That's what we have on offer in this months member prize draw. That's right - the new, vastly improved iPod Nano. Before the Shuffle came along the Nano was the baby in the family. It's growing up now. No longer limited to playing your favourite music, the new version does most of the things the big grown up iPod Classic can do:

• Plays your favourite music (of course!)
• 2" 320x240 resolution screen - gorgeous according to Steve Jobs
• Play videos
• Play games - it comes with three pre-installed and you can download more from iTunes
• Apples new user interface - making it so simple to browse your content

With all these new capabilities you're going to need more memory so the new Nano comes with a minimum of 4G bytes - the same amount as a DVD.

If you want to know more take a look at our round up of the new iPod family.

Sound interesting? We thought so. We've ordered one for this months members prize draw. It's silver with 4G bytes of memory. The draw is open to all GadgetSpeak members - and anyone that would like to join. Just make sure you're receiving our email updates and include your name and 'phone number in your profile. As long as you've done that - just log in at least once before the end of September and that's it!

As a special bonus this month we 're giving away three runners up prizes of the execllent Logic3 i-Station speakers - great for listenning to your iPod without headphones! Not got an iPod? No problem - these speakers use a standard jack-socket so you can plug in the MP3 player of your choice!

We all love our latest gadgets and gizmos, but these days the environment is always in the news and is something for which we should all try and do our bit. There are plenty of little things we can do - as we're often told - unplug products rather than leave them in standby, replace incandescent bulbs with low-energy fluorescent. How much does that save though? It's difficult to know.

A new product arrived on our mat yesterday that aims to put your efforts into perspective. It's called the OWL. Being a little different from the usual gadgets we have I was keen to have a play, so avoiding what I should be doing I took a closer look.

There are two components - a sensor and a display. The two communicate wirelessly and the display is big enough to see across the room, and reacts in real-time. You can display your usage in KW (bit abstract, but think about 100W light bulbs), Kg of CO₂ or, if you really want to know, enter your tariff and see how much money you're burning each hour. Unless you've done everything you can to reduce your consumption be prepared for a shock - we were!

This little gadget is going to have a more thorough test over the next few weeks and we'll bring you a full review! In the mean time if you'd like more information pop over to the OWL web site.

Here's an interesting promotional video we received recently - what to do with a spare fire-hose!

In this case the intrepid fire-crew aim the high pressure hose at an LCD screen and let loose. This tough little beast takes the full impact of the best the hose can deliver unscathed!

Of course - there is a more practical application for these screens than just letting the fire brigade have a little extra practice!

With the smoking ban now firmly in place in the UK very many pubs and other venues are keen to keep hold of their clients - smokers included. One of the most common attractions of course being major sporting events, and with the Olympics once more firmly on the horizon these screens provide an ideal solution : large site LCD screens that are resistant to the best the UK weather can through at them!

Of course, whether there are enough hardened smokers out there that are as weather resistant as these screens is yet to be determined! Great for summer showers though - not sure about an English winter!

They are available in a range of sizes between 26" and 55". If you want to know more then take a look at their web-site : http://www.aquivo.co.uk 

Hi,

My name is Andrew Taylor and I must admit, I think this website is tremendously interesting to someone such as myself.

Although I am sixty-seven years of age, I just love playing with "toys" and, since I descovered eBay, am even making a little money. Buying low, and, through my wordiong of the auction, selling high. I buy a gadget, play with it for a month or two, and then sell it on, to another big baby :-)

My wife is also a lot happier.

I used to be an IT Journalist so am reasonably technically minded, but prefer to write in simple laymens terms. I also used to be the editor of Connectivity so some of the older amongst you may remember me.

I will write reviews of between an A4 page to 3 A4 pages, and will use the blog for shorter descriptions and any new gear I see around.

I don't mind publishing my email if people want to wrote to me and, although I have excellent anti-spam facilities, I don't tempt providence so my address is andrew (dot) taylor (at) veritasparty (dot) com.

I hope to be back often.

Andrew Taylor.

For those new to GadgetSpeak - welcome. For our many repeat visitors and members - welcome back!

As a thank you to our existing members - and to anyone else that want's to join, from August onwards we've launched a monthly prizedraw. We want to keep in touch with you and tell you all the news from GadgetSpeak - so as long as you're receiving our email newsletters/updates all you have to do is log into GadgetSpeak at least once within the month.

This months prize is an Apple iPod shuffle - great for taking up to 1Gbyte of music on your travels.

There will be a new draw each month - and we're planning other exciting competitions in the coming months - so if you're not a member then come join in the fun!

If you've already joined, but not logged in, make sure you log-in at least once each month to be entered into this great prize draw!

It's almost the end of August, and we've managed to get most of the changes we'd planned onto the site. I thought I'd summarise the changes we've made in this blog entry. We'd love to hear your views on the changes we've made so please leave a comment!

• Recently blogged, our monthy prize draw - this month an Apple iPod!
• Appearance - our updated design!
• Product categories - helping you find similar products
• Special offers page

Our new site design!

The most obvious change is the appearance of the site, which hadn't changed since we launched. While we've kept the colour scheme, we've removed the left-hand column and the banner. We think the result is much cleaner, giving a lot more space for content and saving you having to scroll so much!

Product categories

Ever wanted to find similar products? Now - when you read an article you'll often find two additions to the page. The first is a box titled 'Reviews by Category'. A Canon printer might for example list 'canon printers', 'inkjet printers', 'photo printer'. Click on one of those and browse related articles.

The second box lists reviews from the category we think you'll be most interested in.

Special offers

This is still new - and we're hoping to add many more special offers as and when we find them. The offers aren't from us but from particular vendors. We'll list the ones we find that we think are most applicable to GadgetSpeak members.

Take a look at our current offers page