In the run up to Christmas here are a couple of gift ideas. For those who might tend to consume too many swizzles the iBreath Alcohol Breathalyzer for the iPod makes good sense. The iPod accessory lets you take your own alcohol breath test to check whether you are over the limit.

The gadget attaches to your iPod or iPhone via a USB connection. You then exhale into an attached tube for at least five seconds. A few seconds later, the device lets you know your alcohol level.

The device does not need batteries. It also comes with a 12V car plug to allow you to test yourself for those times when you may not have an iPod or iPhone with you. Strangely, the iBreath doubles as an FM transmitter. It will send any music or sound files on your iPod tunes to any FM tuner, such as one you may have in your car.

The iBreath sells for $80. While David Steele Enterprises (www.davidsteele.com) delivers to almost everyplace else but Bermuda I am sure you can order it to a friend in the US or Canada.

I have sent the company an e-mail asking if the exclusion of Bermuda was an oversight. Of course entrepreneuring dealers in Bermuda can always sign up on the page to sell the device on the Island. Do I hear any takers for the Christmas season? According to an article on Mello Jones & Martin the maximum legal alcohol limit in Bermuda is 80 mgs of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

WiFi Internet radios are apparently the latest hot sellers for Christmas. If you have wireless Internet at home then it makes sense to have one in the house so you can listen to any of the approximately 1,000 online stations, including the BBC, Radio Canada and lots more. I will not recommend any one of the hundreds of models on the market. However you can try www.wifiradioreview.com.

If you are in the market for other types of gadget gifts I can point you to reviews on some of my favourite sites, many of which have already published their holiday gift guides. One general site for reviews is PCMag.com, where you can find 'The Ultimate MP3 Player Buying Guide' and 'Our Top Holiday Picks'.

PCWorld.com offers similar reviews. And of course there is Cnet.com, one of my favourites. The site has an extensive holiday gift guide. For the Mac user, check out MacWorld at www.macworld.com. It is always a good strategy to get reviews from different sites. From my experience, reviews can differ in several important aspects, especially in relation to usability. They are usually pretty similar in reviewing the technical aspects.

If you are looking for a digital camera with a good rating then go to www.imaging-resource.com. This is a site that puts a lot of the current cameras to a full stress test. The site is pretty credible and the navigation is easy. You can choose which cameras to read about by price, manufacturer, megapixel, and special picks, among other categories. There is also an online feature that allows you to compare cameras side by side. To get straight to the point I would go to the 'Dave Picks' section, where Dave Etchells, the publisher, lists the top cameras tested by the site in each category.

The Canon PowerShot A590 IS is listed as the best selling 'All Around' camera. At under $200, this is an 8-megapixel workhorse. My camera of the year? I just bought the Olympus 1030 SW, a 10 megapixel wonder, as it is rated to go underwater to 10 metres, along with being shockproof, crushproof and freezeproof to certain limits. I just want to be able to take pictures in the rain without any worries!

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Are you a cyberchondriac? This is a new word, coined to describe people who needlessly fear the worst diagnosis after surfing the net. Researchers at Microsoft found that health-related web searches on popular search engines had the potential to escalate fears for those with a tendency to self-diagnosis. For example a headache could turn into a fear that it is symptomatic of a brain tumour.

About two percent of all web queries are health-related, according to the research. The other side of the coin is of course that the web is a useful tool for finding out more about a condition.

A family member was recently diagnosed with a specific heart condition (atrial fibrillation) and he got a lot more information from Wikipedia, along with references to original source material, that his doctor did not have the time to give him.

The additional information not only served to round out his knowledge, but also gave him confidence that his doctor was taking the correct course of action and that the condition in itself was not immediately life threatening.

As the Microsoft researchers note: the web can be a useful tool to find out more information about conditions, but it should not replace talking to an expert.

If you have any comments or suggestions contact Ahmed at elamin.ahmed@gmail.com.