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Described as the Future of Prehistoric, the MiPosaur Robot has been developed by WowWee. As the prehistoric reference might provide a clue, the MiPosaur is a mechanical dinosaur designed in the style of a miniature T-Rex with its default stance being that of a begging position. This powered and controllable dinosaur is aimed as being suitable for those aged eight years and older.
Releasing the MiPosaur Robot from the packaging, a task that can be a little time consuming due to the presence of a fair amount of sticky tape, reveals a kit consisting of the MiPosaur robot, with a height of 24cm and measuring 38cm from the nose to the tip of its tail, and a Trackball with a diameter of 8cm. A Quick Start Guide and User Manuals in English, French and Spanish are included.
This version of Sphero goes far beyond what the previous version could do and that was be controlled by an App to move around, if you were good then you could just about control it, if not it controlled you. Here you teach it.
The Sphero supplied here is transparent so you can see its inner workings. Anyone from 5 upwards can learn as well as teach Sphero. But just like the majority of teachers they also learn from their students so it’s a two way street. Understand Sphero and in a weird way Sphero will understand you. So what does SPRK stand for, Schools, Parents, Robots, Kids so in one way or another I think that covers most of us. The box contains what it modestly calls a ‘Genius Kit’.
The TP-Link Touch P5 AC1900 Wi-Fi router is a stylish versatile gigabit unit that has a touchscreen and so will appeal to a number of users even though the usual browser-based access to its control panel is still important.
The body of the router is 280 x 155mm and has a slightly concave surface with a 95 x 55mm touch screen at its centre. The black top surface has a terrazzo effect which, when one looks at it carefully, can be seen to have a large number of ventilation holes. The undersides of the router are similarly well ventilated. With the exception of the USB 3.0 port accessible from the front all connections and switches are on the rear surface.
Just in case you need a last minute present for the man in your life then Gillette has a suggestion that could help smooth relations.
According to received information, SPECTRE, the 24 James Bond adventure, brought in $300 million worldwide within the first two weeks of its release. $73 million of this poured in during the initial weekend period of the film’s launch in America while the UK added $21.3 million to this cash cow. I am sure that Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment must be rubbing their financial hands in glee.
First an OTG device designed for the newest type C USB 3.1 ports. Second a more conventional micro SD card but for i devices to once again facilitate transfer of data between the PC or MAC to the portable device and back again.
OTG (On The Go) devices have been around for quite a while and for the devices that support them they make an easy way to transfer larger files quickly. Here is the first USB Type C OTG I have seen, type C means it fits either way round. In itself a great idea and with a cable – rather than a device – it means you do not need to ferret around trying to get it to fit into the port. However with a device you need USB 3.
When I think of Focal I think of quality and these earbuds are rather good. However unlike a lot of items in their catalogue the price they are sold at does not make your eyes water. So these mid-priced earbuds got tested over several weeks.
Ensuring your computer is protected from outside attacks is your responsibility. This next product provides one way of adding this protection.
Maybe I am being a touch old fashioned but when I receive a DVD case clearly labelled with the name of a particular piece of software, I do expect the DVD case to contain a disk. However in the case of Kaspersky Internet Security this was not to be. Instead of media stored on a silver coloured disk, I found a folded sheet of paper entitled Quick Start Guide. This document featured a 20-character activation code on the front of the paper.
When I think of Canary I think of a bird known for its singing and in a way no doubt this is how the name of this product was arrived at. It is a security alarm product that sees the intruder and then no matter what he/she does they are on camera.
To say the setup was not easy is perhaps the understatement of the year – no make that decade – as even though I live in the UK – and it agrees with that – it insists I enter a ‘state’ this however can be anything a blank space or a non-existent one it just needs an entry.
While not the only brand on the market, when it comes to referring to an ebook reader many people tend to think of a Kindle device a bit like calling a vacuum cleaner a Hoover.
Amazon has released a number of Kindle ebook reader devices. The latest offering of this product to come my way is the new Kindle Paperwhite model. I mention “new” because this 2015 version of the product is an upgrade of the original version that was launched in 2012, some five years after the original Kindle device was released to the public. My review sample of the Kindle Paperwhite 2015 is the 3G WiFi model that has 4GB of RAM.
Walking through an underground car park, following a shopping trip, you are mysteriously transported to another world under attack from the Four Horsemen.
Some of the bonus items, such as wallpapers, music and concept art, are available immediately. Others require a certain amount of progress to be made before they become accessible. In one case, that of a bonus chapter, you will need to complete the main game first. You do, however, have immediate access to a Strategy Guide that provides appropriate screen grabs and step-by-step instructions. In this game the kingdom of the Lost Lands is under threat from an evil force.
For a very long time people have talked about a paperless office, and yes we all still seem to be drowning in paper. Utility companies and banks want you to go paperless but there is not normally a great incentive to do so.
Here a small scanner that may assist as it lets you scan and then convert files into a format readable by Word and Excel to name but two. It comes in a small box and the scanner itself is 28.5x5x3cm there are minimal instructions consisting of a single sheet with just four points. So no CD is supplied and if you are on dial up or a very slow connection this is not for you as when downloaded and installed the hard disk space taken is over 3GB.
Carrying a safe in your pocket might not seem possible but it can happen with a product from Buffalo.
While the capacity of flash sticks (sometimes referred to as thumb drives) has increased considerably since those early days of single figure MB. Or even smaller, modules, they have yet to approach even close to the capacity offered by portable hard drives. One example is the Buffalo MiniStation™ series of devices. Recently added to the company’s portfolio of hard disk devices is the Buffalo MiniStation Safe.
ABBYY FineReader 12 Professional is an extremely accurate and versatile optical character recognition (OCR) package. It is easy to use for run-of-the-mill jobs with good, clean text but can also deal with less than perfect text as well as complex documents which include tables and images.
It analyses the input document and then recognises its content to produce text files in a range of commonly used formats. These include Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint as well as searchable PDF and PDF/A (archive able) formats or other options such as HTML or EPUB. The source can be from a normal computer file, a scanner or digital photos of documents. Having completed a scan or read in a file FineReader analyses the page layout and then carries out the recognition process.
By chance these came in for review whilst I was learning to use an iPad and it was not a huge chore to listen to music while learning a new operating system and again by chance when I was flicking through the battery properties I came upon a reading that told me the state of the iPad battery which I expected but also the state of these earbuds which I did not expect.
These earbuds from Optoma are just under 60cm from earbud to earbud and surprisingly – to me anyway – the cable from the right bud has the units controller only 6cm down. Checking all the other units of various types I have found that this always seems to be from the left bud. The fold out instruction sheet of 12 sides is almost totally in diagram form the exception being one side that says please visit optoma.
The problem with handheld massagers is that unless the area of pain is reachable you need another person to operate it. While as an older person I have aches and pains all over my body like a lot of other people my back is the main offender.
The unit has three feet which means that the area it can work in is fairly wide as all the feet vibrate to give relief to a larger area. The area you hold is oval at 9x6cm with the power button at one end which is likely to be the front. So there are two feet a total of 11cm apart below this with the back foot 11cm back and mid-way between the two front feet.
Along with available storage space, one aspect of my computer system that has grown in size is the monitor with 24-inch being a popular choice.
Adding to its range of Style-line display units, AOC has introduced its I2481FXH model. Arriving as a one-piece unit, this LCD monitor comes mounted on an asymmetric, matte silver metal stand. The combination of display panel and stand has dimensions of 541 x 403 x 150mm (W x H x D) as it sits on the workspace. Immediately drawing your eyes to this panel is the presence of, one could state the almost lack of, the unit’s black bezel.
This is a large unit so my advice is make sure its place is clear before you unpack it. It can be Wi-Fi or USB. I assume TNTs couriers are a lot stronger than me as it journey to its review position once delivered was by pushing its box along my hall.
The Brother DCP-9015CDW colour, multi-function printer measures 40x45x37cm and weights over 23kilos and around four kilos more in its box. The off white colour means it might just get by the lounge police; it has clean lines and could even pass as a coffee table when not in use. There are just two connections at the rear USB back left and power back right. There is no sheet feed so the rear 30cm is perfectly flat and it just rises to place a sheet of paper on the scanner.
It is up to you to make sure your computer is protected from malicious threats with appropriate software.
It is that particular time of year in the Fereday household when messages start to appear on my various computers advising me that my anti-virus and Internet protection software was approaching or had already reached the end of its subscription period. This memory prompt allows me to either renew my existing subscription or opt to try another product.
The Moochies Phone Watch has been designed to provide children with certain mobile phone features while, at the same time, giving parents a degree of control over the telephonic activity of their children.
Available in a choice of Black, Orange, Blue and Pink colours, the Moochies Phone Watch combines mobile phone, watch and GPS tracking elements within a single unit. Bright, some might go as far as saying gaudily, coloured with a child friendly image alongside the watch face, compressed non-toxic silicone rubberised casing, and capable of encircling a wrist with a circumference of between 12.5 and 16cm, this device could not be mistaken for anything else other than a child centric product.
The Asus ZenPad 8 Android Tablet is shaped more like a mobile phone than a tablet as it is taller than you think and also less wide than the normal. This shape means it is easier to hold in a hand than a lot of other similar devices, so possibly less easy to drop.
The ZenPad measures 20.5x12.2x.7cm and weighs just 348grams, the diagonal imperial screen measurement is 8 inches it is of course 16:9 ratio and this is great if you want to view UK TV which I was able to do as I was reviewing a Humax PVR during the review period that review should have been published around a week ago. The screen resolution is 1280x800. Going round the unit the right side has volume up and down rocker and the on/off button. The base and left side are clear and the top has a 3.
While not as high profile as some of the other products from the Corel stable, Pinnacle Studio is well established and comes with numerous bonus offerings.
Now up to version 19, the Pinnacle Studio package has been around for quite a few years. I first came across this software offering when it formed part of the AVID family of graphics based software and hardware. However, more recently, Pinnacle Studio has become part of the Corel family. With version 19 of the product you get a choice of Standard, Plus or Ultimate editions.
The latest PVR from Humax now comes with catch up TV for the times you forgot to set your PVR. It also has the ability to allow up to three channels to be recorded simultaneously. Read on for more details of this coffee themed recorder.
Most recent Freeview boxes have two tuners which mean you can record at least two channels at the same time. This unit has three tuners so you can record at least three channels simultaneously. However if the channels are on the same multiplex this number could even reach six simultaneous recordings. It is 28x19x5cm, the middle figure the depth can increase by a couple of centimetres dependant on the cables inserted.
As Apple in the UK tend to be very tight with review items until now my only foray into their world is via an ancient iPod that is too old to be updated to anything like recent firmware. So this courtesy of Vodafone is my first use of an iPad the Mini 3.
My first thoughts were not printable as I needed to enter username and password so many times then confirm all the same information numerous times as well as when I used any App it wanted the same £$%-&*” information however after that few details seemed to be needed.
The Netgear Powerline PLP1200 is the latest and fastest kit to provide network connectivity via the household wiring.
Each plug, which is Homeplug AV compatible, is 120 x 55 x 50mm deep, white in colour, with the mains plug and its associated power feed-through socket at the lower end. (There is also the PL1200 without the power feed-through.) It is narrower than many of the previous generation products so that it is easy to reach the switch on the wall socket.
Aldous Huxley may have foreseen the Big Brother scenario but he does seem to have ignored the possibility of Little Brother. I am referring to the current trend of installing security devices within our homes to provide notifications of any unauthorised activity when you are away for any reason. One such device is Canary No this is not the yellow caged bird found in some households although both the company and its flagship product is named after the bird used by miners to warn them of the presence of deadly gases found underground
Canary is yet another entry into the home security camera sector. Basically tubular in shape, the Canary is available in a choice of white, black or silver with my white review model reminding me of an inside-out liquorice all-sorts sweet. The Canary device has rear-mounted connection sockets for power, security audio and Ethernet. Supplied with this main unit are a 3-pin mains plug with USB connection; black micro-to-standard USB lead; yellow lead with 3.
This is described as a wide format panel from Philips, however to my old eyes it looks the same proportions as most panels, it displays 1920x1080 when you plug in a VGA lead, yes the display is sharp and clear so what is its secret.
The Philips 227E6EDSD measures 50.5x30.5x2cm and its 20cm circular stand raises it 9cm from your desk. It weighs 2.65 kilos with stand and that means the lack of side to side movement is not vital together with the viewing angle is stated to 178 degrees meaning you could sit almost level with and beside the display and read it clearly. There is a small amount of forward from vertical tilt and around 20% of backward tilt.
Continuing my look at various Brother devices, it is the turn of a colour laser All-in-One model.
Forming part of Brother’s latest line up of All-in-One or multifunction devices is the company’s DCP-9015CDN model. This combination of colour laser printer and A4 flatbed scanner delivering print, scan and copy features. The DCP-9015CDN also provides the user with Duplex printing and a choice of connectivity options made up of USB, wired or wireless linking. There is also support for remote print features through the use of AirPrint and Google Cloud Print.
Who would have thought it! Dracula teams up with Van Helsing to thwart an attack on humanity in this next title.
Developed by the Waterlily Development Game Studio, Dracula: Love Kills is a Hidden Object Adventure game. This game, as you have probably surmised, deals with the activities of the blood sucking Count so beloved by horror writers. However it is not Count Dracula (that’s your role) who is the villain of the story for that role falls to the Queen of the Vampires who is intent on destroying the human world.
One problem with a sound bar is that to get a good improvement on the naff sound coming from your TV is that you really need both the soundbar and a sub-woofer, probably expensive and for a lot of people it needs more space, here a different solution a Soundstage.
So there are a few around and they are not cheap but this offering that goes on sale - as with all ALDI specials - when they are gone they are gone and at the price they are selling it at they will not be available for long. In essence it’s a black box measuring 54x31x8cm and it will fit under your TV providing the TV stands legs are not wider than 54cm. It is stated to stand up to 30KG placed on it, few recent TVs weigh anywhere near that.
The Workzone Titanium+ drill & driver kit forms part of Aldis premium range of tools and accessories. It consists of the two most useful battery-powered power tools -- a hammer drill and an impact driver -- packed into a robust storage case so that everything is together when you want to use it.
Both tools have enough power to more than meet most needs, sit nicely in one’s hand, and are comfortable to use. They are also of a practical design so that, for example, they both have belt clips which can be fitted on either side to suit the LH or RH user. The forward/reverse switches on both drill and driver are transverse sliders across the body. They both have a central safety lock position which, while preventing the device operating, still allows the LED work light to light.
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