On wandering through John Lewis today I got my first peek at Elmo Live from Mattel. We are big fans of Elmo having had one of the 10th Anniversary Tickle Me Elmo's a couple of years ago that really made us giggle. This is Mattel's updated version.  As Elmo laughs, tells stories and jokes, his mouth opens and closes and his head nods.  He also waves his hands and feet, and sits up and down from a little blue stool.

For Sesame Street Lovers everywhere and kids big and small, the Elmo Live is available from John Lewis for £59.95.

Catch him on-line at http://www.johnlewis.com/230504192/Product.aspx?SearchTerm=elmo

Whilst we don't always agree with the Dream Toys predictions, this is one Dream Toy we would also put on our Top 12.

There's been a definite trend in television to bigger and bigger displays. Various technologies have been used including rear-projection, plasma and more recently LCD. Each has benefits - each disadvantages.

What you're really after though with these devices is a true cinema experience - and at the moment at least the screens are bot not big enough and very heavy. Couple that with the fact you don't want them for all T.V. (Teletubies on the big screen anyone? Enough to frighten any child!).

A great alternative is to use, just like the real cinema, a projector. There are plenty on the market, driven originally for the purposes of generating corporate slide shows. They're bulky though.

This is where Optoma fit in with their new Pico Pocket Projector. Optoma are by no means new to the projector market - indeed the range of projectors on their site is quite bewildering. The Pico is a little different though. You can't really get a feel for the size from the image it weighs a mere 115g and measures only 2" x 4" x 0.5" - it really is pocket size. This tiny little device though is capable of producing a 60" projected image and, when powered by battery, keep that image up there for around 2 hours.

Impressed?

The Optoma achieves this specification through the use of DLP® technology developed by Texas Instruments way back in 1987 (some things take a while to make it to market!). The technology is absolutely fascinating comprising a silicon chip covered in tiny mirrors - up to 2 million. Each of these mirrors is on an even smaller hinge and each can be moved independently of all the others.

An image is created by shining light at the array of mirrors. Each mirror can be turned into or away from the light thousands of times a second. When in the light, the beam is reflected to the lens and hence to your screen. When away no light passes. You can vary the amount of light reflected by the number of times the mirror faces the light. By shining separate red, green and blue lights you can create as many colours as you want. An advantage of this system over other technologies is that the combination of mirrors and light mean each generated pixel can be very close together, rendering a much better quality image for the viewer.

I'm not sure how clear that description is, so for those of you I've managed to lose Optoma have provided a video (originally from Texas I believe) that illustrates the system much more clearly than I'm capable of covering in a few words.

The Pico Pocket Projector is one of the first consumer applications of a technology that scales all the way to full cinema digital projectors. I'm sure it won't be the last. The price will be around £249 when the Pico makes it to the shops from early November. Right now it's so new it's only on the Optoma site as a news item.

Each year the Toy Retailers Association along with the British Toy and Hobby Association make their predictions about what they think are going to be the best sellers this year. Many organisations publish these predictions of course. Dream Toys though has the distinction that the Toy Retailer Association represents over 75% of the toy trade in the UK - they should have a good idea. They also have a pretty good track record in their predictions, although of course it's hard to know whether that's because they know what people really want - or that they really push the toys they have on the Dream Toys list!

The awards are split into six categories of twelve suggestions each. From these an overall "Hot Dozen" are selected.  72 products in total appear on the lists, the individual categories being :

• Boys
• Girls
• TechZone
• Creative
• Games
• Pre School

If you want to see the winners in each list then please download the official Dream Toys announcement (it's a PDF - but it's not too big!).

I will give you the top 12 Dream toys though - with links through to any that we've reviewed. We may well review a few more in which case I'll update this list.

• BABY born® with Magic Potty, Zapf Creation® (RRP £33.99)
• Bakugan™ Starter Pack, Spinmaster (RRP £12.99)
• Ben 10 Deluxe Omnitrix, Bandai (RRP £15.99)
• Catcha Beast, Bandai (RRP £19.99)
• Cupcake Maker, Character Options (RRP £29.99)
• Elmo Live, Mattel (RRP £59.99)
• FurReal Biscuit, My Lovin’ Pup, Hasbro (RRP £149.99)
• High School Musical 3 Musical Dance Mat, Vivid Imaginations (RRP £22.99)
• In The Night Garden Upsy Daisy and Her Chase and Play Bed, Hasbro (RRP £34.99)
• My Life, Flair Leisure Products (RRP £49.99)
• Rescue Pals Swim To Me Puppy, MGA Entertainment Ltd (RRP £29.99)
• Star Wars Clone Trooper Voice Changer, Hasbro (RRP £29.99)

We'll be putting together our our own "what's hot for Christmas lists" shortly so let us know if there's anything your think really ought to be on the list!

It's nice this time of year to look at Gadgets for the little ones in our lives. Two cute gadgets have just arrived in our office.

Teletubby Dance with me Laa-Laa wiggles and jiggles to her theme tune, looking every bit like her television character. She blinks her eyes and dances away when you press her left hand. Press her right hand and she plays musical statues with you.

Teletubby Dance with me Laa-Laa can be found at Amazon for £31.99.

Television Characters Charlie and Lola are bound to be a big hit with the Toddlers this year. Chattering Charlie and Lola sit on their bean bags making jokes and talking about the books they are reading and their spelling challenges. Just squeeze Charlies hand to watch them move and chat away to each other.

Chattering Charlie and Lola are available from Amazon for £29.94.

For those of us old enough to remember Apricot of yesteryear you'll remember a range of innovative, high quality computers with carefully thought out designs (leave us a comment with your own recollections!)

The name disappeared from the UK retail market some time ago with the brand being bought by Mitsubishi. That's all changed now as Apricot returns as an independent UK company once more launching the PicoBook Pro - a competitor in the burgeoning sub-notebook market.

I had a peak at the new product last night and it does look good. Rather than some other competitors Apricot have developed a well specified laptop in a very small form factor. Key features are 60GB hard disk (enough space to actually store your work), 8.9" display, sub 1Kg weight and with a usable keyboard. Battery life is also a usable 4 hours.

To quote Shalid Sultan, CEO of the new Apricot "Many offerings in the sub-laptop market are missing the point. A mobile PC user fundamentally wants to be able to connect to the internet whenever and wherever they are and to be able to use it for a prolonged period of time, without needing to charge the batteries. We have created a PC that is truly mobile and - despite its high quality credentials, functionality and look and feel - it is also affordable."

You can buy the PicoBook pre-installed with either Microsoft Windows (£328) or with SUSE Linux (£279).

We do of course hope to bring you a full review of the PicoBook Pro as soon we can lay our hands on a sample! In the meantime there's lot of information on the Apricot Web-site :

http://www.apricotcomputers.com/

With the recent demise of Evevsham it's great to see ths UK brand making a comeback.

Remember back in the 80s, when everyone wore those cheesy thermochromatic T-shirts? Yes, you know the ones! They were T-shirts that changed colour when subjected to heat. They were called Global Hypercolour and along with goaty beards, big hair and jelly shoes, they were a common sight on the streets of the UK for years. We havent really seen anything as cheesy since..........until now!Brace yourselves, for a new cheesy number has arrived? the T-Equaliser Music T-shirt!The T-Equaliser Music T-shirt is a shirt with a built in sound sensitive spectrum analyzer. As the music beats, the equalizer moves to the beat of the music! Each frequency of music will activate a different equalizer bar, just like the equalizer on your stereo at home! It??s a must have accessory for all concerts, parties or even raves! It has a fully functional Electro Luminescence panel with a battery pack that snuggles discretely into a pocket inside the T-shirt. The end result is a tremendous sound sensitive music T-Shirt that commands attention!T-Equaliser Music T-shirt is light weight so it won't stop you throwing shapes at your favourite parties and once you get all sweaty you can remove the battery pack to give T-Q a well deserved wash! So what ever music you choose to listen to you can rest assured that you T-Equaliser will always rock with you!

Specification :

• The T-Qualizer is made from 100% cotton.
• 1 x Battery pack and sound sensor.
• Panel is powered by a detachable battery pack.
• The battery pack can be unplugged for washing the t-shirt.
• The t-shirt is hand wash only.
• Requires 4 x AAA Batteries (not included).

It's great, every now and then, to find a Christmas present with traditional values.

This week we found out about the special Denis the Menace Go-kart from the Children's Furniture company, made to celebrate The Beano's 70 Years of Fun.  It's a very limited edition - only 70 have been made - one for each Beano year of Fun.

The go-kart comes in simple to assemble kit form and looks very much like the type of go-kart we might have had as kids ourselves.  That was back in the days when Dads had time to make these things from scratch out of the pile of odd bits of wood out back - only this one should only take around 30 minutes to assemble!!  The Denis the Menace Go-kart has an adjustable seat so all the family from the youngsters to the young at heart adults can play together.

If you want your kids out in the open air this Christmas, playing like we used to, then have a look at this lovely product at www.thechildrensfurniturecompany.com . Price £195.

It was our anniversary this week and Screwpull kindly sent us the Screwpull Cork Catcher which we used to prise the cork from our celebratory bottle.

I don't know about you, but I find getting corks off champagne bottles a little scary, and there's always the chance you'll hit a lighbulb or knock over a favourite ornament.  Well this handy, and of course good looking, device helps you uncork your champagne or sparkling wine without fear.  The tall and sleek cork catcher fits neatly over the champagne bottle and with one gentle twist removes and catches the cork.  Mind you, don't shake the bottle first, or you'll still need to perform the old tea-towell trick.  Would make a lovely Christmas prezzie for the person that has everything!

The Screwpull Cork Catcher is available from Amazon for £24.99!

The Good Design Awards (G Mark) is the successor to the Good Design Selection System, which was established back 1957. The Good Design Awards is presented for designs that clearly demonstrate merit in one of a number of categories.

This years 'G-Mark' awards have now been announced and it's good to see some gadgets on the list from some of our favourite companies including Ricoh, Sony and Logitech.

The awards cover the whole of industry, much more than just gadgets, however gadgets were very present in the top 15 awards. Ricoh received a top 15 award for their GR series of digital cameras. I have a fond spot for Ricoh - still owning a now ancient KR-10 35mm SLR - still going strong after 20+ years service. With this in mind it's great to see Ricoh awarded for longevity of design, something very many other manufacturers could well aspire toward! The judges commenting "In the digital camera market, where new products appear in rapid section, this series has always aimed for long-lived design with the high-end amateur users in mind. Ricoh doesn't want its cameras to become mere commodities. I appreciate Ricoh's effort to lengthen the life of their products from an industrial designing standpoint" (read more about the Ricoh award here). It's been a long time since we've reviewed any Ricoh products - I hope that will change!

Sony is also in the top-15 with with their HandyCam HDR-TG1 : "This HD camera incorporates sophisticated functions into the world's smallest, lightest body. [...] This is a video camera that will satisfy a wide range of users" (read the HandyCam report here).

Logitech, another GadgetSpeak favourite was represented with awards for two of it's mice (the V550 Nano and MX1100 Cordless Laser Mouse), an 'illuminated keyboard' and for their 'Pure-Fi Express Plus' - an iPod/iPhone speaker, bringing their tally to 20 awards in the last 6 years. We've not reviewed any of their winning products (yet!).

You can read more about the awards on the G-Mark web-site, be warned though - they are going to win no "good design" awards for their web-site, which is one of the most frustrating I've used!

Here's a lovely website where you can make a little bit of cash on your old CDs. Simply type in the bar code on the back of the CD box for the one you want to sell and it gives you a cash offer. CDs listed are then available for sale.

Details are on www.musicmagpie.co.uk

The service is simple to use. Users go to www.musicmagpie.co.uk and click the “Get cash for your old CDs” button. They then type in the barcode number from the CDs they want to sell. The website will search its database and make a cash offer for each one, with the site buying up to 250 CDs in each transaction.

When the user accepts the offer, they are sent prepaid padded envelopes to send in their CDs. A cheque is issued within 7 days of receipt after each CD is checked against terms and conditions.

When I checked today the site had already paid out over £219,000 to its registered users. So if you want a little extra cash to help with Christmas - or a way to find a cheaper prezzie - this is a great find.