it.

Excellent audio with a cool factor.

Take a portable media player, add video and sound recording functionality plus a 3.1MP digital still camera and you've got the Richo Vivitar DVR390H.

Although similar products have been available (with much controversy) in the US for a few years, the Samsung DVD-H40A is the first Personal Video Recorder (PVR) to reach our sunny shores.

Taking over on the innovation and user friendliness from where the original iPod left off, the iPod Mini features similar design to the original, but is in every regard smaller.

While not unfamiliar with barebones PCs and small components designed to take your PC out of the study and into the lounge room, the MSI MEGA PC is the first out-of-the-box system we've reviewed that would snuggle right in amongst your hi-fi components.

The key differentiator with the PDA2k over other PDAs is the whopping 128MB of RAM in-built for media and files. On top of this there's a separate 64MB ROM for the OS and an SD/MMC slot for further expansion.

It turns out that Microsoft [I]is[/I] bringing out Windows XP Media Center Edition in Australia, but until such time as it materialises -- and Microsoft Australia is being very sketchy on the dates -- those of us looking to integrate our PC media files with our televisions and hi-fi systems have to turn to bridging solutions.

The iZak is at first glance nothing more than a transparent plastic portable hard drive. It has all of the hallmarks - small form factor, a single power LED at the front and a few nondescript ports at the rear.

The Sony PEG-NV70X Clie marks a welcome shift in the PDA landscape from the Pocket PC, with a few firsts up its sleeves.

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 new Sony Ericsson P910i is the only true phone/PDA hybrid on review in this roundup so aesthetically it marries some of the largeness of a PDA with the slimness of a phone to end up with a unit that's just right: it's not too big and not too small.

Finding a good PC or notebook for the family is not as hard as you might think. PC Authority  puts the latest models to the test.

Digital radio in Australia is a slow burner. While many people are investing in digital set-top boxes and digital displays for the purpose of watching digital TV, not too many people are jumping on the digital radio bandwagon.

The TViX is a fairly small box, roughly about the same size as a good DVD box-set, but inside it's got some amazing smarts. This also technically isn't a media streamer as such - it's more a media cacher thanks to the 80GB hard drive inside.

Netgear's Wireless Digital Music Player, the MP101 is one of the easiest music streamers we've reviewed, but for rich multimedia support you should look further a field especially if you're keen on streaming video to your equipment.

There are many things that are given the 'instant' moniker, but usually products from the IT world are not among their number. Slow PC boot times (whatever happened to instant-on PCs?) and a whole mess of configurations takes the instant gratification out of most technology...