All the time the Sagem MyDual Radio700 is powered up even without a station selected the front screen will display a small top line of year, date and day with a large (four time the size) bottom line showing the time in 24 hour format. It is 20x10x14cm maximum, the right side is the larger being circular and the single speaker with a fine silver/grey mesh the rest of the unit is grey. The display is 7.3x3.

Many more years ago than I care to admit, I would often record music direct from a radio using a reel-to-reel tape recorder for my own listening pleasure.  Today you can be more selective as you automate the process using software and your hard disk storage capacity. Up until very recently I thought that a 43-character serial number was one of the longest I had encountered and rather excessive.

As one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services, BT has recently expanded its range of broadband services with the launch of its BT Total Broadband Anywhere product.  Not surprisingly, due to the way service providers attempt to ring-fence their customer base; this product is securely tied to the various BT Broadband service options currently available.

La Fontera and Hawkings Antenna Email is one of those services that we take for granted - almost everyone uses it. On the road though if you want to access email you either have to find an Internet Cafe or pay an exorbitant fee for the privilege, either using a WiFi hot spot or (slowly) via your mobile phone.

When you have influence it is always best to go straight to the top.  This was the approach adopted by BT when presenting new products to the press recently.  Where better to site this occasion but at the top of the BT Tower with its fast lifts taking you to the top and down again. Naturally, being BT, new phones were high on the agenda of new products.

I used to pay £24.50 a month for a phone line and cable TV, for the last year or so this has been discounted to £16.50. The phone line I used little as originally it was for fax and now I tend to scan and send by email. So when after the NTL takeover by Virgin and prices were commoditized and finally the TV 'medium' pack was changed to the 'large' pack I took the plunge and upgraded.

This cordless phone from US Robotics (USR) is stated to have ten hours of talktime and one hundred hours in standby. Do not be put off by the array of cables when you open the box. The five pages in English at the start of the Quick Installation Guide make most things clear and the only problem I had was physically switching the phone off - I do not mean ending a call - as this was not described correctly.

I can only talk about the experience from a Skype users point of view as I do not use any of the other VOIP products but reading the instructions I am lead to believe it will be much the same. This solution needs either a Windows 2000 or Windows XP system. If you already have Skype installed just plug the phone into a USB port - either USB 1.1 or USB 2 - and after a few seconds it will probably say installed but you need a reboot.

Let's face it, we all want more. It doesn't matter whether we talking about speed, quantity, capacity or whatever type of measurement you care to think of, the very fact of human nature means the desire is there except perhaps when it comes to waist size and those final demands that mistakenly get pushed through out letter boxes.

The is 45.5x32x17cm and this includes the power and USB leads inserted. Perhaps it's the lack of height that makes it appear small, certainly it would fit on most shelves  without any problem. You only ever need access to the front. The paper sits in a drop down tray - face down - and is delivered face up on a shelf just above.