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A lot of homes need a Dehumidifier as there is too much moisture in the air or even the walls of a property but almost as nasty is having a too dry atmosphere especially if you have frail people, by trying to keep a home warm you could also make it too dry.
This item from Philips is circular 33cm tall and 22cm wide. It is in two parts with the point where the two parts join together being slightly wider than the top or the bottom. Where a Dehumidifier starts without water in its talk and stops working when the tank is full a Humidifier cannot work without water in it and once its tank is empty it will stop working until more water is poured into it.
Combining the functionality of a notebook and tablet elements is a product from Acer
Adding to its extensive range of computer based products, Acer has released its Swift 3 offering. While classified as a notebook type device, the Acer Swift 3 adopts the more modern style of product by incorporating the ability to split itself into two separate units. A straightforward ripping motion is all that is required to turn the basic notebook format into a tablet and detachable keyboard arrangement.
A cutthroat shave from a barber is a treat that will probably take a long time especially with a hot towel treatment. Now this kit gives you chance to do it for yourself at home - certainly not something to try after a night out.
For me anyway the extra sound - quality and amount – that Dell can give you from a panel is a big plus if only from the point of desk space and the fact that you no longer need a pair of speakers on your limited amount of desk space.
This 22 inch monitor from Dell measures 49x29x1.5cm and its stand lifts it 10cm from your desk. The notional diagonal imperial measurement is 21½ inches. The area above and to the sides has virtually no border with only 1cm border at the bottom. It is of course a full HD offering (1920x1080) and allows you to connect via HDMI or VGA. The stand is ‘D’ shaped at 24x15cm; this connects to the arm from the panel by a twist screw.
Wileyfox is now offering an appreciable discount on the price of smartphones in return for users accepting lockscreen advertising with its Add-X service. This is the latest move in a cut-throat marketplace where vendors are looking for innovative ways of attracting price-sensitive buyers and generating revenue.
Following a tie-up with Korean firm Buzzvil, whose lockscreen advertising service is already active in South Korea, the US, Japan and Taiwan, Wileyfox has launched its range of Add-X variants as an extension to its existing range of Swift 2 and Spark smartphones. They are being offered with up-front discounts of up to 42% off the list price. However, users who buy a discounted Add-X phone will have the opportunity of reverting to a standard Wileyfox phone by paying back the discount.
Still quite a new idea, I have reviewed one such item previously a thermometer that you move across your forehead, it then gives a near instant reading. It can be used by the whole family as when the reading is taken you scroll through all the names and highlight yours; the reading is then transferred to your SmartPhone via Wi-Fi.
Most will think of Nokia as a mobile phone manufacturer but they have purchased Withings who have long been a name in health and fitness devices. It is 12cm long and 3cm wide the head is circular for the front 3cm, behind this area is the single control an on/off button, working back from this is a 4cm area made up of 1cm tall figures or letters which are white dots – six to the 1cm height – and that is it.
Do not think of this as something to get oil stained in the garage or that languishes in the shed. This is more like a piece of jewellery it even comes in a box that might otherwise contain a necklace or perhaps a bracelet read on to find the contents.
While never small this Backpack can quickly become cavernous so not only most Notebooks and all the extra bits that come it as well as a spare shirt pants and socks to facilitate an overnight stay can all be accommodated in this Backpack from Riut.
The Swift range was launched a year ago in Glasgow and I have previously looked at a different model from the same range. This is a rather smart looking Notebook with the screen capable of going back to 180 degrees.
The Acer Swift 3 is an ultra-thin notebook measuring 33x23x1.5cm and weighing 1629 grams. The base has a 27x1cm strip of rubber and the two front corners a 3x1cm front to back strip to protect whatever you sit it on, this matters because the body is all metal. Looking at the Acer site finds 21 different Swift 3 models with various memory and processor combinations. The one I have has silver body an Intel i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD drive.
The Supra KeySafe C500 is a secure key box that, when installed outside a house, provides a safe and secure means of holding keys and yet making them accessible to authorised people.
StarTech is a company that has those had to find things that others do not have. Here something that could be a larger seller with more small notebooks being marketed with only USB ‘C’, so how do connect a standard USB device as well as other components.
‘Ultra-Portable’ is often the phrase the notebook is compact, and, as long as everything you need is already there that is fine. This 17x9x4.5cm box and all the likely to required leads are supplied by StarTech with the less than catchy name of MST30C2HDPPD Okay that’s the part number but the name is USB-C Docking Station for Laptops – Hard Drive Bay – MST and Power Delivery – 4K.
This Toughbook looks ‘normal’ which while it may sound like a criticism, it isn’t, some Toughbook’s are very rugged as they are used on building sites and other places where they get abused, here one that would not look out of place in a boardroom.
I first saw this over four months ago at a pre-launch briefing at Panasonics factory in Cardiff. The Panasonic Toughbook CF-XZ6 measures 28.5x22x2cm and weights 1.2kilos. The viewable screen is 25.5x17cm and it has the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement of 12inches and a screen resolution of 2160x1440 which never looks small even on the smaller than normal screen. There is a 2MP web cam and microphone in the centre at the top of the landscape screen.
Both these award winning products are now available in a single box. So if you normally take videos but want to get a photo from a video or if it’s the other way round then the solution lies in having both items to get the best possible results.
Two top of the range photo and video manipulation products supplied in a single box by Cyberlink, you not only get a good discount by buying both together but you also get a digital copy and 50GB of cloud storage for 12 months. It comes on two DVD’s, the basic programs are on DVD 1 and took ten minutes to install on my Windows 7 notebook, the installation took 2.69GB of hard disk space. DVD 2 has extra content for both packages. There is a six side 18x12.
Big it is, and the curve means that the centre is 3cm further in than the outside and unless you are viewing from a good distance away it is certainly noticeable. However while sound is often low on this list of priorities here there are fantastic up facing speakers mounted in the rear.
Most speakers in panels are at best ‘average’ here they are superb as the extra depth is used to have great up pointing speakers in the back. While – for me anyway – the red line of LEDs under the base of the screen and the two pairs of red LED lines of lights on the back do little they may suit some. You would never buy this panel for word processing or spreadsheets this is a gaming or video watching panel.
If you need to move data around then on a Ethernet or Wi-Fi network should be easy, if however the files are in different places this is harder, so maybe a large capacity USB stick can help, or possibly to move from a mobile device to a PC then an OTG device can help, both are covered with the below.
Inflation is a thing most of us have problems with in one way or another, as far as computer memory it means that programs and the data they use can be larger, much larger, a long time ago – yes I am old – the operating system its programs and data fitted on a floppy disc of less than 100MB here however is a USB stick that can contain up to 115GB of data.
With backward and forward movement between centuries your character needs to save her daughter
Developed by TuttiFruitti Interactive, Darkarta – A Broken Heart is a Hidden Object Adventure game that is available in Platinum edition format. Following a rather dramatic opening sequence, set in 1700BC, featuring a Samson-like chained prisoner and a human sacrifice procedure, the actual game is based in a more modern day environment involving your character, Mary, her husband James and their young daughter Sophia.
This is a full size (22inch or 32inch available) TV that can run off an internal battery pack, mains power or even off a car cigar lighter socket. Best of all it comes with everything you need even a Philips screwdriver and an external aerial.
This rechargeable LCD television measures 38x30x8cm, my unit was the 22inch model, the viewable screen was 48x26.5cm this gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 22inches. This is a first for me a TV that can run off an internal battery pack, while it is of course ideal for caravans it is also useful for anywhere that suffers regular power cuts and it can even power a couple of low power lights which are supplied with the unit complete with the LED bulbs.
Moods can come and go, often influenced by outside conditions such as lighting.
Cinema, television and theatre directors have proved over the years that different lighting conditions can evoke a variety of moods within the audience. More recently this technique of using lighting to create an atmosphere is being used by companies developing lighting equipment for use in the home environment as a mood generator.
I think of Focal for higher end quality speakers and even headphones, here something a little less expensive a set of wireless earbuds for use most likely on the move and probably with either your iOS or Android SmartPhone.
They are 55cm from one earbud to the other the connecting cord has two boxes in the cable the one most will know seems to do everything as the three buttons and LED when charging/linking/dying as well as connection for USB charging are all in the 4x1x.5cm box. The one thing I did not mention is microphone which seems to be the job of the slightly larger 4.5x1x.7cm box.
This was one of five things that I requested from one of the range of Christmas In July events. I was told they would go on sale in September however at the time of writing in October this is the only one of their units to arrive with me.
This is a quite light remote control car that can travel across a solid floor or with a change of a setting on it up walls or for that matter across ceilings. The car is 13x8x4.5cm and weighs only 57 grams. It is charged from the rear by the supplied 60cm yellow USB lead. The control box is 14x7x5cm and is powered by six ‘AA’ batteries (not supplied) it weighs 234grams; all dimensions given both for the car and control unit are maximum figures.
When composing a list for Santa, you may like to consider the following items.
Every year, around this time, a panel of the leading retailers in the toy industry will get together and announce the hottest items that are expected to fly off the shelves in the lead up to the Christmas season.
Normally when I hear ‘All In One’ it refers to a printer and scanner unit. This however is a PC everything is built into the touch screen with the only external bits the wireless keyboard and mouse so much less desk space is required.
The overall size is 53.5x33.5x3cm, the stand is 23.5x23.5cm and raises the screen by 6cm. The only other parts are the keyboard and mouse both are wireless controlled by a single tiny USB controller. Apart from one USB 3.1 port, a headphone socket and an SD Card port on the left side bottom edge of the screen everything else is on the rear of the unit. On the right side of the connecting arm are an HDMI, two USB 3.1 and a USB 2 port as well as a small Kensington Lock Port.
How good are you at packing your luggage before a trip? This product might help.
Described as the ultimate carry-on backpack, the GOBAG 2 offers to provide the regular traveller with the means to fit as much content as possible into the available storage space. As the figure “2” part of its title might indicate, the GOBAG 2 is the follow up offering to the original GOBAG which was launched back in 2015 on the crowd-funding Kickstarter platform. GOBAG 2 is following a similar route with a Kickstarter launch in November 2017.
Take a trip, back in time, to Persia and help save the land from evil and mis-rule.
Persian Nights – Sands of Wonder is a Hidden Object Adventure game developed by SO DIGITAL_. As its opening premise, this game is set in the kingdom of Persia which has been brought to the edge of ruin by the harsh rule of the Grand Vizier Zaved. Your role in this game is that of Tara, a talented young apothecary, who sets out to purge the kingdom of the disease and evil that has spread throughout the land.
The words ‘mobile’ and ‘blood pressure’ in the same statement seemed strange to me so I asked to see this device from what is now Nokia but they are perhaps better known as Withings who have been making these sort of health devices for years.
You should always take your blood pressure reading ‘at rest’ which for most will mean while sitting and also in ‘normal’ circumstances once you been sitting for a few minutes. So the ‘mobile’ here means that the results are stored on your phone or Tablet. Taking readings at different times of day, before and after meals and exercise can often help your doctor or nurse solve what is causing higher or lower readings.
Originally released to compress file sizes, WinZip has developed into aspects of file distribution.
During a recent clear-out of my flat, I came across an old Compac (a name from the past that shows the device’s age) laptop that I had not used this century. One of the applications that were residing on the laptop’s hard drive was an early Shareware version of WinZip. By co-incidence, I had just received the latest version of this Corel software.
This ‘+’ of the Samsung S8 is seriously big and for the first time I have been able to move all my Apps etc. from one phone to another seamlessly. If you are someone whose life revolves round a phone why not have that extra screen size that you get here.
The Samsung Galaxy S8+ measures 15.5x7x.7cm and weighs 174grams. The viewable screen is 14x7cm, my unit had a grey back with a slight blue tinge the sides were silver and the front a not that shiny black, so joy of joys it does not show fingermarks that much. The screen has 16 million colours and is 2960x1440. The right side has the on/off button, the base the speaker, the 3.5mm socket for headphones and the USB ‘C’ port for charging and for an OTG device.
Not a small creature that lives in bedding but a bedside light that has no less than twenty two levels of brightness from a dull red up to a bright white. Designed primarily for young children I must admit that it has been a hit with me.
The Lumie Bedbug measures 16x10x10cm and is supplied with a 1.5metre micro USB to mains plug lead. However should it be required it could run off a standard micro USB to USB lead which could be powered from a charging port on a notebook or other device. As an experiment I also ran it using a ‘PowerBank’ mobile phone charger as the input and this worked correctly as well. This would be ideal when mains power is not available.
Adding to its family of industry-leading anti-virus and security protection products, Kaspersky has developed its Security Cloud offering.
With a description of being “the first security-as-a-service with a tailor approach”, Kaspersky Security Cloud (KSG) is available in personal and family editions. The product combines patented adaptive technology and comprehensive protection against the threat of viruses, Trojans, worms and phishing amongst other attacks by configuring itself to fit comfortably with the user’s behaviour. This review is based on the personal edition of the product.
This is a lightweight Windows Notebook/Tablet with – for me anyway – the all-important touch ability. Other things that might tempt you are USB ‘C’ and narrow screen borders on either side or the screen and the lack of Bloatware pre-installed.
The Lenovo Yoga 520 measures 32x23.5x1.5cm and it weighs 1710grams. The viewable screen is 31x17.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 13.7 inches, it would have been nice to have 1920x1080 display but the default is 1366x768 which becomes noticeable when viewing web pages. The left side has DC input, HDMI output, USB and USB ‘C’ ports and a 3.5mm socket for headphones. Both the front and back are clear, the base has a pair of speakers.
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