Publication History For : Paul Smart
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A visit to London for the recent Intel Labs Day told me new things to come and also the current relationship with McAfee a company now part of their portfolio. An Intel Anti-Virus is something for the future here I tell you about what is available now.
A few weeks ago I had a gas problem, when I realised it was going to take a while to fix I started to look around for other ways to keep warm in the mornings, at this time of year the afternoons are not a problem and nor are the evenings.
I have one halogen heater and while it could be moved around it’s a pain to keep plugging and unplugging, so that sits in my office, so I needed something very portable. I took a walk around my local town and could not find anything suitable so while I was waiting for my bus home I popped into the local Wilko store as much to keep warm and out of the rain as anything and there at the end of an isle was this little Beldray Fan Heater.
Having recently reviewed a Sounddeck and a Soundbase that both sit under your TV. I now turn my attention to a Sound Bar that can sit in front of your TV or be mounted on your wall if that is where your TV lives.
The Edifer Cinesound SoundBar measures 1metre long by 10cm tall and is 8cm deep. So first point if you are placing it in front of your TV make sure it would be raised by 10cm above whatever it sits upon. Of course it can sit elsewhere like on the floor but you will need line of site for the remote to work. The remote is 9x3x.5cm and has 12 well marked buttons in two columns of six, it is powered by a circular watch type button battery that is supplied.
I am sure we all know either first or second hand ‘hello, hello, hello then a range of expletives’ whichever phone company you use they all have ‘not spots’ so the Anywhere SIM allows you to make you call across three different major providers.
The SIM as I received is a full size or micro SIM but it did require careful extraction as the plastic surround was more solid and less well perforated than previous SIMs I have used. As most users will know some SIMs work better in certain areas than others and most will have a SIM to suit their locale.
Not that long ago a 14inch notebook would be unlikely to display 1920x1080 this unit is IPS QHD (3K) which shows 2560x1440 and its quite useable. So what other features does this Intel i7 offering with Windows 10 have to offer.
The Gigabyte P34W measures 34x23.5x1.5cm and weighs just under 1.8kilos. This is a mixture of conventional and the latest, a Kensington Lock Port, Ethernet, VGA, USB3 (with charging when off), USB 3.1 and 3.5mm socket for headphone/microphone are the left side. The front has a line of five LED’s. The right side has USB3, SD Slot, USB3, HDMI and DC input. The rear is clear as the lid comes down to 135 degrees. The viewable screen is 31x17.
This is a large 5.5inch screen Android phone that comes with Dual SIM it has 8GB of memory and a Quad Core Processor so as it also has a 13MP camera with LED flash it may well tick all the boxes for a lot of people.
The Archos 55 Platinum measures 15x7.5x.7cm the last figure at the edges but the rear camera does protrude slightly, it weighs 162grams. The viewable screen is 12x6.7cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 5.5 inches. This is a 4G phone but the only available micro SIM at the time that I had was a 3G one, however I have no complaints about the speed of data transfer.
Steaming food means that the goodness -often boiled away- is retained. So is it possible to have healthy and good tasting food. This item from Morphy Richards gives you a good chance and best of all it is not a whole lot of fuss to produce it.
While food can taste great things with different flavours still taste better when kept apart in preparation so this has two compartments and even a special container for rice. It is 29x21x29cm the last figure is the height so the footprint is small onto whatever you place it on. The front of the unit has a 7.5x3.2cm display with six control buttons in an ‘L’ shape down the left and along the bottom of it. Towards the right edge is a water gauge.
The main problem with a product 18 versions old is when you remember the first one. Corel were one of the main reasons you got a CD drive. It was all the extra content they provided in images and fonts. Now the download needs a fast connection as its 1.8GB.
Having done the download you then need to burn a DVD so it’s not a trivial process. Once installed I had 2.3GB less hard disc space and my Desktop had five extra icons – yes Corel still give extra – apart from the CorelDRAW X8, there is also Corel PHOTO-PAINT, Corel CONNECT, Corel CAPTURE and Corel FONT MANAGER. They still do 32bit versions if that’s what you need but 64bit is what I am reviewing it on and to be frank with anything complex you need memory as well.
Sound Bars have been around for a while, they started life as a means of improving the quality and range of the poor quality TV sound, they had one drawback the need for space in front of the TV which could be a problem, enter the Sounddeck and the TV sits on the deck.
This is a quality item and as we all know quality is not cheap. A while ago I visited the then new Harrods Technology Department and today you should be able to see most of the Raumfeld range there. It is 73x39x9cm and it has a chunky rubber foot at each corner to sit it on and to allow sound to percolate from under the unit, these feet raise it another 10cm from whatever you sit the Sounddeck on. Both sides and the front are covered in black fabric and behind it are the speakers.
An All In One unit which means it prints, scans and copies. The HP Envy 4520 can do the last two actions without the PC needing to be turned on. In fact with printing being possible from phones and other non PC devices you might even buy one without owning a PC.
The printer measures 43x35x12cm when closed. You will need more space above the 12cm height to place things on the flatbed and more on the 35cm depth to allow for paper to emerge in front of the inbuilt paper tray the flip out support opens automatically when printing starts by 13cm in front to hold onto the output. This is a four ink two cartridge offering which can produce rather nice looking images but do remember the cost of ink as the cartridges are only small.
I attended the launch in a packed venue that if you were at the back or standing you needed binoculars to see the stage. It lasted close to two hours and the first 45 minutes was solely on the phones cameras ability it is produced in conjunction with Leica.
In this review I will talk about the phone and in a few weeks after longer use I will focus on its cameras. Of course a lot of comparisons were made to Samsung and Apple and of course this is larger/smaller faster better but once beyond all that what have you got a very thin phone, the cameras do not go outside the case so no rubbing in your pocket. It has what is called a 5.2inch 1080p screen. On the right side is the on/off button together with the volume rocker. The connection is USB 3.
Admittedly the box it came in was for two of them but even the plastic bag that this single backpack was packed was large, my first job was to put it on my kitchen scales, empty it weighs 2.81kilos. Next let’s see what items it can hold.
First it’s dimensions, 30cm across, 25cm deep and 50cm tall. Part of the reason for the weight is that it is so solid. The top for instance is solid enough to write letters on, the sides have little give and the front could probably support a child sitting on it. The only part that has giver is the back that fits snugly into your back but still gives to contours they call it a ‘Balanced Comfort System’.
A small A5 page printer for photographs which can be printed direct from either an SD or Micro SD Card the latter via an adapter but also direct from your SmartPhone via an App as this unit has its own Wi-Fi you can link into.
The Canon Selphy CP1200 photo printer measures 17.5x30x5.5cm but you will also need clear space behind the unit as the postcard sized sheets are passed from front to back of the unit. The front is initially from a cassette but after moving through the first time it then comes through above the cassette and does the task four times, first for yellow, then for pink, then blue and finally the protective coating.
This item could have an identity crisis. By default it is a Tablet but instead of running Android it runs Windows 10. It can also be used as a Notebook it comes with a Bluetooth keyboard. So here I get to use Windows 10 as it was intended with touch and even a pen stylus.
It is 21.7x12.5x.7cm and weighs 365grams. The supplied keyboard for use in notebook mode is 26x17cm. The viewable screen is 10.7x17.4cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 8inches. The screen display is 1920x1200 and in a 16:10 aspect ratio. One word of caution if you shut down in notebook mode you can have difficulty in getting the onscreen keyboard to show up if you next boot in Tablet mode.
Ricoh and Pentax are both names in quality DSLR and even some smaller but high quality cameras often cruelly called point and shoot. This offering is somewhat different as you only know what you have when you have it stored.
However this is a two fish eye lens offering that captures both still and movie images in 360 degrees so ideal for those sightseeing adventures. A have read that a couple of other companies have launched such devices at the recent MWC (Mobile World Congress) so it looks as if the upgraded THETA S has stolen a match on both of them. While you can control the unit via iOS or Android Apps you can also capture and store the images or video and then transfer them via a USB lead.
A lightweight pair of on-ear headphones which most will use with their SmartPhones as it does have the controls needed to answer a phone call and the built in microphone is perfectly adequate for any passer-by to think you are talking to yourself.
This is a small DAB/FM unit sold by the Dixons and Currys Group. It has a wooden case where most units in the same price band have a plastic one. Wood often gives a better sound. So what else has this LOGIC unit got to offer.
The Logic L55DAB15 DAB+/FM radio measures 24x9x12.5cm and weights 900grams (without batteries). The base, sides and top are a light wood. A lift handle fills 19cm of the top, the base has four stuck on rubberised feet. Both sides are clear. The back is plastic it has a 60cm six piece rod aerial, below this the battery bay for four ‘AA’ batteries. At the bottom right of the back a 3.5mm headphone socket and the DC power input, a 1.
Having launched various cordless cameras Netgear now go the other way and attach a cord but instead of this being an Ethernet one it is a generous length USB one meaning it takes power from the cable – no batteries – and sends the signal it receives to your account.
My review has taken longer than normal simply because this relies on a SmartPhone to function, either an iOS one or an Android one. Just before this unit arrived I was reviewing a Windows Phone and this was followed by another such device and the statement on the box ‘One App for all Arlo Cameras’ has a flaw, no support currently for Windows Phones as far as I could find. It is rectangular with all the edges set at 45 degrees so it looks more diamond shape. The camera is 11x6.5x3.
I do not get to see many quality backpacks and here is the second this year. This one is perhaps a little more normal than the recently reviewed item that for me would be the sort of item that might be used by the James Bond character.
The Streetline BP250 backpack from Lowepro measures 51cm tall, 33cm wide and 12cm deep it weighs 1.2kilos when empty. It is charcoal grey with black zips and straps. To be honest it is not a name I have heard of but the agency that handles another brand asked me to look at it and the Lowepro site seems to be popular with quality photographers requirements where what they are carrying needs careful handling and support.
This is a slightly oversized 32GB USB stick large enough to be useful even for the largest videos. This however can also connect to those iOS devices so a good way to transfer files between the two operating systems without much hassle.
For those who have seen the snake after which this named it’s the way it arches it neck before striking that gives it the shape. 9.5cm long 2.1cm wide and .8cm thick at the USB end, go back 3cm and where the Lightning connector is it becomes 2cm thick and 2.4cm thick at the back. When connected to most iOS devices the USB front end disappears under the device so that only the back 5.5cm are visible.
This is a tiny SSD drive in all but capacity which is 128GB. I will give the exact size in the review below. However it is described as a Tablet storage solution and here is the major difference in that it has hard wired leads for both standard and micro USB.
It is 9x6x1cm and it weighs 57grams. Its sides are rubberised with a grey plastic top and bottom which make it seem quite well protected. There is a slight depression in the centre of the front that allows you to pull out the USB3 lead a total of 4cm this has a nice click when it moves back into place. The left side has a similar mechanism for the 5cm that the micro USB lead extends and it again clicks securely back into place.
While everyone talks about phone cases in most occasions these leave the screen vulnerable to damage, so you need protection for both the back and the front of your SmartPhone. I have recently looked at the Nokia Microsoft Lumia 950 and here some protection for it.
This ultra-thin "featherweight" back fits over the phone protecting it from the knocks and drops without adding much to the weight. The actual weight increase is around 30grams. As this case is made specifically for this phone the charge point on the base, the four buttons on the right side, the headphone port on the top and the area around the camera and LED flash on the back are all clear and not in any way obstructed.
Certainly this takes me back, a cassette player front and centre and one of those new-fangled CD drive thingies as well as an AM/FM radio. Now first thing first lets find one of my stash of cassettes and then lets go back in time.
It is 28.5x20x16cm the four piece rod aerial add 60cm to the last figure the height. It weighs 1.9kilos without batteries inserted. The 12 page Instruction Manual calls it a CD/Cassette/Radio Portable Player. This unit can run on mains or six ‘C’ cell batteries. I will start with the AM/FM Radio trying to remember my days of listening to Radio Luxenberg or Voice of America under the bed clothes I thought tuning was difficult.
Certainly not what you would use for hiking or hill climbing this is a smart part leather unit that you might use to go for your office meeting or round and about in a city environment and not when crossing a muddy field scenario.
First let’s say it now it’s not cheap in fact it’s a well-made offering with bells and whistles so the word I am searching for is quality and that -as most will know - you have to pay for. It is 2.1kilos in weight when empty and the overall dimensions are 50x32x13cm the last figure is without any expansion to the sides, when fully expanded you can add up to another 10cm. I counted ten zips in pairs so that pockets can open the way you want them to.
I was invited to a world-wide launch of several products from Nest early last summer. I asked to review this item and was told two weeks despite numerous reminders nothing happened until I assume a new employee arrived now this is protecting me.
I am sure we all have at least one smoke alarm in fact if you have more than a single story building you may find your insurance company requires one on each floor of the building. This however offers more it is also a CO² detector. CO² is extremely dangerous as it has no smell or taste it does just one thing it you. That may sound alarming it was meant to as only a few minutes in a confined space with a CO² leak and you will be dead. You just go to sleep and you do not wake up.
While I have seen Windows Phones in the past the new Lumia 950 is the first for a while. In theory, as a Windows desktop user of various versions from 3.1 to 10, this should make me feel right at home after those initial problems we all face with a new phone.
Recently I got used to using an iPad and an iPhone without too much difficulty so the latest Windows Phone should not cause too much trouble, should it? This is of course something developed by Nokia who a few years ago were the major player in phones this is now in the hands of Microsoft, hence the Windows phone. As I have a Windows account the setup was easy and in fact I could have imported everything but I always like to see what a new user would have to go through.
An All In One unit from Canon and instead of the standard dark grey colour the Canon Pixma MG6853 unit is cream so may just get past the lounge police. If not, as it has a wireless connection, you can always put it in a cupboard and as it has a special mode you can even print to it when it is turned off.
This Canon device measuires 37x45x12cm add another 8cm to the middle figure the depth to have A4 paper in the drop down front that forms the paper input tray. Paper should be placed in this tray face down and it is delivered face up onto the output tray when printed. I no longer quote PPM times as the specifications are now done to a set standard so the days of a manufacturer stating 25PPM and you only getting 10PPM are long gone.
Joby are the name to think of for flexible grips. You wind it round any item to leave whatever you want held securely by a tripod screw but not all recent objects such as SmartPhones and even bicycles have tripod screws so they have designed mounts.
First the grip part a very substantial three leg with ten spherical sections so the grip has every chance of doing it job whatever you need to wind it around. Next the grip for the SmartPhone this expands to fit most sizes and makes of SmartPhone. The grip also has the female screw fitting on an adjustable fitting that can turn through 135 degrees and has its own screw tightening device. The width of the phones it can accommodate varies from 5.5 to 10cm and this also has a tightening screw.
To the best of my limited medical knowledge I think they have yet to perfect eye transplants. So we are stuck with the pair we are born with, one way to knacker your eyes is staring at a screen for far too long each day, the manufacturers have produced certain things to help like eye care in the case of BenQ.
This 28inch panel from BenQ measures 65.5x38.5x2cm the last figure is at the edges. It comes with a rectangular stand 32x11cm that raises the screen by 10cm from your desk. There is a good amount of back tilt but almost no forward movement beyond vertical. Since panels are now much lighter the manufacturers have decided that side to side movement is not required. Viewing from either side is always good and it is easy to twist the whole unit if required.
This is an Android 5.1.1 Phone that is thin and light but very smart in looks. Most recent phones have Quad Core Processors this is no exception, most recent phones have 4G again so does this, so what is unique perhaps its what is called Fusion Storage.
The 50e Helium from Archos measures 14.5x7x.5cm and weights147grams. The viewable screen is 11x6.2cm which gives the notional 5inch diagonal imperial measurement. It has Dual Sim capability which means that those who have this as a business phone can also have their personal phone in the same case. It also allows those who prefer a different service for Data and Phone.
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