Go Gadgets: Are you hard enough to wear the MTM Blackhawk Titanium Special Ops Watch? Is €480 too high a price to pay to tell the time like the unluckiest man on the planet, 24'sJack Bauer.
The watch - allegedly used by real special-forces types - boasts "triple-bulb blue-diffused light for discreet timekeeping in covert operations, or an extremely powerful triple-bulb system to emit a bright orange light, designed to be used as a distress signal in emergency situations, and a map reading tool in zero-light conditions". Don't get the buttons mixed up, or you might call in an airstrike when you're trying to set the alarm for your 8am Malaga flight. www.specialopswatches.co.uk.
You might be safer with a travel alarm clock from Switzerland's Mondaine, timekeeper of the Swiss railways. The clock comes in a round leather case, and the face is elegant and functional. By the way, Mondaine's motto is "the world's best watch is useless if you can't tell the time". £155/€175, free delivery to the Republic www.bombero.co.uk.
Apple's Eye-Fi Explore Video card is a 4GB memory card for digital cameras that uses Wi-Fi networks to add location tags to all photos. A great idea, like the geo-tagging in newer mobile phones, with a major flaw: the card can only tell its location if it can pick up a wifi signal. That's great for shooting pics inside a Starbucks, but less helpful if you're out of town. It's also very expensive ($99.95/€75, www.apple.com).
aharvey@irishtimes.com