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.

This USB dongle from MSI, like the dongle from Booya, proved a tiny USB device could deliver equal or better performance than you can get from a PCMCIA or PCI card.

Offering 40GB of storage, the Iomega drive is very small for its capacity, measuring a mere 8.89 x 7.37 x 1.27cm. It weighs just over 99 grams, which means it's unnoticeable in your pocket. The internal drive is a 40GB Hitachi TravelStar C4K40 -- a new form-factor hard drive, measuring a mere 1.8 inches across (a normal notebook hard drive is 2.5in, a desktop drive 3.5) -- and only about 7mm thick.

The HomePlug networking standard has been around in the States and other countries for a few years, and has proven a popular alternative to running CAT 5 cabling in your walls or for the (then) expensive cost of setting up a wireless network. HomePlug is wired networking for sure, but it uses an existing infrastructure in your office or domicile: your copper electricity power 'network' that feeds your TV, hair-dryer, fridge and any other electrical appliance the juice it needs to run. In short, HomePlug uses your house's electrical wiring.

We've traversed the acronym laden landscape of VoIP for you, and present you with the PC Authority guide to VoIP: what it is, what kinds of services you can find, what savings you can expect to make and how it is that you can go about setting up VoIP for yourself at home.

The USB Nebula DigiTV box has the best tuning abilities of the external devices tested, and it has some basic but good software to go with it.

The small USB S-Media MediaMate 210D is a fairly hardy TV tuner, with some basic software but enough to get the job done.

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.

Designed in Melbourne, the Century CD can store up to 100 discs but instead of using the shelf-like arrangement of the Fortuna (reviewed March 2002, page 90), the Century CD sports a turntable arrangement reminiscent of old carousel slide projectors.

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.

One of the few external DTV boxes, the V-Stream is a pretty capable tuner.

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.

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 JoyBook 8000 marks the first attempt by BenQ to enter what some might argue is a crowded notebook market. BenQ's stance on the JoyBook is different from other notebook manufacturers though, as it won't be selling the JoyBook as 'just another notebook', but will instead market it totally as a digital lifestyle product.

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.

HITACHI DZ-MV208E

If your desk is anything like mine, the monitor is ringed with untidy stacks and toppled piles of CDs. It's not all chaos - there's a chronological order to it - the most recently used discs are those thrown on top.

Type: HandsetPrice: TBASupplier: Netcomm

Another competent adaptor, the USB 1.1 Surecom EP-9001 ran extremely smoothly in our tests.

One of the first USB adaptor dongles we tested, the Booya BWSU25 offers USB1.1 connectivity with Windows Plug and Play compatibility.