Publication History For : Paul Smart
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While I have reviewed numerous Melitta coffee machines over the years it is only recently that I have learnt they also supply coffee, I knew that their absorbent paper had been going for a while now I learn that it is 50 years. Still this review is about their coffee machine the Epos that is also a grinder.
The measures 30.5 wide, 35cm tall and 28cm from back to front. This is two units the first on the left is the the grinder suitable for when you have found the coffee that suits you. The second on the right is the unit that prepares the ground coffee ready for drinking. The manual has eleven different languages and has single page at the start to describe all the points on the two units 'A' to 'O'.
While HP are best known for quality Laptops and Notebooks they also do other things like this 27inch flat panel that can display both 1920x1080 at 60HK and 2560 x1440 up to 165HZ. This is called a gaming monitor and is 27 inches corner to corner.
The HP OMEN 27q monitor has quite a heavy base and arm, the screen is 62x36cm and is 1.5cm thick at the edges. The base is 21x20cm and the arm is 35cm tall 5cm thick and 3cm wide. The base of the screen can be as little as 5cm above the base or as much as 15cm above it, both of those are in landscape mode.
This is a toy that has a useful purpose in that it can hold suitable items while being charged and as the face looks rather scary it might keep your very young child away.
While the box says Sonic The Hedgehog my knowledge of Hedgehogs is poor and this has human hands that are face up side by side in a perfect holding position. My first surprise was on opening the box to find there was no apparent way of releasing the Hedgehog and then on reading the instruction on the side of the box you are told to let it out from the base of the box which then leaves the box in perfect condition should you wish to reinsert it at a later date.
This is called a Home Recording Microphone Kit. However while the microphone is complete and you are supplied with various bits to help connections there will be no output without a lead, and an amplifier to complete it.
The microphone is 465 grams and is 15cm tall and round at 5cm. It comes with a semi circular 'spit protector' - I am sure this has a technical name but I do not know it. The three pin – in a triangle – inside the circular lead connection is in the base of the microphone.
This is a printer, scanner and copier unit from HP. Like other recent offerings from HP you get the option of having free replacement cartridges sent by post should you wish. However if you print 'not so much' you can use it like other manufacturers units without a contract.
The HP Envy 6120e measures 43x35x13cm and is a Wi-Fi only unit. Unlike some other recent units if you decide not to have a contract you can still set it up for more than a single unit. I set it up first with my Android Phone and then with a Windows Desktop PC, the first uses the setup in the Getting Started booklet and the second using the link shown when the initial setup nears completion. The only connection is on the back left where the two pin 1.
This is a very small 'Mini Cam' ideal for a very young child as a first camera, it takes both photos and videos the latter with sound. It is also very light weight and has a flash and is not at all expensive.
The Photo Creator Mini Cam measures 4.5x3x1.5cm, apart from 1.5cm lens. That increases this measurement to 3cm. The viewing lens on the rear is 2.5x1.3cm. Its weight with the attached key chain is only 24 grams. Taking photos at a distance is fine as is anything else apart from very close around a foot away where my photo of a keyboard was somewhat blurred but that could be down to my hand shaking a little as the units controls were not meant for an adult.
This is a 27inch flat panel that has a good amount of colour and brightness. Best of all it sits firmly with some back movement and plenty of forward adjustment. Its maximum resolution is 1920x1080.
The ACER Vero RS272 measures 61x36x1cm the last measurement is along the top with up to 3cm at the base. The stand is 20cm square and around 1cm tall. The base of the screen is 9cm above the stand. When you first connect it you might be in for a surprise as the top half of the rear has a 'Mood Light' which stays on for a few seconds during initial booting. The connections are just below the 'Mood Light' and they are HDMI and VGA, there are also two two 3.
This is the latest Notebook from Acer in the Swift range. It comes with a 16inch screen. Its quite light and works well in all lighting conditions.
The Acer Swift16 SF16-51 measures 35x24.5x1.5cm the last figure is at the back and it is 1cm at the front. The screen is 35x23cm with .5cm borders left and right, 1cm at the base and up to 1cm at the top, its only 1cm for the centre 7cm which contains the webcam. The viewable screen is 34x21.5cm which gives the diagonal imperial measurement of 16inches. There is a 99 keyboard which has full size alpha and numeric keys plus a slightly smaller set of numeric keys on the right side.
Acronis True Image
Published in Software
on
30 Apr 2025
Probably the piece of software that I have used for the longest time as Windows has gone from V7, V8, V10 and now V11. It started as a way to reinstall files or the whole of Windows when it failed to boot and now while it can still reinstall via USB or CD-ROM it also does far more to protect you from people trying to deny you your 'work'.
A 27inch flat panel that is fast, bright and sharp. It can be used both as a landscape and a portrait device and equally happy displaying 2560x1440 and 1920x1080, 5K is the former and 4K is the latter.
The measures 60x35x2cm and can be between 11 and 18cm above you desk when used in landscape mode. Its stand is 20cm square and is 1cm tall. In portrait mode it can be close to the stand and up to 6cm above it. There is a lot of back movement and some forward movement, it can also be rotated so almost anywhere can be viewed at far less than the maximum 178 degrees.
A PC that is fast, bright and sharp, this is sold as a gaming PC another item that is important is lack of noise and here this is perfect as even with my ear right beside it it's silent.
Quite a bit smaller and lighter than the previous offering from HP published on 26/3/25 and the only light is on the front. This measures 29cm from front to back add another 5cm for cables to be inserted, 14cm wide and 31cm tall. The right edge of the front has a line of items going down from the top turn on button, 3.5mm audio, 4 USB and USB 'C' this ends 17cm from the top.
This is not only an excellent portable speaker but also a two microphone unit that can kill other external sounds so it works well in areas that are very noisy.
The Poly Sync 10 speaker from HP measures 18x9x3cm and has a fixed USB lead of 63cm in length, the unit also comes with with a USB 'C' adapter if your PC or Notebook does not have USB. There is a start Guide sheet that shows the five touch buttons on the front of the unit and how to connect to your PC/Notebook either with USB or USB 'C'. The rear of the leaflet has where you can collect more information either from a link or a QR code.
Its nice to wake up to something cooking and while it takes a second person to be cooking food, coffee can be automated assuming your machine has a timer, even after a bad nights sleep the smell of coffee brewing can be a good incentive to rise.
The LOOK Timer measures 35x23x20cm and everything you need to know to make coffee is available from the three buttons and small clock display to the right side of the front. At the rear is the 72cm long power cable. The majority of the front has the entry for the ground coffee at the top with the coffee pot below.
This is both a large – in height and width – Desktop PC it is also rather heavy. It is marketed as a Gaming PC and two things matters for these machines speed and lack of noise this certainly has both of those.
The HP Omen 35L measures 42cm from front to back, 21cm from side to side and 42cm tall. It weights 14.5 kilos and with the box it is 18.5 kilos. After the initial boot up and setup which takes around 48 minutes including extra updates, the normal boot up is 15 seconds. The front, the left side, top and back all give a light show. The right side is solid, the left side is clear so you can see the inside. Unusually the top is not solid as it is full of tiny holes to help with ventilation.
Lots of people have trouble sleeping – me included – and night is a very long period of time when you are just laying there. Of course many younger ladies with young children sleep badly as they spend their time listening for their children calling or crying.
This is a piece of material is 64x19cm with a long USB lead attached to one end. The first thing you need to do is download the Withings App and once you have an account look for Sleep Analyser and when located it should be fine to place it under your mattress at somewhere near where your heart will be. There is plenty of information in the App as to how to do this. If there are two of you in a double bed then you need one each side.
Keeping your extremities warm will help you to avoid colds or worse. Good solid shoes and thick socks, a cap or hood and scarf, and then perhaps most important – and the hardest to do – keeping your fingers warm which then help the hands and then your wrists....
These are sold as Hand Warmers which indeed they are, but they are also at least two other things. Their batteries can be used to charge other devices and the backs can give you a light show. The Hand Warmers sent to me were red and the other blue but I see they do other colours, the clear back has two 1.3x.5cm black switches, one turns on the heat and the other turns on the light show. The side has a 4.5cm rubber cover that has a raised dot at one end, this end is near the heat on/off button.
This is both a Notebook and a Tablet. It is a reasonable weight so good for taking out and about with you. It is silver grey in colour.
This 2 in 1 device measures 35x22.5x1.5cm at the back, it is 1cm at the front, it weighs 1782 grams. Going around the outside has a USB3, 3.5mm socket for headphones and an SD socket on the left. The front is clear. The right side has a USB3, HDMI and two USB 'C' sockets. The back is also clear as the Notebook screen rotates through 180 degrees to become a Tablet.
This is the latest powerful offering from Philips suitable for all uses. Marketed for workers as it has fast reactions as well as great colour and wonderful Blacks whose differential might well save your life for those playing games.
This Philips monitor measures 61x36x2.5cm, it can be raised between 11cm and 17cm from your desk from the 20cm square stand. The sides and top are only about .5cm with the bottom being 2cm. There is no web cam on this unit. The diagonal screen measurement is 68cm which is almost exactly 27 inches. There are five rectangular control buttons mounted to the right edge of the base with a white LED beyond them that shines whenever power is going to the panel. On the back 9.
This is the latest printer, scanner and copier from HP. Quite small while still being able to print, copy and scan A4 documents. This is the second of their recent pay by the page offerings I have used, after three months of unlimited use up to 700 pages, extra cartridges will arrive before yours are empty.
The is a 3 in 1 unit measuring 42x36x21cm add 14cm to the second figure the depth when you have extended the page catcher. The weight of the unit is just over 6kilos. You can manually turn it on/off via a push button back left of the unit near the power lead, however you can set it up to automatically turn off after a set period of time. Manual start up is just over one minute, manual shut down around 10 seconds.
In less than nine months Microsoft stops supporting Windows 10. The HP Spectre X360 is both a very nice Notebook and if you turn the screen through 180 degrees it is an excellent Tablet. In either mode you have Touchscreen ability.
This was a brand new unit which took 35 minutes from switch on till you have answered all Microsoft's questions and done the required updates. I then found close to 50 files in 'updates' after around another 30 minutes I saw a number of the updates had been completed and several others required a restart. After I went to restart it decided I needed a BIOS update and after that a Firmware update. When I checked the updates I found everything completed so almost 50 updates in a hour.
In order to keep warm when outside you need to protect your extremities. Feet need quality socks and shoes. Your head needs a good cap and a scarf. This leaves the most exposed your fingers.
Leather is good especially if padded inside, there is one drawback in that you will not be able to operate your phone. These are big and reasonably heavy gloves, with each gloves battery inserted they weigh 513 grams. Each glove is 29cm long and 14cm wide. To give an example the size of my thumb is 6cm round, with a fabric glove on it is 8cm round and with the Savior Heat Glove on its 12cm round.
This is one the latest batch of new Notebooks from Acer, it has Windows 11 and it has the ability to use some AI built in.
The weighs 1368 grams and is 31.5x22.5x1.5cm at the back it is .5cm less at the front. Open the lid and the viewable screen is 31x19.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 14 inches. On the centre of the top of the screen surround is a web-cam. The screen display is 2560x1400.
This is two vacuum cleaners in one. This means you can use it with or without its arm. Full size cleaners often have a cleaning head more than 30cm wide which is great for those with large expanses of open spaces.
The head on the is 23cm wide and 10cm deep meaning it can weave into smaller spaces without you having to move things about a lot. It is 107cm tall but it also allows you to bend and get under things with 10cm or less clearance from the floor. It is also a lot less weight than most other cleaners. This is battery operated meaning it can go to work without worrying about where the nearest 13amp plug is.
This is both a HDMI and USB 'C' monitor. The colours on screen are amazing as are the brightness and contrast default settings, both of which have much higher settings. Being able to connect a notebook and or mobile phone to this is a big plus but also being able to output from a PC via HDMI means it can do up to three jobs.
This comes with a circular base and while there is a good amount of back and a small forward movement, there is no side to side movement for the screen so you are stuck with 4 to 16cm above your desk. The circular stand is 21cm across with the up-rite support bar being back 17cm from the front. The screen surround is 61x36x1.5cm, the viewable screen is 59x33.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 27inches.
This is the latest foldable screen Smart Phone from HONOR. Instead of the idea of a tiny phone enlarging to normal size this offering from HONOR starts as normal size and opens like a normal book to increase to double the size.
In its folded condition the measures 15.5x7x1.5cm the last figure at the 4.5cm round 3 cameras and flash unit on its back. Open it so the camera is now on the right back and its 14.5cm wide this gives a diagonal imperial measurement of very close to 8 inches. Its weight is only a little more than most standard phones at 237 grams.
This is a notebook from the HP range marketed under the Firefly Poly label and unlike most other notebooks does not just have a 30 day trial of A/V software it comes with a possible 15 months for no charge, now that is a useful addition.
The HP ZBook Firefly G11 is a 14inch Windows 11 notebook, measuring 31x22x1cm at the front and 1.5cm at the back it weighs 1500 grams. Going around the outside has HDMI, USB, two USB 'C' and an LED on the left, the front is clear, the right side has Kensington Lock port, USB and a 3.5mm socket for audio, the back is clear as the screen goes back to near 180 degrees. The base has two thin horizontal rubber bars to keep the unit off whatever you are resting it on. Open the lid and there is .
This is a story of a girl – not in itself all that unusual – told by her in the most part, but what is unusual it starts when she is still in her mothers belly about to be cut out as her mother dies. Quite how she can talk at this stage is unusual but of course you read on to try to make sense of it.
Normally the only books I read are manuals, but I was sent this to review so I set aside time to read a few pages and was hooked by now she was kept as a child, the doctor who performed the operation had a large house in the country with an even bigger garden and she had a range of people to look after her as the doctor only visited around every three weeks.
This is an on ear Headset. It is a USB 'C' offering and surprisingly to me anyway does not come with a USB 'C' to USB adapter so without one if you only have USB you could not use it, surely a trick missed.
The Quick Start guide is a 10x6cm folded card with Setup an option to download the Plantronics.com software, ANC to tell you how to activate noise cancelling and Fit to show you how to mute the microphone. While there are several other leaflets in the box these are mainly to satisfy various countries rules and of no real use to the user. The Poly brand is a high end quality range marketed by HP and so you get what you pay for, quality in sound and speech via the microphone arm.
Vivid-Pix 3.09
Published in Software
on
18 Sep 2024
This is an ideal piece of software to allow you to record information linked to images, this can be spoken or just data, then months or years later the information can be read or viewed by you or others to save it from vanishing if the original person is dead or suffering from serious memory loss.
I am sure most older people have things they wished they asked their grand parents or parents but never did or even things that they did ask and now cannot recall themselves. First the bad news you need patience to install. The 465MB download happens. You click the link, then fill in your email etc.
Upgrading to Windows 11
Published in Software
on
4 Sep 2024
When Windows 11 first became downloadable you were told if your PC/Notebook was suitable for upgrade. I have a notebook that met the criteria and I tried it, at that time Microsoft had not indicated that they would stop supporting Windows 10 so after a few days I reverted to what I knew and restored Windows 10.
As is now general knowledge there is only a year of support for Windows 10 left so when doing updates and chance to update to Windows 11 again was shown I took it, around two hours later the install had downloaded and then 'Working on Updates' started. As with normal updates you get a reboot at 30% and the next here was 75% - with a long delay at 90% - and then you are done after around another hour.
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