At last - an empty road! You cruise along as if you're in one of those car advertisements with no human beings, beautiful black surfaces and uplifting music on the surround-sound in-car system.

But how cruel life is. First there's a little crackle, then the sultry-voiced singer sounds like she's being suffocated with a bag of crisps, finally bits of brown tape start spewing out of the top of the tape player.

You pull over and, top surgeon that you are, try to fix the problem by jamming a pen into the tape deck. That's when the guards arrive, presume you're trying to steal the stereo.

It didn't have to be like this. You could have bought the new Rome MP3 player, the one that allows you play the music you've illegally downloaded on the Internet on any tape machine.

You just pop it in the cassette slot and press play. Most tape players will even recognise the forward and rewind buttons, and zip you to the next or the previous song.

And it never chews tape.

The Rome MP3 Player, $200 €208), is available from www.romemp3.com and some retailers.

Gizmo suggestions welcome: smaccarthaigh@irish-times.ie