GadgetSpeak Articles
GadgetSpeak has close to 5,000 product reviews and other articles. You can use this page to find others opinions on anything from mobile phones to computers to the latest kitchen appliance
I have already outlined the ‘phone’ part of this latest offering from Huawei on the 18th April. At the time I said I would tell you about the cameras when I had more time to study them. So here goes the camera are very good as they are made by Leica.
Perhaps if you think of this as a camera first and everything a phone does for you second then that gives you an idea of what it can do. Very early on I took a picture of the local lake and right at the top of the image was a branch of a tree that spread almost by mistake into the picture, every nodule of the bark of the branch showed up and although the lake a fountain and the wildlife on the lake were clear and sharp I still remember that branch.
Having recently resurrected the cassette player groov>>e now think that the portable CD Player still has legs. Certainly while I have downloads the majority of my audio collection is still on CD but is that only a generation thing.
The Groov-e GVPS110 retro CD player measures 15x12.5x2.5cm and weighs not a lot. It runs on ‘2xAA’ batteries or a DC power supply neither are supplied. There is a small circular display that shows track number and elapsed time. The majority of the unit is black apart from the top which is a silver grey colour.
I’m for ever blowing bubbles could be the theme song when I am applying a screen protector.
It has been said that there is “more than one way to skin a cat” and this could be one of those occasions. I should point out that, in this case, the cat is the screen of a mobile device and the skinning involves the addition of a layer rather than the removal of the epidermis.
Like most people I think I can just install the battery, check it has power and then insert a Micro SD card. I go outside, the garden is not looking too bad at this time of year, shoot a few test short clips and then expect to view them.
You know what I am going to say next, yes you are right, it defaults to 4K and my PC screen will not show 4K so all I got was the sound. So RTFM and find out how to work through the menus. It is small and light at only 135grams. It is 9.5x5x3cm with the normal lens cover fitted, slightly longer with the underwater one on. There is a small TFT on the top 3x2.
The more you use Windows, the more reluctant your computer will be to perform at its optimum level. This next product offers to help.
Over the years Nero (the company rather than the Roman Emperor of old) has developed from a company producing burning software (hence the name) to one that has developed a number of titles dealing with topics such as media manipulation and data backup. The latest string to Nero’s bow to appear concentrates on the area of keeping Windows computer and Android devices running smoothly.
One of my grandmother’s was named Nelly but she was nothing like the main character of this next game
I have used Samplitude Silver for some time; I probably use only a small amount of its ability in my regular adjustment of .wav files. Here it’s very big brother ‘think Twins’ and this Arnold to Danny. So exactly what can this powerful product do?
I have always liked manuals especially printed ones, I read them in bed, in the bath or in the smallest room, these days there are no printed manuals but at least with notebooks you can still read in bed. This offering is just over 1000 pages long so you see this is no trivial product. I use what is called Samplitude Silver a very small sibling to this and spend all the time in editing .
It is time to give my home a good cleaning while checking out a Hoover vacuum cleaner.
The Hoover Velocity is a bagless, upright vacuum cleaner which could, more or less, seem to cover everything about the product. This is, after all, a product has been manufactured by Hoover. It is both bagless and an upright vacuum cleaner plus it has been christened “Velocity”. Fortunately there are a couple of other issues that means this review will be of a reasonable length rather than just a few sentences.
In my youth I had a beard which came to a nasty end when the chef I was working for took a dislike to it and removed one side of it with the fish scissors, such things today would end up in a court case. So while I often go a day or two without shaving going several weeks in order to test this was something my neighbours had not seen before.
Certainly after not having a real beard for nearly 50 years it felt strange and what was a dark mid brown offering which used to bear the name ‘goatee’ now is a grey mess which would take far longer to become something worthy of the name beard but it did allow me to test the ability to set the length or should I say shortness of cut/trim. It is 16.5cm long, 4.5cm wide at the head and a maximum 4,2cm just below the head, it weighs 177grams.
Bluetooth audio systems able to play music from your phones, here a device that you just link via Bluetooth and the music plays as long as you have charge no lead is required.
These are lightweight on ear headphones weighing only 180grams. There is 3cm of movement in each arm and the measurements I am giving are when the arms are fully extended. From the base area in between the earpieces to the top of the headband is 19cm, the earpieces themselves are circular at 7cm across and 3.5cm deep. When I wear them I tend to use about half the expansion and being old I wear them in the old way on top of my head.
This is definitely a case of company action negating a review.
Not only does Vodafone offer users a vast range of mobile devices from the industry’s leading manufacturers but it also has its own brand of handsets. The Vodafone own branded handsets form the Smart range of products.
Larger Sainsbury’s stores have their mobile phone shops and this more basic level product is one offering available from them. However when you look at it you see something chunky that would be ideal from the older person to have.
The F24 Power from Archos measures 12.5x5x2cm and it weighs 156grams. The viewable screen is 3.5x5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 2.5 inches. However despite its small screen size it is far more than a phone and text system.
Bluetooth speakers come in various shapes and sizes with a price point that reveals the audio quality delivered by the device.
With an easy to remember name, the Riva S is a Bluetooth mobile speaker that is available in a choice of three colour schemes. You can opt for Black with Titanium, White with Silver or, as in the case of my review unit, White with Gold. In each case the first colour is used for the top and bottom of the unit while the second colour decorates the heavily perforated aluminium band that encircles the main body as it acts as the speaker grille.
Are you ready to enter various dreamland environments as you search for children missing from Kronville?
Kronville – Stolen Dreams is a Hidden Object Adventure Games that is based on the disappearance of twelve children. Your role in this game is to take on the task of locating and rescuing the missing children from whatever force has imprisoned them. Unlike many other games of this genre, the options available to players are rather limited when setting up the game environment. You can create named profiles for individual players.
Having recently told you about their rather good Sounddeck here are a pair of speakers that can be used in several ways and that even includes multi room use. With these speakers the sounds on your phone will never have sounded so good.
The pair of speakers are 17.7x10.5x12.7cm each, and they weigh 1407grams each. If you currently buy the pair you also get the Wi-Fi extender included, this is 11x11x2.5cm. You can have them in Black or White or should you wish one of each which could help identification and possibly even satisfy the lounge fashion police.
Aimed at the budget sector of the mobile market, and currently it is available for around £74, the Archos 70b Helium has been released under the banner of “Entertainment your way”.
While some might regard the Archos 70b Helium as a bulky smartphone, I tend to feel that its size pushes it more into the phablet (a word that I do not find all that appealing) classification. This smartphone on steroids has dimensions of 188 x 108 x 9.9mm (H x W x D) which means that this unit is far too large for my usual phone pocket.
A 27inch flat panel that is light but solid, the silver grey stand is in the shape of a squashed C with an extended bottom part makes it very solid but it also takes up very little desk space and everyone knows how that is always at a premium.
This LED flat panel display from AOC measures 62x36x1cm and sits on a stand 32x17cm that raises the screen 8cm from whatever you sit it on. The viewable screen is 61x35cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 27inches. Unlike most recent panels the stand is fixed so you take it out of the box connect the leads for power and signal and you are ready to go. There is virtually no surround on the top and sides and it is only 1.5cm at the bottom.
Both these devices have 32GB of memory, both are there to store and easily transfer data. The first item from Kingston is a fast access SD or micro SD card ideal for videos. The second is a nice looking USB able to clip to your keychain or purse.
This is a 32GB Micro SD Card designed for the rapid acceptance and playing of video without frame drop in the latter and stutter in the former. The figures are 90MB/s read and 45MB/s write so while you are recording to say your head cam while zooming across rough terrain in death defying action it is all being captured for your mates to enjoy and your mum to clip your round your ear for doing it in the first place. These are available in 16GB, 32GB as I was sent, and 64GB.
According to recent research, 29 of the UK’s major insurers will now accept evidence from in-car cameras as part of an insurance claim. Some insurers, such as Swiftcover, even offer a discount on motor insurance premiums if you are using a recognised in-car dash camera.
This is an Android phone so everything should be the same as every other phone? However LG have never been one to conform, I remember their white phone of many years ago. Here there are no buttons on the phones sides.
The Leon from LG has one button just above the centre middle of the back. Sorry if this is not a new feature but sometime ago LG stopped sending out review units so the only way I have to review such items is via people like Vodafone. This is not the largest of phones at 12.7x6.5x.8cm and it weighs 138grams. The viewable screen is 9.8x5.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 4½ inches. Both sides are clear the base has mini USB for charging and the top has 3.
How many entities share your bed? The answer might surprise you. Did you know that an average mattress can be home to 10 million dust mites? The reason why dust mites choose this type of habitat is that they thrive in the warm, moist environment engendered by such a location.
Once firmly established in a mattress, the dust mites can get to work by bringing on allergies and respiratory problems for their human bedfellows who tend to spend up to one third of their lives in bed. It has been estimated that 300 million people suffer from asthma and up to 250 million people suffer from other allergies on a worldwide basis which goes to show how extremely busy the dust mites have been.
No doubt you know the story of the first Cinderella. But perhaps you are not as familiar with the tale of the Final Cinderella especially when it forms part of the Dark Parables series of titles.
Dark Parables: The Final Cinderella is a Hidden Object Adventure game developed by Blue Tea Games. Standard and Collector’s Edition versions of the game are available and this review is based on the Collector’s Edition which comes with a number of bonus items, most of which can be accessed immediately. You can tackle puzzles, view wallpaper, check out a movie gallery, concept art and parable notes plus an additional game.
This device turns an Audio System without Bluetooth into an Audio System with Bluetooth providing you have either RCA jacks or a 3.5mm audio input, however it has an extra not found on a lot of other devices it also has Wolfson DAC.
The One For All Bluetooth Music Receiver measures 10.5x6.5x2cm and you should add another 2cm to the middle figure to allow for whatever cables are inserted into it. Supplied in the box is a DC lead to small power brick this lead is 1.8metres long, also a 3.5mm to 3.5mm lead that is 1metre long and a small RCA pair to 3.5mm plug that is 10cm long.
When all the router’s Ethernet ports are full, Netgear’s SOHO Gigabit Ethernet switches provide a means of connecting more devices to one’s LAN. In addition they can often make the house a tidier place by cutting down on the number of long cables needed around the network.
Early last summer I attended a Google launch I have already told you about Chromecast and Chromecast Audio. Here is a Chrome phone running Android Marshmallow (Android 6) – also launched at that event - from Nexus part of Google but made by Huawei and this one is from Vodafone, follow that, good.
The Huawei Nexus 6P measures 13.8x7.7x.7cm and weighs 177grams. The viewable screen is 12.6x7cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 5.8inches. On the right side are the on/off button and below that the volume rocker. On the base the USB 3.1 power connection. The left side towards the top is where your Nano SIM is inserted. The top has a 3.5mm socket for headphones.
I thought I would have reviewed my last cassette player quite a long time ago but if someone now brings one out they must think there is still a demand, perhaps the mix tape as a way of breaking the ice with a partner may be making a comeback.
As its version number of X8 indicates, CorelDRAW has been around for a good number of years. In fact this software’s first appearance was back in 1989 as it offered users full colour vector illustration and layout functionality on the Windows platform. Over the years this software product has undergone numerous changes including a metamorphosis into a suite rather than a single offering.
This latest X8 version of this package consists of CorelDRAW X8, Corel PHOTO PAINT X8, Corel Font Manager X8, Corel CONNECT X8, Corel CAPTURE X8, Corel Power Trace X8 and Corel Website Creator. You also get bucket-loads of content with 10000 items of clipart and digital images, 2000 professional digital photos, 10000 OpenType® fonts, 350 professionally designed templates, 2000 vehicle templates and over 1000 fills, frames and patterns to use with your projects.
A visit to the Wearable Technology Show had me feeling less fit and able than normal. This device was one of the worst offenders simply because the people wearing them were the exact opposite of me in three ways, young, fit and healthy.
The chest belt is the hardware but more important is the software that knows what you have achieved previously and indeed how hard you are working. So in theory even an old decrepit specimen like me could become less decrepit assuming the effort did not bring on a fatal heart attack.
Whether playing to win or just for enjoyment, you need the appropriate tools in order to succeed in the competitive gaming arena.
As part of its expanding range of gaming keyboards, Logitech has released a couple of new Cherry Mechanical offerings under the G610 Orion brand. Constructed of industrial grade plastic for a strong, robust appearance that is strong enough to handle the heavy workload of a gaming device, these keyboards are designated as either Brown or, as in the case of my review model, Red.
It will not come as a surprise to regular game players to hear that Shadlight, developed by Wadjet Eye Games, is a point and click adventure offering that is set in a world where everything is a little off-kilter. In fact the world of Shadlight takes you into an environment that has come about following a post-apocalyptic blast which occurred some 20 years earlier. This is a world where what is left of the population has split into distinct classes.
In the world of Shadlight the ruling classes are known as Aristicrats. This highly distinct group, with names taken from the Roman Empire and an appearance that pre-dated the French Revolution, control all the world’s facilities and available resources. They hand out titbits as personal favours for carrying out their wishes.
Older articles
Main Menu
