WE'RE ALWAYS SUSPICIOUS of claims of a world first. But what-the-h***, the PDC108 could well be the first ever car jukebox MP3 player.

It was being demonstrated in Computex 2004's Vehicle Information System pavilion by Power Digital Communications (PDC). Seeing as it boasts no fewer than four MMC/SD card slots, that should be more than enough MP3 tracks for any long journey. You could even use it to duplicate your MP3 selections.

Since you'd want to replace your existing car music system with the PDC108, it naturally boasts an FM and AM radio capability as well as playing MP3s. There are four RF variants to suit the European, US, Japanese and Asian markets.

There's another interesting option - a built in TV capability. That's so you can mount a flat screen TV in the back of the seat so passengers can watch their favourite soap opera as you tear down the highway.

Business executives can even make the most of the journey by dictating and recording onto memory cards as they drive along. This really is the ultimate high tech poseur's toy, isn't it?

Also on the PDC stand was the Smartrider - an in-vehicle multi-purpose system. It provides you with one central console to control a multiplicity of capabilities. To us the most usefel was the ability to swap between a full GPS location system and GSM/GPRS. The latter provides mobile access to the Internet or SMS (text messaging).