A British bank this week announced the fruition of a technological joint venture with a mobile phone company, a development certain to quicken the pulse rate of all gizmo clutching poseurs and to strike fear into the average road and rail user.

In a faustian liaison of hightech geneticism, Barclays Bank and Cellnet have crossed a telephone with a cashpoint machine and come up with a hybrid mobile telephone which displays bank account information on its screen. The device, which has just gone on sale in Britain, offers most of the functions of a cash machine - except that, as yet, it does not physically dispense cash. But the companies say this could happen in the future, with money downloaded on to a electronic "smartcard" via a customer's handset. Barclays says that the phone was "like having a cashpoint screen in your pocket", enabling people "on the move" to get an instant readout on the state of their finances. An absolute must for all boys with toys to fiddle with when travelling at 70 mph on the Naas Road.