Personal Tech Guide 23Personal Tech Guide 23

Go On, Take A Sip
Prototypes of the Miox water purifier were field-tested by soldiers in Afghanistan, but recreational backpackers probably will be most impressed by this compact, very portable $130 device. Two 3-volt lithium camera batteries power a tiny electrolytic cell that converts a briny solution (you mix in the salt) into a disinfectant. Unlike with chlorine tablets, there's no bad aftertaste. One set of batteries treats about 200 liters of water.

Say "Pixels"
Olympus designed its latest digital camera with image clarity top-of-mind. The $800 8-megapixel Evolt E-500 is a serious camera. A "supersonic wave filter" eliminates dust, but what's really unique are the Zukio digital lenses specifically designed for pixels instead of film. Most other digital single-lens-reflex cameras can't say that.

Port-A-Piano
You've got your grand, your upright, your spinet, and now your roll-up piano. It looks and sounds like the others, but the 49 keys of the Hecsan Rollup Piano Pro are flat. A damper pedal is included, along with a musical-instrument digital interface to link to a computer. The piano even plays 16 songs and gives 30 backup rhythms. The traveling troubadour's load just got a lot lighter. The $250 piano runs on four AA batteries or plugs into an outlet.

Clutter Cutter
Recovering pack rats rejoice: The Scanalizer wants to eat your paper clutter. This portable scanner from NeatReceipts scans business cards as well as receipts and 8-1/2 by 11-inch documents, stores copies as digital records, and exports data into Excel, Quicken, PDF documents, and other formats. The $200 device's business-card feature updates contacts in Microsoft Outlook's address book. Can you say "new year's resolution"?

Pump Up The Volume
An entire economy revolves around making accessories for the iPod, but here's a really useful one: Sonic Impact Technologies' i-Fusion, a durable traveling speaker cabinet that doubles as a storage bin for any size iPod, lithium battery, and earbuds. The $150 i-Fusion even recharges a docked player. The speakers aren't little dinky things, either. A lot of care went into their design to minimize distortion, pump up the bass, and make you want to dance.

E-Mail-Friendly Phone
Now that most handheld devices do six different things, at least LG has made one feature easier: a bigger, friendlier keypad for its VX9800 phone/MP3 player/1.3-megapixel video camera. The $200 phone opens to a full keyboard, so sending E-mail doesn't put your thumbs at risk. In the days of razor-thin phones, this is a little thick around the middle, but who isn't right after the holidays? Available only for Verizon Wireless customers.

Fashionable Function
There should be a special corner in the Gadget Hall Of Fame for the Swiss Army knife. Victorinox's newer models combine unique twists with the usual assortment of screwdrivers, clippers, and scissors. The CyberTool holds 13 different screwdrivers inside a transparent handle; the Midnite Manager sports a tiny LED light and ballpoint pen; and the SwissMemory has a 1-Gbyte memory stick. Some even come in pink. Prices vary, ranging from $65 to $197.