So I decided there were 2 key features I needed – built-in GPS and a decent camera. Being a long time Sony Ericsson fan, I started my search with their new phone catalogue. The Cybershot phones offered great cameras … but no GPS. In fact not a single Sony Ericsson came with GPS built-in. The search continued.

My GPS requirement seriously reduced my list of options. The only phone on the market featuring both this and a minimum 5MP camera was the Nokia 6220 Classic.

I should tell you I have never been a fan of Nokia. I find the styling dull, the menu complicated and the build quality poor. So of course I bought one anyway! They must have improved over the years – they can’t be the world’s best selling mobile phone for nothing … can they?

The first model I received had a broken key. Unfortunately it was the “*” key, so unlocking the phone was a b*tch. After a long fight with three (3 are possibly the worst mobile network on the planet, but I won’t get into that here) I received my replacement phone. The keys all worked, so far so good.

To my disappointment, the menu was still as convoluted as ever. There seems to be no logic to the placement of key features. But this is something that can be learned over time (a lot of it) I suppose.

The keypad is far too small and fiddly to build up a decent texting speed. The function keys are too close to the ‘menu’ and ‘clear’ buttons. I’m still accidentally closing text message when I’m simply trying to backspace. Very annoying indeed, especially as there is physically space to move the keys further apart.

The camera is actually pretty good and takes clear pictures. Video also provides a decent quality with good sound. I believe the images can be geo-tagged, though I haven’t been able to find that mysterious menu item yet. You’d think it would be one of the camera options …

The GPS gets a lock pretty quickly if you’re outdoors and seems reliable. I don’t like the Nokia maps software and will be looking at replacing it as soon as the free 2 month trial ends. As with all Nokia software, it is clunky and not user-friendly.

The phone is a good size and weight and fits in my pocket alongside my wallet with ease. It’s design certainly isn’t going to win any awards, but it’s okay.

The build quality is a little shaky. I suspect it wouldn’t survive a fall in the way the good old nokia’s used to. The plastic battery cover is flimsy and the plastic catches break easily, making it impossible to put the cover on correctly.

If it wasn’t for the built-in GPS, I would have abandoned this phone a long time ago. Come on Sony Ericsson, built-in GPS is the way forward!

Tech Gift Guide ordered both a sun and moon and must admit that it makes for great accompaniment to the patio furniture. Don’t forget that they are waterproof so they’re able to battle the worst of the winter weather.

But inside or out the Sun Jar works well in many settings and it’s calming effect can’t be beaten. The best prices we’ve found for the Sun Jar are at Firebox so click to buy the Sun Jar (UK & USA) today.

Luna is finished to a very high quality and is extremely sturdy with looks to match. This clock radio looks perfect in the lounge or the bedroom and has a bright clear display with awesome sound pumping through the speakers. Although the device looks like it was designed by Apple the minute you begin the setup you realise that this does not contain the intuitive menu we’re all used to on the iPods. While the silver dials are twirled back and forth just like the iPod wheel they’re not as precise and do sometimes go the opposite way than you intended. But you’re not fiddling with those all the time and once you’re spent a few minutes setting the alarms and radio presets you’re done.

One of the great features of Luna is having two built in alarms. Great for when your other half has to get up earlier than you do. Another great touch is a ‘rampup’ setting for the music whereby the volume slowly increases over a preset time so you’re not blasted awake the second the alarm goes off. You’re also able to wake up to either AM/FM radio, iPod music, buzzer or an aux input.

Radio reception was more than adequate once you grab the external antenna cable, but tuning was another story. Luna lacks auto tune so you’re left twirling the dials moving slowly up the radio spectrum trying to locate your station. But as mentioned it’s not something that you need to do that often.

The supplied remote control lets you control all aspects of the device and is great for having next to your bed for hitting snooze. Although depending on your personality the ease of hitting snooze could be a bad thing! Otherwise you’ve got all the usuals and can control volume and flick back and forth between tracks and playlists.

Luna also has a battery backup in case of power failure, with two AA batteries included. But just in case, even the backup has a backup. A built-in feature will retain clock and alarm settings for up to five minutes without power, even if the batteries are dead or not properly installed. Now that’s smart.

Tech Gift Guide (TGG) tested Luna with the 2nd generation iPod Nano, iPod Touch and Apple iPhone all with excellent results. There is a bit of interference when using the iPhone at times but since it’s not designed for this we’re more than happy.

It’s all the small little extras that make Tech Gift Guide (TGG) recommend this. From stylish design to brightness control, volume ramping and excellent alarm choices - this will make the perfect dock for your iPod.

The best prices we’ve found for the Luna iPod Alarm Clock are at Amazon. Click to buy Luna iPod Clock Radio UK / Luna iPod Clock Radio US

That’s half the price of the original iPhone but for that you’ll get enterprise functionality such as push e-mail/contacts, Assisted GPS providing you with near instant location information and the amazing App Store when you can download amazing applications.

Of course it handles phone calls, plays your music and offers ‘real’ Internet browsing with the built Safari web browser. No longer do you need to carry around your cellphone, GPS or music player - the iPhone 3G offers everything in one slim and stylish device.

Tech Gift Guide (TGG) were a little disappointed in the fact that the iPhone still only contains a 2 megapixel camera, lagging far behind the Nokia N95 which sports a 5 megapixel unit. The iPhone still still has no MMS or video recording support which seems to be popular with the YouTube generation of today. Granted one can e-mail pictures around the ‘net but sometimes only a video recording will convey those utterly embarrassing drunken moments

iPhone 3G is appearing in stores from 11 July and, unlike the first generation, you need to sign up to a contract in your mobile store. Apple has given into the mobile providers and backtracked on this innovative ’signup at home’ technology all in the name of making the device more affordable. Mobile providers are now offering a handset subsidy in order bring it to you at this unbelievable price. While there are rumours of certain networks, such as O2, offering it on pre-paid for approximately £399 (compared to the £99 contract price) we have yet to see confirmed pricing. Of course it is still locked so moving to another network is not yet an option.

Tech Gift Guide (TGG) still rate this an amazing device and we will bring you more details as soon as we get our hands on it.

We’ve been pretty excited about this game – it’s been a long time coming. The original Ninja Gaiden games were a trailblazer for this genre and were fantastic fun.

So Ninja Gaiden II is not much different from the original games, which is both good and bad. The bad is that the game doesn’t appear to have taken advantage of the capabilities of the new generation gaming consoles. Graphics, environments and interactions haven’t move along at all and you’d be forgiving for thinking you were playing an extension of the original game.

We got the game just before it was released and it was still pretty buggy, with no updates available yet. Our hero, Ryu Hayabusa, routinely carries on walking when he should have stopped. A number of times I’ve been in the middle of a battle when the next level begins loading, depicting my fallen enemies dead around me. I assume this is being triggered by Ryu moving into a particular area in the game.

And there is unfortunately one more criticism – the camera handling is not the best. In the middle of a frantic fight, it can be really hard to keep your eye on your character. This is a really basic error that should never have been allowed to happen.

But despite all this, the game is immensely playable and great fun. The new weapons are a treat and the fight animations and sounds are better than ever. The early levels are incredibly easy – I don’t think I was killed even once within the first 4 levels. It does get tougher though. There are many more boss battles than in previous incarnations and they vary in difficulty. Some are a real challenge and will really put your skills to the test. Beating a bad boss is incredibly satisfying. Perhaps because we’d all like to beat our bosses in the real world? Or is that just me?

Anyway … if the previous versions of the game hadn’t been so kick-ass, Ninja Gaiden II may have been better rated. The game itself is absolutely one of the best games we’ve seen this year, although it doesn’t have the focus of the earlier versions. With luck, there will be a patch released to fix those annoying bugs.

Go buy the game, you won’t regret it!

The best prices we’ve found for this game are at Amazon. Click to buy Ninja Giaden II (UK) / Ninja Gaiden II (US)

Tech Gift Guide (TGG) finally decided to take a closer look at what is possibly Apple iPod’s biggest rival – the Creative Zen.

Many claim the Zen offers better sound and video quality than its closest rival – the iPod Nano. And we’d agree with that. The audio quality is great and the screen is unbelievably good. Videos and photo’s are crystal clear and colours rendered beautifully.

But the biggest surprise was its weight and size. The Creative Zen is incredibly light - so light we thought the battery still needed to be inserted. But no, it really is that light. I carry a thin wallet that only carried my credit cards, and the Zen was roughly this size. In fact I can quite easily carry both my wallet and the Zen in my pocket together.

In terms of usability, the Creative Zen is really simple to figure out. Menus are intuitive with a nifty alphabet listing making scrolling a breeze (not unlike the alphabet running down the right of the new iPod Touch screens).
Our first thoughts were that the menu’s were almost too simple, not allowing enough user configuration. But after actually using the Zen for a week, I’ve changed my mind. The options are minimal, but so far I’ve been able to do everything I’ve needed to.

If there’s a negative side to the Zen, it comes in the presentation. Don’t get me wrong, the Creative Zen is a beautiful machine. But it just doesn’t compare to the iPod for looks. It also comes packaged in a very cheap looking and uninspired cardboard box. The instruction manual is non-existent, although it does come with an extremely basic ‘getting started’ guide. In fact there were a few copies of this guide in many, many languages.

The software, while a little clunky, does the job with no major hassles. The video converting software is particularly brilliant and beats other software we’ve used for converting videos on the iPod. Be warned – synching your music and video’s on your Window’s machine is not an easy or pleasant experience. Sadly the best solution we’ve find is using Windows Media Player. We know… it’s a sad day when Media Player offers the best option!

So instead of keeping things synched, I’ve just been dragging items in using explorer. It works a treat compared to the complex synching process. Track rating on the Zen don’t seem to reflect back to my computer’s media library, which means I could end up with tracks being rated differently on each device.

The FM radio works well if you’re not moving. Trying to listen to the radio on the train is a trying experience. But when the signal is clear, the sound is great. What’s cool is that you can label your preset stations. Although you only get 6 characters, which makes abbreviations a must.

Overall the Zen gets a TGG thumbs up. Half the price of an iPod and does pretty much the same thing. In terms of video and audio quality alone, I’d choose this over the iPod nano any day. If you want to feel stylish and show off a little, this is probably not the toy for you.

The best prices we’ve found for this media player are at Amazon. Click to buy Creative Zen 8GB (UK) / Creative Zen 8G (US)

Okay so we all know that the Nintendo Wii is the flavour of the month, and deservedly so. While not exactly providing groundbreaking graphics, the machine has been a massive hit with gamers of all ages.

If you’re looking for fancy high-def games that immerse you in their world, the Wii is not for you. The XBOX 360 is the way for you.

But, as everyone knows, girls just wanna have fun. And so do boys. And the Nintendo Wii is undoubtedly the new definition of fun. The wireless, motion sensitive remote is the key to the Wii’s success. They can be used to simulate just about any action, from playing tennis of golf to shooting a bad-ass alien. Sure it doesn’t look as impressive as Halo or Gears of War, but it sure is fun, and a lot easier on the thumbs!

Wii Sports and Wii Fit really do give you a pretty good workout. And it’s not as boring like going to gym.

Depending who you are, you could either love or hate the Wii. If you’re a casual gamer and just want to play for fun, the Wii is perfect for you. If it’s graphics and processing power you’re looking for, stick to the XBOX 360 or the PS3.

The best prices we’ve found for this media player are at Amazon.  Click to buy Nintendo Wii (UK) / Nintendo Wii (US)