SO you've bought the kids a computer for Christmas. But how to make certain it's going to be used for more than just playing games?

Intel, best known for its Pentium processors, may just has come up with the gadget for hard-pressed parents everywhere.

The Intel QX3 Computer Microscope costs £79 from all good electrical stores.

Basically a low resolution digital camera that looks like an old fashioned microscope, it plugs into a spare USB socket (don't worry all new PCs have 'em) and magnifies whatever is put underneath.

Kids can study that bug they brought in from the garden with up to 200 times magnification.

But there's more. By pressing the microscope's camera button it will transmit a digital photo to the computer which can be saved or printed out.

Even better, if you keep the button pressed it will record a short video which can be played back on-screen.

Another funky option is the time-lapse mode which takes a shot every few hours. Put some watercress underneath and watch it grow, then play the video back compressing hours into seconds.

Extra software gives kids the creativity to paint and draw on photos which can be assembled into slide shows which play back on the computer to musical accompaniment.

WE'VE already had big ones, small ones and different coloured ones. Now it's time for the celebrity-endorsed mobile phone.

Recently, the Carphone Warehouse, one of Europe's leading mobile communications groups, teamed up with Formula One driver Johnny Herbert to bring its customers the first mobile supported by a motorsports ace.

Each pack included the popular Nokia 3210 and a selection of free gifts including Johnny Herbert fascias, membership of his fan club and a model F1 car.

Unfortunately for racing fans, the deal was on a strictly "first come, first served" basis and all the Herbert phones have now been snapped up.

But, given the desire to differentiate our mobiles, it almost certainly won't be the last.

The Carphone Warehouse partners One 2 One as official supplier of communications to Jaguar Racing, Herbert's former employer.

INTERNET radio is one of the fastest growing areas of the world wide web.

Until now the big drawback to these services was the requirement that you be glued to your PC if you wanted to enjoy them.

Now, Sonicbox, a US-based website that offers access to more than 800 Internet radio stations, has just launched the iM Remote Tuner - a gadget which lets you tune your computer into your favourite station from anywhere in the house and pipes the transmissions through normal stereo speakers.

It's all done by a base unit plugged into your PC which can send broadcasts to a stereo anywhere in the house - even on different floors. It's a similar system to those wireless headphones that gadget men (and women) ususually sport when they're doing the garden.

Music lovers in American can already pick up a remote tuner for around £60 and it should be finding its way to the UK shortly.

Owners of older PCs beware, however. It needs at least a 56kbps Internet connection and the manufacturer recommends an even faster broadband connection for truly impressive performance.

Geek Speak: Gadget Man's word of the week: ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). A high-speed telephone service, many times faster than a 56K modem or single BRI (Basic Rate Interface) ISDN service. The beauty of ADSL is that it uses existing copper pair wiring. Special hardware attached to both the user and switch ends of the line permits data transmission at very high speeds making the Internet almost instantaneous.