The Vertical-Mouse is a silly looking thing.

Last month we reviewed Microsoft's Bluetooth-enabled keyboard and mouse (January 2002, page 52), and at $399 we deemed it more worthy as a Bluetooth starter kit than a wireless keyboard and mouse kit.

Microsoft's hardware division pumps out some excellent keyboards and mice, and from the latest refresh of their range comes the evocatively named top-model Optical Desktop Elite for Bluetooth.

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 Athlon64 has only been out a short while, and although it's an excellent processor, from all accounts it's not selling as well as it should be.

The Mega 2801 has one of the coolest features seen on a HTPC: it lets you play CDs (but not DVDs) without the computer turned on. It has two red buttons on the fascia that let you choose between CD or PC.

Never judge a book by its cover, they say, and nowhere does this apply better than to the Nokia 9210i Communicator.

Why bother buying a big screen that takes up part of your wall, when you can buy a cheap projector and take up the entire wall?

Although the Tablet PC was launched with much hype and fanfare, many media outlets have been sceptical as to the validity of the technology. However, the experience delivered by using a Tablet PC firsthand, for any length of time cannot help but impress. I myself went from cynical observer to total convert after trialling three tablets.

There's no denying the appeal of broadband internet access and yet for a smart country Australia has been falling way behind our international counterparts.

Voice recognition is the holy grail of computing: the ability to walk around your room and dictate to your PC is an attractive one, however the real experience with voice recognition is far different.