Technofile: It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid. Technofile has all your gadget needs for the festive season answered. So to kick off our selection for the festive period:

You want an MP3 player but don't want to be wrestling with wires? The answer may lie in the Oakley Thump2 - the latest version of the sunglasses and MP3 player combination from those purveyors of cool shades.

Oakley claims that the plutonite lens material achieves 100 per cent UV filtering, and they are - allegedly - pretty tough. But let's cut to the chase. If you want 240 tracks "to go", this is probably one of the simplest ways of doing it.

A one gigabyte memory holds the MP3s in the casing, but songs purchased on iTunes are not compatible. The clever earpieces, which swing out of the way when you don't need them, are an improvement on the first Thump.

The Thump2 will hold any kind of data on its USB-friendly storage. See www.oakley.com/thump for more information.

A message to mum and dad: don't think a "robot dinosaur" will be a novel Christmas idea. Swooping in from the same territory dominated by the Robosapien robot last year, the Roboraptor also moves around, this time autonomously.

It will "hunt" and bite any small moving object.

The bite is not dangerous, and it will quickly move on to its next victim, which is as well because this is how long your household will find this toy interesting.

Avoid also the iDog. It dances to MP3s, but who cares? If you must buy a robo pet, buy Sony's robot dog, which roams your house and barks at burglars. The downside? It's pricey at €1,700.

Mums and dads, please hunt down the Plasmacar. This fun kids' vehicle needs no batteries or pedals. The Plasmacar transfers lateral steering motion to the wheels. In other words, turn the wheel and it moves as if by magic.

See www.plasmacar.com for more details.

Don't insult mum (or any lady for that matter) with a pink gadget. Motorola have tried it with the RAZR, but this misses the point that not every woman wears pink.

Instead, look at the new Jabra JX10 Bluetooth headset which, thanks to Jacob Jenson's influence - the company behind a lot of Bang & Olufsen's hi-fi gear - is small, lightweight and stylish. It is pricey, but its slick design makes it almost a jewellery item, which is more than you could say for most headsets.