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.

Not all webcams will work in Vista, so we examined three Vista-ready models to find the best.

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.

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.

Garmin’s Nuvi 265W offers a clean navigating experience with a host of useful features and suffers only a handful of small issues.

Smart, clever and capable. A couple of imperfections keep it off the top spot, and we might be tempted by the camera-less S70, but it's a fine choice

The future, they say, is based on the Internet and mobile computing.

Fastest PC

This player has its own speaker which would be handy for instant playback of voice recordings. There is 128MB storage on board, with a MMC card slot, located in the battery compartment. The headphones clip over your ear, and are quite comfortable to wear.

Fastest Notebook

Samsung has made some noise recently about its MP3 players and this example is at the forefront of this product family.

Are you still confused about what sort of camera to purchase? We take a look at some of the differences between stand-alone video cameras and dual-use compacts that promise to do everything. Are video cameras still even necessary? We've got some answers.

Designed with portability in mind, this notebook is slim, sexy and versatile, enabling basic office usage, DVD playback or even some weekend gaming.

Absolutely blitzing the field for performance, no other notebook this month could get anywhere near the PowerNote 258SA from Digital Star, despite many trying. Pushing out an absolutely massive 4216 marks, this powerhouse left a 640 mark gap between it and its closest contender, the Toshiba Satellite A30.

The Targa TMU-401 MP3 player, whilst a little light in on-board storage, outperformed devices with larger storage capacities.

The most expensive camera in this Labs by $100, it outshone the competition in almost all aspects. A real case of getting what you pay for.

This well-priced mini cam fits snugly in the palm of your hand and like any good entry-level camera can even be used by a child. It's just a matter of pointing and shooting which gets points in our books for a consumer camera.

Sony has done a good job of packaging a top quality camera into such a compact size. While it's not the smallest of the Sony range, it'll appeal to those who don't want anything too bulky.

Creative has raised the stakes again with the Audigy, this time from 16- to 24-bit sampling.