Record Recorder

Crosley’s music players are beautiful tools for amateur music historians hell-bent on keeping Boys2Men B sides alive in relevant formats. Inside its wooden casing, the Composer player is equipped with all the archaic technologies you need to play cassettes, listen to the radio and play records at three different speeds (33.3, 45 and 78 RPM). It also comes with a built in CD writer and a USB port for recording straight to your computer.

Price: RMB 2,400. Web: www.crosleyradio.com

Archos Tablet

If Moses came down from the mountain with a tablet today, it would probably be the Archos 5. While 2010 is touted to be the year of the tablet PC, Archos has already set the bar that this year’s releases will be measured against. With a 4.8 inch screen, it’s down near the Personal Media Player end of the tablet size spectrum – probably not the right tool for photo editing or illustrating – but there’s a lot packed into the little device. The Archos 5 runs high def 720p video, and carries either 8-32 GB flash memory or a staggering 150-500GB hard drive. The Archos 5 has love-of-your-life compatibility, including essential features like WiFi and 3.5G wireless. It also runs Google’s Android OS, so promises access to a steady stream of new apps to help your relationship evolve.

Price: RMB 1,700. Web: www.archos.com

Scratch That

Bright as they are, post it notes get lost, usually in a neon jungle of other post it notes. The Scratch ‘n’ Scroll mousepad lets you jot down information where you won’t misplace it. As well as offering the necessary textural traction for delicate mousing, you can use your finger or the stylus that comes with the mouse pad to jot down important deets, magically erasing it to free up space simply by lifting the top layer. The mouse pad is one of the products on real world 2.0 website called Quirky.com. Users submit product ideas, offer each other comments, and the best ones get made.

Price: RMB 102. Web: www.quirky.com

Frank Lego Wright

“Architecture students are like virgins with an itch they cannot scratch,” sings Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus. The same way furious prayer and a cold shower helps virgins, Lego helps those frustrated students by putting them in the shoes of some of the world’s best architects. Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous 1936 house, Fallingwater, can now be rebuilt as an 811-piece Lego model. Sections of the finished model slide apart, allowing you to better examine Lloyd Wright’s bright, open interiors. You can also buy models of the Empire State Building, Seattle’s Space Needle, and Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim museum.

Price: RMB 682. Web: www.lego.com

Red Digital Camera

Not yet a feature film director? Buy yourself a movie career with Red digital camera equipment – it’s what Peter Jackson uses. These are serious cameras, designed for mounting on cranes as much as tripods. With a 12MP sensor, Red One’s resolution is “super 35mm” sized, so big that graininess, even on the big screen, is no longer an issue. This is the equipment that made Steven Soderbergh admit that “I feel I should call up Film on the phone and say, ‘I’ve met someone’.” Though digital can have trouble capturing bright whites and deep blacks, these cameras have a high dynamic range of over 66db. The modular design of the system is designed to fight off obsolescence. Upgrade what you need as you progress from handheld camera indie upstart to auteur with a full studio set up.

Price: RMB 120,000 (body only). Lens set for RMB 130,000. Web: www.red.com

Can Stand It

Got some time to kill while travelling this Spring Festival? Instead of lowering your sperm count with a lap full of personal media player, get your hands on Agent18’s StandHear Travel Stand, compatible with iPhones, iPods, the Blackberry Storm and the Palm Pre. It folds down to credit card size, and has an audio splitter so you can share music and movies with your bestie in the neighbouring chair.

Price: RMB 170. Web: www.agent18.com