I love the idea of the digital photo frame gadgets that are around. The flexibility that they bring to a multimedia device stretches from playing audio, to playing video to the more feature rich units that let you surf the net and send e-mails. One company has added another feature to its photo frame that makes it the security centre for your whole house. The TRENDnet TV-M7 Wireless IP Monitor is a device that lets you view your photos and monitor security cameras.

This gadget has a 7-inch LCD screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It will allow photo formats of bmp and jpeg and video formats of mjpeg, mpeg-1, mpeg-4 and H.264. To hold these files it contains 512MB of flash storage which can be expanded through the memory card reader that is compatible with MMC, Duo and Pro memory sticks, SD and XD.

On the security side, cameras can be bought with this photo frame as a kit making it suitable as a start-up kit. It can connect up to 16 cameras wirelessly allowing you to display 4 camera feeds at any one time. The cameras themselves can be connected directly to your router with a cable or connect wirelessly, but the photo frame can only connect wirelessly.

This device comes with a remote control allowing easy navigation of the options on the screen.

There are many of you, me included, that have not replaced your old TV with a flat screen LCD TV yet. Although the new TVs are pretty cheap now, I don’t see the need to replace the one I’ve got while it is still working well. Gadgets, gaming consoles in particular, now run games in HD, which I and many others won’t benefit from because of our old TVs and to be able to play the consoles through your PC monitor to get the full HD experience requires adaptors that reduce the image quality. One such device looks to improve on the adaptors out at the moment and goes by the name of Castrades Game Box.

The gadget will support consoles like the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2 and other older systems that are still around. The resolution that it will provide is 1920 x 1200 or WUXGA giving a great experience by anyone’s standard. The Game Box will also accept audio inputs from console connectors and will even output the sound to a 3.5mm jack.

Looks-wise it is in the mould of a Wii with its sleek lines sitting well with your existing equipment in its upright position. The control buttons sit nicely on the side of the unit.

No price or availability has been release yet, but this could tide me over until I get a new TV.

As long as music has existed it has had the ability to change or compliment our moods. When we are in the gym and our heart is pumping, we like to play fast tunes and when we are at home and relaxing on the sofa, the more mellow tunes are chosen to aid our relaxation. However, this all involves us remembering the fast and slow tunes and then scrolling through the playlist to find the right ones.

A new concept gadget looks to resolve this problem by measuring your heart rate, using that as an emotional indicator and selecting the correct song to play along with it. The Kokora concept comes with a Polar Heart rate sensor which sends data to an iPod and selects the correct song to go with your heart rate.

You can wear the Kokora all the time which means it can monitor and create the right playlists throughout the day. Whether you are pumping iron down at the gym or sunbathing on the beach, you can get the perfect collection of music played to you without touching your iPod.

There is no news on whether this gadget will make it to the shelves, but what a great device to compliment our lives and aid us in any activities we take part in during the day.

Portable Media Players are becoming ever more popular with the media hungry public. The ability to be able to watch music videos or your favourite TV programme on your gadget to fill the time during a boring train journey on the way to work is the ideal antidote to the coming working day. A British company called Sonix7 are now challenging the big boys with their Sonix7 Media Pro and offering features that surpass their competitors.

The company have produced a head to head table with the Apple iPod Nano and it shows a significant difference in features. First off it comes with a 3.2 inch touchscreen compared to a 2 inch for the Nano. This screen also provides the input for the controls. The Sonix7 Media Pro comes with the following that the Nano doesn’t; a digital camera, it can be used as an e-book reader and has a built in speaker.

Sonix7’s gadget can support more audio and video formats compared to the Nano, but probably the most significant improvement over the Nano is the battery life. The Nano will play music for up to 24 hours and video for 4 hours. Sonix7’s media player will play music for 30 hours and video for an incredible 20 hours.

This is all very nice, but what about the price. Well the 8GB version is £90 and the 16GB is £105, around £40 cheaper than the Nano. Apple could be in for a bumpy ride.

While there are plenty of devices employed by the government to keep track of our movements and speeds in our cars, there is nothing that we are able to access. When we are involved in an accident, for instance, we can’t call on this technology to prove our innocence. Ideally we would have a little gadget that sits in the car recording everything. For those concerned parents, they would be able to find out how their child drives their car and where they go to after they had just passed their test. The X-Driven Vehicle DVR can do just that.

This is a gadget that sits on your windscreen and has two modes of recording. The first is the accident/event mode that detects an untoward event with an impact sensor and then saves the images before and after the incident. The second is the manual mode where the recording is activated by the driver. To store the recording there is a slot for an SD card with a capacity up to 2GB.

The internal GPS module allows for the recording of stats such as speed, position and route. The device itself has a 1.3CMOS megapixel camera and will save recordings in MPEG 4 in 3 different image qualities up to 1280 x 960.

Most people like boiled eggs whether they are soft, medium or hard boiled: a nice start to the day, especially on a cold morning. Now to get the egg to how you like it can be hit or miss unless you have an egg timer, but the trouble with egg timers is that they are all so dull. You set the timer to count down and wait. All you get when it is ready is a beep. Where is the fun in that? Where is that something from your gadget to make you smile in the morning? Thankfully, the BeepEgg can provide that little bit of amusement in the morning.

The BeepEgg is the size of an egg and needs to be stored with the eggs. When you want your breakfast, stick the eggs you want into the pot of water with the BeepEgg. The internal thermometer of the gadget keeps track of the temperature of the egg and the surrounding water. When the egg gets too soft boiled you will hear the tune “Killing Me Softly” from the BeepEgg, when it gets to medium, “I Wish I was a Hen” is played and when it reaches hard boiled the tune from the X-Factor, when the judges walk on the stage, is played.

To show it is working the BeepEgg beeps when the water is about 45 degrees and again when the water is boiling.

In many a mansion across the land sleep is ended by the soothing tones of a butler. A few choice words to ease the gentry from their slumber go down a treat to usher the new day in. Not everyone can afford a butler, but with a bit of imagination you can pretend that voice you wake up to in the morning on the radio is your servant. Failing that you could always grab a gadget called the Deluxe Voco Clock.

This modern alarm clock brings the sound of your personal butler to your home with the voice of Stephen fry. He has recorded nearly 150 different wake-up messages to help you get up in the morning.

The initial sound you hear when it is time to get up is a bird song, followed by a cough before Mr Fry begins his messages. The first you will hear is a “Good morning Sir,” followed by a host of amusing sayings. Here is just one: “It is impossible to say why your shoes have not been polished in the night. I can have the boot boy flogged for indolence, if you wish, Sir”.

As well as wake up messages there is a 90 second relaxation message with 3 minutes of New Age music to soothe you off to sleep.

This gadget will be the closest most of us will have of owning a butler.

When the sun shines in our wonderful country during the summer months, which isn’t very often these days, those avid sun worshippers are straight out there with their tops off and shorts on soaking up as much of the rays as possible before the dreaded rain clouds start to gather. The trouble is, as we are told so often each year, the sun can be harmful to our skin. Those deadly UV rays can shrivel our dainty white skin before its time. We need some gadget to tell us when it is safe to go out and the UV Monkey can do just that.

The funnily named device is a key fob sized UV ray detector. It displays the results with a purple scale. Just expose it to the sun for a short while and you will know when it is safe to take in some rays. The scale corresponds to the warning scales used in the national forecasts. Because of its size you could easily carry it around on your keys and so have it to hand any time of day.

The same people who made the PowerMonkey solar power charging device made this gadget and if you have the PowerMonkey you can determine how long it will take to charge it up using the UV Monkey by determining how strong the UV rays are.

The data we create today is becoming more and more important and none more so than for those that travel on business. While they flit between laptop and PCs the data is forever changing with additions and deletions, so keeping these files backed up is essential. Now for your average laptop user backing up files can be complicated, with so many backup applications and gadgets available with their intricate instructions it can all be confusing. Not so with the Clickfree Traveller Automatic Backup Drive.

This small device comes in the shape of a credit card and can easily be carried in your wallet. It is designed to make things easy, so when you first plug it in you will be asked what you want to be backed up. Once this short step is done, the next time you plug the device into your laptop it will backup the files or folders that you selected initially without your intervention.

The solid state backup gadget comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB sizes giving you plenty of space to store your files and it connects to your machine via the USB port. It is compatible with PCs and Macs.

The 16Gb can be had for $80, a little pricier than some similar sized backup devices, but for the convenience of just plugging in and knowing your files will be backed up automatically it has to be worth it.

I don’t drink coffee myself, but when I am at work I constantly hear colleagues bemoan the taste of the supplied coffee. For some reason the instant coffee that we have doesn’t produce the sort of flavours that you get from the local coffee shop or from your coffee machine at home. The result is a trip out of the office to get a better tasting drink. This need not be the case anymore because a desktop gadget can solve your problem and it’s called the Desktop Coffee Machine.

Plugging into the mains, the device sits nicely next to your monitor with a size of just 14cm x 20.5cm x 18cm. Just buy your favourite coffee beans and enjoy your favourite flavours without having to leave your desk. No more getting caught having to make umpteen cups of tea and coffee when you fancy a cup yourself. Fill it up and let it gurgle away finally ending up as a refreshing and stimulating drink.

This Coffee Maker comes with two small coffee mugs, a filter, a scoop and a set of instructions.

Unless you want the exercise or like instant coffee, this could be a great addition to your working tools to help you through the day.