Great New Gadgets for Work and Play

Boy, here's something we've all wanted from time to time. The Pretender is a device that attaches to your telephone and produces realistic sounds that end an unwanted conversation. How about a doorbell ring? Press it and your caller clearly hears that someone is at your door. Maybe a call-waiting tone? Use it. A crying baby? Only if you have one. Barking dog? Sorry, gotta run now and see what's bothering the dog. Or, for the extremely frazzled, you can press all four tones at once. The Pretender even includes a voice changer, so an alien can answer your phone or a woman can pass for a man (maybe). More good news here: The Pretender connects to the handset, not the phone line, so it can even be used on office phones. $39.99.

AMPHIBIAN

So many things now originate overseas, we shouldn't be surprised that the newest amphibian car comes from England. It's the Aquada, made by Gibbs Technologies. Floridians surely remember the AmphiCar sold a few decades ago. Those are cult collectibles today. But they were moderately priced. An Aquada will set you back $271,318.90-that's at today's exchange rate. It's very fast, however, doing about 100 mph on the highway and 30 mph on the water. The wheels tuck under it at an angle. Virgin president Richard Branson set an amphibious car record crossing the English Channel in one, surrounded by fleets of trailing boats and overhead helicopters. Surely James Bond will have one in his next film. On the drawing board now at Gibbs is a Hummer ripoff called the Humdinga. Just a concept now, but Gibbs hopes to produce it.

MP3 WATCH

MP3 players are showing up as jewelry, so why not a watch? With ever-more memory in smaller sizes, this watch contains 256 megabytes, probably enough music to keep you entertained for the next few years. The battery here is the limiting factor. It's good only for two or three hours of continuous play. Plug the watch into the USB port on your computer and you can download songs. Earpieces are included. It's a pretty sophisticated setup in a tiny package, offering five equalizer settings: jazz, rock, classic, pop and normal. But where's the picture? Maybe in the future. $189.99.

TiVo FOR RADIO

The Radio YourWay Personal AM/FM Recorder looks normal enough, but it offers a plethora of features not available until now. Just as TiVo changed TV viewing, this might change the way you listen to radio. Personally, I'd like to hear Paul Harvey's report weekdays, but I never seem to be available when he's broadcasting. No problem for Radio YourWay. Set a timer and it can turn itself on, tune to the proper station and digitally record the broadcast. You can play it back through the unit's speaker, through a stereo headphone jack-or dump it into your computer for playback there. It records up to four hours of programming, and you can buy additional memory cards to increase that time. Finally, it's also an MP3 or Windows Media player and a message recorder. Just talk to it, it records and you transfer your voice notes to your computer. $149.99. www.smarthome.com GB