Your Technology

By Roy B. White

HOT OFF THE PRESS From the Ever-Shrinking-Printer Department: Panasonic's SV-P10 mini color thermal printer ($220) is roughly the size of an electric pencil sharpener and weighs just 6.5 oz. But it can print out 45 snapshot-size images on a single rechargeable battery. Share your pics with fellow adventurers right on the spot, or crank out cute postcards.

POD PEOPLE What's better than an MP3 player that holds 2,000 CD-quality songs? One that can also store 1,000 names and addresses. Apple's newest iPod ($499) has double the storage (10 GB) of its predecessor and meshes elegantly with Macs. Plug it into your computer, and it instantly recognizes and transfers songs at a rate of 100 a minute.

INFLATED SOUND Big speakers for a Walkman don't make sense since they defeat the music player's portability. The brilliance of the rad-looking Ellula Hotair speakers ($50) is that they're inflatable: blow them up and they're about nine inches high; deflate them and they're a mere two inches. The air-filled casings pack an audio punch. And the speakers pack neatly in your coat pocket. --By Roy B. White