Entertainment

Last years series of articles after the Dream Toys event in the autumn was well received. So in January I went to the slightly different Toy Fair, here are two items.

Bored with the lighting in your house? Lighting doesn't generally get more dynamic than on and off. The Lava Lamp of course introduced the concept of 'moving light', well the 'laserpod' takes that idea and pushes it into the 21st century.

DAB radios are becoming more advanced, features that only appeared on very high level offerings now are available on mid range systems, here the new offering from Pure-Digital the Evoke-3

What do you do in the kitchen? Whatever it is, you will probably appreciate a kitchen device designed to entertain.

This is an MP3/WMA USB player and voice recorder that is aimed at kids. Not only does it have 256MB of built in memory but can also play content on SD/MMC cards.

As SCART becomes the defacto standard for home electronic devices, you could find a product such as Smart-SCART-PLUS useful.

This is three products in one. On the face of it an upmarket Integrated Headset with MP3 player, also an MP3 player with earbuds, finally a rather good set of Headphones.

For those who are fed up being tethered to a headset this solution may suit, however if you work with others they will either have to put up with hearing your conversations or you will need to use an earpiece and that rather negates the advantage.

Earphones are fine for personal MP3 listening but for group purposes you really need a set of portable speakers.

This is a twin tuner PVR (hard disc recorder) with built in Freeview so you can record two channels at the same time, or start watching something from the beginning after it’s started, and, lots more.

If you like Jazz then like me you must enjoy these two offerings from the Naim label the first just released and the second nearly ten years old but still available.

This is more than the title says as it is also a voice recorder, it is also small and gives around 10 hours on a single AAA battery and it is also very light.

You know you love your iPod, so why not make use of it as part of your home stereo system.

Giving ears a rest from headphones might be a step too far for some but Kensington hope its new speaker system might provide a suitable incentive.

First a CD released today and then some recent news of the good things that are available – some for free – in the London area, finally a new EP from Jonny Boston.

To be precise this card gives you analogue and digital TV and just for good measure FM radio all from a PCMCIA card into your notebook.

Fancy a stylish looking DAB/FM unit that also plays CD’s in a quite flat enclosure and all topped off by being in various shades of black.

A string quartet, now you would assume that would be classical, although Naim do a classical section they also have what they call contemporary I just call it good music.

This is described as a portable audio player. Yes it plays MP3 or WMA but it is also a talking stopwatch. It is also shaped rather like an oversized wrist watch.

A lot of people get naff reception for Digital TV so there is still a place for an analogue unit especially when it is USB and not a PCI card.

Want something with Dab radio that doesn't look like it came out of the ark? Want DAB as part of a system with CD player? Want 'stereo' that sounds great? And all at an unbelievable price? That's what we found in the Goodmans Micro 1104SDAB.

This unit is both FM and DAB, it also allows you to replay something from the recent past, in my tests this was up to 262 seconds but this is probably enough for most.

A TV, a Radio, a DVD player, a CD Player and it can also be used as an amplifier. This Roadstar Boombox can do so much from such a small enclosure.

Quite a combination, I first reviewed the iPlayer+ in May, the US Robotics connectivity was immanent but by the time I got the iPlayer+ back it was December and by then a third component.

This looks like a three piece stack system, however it has CD, DAB and FM radio as well as some extra capabilities, a pair of speakers and speaking as a total style nonentity I think it looks good.

This is likely to be my last Dream Toys article for this year as items that have not arrived by now are unlikely to surface, here a handheld Sudoku game plus other Sudoku goodies from other sources.

It’s full name is ‘Goodmans Personal MP3 / WMA Jukebox’ but I think my title tells you more using far less words. It is also a voice recorder.

Although this is a piece of electrical equipment it is not connected in any way to a PC. In fact it looks about the size of an older video recorder but it can store many hundreds of CD’s

Not exactly what you would call a toy but it was on show on the Flair stand at Dream Toys 2005, so something for the much bigger boys – and girls – World Poker Tour, the Tournament Set and just for good measure their Professional Card Shuffler.

This is described as a waterproof DAB radio. Certainly it is ideal for use in a bathroom or other damp environment. The shape is novel with inbuilt handle and for good measure the sound is good as well.