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The lowly skateboard was in dire need for a technological upgrade. And it got it in the form of The Magic Wheel. This is not a sort of skateboard you’d want to jump off ramps or slide down banisters with. The Magic Wheel is more utilitarian than that, an excellent vehicle for making your way around urban areas (once you get the hang of how to use one). The Magic Wheel has the maneuverability of a skateboard. Like a skateboard, it is also near-instantaneous to get on and off. It also has some properties of a bicycle, allowing riders to move rather fast — up to 13 mph (20 kph). Check out the video, below.

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Confession: We’ve never liked GPS road navigation devices. The in-dash variety built into many cars these days are fantastic. But the add-on GPS units are clunky, with difficult-to-see screens and annoying user interface. (With apologies to Garmin, the usability of their products is especially sub-optimal to us). So it is with great delight that there’s finally a road navigation system we can recommend: the Navigon 2100 Max. Its best feature, easily, is the clear 4.3 inch touchscreen. The text-to-speech driving directions also work remarkably well. And the sleek profile (.7 inches, 1.8cm) means this unit is anything but clunky. $299 list, but click here to check for a discounted price.

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Canon’s latest compact and mobile printer, the iP100, doesn’t look too impressive from the outside. And its “I P” name reminds us of a Bart Simpson prank phone call. Still, the technology here is undeniably impressive. This is the first portable printer capable of printing at a one picoliter droplet size. It prints at around 20 pages per minute, making it one of the fastest portable printers, and connects to your computer wirelessly or via Bluetooth. With the optional battery it can print 290 pages on the a three hour charge. When printing photographs the iP100 really shines — the printer can produce borderless photo-lab quality prints at 9600×2400dpi. The photo prints are so stunning in large part because of Canon’s Auto Image Fix feature, which analyzes and optimizes photographs base on type (portrait, scenery, etc). The Auto Image Fix is especially important when printing directly from your camera, camcorder or cell phone. $249.99

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The canopy top cockpit allows the C-Quester driver to look all around the submersible except for straight down.

How much to we want one of these! Our inner Jacque Cousteau gawks at the C-Quester, the only (relatively) affordable submersible boat designed for recreational, as well as commercial, use. There are two models: the one-person CQ1 and a two-person version called, logically enough, the CQ2. Both are capable of surface and underwater speeds of about 3 knots, both can descend to a depth of 50 meters and have the operational capacity for a 2 1/2 hour dive, though as a safety feature both can provide up to 36 hours of life support. The CQ1 weighs around the same as a small subcompact car (2400 pounds, 1100 kilograms) meaning it can transported and launched without any special equipment. The design simplicity and boat-like qualities of the C-Questers mean that you don’t have to be a graduate of the Naval Acadamy to learn how to operate one. The manufacturer of the C-Questers, the Dutch company U-Boat Worx, runs a comprehensive four-to-six day training course. The course is also open to enthusiasts like us who have the $120,000 (80,000 euros) to buy a C-Quester . . . yet.

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A 1 terabyte hard disk is just another 1 terabyte hard disk. Unless it is designed by Neil Poulton and possesses the technology of product leader LaCie. Then a 1 TB hard disk is a piece of art with a black mirror finish and ambient LED lighting. And then this 1 TB hard disk can near-silently transfer data at speeds up to 80MB/s. Compatible with both Mac and PC, this LaCie hard disk can interface through eSATA, FireWire 400 or Hi-Speed USB 2.0. An excellent deal at around $250, also available in 750 GB, 500 GB and 320 GB models.

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