Spys like us
Here's another good reason not to misbehave at your upcoming works Christmas party. Scheduled to go on sale next week is the SpyPen, a tiny digital camera squeezed into a slim upright frame not a great deal larger than an average ball-point.
The SpyPen takes and archives low resolution (352x288 pixels) images which can then be transferred to a PC via its accompanying software and USB cable. It will also record a few seconds' worth of moving images.
Blackmailing opportunities should ensure that the £70 outlay for one is easily recouped.
More details are available from www.spypen.com To buy one visit www.digital-ps.co.uk.
Krafty keyboard
Good news for handheld PC owners who still can't get their heads round their device's handwriting recognition systems. Coming next year is a fabric keyboard accessory for palmtops which can be rolled up for easy storage.
Developed by UK company ElectroTextiles, the Elektex keyboard can apparently be folded, washed and even sprayed with coffee and still continue to function. The design the company recently paraded at the IT Expo exhibition at Cannes actually wraps around a palmtop to provide a protective case.
Although ElectroTextiles hasn ot yet signed on the dotted line with any of the handheld PC operating system owners, it remains confident that the Elektex will be on sale in spring or summer. It is quoting a price for the keyboard as $65 (or around £40).
DVD double-act is a Christmas cracker
Christmas will come three days early for Japanese video fans. Slated to go on sale on December 22 is the RD-2000, the world's first pairing of a DVD recorder with a hard disk drive.
The unit allows users to make temporary video recordings on to its 30 gigabyte hard disk and then, if they find something they want to archive, transfer the footage to a DVD-RAM disc.
There's also a Just mode, where image quality is determined by the amount of space left on the DVD-RAM disc. Other facilities include pausing and instantly replaying live TV, the option of creating on-screen thumbnail images for each programme recorded and playback of pre-recorded DVDs and CDs.
The price for the unit is expected to be 270,000 yen (£1,750). Toshiba currently has no plans to sell the RD-2000 in the UK.
A unit that combines a hard disk drive with a S-VHS recorder from JVC went on sale in Japan last week.
