PRODUCTS TO WATCH
By ALISON L. SPROUT

(FORTUNE Magazine) – POINT AND SHOOT Have you ever seen a camcorder strapped atop a colleague's computer and wondered what it's for? Chances are your officemate was video teleconferencing by turning the computer screen into a version of a videophone. He may also use a camcorder/computer combo to add video footage to presentations. Now the FlexCam from VideoLabs of Minneapolis offers a more elegant solution: a tiny color camera about 1.5 inches in diameter perched at the end of an 18-inch flexible stalk. Twist the FlexCam to point to an object or a document, or set it directly in front of your monitor so you can communicate eyeball to eyeball without looking away from the screen. The spherical head of the camera contains the lens and light sensor, plus two stereo microphones. These are connected to audio and video processors in the base by an electric cable. The FlexCam works with all popular desktop video teleconferencing and editing packages for IBM-compatible PCs and Macintoshes, and sells for $595. Even before counting the price of the camera, adding video capabilities to your computer can be expensive. Rudimentary systems start at around $2,000, and a basic editing package will set you back at least $300. Luckily the FlexCam isn't chained to a desk -- it also can work as a candid camera when plugged into a VCR.

TUTTI FRUTTI RUM Pretty soon you can skip the chopping and slicing. This rum will arrive with the fruit already mixed in. Strummer's, from Monsieur Henri Wines of White Plains, New York, has added the flavors of banana, pineapple, mango, and passion fruit to a 63-proof Jamaican rum -- and it's not too sweet. You can pour it over ice, mix in fruit juice for a tall Caribbean drink, or use it to add punch to traditional concoctions such as daiquiris and pina coladas. Strummer's tropical tang and convenience are expected to appeal to twentysomethings. Now marketing in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., for about $9 per 750-ml bottle, Monsieur Henri plans to introduce Strummer's nationwide next year.

PORTABLE PC PAL An OmniBook 300 by Hewlett-Packard can't replace your desktop computer, but it makes excellent sense for your second one. Instead of the usual notebook computer with a floppy disk drive and backlit screen, H-P created a traveling companion that weighs just 2.9 pounds and runs on a rechargeable battery pack or four AA batteries. Unlike subnotebooks of about the same weight, the OmniBook features full-size keys and a display that uses available light to $ save on batteries. Other OmniBook assets? Its built-in applications -- Microsoft's DOS, Windows, Word, and Excel, and H-P's Phone Book, Appointment Book, and Financial Calculator -- are stored on a ROM (read-only memory) card instead of a power-hungry disk drive. Because there is no floppy drive, you must download new programs from your desktop computer using Traveling Software's LapLink (included). The 386-based OmniBook is available with two choices for storing additional applications and your work: a 40- megabyte hard disk drive or a 10-megabyte flash memory card. (Data- compression software effectively doubles the memory of either option.) With the hard drive, the OmniBook sells for $1,950 and has up to five hours of battery life. The flash-card version, for $2,375, runs up to nine hours. Finally, the OmniBook goes one better than the usual trackball device -- a desktop-style mouse pops out of the notebook's side.