What makes PDF (Portable Document Format) unique is that it can provide an exact electronic replica of any document from any application on all major platforms, including all text, graphics and fonts. It’s an amazingly flexible format with a myriad of uses ranging from electronic manuals and e-books, through secure document exchange and archiving, to multimedia presentation and high-end commercial print.

Two of the oldest standards in the book join forces to try and spell the end of long, expensive VGA cable extensions.

Cheap meats effective in this scalable, rackmountable, professional KVM switch.

Modern photo management software that offers surprising power, especially considering it’s free.

ViaVoice Web is a voice recognition package designed especially for Internet users. It links into email programs, both Netscape and Microsoft Web browsers, chat programs and includes special Web oriented jargon to make it much easier to take voice recognition onto the Internet.

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.

A great scanner, but the poor printer and lack of networking limit its appeal.

A worthy update to the most underrated of the Office applications — OneNote is now a must-have.

Impressive widescreen quality for an attractive price.

Sci-fi strategy with a killer twist. Imagine any creature, make it, and send it into battle.

An older router missing a couple of key features, but worth considering for a small office equipped with older and slower Wi-Fi and Ethernet equipment.

This is a pretty decent little webcam – it's just that, without games to fool around with, it feels like a low-end PC webcam plugged into your Xbox. EyeToy this ain't

Fast, stylish and crammed with features, but you’ll need a fat wallet to afford it

A phone with a personality crisis, but although it’s no iPhone it makes an interesting choice for business users

Grouper is an all-in-one filesharer, that facilitates both private and public sharing.

Type: HandsetPrice: TBASupplier: Netcomm

It may not be the most elegant way to pair your iPod and phone with Bluetooth, but it works well.

A rewritten front end makes Excel’s significant power far more accessible than before.

McAfee puts out its VirusScan 2004 in two versions - boxed or downloaded and managed from the internet. Whatever way you do it, the installation is simplicity itself with no difficult questions to answer or confusing choices to make.

PowerPoint was already the class leader, and it just got better, most notably because you can now embed video playback in full-screen mode while still in slide show view.