GadgetSpeak Articles
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With the familiar orange W logo, there is no mistaking the W910i handset as being anything but another member of the Sony Ericsson family of Walkman phones.
Tastefully decked out in Noble Black or Heart Red (who thinks up these colours), the W910i is a slider-type phone. It has a display that certainly grabbed your attention. Taking over most of the front area, this 2.4 inch TFT screen is capable of showing 262K colours in 240 x 320 resolution presenting a clear and sharp display. Located just below the screen are a series of control and navigation options.
Kensington have added to their range of audio accessories with this set of travel speakers, suitable for
any media player with a standard jack socket but very obviously aimed at the iPod market.
The Kensington FX500 "speaker to go" is a slightly bigger than an A5 sheet of paper at around 150x200mm, around 35mm thick and weighing 400g. The unit has a soft finish that should be fairly robust and is reminiscent of a small zip-up folio case. From the front the product has a central clear window through which you'll be able to access front-mounted controls on your favourite MP3 player. A power switch is situated to the lower right.
This camcorder is one of the latest versions that record to an internal hard drive, thus increasing the capacity vastly over other storage methods. It can of course also record still images onto an SD card.
The total weight of the Canon HG10 is 570grams. The dimensions are 12.5x7.5x7cm. The middle figure the width can increase by another 8.5cm should you choose to use the TFT screen while capturing images and have it at 90degrees to the unit.
As with a lot of these gadgets they (or something like them) were first shown in films like various inventions developed by Q in the James Bond films. However I doubt at that time they ever actually worked.
The box contains a pair of Freetalkie XFD-008 wrist watches. They are chunky and you need to wear one for awhile before you get used to it. Yes it does tell the time but the main point is that the watch is a walkie talkie. After a couple of days of wear you get to the bulk. The weight of each unit is 80grams so it's not that heavy just bulky. The stated range is 'about 1.
Making use of a lift that travels at 22mph, a visit to the top of BT Tower was rewarded with ice cream and news of an addition to BT Broadband portfolio.
As one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services, BT has recently expanded its range of broadband services with the launch of its BT Total Broadband Anywhere product. Not surprisingly, due to the way service providers attempt to ring-fence their customer base; this product is securely tied to the various BT Broadband service options currently available.
In the coming weeks and months you will get a real alternative to Sky or Virgin that has only a one off payment to buy the box and fitting for your own satellite disk to view -at launch- 80 TV/Radio channels. In the coming months this will rise initially to 232 including (with the correct box) HD offerings from both BBC and ITV (the ITV is exclusive) and others as they become available.
Freeview has opened the market and with the immanent turning off of the Analogue spectrum we all have to find a way of getting digital TV. If you live in a good reception area this may just involve upgrading your loft/roof aerial. However there is a solution that is stated to work for 98.5% of the country and that is Freesat. Not only do you get all the free channels currently on Freeview but a lot more.
A neat and compact smoothie maker that comes complete with two travel jugs.
I've never met a Kenwood product I didn't like (not so far anyway). The latest product we've tried is the Kenwood Smoothie 2Go. We've tried Kenwood smoothie makers before and this one is just as easy and effective to use. So what is the difference? Well mainly it's down to size and a few neat little features which make the smoothie easy to take out with you on picnics.
Bacon is not the only product from Denmark that has been feeding my interest as I take a look at a television receiver from that country.
In the past I have looked at a number of television receiver products from various manufacturers. These have ranged from cards that need to be inserted into an internal slot to USB devices covering analogue and digital channels. However this is the first time that I have had the opportunity to look at a television receiver from a company based in .
Time to step back into history and join in the Napoleonic Wars for this game from AGE Studio.
Born in on , Napoleon Bonaparte (or the little Corsican as he was sometimes referred to) is regarded by many as the greatest strategist the world has ever known as he attempted spreading his control throughout and surrounding areas. Rising through the ranks of the French army, this charismatic individual reached the exalted rank of Napoleon 1, Emperor of France when he crowed himself in 1804.
This is far more than a standard photo frame in a body not that much bigger. It is also a wide angle frame so images taken in the newer formats display full screen, however standard images can be enlarged.
The Polaroid frame itself is black and 25x18x3.5cm. The screen itself is 15.5x8.5cm this gives the 7inch diagonal measurement. Under the screen is an LCD display 15.5x1.5cm that displays indoor temperature and humidity as well as outdoor temperature and the likely weather. I found the latter was not that believable but the outdoor temperature was correct as this was sent by the provided wireless sensor that you place somewhere outside.
Where Adobe led the way with the PDF standard, other companies have produced more economical ways to create documents in this format.
I'm willing to bet that most of us will have a number of PDF (Portable Document File) documents located in various folders on our hard disk. This lingua franca of the electronic document world was developed by Adobe and is well served by its Acrobat product for creating such documents and a Reader which enables the content to be portrayed on a computer screen in all its original glory.
This is a small All In One unit, meaning it can scan, copy and print. It has a small TFT screen so it is possible to print images direct from either of the two card slots or even from a USB stick.
This review has not been without it's problems. Initially I got a lot of paper jams, I thought I could see the reason as when the paper was stacked in the paper tray it was very slightly convex, the paper guides however seemed to be fully open. I eventually managed to get another few millimetres and from then on no more jams.
Never the one to indulge in half measures and with a strong preference for world firsts, Archos has taken the opportunity recently to announce some new products and additions to the companys current range of service offerings.
I'm sure whether to classify the first announcement making up this report as multi-functional or more of a convergence in technology as Archos enhances one of its existing products. That product is the Archos 605 WiFi Media Player which featured in an earlier review ( ). Basically the announcement covered a new GPS In-Car Holder that turns the 605 WiFi portable media player (PMP) into a GPS navigation device without compromising the device's original multifunctional capabilities.
I am a lucky chap because just occasionally I get the chance to combine my job, my hobby and my passion all together as I do here while telling you about the latest CD from Georgia Mancio whose voice is a joy.
Twice recently I have had the great pleasure of hearing this young lady sing live, once with a quintet very like the sextet on offer on this CD and the second occasion with four of the five in a quartet. Both occasions were amazing and although artists usually supplement their wages by selling their latest CD's Georgia was having more success than most and what you will hear here on a live gig a true representation of what you hear on the CD.
While hardly rating as one of my favourite tasks, it could be said that I have been having a ball recently when vacuuming my home.
The original computer mouse featured a ball that allowed it to be moved smoothly in any directly without the need for additional adjustments by the user. Believing this same principle could be adapted for use with a vacuum cleaner, especially considering the trend towards smaller homes with the UK leading the rest of Europe in this respect, James Dyson and his team of engineers set about designing a new vacuum, cleaner based on the ball principle.
Can you imagine frying chips in less than a teaspoon of oil and getting lovely crisp chips? Well with the Tefal Actifry you can and you do.
I was to say the least sceptical deep fried chips to be crispy require double frying and that requires them to be cooked at a lower temperature and then recooked at a higher temperature to crisp them. So following the instructions I picked a medium sized potato which if it is 250 grams is stated to be a single portion. I weighed a few and found one at 260 grams. 13x13mm and up to 9cm long. I know we have been metric for umpty six years but to me that is still ½inch.
While SatNav devices will direct you to a location, Loc8tor can perform a similar task when searching for an item.
Memory is transient. I am not referring to computer memory but that of my own flaky ability to remember where I last placed certain articles that I use on a regular basis. Those afflicted with a similar short term memory loss will know how frustrating these "senior moments" can be especially when you are in a hurry as is often the case. Loc8tor Ltd believes it has a solution with its location device technology.
Having taken back the Ashes, Australia sends us one of their animals to help us get over the loss
The Koala Bear, Kangaroo, Dingo, Platypus, Wombat, Wallaroo and Tasmanian Devil are just some of the animals that are native to . Now news has reached us that there is a new addition to this menagerie - namely the Tumblebug. Actually this is not the first sighting of this strange creature with its overwhelming desire to save members of its extended family from destruction.
Photo frames that can view content from SD cards are not uncommon however this offering from Parrot does not only that but it can also -via Bluetooth- view images on your phone, PDA or other such device.
It is 20.5x16.5x2.2cm. The unit I had was white with a couple of blue horizontal stripes across the front. The centre part of the front is the display screen and this is 13x8.5cm and this gives by my mathematics a diagonal measurement of 6.2inches so I am not sure where the stated 7inches comes from. In another of life's situations if you told a lady to expect 7inches and you delivered 6.2inches she would almost certainly notice the difference.
Time and the technology behind the development of mobile phones do not stand still as can be seen with this next handset.
Joining the ranks of mobile phones with a 5-megapixel camera is Sony Ericsson's K850i model. This candy-bar style phone adopts the standard Sony Ericsson arrangement of having the camera taking over the rear of the unit with the front housing the telephony functionality. However there are a couple of design aspects that might cause some initial confusion with the user.
Three items from Belkin all sold as accessories for the iPod. First a clear Acrylic and brushed metal case. Next TuneBase FM that lets you listen to your iPod through your car stereo and finally a dock that allows you to charge and Sync your iPod. Is this iPod heaven?
Clear Acrylic and Brushed-Metal Case The model I was sent works with iPod's with video. The dimensions are 10.5x6.5x1.5cm. The front was blue brushed metal with the rest acrylic apart from the area over the click wheel that is a thinner plastic that enables protection for the wheel while at the same time enabling you to use it. The area over the screen seems to cause no distortion to the image displayed.
My school days were an awful long time ago and almost the only thing I remember about French is that the teacher had the most terrible case of halitosis I have ever come across.
French words are also in everyday use over here so they don't seem strange at all.
I have quite enjoyed using this French 'Beginners' course, it is certainly my level, it appears easy and yet you are learning. It consists of a plastic case like an oversized DVD one that has two CD's on the left inside cover and a 212 page paperback book inside the right cover.
To paraphrase a popular performer of an earlier generation, I wanna tell you a secret.
click to enlarge
Come wind, come rain, come shine (maybe there is a pointer there), whatever the vagaries of the weather in April, we try to bring you the latest news as it happens. In this case it was the launch of LG's next generation Black Label phone. First we had the Chocolate phone (including a white version) with its innovative touch panel.
No I am not going to tell you about my girlfriend. The Cherry Marlin is wireless cordless desktop (keyboard and mouse) set, that I can honestly say took less than two minutes to setup.
Open box, remove items from plastic bags. Plug the charger into the mouse and a USB port, plug the receiver into a USB port and that's it. No linking required, most keyboard mouse sets need you to get the devices to pair but none of that here. There is a CD (to get the most from them) but as they come out of the box the mouse works (until charged, via the USB lead) and so does the keyboard. So as far as ease of use goes that could not be easier.
Up until recently I had not heard of the Sandberg Company. One of its first products to reach me is the Panther Sound System.
Hands up all those who remember the beeps and squeaks that were the audio output limitations of the games that were designed for the early computers. Early music renditions from computers were of a similar elementary level. Fortunately it didn't take too long for developers to come to the aid of our auditory senses as sound cards became a must have addition to those early systems.
It is not only cartoons that can feature talking feet; you can perform the same trick yourself with a little help from BamZ.
With different types of footwear gaining fashion icon status, you may perhaps wonder what the next stage (or should that be step) will be in the development of this particular item of clothing. While logos are already an established part of what we wear (especially the fashion conscious who dress to be noticed rather than for comfort), maybe the possibility of some personalised advertising in the form of a message might appeal.
This is certainly not just another MP3 player. It is small enough to fit in even a childs palm, it has a good four line display as well as for good measure an FM radio and a voice recorder.
The Sansa Clip music player is 5.5x3.5x1.5cm and weighs only 27grams. Mine was black with the sliders on each side in a silver/grey colour. The rear of the unit has a good strong clip built in and once clipped to a pocket or belt it will stay there even for those active types who jog or run. Just above this almost invisible on the top edge is the pin hole microphone. The front has the small display 2.3x1.
Health checks, while not compulsory, can solve and prolong active life. Does your computer need such a check up?
Computers, like users (at least this one), tend to slow down with age. This is as a result of the demands placed on computer resources by various peripherals and software. As a result it could be to your advantage, and certainly benefit your computer's performance, to carry out various health checks and house-keeping tasks. TuneUp Utilities 2008 is a product that offers to help in this respect.
This is a rather squashed looking grey unit, but it does have some surprises, it is an All In One unit, it can print direct onto CDs and DVDs and while on printing, in custom mode you get close to 30PPM.
The Canon MP610 is 44x40x18cm the last figure the height increases by around 20cm when paper is waiting to be printed in the vertical rear tray. Although it has the squashed look it is remarkably clean as all the controls are under a lid that also has the 5x4cm TFT display inset into the rear of the cover.
Here I am looking at two mice that do their normal jobs but also perform a second task.
The first helps those making presentations while the second is a boon for those with sweaty palms.
Kensington Slim Blade Presenter Mouse As the box says the mouse presents well and travels even better. It is very slim you could say it looks somewhat squashed but for it's second job this is an advantage. It is 9x6x1.5cm. It has no wires as it is wireless and the receiver stores inside when not in use. This action also saves the batteries as they are cut off when the receiver is in the mouse.
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