Looking closely at optical zoom quality

Technofile: Nikon has unveiled a "prosumer" digital camera, the P5000. The 10 megapixel camera, which will be launched at the end of the month, will only have a 3.5 times optical zoom, which is not great for a supposedly high-end camera.

The 2.5in LCD screen on the back is joined by an optical viewfinder. It features 16 modes, including seven movie modes, anti-shake mode and high-sensitivity mode.

Nikon has also included the anti-vibration feature from its higher-end digital SLR cameras.

However, if you want all of these features, you would do well to consider a true digital SLR camera with a decent optical zoom.

n Russian firm Gresso makes expensive gadgets for the wealthy Russian elite. They are usually covered in gold, and its new MP3 player comes in at an eye-watering £2,000 (€2,980). The Symphonia range of MP3 players are embellished with pink or white gold. At that price, at least it has an fm radio, but with only 1GB of memory, this is not going to impress anyone but the most appearance-obsessed buyers.

Someone buying a simple MP3 player for this price is more likely to be interested in how it looks than what it does anyway.

n Panasonic has revealed what it claims is the "smallest" SD camcorder on the market, measuring 1.2in x 2.5in x 4.5in. The SDR-S10 has a 2.7in widescreen display and will take up to a 4GB SDHC memory cards, cramming in 100 minutes of video.

Because there are no moving parts, the camera switches on almost instantly. The 10x optical zoom and water resistance are a nice bonus. The camera is also pretty hardy. Panasonic claims it can be dropped from 1.2m without affecting its operation.

n Is the recently announced Apple TV - a box to allow you to stream music and video from a Mac to a TV - going to turn into a games console?

That is the chatter on the video games blogs at the moment, after a key developer let slip that it was developing games for the device.

Admittedly, you can play some simple games on an iPod, so in theory Apple could do more with Apple TV. Turning it into a full-blown games machine seems unlikely, however. No one wants to get squeezed by the XBox and Sony PlayStation 3 giants. It is more likely that the device will come with simple games such as solitaire or chess, which remain firm favourites even today.

n The future continues to arrive more swiftly than we thought.

Potentially launching in the spring will be a watch which sends and receives text messages.

Australian firm SMS Technology is looking for a partner to distribute its M300 phone watch, which packs a one-inch colour display, GPRS, Bluetooth, USB port and even a 64MB MP3 player.

The only drawback is that it won't take voice calls.