An inexpensive audio interface that lifts the podcasting fidelity bar out of the world of cheap plastic microphones.

Just a couple of years ago, the PC speech recognition and dictation market saw four key players jostling for position, but today the contest is just between IBM and one other player, Dragon.

We audition the first entrant in our Bluetooth A2DP lineup.

The Creative Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1 is the latest sound card from Creative Labs, the company that has dominated the consumer-level computer audio card market for most of the last decade.

It may look distinctively call-centre-ish, but it's hard to ignore quality when you hear it.

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.

Voice E-mail is an add on to Maxiworks E-Mail Express (sold with the program). Priced at $32.95 without a microphone, or $49.95 with, there is no doubt that the program delivers what youd want in an email package, but there is a lack of sophistication thats generally expected in todays programs.

Great image quality and a good range of features make the MSI a real bargain.

They may be extremely comfortable, but there are quite a few flaws in Creative’s Fatality branded gaming headphones.

Good things often come in small packages and that's the case with Sony's PC108E. It is only fractionally larger than the JVC GR-DX77 (the smallest camera in the lab) but weighs in 65 grams lighter. Sony has kept it compact by providing a separate docking station that contains the USB, DV and S-Video ports. There also are AV and additional microphone connectors on the camera itself.

Just how high end can a Bluetooth headset get? Very, as it turns out.

Plantronics aim to impress with comfort, build quality and audio fidelity. The sights are off, but by how much?

Selecting a winner from the 11 cameras in the lab was not an easy task. While there was a $1300 variation between the cheapest and the dearest, the difference in quality and features was not as obvious. For example the Samsung D701i, which was the cheapest of the cameras, had more features than some of the cameras that were several hundred dollars dearer. The only problem was a question of reliability because the first unit to arrive at the Labs was inoperable.

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

It’s what the professional audio market has to offer podcasters and budding musicians -- but quality comes at a cost.

Creative’s exclamation mark naming returns in a webcam that really doesn’t deserve it.

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

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

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

Great quality and decent software. But at this price, it isn’t the best value.