G-Spot: The latest tech.

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LC70

The DMC-LC70 from Panny is a 4-megapixel digital camera with a dry cell battery drive that allegedly uses 45 percent less power than its LC43 predecessor. The LC70 has a lovely Leica (DC Vario-Elmarit) lens, a 3x optical zoom and a new "Eco Mode" whereby the usually power-sapping LCD viewfinder sucks up to 25 percent less juice. The camera can snap images up to 2,304 x 1,728 dots and will take just over three frames a second in continuous mode for up to 10 shots. The LC70 is pitched to be "beautiful and long-lasting" and comes with a 16MB SD memory card.

More Info: http://panasonic.jp/dc/lc70/index.html

Evergreen EG-D700

The EG-D700 is a portable DVD player with a 7-inch widescreen TFT display. The battery will last for three hours, and the machine will happily play back DVDs, SVCDs, music CDs, video CDs and CD-R/RW discs. It's also compatible with MP3, WMA and MPEG 1 and 2 files recorded onto discs. Connections include S-video, composite, digital and analog audio and a headphone socket, plus there's a remote control for when you're just too lazy. The EG-D700 is finished in a smart matte black. Its dimensions are 190 x 143 x 26.5mm, and it weighs just 630g.

More Info: www.everg.co.jp/

Seagrand X-Bar

Seagrand's new little widget is a "USB-key"-style flash memory portable audio player nicknamed the "X-Bar." It plugs directly into a USB port on your PC or laptop, removing the need for annoying cables. You're looking at a frequency response of 20Hz-20kHz, SNR of 95dB, a 128 x 32 dot LCD display, and support for WMA, MPEG and MP3 files. There's an SD memory card slot on the side and also a built-in triband FM tuner. Files are transferred at up to 10Mbps via USB and, of course, you can also use the gadget as a portable hard disk to transfer files from your digicam.

More Info: www.seagrand.co.jp/prod.html

Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse

This boasts the new-fangled "tilt wheel" wizardry. The tilt technology apparently supplements your regular up-down scrolling action with new, side-to-side scrolling action -- indispensable for accountants, apparently, or for viewing really wide Web pages. The full names of the two mice are (take a deep breath): "Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer Night Vision Green" and "Wireless Optical Mouse Groovy Orange." Unfortunately, I think the new "Night Vision" IntelliMouse is so-called only due to the color scheme, as it wasn't produced by the Pentagon.

More Info: www.microsoft.com/japan/

RWC ZVAV-100

The ZVAV-100 portable AV player is dubbed the "Arex PocketMX," and it's available next month for almost no money at all. The incredibly cheap ZVAV-100 has a 2.5-inch TFT screen and an SD memory card (or MMC) slot, uses USB 1.1 and plays back MPEG-4, AVI, DivX (hello peer-to-peer naughtiness!), MP3 and the company's proprietary HHE files. All your portable audio visual needs satisfied. The machine is powered by a Motorola DragonBall i.MX CPU, weighs a pocket-friendly 125g and comes with Windows image editing software. And it's nearly free.

More Info: www.rwc.co.jp/

NHJ VTV-101

NHJ has just produced a TV in a watch. The VTV-101 has a 280 x 220-dot, 1.5-inch TFT screen, with dimensions of 45.7 x 18.2 x 49.4mm. The reflective TN LCD also shows the time, channel, battery power remaining and volume level in the upper corner of the display. The earphone cord acts as the antenna for the television, and there's an earphone socket so you don't disturb too many people on the train. Power is supplied by an internal, rechargeable polymer battery and lasts for about an hour, although you can attach an external power unit with alkaline batteries.

More Info: www.nhjapan.co.jp/prod/vtv101