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
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.
For the last couple of weeks I have been using a five socket Surge Strip, that has a rather nice plus in that it is also a UPS. The size is only slightly thicker than a conventional surge strip.
Now this has to be the best addition I have made to my kitchen in years - my only grumble - I should have bought the bigger one!
George Foreman's Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine really packs a punch in my kitchen - living well up to its brand reputation. It all started when my mother came for Christmas and noticed that faint smell of gas that I had been trying to ignore.
Like one good book, everyone has one good gadget in them. But how do you take that idea and turn it into a new, commercial product? Here's some tips on how to go forward.
Not yet available on open market as SIM-free (SHAME), but available from Orange on contract.
Bought myself a Belkin Wireless PDA Keyboard which has already proved usefull in 2 meetings.
It is compatible with HP iPAQ, Toshiba, Dell, Palm, Sony and my Viewsonic.
After the initial problems of working it out I've been pleased with it.
It also looks cool when you turn up to a meeting and you really can take minutes of a meeting on your PDA.
With its Root8Cyclone action, you really need to make sure your carpet is fixed firmly down before you decide to use this vacuum wizard!
For those of you who are regular readers, you may recall
. Well, sadly after
over 4 years of service it finally died on the 8th January. my article about my DC04 So off i went to my local electrical store and we decided to buy a
basic DC07 model with the Root Cyclone action, which effectively gives
greater cleaning ability than any vacuum I have come across.
After several years using a previous Philips MP3/CD player I was quite excited to buy this new one - and hoping for even slight improvements in the skip control logic. I was quite surprised by the results.
This inkjet offering gives reasonable print speed for text and very good image output as well as excellent speed.
I have long used a gang socket to control my computer with a single switch. These days I use a surge protection switch that has other advantages.
A web cam is a web cam right? Well perhaps not always, in fact several have the ability to store images inside their own memory away from the PC, some can even store sound and by that you know they can also record video.
I've finally bought a new laptop to replace my excellent but aging Toshiba. After reviewing quite a few options the only real choice was the Dell Inspiron 5150. The price performance can't be beat - in theory at least. I was a little nervous about whether it would live up to my expectations!
Regular readers will have known this was coming and may I suggest this could well be the first treat of Christmas, even better if you combine it with the HP 945 camera.
Unless you are convinced that either + or will prevail then a dual format drive is the only way to go. This unit costs around £100 with a sample or each media and a decent software bundle.
Just over a week ago I finished my review of a 5mega pixel camera, here I looking at a 640x480 unit, however for what it is it takes rather good images.
Those looking for a mouse that is just a little bit different from the standard rodent might like to consider the PocketMouse Pro. This wireless mouse, from the Kensington Technology Group, can store its receiver inside its own body when it is not in use.
Digital cameras, voice recorders, PDAs and MPEG players are all popular devices that make use of some form of flash media cards to store data. Unfortunately, due to the various formats adopted by this type of storage, problems can arise when attempting to transfer data between these devices and a computer.
The second installment relating to the Apple Ipod...
If you have read PArt 1 you will know that i had a Firewire card to install in order to use the Ipod.....installing the card couldn't have been easier. Plug and play with Xp..very easy. Plugged in the docking station via the firewire lead and plugged the Ipod into the station. First bit of good news was that it charges the Ipod from the docking station. having read the manual this seemed not to be the case but thankfully was.
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