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There are two things in the computer world that always seem to give me problems and both require non wired connections, recently I have succeeded with both.
The first is GPS connection for navigation and the second has been solved by this NETGEAR® MIMO router. I have used with only limited success several modem/routers from various companies. Getting them to talk to the Internet is easy, getting the notebook to talk to the Internet without security is easy, with security is trickier, the hardest part is getting the notebook to talk to other PC's on the network and visa versa.
Multi-function capabilities come to the humble remote with the arrival of Logitechs new advanced universal device.
Two small items that do a vital job, the first a device in daily use with a twist. The second something even grandma had but here you should be never in the dark.
Not every document needs colour. For medium and heavy duty work, a laser printer can be the preferred option.
Image Courtesy of Dell Inc. The Dell Laser Printer 1710 is no shrinking violet. Designed for the home or small office user, this printer has a solid and permanent appearance, emphasised by its 396 x 355 x 247mm (W x D x H) dimensions, giving you the reassuring feeling that this piece of kit should be able to cope with whatever printing tasks you aim in its direction.
This is a 7.1 mega pixel offering with 4x optical zoom, however it is still small enough to fit in a pocket or bag.
I wonder if any manufacturer will be brave enough to produce a camera designed for those of us who are left handed? The majority of the body is only around 3cm thick that's until the right side where another 2cm creeps in to make your grip secure for the right handed. The total dimension are 10x7.5x6.5cm and the weight is around 350grams. Let me explain the 7.
As Internet traffic increases, so speed of operation tends to suffer. We take a look at a possible solution.
Let's face it, we all want more. It doesn't matter whether we talking about speed, quantity, capacity or whatever type of measurement you care to think of, the very fact of human nature means the desire is there except perhaps when it comes to waist size and those final demands that mistakenly get pushed through out letter boxes.
Why did they not have cartoon Dogs like Clifford when I was at School? Dont worry I know the answer, and before someone says they didnt have TV, they did!!!
Printers tend to remain in one location. However the HP DeskJet 460 has other ideas.
Printers come in all shapes and sizes. I have to say that the HP DeskJet 460 series, dedicated label printers aside, ranks as one of the smallest printers I have seen. This thermal inkjet printer, with its appealing silver casing, measures a compact 13.4 x 6.45 x 3.17 inches (W x D x H). Weighing around 4.5lbs, it is eminently portable as you move from location to location.
Should you need to scan a lot of documents both single and double sided then the Fujitsu Scan Snap can do it at 15PPM and this is a true figure I have done it.
Be honest, how many torches do you have that are not working because of a battery problem? There is a solution.
Last week (10/2/06) I told you about the Navigation software supplied on this PDA, now as this is a functioning PDA in its own right I can tell you about it.
The unit is 12.5x7x2cm and weights close to 200grams. It has a nice solid feel and the screen resolution of 240x320 is clear and sharp. It is a PocketPC 2003 unit and the operating system is WinCE 4.20. You have 27.5MB of available RAM. I found battery life a little disappointing especially when using the Marco Polo Navigation software (reviewed 10/2/06).
As the advert states You cant but them in the shops yet that has not stopped Dell from becoming a household name with a range of products that include PDAs.
Im still not sure why I was sent this software, but it looked interesting and as I was sent an activation code I had access to the full package.
The Sony Ericsson W800i is the first mobile phone with a Walkman music player built-in which by itself would make the W800i worthy of attention but this phone does have some other features going for it.
Sony Ericsson w800i with headphones Measuring 100 x 46 x 21mm (L x W x D) and weighing 99g, the W800i is certainly small enough and reasonably lightweight making it suitable for most users. However I, for one, am not enamoured of the W800i's colour scheme.
Here I am looking at two keyboards, both from Microsoft, the first the Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 and the second Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Centre.
The Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 is not as outrageous as some non conventional designs I have used in the past. The curve places the main qwerty keys in a slight smile configuration. In fact the main area takes up little more space than a conventional offering. It is a 108 key keyboard with nine extra Internet keys at the top making it a little deeper than a standard unit.
Deciding which data to keep and which to discard should no longer be a problem - especially when 400GB drives are available.
A Pocket PC PDA with navigation from Marco Polo the unit being sold in the UK by Evesham Technologies. As regular readers will know I do not have a great record with PDA navigation.
Style is now competing with functionality with certain devices. Take the latest flash drive from Integral as an example.
Blue, green, yellow, pink or lilac - the choice of colour is yours. Although some might regard this statement as being fashion related - and why not if that suits you - there is a far more practical reason that I can offer for the different colours used by the Integral USB 2.0 SPLASH Drives. Each colour could be used to identify a specific task or a particular user.
A string quartet, now you would assume that would be classical, although Naim do a classical section they also have what they call contemporary I just call it good music.
One way to help speed-up hard disk activity is to use a defrag tool. A leading contender is Diskeeper.
No matter how careful you are, the content of your hard disk will become fragmented over the passage of time. This will happen quite naturally through the normal course of business as files are removed and new data is added. Rather than look for a space big enough for the new information, Windows will break the file into portions which can then end up in various locations on the hard disk rather than a contiguous area.
Be it called pen drive, smart drive or a range of other names a USB stick is a huge advance on a floppy drive in both of the sizes, smaller dimensions and much larger capacity.
While DVD burners come with copying software, this is generally not the latest and feature-rich version. InterVideo believes its product can add power to your burning capabilities.
This is described as a portable audio player. Yes it plays MP3 or WMA but it is also a talking stopwatch. It is also shaped rather like an oversized wrist watch.
A computer is not always required to copy data from one USB device to another. This task can be achieved with a new device from Belkin.
You will recently have seen my review of the 2006 version on DVD, now Focus have acquired the rights to the 2005 version on CD and that means £9.99.
Touch, as one of our major senses, can be overlooked with modern technology. One company hoping to change this perception is Immersion.
"Hold that phone!" might well be the clarion call from Immersion but not quite in the way you might initially suppose.
A lot of people get naff reception for Digital TV so there is still a place for an analogue unit especially when it is USB and not a PCI card.
The Ulead Video@Home is a box 13x8x2.5cm with perhaps another 4cm needed to the depth for cables. If using it with a PC or Notebook that would only require the USB lead and the aerial lead. The back also has audio in, audio out, S-Video and RCA Video sockets. However sound on PC or Notebook is carried down the USB lead and out through your standard speakers.
Although not as high-profile as it used to be, Corel still has some powerful products in both the fields of graphics and office applications.
This is even smaller than the Selphy I looked at on 2/1/06. It is a rather different unit perhaps the word basic would be applicable.
It is a rectangular box 17.5x12x5cm without the paper cassette inserted however with this inserted and the space required behind for the paper path during printing you need 39cm of space to use it. There is only a single button on the unit (on/off) this shows green when in use or red should you run out of paper or the dye-sub cartridge become extinguished.
Steve Jobs reveals the new products developed following the recent Apple / Intel agreement.
The recent announcement of the tie-up between Apple and Intel has certainly caused several ripples that have quickly formed into new products in both the software and hardware categories. Steve Jobs took the opportunity offered by his keynote address at Macworld, San Francisco to reveal the initial product offerings to benefit from this new co-operation between two of the major forces in the field of computing.
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