Over the last few years there is no doubt mainstream PCs have leant increasingly towards visual applications. The power of visually communicating has grown in acceptance as more and more products and applications reach fruition.

The 207MW may be bandwidth hungry, but image quality and features are superb.

Canon's new 600i series of digital video cameras doesn't offer any major changes to the 500i series, just a continuing improvement in quality and a few nice extras. The cameras still look the same and are just as easy to use, but the new top of the range 650i is about as good as you are going to get in its price range.

Hitachi pioneered the concept of recording digital video direct to DVD . Now into its third generation of DVD cameras, a few competitors have appeared on the horizon with its first generation models

A superbly packaged do-everything mobile workhorse that will appeal to business users and gadget freaks alike.

The Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 is a CCD webcam with some grunt – it's capable of capturing video at 640x480, images at 1280x960.

Webcams have been around for some time and they are now emerging as a truly accessible and useful device.

Digital video is a rising star, with DV camera sales increasing from year to year and digital software sales to consumers and enthusiasts alike also on the rise. It's a welcome trend, to be sure, but with all such trends there is a widening gap between the digital haves and the have-nots, with no easy way to share video between.

A well-rounded business phone that’s far smarter than it looks, offering 3G, Wi-Fi and more.

A minor update to the W800i, this phone boasts a wealth of features and an intuitive interface.

A decent software bundle, but has a low resolution and no integrated microphone.

Fixed focus and average video quality mean the well-featured Logitech looks expensive in this company.

Ever since the mid-1990s, a variety of manufacturers have been attempting to find a reliable way to turn your PC into a television – without a huge amount of success.

A laptop backpack that's touch, water resistant, and good enough for hiking or walking around town.

An inexpensive 10.4" digital photo frame from Alsotech, the Ultraview boasts DivX video playback, mp3 functionality and USB.

The fish-eye effect combined with substandard audio and poor software makes the Swann one to avoid.

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

Like the Panasonic LF-D521U, this DVD-RW drive is a generation behind the newest ones on the market. As such it lacks a lot in burning speed – in fact most of the newer models on the market are twice as fast.

In the mid-1990s a debate raged over whether we would eventually end up watching television on our computers, or whether television would take over from the PC. In 1995 a PC called the MyGeNie went on sale boasting that you could watch TV while you worked...