Jo Whiley’s Hot 5 gadgets
At 12noon today on I'll be chatting with Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1, counting down my Hot Gadgets of The Now. As usual, I'm going to do my best to avoid
1) Apple iPod Shuffle 3G £60
Don’t be fooled by the ‘3G’ name – this isn’t the world’s tiniest phone, it’s just the third generation of Apple’s minimalist MP3 player. Despite being shorter than a stick of chewing gum – and only slightly thicker – the Shuffle can hold around 1000 songs on its 4GB memory. And don’t be fooled by the lack of buttons or screen – the controls are built into the earphone cable and the navigation is aided by a computerised voice which acts like a robotic DJ, telling you what track is playing and allowing you to skip through playlists. The new iPod Shuffle is a marvel of engineering – it’s just a shame you have to stick with Apple’s bundled earphones to use it.
2) LG Arena £from free on contract.
The closest anyone has got to the iPhone yet, the Arena is a slick touchscreen mobile with a distinctive 3D interface. Unlike the iPhone, the Arena can capture decent quality 5MP pictures and exceptional video – it even has a slow motion feature. The music player sounds good, and the 8GB of onboard memory (enough for about 100 albums) can be updated by microSD cards.
3) Ministry of Sound iPod Speaker Dock MOSAS085IP £120
We’re rather taken by this iPod speaker dock at work. It’s not, to be honest, the best sounding dock for the money – that award belongs to Logitech’s Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 – but it makes up for its audio deficiencies with a very fetching blue display wrapped around its belly, which shows you artist and song title information in letters large enough to be visible from the other side of the room. Which means no matter how obscure the music, you always know what’s playing – without the shame of having to ask. It doubles as an alarm clock, too.
4) Toshiba Camileo S10 £130
Last year i brought the cheap-and-cheerful Flip videocamera in to show Jo Whiley, which inspired Lily Allen to buy one and start posting videos. Well, hopefully the Camileo S10 will inspire even more slavish devotion from the celebs out there, as it’s the same price as Flip, but is smaller, sleeker and – incredibly – captures video in high-defintion. One word of warning – hi-def isn’t always flattering, so you better make sure you’ve put your slap on before firing the Camileo up…
5) Samsung Beat DJ £to be announced
This music phone is controlled by a 2.8in touchscreen, and allows you to remix up your favourite tunes by adding scratches, sound effects and even your own voice. It’s potential to annoy fellow bus passengers is enhanced by stereo speakers powered by an amplifier from the audio wizards at Bang & Olufsen. And if you’re forced to turn the music off, you can amuse yourself with the built-in GPS and a 3megapixel camera.
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
