OTHER TECH

The fun and sun capital of the world. Luxury yachts, fashion models, Cuban cigars, fast cars, and topless beaches. Tanned babes and boys, boats and bikinis, palm trees and piña coladas. Ocean Drive and Art Deco. The Magic City - Miami. Where better to get away from it all? A four-day weekend, a gold-star hotel, and - what the heck? - a rented Ferrari (well, maybe not the car). Toshiba Satellite notebook PC and Panasonic D-snap camcorder.

On the other hand, could we really afford to get away? Checking e-mail, phoning home, confirming flight schedules, and otherwise staying connected are necessities, not luxuries. Equally indispensable is our portable entertainment, from music and movies to videogames. And, of course, we'd need a camera or two to capture the fun.

But there was no way we were going to check baggage. Could all of our gear possibly fit into a carry-on, along with sunglasses and swimsuits? You bet!

It was a tough assignment, the S&V editors said, but someone had to do it. Round up the coolest electronic toys and tools and digital fashion statements, and subject them to the most grueling conditions - like the heat of Miami nightlife, the humidity of its subtropical climate, the intense lateral G forces of a boat sailing the waves of Biscayne Bay, and the bright sunlight of its sandy beaches. Not to mention the ever-present danger of falling coconuts. Would the LCD screens be visible through polarizing sunglasses? Would Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless signals cut through the scent of night-blooming jasmine? Would the microprocessors simply fry themselves when subjected to the intensely loud colors of our beachwear? We had to find out.

The product list was as impressive as it was varied. On the computer side of things, we took along a Toshiba Satellite P15-S420 notebook ($1,749) and a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ Pocket PC h2215 PDA ($400). For digital photography, we enlisted the D-snap SV-AV100 camcorder/camera from Panasonic ($1,000) and the Concord Eye-Q Go Wireless camera ($150). For communication - and gaming - we grabbed two Nokia N-Gage cellphones ($200 each). Purely for entertainment, we brought along an RCA Lyra RD2780 A/V Jukebox ($449) and an Apple iPod mini music player ($249) hooked up to a Griffin Technology iTrip ($35) for sending tunes to the car's FM radio. Finally, for sporty storage, we packed a Scott eVest TEC sports jacket ($250). Batteries fully charged, we unplugged from home and headed toward the southernmost big city in America.