"Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea." Anonymous When I suggested to my colleagues at Gadgetspeak that we should look at toasters and kettles, I didn't realise quite how much toast I would have to eat, nor how much tea would be involved!! But we do like to be thorough for you, dear reader. A piece of toast is not just a piece of toast to the British.

For many the mere mention of the name Rupert Bear will bring back memories of early childhood.  This cartoon strip and annual book character was a stable diet for the young with stories and adventures based in Nutwood.  Now, as often happens, this popular paper-based character has re-emerged in digital format on CD-ROM with Rupert Bear Nutwood Games available from Avanquest Software Publishing Ltd.

click to enlarge The iPod Touch arrives in a fairly small package, sporting John Lennon on the front. Inside the box you'll find the device itself, Apples hallmark white headphones, white USB cable, a docking adaptor to allow the Touch form factor to work with the existing range of iPod accessories, a cleaning cloth and a tiny perspex stand.

click to enlarge This phone has a huge TFT and as soon as you use it you think why don't other phones work this way. The controls are minimal and that means the screen icons often have more than one level of action. However most actions are intuitive so you should - even without a manual - manage to find you way about. The dimensions are 10x5.5x1.5cm and it weights just under 100grams. As stated there are few buttons. The face has three answer, cancel and end.

About Time First the 14+ claim this is I think simply because the questions are not that easy - well I did not think so anyway - and to have a chance to enjoy the game you need to be able to get a percentage correct. It is all about 'Iconic Events' and when they took place. The game is for at least two players but it states 2-20 players. You could play in teams with teams always being able to confer.

How small is small?  Some would think that an atom is small enough to satisfy even the most demanding when it comes to the lack of size classification.  I mention this because the Atom is the name that Intel has bestowed on its new purpose built lower power mobile processor.  An Intel Atom processor N270 (1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB and 512KB L2 cache) sits at the heart of Acer's new Aspire One product which is described as being the company's first Internet device.

This is a very dark grey unit with a silver flash and silver ring round the lens, it is 9x6.5x3.5 when switched off. The 3.5cm width doubles when on full zoom. It weights around 175grams. For a camera with potentially so many plus points to find it is powered by two 'AA' batteries is unexpected.

photos were all filed in virtual albums on the Photobox in a the passworded account I created earlier. click to enlarge On-line Digital Photo Printing from Photobox You know the story.

By bundling together three software utilities, Avanquest has created Perfect Image 11 Backup & Protect Suite.  The titles involved in this suite are Perfect Image 11; DiskCopy & Clean; and AutoSave 2.  This collection of titles is aimed at providing the means to deal with different aspects of hard disk management.

As part of the Reload White Label, : Two Treasures is available at the (plus £2.99 shipping) Software Publishing Ltd.  As the title suggests this Ascaron developed game involves pirates and all the different types of activity normally associated with this seafaring, criminal element. Tortuga bargain basement price of £4.99 from Avanquest The game, which requires both ActiveX 9.

As always first the dimensions, the Rev120 is an external USB2 unit but it will work on USB 1.1 drives. It is 19x10x2.5cm with the USB lead and power lead inserted. The actual cassette that pushes in the front of the unit is 1cm thick and 7.5x7.5cm. Like all drives the actual and stated space differ, it is stated as 120GB but the actual available space for files is 111GB.

Pzizz $49.95 (around £25.00) available from www.pzizz.com I don't have a sleep problem, no honestly I don't.  Ever since having babies I have been able to grab sleep when and where I need it - it's a gift from Mother Nature. But I do suffer from interrupted sleep thanks to my husband. When he gets particularly stressed or has an important football match the next day or is worrying about work he wakes up in the wee small hours of the morning.

Several years ago, when I had fewer grey hairs and a slimmer waist line, two companies went head-to-head with products designed to create documents in digital format enabling them to be read by everybody in their original state.  The eventual winner was Adobe with its Acrobat product and PDF format while the WordPerfect offering disappeared into obscurity.

The Canon PowerShot A580 is 9x6.5x3.5cm, the last figure is maximum and only applies at the right side where the pair of 'AA' batteries are. When the lens is extended in use the total width is 6.5cm. The plastic case is a silver/grey colour with the shutter release and lens surround in chrome. Quite unusually for a small digital camera it has a viewfinder and for those who still prefer this there are not many near entry level offerings that have them.

Visual Basic 2008 Even for a speed reader this tome will take a while as this Programmer's Reference by Rod Stephens is - wait for it - 1262 pages long. Although it is published in the UK by the same company that produces the Dummies series this certainly is not a book for anyone who does not know a good deal about Visual Basic. To give you what I consider is a good example the first 908 pages (covering 40 chapters) are the meat of the book.

While inkjet printers can product excellent results with regards to quality, the running costs of such a device can quickly mount up as replacement cartridges are required on a regular basis.  An economic and viable alternative, especially when colour is not called for, is a desktop mono laser printer.  Compact in size, a fast print speed and quality output plus high capacity toner cartridges all add to the appeal of such a device.

Most of the modern breed of Digital TV's are more of less the same to operate. Plug in the mains lead and your aerial and then switch on. If it's new then it should offer you the chance to scan for channels, if not you need to enter the menu and maybe search a bit for the option. Some scan both Digital and Analog at the same time others like this you need to scan twice.

The LINDY USB DVB-T Receiver product has been designed to enable users to receive free-to-air digital TV and radio content plus record programmes direct to a hard disk.  Contained within the bubble-style packaging is a SV DVB-T 3420 USB stick coloured black and white; antenna; adapter for use with a roof-top aerial; USB extension lead; remote control; and software CD.

Bringing together three titles from the Blitzkrieg series is the appropriately named Blitzkrieg II Anthology.  This product consists of the Blitzkrieg II game and the subsequent offerings of Liberation and The Fall of the Reich as you take part in historic battles of the period. Using a front-end menu, you can select from the various games making up this anthology.

click to enlarge The Acer Ferrari 1100-704G25Mn weights a tad over 2 kilos, it is 30x22.5x3cm and totally matt black apart from the silver Acer name and of course the yellow Ferrari logo on the lid. The screen is 26.5x16.5cm giving the diagonal 12.1 inch screen measurement. A quick tour round the unit finds two USB ports, Express Card slot and an Ethernet port on the left side. The rear has AC adapter input, VGA output and a PS/2 port.