The Zune, therefore, is that classic case: a killer idea diluted by a ham-handed execution.

THE VIDEO-GAME WORKOUT

Nintendo’s Wii game console, on the other hand, is a stellar product that succeeds precisely because its central idea is unencumbered by corporate baggage — and is fun. The masterstroke is its wireless controller, which detects the motion of your arm in three dimensions and in real time. As you swing, jab or whap through the air, your animated character on the TV screen swings the corresponding baseball bat, tennis racquet, fishing rod and so on.

Perhaps it’s a bit much to suggest that this video game may actually help to address America’s problem of sedentary youth. But my own two in elementary school play the Wii’s tennis doubles game nightly with full-body vigour — and are perspiring after half an hour.)

THE TRACKPEARL

On most BlackBerry cell phones, you scroll through on-screen choices using a side-mounted thumb wheel. Too bad if you’re a lefty or if you’re trying to move horizontally across the screen. The tiny and terrific BlackBerry Pearl solves both problems neatly: it has a front-mounted trackball. This ball is also clickable, so you can scroll to something and then select it with a single quick thumb flick. And because this trackball is pearly white, translucent and illuminated, it nests neatly with the phone’s name and concept. A pearl, indeed.

THE FACE FINDER

Several 2006 Canon cameras, including the image-stabilised SD800IS, offer face-recognition software. In this mode, the camera identifies human features in a scene, even in group photos. Little rectangles appear around each face (up to nine in a scene) as you view the back-panel screen; these little rectangles move around, tracking your subjects as they shift. The facial recognition eliminates shots in which, for example, the camera locked its focus on something in the background. And it forces the flash to throttle way back to avoid blasting nearby faces into whiteness.

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