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The market is awash with 'video capable gadgets' - but without video they are just that - capable. Here we review a product aimed at helping you fill the memory on your mobile device with something to watch.
The advent of cheap memory, improved battery technology and high-quality color LCD screens on devices such as mobile phones and game machines, the opportunity for 'video on the go' has become a reality. Whether you have the latest mobile phone a or a video iPod, you now have the opportunity to take more than just music with you.
Not perhaps the most catchy title but if I say 50 hours or use on a single AA battery that becomes interesting and as a DAB radio around 14 hours, did I mention that its also tiny in size.
As always I tend to barge right in without reading the blurb. I have over the years reviewed lots of MP3 players and initially if you got 8 to 10 hours of use you were doing well. As things developed then 15 up to around 20 hours was possible. But I have never got beyond that on a single AA battery. Here after 20 hours the indicator is still registering fully charged. Apart from some short tests to tune the DAB all my use up till then had been on MP3 use.
Like a blast from the past, aliens are on the menu for this mission-based shooter game.
Like the Sixties, if you lived through them - you won't remember them, the Fifties has left its own distinctive imprint on modern day society. Take, for example, the phenomena known as B-movies and the classics, especially of the Sci-fi genre, that it let loose on an impressionable public.
Small, neat and simple to install and use. These are just some of the attributes of the HP Laserjet 1022 mono laser printer.
There are in fact three models all bearing the 1022 label this the cheapest that is USB, the next with an N for network at the end of the 1022 that can also connect via Ethernet and the top of the range 1022NW that is network and wireless. Apart from the connectivity the units themselves are identical. The one thing you can always say for a laser printer is that it will always print textual pages at the speed stated.
Look back via the search button on the site front page and enter Family Tree or Build a Model Railway to find earlier versions of both these products, in both cases Focus has added even more value.
Create Your Own Family Tree Genealogy Suite from Focus Genealogy is a subject near to a lot of people since smaller families became the vogue, when large families were in fashion lots of people were around with all the required information and so lack of information on great uncle Jack. There are - according to the information on the DVD style box - six items on the supplied CD-ROM. First the item you are expecting Family Tree Legends (Deluxe Edition).
Just because it is called a mouse, does not mean that this input device can not take on another shape.
What's your mouse like? I ask the question because of the numerous styles of this particular peripheral that ate currently available (and as a way of leading into this review). Since its initial introduction as part of the standard computer set-up, this pointing device has progressed through various evolutionary stages.
A camcorder that records direct to 8cm (mini) DVDs and can also record still images to an SD card. Could this be the best of both worlds?
It is small and weights only around 450grams. The dimensions are a maximum of 12x10x4.5cm. The optical zoom is 10x (a lot less than some) and a standard DVD-R disc can record around 30minutes of action. The battery is said to last for around 80minutes between charges. If I said a 2.2MP camera most would say not enough. However this is a camcorder and indeed an HD one with 16:9 display.
Corel expands its product portfolio as it takes on board the latest version of WinZips compression software.
With my first disk-based computer I was able to fit the operating system, along with a word processor and various documents on a single floppy disk that had a storage capacity of 180K. Those were the days when tight code and other constraints meant that we had little need to consider any form of compression when transferring data from one location to another.
This is a small sized high quality twin tuner PVR, I have been happily using it for several months and in that time I have not had a single problem with it.
First let me explain - the is a twin tuner unit and not a twin recorder unit. You can watch one channel while recording another. You can playback something while recording another, however, you cannot record two programs at the same time. Goodmans GHD8015F2 It is very small in comparison to other such units in fact the width and depth are no more than a standard video recorder but the height is half that.
My first hard disk had a capacity of 20MB which pales into insignificance when compared to the 750GB now sitting alongside my system.
Unlike my waist measurement, which does have a tendency to fluctuate, the hard disks in my computers do not have the same ability to adjust their capacity to suit storage requirements. While I have no concerns with regards to the lack of shrink capability, problems can arise when I need to store more data than there is space available. Fortunately additional storage space is readable available in products such as product.
As a MFU it not only prints, scans, copies but also for those who still require it can send and receive faxes. The latter is the difference between an MFU and a All In One.
It is 44x42x24cm and weights only around 6kilos. The name sort of gives it away as an office product but that normally means expensive but you should be able to find it for less than three figures as the HP guide is £99 including VAT. It has both flatbed and sheet feeder so the scanning/copying can be either page or items from books or magazines.
This product has been a niche offering for quite a while, however the new version could well make it a mainstream product that gives people like me with no artistic talent a chance, of course should you have talent you will already know that.
I was recently at the NEC in Birmingham for a camera show, however Corel invited me to a presentation on Painter X, it was a demonstration done by a US portrait painter who uses Painter and also teaches it. As with all demos you need to take them with more than a pinch of salt.
While Adobe PhotoShop is the market leading product, not everybody can afford its premium price. There is an alternative.
Adobe PhotoShop is an excellent product with a range of features and a high performance level. However this quality does come with a premium price tag that puts the software out of the range of many users. This is not only my opinion but that of Adobe as well. The result of this is that Adobe has developed PhotoShop Elements.
This is a dual lens camera but unlike the previous unit of this type I reviewed the two lens on this unit do two totally different jobs.
It is 10x5x2cm and weights only around 150grams. It is matt black and silver. The display is 5x3.8cm giving the diagonal 2.5inch size. It is a 7.1MP offering that according to the Kodak site is able to produce a 30x20inch print. It has 5x optical zoom and when you first turn it on it is using the first of the lens the wide angle, and touch of the zoom rocker will switch to the other lens.
Michael Fereday takes a television capture device on his travels but finds home is best.
It must be admitted that the title "Cinergy DT USB XS Diversity" hardly flows off the tongue. However it is by the performance and ease of use that this Terratec piece of kit should be judged in its designated operational area of providing television facilities on the move rather than its mouthful of a title.
A grey and shiny black box that prints, scans and copies, its an All In One that Epson calls an entry level model.
It is 43x35x17cm when the rear paper input is closed with paper inserted this increases the 17cm height to 32cm and the 35cm depth to 45cm. The weight is 5.7kilos. It is a four ink four cartridge offering meaning if you use a lot of one particular colour then you only need to replace that cartridge. As with all Epson units the first set of cartridges last less time than any replacement as initial charging uses a proportion of the ink.
Living in a hard-water area and being a tea drinker has not always been a good combination, unless you like a filmy layer on top of your cupper! Filtering your water is of course the solution, and here we review a new quick filter system in a Russell Hobbs kettle.
Of course lime-scale isn't the only impurity in your average tap-water, and in fact is probably one of the least unpleasant substances you'll find there. Other contaminants can include pesticides, chlorine and heavy metals like lead and aluminium. You can see the lime scale when you boil the water, the others - well, they are invisible.
Taking on the big boys is a task always relished by Serif. We check out the companys photo editing offering.
Think graphic and you think of Adobe and Corel with products such as PhotoShop and CorelDRAW. But there are alternatives especially for those operating on a tight budget. Since its initial appearance with a DTP (Desktop Publishing) package that help kick start the acceptance of budget software, Serif has continued to produce graphics software for the price sensitive market.
The first from Jabra a very light Bluetooth one mainly for those who spend their life on a mobile. The second from Logitech for those who are shackled to a notebook.
Jabra BT125 Bluetooth Headset This is a Bluetooth headset that - as far as I can see - links with any Bluetooth phone and is so light that you really will not know you are wearing it. It fits into the ear but not deeply and with the swivel fitting that goes over the ear it can fit in either ear. There is just one control on the unit a switch on the outer side to start and finish a call to do this press it briefly.
This package from Focus come on no less than five CDs and contains four different but connected products. The connection is knowledge, two from Britannica and one each from Oxford and Penguin Hutchinson.
Encyclopaedia Britannica This is the standard edition published in 2006. Yes there will be a small number of facts that have changed - but not that many - it is one of the two main encyclopaedias published for the UK market and considering this at 2/5 of the price you are paying less than £6 for it. Over 43,000 articles and including a world atlas amongst other modules the answers to your questions will probably be in here.
Simple ideas dont fade away; they just re-invent themselves to take advantage of modern technology.
A good number of years ago, a device, which I used on a regular basis, was a print switch box. This allowed two computers to share printers by simply moving a switch to the appropriate position. It should be pointed out that this was when DOS ruled the desktop and Windows was struggling to make an initial impression with users. Printers then tended to be parallel devices and home users only dreamed about networking their computers.
This is a rather nice 20inch panel from LG. It has both analogue and digital connectors as well as some quite reasonable speakers built in. It also has a TV tuner.
First the dimensions it is 49cm tall on it's base, 45cm wide and around 6cm thick at the thickest point. The base itself is circular at around 25cm. It weights 8.5kilos. The screen itself is 44x27.5 giving the 20inch diagonal measurement. It has a 3cm surround on both sides and the top, the bottom has a 9cm surround with two quite reasonable conical speakers in it.
Having taken the photographs, why wait to see the printed results when portable printers are available.
While a look-alike lunch box might not top your list of preferred equipment when considering your photographic needs - stranger things have happened. When you realise that this particular lunch box is really a portable printer that provides photo-lab capabilities, you might have a rethink as to its suitability. This matt silver box, with a useful carry-handle, is the Epson PM240 photo printer.
Poor manuals make reviewing difficult, however when far better manuals for other products are on the same CD it makes you fume.
This is a device to play music either though headphones or your hi-fi. It is circular at 6cm and 25cm long. It comes with a small cradle to sit it on. The rear has Line Out, Headphones, DC input and an SD/MMC card slot. The front has a 6x1.5cm two line display and that apart from the remote control is it. It is designed to work as a wireless device (either WEP or no security) via your router. It has two sides showing you how to connect leads.
While ivy has a tendency to grow prodigiously, this Maxfield version failed to grow on me.
Music is mobile. Well that's the way it appears judging by the number of mobile devices that are appearing with the ability to store and play back our favourite tracks. One company that has taken on board this particular mantra is Maxfield. It seems only yesterday that the company launched its MAX SIN-Touch device, now it is the turn of MAX-IVY to take centre stage and provide mobile entertainment capabilities with capacities ranging from 1 to 4GB.
This is not just something to find you a route or show you a map. Its a very long way from the early Next Base product on a floppy disc, and it now comes on a DVD.
Normally items labelled 2007 would appear early autumn in 2006 but no doubt most people were working on Vista and Office 2007. So as far as I know it first appeared at the very end of January. The installation was quite quick at only 10 minutes, on my machine it consisted of three parts. First an update to Net Framework, then the complete installation of AutoRoute 2007 and finally a text to speech module.
Photoshop has long been the image manipulation software of choice for professional and keen amateur photographers. However for those who are hobbyists the cost is a problem.
While I do not claim that Photoshop and are in any way the same product the more basic features are there, and if like with a word processor you are one of the 80% who use 20% of the features may fulfil your needs. Photoshop Elements Photoshop Elements As with a lot of recent software not only does it require Windows XP but will only work if you have (SP2) service pack 2 installed. The processor requirement is 1.3GHz or better.
It is small, combines male and female connections and could open up access to a blocked USB port.
Like ideas, some gadgets are simple in concept while others have varying degrees of complexity as they perform their designated tasks. The subject of this review definitely falls into the first category as it makes life easier for those of us who are addicted to using numerous USB devices especially when one of the devices in question has a connection plug that has over-dosed on steroids.
This is a multi function unit (it has fax) and is a versatile unit. Not tiny but not massive either and it comes with sheet feeder as well as flatbed.
Why change a winning design? HP certainly think like me if something works why change it, the ink may differ but the case looks almost identical to my HP Officejet 6110 of a few years ago. The is 48x25x37cm and weights just over ten kilos. The figures given are maximum as HP store paper in a tray in the base and it is delivered on top of that tray when printed. HP OfficeJet 7210 There are a total of 38 buttons on the front edge of the unit.
It is puzzle solving time again as we check out an ancient tower that hides secrets of the Zodiac.
The city of Atlantis, prehistoric dinosaurs, and an ancient Zodiac tower might seem like an unusual progression but not to Enkord. First it was Jewel of Atlantis; next came Jurassic Realm (both reviewed earlier on this site); and now it is the turn of Zodiac Tower. In each case the game is of the puzzle genre and involves the removal of gems, stones or tiles in order to make progress through various screens.
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