Let me put my cards on the table here; I have been a massive fan of the Kermode and Mayo Friday Film Reviews, and their associated spin-off podcasts, for five years. I can honestly say that their patented form of wittertainment is not only superb radio, but would put them high on a list of comedy double acts in the UK today.

Unfortunately, I am blessed with a much better memory than the Good Doctor, and so was disappointed to find out how much of this book is taken up with retreads of (admittedly fun) running gags and anecdotes we've heard a thousand times before. The section on his farcical set visit to the former Soviet Union is really the only insight we get into Kermode the man.

I do hope this reaches a wider audience than the existing fanbase, but I'll be sticking to the tried and tested radio version for the time being. Perhaps if this had been jointly written with Mayo (viz a viz Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace's "Are You Dave Gorman?") it might have worked better, but on his own Dr K is - dare I say it - a teensy bit annoying.

P.S. Where is the Harvey Keitel story?

Reading through the existing reviews, they appear to fall into two camps. Negative ones complain about the lack of Q, Moneypenny, and the saucy quips of Roger and Pierce. Positive ones invoke Ian Fleming, and reckon he'd love "Quantum of Solace".

Actually - no he wouldn't - because QoS the film is a total mess. I'm aware that it's a direct sequel to "Casino Royale", which makes the comparison all the more stark. CR is the definitive Bond film because it is a supremely classy piece of cinema that stood comparison with the best grown-up films released in 2006. It has at its heart that superb performance from Daniel Craig as 007. There is action in abundance, beautifully shot with a minimum of CGI and with a clarity and flow of editing that makes following the plot a breezy pleasure.

QoS. Is chopped. Up into tiny. Snippets. As the inexperienced. Director. More famiiar with. Emotional material such as. "The Kite Runner". Hasn't. The Foggiest Notion how. Action Scenes should be. Shot. And. More. Importantly Edited.

Craig can't take the blame, there's nothing wrong with his steely, driven, performance. And he's ably supported - Dench is wonderful as ever and Bond Girl Kurylenko equips herself well in scenes where the pacing slows down. The stunt work is able, a shame we couldn't take more time to enjoy it.

A massive opportunity squandered after the genius of CR, then, but three stars because it's still James Bond.

Folks, don't be fooled. This is a brilliant piece of Apple sexiness and a fine way to listen to your tunes anywhere.... I should know, I've got one.

But it's obselete, replaced by the funky, multi-coloured and even cheaper new school Nano Mark II, available elsewhere on this site. I would suggest you get *that* one!

I had a chance to play with one of these today in a high street store, and all I can say is - wow! I donated my old 20 gig iPod to my sister, currently on her travels around the world, and have been waiting to see what Apple could come up with by way of replacement.

Unlike the Shuffle, this is a fully functional iPod with the same interface we all know and love. The Click Wheel is still straightforward to use, despite it's tiny size and my chubby fingers!

OK - so it looks expensive compared to a full size colour iPod, which has five times the space for just over £20 more, but you will always be able to carry the nano, which makes even the tiniest of mobile phones look like a brick. And isn't having your music with you all the time the whole point of the thing?

Four or five years ago, I splashed into the world of DVD with a £250 Samsung player, and the immortal words "I can't imagine they'll ever get any cheaper..."

That player has served me well, but recent years have seen those words ringing in my ears. You can of course buy much cheaper players than this, with a variety of soundalike names such as Sarny and Yamada. But this is the entry level where the big boys of electronics are concerned.

And what an entry level. Basically - this does it almost all out of the box - MP3 audio and JPEG picture playback (simultaneously - no less), VCDs and SVCDs. The latter offers almost DVD quality home movies for anyone with a camcorder, the relevant software and a CD burner. And all in a slimline, well finished unit from a company you've heard of.

The one thing that you will have to do for yourself is "hack" it to multi-region, but this is hardly difficult (the instructions for this are linked from this page) and it works a treat (with RCE disks requiring no special treatment). You don't need an NTSC TV either - there is a built in standards converter, which presented no problems to my parents 13 year old set.

All in all, a great buy for the money - particularly with Amazon's additional savings.

Four or five years ago, I splashed into the world of DVD with a £250 Samsung player, and the immortal words "I can't imagine they'll ever get any cheaper..."

That player has served me well, but recent years have seen those words ringing in my ears. You can of course buy much cheaper players than this, with a variety of soundalike names such as Sarny and Yamada. But this is the entry level where the big boys of electronics are concerned.

And what an entry level. Basically - this does it almost all out of the box - MP3 audio and JPEG picture playback (simultaneously - no less), VCDs and SVCDs. The latter offers almost DVD quality home movies for anyone with a camcorder, the relevant software and a CD burner. And all in a slimline, well finished unit from a company you've heard of.

All in all, a great buy for the money - particularly with Amazon's additional savings.

This looks like a nice little camera, and I'm currently considering upgrading to it from my trusty Ixus V, which has served me well more than two years, and taken thousands of pictures and video clips.

However, beware that the spare battery linked to on the accessories page is wrong. You need the Canon NB3 battery, which Amazon also sell. The NB1 is for older, bigger members of the Ixus range.

I've been a rare visitor to the short story genre since my schooldays, but the combination of Rankin and Rebus made this collection a must have.

For those of us addicted to this series, it is a rare pleasure to be able to visit Rebus' Edinburgh without seeing an entire day, or indeed weekend, disappear as we devour the latest installment from cover to cover.

And it's not just Rebus. As the "Jack Harvey" novels showed, Rankin is not afraid to mix styles and settings in this superb collection. Some of them aren't perfect, but they're all worth a read.

I bought this back in August soon after it became available. Quite simply, it is the best point and shoot digital camera available at the moment.

It is tiny, the build quality is excellent, and it takes damn fine pictures. Combined with a bigger CompactFlash card (the included 8Mb won't get you far), it will take loads of high resolution pictures.

The quality of the video clips also has to be seen to be believed - perfectly good for display on a website.

The only snags are the limited battery life - you deffo should buy a spare, and the lack of manual exposure control.

At the end of the day though - I bought this to replace my point and shoot 35mm Olympus Mju II - not my SLR. It's proved the perfect replacement - as 170 pictures from a friends wedding day testify.

Buy it - you won't be disappointed!