With Blu-ray becoming increasingly popular as the means to distribute media, it does make sense to ensure that your computer system has the means of handling this type of optical media.  While manufacturers are now adding this feature to new models, those with legacy machines will need to upgrade their computer with an appropriate drive.  One option would be to go for a drive such as the Plextor PX-B120U.

Sacra Terra: Angelic Night belongs to the popular genre of Hidden Object Adventure game play.  Alawar has opted to introduce this game as a Collector’s Edition.  Not only do you get the main game but a bonus chapter, concept art, wallpaper and a Strategy Guide all bundled together.

As its title might suggests, the Freecom Hard Disk Dock allows you to attach a hard drive to your computer without the necessity of opening up the system box.  This might seem like an unnecessary device as you could easily attach additional storage with one of the numerous external hard disks, including those from Freecom, that are currently available at reasonable prices.

Described as the world’s first “Double Full HD” 3D consumer camcorder, the has an integrated dual lens system for creating 3D content. This product can play back Full HD 3D on any 3D capable HDTV or 2D on non-3D displays. For a smaller viewing experience you can use the camcorder's Xtra Fine 3.5-inch LCD touch screen that can deliver 3D footage without the need for special glasses. The HDR-TA10 has a 10X optical zoom and comes with 64GB of flash memory.

Describing itself as “The Player for all your media on PC, Device, Home & Social Cloud”, Cyberlink’s PowerDVD 11 product is the company’s latest movie and media player software.  The product is available in Standard, Deluxe and Ultra versions.  This review is based on the top of the range Ultra product which contains all the bells and whistles that you could hope for including Blu-ray and 3D (if you have the necessary hardware components).

Credited with being the first true detective novel, Wilkie Collins “The Moonstone” is the basis for a hidden object investigation game now available as part of Avanquest’s Click & Play label.  As I have not read the Wilkie Collins novel I can not comment on how closely this game follows the original version.

External hard drives provide an easy way of solving your storage needs.  You simply attach the drive via USB to the appropriate system and then transfer data in whatever direction you require as you access or add files.  This type of drive also brings the useful functionality of allowing you to move data between different locations.

When checking out a new headset I usually take it for a walk and/or visit to a location where there would be plenty of noise before concluding with sessions in my favourite armchair listening to different types of music.  These tests allow me to check out features such as audio quality, external noise elimination and how comfortable the headset is over a period of time while tethered to an appropriate source of audio content.

Continuing its policy of adding the suffix of “Plus” to all its products, Serif’s latest website designer package is entitled WebPlus X5.  This product promises to allow the user to create professional-quality websites without needing any skills in the lingua franca of HTM.  As with other products in the Serif family, WebPlus X5 comes without any printed documentation.  You do get a User Guide but this is in PDF format which is located on the product CD.

As part of the Hidden Mysteries Collectives series, Lost Realms 1 & 2 is, as you might expect, a two-game pack.  This dual offering consists of Legacy of the Sun Princess and The Curse of Babylon with both titles belonging to the Hidden Object Adventure genre.  You will need to install each game individually from the same front end.  Both games feature Alexia as your on-screen presence as you tackle hidden object scenes plus solve puzzles and riddles.

One of the first names that usually spring to mind when considering headsets is that of Sennheiser.  This is a company that has a long-established and well-deserved reputation in this particular field.  I am regularly accompanied on my daily walks by the Sennheiser PX 200 model, which can be folded up when not in use, for providing my listening pleasure by delivering content from my Clip+ MP3 player.

In the past I have looked at a number of offerings in Verbatim’s Store’n’Go product range.  These items have been USB sticks, generally blue in colour, of varying capacities.  The latest addition to the Store’n’Go range, however is totally different in certain aspects to the earlier products.

Utilities, and certain other types of applications, tend to fall into one or two main categories.  They can either attempt to spread their functionality as wide as possible, in a kind of jack-of-all-trades approach (maybe master-of-none) which can give the illusion you are getting your money’s worth or take the one-trick pony route by concentrating on delivering one particular function.  Fluid Mask from Vertus definitely falls into the latter category.

Developed by Alawar Games and Go Games, Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock is an excursion into the world of vampires and the undead.  This game is yet another example of the popular hidden object adventure genre. The game opens with a series of comic book style scenes showing your character being involved in a motor-cycle crash which results in you suffering a bout of amnesia leaving you in a state of confusion.

Whenever I set up a new computer, either desktop or laptop, one of the first applications that I install, once Windows is bedded in, is that of the current version of Diskeeper.  This particular piece of software, which has been around for a number of years with a cut-down version formed part of earlier versions of Windows, has been developed to help speed up the performance of your system by organising the files on your hard disk.

Once upon a time home entertainment was relatively basic and straightforward.  Mum, dad and all the other family members would huddle together around the wireless to listen to the best that the BBC could offer.  Later the wireless would be replaced by the box in the corner as television, first in black & white with the BBC and then colour plus ITV to add some choice, took over.

Those of us of a certain age will, no doubt, remember with some affection when our mobile entertainment came in the form of a portable cassette player with the Walkman being the popular option.  Admittedly this entertainment was only of the audio variety but we were in seventh heaven as we listened to our favourite music.  Then along came digital.  Now we could select from a range of MP3 players with the incredibly successful Apple iPod taking the lead.

While most Hidden Object Adventure games present the player with lists of items that need to be located within specific scenes, there is an exception to this approach.  Enlightenus rather than expect the player to identify items in a scene, requires the player to position objects in their correct location within a scene.  A follow-up to the original Enlightenus, not surprisingly entitled Enlightenus 2, follows a similar pattern.

As part of its new product line-up announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show inLas Vegas(unfortunately my invite and plane ticket somehow got lost in the post so I was unable to attend),Buffalointroduced the DriveStation Axis USB 3.0.  This external desktop hard disk is available in either 1 or 2TB versions and comes with the promise of high speed access for the user.  My review is based on the 1TB model which I have seen listed at £69.99.

I have to admit to being a little nonplussed when this next product arrived.  As I struggled to think of who would send me a small toy dog with articulated limbs, a closer examination of the package revealed that the product was Claymation Studio 3.0 Deluxe and it came with a plug & play USB PC camera in the form of the dog mentioned earlier.  A 115cm USB lead is provided in the box and I will leave it to you to guess where you insert the lead into the dog’s body.

A scanner, whether of the standalone variety or part of a multifunction device, will probably have come with software capable of carrying out OCR (Optical Character Recognition) duties. This is when scanned documents are converted into editable text for use within your word processor.

A car parked in a country road with a view of pleasant green fields is the opening scene of a title from the Big Fish family.  The car driver, a young woman, who is your on-screen persona, is taking a break as she reads a note from her boyfriend, Tim, who is investigating some rumours of wrong doings in a medical establishment.

As its initial launch product in theUK, AirTies, a company set up by a management and technical team from Silicon Valley and with its headquarters based inTurkey, has released its Wireless Kit for Internet TV.  This kit consists of two small wireless access point devices (90 x 70 x 20mm) plus two 12v power adapters, two Ethernet cables and a software CD.

The arrival of a large box containing the latest Brother printer unit at my front door had the effect of making my back wonder just what was in store for it when the need came to manoeuvre it into position.  Fortunately, once the unit was unpacked, appearance proved to be somewhat deceptive.

It has been quite a while since I last had the opportunity to review an Altec Lansing speaker system.  If memory serves me correct, it was the Altec Lansing Orbit 360 product which appeared nearly three years ago.  Perhaps, surprisingly, considering the speed at which technology advances and new products make an appearance,  Altec Lansing is still developing new offerings for the Orbit family.  The latest addition to this family is the Orbit USB Stereo.

A sea cruise is meant to be a relaxing and beneficial experience.  What with sea breezes, enjoyable company, sumptuous surroundings and attentive staff at your beck and call – could you wish for anything more.  But, of course, that was before those devious people at SpinTop Games decided that an element of mystery and adventure was missing from this scenario.  The result of this intervention can be seen in Escape the Emerald Star, a new game that is published by PopCap.

Sometimes when friends and colleagues get together, the topic of conversation can turn towards the subject of size.  An occurrence of this situation arose recently but while the topic was size related, it was more to do with the lack of, rather than excessive, size.

Despite efforts from some manufacturers, there remains a wide variety of connections for linking to a power source.  This would not be a problem when access to a number of power sources is available but sometimes only one power socket is currently free.  For situations such as this, a product that could handle power-charging for a range of devices would be useful.

Many of the bags currently being used for carrying your notebook or netbook have been designed to make a fashion statement and, as a result, do give a clear indication as to the content of the bag.  This type of bag also has a third unintentional attribute which will certainly not appeal to the user but it will be like a beacon to those others who are only to willing to relieve you of your property.

As the title of Alawar’s Friday Games “The Treasures of Montezuma 3” indicates, this is the third offering in this Match-3 game series.  Following the pattern set in the earlier titles in this series, this game belongs to the Match-3 style of play where you have to exchange two adjacent tiles or tokens in order to create a horizontal of vertical group of three or more of the same colour.