The Good Life

Love to travel but hate missing your team's matches? Whine no more. New "place shifting" technology lets you take local programming on the road. Slingmedia's Slingbox redirects your home TV signal from an antenna, cable box or satellite to your Net-accessible PC or laptop. The Slingbox connects to the TV and the Net, while SlingPlayersoftware is uploaded to your PC (£180; slingmedia.com ). Sony's LocationFree TV can transmit programming to a Mac, PC or PSP portable device (£229; sony.com/locationfreetv ). Orb Networks provides access to live TV through PCs, cell phones and palmtops using free software installed on a home PC, but the PC requires a video tuner card and must be on. Travelers can watch from a Web browser by logging on to the MyOrb site ( orb.com ). One caveat: don't expect superb picture quality. Depending on the connection, the video stream could look hazy at best. Still, Arsenal live!

--ALLAN MADRID

Exercise: Good Vibrations

It sounds too good to be true: vibrate your way to a better body. But converts are trading hours of weight training for a few minutes on the Power Plate, the hot new workout machine reportedly buffing the buns of celebrities from Madonna to Claudia Schiffer. All you do is stand on the small vibrating platform and wait for the burn. Start with a warm-up, standing with knees slightly bent, while the platform buzzes away at a minimum of 30 vibrations per second (the hard core can take it up to a maximum of 50). Then set the amplitude on low or high (that's two- or four-millimeter vibrations) and hold each position for one minute. No sweat? No way. You'll be sore the next day. But hurry; London's Harrods, for one, is selling 20 machines a weekend (€10,230; powerplate.com ).

--Marian Smith

Fashion: Snakes on a Runway