
Published in
Misc
on
18 Dec 2012
Living, as I do, on a one-way street, I often notice cars proceeding along my road travelling in the wrong direction. Perhaps such drivers would benefit from using a product such as the Binatone R430.
With the strap line of “Drive like a local”, Binatone has released its R430 SatNav device. As the number forming part of it title might indicate, this unit features a 4.3-inch colour touch screen (perhaps “tap” would be more appropriate) within a reasonably wide black bezel. The overall dimensions of the unit are 78 x 122mm (W x H) with a depth of 13mm.
Recently my car driving experience has been enhanced by a new product that provides in-car music and hands-free telephony features.
Like many others, I prefer listening to my favourite music while I am driving. I also know, as I am sure you do, that using a mobile phone while driving should only be considered when it is a hands-free device. Offering to provide both hands-free telephonic operations and music playing features from various sources is the iO Play 2 kit. iO is a brand name of Armour Automotive Ltd.
Recently I have been spending time picking up printed documents from the floor. To find out more about the device forcing me to carry out this task, read on.
With its lacquered black casing, the Canon PIXMA MX515 is an All-in-One device that offers print, scan, fax and copy facilities with an ADF feature that has a 30-page capacity. There is a choice of standalone USB or either wired or wireless network connectivity. With rounded corners and a sloping plinth top, the unit has dimensions of 458 x 385 x 200mm. The top-mounted plinth is actually the scanner lid and combines the ADF feature with the unit’s control panel.
Fancy being the editor of a city newspaper? This is the role you play in a game entitled The Mystery Novel.
The Mystery Novel is a game that is described as a Hidden Object Adventure offering with a supernatural twist. You are cast in the role of the new Crime Editor of the City Times paper. Your predessor at the paper had been investigating a mystery surrounding the assassination of Mayor Lambert as he opened a brand new prison for the community. The assassin was quickly identified, captured and executed.

Published in
Misc
on
11 Dec 2012
Rather than retyping your handwritten notes to your computer, you could use this next product from IRIS to do the hard work for you.
The IRISNotes Executive 2 is a product that comes with the strap line of “You write, it types”. By this it means that it has the capability to capture your handwritten notes as they are being created and then convert them into a digital format that is editable for transfer to a computer whether it is a Windows or Mac based unit.
In this next game you get the choice of switching between three different characters as you attempt to rescue a fourth character and discover a hidden treasure.

Published in
Phones
on
6 Dec 2012
Despite the Solo connotation of its title, this product is available in single, twin, triple or quad offerings depending upon your telephonic needs.
Binatone has added to its range of iDECT phones with the release of its Solo product. There is a choice of glossy red, white or black units that combine docking stations and handsets. This review is based on the twin version of the product. As you would expect there are two handsets, each with a curved shape and a detachable back which gives access to a compartment to hold a pair a pair of AAA rechargeable batteries that are supplied.
Released in a Deluxe Edition version as part of the Hidden Mysteries series, Notre Dame Secrets of Paris is a Hidden Object Adventure game. The reason for the Deluxe Edition classification is that Focus Multimedia has chosen to bundle the bonus offering of Lost Secrets Bermuda Triangle which also belongs to the Hidden Object genre.
Notre Dame Secrets of Paris allows you to adjust the volume levels for background music and sound effects plus whether to opt for a full screen view and a custom cursor but there is no choice of playing difficulty level for any of the five profiles that you can create.
When you have multiple products covering different aspects of media editing and creation, it make sense to combine some of them together in a bundle. This is the approach taken by Cyberlink with its Director Suite offering.
Well versed in the area of digital multimedia and with software solutions that cover Blu-ray disks, digital home entertainment and TV-on-PC aspects, Cyberlink has bundled together four titles from its Create Director Family and named this offering as the Cyberlink Director Suite. These four elements making up the suite are AudioDirector 3, ColorDirector, PhotoDirector 4 and PowerDirector 11.
If you want to get ahead get a head is the mantra behind a game making the transition from iOS to the Windows platform.
While best known for its range of games that cover Time Management, Hidden Object Adventure, Match-3 and Arkonoid offerings, Alawar Entertainment occasionally comes up with a left-field type of title. In this case the left-field aspect is that area which is usually occupied by the Tablet and Smartphone mobile devices that are our constant companions.
Like vinyl, cassette tapes are yesterdays technology. A new product from honestech offers to help safeguard any media stored on such items.
Over the years, like many others, I have built up an extensive collection of music. While more recent additions to this collection are on CDs, vinyl and cassette tapes still makes up a large percentage of my collection. Unfortunately both of these early formats have seen better days with regards to the availability of the hardware required to play back the content as manufacturers have moved into other areas of production.
The works of Shakespeare have been turned into musicals or modern day equivalents. Now we have a game that takes its inspiration from a classic Shakespeare title.
Shakespeare wrote about many things including royalty, treachery, murder, comedy, magic, court cases and even some cross-dressing. However the idea of time travelling was never a theme that Shakespeare considered for any of his literary creations.
A bit like an insurance policy, your computer protection needs regular updates as circumstanced change. Offering to help provide protection against a range of issues is the latest version of Kasperskys flagship product.
Arriving with the promise of delivering “Real time protection from all Internet threats” is the latest version of Kaspersky Internet Security. This is the 2013 edition of the product and it bears the “Ready for Windows 8” logo. In common with other security suite offerings, Kaspersky 2013 (KIS2013) gives you three licences enabling the protection to be installed on more than one computer.

Published in
Phones
on
24 Nov 2012
Large telephonic buttons and an Emergency message facility means another Doro phone has arrived for review.
Doro’s latest addition to its family of handsets is the PhoneEasy 715. This is a slider handset available in either a black or white outer casing. In its closed state the handset has dimensions of 100 x 50 x 17mm (H x W x D) and weighs 103g including the 800 mAh 3.7V rechargeable Li-ion battery pack that should give up to 12 hours talk time or 533 hours on standby. As is becoming standard with more recent Doro handsets, the PhoneEasy 715 comes with its own charging stand.
One thing you can be sure of when Edifier International is involved is that the various speakers that emerge from this company will be of a design that could be considered slightly unusual.
In the past I have reviewed Edifier speakers featuring various colour schemes and with an assortment of shapes that include cylindrical, spherical and a decapitated pyramid. This trend has been continued with the latest Edifier speaker to reach me. This is the Sound To Go Plus™ unit. This latest Edifier speaker (note the singular rather than the plural) adopts an elongated triangular shape. Rather surprisingly, this particular shape is not all that innovative.
Several months ago I reviewed the first episode of the Fall Trilogy. Now it is time for the second episode as amnesia suffering character tries to escape from his environment.
The Fall Trilogy is an adventure game that the developers have decided to release as three separate chapters. The first title in this series was entitled Separation (see my review at URL) and involved your game character, who was suffering from a memory loss, while attempting to escape from a mysterious old temple.
It is that time of year when the latest edition of Bitdefender Total Security software makes an appearance just as emails start to arrive advising you that your current subscription is about to expire. Following the general pattern established over the years, this latest version of the product is identified by the appendage of next years date. So we have Bitdefender Total Security 2013.
In common with other protection type software, Bitdefender does not like to play with other competitive products. As a result it will offer to remove any competitive titles it identifies during the initial stages of its installation. There are some titles that Bitdefender is unable to remove and it will ask you to carry out this task if necessary.
With the amount of malware and types of scams trying to take control of your computer, it makes sense to install protection software such as Norton Internet Security.
As regularly as clockwork (if you can measure clockwork as an annual event), Symantec releases the latest version of Norton Internet Security product. Rather surprisingly the front of the product box and its spine make no reference to a version identifier. To confirm that this is the 2013 version of the product you need to check out a small label in the lower left corner on the rear of the box – it also holds the product’s bar code.
Not everybody needs to use colour in their documents. If you fit into this category then a new Brother product might appeal.
The Brother DCP-7055W could not be regarded as a shrinking violet. That is not to say that this all-in-one device with scan, copy and mono laser printer functionality is particularly large but it is substantial. With its base footprint of 370 x 358mm (W x D), the unit expands slightly to 407 x 398.8mm as it rises to a height of 268mm. Predominately computer grey in colour, the unit features rounded corners and side grip handles for easy movement between locations.
Based on the popular US television series of the same name that use to be broadcast on Freeview and now on Sky, Criminal Minds is a Hidden Object Mystery game.
This title gives you the opportunity to solve two cases from the files of the BAU (Behaviour Analysis Unit) section of the FBI. At various points during the game you will slip seamlessly between the main characters of Aaron Hotchner, Emily Prentiss, Spencer Reid, David Rossi, Derek Morgan and Jennifer Jareau with additional background information being supplied by Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia.

Published in
Misc
on
13 Nov 2012
While it might appear that some people are talking to themselves, it could be that they are using a Bluetooth headset linked to their mobile phone
When it comes to Bluetooth headsets Plantronics spreads its net wide by developing products for different aspects of the market. For the entry level customer, it offers its M25 and M55 models while mid-range is covered by the Marque and Marque 2 models. If music is more your thing then Plantronics can offer its BackBeat GO product.
With an indication that it is an all round product, the latest version of Norton 360 is now available and comes with the claim of providing ultimate protection for you and your PC.

Published in
Phones
on
8 Nov 2012
It has been quite a while since I last had the opportunity to check out a handset bearing the Sony name. In fact it was back when Sony was in partnership with Ericsson for the development of its handsets.
Since taking over complete control following the break up of the Sony Ericsson partnership, Sony has developed a number of high specification devices including the Xperia brand with the subject of this review being one example. I have to thank Vodafone for providing the review sample of the Xperia T model (now why does that sound familiar?) Totally black in colour, this smartphone adopts the standard look of a candy bar shape and has dimensions of 128.4 x 67.3 x 9.

Published in
Misc
on
7 Nov 2012
They are cute, adorable and child friendly. I am referring to a series of toys in the form of pets that respond to their owner.
We have long been accused of being a nation of pet lovers. Or perhaps, in the case of my cat who allows me to satisfy his needs, pet dominated would be a better description. This close affinity with the domesticated animal kingdom can be seen with many of the toys we purchase for our children (well that’s the excuse we tell ourselves although some toys are bought for our own pleasure) that are in the form of animals.
Many more years ago than I care to remember, I installed a Shareware product on my Windows 3.1 system - I told you it was many years ago. This product was the JASC developed Paint Shop Pro. Designed to convert images between different file formats and capture screen grabs, the software could easily fit on a floppy disk of the 360K variety. There was still room left over for other files of that period. I was reminded of this compact piece of coding when I opened the box containing the latest version of Paint Shop Pro.
Now up to version Paint Shop Pro X5 Ultimate, the box contained two optical disks. Admittedly one of the disks held extra software that was the reason for the Ultimate part of the product’s title. However the other the disk was required to store this 2013 version of photo editing and management software. It just shows how much the product has grown over the year before and after it became part of the Corel family of software titles.
It was Peter Norton who first revealed that deleted files were not actually deleted. Instead their disk presence in the FAT (File Allocation File) was marked as being available for use by other data. This meant it was possible, with the appropriate tools, to resurrect a file if it had not been over-written by subsequent data.
While best known for its Diskeeper product, Condusiv Technologies (the new name for the company we previously knew as Diskeeper) does have other strings to its bow. Making use of its expertise in the field of handling and management of files, Condusiv Technologies has developed its Undelete product.
A Central London hotel known by a single letter was the location for the launch of a new series of Creative standalone single speaker units.
Although I could run the risk of being accused of repeating myself, I have to observe yet again that speaker units can come in all shapes and sizes. An example of this can be seen with the latest product arriving to take care of my various audio needs. This is the SBX 20 model which is the top-of-the-range offering in Creative Sound BlasterAxx™ series.
An unexpected death, ghosts and a novelist looking for inspiration are just some of the features found in the next game from Focus Multimedia.
With hardly the shortest title in the world, Death at Fairing Point: A Dana Knightstone Novel is a Hidden Object Adventure game. Originally developed by Boomzap and published by Big Fish, this game is now available in Collector’s Edition format from Focus Multimedia. As usual with Collector’s Edition products you get some bonus items to sit alongside the main game.

Published in
Phones
on
30 Oct 2012
Following my favourite breakfast of bacon baps, I was introduced to a new handset that has become my mobile device of choice.
Combining the talents of Google, Motorola and Intel produces the RAZR i. This Motorola handset is the first smartphone to combine the Android operating system (4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) with an Intel chipset. Consisting of a sealed unit, therefore no access to the unit’s 2000mAh battery, the handset has dimensions of 61 x 122.5 x 8.3mm (W x H x D) and weighs 126g. The RAZRi is built around an aluminium frame with a decorated Kevlar padded backing.
While you might feel that Adobes market-leading professional graphics product, Photoshop, is priced well beyond your current budget restrictions, there is a possible alternative that has also been developed by Adobe. This is Photoshop Elements which is now up to version 11. This product costs approximately one tenth the price of its much bigger sibling.
Photoshop Elements 11’s new opening flash screen gives you the choice of entering the Organizer or Photo Editor module. Both this areas feature a pale grey interface that is easy on the eye and does not distract you from the main purpose of the software. Arranging your images to suit your own preferences is the task of the Organizer module.