New devices and gadgets are coming on the market all the time, but do you really need them? No, but I want them. Here are three that caught my eye.

First, there was the advent of the rugged laptop, one that can be dropped into almost any situation and still keep on ticking. Now Fujitsu is offering what it is calling the world's first waterproof cell phone.

It is capable of submersion in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. The company's new F-01A also has a fingerprint sensor so you can limit use to yourself. It comes with a 5.2 megapixel camera, built-in GPS, and a TV tuner.

So far only NTT Docomo in Japan is offering the phone, but with climate change leading to rising ocean levels, I imagine more people are going to demand one.

Even more extreme is the Reactor Extreme, which lives up to its name. All of the desktop computer's working components are submerged in a non-conductive liquid.

You have basically got a transparent box that is like a glowing blue fish tank. The liquid cools down the components, allowing the computer to perform at a much better speed than normal.

Hardcore Computer developed the cooling liquid out of a waste product from processing petroleum. It is non-combustible, non-conductive and is safe enough to drink, according to the company.

Since it has no fans, the Reactor runs silent, and with all that power, deep enough for gamers, graphic designers and those who want to show off.

You can choose a variety of top-end components to go with the machine at www.hardcorecomputer.com Maxed out, the Reactor Extreme costs about $10,000. Their suggested model comes in at about $6,100, which includes an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 chip, two power units, 4GB of RAM, three NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 graphic cards and a one terabyte drive (1000 GB). Whew.

Another high-tech machine about to come on the market is the second version of the Kindle, an electronic book reader. However the Kindle looks too bulky and pricey for my tastes. Who wants to pay over $300 for something convenient to read books? Ok, I already do that to listen to tunes, but then books already come in a portable format. For another, there seems to be a format war between Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader. Who wants to be stuck with an unusable book format in a few years?

What is more interesting to me is Plastic Logic's version of an e-reader, due to come on the market at the end of this year or early in 2010. It beats the others in thinness. The e-reader is a 7mm thick touchscreen device that weighs 450g and measures 216m × 279mm (letter size). The device uses E Ink technology and a plastic display for readability under most lighting conditions, including direct sunlight.

It is designed for magazines, newspapers and business documents, and is about the same size as most of the items you are going to read.

Even better, it is not format dependent. The Plastic Logic reader can be loaded with documents in the Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Adobe PDF formats, among others. It will also come with software tools, allowing users to manage business documents. To turn a page, just swipe over the page with your fingertips.

Since the company uses a flexible substrate (the reader is rigid plastic), I anticipate it will develop what I am waiting for. A reader I can fold up and put in my pocket!

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I know there is some debate in Bermuda about whether the connection speed you are getting is close to the one you paid for with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). In fact what you actually get with almost every ISP is usually less, but how much is the question. Various factors, including user load, come into play.

Online tools to measure connection speed have been around for a while, but now Google has released performance measurement tools that I believe have not been previously available to ordinary Internet users.

Google's Measurement Lab (www.measurementlab.net) currently has five tools to give you an insight into what is going on with your connection, either from your end or your ISP's.

The Network Diagnostic Tool tests your basic connection speed and results in a diagnosis of problems limiting the speed you get. Glasnost tests whether your ISP is blocking or throttling BitTorrent.

The Network Path and Application Diagnosis tool checks the bit of the network that connects to your home from your ISP. DiffProbe, which is about to be released, will determine whether an ISP is giving some traffic a lower priority than other traffic. NANO, which is also due to be released, will help you determine whether your ISP is degrading the performance of a certain subset of users, applications or destinations.

Perhaps the Computer Society of Bermuda or even the government's consumer unit, or dare we hope, the telecoms regulator, can run a survey by getting people to test their speeds? Of course testers should be using an Ethernet connection for accuracy. This call for action is not to knock Bermuda's ISPs, but to ensure consumer protection. I mean, if I pay for a Ferrari, I don't want a Ford. If I pay for a Ford, I do not want a scooter!

Send any comments to Ahmed at elamin.ahmed@gmail.com