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Even after the clocks went back most people are having to rise for work in darkness and while most will still be reluctant to get up in daylight you often need another pressure other than your bladder to get you from your bed.
For those with limited space this small unit may be ideal. It is 23cm wide at the face and 17.5cm at the rear, a maximum of 7cm tall at the face and 4cm at the back these figures are without your ‘i’ device inserted in the dock. Overall it is 8cm deep with leads inserted inset in the rear. The hard wired wire radio aerial is 1.4 metres long. Without your ‘i’ device it is an alarm clock radio controlled by two ubiquitous joystick controls on the units top.
With the amount of malware and types of scams trying to take control of your computer, it makes sense to install protection software such as Norton Internet Security.
As regularly as clockwork (if you can measure clockwork as an annual event), Symantec releases the latest version of Norton Internet Security product. Rather surprisingly the front of the product box and its spine make no reference to a version identifier. To confirm that this is the 2013 version of the product you need to check out a small label in the lower left corner on the rear of the box – it also holds the product’s bar code.
A long time ago in the early years of PCs there was a phrase around saying no one ever got sacked for buying IBM. While things have changed a huge amount you still see a lot of ThinkPads around in everyday use.
For those of more tender years IBM sold their notebooks to Lenovo who have continued to develop this winning brand. While this does not look as ‘sexy’ as some other brands the rubber coating over the skin make it feel solid and reliable the whole reason for me reproducing the comment in the introductory sentence above. It is 35x24x2cm and weights 1865grams; it feels sturdy when you move around with it and nothing during use changes this perception.
Not everybody needs to use colour in their documents. If you fit into this category then a new Brother product might appeal.
The Brother DCP-7055W could not be regarded as a shrinking violet. That is not to say that this all-in-one device with scan, copy and mono laser printer functionality is particularly large but it is substantial. With its base footprint of 370 x 358mm (W x D), the unit expands slightly to 407 x 398.8mm as it rises to a height of 268mm. Predominately computer grey in colour, the unit features rounded corners and side grip handles for easy movement between locations.
Based on the popular US television series of the same name that use to be broadcast on Freeview and now on Sky, Criminal Minds is a Hidden Object Mystery game.
This title gives you the opportunity to solve two cases from the files of the BAU (Behaviour Analysis Unit) section of the FBI. At various points during the game you will slip seamlessly between the main characters of Aaron Hotchner, Emily Prentiss, Spencer Reid, David Rossi, Derek Morgan and Jennifer Jareau with additional background information being supplied by Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia.
Samsung have long produced a range of printers, notebooks and other electrical products including digital cameras. In the last few years they decided to use Micro SD cards for storage; here I am pleased to say its just SD here.
The Samsung WB150F measures 10.5x6x2cm and weights 204grams. It can take 14MP images, has a 24mm wide angle lens and is capable of 18x optical zoom. My unit was metallic red the right side has the wrist strap anchor point and a door behind which is the AV out socket. The left side is clear, the base has tripod anchor point and a door behind which is the units solid battery and any SD card you may use. The face has the lens and the small bar flash which is always a minimum of 4.
While it might appear that some people are talking to themselves, it could be that they are using a Bluetooth headset linked to their mobile phone
When it comes to Bluetooth headsets Plantronics spreads its net wide by developing products for different aspects of the market. For the entry level customer, it offers its M25 and M55 models while mid-range is covered by the Marque and Marque 2 models. If music is more your thing then Plantronics can offer its BackBeat GO product.
A few days ago I was sent a link and passcode to download Windows 8. So with fingers crossed I embarked on making a two year old notebook that has become slower and slower become a more useful member of society.
While I understand that some UK people were involved in the Beta program I was amazed that Microsoft decided not to have a launch in the UK. I have attended every launch since Windows 95 so to launch a new operating system without the chance to talk with people who have been involved seemed strange, also as far as I know there were no UK pre release briefings. So it was a little surprising when I received a link and a code. You need to download onto the machine you intend to upgrade.
An Internet camera can be a useful remote access security device for when a home or office is unoccupied. The Trendnet TV-IP672WI is a high resolution model for indoor use with pan and tilt movements and so can provide useful coverage over a wide area. Having wireless connectivity, one or more of these cameras can easily be added to ones network to provide useful surveillance that can be monitored over the Web.
The unit is off-white in colour and is roughly 5 inches tall. It is provided with a wall/ceiling mounting bracket to which it should be secured with two screws. Alternatively, it can just be placed in a convenient place, or even moved around, as circumstances dictate. The camera, which has a resolution of 1280 x 800 WXGA, can pan through 340 degrees and has a tilt range of 115 degrees.
Neither of these are what you may expect. The Rubik Cube is a speaker available from the Science Museum the Mouse has a hedgehog type covering but the spikes are soft and will not prick it comes from Brando in Hong Kong.
An 8.5cm cube with blue, yellow, green and white sides, the back where the connections enter is orange and the front where the speaker grill is red but with the black showing through. All the links between the nine squares of each colour are black; however these do not move the only connections are on the back on this fun unit. The bottom line of three squares on the back has the connections, on-off slider, USB power input and Auxiliary input from your music device.
With an indication that it is an all round product, the latest version of Norton 360 is now available and comes with the claim of providing ultimate protection for you and your PC.
The Canon Pixma MG4150 is an All in One printer, scanner and copy unit from Canon. Small and flat and it works either via wireless or USB. The black colour may not appeal to all but as it can sit on a shelf or in a cupboard or even behind the sofa.
When closed the MG4150 measures 43x30x15cm. The middle figure the depth increases by 13cm with paper in the front tray. If you add 5cm to the last figure the height you should be able to slip most items onto the scan surface of the flatbed. There are nine buttons and the ubiquitous five position joystick to the left of the flatbed where the flip up screen also is. This is a two ink offering with reasonable sized cartridges.
It has been quite a while since I last had the opportunity to check out a handset bearing the Sony name. In fact it was back when Sony was in partnership with Ericsson for the development of its handsets.
Since taking over complete control following the break up of the Sony Ericsson partnership, Sony has developed a number of high specification devices including the Xperia brand with the subject of this review being one example. I have to thank Vodafone for providing the review sample of the Xperia T model (now why does that sound familiar?) Totally black in colour, this smartphone adopts the standard look of a candy bar shape and has dimensions of 128.4 x 67.3 x 9.
They are cute, adorable and child friendly. I am referring to a series of toys in the form of pets that respond to their owner.
We have long been accused of being a nation of pet lovers. Or perhaps, in the case of my cat who allows me to satisfy his needs, pet dominated would be a better description. This close affinity with the domesticated animal kingdom can be seen with many of the toys we purchase for our children (well that’s the excuse we tell ourselves although some toys are bought for our own pleasure) that are in the form of animals.
Maybe its the wooden case but as soon as you take this from the box you feel quality. It is not just a DAB and FM radio it also supports iPod and iPhone as well as Auxiliary input and for dinosaurs like me it also has a CD player.
It is 32x21x10cm, the middle figure the depth is taken at the point where the mains lead enters as this is the deepest point. You can control it either from the buttons on top of the unit or from the provided landscape shaped remote control. There are four lines of three well marked buttons on the top centre of the unit, the ‘i’ dock is behind this. The central area of the face has the 6.8x2.5cm white on blue display, either side of this are the stereo speakers of the unit.
Many more years ago than I care to remember, I installed a Shareware product on my Windows 3.1 system - I told you it was many years ago. This product was the JASC developed Paint Shop Pro. Designed to convert images between different file formats and capture screen grabs, the software could easily fit on a floppy disk of the 360K variety. There was still room left over for other files of that period. I was reminded of this compact piece of coding when I opened the box containing the latest version of Paint Shop Pro.
Now up to version Paint Shop Pro X5 Ultimate, the box contained two optical disks. Admittedly one of the disks held extra software that was the reason for the Ultimate part of the product’s title. However the other the disk was required to store this 2013 version of photo editing and management software. It just shows how much the product has grown over the year before and after it became part of the Corel family of software titles.
The buzzword around today is Ultrabook not simply because they are small and light but they also boot exceedingly fast. So what exactly does this Acer unit have to offer that will make you reach into your wallet to buy.
The Acer Aspire S3 ultrabook measures 32x22x1.5cm at the back and less than 1cm thick at the front, it weights 1330grams. With care it should power your needs for a full day. With such thin sides the only place most connections can be is at the back. The right side has only an SD card slot. The front has nothing not even LEDs. The left side has an earbud jack. Both the earbud and SD card port are close to the back.
Here I am looking at various styles of SmartPhone cases, from iLuv, Gear4 and Brando. The first for Apple iPod Touch, the next a kids design Angry Birds for iPhone and lastly for those on Android a wooden case for Samsung III.
My iPod Touch has been naked for months and of course the reflective back gets covered with fingermarks so this offering from iLuv came just as the weather got colder which spared its modesty when out and about with me. It is described as a Silicone Case with 3D Patterns, when fitted it increases the overall dimensions by a tad to 11.5x6x1cm. It is made in black or white, mine was white. It feels nice in the hand and should you sweat it will increase stickability.
It was Peter Norton who first revealed that deleted files were not actually deleted. Instead their disk presence in the FAT (File Allocation File) was marked as being available for use by other data. This meant it was possible, with the appropriate tools, to resurrect a file if it had not been over-written by subsequent data.
While best known for its Diskeeper product, Condusiv Technologies (the new name for the company we previously knew as Diskeeper) does have other strings to its bow. Making use of its expertise in the field of handling and management of files, Condusiv Technologies has developed its Undelete product.
This is an i dock but it can and does do far more. It has a built in FM Radio and clock with alarm it also has a sleep countdown timer so although it does support most i devices everything mentioned in this sentence is built in.
The Gear4 AlarmDock Halo2 measures 15cm wide, 14cm deep and 18cm tall. The depth is only for the first 2cm – base – the top with the display is only 3cm in fact it is an ‘L’ shape with the front being the lower corner and you are looking above any ‘i’ device at the back. It is even more intelligent should you have more than one iPod Touch or iPhone using a free app available from App store.
A Central London hotel known by a single letter was the location for the launch of a new series of Creative standalone single speaker units.
Although I could run the risk of being accused of repeating myself, I have to observe yet again that speaker units can come in all shapes and sizes. An example of this can be seen with the latest product arriving to take care of my various audio needs. This is the SBX 20 model which is the top-of-the-range offering in Creative Sound BlasterAxx™ series.
An unexpected death, ghosts and a novelist looking for inspiration are just some of the features found in the next game from Focus Multimedia.
With hardly the shortest title in the world, Death at Fairing Point: A Dana Knightstone Novel is a Hidden Object Adventure game. Originally developed by Boomzap and published by Big Fish, this game is now available in Collector’s Edition format from Focus Multimedia. As usual with Collector’s Edition products you get some bonus items to sit alongside the main game.
With notebooks and tablets being the in thing from pre teenage years younger siblings will want their own and something like this is ideal even from pre school time. So what exactly does the LeapPad2 have to offer your child?
It is 17x13x2cm and weights 412grams. The screen is 11x6cm while the layout appears portrait as soon as you switch on its landscape. There are four buttons on the face as well as the ubiquitous five position joystick. The right side has a stylus tethered on a 30cm piece of cord which may keep it with the unit for a few days, maybe. The top has a 3.5mm jack for earphones, a cartridge slot (for some extra items not included) and a mini USB port.
Following my favourite breakfast of bacon baps, I was introduced to a new handset that has become my mobile device of choice.
Combining the talents of Google, Motorola and Intel produces the RAZR i. This Motorola handset is the first smartphone to combine the Android operating system (4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) with an Intel chipset. Consisting of a sealed unit, therefore no access to the unit’s 2000mAh battery, the handset has dimensions of 61 x 122.5 x 8.3mm (W x H x D) and weighs 126g. The RAZRi is built around an aluminium frame with a decorated Kevlar padded backing.
A large desktop monitor that can should you wish - be split into up to four windows, so four displays on a single screen. While the basic resolution is still 1920x1080 with a decent video card then DVD watching can be a new experience.
However having a panel that is 65x38x2cm may be too big for some without the still very expensive option to have resolution beyond 1920x1080. The stand is oval at 24x19cm and this raises the panel by 5cm from your desk. There is no side to side movement but joy of joys for those who have it mounted above eye level there is a few degrees of forward movement. As most users will have it below eye level the amount of back movement is much more I made it 18degrees.
A DAB/FM Radio is just two of the things that this unit does, the Wireless Internet ability will give much more than Internet Radio, Pure Lounge and Media Player ability, the touchscreen or infra red controls make this more like a computer.
The nearest shape I can call it is an egg, it is 17x28x18cm and weights just less than 2 kilos, it can run on a ChargePak (internal rechargeable battery pack) but I doubt that many will walk around with the Sensia 200D Connect. Unlike most DAB units the visible controls are not obvious and consist only of volume up and down, mute and on/off. Everything else is controlled from the large 11.5x9.5cm touchscreen which is full colour and easy to read.
While you might feel that Adobes market-leading professional graphics product, Photoshop, is priced well beyond your current budget restrictions, there is a possible alternative that has also been developed by Adobe. This is Photoshop Elements which is now up to version 11. This product costs approximately one tenth the price of its much bigger sibling.
Photoshop Elements 11’s new opening flash screen gives you the choice of entering the Organizer or Photo Editor module. Both this areas feature a pale grey interface that is easy on the eye and does not distract you from the main purpose of the software. Arranging your images to suit your own preferences is the task of the Organizer module.
A couple of weeks ago I told you about two sets of Bathroom personal Scales. Here are two sets of Kitchen Scales both from Salter a neat single scale and second bearing the Heston Bloomatile name a jug that converts wet and dry weights.
I am perhaps rather simple to please as this delights from looking at the box through to use. The first joy is that colour is spelt correctly, next the simple easy to use unit. The scale itself is a 14.5cm disc set into 15.5x18x1.5cm rectangle. I know they do a range of colours mine was a lime green but it is crisp and easy to read.
Adding to its range of Bluetooth headsets, Plantronics has developed its M55 model.
With its company name indicating its original roots in the aeronautical electronics field of business, Plantronics has released a new Bluetooth headset featuring DeepSleep technology. This is the M55™ model that has a claimed DeepSleep mode that lets the headset retain a portion of its charge for up to five months. Needless to say I have to confess that I have not tested this facility but I have no reason to doubt Plantronics figures with regards to the DeepSleep capability.
It is almost taking a supermarket approach as this next product offers you two titles for the price of one as you embark on Grim adventures.
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