GadgetSpeak Articles
GadgetSpeak has close to 5,000 product reviews and other articles. You can use this page to find others opinions on anything from mobile phones to computers to the latest kitchen appliance
Not light, and not small, that just about sums up the negatives with this Hewlett Packard notebook offering and just for good measure the price is not that outrageous.
Use the iPod for running? A great carry case for the iPod that holds it snug and can either strap to arm for running or belt via one of those clip things:)
The number one reason I'd rather own a car over my scooter would be the lack of a stereo. That's right, music on the move to alleviate the monotomous boredom of regular journeys. Will my new personal DAB radio liven up my two wheeled adventures?!
A new departure for a handheld device the ability to work landscape as well as portrait, this more powerful machine looks the part and I am sure will be every yuppies desire, that is if there are still such people.
Owning a rewritable DVD drive does not mean you advocate piracy. There are many legitimate uses to which you can put such as the NEC ND-2500 product.
Having looked at the LG7100 flip top mobile phone, I was recently given the opportunity to try out the second phone making up LGs initial offering to the UK marketplace. This was the LG7050 model which adopts a slide down approach to help reduce size and protect the LCD screen.
The phone is a 2.5G unit combining features such as MMS, WAP 2.0 and Java plus a built-in CMOS camera. As with its LG7100 phone, LG has limited its availability to a single operator on a monthly contract basis. In this case the operator is T-Mobile. In its closed state the phone measures 107 x 44 x 21.5mm (L x W x D) including the short stubby antenna.
With weight being an ever increasing factor, notebook designers cut whatever possible from the main unit, then they charge an extortionate amount for a docking station to allow previously allowed functionality.
To use this docking station you need one thing a USB port. To use it at full speed it needs to be a USB2 port. What you get on this docking station is 2 USB2 ports, PS2 ports for keyboard and mouse, a serial and a parallel port and finally an Ethernet port. All this means your notebook can travel with you for minimal weight and when you reach your home or office the docking station can be plugged in to give you all the functionality of a desktop PC.
Whatever flavour of PDA you use it is probably very different from a year or so ago. Certainly the Tungsten E has a lot more to offer at a greatly reduced price than when I got my 5X.
A top of the range DECT phone with answer phone and second handset. Has a range of features ideally suited to people working from home.
TV tuning and video capture for your Power Mac. Lack of attention to detail and the conflict between "sit back" TV and "sit forward" PC ergonomics spoils this intriguing device. But if you are desperate for TV on PowerPac, then this has some nice features - if you persevere.
This review was written by Dr R W Fairbrother as opposed to Neil Fairbrother.
A photo quality inkjet printer with a bonus. The Epson Stylus Photo R200 can print text, photos and just for good measure given the right media it can even print on CDs.
A lot of fuss is made about the iPod when there are other machines about that are as able to deliver, and cost somewhat less. The Rio Karma is small in size and large in capacity. The clincher is that it has far better battery life.
This all purpose offering can print text pages clearly, reasonably quickly, print up to A4 colour images borderless nicely, and in fact could probably get the average small business out of a hole.
The i455 is a functional rather than stylish printer. The dimensions are 38x30x30cm the depth is extended by another 23cm when the front flap is down to catch output. In fact the unit looks very like a beige box. This is not a derogatory remark unless you are only interested in looks. As far as I am concerned the look of the output is all that matters, the look of the box is irrelevant.
Some of us need more than just a small notebook on our travels. Perhaps everything but the kitchen sink is a bit over the top but, here are two offering that may help you keep everything together.
Kensington Saddlebag Plus Kensington are best known for there steel leads to keep items in
place and to deter thieves. However they do other items and one such is
the cavernous Saddlebag Plus. It is 42x24x16cm when sitting around, however there are lots of zips
and Velcro fastenings along with a shoulder strap strong enough to lift
a lot more than this product.
What can these devices be? The PC in the titles could be a clue but then maybe not. They are both small and indeed both considerably less than £100. One thing they certainly are not is printers.
How many of us have DVDs or CDs that are either unplayable, skip or stutter. The conventional isopropyl alcohol and gauze no longer solves the problem. The answer could be not to far away
Yes I am a confirmed Corel user since version 1 someone like me with sparse graphical ability can produce okay output with the aid of the numerous gadgets in CorelDRAW.
The New XDA II - Is it worth upgrading? Is it that different or simply polishing the original? Tom Ball writes about why for a certain group of people, the time has come.
While Microsoft and Logitech tend to grab the attention when it comes to wireless desktop equipment, there are other options available. One such offering has been developed by Gyration and comes with the rather mouthful, but descriptive, title of Gyration Ultra Cordless Optical Suite.
Sometimes lack of size is vital, this is the latest portable printer from Canon. Should you have no power it can even print from batteries. It is not just USB but infra red and with an adapter Bluetooth.
While battery life is often quoted as a major factor when judging portable devices, the actual running cost of the batteries is rarely mentioned. Do you choose the more expensive rechargeable battery type or opt for the cheaper, throwaway variety? Saitek believes it can sway the balance of the argument towards the latter option with its Echo Multi Charger device.
When MP3 players first came out 32MB was considered large, Rio were there then, now at last they can be a good size and Rio are still there with the 1.5GB Nitrus.
Tablet PCs have been around for the best part of a year and a half, so far the takeup has been at best lukewarm so does this second generation unit have something new to offer.
Why would anyone use an external sound card with a PC? Believe it or not some PCs are still not multimedia and some notebooks have sound chips that belong only in the bin.
I see a lot of digital cameras, I see a lot of web cams, but for some reason not a lot of camcorders. When I started testing the MV650i I had a very big shock, the provided recording mechanism was not tape.
The MV650i is a mid size unit with 22x optical zoom with it's
digital zoom this can become up to 440x. It is 16x10x5cm and weights
around 650grams. It comes with power adapter, USB lead, stereo video
cable, SCART socket, hand strap, neck strap, wireless controller
(remote control), manuals, CD's and 8MB SD card. What have I missed,
nothing, I checked in the manual. NO TAPE.
Two PCs, one monitor, one keyboard, one mouse, one set of speakers and one KVM switch with cables, what does this give you? The answer two working computers and best of all less desk space needed.
This cheap game for adults has an added benefit when used with children.
A laser has one huge advantage for mono printing over an inkjet, when it says 17PPM that is what you get and not just 17 identical two paragraph memos in draft mode.
As you may gather printing speed has always been a bugbear with me,
perhaps that's why looking at honest lasers is such a joy. One example
573 lines of text spread over 12 pages, that's 9643 words to be
precise. From sending this to the printer there was around nine seconds
while it thought and then 40 seconds later all 12 pages were laying
face down on top of the unit, perfectly printed.
A lot of fuss has been made about the iPod even to the extent they were unavailable just before Xmas. There are other similar devices one is the Philips HDD100.
One thing the iPOD can't do is work with .wma files, the Philips can although in my tests there was some popping and jumping something I did not get with .MP3 files. Leaving the iPOD aside I know of two other names in large size .MP3 players Archos and Creative Labs. The Archos units are simply large hard discs and in most cases somewhat larger in dimension than the Philips.
If like me you are old enough to remember the huge items that kept up your muscles and as a sideline pumped out large amounts of electrical interference then what the current range of tiny phones can do is something rather special.
Firstly of course they are small, and multifunctional, a phone that is just a phone would be totally unacceptable unless of course you breakdown miles from anywhere. A camera is a requirement and some means of collecting and sending emails as well as browsing the www. I suppose the dimensions of 11x4.5x2cm are not that mind blowing by today's minute standards.
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