Lavish Laptop

Powered with a 120-Mhz Pentium processor, the ThinkPad 760 features the largest colour laptop display on the market (12.1 inches) and a keyboard that pops up for easy typing. Load it with two hard drives to provide a massive 2.4 Gbytes of storage, or put in a couple of long-life batteries and use it on your next jaunt across the Atlantic. The built-in CD-ROM drive, 16-bit audio capability, and MPEG2 chip all help the ThinkPad 760 prove that mobile computing can be just as high-powered as your home box (if not more so).

ThinkPad 760: £4,500 to £6,000. IBM UK: +44 (0345) 727 272.

  Flattest, Squarest Tube

Clean up your desk with the Module-Executive, a large, flat tablet with a built-in colour touch screen, stereo speakers, microphone, touch pad, and smooth, surface keyboard. With a polished aluminium frame and treated polyester-polyurethane surface, the PC-compatible Modula is built to withstand heavy use - and it sure looks a lot better than a bunch of input-output peripherals cluttering up your work area.

Modula-Executive: US$3,500. Source Innovations Inc.: +1 (310) 988 6574, fax +1 (310) 988 6570.

  Daylight Darkroom

Free yourself from the darkroom. On location or at home, the Daylab II Slide Printer turns any 35mm slide into a colour Polaroid print. And because this 6.3-pound portable enlarging system is entirely self-contained, it'll do the job in broad daylight. You can preview and manipulate slides before printing, and the exposure control and colour balance facilities make sure that even an 8-by-10 print will come out looking good.

Daylab II Slide Printer: from US$325. Polaroid (US) +1 (617) 386 5841.

  Stare with Style

These cute binoculars, are rapidly becoming de rigeur for US rock stars at major festivals. With an ergonomic right-hand-free design and a durable elastomeric rubber grip, the compact VU Points are unequaled for outdoor concerts, where audience members are usually more fun to watch than performers. The ruby-coated lenses and 8X magnification ensure a crystal-clear view of whatever captures your voyeuristic fancy - keep one eye out for a possible tie-in with the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament next summer.

VU Points Compact Binoculars: US$129. VU Points: +1 (508) 921 1101, email vupoints@aol.com.

  VR Vehicle

The problem with desks is that most of them weren't designed to be used with computers. Enter Ilkka Terho and Teppo Asikainen, young Finnish desigers who've created the Netsurfer, furniture made of plywood and steel pipe that looks like it's moving at the speed of light. Sit down, lower the arm rests, and hike your feet up on the adjustable pegs. Then boot up and go to work with the built-in keyboard, mouse, and joystick - while the speakers pump sound into your head. Crash helmet and seat belt not included.

Netsurfer: from US$4,8000 to US$8,110. Design Finland: +1 (310) 659 2075.

  See Like Seurat

The PV-DV1000 from Panasonic is no doubt the first of many digital video camcorders to hit the market. It features image resolution that's 50 per cent better than a standard TV broadcast. Image-stabilisation technology ensures smooth pans, and a 180,000-pixel electronic viewfinder gives you a crisp image. It even records CD-quality audio, all on a compact digital videocassette. And because everything is recorded digitally, it's easier to transfer to your PC.

PV-DV1000: around £2,500 (expected UK launch in summer '96). Panasonic UK: +44 (0990) 357 357.

  Copernicus on a Chip

Point a telescope at a random spot in the night sky and take a look. If you're lucky, you might see a planet. Most of the time, it's just another star, which never looks any bigger than a tiny speck anyway. You need the preprogrammed, computer-equipped, motor-driven LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. With an onboard database, the LX200 can automatically point to any of 64,350 heavenly objects.

LX200 16-inch: £15,815, 12-inch: £4,837, 10-inch: £3,320, 8-inch: £2,858. Telescope House: +44 (0171) 405 2156.

  It's Routing For You

That Darth Vader is a real slob. Look, he threw his breastplate down next to all our expensive computer equipment. He could've broken something with his carelessness. Next time I see him, I'm going to take away that light sabre and stick it up his... What? You mean this is our new Netopia Internet router? The high-performance ISDN Net access router that connects our LAN to the Net? If you ask me, it sure looks like space armour... Let's not mention this conversation to Mr. Vader, OK?

Netopia Internet routers: from US$1,000. Farallon Computing Inc.: +1 (510) 814 5000, fax +1 (510) 814 5023.