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Certainly the biggest TV to have invaded my lounge, unlike most others that allow me to slide my own TV back on the unit this needs to be towards the back of the unit because of the width of the screen and the size of the stand.
The Cello QLED 55inch 4K TV measures 124x70.5x.6cm and the stand it sits on is 76cm wide at the front and 24cm from back to front, it is the shape of a ‘C’ this raises the unit by 7cm from what it sits on. It can of course be wall mounted. However as the fitment is the only place I can put any TV the width of the ‘C’ is vital for me.
While one hand operation for a water bottle may not be essential – for most – it is nice and once used you realise what a faff it is to have to use two hands just to get a slurp of water, so this becomes a rather neat implementation of it.
This water bottle from Sigg measures 26cm tall and round at 7cm and weighs 336 grams when empty. The unit as supplied to me is both a Hot and Cold unit and indeed even has a strainer for those who put things in it that need straining, this part can be removed if required. The stated times of the bottles insulation properties are 20 hours cold and 12 hours hot.
Perhaps it was a mistake to start checking on this next title on Halloween as it might encourage a deluge of late night callers. Actually I got off light in this respect as just a pair of “trick and treaters” arrived on my doorstep to interrupt my playing of the game of Sinister City.
Stated to be capable of copying 8K video as captured according to the box. I can certainly confirm capture of 4K video without any problem on two separate devices. It is an SDHC UHS-II Card, mine was 32GB but they do other capacities.
Looking at the face of the card it is no different in size (dimensions) to any other SD card. Turn it over and you see a difference, the same row of contacts at the inward edge of the card but below that an additional row of contacts. It is stated to have read speeds of up to 270MB/s*² and write speeds of up to 260MB/s*². However due to the high quality for one year there is data recovery software available for free. The card itself is warrantied for five years.
Adding to its range of speaker devices, Edifier has released the MP200
In the past I have looked at a number of speaker systems from Edifier. Several of these products have featured innovations shapes to add visual appeal to their audio quality. However this next offering from Edifier is more conservative with regards to its shape although it does have other aspects which have benefitted from the company’s way of looking at products.
Having used numerous types of glues that include the notorious Super Glue here something rather different a mouldable glue marketed under the name of Sugru. I was sent a pack in what they call earth colours of Red, Green, Brown and White.
Providing battery power from your pocket is a device from Anker.
As our mobile devices have developed over the years with changes to their size, weight and functionality, one particular aspect has, perhaps, lagged behind with regards to customer appeal. We mostly love the increase in screen size with higher quality images and maybe a gram or two shaved off the weight.
No fancy packaging in fact they look ‘cheap’ – however do not stop reading – as looks can be deceptive and for the price these are available at rather good. So two in ear gels that for those that like to share their buds can even be used by two but of course that would lose stereo but provided the two of you remain close together you can both hear your sounds from a single SmartPhone.
Unlike other wireless buds these work rather differently in that both buds have batteries and both need to be charged but a splitter USB lead is supplied. So you link each earbud to the pair by pressing the K on the back of one it flashes red and blue and then repeat the process on the other bud and only then do you link to your SmartPhone by Bluetooth. So there is no problem of only one bud being linked as they are linked to each other before the SmartPhone.
The Wahl Aqua Blade is the latest addition to the company’s product range. It can be used wet or dry to trim or edge one’s beard as well as shave one’s head
Become a New York Police Detective to solve the mystery of a French hotel.
With multiple floors, rooms, corridors and facilities, a hotel is often used as an ideal location for an adventure game. In the case of the obviously named “Hotel” title, the location is the Bellevue Hotel built on the same site as a medieval castle long ago. Throw into the mix a New York Police Detective, named Bridget Brightstone, some historical characters and you have a game to challenge the player.
The next of the 2019 versions to cross my desk and again a product that gets used all year and not just while being reviewed. However I tend to use one feature the CD/DVD burning software at least once a week all year other features less frequently.
Nero is such a broad ranging product that few will ever be expect in all the modules and that is why Nero KnowHow Plus is so useful once it is turned it helps you to do what you want even if you are not really sure how to accomplish what you want to do. It sits on the right side of your Desktop and gives help and advice. Nero is a suite of products in one there are six main products as well as extra ‘Apps’.
When it comes to Huawei handsets, you can never really complain that you are spoilt for choice.
Huawei offers a regular flow of new models, whether part of its flagship Mate or Honor brands, to suit a variety of taste and pockets of potential customers. The latest Huawei model to come under my gaze is the company’s Mate 20 lite offering. With dimensions of 75.3 x 158.3 x 7.6 mm (W x H x D) and weighing approximately172 g, my review sample was decked out in black with highly polished and reflective front and rear panels.
This is a large curved computer panel which can show up to 2160x1440. So if your room can support such a large screen then you will get reasonable sound, great images and once you get used to the curve a more than satisfactory viewing experience.
This Benq monitor measures 71x42x2cm and it has a ‘V’ shaped stand 48x24cm which raises the screen by a minimum of 6cm. As the support arm is movable it can raise the unit by up to 12cm. The viewable screen is 70x40cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 31.5 inches. The screen has 15 degrees of back tilt and 5 degrees of forward tilt. There is no side to side movement but with a screen of this size you will not be sitting that close to it. There is 3.
w from Sweden is a set of earphones entitled RX8.
RevoNext, the Swedish audio specialist has added to its product portfolio with the release of the company’s RX8 offering. This is an in-ear personal listening device. The RX8 kit consists of the clearly labelled left and right ear pieces units, audio cable and a spare set of covering caps plus a small multi-lingual User Guide that features a small typeface so you might need a magnifying glass – I know I did.
All of us of a certain age remember the original Polaroid cameras, this one looks very much the same, however this has a big plus over the original it has Bluetooth and can link to your SmartPhone. So with this new camera old technology meets new.
In recent years cameras from Polaroid looked very much more ‘normal’ now this looks like a very early offering and it can take both Black & White and Colour images dependant o0n the film that you insert. It is 14x11x9.5cm and weights a fairly substantial 480grams. Power is provided by an internal rechargeable battery that is charged by a supplied micro USB to USB lead.
Kaspersky Total Security 2019 is aimed at meeting a family’s need for computer security with Safe Kids parental control being one of its additional features.
The bond between a boy and his dog is the subject of this next game.
With the title of “Fetch!”, the main subject matter of this next game should be reasonably obvious. To avoid any confusion regarding this matter, the central character of this particular game is a dog, named Bear, who is kidnapped by an evil fire hydrant. Just in case you are worried about being cast as a dog, I should explain that your role in this game is that of Milo, a young boy who is the dog’s owner, best friend and would-be rescuer.
This is big and I mean ‘big’ larger than most TV’s and it’s a monitor/panel for use with a PC, however with the software provided it can show up to four screens on it’s one screen. This 40inch display is capable of showing 4K which is 3840x2160.
The Philips BDM4037UW measures 90.5x53x1cm it has a ‘C’ shaped stand that raises the screen by 12cm from whatever you stand it on. The display is curved with the middle 2cm further away than the edges. The footprint of the ‘C’ shaped stand is 42cm at the open front and 22cm from back to front. There is around 10 degrees of back tilt and about 5 degrees of forward movement.
A new Synology NAS box provides users with personal data access.
Based in Milton Keynes, Synology is a company that is synonymous with NAS technology, devices and related issues. Recently I have been checking out the company’s DS119j product. With the “DS” part of the product’s title standing for “Disk Station”, this NAS box is being marketed as a budget-friendly, versatile and easy-to-use one-bay NAS product designed to host, share and protect the data of personal users.
It’s been a while since a new VAX vacuum has come my way. Here an offering that the demonstrator held up with two fingers of one hand and as far as I know he was not a weightlifter so it is quite a light unit that can be used on floors, upholstery or ever picture rails.
Providing multimedia speaker capability is a new audio system from Edifier.
The R1850SB is a speaker system from the Edifier bookshelf range of products. With support for Bluetooth, PC, Optical/Coaxial and AUX input, this particular speaker system is made up of a pair of speaker units, remote control, a selection of leads and a small User Guide booklet covering a number of European languages. All the various components of the kit, apart from the colour coded RCA and jack 3.5mm plugs, adopt a standard black coating.
A handheld stain and odour removal so if your pet misbehaves it need not be a disaster. So this is not a carpet vacuum or carpet room cleaner this is a handheld battery operated spot cleaner so ideal for an accidental spill or pet misbehaving.
The Bissell Stain Erasermeasures 40x11x16cm and weights 1845grams when empty. Apart from the main cleaning unit there is a different brush head the mains lead to charge the internal solid battery and two 236mL bottles of cleaning liquid which are Spot and Stain and OXY which a small amount is mixed with the water you inset in the unit. No flashy box or packaging just a plain brown cardboard container it seems at least one company has heeded the warnings on waste and recycling.
The HTC U12 Life is a smartphone with a 6 inch 18:9 screen and dual camera that sits in the middle ground between the premium products and the real budget phones.
The phone, which is available in either Moonlight Blue or Twilight Purple, is roughly 160 x75 x 8.5mm and, feeling solid in one’s hand, weighs 175g. The lower two-thirds of the back, which HTC describes as being made of acrylic glass, is covered with very narrow etched horizontal stripes which provide an attractive effect as well as enhancing grip and helping to reduce fingerprints. It has a conventional layout.
When the Fairy Godmother calls. You come running to help with the tidying-up.
We are now off on a trip to Albian where the most powerful wizards, sorcerers and magicians dwell. Your arrival will coincide with the start of the preparations being undertaken for a grand meeting of those involved with magic at the Convention of Magic Masters. The site for this year’s meeting is that of the castle belonging to The Fairy Godmother who just happens to be your Aunt Gwendolyn.
While I have a Nespresso machine I like the taste of Cappuccinos and Dolce Gusto machines do one as good as a decent Barista can make but of course there are two great advantages, you make them at Home and they are a quarter of coffee shop price.
It is 37cm tall, 26cm from back to front and 12cm wide. A rather modernistic design it can hold up to two pints of water. Unlike other machines this come fully assembled and once you have removed the plastic covering the shiny finish you just need to run some water through in case there are impurities from the production line.
This next product is made up of tools that allow you to take control of the different aspects of your digital life.
Not wanting to get behind the times, Nero has released the 2019 version of the company’s multimedia package while we still have a few months left in 2018. As is Nero’s normal practice with its flagship product, Nero 2019 is released in Standard and Platinum versions. I have been looking at the Platinum product which consists of six titles namely Nero Video, Nero MediaHome, Nero BackItUp, Nero Recode, Nero Burning Rom and Audials Music Recorder.
Like a number of Dell offerings it comes with a choice of hard disk, memory and processor options all under the same name of G5 15. So you can choose exactly what options you want at least until next year and then who knows what.
Not a light machine and while it does have good battery life and worked fine on my Wi-Fi those into gaming will probably use it on mains power in a single place and even plug in the Ethernet. It is 38.5x26.5x2.5cm and weights 2.82kilos. The unit as supplied to me had an Intel i5 8300H CPU running at 2.3GHz with 8GB of RAM a small 128GB SSD drive ‘C’ with around 38GB free and a 1TB hard drive ‘D’. The viewable screen is 34.5x19.
Along with juke boxes and slot machines, these full sized gaming devices dominated many social locations in recent times.
Like many gamers of a certain age, my earliest digital gaming experiences were heavily influenced by Bandai Namco titles. Those were the days when many hours were spent tackling various addictive games on a chosen platform. In my case it was a Video Genie computer that was a clone of the popular Tandy TRS80 system of that time. Sadly Radio Shack and Tandy’s time in the spotlight has long since passed as has some other brands of yesteryear.
Some things I test are more appropriate than others and here a device that I use frequently as my blood pressure does tend to vary which according to a consultant at the local ‘older persons clinic’ is because my diabetes is not great.
While I was aware that when I tend to bend down to do something like tie my shoe laces I do know that on standing up things do swim around a bit. The differences of your blood pressure are really shown by taking it sitting, standing and lying and while in all of us there will be a difference in those three scenarios having a device attached that can record the differences can be very helpful in determining any real problems.
The C27G1 is a member of AOC’s range of curved screen gaming monitors. With a 27 inch full HD screen with 1920 x 1080 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync it is targeted at the keen gamer.
This curved screen monitor, which has a 16:9 aspect ratio, has a 1800R curvature so that the centre of the screen is set back about 25mm with respect to the edges. It is 61cm wide overall with its black bezel being about 8mm wide on three sides and about 20mm at the lower edge which is then enhanced by a red styling strip running across the bottom. This styling strip is repeated on the rear of the monitor.
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