Tech & Gadget Stream

Love spending plenty of time in the bathroom with your favorite tunes? Unless you have piped in music as in hotels and other posh places, surely you won't risk electrocuting your iPhone or iPod in there, right? With the iDuck Wireless Speaker, this problem is solved - plug the transmitter into your audio playback device, and it will automatically broadcast all your tunes to the duck. The duck is powered by a quartet of AAA batteries (will it float then?), while the eg (transmitter) runs off three AAA batteries. £24.95 is required to help you make your bathtime a whole lot more relaxing.

Sound Blaster for iTunes from Creative Labs. Sounds like something we all want. I know I do. It wirelessly streams your music to any room of your home where you have a Creative Wireless Receiver connected to speakers or the new GigaWorks T20W speakers, which have a receiver built right in. The Sound Blaster for iTunes transmitter (the USB device) will be $99, the Creative Wireless Receivers will be $69.99 and the GigaWorks T20Ws will be $129.99.( If you already own the Gigaworks speakers, as I do, you just need a Creative Wireless Receiver that you plug into your current speakers via line-out.) Available in the Spring.

Want to create your very own Wi-Fi hotspot and share that HSPA broadband connection with the rest of your mates? Well, Option is offering an, er, option, in the form of its Globetrotter III wireless router. This device comes with USB connectivity that enables users to hook up external hard drives for data back up purposes or even to share content over the Wi-Fi link. You can even connect a printer so that everyone who has access to the network will be able to kill a few more trees with their freshly printed reports. There is one cable to contend with though - the all important power cable, and the Globetrotter III's functions can be accessed through the integrated color display. Option has opted (here I go again, playing on the same verb twice ) for Qualcomm's 7225 chipset to run the proceedings, capable of touching download speeds of 7.2Mbps and upload speeds of up to 5.76Mbps. Those residing in the US will be pleased to note that the Globetrotter III supports Advanced Wirele...

Some people are so obsessed with beauty, it seems. Take the STC Wireless Router from Saudi Telecom, for example. Now how attractive could a wireless internet router get? Pretty much eye-catching, is what one would conclude looking at this one. The uniqueness quotient? The router not only sports the regular wireless internet, Voice over IP, land-line telephone and wired DSL but also doubles up as a flower vase. According to the designers, the ratinale behind this exclusive design came about because " Saudi Telecom was in need for a unique router design that would provoke a positive emotional response ". Some thinking, that. It might require a bit of re-conditioning for most folks to get used to a wireless router that looks good as well, but then who wouldn't want to use some harmless camouflage to spruce up a gadgety interior?

Not so long ago the only way to share your music with the great outdoors was to lug a ghetto blaster around the garden or buy a really long cable for your stereo speakers and pray for dry weather. But not any more, because the nifty Wireless Solar Speaker renders the aforementioned practices obsolete. Simply plonk this discreet device on the grass or hide it in the hedge and its 5w speaker will pump out up to 70dbs of punchy music al fresco. How? Easy, because the speaker itself contains an eco-friendly solar panel to charge the onboard battery directly from the sun's rays and an accompanying mains-powered transmitter plugs into your MP3/CD player/radio and beams the music to the speaker from up to 150ft away. Brilliant! Whether you're chillin' in the garden, partying on the patio or boogie-ing round the barbecue, the Wireless Solar Speaker is bound to become an indispensable outdoor accessory. Yes, you can listen to your MP3s outside via headphones but that's no good w...