The VistaLite VL500 series of bicycle headlights has been designed with the latest fad among adrenalin-crazed mountain bikers in mind: night riding. Thanks to VistaLite's Halogen Overdrive technology, the swivel-mounted twin 10 Watt weatherproof headlights produce a whiter, brighter beam, while the strap-on NiCad battery pack will illuminate bumps and branches for nearly three hours. Perfect for midnight blasts down muddy mountain trails - or for blinding thoughtless motorists.VistaLite VL500 series: from £149. Imported by Madison Cycles PLC: (0181) 954 7798, on the Web at www.vistalite.com.
Heard about DVD? If the music business falls into line with movie and computer bigwigs, digital video discs will soon by impinging on our consciousness in a big way. A single CD-sized DVD will hold up to four hours of PEG2-compressed studio-quality video, and players like this one from Sony should be available this winter. Miraculously enough, the players will be backward-compatible, so your current CDs and CD-ROMs won't be rendered obsolete.DVD player: price not yet available. Sony Electronics Ltd.: (0181) 784 1144, on the Web at www.sony.com.
According to my local bus conductor, mobile phones are the very spawn of the devil. Motorola must be monitoring his wavelength, since its Star-TAC mobile phone sets a new standard in unobtrusiveness. Tinier than an audio cassettend weighing less than a CD, it's easily the smallest, lightest mobile available. Even better, the Vibracell silent alert system should ensure that it's also the least irritating to your fellow passengers.StarTAC Cellular Phone: available later this year. Price not yet confirmed. Motorola: (0500) 555555, on the Web at www.motorola.com.
What to do when the novelty of one's yacht wears off? Buy a submarine, of course. US Submarines Inc. produce a range of luxury submarine yachts for the absurdly rich. Relative paupers can make do with the Discovery 1000, a small four-passenger mini-sub, while the truly obscenely wealthy will opt for the Phoenix 1000, a submersible megayacht of palatial proportions.Discovery 1000: US$1.2 million. Phoenix 1000: $75 million. US Submarines Inc.: +1 (360) 466 1090, on the Web at www.cnw.com/~ussubs/.
A brief glimps of the new Powerdesk from Future Electronic Furniture flipped our wigs. FEF's idea is a simple one - computers in boxes on desks are ugly, so why not just make the desk into the box? By plumping all the components into false drawers and providing a swivelmirror-style flat-screen and cordless mouse, that's just what they've done. And it has so much darn space in there, you can build in as many components as you want.Powerdesk: from £1,850 plus VAT. Future Electronic Furniture: (01273) 814824, email 100575.3667@compuserve.com.
Free your mouse from the clutter of the desktop zoo, and return it to its natural habitat: the floor. You operate Hunter Digital's NoHands mouse with your feet; one of the interchangeable pedals controls 360° mouse movement and the other is used for clicking. You can point, you can click, you can drag and drop. Stamping, however, is not recommended.NoHands Mouse: US$259.95. Hunter Digital Ltd.: +1 (310) 471 5852, on the Web at www.earthlink.net/~footmouse.
Ever feel the urge to consult that old Ouija board before making an important decision at work? Thanks to the Ouija mousepad, you can do just that without attracting derisive sniggers from nearby colleagues. The neoprene necromancer should also provoke fond (or otherwise) reminiscences of snakebite-fuelled teenage pseudo-seances.Ouija mousepad: US$16.95 plus shipping and handling. Wireless: +1 (612) 637 4622.
Having tried - and failed - to excite the public with unusual box shapes, crazy colours and numerous other tacky titbits, PC vendors are now racing to bring out machines sporting flat-screen displays. Dual has got its act together early with the LPC-6000; its 12.1" SVGA TFT colour LCD screen cuts down both on-screen radiation and desktop footprint. It's kinda cute too, we think.LPC-6000: £2,024 plus VAT; includes 8Mb RAM, 1 Gb HD, P75 processor and 6x CD-ROM. Dual Technology Corporation: (01223) 576622.