A shareware add-on called MAX-RAM claims to increase memory six-fold but slows everything in the process

A shareware add-on called MAX-RAM claims to increase memory six-fold, but slows everything in the process. In the best Mac tradition, software utilities can help patch the problem. RAM Doubler, a pounds 50 utility from Connectix, replaces the Mac's own virtual memory control panel tool, but performs the same trick faster and less intrusively. Contact Logi (UK), (01344 894301).Creative Labs' 3-D Blaster, about pounds 290; (01245 265265).. You wake up one morning to discover that your Mac disk is stuffed, like a python round a cow, and your RAM is sulking, refusing to run Quark and Freehand simultaneously and communicating only in cryptic messages All is not lost.

Contact ODT, (0171-378 7309).Logitech PageScan Color, about pounds 275; Logitech MouseMan Cordless, about pounds 48. It has obvious uses for keeping track of home accounts, or producing graphics for your World Wide Web home page.Unfortunately, industry law dictates that you will be able to buy something better or cheaper in a few months' time. But then, one-upmanship was never easy.HP SureStore 4020i, pounds 829; (0990 474747).Hauppauge Celebrity, pounds 339. The software has a "smart" filing system: learning from previous scans, it will recognise bank statements, then offer to file them in the appropriate folder. It uses impressive Optical Character Recognition by Xerox Textbridge to "read" printed letters: it can even manage poor-quality newsprint or type on a coloured background.

Small enough to be positioned behind the keyboard, and operated by simply poking a sheet of paper into the motorised rollers (the head can be detached for scanning book pages), this versatile little device transfers paper documents to your computer and can share a standard printer port with your printer. As it uses radio rather than infra-red signals, reception is unaffected by the usual desktop clutter - there is no need to ensure a clear "line of sight" between mouse and receiver. Of course, this means you will immediately lose your mouse under a pile of papers.So maybe you had better feed them all into Logitech's PageScan Color. For under pounds 50 you can say goodbye to twisted mouse cable misery with the MouseMan Cordless, which uses a small radio transmitter attached to the mouse port to pick up signals from the chunky, triangle-shaped mouse.

Creative Labs' 3D Blaster, which plugs alongside and connects to your existing graphics board, comes with a sample of six games.But luxuries can also come in small and relatively cheap packages. This plug-in card offers TV and Teletext reception in a resizeable window on your computer, works with the latest fast Windows 95 graphics cards and lets you watch the racing while the boss thinks you are slaving over a hot spreadsheet. You can grab single frames from TV, capture a short clip and turn it into a Windows video, or transfer Teletext pages to your own documents.Then there are games. You will, of course, want to watch the forthcoming generation of PC games in all their sumptuous widescreen glory, which in turn will need an even more powerful graphics card. Make sure your dealer can supply Windows 95 drivers and software, or it means a 7Mb download from HP's World Wide Web page.To watch TV on your computer, Hauppauge's Celebrity is the answer. You could also use it to back up data (although there are more convenient and cheaper alternatives for this, such as the Iomega Zip drive). But soon you will be using it to transfer all your old audio cassettes on to CD (although again, it is not quite there because it holds only 73 minutes of music).One of the cheapest all-in-one packages is Hewlett Packard's SureStore 4020i - a quad-speed audio/data CD player that doubles as a CD writer, with software for preparing audio and data CDs, and viewing (although not, alas, writing) PhotoCDs.