A smartphone with a well-designed hardware keyboard is, for many business users, the only way to use Windows Mobile. They're becoming increasingly widespread too, but it appears there's still life in the straightforward, button-free phone yet. And when a phone is as powerful as MWg Atom Life, there's reason for even die-hard fans of hardware keyboards to consider switching back.

The Nokia N-Gage may be a dead duck, but that mediocre phone and lacklustre handheld console did help bring mobile gaming into the mainstream. The N-Gage does live on as a gaming platform along the lines of Xbox Live though, and is integrated seamlessly into Nokia’s latest N81 handset, along with 8Gb of memory and a powerful music player.

MWg is a relatively new arrival to the mobile phone market in the UK. And it's a made a bit of a splash – launching not one, or two, but three new handsets in its first few months on these shores. If the MWg Atom V is anything to go by, however, the firm is going to have its work cut out keeping up with the likes of HTC.

Adding Bluetooth to a laptop that lacks it is simply a matter of plugging a USB Bluetooth adapter in an available port. An adapter that will stick a couple of inches out of the side of the case, probably get knocked out at inopportune moments and possibly even lost if you’re careless with your ‘laptopping’. Not so the MoGo Dapter. This USB Bluetooth adapter is barely bigger that the USB plug it sits on the end of, so you can leave it permanently plugged in without fear of it falling out.  

It’s only been a couple of weeks since we last looked at mobile broadband deals, but a few providers have already changed their tariffs in the meantime. O2 has finally introduced two consumer-friendly deals (more details in the original feature), and both Vodafone and T-Mobile have rolled out new modems in readiness for their 7.2Mbit/s HSDPA services. So, we’ve taken a look at both.

The Eee PC 701 may not have been perfect, but it the first mass market, ultra-cheap ultra-portable ticked all the right boxes for a lot of people. And we mean a lot – the Eee PC proved so successful that Asus had problems meeting demand, so it was a foregone conclusion that it would produce an updated model to capitalise on its success. So, five months after the Eee PC 701’s launch, Asus has come up with version two – the Eee PC 900.

Computers are great at portraying three dimensions, but the world’s favourite input device – the mouse – is steadfastly 2D. Enter desk left (or an axis of your choice) the SpaceNavigator for Notebooks – an Atari 2600 paddle detached from its handset and plonked atop a jack-in-the-box spring affixed to a steel paperweight. Sort of. Manufacturer 3DConnexion describes it rather more succinctly as a “3D mouse for your 3D world”.

Many wireless mouse and keyboard users have long since twigged to the benefit of rechargeable batteries – they’re much cheaper than disposable batteries, not to mention more environmentally friendly. Remembering to keep a set of cells topped up in a mains-powered charger is something else though, which is why this latest gadget from Energizer is so handy -- it’s a charger that’s powered by a PC’s USB port.

If the 250Gb Iomega Ego isn’t quite capacious enough for your mobile storage needs, no problem – Buffalo has just the thing. Its new MiniStation TurboUSB trumps the competition by being the largest portable hard drive currently available – a whopping 500Gb. No larger nor heavier than other portable hard drives, the MiniStation TurboUSB’s increased capacity comes courtesy of the latest 500Gb 2.5in laptop drive technology – a Hitachi-manufactured 5400rpm SATA model with 8Mb of cache, in this case.

Any product that's drab, grey and unremarkable to look at usually comes with an ‘executive’ or ‘business’ label, and it’s a tag that HP has certainly reached for to explain away the austere appearance of its iPAQ 614c Business Navigator. And it's not hard to see why. Apart from a bit of rubbery plastic on the front and back, it's a wholly unremarkable Windows Mobile-based smartphone – all subdued tones and decidedly chunky – but it does have one or two innovative touches.