Shirts, sandals, swimming gear, PDA. Yes you might be jetting off for warmer climes, but no proper holiday-maker travels complete unless they find a space in their suitcase for the odd gadget or too. After all you've been too busy to truly investigate that high-tech gizmo you treated yourself too for Christmas, so maybe now, with a little relaxation time on your hands, you're ready to get acquainted.
Here's what's heading for the Online virtual suitcase this summer
Music You have to feel a little sorry for MP3 player manufacturers. Just as they seem to be catching up with Apple, the company unveils a new smaller, sexier iPod with even more storage. Prices start at just £250 (www.apple.com/uk).
There are a few potential iPod-busters on the horizon, like Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen (http://uk.europe.creative.com), which offers 30GB of storage at a cheaper price than its lesser-specified Apple rival, but they won't be in the stores until later in the summer.
If you still fancy taking a few CDs with you, then Sony's £150 DEJ2000B is so small and thin it will take up next to space in your suitcase (ww.sony.co.uk). Annoyingly it won't play back MP3 CDs though. For that check out the Iriver Chrome X (www.mp3players.co.uk) which also plays Windows Media Audio files and retails for £100.
If you are taking your favourite discs then TDK's £30 Outloud CD Wallets will not only store them it will also moonlight as a reasonably good sounding pair of speakers too (ww.tdk-europe.com). Alternatively check out Ellula's inflatable speakers which retail for around £35 per pair. For anyone who misses their bass, the company has even added a blow-up subwoofer to its range this year. (www.ellula.com)
Mobiles With most of Europe now offering GPRS networks and camera phones it should be feasible this summer to snap a picture in Benidorm and for it to land on a mate's phone in Barnet.
Well, that's the theory. In practice when we tried to send an image home from France last month, it didn't even reach the channel. Even if you can't send an image to another phone you should at least be able e-mail one to a PC. Check with your networks before you go.
As for handsets, hopefully Siemens' tiny SX1 smartphone will be in the stores soon. It has camera, video, web and e-mail facilities, yet is so tiny it makes its rivals look bloated. Expect it to retail for around £300 (www.siemens.co.uk).
Personal digital assistants (PDAs) You just never know when you might need a contact, or access to your calendar, so don't forget to take your PDA. Palm's Tungsten T is one of most compact models around and as it boasts a Bluetooth connection it is easy to connect to a mobile phone for PDA web surfing/e-mail.
The price is down to not much more than £200 now too (www.palm.com/uk). Alternatively Sony's PEGNZ90 Clie is packed with entertaining multimedia facilities including its superb two-megapixel camera. Shame it costs over £500 (www.sony.co.uk). By the way leave your Wi-Fi enabled PDAs at home. You won't find those type of hot spots in Greece or Turkey yet.
Cameras For high-end snappers it's a straight fight between £550 Olympus C50Zoom (www.olympus.co.uk) and Sony's £600 DSCF717. Both are superb five megapixel digital cameras. The Olympus is more compact, the Sony has the higher feature count. Nikon and Canon both have new top-enders due next month too.
For something more discreet that still takes good pictures it is hard to beat Sony's £250 two megapixel DSCU20S (www.sony.co.uk). Casio's £350 Exilim EX-Z3 (www.exilim.co.uk) is a great alternative as it takes three megapixel images and you can now buy waterproof housing for it.
As for cheapies, the SiPix Groove (www.gadgets.co.uk) takes 1.3 megapixel images, yet sells for around £50. The £80 L'espion XS (www.boysstuff.co.uk) is also worth a spin as it is housed in a sliding polished chrome casing. It also boasts a neat infrared facility that covertly takes a snap of anyone who passes within five metres of its sensor.
Video For the first time this year you'll be able to lounge by the pool and watch the TV programmes you missed while you were packing. Coming shortly from Archos (www.archos.com) is the AV320 cinema to go player.
Well actually it's a hard disk device with 20Gigabytes of storage. Just like Archos' previous model, the AV120, it can record and store video from with a PC or a TV. Only this time the AV320 has a reasonable sized 3.8inch screen so you don't have to squint to watch it.
Using MPEG4 video compression you can store up to 80 hours of video on one player. That's enough space for the entire Carry On Series or every episode of Big Brother. You can also store music or images. No news on price yet.
