The U3 Smart Drive is a USB flash drive with special software that offers this functionality. The U3 Smart Drive is an otherwise ordinary USB drive with the U3 platform pre-installed. This platform is a full-fledged operating system that can run U3 applications installed on the drive. Importantly, all data is saved onto the U3 Smart Drive without leaving a trace on the host PC. Several applications are available for the U3 platform, including the Mozilla Firefox Web Browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, anti-virus programs, utilities, business applications and games.

While many U3 software applications are available free of charge via download, some are sold for an additional fee.

Several manufacturers of USB flash drives offer U3 branded Smart Drives, including SanDisk, Kingston and Memorex. In this article we look at the 2GB Memorex Mini TravelDrive U3, bunled with McAfee U3 Anti-virus, Thunderbird for U3, and Migo for U3.

Asus Computer Company introduced some time ago the attractive and very small notebook, Asus Notebook U2E. The high-end notebook is designed to the highest levels of luxury with shining stainless steel frame in sublime harmony with premium leather of creating an inter play of warmth and coo-high tech aesthetic.

Based on the latest Intel Centrino Processor Technology, Windows Vista operating system, the Asus U2 further offers a 32GB Solid State Disc (SSD) memory module that is lighter and more reliable than standard hard drive while remarkably speed up the computer boot up and consumes less power for longer operation.

The Asus U2 screen adopts a special LED backlit panel that is only 11.1 inch. It operates with lower power consumption and offers better luminance as well as faster response time.

The Philips WACS7000 is Philips second version of wireless music system and it looks pretty much identical to the original, but comes with an higher price tag. In return for that, the storage has been increased from 50GB to 80GB ? enough for up to 1,500 CD's ? the sound quality improved and a nifty new search option added.

Ripping, at rates up to 320Kbps, is simple, but pretty tedious compared to using a PC. Apple's iTunes is hardly known for its whippet-like ripping speed, but it's still five times quicker than this. The Gracenote database is excellent, and it now updates itself automatically when connected to your WiFi network.

The Canon 450D takes over from one of Canon's best-selling 400D, bringing another 2 million pixels, a bigger (3") and much brighter screen and various other improvements. You can get the Canon 450D in body-only form, but unless you've already got some Canon lenses, the camera/lens kit is better value, even though the 18-55mm zoom isn't the world's greatest piece of optical technology.

But you get a good manual and Canon's Digital Photo Pro application for processing RAW files. Personally we prefer the latest CorelDraw/CorelPhoto combination which has also the option to read RAW files.

And you might be glad of it because the Canon's JPEGs aren't as good as those produced by one of the Nikon D60. Up close there's a kind of 'glassiness' to ultra-fine detail, not immediately obvious, but evident if you look hard enough or crop in tightly.

Sometimes it's not just about being the best tool for the job; it's enough that something inspires. The Leica M3's legacy is that, more than any other camera, it made ordinary people want to be photographers. That romantic image of a lone snapper capturing moments of everyday life on the streets of the world is what the Leica camera was all about.

The irony is that most pros actually preferred the more downmarket Leica M2, because its viewfinder was set up for the useful 35mm lens, but the Leica M3 has that slightly more fussy look that harks back to an age of innocence.

And thanks to the digital revolution in the camera world, it's never been cheaper to pick one up and get shooting, preferable while wearing a 50's outfit like a beret with horn-rimmed glasses.

When you wear headphones, you want to hear music. You don't want to hear babies crying, adjacent passengers conversation, engine hum or traffic noise. What's a critical listener to do? Either buy noise canceling headphones, closed cup over-the-head phones or snug-fitting in-ear buds.

Is one choice better than another? Was the ending of the "Sopranos" brilliant or a cop-out?

One side of the argument says noise canceling phones are unnecessary and even destructive to your hearing health. "Noise canceling actually adds more sound into the signal in an attempt to cancel the noise," says our audio analyst, "and adds digital artifacts and hiss to the music."

By opting for closed cup or in-ear buds that seal the ear canal, often called "isolating" earphones for their ability to physically block external noise from entering your head, you can turn down the volume and avoid ending up with a hearing problem.

The Olympus 770SW is a 7.1-million megapixel camera that comes boxed with loads of extras to make life easy and, best of all, not only is it a smashing camera, it's waterproof to a depth of 5meters without a housing. And it's shockproof as well.

Sit on a dive boat and a queue will quickly form to drop your camera once word gets out it's shockproof from a height of 1.5 meters, belief me!

In an effort to prove Olympus wrong, divers and gravity got together to drop it from various heights and angles on to its sides, corners, screen and just about every part of its metal body. Having failed to dent Olympus' claim, we tried to see if it really was waterproof to 5 meters. Subject only to the limitations of sunlight and its little flash, the Olympus took cracking photos in the shallows on the reefs of the coast of Koh Chang.

More and more mobile phones are becoming musical. But most musical mobile phones don't include a 3.5mm headphone jack. They are equipped either with a proprietary jack that serves triple duty as the power and data connector, or a 2.5mm jack.

Neither of these choices are optimal for sophisticated music listeners, now left with a musical phone jack convertor cable: a device-specific adapter that lets you use your own advanced earphones, which leaves you with a tangled mess of cables - or stereo Bluetooth. But is stereo Bluetooth ready for platinum-eared prime time?

Judging by the dearth of higher-end headphone makers in the Bluetooth business, the answer in no. "The human voice is around 1 to 4 Hz," explains our audio expert. "This is the frequency response that most low-end headphones try to capture since it is where the vocals fall. This is also the segment that Bluetooth captures best since it was initially developed for telephone voice applications.

Ipods suck. More precisely, songs compressed into 128 kbps AAC, WMA or MP3 files suck literally. Compression sucks out highs and lows and everything in-between creatively clueless compression algorithms believe is extraneous noise.

So if the music on you iPod is a mere shell out as much as advertised. People don't realize how good their music really sounds. Today's compression schemers are much better than their predecessors, agrees our audio technician. "When MP3 was originally introduced, it was convenient. As it grew in popularity, a growing number of programmers came up with ways to utilize this format spec to reproduce audio in a truer fashion."

Okay, so maybe we've been a bit hyperbolic. So what makes free earphones bad and more expensive better?

Morning are often challenging in an household, beginning with the task of getting out of bed. Whether a person hits the snooze button repeatedly, or, somehow, manages to ignore the buzzer, partners may find themselves acting as human alarm clocks day after day. We wanted to help end that pattern, so we searched for the most friendly alarm clocks.

It is to our experience best you look for a alarm clock which has a large-number time display and an extra-loud alarm. And as extra kicker you can try to find an alarm clock what has vibrating attachment that slips under your mattress and shakes you awake.