If you’re looking for compact alternatives to the Quicktime and Real media codecs, look no further than here. You’ll still need a player that can cope with Real or Quicktime, but that shouldn’t be too hard to find.

The Ergotron peeps have a nice set of stands for LCD flat screens, including the Deskstand 100 which can hold two monitors in a vertical alignment. Well someone must need that type of configuration, no?

The new Canon SmartBase MP390 is one of those know-it-all, do-it-all gizmos. 4800dpi bubblejet printer, fax, copier, 2400dpi scanner, direct printing from digicams using a single USB cable and PictBridge technology – big breath – plus an integral 6-in-1 flash memory card reader for added luxury. Also contains photo optimisation software. Available from next month for �199.00. Fully loaded!

So one moment mobile phones are declared potentially unsafe by a Swedish research team and the next we hear that they ‘appear to be safe’. Can you folks please make up your minds?

OK, I admit it, I’m almost from the Easy Rider generation. So if I was man enough to ride a motorbike – which I’m not – I’d love to own one of these works of art. Sad I know, but oh so shiny-chrome beautiful.

The NaviiON Pro is a bicycle computer on steroids. Not only do you get the usual stuff like distance, speed, clock et al, but also a simple point to point navigation system, voice recorder, altimeter, temperature, training diary and ride history. Uses compact flash cards, runs off two AAA batteries and is priced at around $239.00 excluding mounting. I get tired just thinking about it.

What is it with cyborg professors? First the rather scary publicity hound Kevin Warwick and now Steve Mann. However some of the ideas are interesting, especially this ‘augmented reality’ concept, where the heads-up display turns ordinary billboards into information delivery screens.

The Nimble V5 is a teeny PC that features video conferencing capabilities, Internet sharing and silent running (wish the Web site was!) in an elegant box the size of a paperback book. Priced from around $499.00 excluding monitor and operating system.

Yes, the Philips Key019 is a keyfob camcorder. No I don’t have any shares in Philips. Yes I do think it’s somewhat amazing that you can store 24 minutes of MPEG4 video footage in a device almost the size of my thumb.

The Social Grid is a ‘search engine for friends, soulmates, classmates, roommates, job listings…’ Apparently it uses Google, Grid computing, P2P (peer to peer) and file sharing. The only thing missing appears to be drunken party recommendations. For simple searches, we leveraging Google ability [sic] to search 3.3 billion pages efficiently…For complex searches, we leverage grid and peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, using geographically distributed computers, unified to create a supercomputer for solving data intensive computing applications.

Ferrety reader Rob points me towards the free and rather spiff JAlbum web photo album generator, and I have to say I’m hooked. Lovely design, great features, simple to use. And did I mention free? Magic. [Thanks Rob!]

Question: When is a sewing machine not a sewing machine? Answer: When it’s an Intel Inside, Microsoft Windows CE powered embroidery maestro hiding under the Bernina Artista name. Complete with CD ROM drive, optional Internet access via modem and a USB port. Sure it looks like an ordinary sewing box, but it’s probably got more computing power under the hood than the Apollo moon lander. Hear that sound? It’s Isaac Singer spinning in his jenny right now. Sheesh!

The KB2105 USB Docking Keyboard from Parex is a pretty neat toy that combines a vanilla keyboard with 7 USB ports which can be configured as cradles to take a PDA and/or things like games controllers, webcams or a memory card reader. No more nasty cables snaking all over the desk, eh?

OK so now it’s official – ‘Eastman Kodak Co. on Tuesday said it will stop selling traditional film cameras in the United States, Canada and Western Europe’ The King is dead. Long live the King!

Artistic duffer me. Can’t paint to save bacon. But now don’t have to. Virtual Painter lets me turn my duffer digital photos into works of….ahem….art. No really. It’s v. cool.