Dave McManus reveals how the humble telephone will be at the cutting edge of technology

Over the coming months. the humble mobile phone will be available with an ever-increasing number of features. While this may not be the best news for users still trying to get their heads around existing mobile phone services, those of us with more than one mobile device can look forward to a day when they are all converged into one single unit. Casio (www.casion.com) and Siemens (www.siemens.com) have been working together on a hybrid Pocket PC/mobile phone that is due to hit the streets later this year. The Multimobile is a fully functional mini-computer with all the usual PDA functions and a colour screen, but it also doubles up as a mobile phone with SMS messaging, e-mail and an HTML/WAP browser.

Virgin has stolen a march with the first available 'added extras' mobile phone, though it's not in the same league of gadget-cool as the Multimobile. The company has just released the world's first mobile phone with a built-in MP3 player. The trendy Virgin SGH M100 (no points for snappy naming, guys) weighs a mere 97g and has all the usual functions of a modern mobile, but plug in a set of wireless headphones and you can start listening to your favourite music. It looks lovely and scores plenty of points for its pose factor, but anyone wishing to show it off to their mates will have to fork out a whopping 350 for the privilege. More details at www.virgin.com.

You know the feeling - you're sitting at your PC at work suffering a serious lack of determination to actually do anything more mentally strenuous than surf the Web with one eye and use the other to scan for the arrival of your boss (quick note to my employer: this is not anything I would ever consider doing, honestly!). ISBW (ishouldbeworking. com) is a site dedicated to slackers, goof-offs, procrastinators, loafers, "long lunchers", and web-addicted employees worldwide. Take a break at ISBW for online games, jokes, contests, sweepstakes and over 1,000 links to the best non-productive Web sites on the web. What are you waiting for? Go slack.

According to a recent survey, the investor's love affair with dotcoms is officially over. A survey of 40 of the UK's leading chairmen and women, fund managers and analysts reflected a major shift in attitudes towards Internet companies. It appears that rather than backing any project, no matter how vague the business plan or inexperienced the business leader, investors are now judging start-ups according to the same criteria as conventional ventures. This may be true, but there's still a big future in free enterprise on the Web.

If there's one thing I don't like to see, it's a boring desktop on a computer. Far too many of us seem content with the default background, wallpaper and icons that come as the standard configuration from the computer shop. Why do these people leave things the way they are? Would they move into a house and never contemplate redecorating? I doubt it. A great resource for new and well-designed wallpaper and other customisation techniques for Windows can be found at www.deskmod.com. Banish boring desktops forever!