While most of the competition has faded away, for various reasons, as they attempted to battle the might of the Amazon Kindle machine, Kobo continues to fight the good fight.  Based in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo is one of the world’s faster growing eReading services with an offering of five million eBooks and magazines accessed by its various eBook readers.  A recent addition to the company’s family of eBook readers is the Kobo Aura One device.

When a god falls in love with a mortal, even a mortal who is a royal princess, you know that the situation is bound to cause trouble.  This was the scenario covered in the Match-3 game of The Trials of Olympus.  In that title Angelo, a god expelled from Olympus, builds a magnificent city and wins the heart of the Princess Amara.

Forming part of Gyration’s family of “gyroscopic” input devices, including the Air Mouse GO Plus, Air Mouse Elite and Air Mouse Mobile, this Air Mouse Voice adds a voice-enabled presentation remote control and motion sensitivity to high-precision desktop mouse control.  Slightly longer, and perhaps not as tall as my usual device, the Air Mouse Voice has dimensions of 115 x 60 x 28mm (L x W x H).

Over the years WinZip has developed from a basic compression / decompression utility, which was my first introduction to the product, into a file management / sharing / encryption application while retaining its original functionality.  The latest edition of this software is now up to version 21 with Standard, Pro and Enterprise packages being available.  This review is based on my experiences with the Pro version of the product which has been launched with a price point of £42.

This game collection consists of ten Hidden Object game titles from Alawar’s catalogue.  All ten titles are accessible from a menu consisting of thumbnail images representing each of the games. Three of the titles in this collection belong to the Magic Encyclopedia series.  While appearing to be the work of different development teams, they all feature the same main character named Catherine.

Say what you will about Microsoft and its various software products but you will probably have to admit that the different versions of its Windows operating system have certainly opened the door for other companies to step in and develop software designed to enhance the Microsoft offering.

Originally launched in October 2014, EcoTank offers users a way of reducing the cost and regularity of ink replacement.  Instead of using ink cartridges with their limited capacity, the Epson EcoTank technology makes use of ink tanks that can hold a year’s supply of ink.  These tanks are filled from bottles which are available priced at £7.99 or £10.99 for higher capacity units.

Royal Trouble – Honeymoon Havoc is the follow-up title to the original Royal Trouble offering from Orchid Games.  Both titles feature the same two main characters as they embark on Hidden Object Adventure escapades.  The first title introduced game players to Loreen and Nathanial who found themselves imprisoned in the same dungeon.

Offering to save you a reasonable wedge of your disposable, hard-earned cash, BT Mobile has launched a new family based deal.  This is the new Family SIM service that takes in mobiles and tablets.  According to figures released by BT, this new service could save customers up to £372 per year depending upon the data plan and the number of SIMs involved in the contract.

What do companies such as Samsung, HP, Toshiba, Logitech, Acer and Canon have in common?  That is apart from the obvious IT connection shared by these companies.  To save you the bother of indulging in some wild guessing while providing me with the lead in for this particular report, I will provide the answer to my own question.  All the aforementioned companies feature in a recently published Top Ten listing.

Activity type products, often in the form of wristbands, continue to be a popular item.  Generally these types of devices concentrate their functionality on providing the user with data dealing with the wearer’s lifestyle and current medical issues.  This data can then be used by the host subject for their own needs.  But this is not the only approach adopted by a wristband product used when tracking the wearer’s physical condition.

While WiFi is often the chosen option of many when setting up a home network with the minimum of disruption, this method is not always totally suitable for certain dwellings with walls getting in the way and blocking the passage of the wireless signal.  In such instances you might prefer going with a solution that helps circumvent the problem caused by blocking walls while still retaining some of the benefits of WiFi.

Designed for a business environment, the BenQ BL-2405 model is a 24-inch backlight monitor with the capability to act in portrait and landscape modes depending upon your needs.  This combination of display screen and adjustable stand has dimensions of 503 x 579 x 213mm in portrait orientation and 392 x 579 x 213mm when used in landscape mode.  There is also an option to wall mount the unit if desk space is a problem.

Our love affair with all things digital has resulted in many terabytes of storage space, whether of the local variety or that situated in the virtual expanse referred to as the Cloud, being taken up by our personal collections of digital photographs.  While readily available via various approaches, it does seem rather wasteful if these representatives of our personal memories are left to gather a form of digital dust, caused by faded memories, through the lack of use.

Call them what you will – whether flash drives, thumb drives or whatever – these items have certainly made it easier to physically transport data between locations and computers.  However this functionality brings with it an increase in the possibility of this data being lost either accidentally or being misappropriated by others.

As with Kaspersky Total Security 2017 reviewed recently, this software product is available for different numbers of devices on a one or two year subscription basis.  Depending upon your needs, you can purchase this product to cover 1, 3, 5 or 10 devices using a mixture of Windows, Mac, iOS and Android platforms.

Released in Classic and Platinum versions, the 2017 edition of Nero contains a collection of tools to handle aspects of your digital life.  This review is based on the Platinum version of Nero which is priced at £89.99.  The classic version comes at £20 less with upgrades for both products available at 50% discount from any previous version.

The Goji Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones forms part of the Currys / PC World’s family of in-house products.  This set of headphones is of the over-the-ear variety.  Included in the box with the headphones are a micro-to-standard USB charging cable, 3.5mm audio cable, instruction booklet and a draw-string soft carry pouch for keeping everything together when not being used and in transit.

Depending upon your needs, this collection of video editing tools is available in a choice of Standard, Plus or Ultimate versions.  Both 32 and 64-bit editions are available.  I have been looking at the 64-bit downloadable version of the Ultimate product. The combined action of downloading and installing the Studio software was rather time consuming.  While the process was taking place, I took the opportunity to watch a full movie on television.

The M2280 is another member of the Edifier family of speaker units.  This particular model is described as a multimedia speaker system.  It consists of free-standing left and right speaker units that come with cables for connecting the speakers, power lead and an audio lead plus a small User Manual booklet offering basic instructions. Clearly marked with Left and Right insignia, the two speakers have dimensions of 240 x 124 x 125mm (H x W x D).

As part of its line up of recommended grooming gifts for the man, who wants to look his best for every occasion, the Philips Series 1000 is an electric razor.  However unlike most electric razors, this product has been designed not for use on the face but instead for other areas of the masculine body.  As a result this product is classified as a BodyGroom device offering a manscaping experience for those wishing to have the ultimate smooth body without any unwanted hair.

Established in 2010 and based in Stockholm, Sweden, Urbanista is a company that was formed out of a vision to glorify the urban lifestyle following a concept of designing for life in motion with the development of its various headset products.  A rather high fluting look at the company’s raison d’être you may think but it does provide me with an opening for this piece.

Described as “Our best protection for your family on PC, Mac, Android™, iPhone & iPad”, Kaspersky Total Security software comes as either a download or retail purchase package.  Actually that is not strictly true as the retail package does not contain a physical copy of the Kaspersky software.

With a title that reminds me of some earlier arcade games that use to dominate my game playing sessions many years ago, Invasion 2: Doomed seems like a follow-up title which it is but isn’t.  It is a follow-up in that the two lead characters are the same as those in Invasion: Lost in Time but the story line has no connection.