Gadgets with CIARA O'BRIEN
Playstation 3 Slim
The PlayStation 3 may be a great games console, but it still needed tweaking, particularly when it came to looks. The latest version retains all the power of the original while streamlining the size. Most of the changes are cosmetic. The console is smaller and lighter than its predecessor, with Sony trimming about a third off the bulkier format.
Under the hood, there have been one or two minor changes.
The hard-drive capacity has been increased from 80GB to 120GB.
Sony has also added in a new cell processor, which should ramp up the console's speed while cutting down on fan noise and power consumption. Best of all, the Slim comes with a price cut: the 120GB model costs €299.
Samsung Jet
Touchscreen handsets are 10 a penny these days, with many mobile-phone makers trying to out-iPhone the popular iPhone. As the name suggests, Samsung's 3G Jet is fast - quicker than its previous models.
While previous touchscreen phones have been hampered by a time delay in opening applications, the Jet blisters through (almost) everything you throw at it. The touch-sensitive screen can be rotated while typing to transform it into a full qwerty keyboard, albeit a small one, and the five-megapixel camera takes pretty impressive photographs.
Gesture control has been built in to control many of the functions and users can decide which gestures trigger which functions.
The Jet also works with Wi-Fi and has GPS for geo-tagging your photos and manages to squeeze in Exchange ActiveSync into its compact frame.
LG External DVD Writer
Netbooks may be great for carrying around, but sometimes the trade-off between portability and functionality is a little too inconvenient.
One of the main annoyances is the lack of optical drives, making it more difficult to install software, for example.
LG's portable DVD writer solves this problem. The GP08NU10 is a slimline, light- weight external optical drive that reads data at speeds of up to 8x from CDs and DVDs and allows you to burn discs and back up data on the move.
It is portable enough not to cancel out the benefits of a netbook.
Powered by USB, it can be used on the road easily.
The drive also supports SecureDisc, which makes it possible to protect certain discs, and LightScribe, which allows users to label discs directly.
