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All the best from Gizmoville

Tasty gear for the discerning punter

Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, while Bayraider keeps tabs on the best and worst of eBay. Here are this week's top picks:

Obligatory iPod Accessory of the Week: iGuy

iGuyYou love your iPod. You really do. It is more than just your music player – it is well, your bestest friend. And wouldn't you like to be able to play with your little buddy, and I don’t just mean twiddling his scroll wheel or tickling his select button?

Now’s your chance as bonkers company Speck has come up with iGuy, a bendy plastic casing for your iPod with arms and legs that turns him into a toy not unlike Morph, best buddy of BBC stalwart Tony Hart. Should you get the urge you can bend iGuy's arms and legs, hang things from him, and err, that's about it. There's currently a model for the standard sized iPods, but a mini is apparently on its way later in the month. It’s yours for $34.95 from www.speckproducts.com.

Traditional 'how did that get on eBay' Story: Lifesize Batmobile

BatmobileWhen we're buying a new motor, we have three criteria in mind. One: does it go from 0 to 60 pretty rapidly? Two: can it take a knock? And three: is it kitted out with loads of futuristic weaponry in order to foil the nefarious plans of the evil Penguin? We don't find many suitable models... But that's changed now, thanks to the person who's selling a lifesize Batmobile from the Batman Forever film. Bayraider reports that the only downside is that it doesn't actually drive, but hey, that's a surmountable problem, as is the pricey $19,000 starting bid...

OTT Designer Gadget: Dontella Versace Nokia 7270

Versace NokiaThank heavens for fashionable charity events. Not only do they raise awareness and funds to help make the world a better place, but they also give the fashion hungry the chance to indulge their addiction guilt-free. Case in point, the Dontella Versace Nokia 7270. Sure, 799 EUR is a lot to drop on a folding-mobile, even one with a designer name and a hand-strap dripping with Swarovski crystals. But since this limited-editon, art-deco inspired design is a charity-project for Life Ball 2005 the little voices in your head that regulate your spending will have no choice but hush. After all, red ribbons are all well and good - but you can't use them to stream video or SMS your friends.

Vaguely useful Gadget of the week: iRobot Scooba

ScoobaJoyous news for Mrs Mop. iRobot, maker of the loved Roomba vacuum cleaner has made good on its promise to deliver yet another domestic robot Godesss. The Scooba will vacuum, scrub and dry floors for you automatically without requiring any other input from the user than pointing, maniacal laughter and shouts of “clean for me robot minion, clean!” Like its sibling the Roomba, we expect the Scooba to have the same clever programming, including edge-following to ensure cleaning close to walls, and sensors to avoid both wayward furniture and stairs. Further more you can set up ‘virtual walls’ using infrared beams that confine the robot to the area of your choice.

The Scooba’s arrival is anticipated around Xmas but there is no word yet on price nor specific UK availability.

Green Gadget of the Week: Solar powered bag

The solar-powered handbagNot quite big enough to stuff your laptop into, but there should be room in this unisex-ish bag for all your other tech gear, including mobile phone, PDA and music player. As to whether there's enough (decent) weather in the UK to actually power anything via the solar panel remains to be seen. But in my experience english sunshine doesn't cut the mustard so this one's strictly from our more sunkissed gadget-loving cousins. They're available for import if anyone fancies buying a job lot from www.e-partner.com.

Quick Picks:

Wi Gear Bluetooth headset Apparently first to work with both your iPod and your mobile phone.
3 goes mobile blogging Show the world the celeb shots you took with your 3G phone.
Jimi Hendrix’s guitar on eBay Well, one of the few that survived the altercation with his molars.
Archos Gmini XS 100 The tiniest hard disk music player so far.

Loads more of this stuff at Tech Digest, Shiny Shiny, Green consumer blog HippyShopper and Bayraider which delves into the dark side of online auction sites.

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