GadgetSpeak Articles

When a product offers to test your system for its graphics capabilities in order to gauge its suitability for a particular title, you begin to wonder just what you might be letting yourself in for when running the software.  With , it was an excursion into the field of avatar generation and accessible 3D animation produced in real time.

Putting a dragon and a bear in close proximity might be considered a recipe for disaster.  Fur and scales could fly in every direction while the cacophony of battle could easily freeze the blood of a casual observer.  However this was not the case when this particular bear ventured into the Dragon's Den.  Instead the bear was made welcome before being launched on to the consumer toy market in its guise of iTeddy.

There are in fact three different machines the DS-30, DS-40 and the top of the range DS50. They are different colours and the size of the built in memory varies. Whichever one you get they all record in WMA but to avoid death by initials I will just say you can pick recording rates from the worst LP 8kHz (8kbps) up to STXQ 44.1kHz (128kbps).

In amongst the coffee machines we are reviewing this month, we came across this Giles & Posner Chocolate Cocktail Drinks Maker.  As a dedicated chocoholic, this made me smile. The chocolate drinks maker looks a lot like a liquidiser with a heating element.  And really that is broadly what it is - except it doesn't chop anything, it mixes and heats.  The idea is very, very simple.

Once upon a time major applications, and even some minor ones, came with full printed documentation that included training exercises to help get you up to speed.  Nowadays the more popular option, as least with the software developers and marketing departments, is to provide documentation in the form of PDF (Portable Document File) and limit any training to opening tips and pointers towards the Help feature.

As with all phones now - this is much more than just a device for ordering a pizza. All the usual culprits are here : MP3 player, camera, FM radio, voice recorder and PIM (Personal Information Manager) functions. Even as a messaging device it isn't limited to voice. You also have video calls across 3G (dedicated camera for this), SMS and MMS. You're almost spoilt for choice when it comes to connecting with other devices.

This V7 L22WD is a 22 inch panel that has built in speakers. The screen is 50x36x6cm. The last dimension the width is the maximum as at the edges it is only half that. The stand raises it 6cm above the desk and is 19x25cm. It is matt black with a silver/grey band round the edge of the screen that matches the stand. The dimensions around the outside of the viewable area of the screen are 47x29.5cm giving the 22inch diagonal measurement.

DVD game (rated 12+) The storyline: This Game is all about a woman named Lara Croft. You may recognise the name as there have been many tomb raider movies as well! Anyway, Lara's close friend Werner Van Croy is tracking down the five lost Obscura paintings for a client called Edgar! Despite leaving Lara alone to die on their last mission Lara knows that she has to help him.

Here I am looking at two items sold in the UK by Coiledspring Games and in a few weeks two further offerings from them. Mini Pylos This consists of a 17cm square wooden board with 16 indentations (four x four) in the central portion and a gulley running around the four sides a cloth bag containing fifteen cherry red balls and fifteen creamy/yellow balls, finally two sides of a forty eight page multi language rule book that are in English.

Logitech MX Air mouse Originally referred to as "The Mouse Company", Logitech has developed into a world leader in the development and manufacture of a range of personal computer peripherals that make use of the latest technology.

I've been extremely lucky in reviewing products I like recently. And with Gadgetspeak concentrating on kitchens this month, it was a pleasure to test the Crock Pot Countdown slow cooker on my unsuspecting family - who were actually hoping I'd get around to the Chocolate Cocktail Maker (more on this later). What a breeze it was to use this slow cooker.

This Lindy USB Skype handset is a two piece offering black predominately with a red stripe down each side of the top part and a red underneath for the base part. It can be wall mounted or sit on your desk. The base is a maximum of 18x5.5x3.5cm (there is a 1cm difference between the front and the back. The top part is 18x4x1cm and slightly curved so it feels good when up to the ear.

Internet based game worlds are fairly popular these days. My daughter is often to be found travelling various make believe worlds on the Internet, her favourite being Habbo World where she wanders round, buying 'furni' and chatting with friends. Funkeys inhabit a slightly different kind of world.

Even with the advent of Windows Vista, and the expected boost that the new operating system was meant to bring to sales of new powerful computers, currently portable computers are outselling their larger desktop siblings.  Whether you refer to these portable models as notebooks or laptops, they will, at some stage or another, find themselves being used when perched on your lap (hence the laptop designation).

If my daily national newspaper and various television adverts are anything to go by then brain training is a popular occupation we should all indulge in on a regular basis.  Just in case you have been living in a vacuum or are recently returned from a mystical tour of the universe, I should explain that brain training is based on the work of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima.

It is 33x26x10cm however to insert various leads in the back you will need to add another 5cm to the 33cm depth. No monitor or panel is supplied as standard but it is supplied with a DVI to Analog converter should you use an Analog monitor/panel. It has an Intel Viiv Core 2 Duo processor E4300. This seemed to handle everything I asked it to do without problem.

Here at Gadgetspeak we've kitchen-tested the Kenwood Response toaster - which has worked hard for its money.  It has three functions:  normal toasting, single sided toasting and warming.  The three functions are controlled from buttons on the front of the toaster, with additional buttons for raising and lowering the toasting rack, and buttons for adjusting the toasting time.

As somebody who does not feel totally dressed unless wearing a wristwatch, I was an obvious candidate to try out an addition to the Sony Ericsson family of products.  This product is the Sony Ericsson MBW-100 wristwatch which can be classified as both a fashion accessory and a mobile phone add-on.  The latter designation is due to the Bluetooth connectivity built into the wristwatch.

It was with some trepidation that I plugged my very old TV aerial into the back of this Humax FreeView PVR. Having been on cable for the last 5 years with the aerial dangling in the garden I was expecting the worst! Luckily though the box sprang to life and discovered a good range of digital channels. The Humax PVR9200T provides everything you need to receive and record FreeView programmes onto it's internal hard-disk drive (HDD).

On first glance this looks like a Bush radio I owned very many years ago however do not let that turn you away from what it has to offer. To begin with it is stereo where a lot of DAB offerings only have a single internal speaker. It is a mains/battery offering and is 31x10x20cm to the top of the carrying handle. It has a 50cm five piece rod aerial.