Tech Eye: A new box of tricks

First there was the truth teller that we made in art class while still just a whippersnapper. This was a heady cocktail of papier mache, broken glass, mirrors and dangerously high levels of industrial-strength glue. We set up our stall outside the classroom and people had to pay a small fee (or small favor depending on how clean they were), put their hands inside, and tell the truth. If they lied they passed out. Luckily, thanks to the strength of the glue's noxious and possibly carcinogenic fumes, most of the kids passed out faster than a born-again Christian who's been touched by the Lord.

Then, while traveling through the jungles of deepest, darkest Ireland as a wayward teenager, we always took the opportunity to impress the natives with our voice-of-god box.

Again, it was little more than the trickery and tomfoolery of a modified biscuit tin connected up to certain parts using a few tubes, but it was more than enough to keep the savages of Termonfeckin sufficiently scared of us to allow us to pass without pillaging our bags or ravaging our tender parts.

However, it's been a long time since we have seen a magic box as impressive as this beauty. Behold the Archos 604, the latest portable video player and general witchcraft box to take our fancy. Its 30GB hard drive stores up to 130 hours of encoded video, with playback via the 4.3-inch LCD color screen. It can take practically any file type you throw at it (not the metal kind you use for a prison break) and it has all manner of other bells and whistles that you will probably use once to impress your mates and promptly forget all about.

It can also record digitally, using the optional and nifty DVR station, and works as an MP3 player, for the traditionalist in you. You can also use it to access webmail and surf the internet. No word yet on whether it makes you more attractive to women, but we're willing to bet it does. Get yours for around zł.1,200.