LIKE DOGS, techie toys are not just for Christmas. So while cupboards around
the world bulge with gadgets bought on a whim and discarded once the novelty
value has worn off, it doesn鈥檛 have to be that way. Here are a few more durable
trinkets.
Philips has a neat solution to a perennial problem. MP3 coding compresses
music into one-tenth the space of a CD. But memory cards for portable MP3
players cost tens of pounds. Mini Discs are cheaper, but PCs do not easily
record MP3 files onto them, and while you can record onto standard 12-centimetre
CDs the players are too big to be really portable. Philips鈥檚 eXpanium is a
useful compromise: an MP3 player, costing around 拢150, that plays only
8-centimetre CDs, making it small enough to fit in a pocket. Most PCs can record
up to three hours of MP3 music onto one of these. SVP Communications
(www.121cdr.co.uk) sells the blank discs.
Surprisingly few people have another useful little gadget. It鈥檚 a 鈥渃assette
adapter鈥� that lets any portable music player, or pocket computer, connect to a
car stereo without the need for any connection socket. The adapter is a dummy
cassette with a lead that plugs into your computer, or whatever. It contains an
electromagnetic coil that converts the audio output from the portable player
into a varying magnetic field. Slotted into the car stereo, it fools the stereo
into thinking it鈥檚 playing a tape, so it converts the magnetic signals back into
audio. Some accessory shops sell the adapters. Mail order specialist Greenweld
(www.greenweld.co.uk) has them on special offer at around 拢6 (Ref
ST0017).
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Satellite broadcaster BSkyB points the way to the future of TV with Sky+, a
combined digital satellite receiver and hard-disc recorder. Sky+ costs
拢300 plus 拢10 a month subscription, but some people won鈥檛 mind
coughing up the money because it has two digital tuners and can record one
digital TV programme while the viewer watches another.
The hard disc can also record the programme being watched, and go on
recording while playback is paused鈥攕o you can answer the phone or take the
dinner out of the oven. Playback starts again where it left off. Sky+ is also
the first device of its kind to record the raw digital signal. Other systems
decode to analogue, then recode for recording, and decode again for playback,
losing picture quality in the process.
Not all tech toys are expensive and electronic. One grows wild and free in
the sunny Seychelles. Patience trees (Xilocarpus granatum and X.
moluccensis) drop nuts like tennis balls. These soon fall apart into half a
dozen interlocking woody segments. Each segment from every nut is different,
creating Mother Nature鈥檚 version of Rubik鈥檚 cube.