Compiled by CIARA O'BRIEN

iPod shuffle €49

Former fans of the iPod Shuffle might find Apple’s latest design for the Shuffle a little familiar. After a brief flirtation with the minimalist look (no buttons at all) Apple, realising that people actually liked the pesky things, have brought them back. It’s still the Shuffle you know and love – there’s no LCD screen, it’s compact and has a reasonably small capacity compared to other iPods, with 2GB of space.

This time around, it’s also kept the VoiceOver for track information, playlists and – thankfully – battery life. The shuffle switch on the bottom allows you to mix up your music, by simply flipping a switch. The battery promises about 15 hours, depending on how you use it of course. And like most of Apple’s iPod range, it now comes in a number of colours, so you can get one that fits your outfit/mood/personality.

Vodafone PAYG Blackberry service

With Apple and Google making inroads into the smartphone market, Blackberry is facing stiffer competition for business users. So it makes sense that the company would try to win over the consumer market too.

Vodafone Ireland has unveiled a new pay-as-you-go Blackberry service that gives you a month of access to internet services, instant messenger and email for €15. Part of the package is Blackberrys Instant Messenger, which is essentially free messages, pictures and voice notes sent between Blackberry devices, using each devices unique PIN.

The network is offering prepay customers a Blackberry Curve 8520, which costs from €140.

To entice customers, Vodafone is offering the Blackberry service free to Pay As You Go customers until next February.

http://www.vodafone.ie

HP Pavilion DV7 €1,069

Once you’ve got used to the small-screened notebooks or the iPad, it can be hard to go back to larger laptops. The Pavilion DV7 may convert you, if you need a machine that can handle your regular work, but also decent graphics, audio and video performance. The metal version includes the HP triple bass subwoofer and HP Beats Audio. The metal finish is unusual, although it comes with “black cherry” and “champagne” casing too.

It includes a fingerprint reader, which can come in handy if you forget passwords, or want to keep prying eyes out of your computer. It also builds in a webcam. http://www.hp.com