Publication History For : Paul Smart
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Older articlesKnowhow Tips and More
Published in Misc
on
17 Aug 2015
A range of companies have Xmas In July events to show what they consider will be their big sellers or must have items for the Christmas selling period, one of those is the Dixons Store Group who have a help scheme called Knowhow.
Go into most of their stores and you can get help and advice from a Knowhow expert. They have just launched a range of online assist tools to help with twenty one subjects and of course they would make an excellent gift. Often people use something without really understanding it and a lot of users will not feel able to ask for help either because they are too proud or possibly too scared. Some are more basic than others and according to the depth the cost of the course varies.
Do you like using headphones or earbuds but do not like being tethered to the source of your music? The answer then may be at hand with this small object from Noble Audio that is about half the length of a ball point pen that you plug your buds into.
Of course if you are playing music from a SmartPhone then although slightly larger and heavier the phone could sit in a jacket or shirt pocket. However if playing better quality sound from a larger device then Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is required and this solution is a small easy to use Bluetooth option. However the thing you are playing your music from must send out Bluetooth signals. It is 6cm long and 1.2 to 1.6cm on its sides the larger figure is the pen grip type clip.
This coffee machine takes coffee beans in the top and grinds them and then prepares the coffee adds the water and then makes your coffee. It is a complete process so you cannot get fresher ground beans as it grinds them to make the cup of coffee.
It is 30cm deep, 23cm wide and 35cm tall at the bean storage area. There is a 28 page A5 booklet that covers operation and setting up as well as cleaning the product in sixteen languages. Seven of these pages use diagrams to cover most things then there is a single page in each language to cover more obscure things like setting up your favourite coffee strengths etc. It also explains the less obvious icons that the front display shows.
This is a 27inch flat panel designed for those you need accurate and rapid display, yes its something designed for gamers. As it says on the carton Gaming is in the details so this 27inch panel gives all the detail with rapid refresh rates.
This Benq gaming monitor measures 64x37.5x2.4cm, the latter at the edges. Its stand is in the form of an inverted ‘T’ with the front part being 35x7.5cm and the stroke being 13.5cm deep with the uplift being on the stroke. This raises the screen by 10cm from your desk or table. There is a good amount of back tilt and a little forward movement from the vertical. The viewable screen is 59x33.5cm and that gives the notional imperial diagonal measurement of 27inches.
Sometimes a ground based tripod is just not possible especially for those who need to capture both still and moving images as they move. So the solution could be to make your body the tripod especially if your camera is large and or heavy.
Two different products both designed to solve a problem. The first to give you power when your battery says no more and the second to let you increase the length of your arm or indeed to take a photo from somewhere remotely.
This is a trendy looking way to charge your latest ‘i’ device that uses Lightning. It is 2.5cm square and 10.5cm tall. It weights 84grams. Mine was matt black with a silver effect band forming part of the flip off lid. There is a 5cm lead in red emerging from a tad below the lid which is cleverly retained by the Lighting lead which in practice is only 4cm long meaning your device needs to be close.
A large SmartPhone running Android 4.42, it looks like many recent offerings from a range of companies it has two SIM slots so those who get an allowance for a work phone can save the problem of having to carry two phones around.
The Archos 52 'Platinum' measures 15x7.5x.7cm and weights 156grams. The viewable screen is 11.6x6.6cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement of 5.25inches. The screen resolution is 1280x720. It has a Quad Core Processor with 8GB of memory. As with almost all recent phones you have a front camera for those 'selfie' moments and a rear camera that has an LED flash and it takes 8MP images.
A 360degree speaker that comes with a woollen cover so for those who need everything to match you can purchase another coloured cover, in fact there is a voucher in the box to get one free when you register your product.
What was not in the box were any instructions but these days you just go to the website to get access to not only a user manual but video setup instructions and as it can be setup in several ways according to your device they may be required. I have no doubt there were instruction initially but this product was not new when it arrived with me. If you have an ‘i’ or MAC device there is a fool proof way of setup.
The IXUS range are the nearest thing to a point and shoot camera from Canon who are best known for their high end DSLR cameras used by the majority of professional photographers. This is small fits easily in a pocket and is very easy to use.
The Canon Ixus 170 compact digital camera measures 9.8x5.5x2cm when closed; the last figure can increase by up to 4cm when the lens is fully extended. It weights 138grams. My unit was metallic blue but they do other colours. Just because it is small does not mean it lacks quality in fact it can capture images up to 20MP and they are excellent. You have only to choose the resolution L, M1, M2, S or W.
A speaker and an amplifier in what looks like a very retro case. The modern touch is that apart from having two wired inputs it can also be used as a Bluetooth speaker. So what may initially look like a 40s or 50s radio is not that at all.
The GPO Westwood speaker measures 26x16.5x10cm, weighs 1832grams and comes with a 1.7metre mains lead ending with a small power brick. Mine was covered in a brown material with metal corners coated with varnish that make it look aged there is also a leather handle on top that also has metal connections again coated with varnish making the old look realistic. Both the front and back have a realistic cloth grill coating in a similar colour.
This panel will give almost all users a little bit more automatically and assuming you have a suitable graphics card/chip a great deal more. Out of the box using an HDMI cable I got 2048x1152 and once things are adjusted 3840x2160 is available.
It is 63x37x2.5cm the last figure at the edges. The viewable screen is 59.5x34cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 27inches. The telescopic arm can raise the landscape screen by 15cm from its lowest to its highest position, minimum 9cm from your desk and maximum 24cm above your desk. The display can be pivoted to be used in portrait mode.
Upgrading to Windows 10
Published in Software
on
29 Jul 2015
A few days before the 29th July I was send a USB with a late build of Windows 10. As with all major alterations I approached this with more than a little trepidation, below is the story of what happened on Monday 27th July 2015.
A four in one unit as it has fax as well as printing, scanning and copying ability. This is quite a sleek unit but as its black it is unlikely to pass the lounge police so having Wi-Fi as well as USB could be a benefit as it could sit behind the sofa.
The Canon Pixma MX535 measures 43x44x18cm with paper in the drop down input tray. For those wanting to print the odd page you have to remember to open the paper output tray at print time or you get an annoying message to remind you to do so. This would be no problem for most but when you see a lot of different unit some open automatically and some you need to do so manually.
Two items that each have several uses. First a Smart Clock that can be used to sync a smartphone and also double up as an alarm. Second something that fits in your wallet and that has so many tools that all have their separate uses.
It is small at 6x6x2.5cm and weights 70grams with its supplied two ‘AAA’ batteries inserted. I am sure all of us – of a certain age – had a small battery operated travel clock, in fact I still do and on my occasional journeys away it accompanies me on a belt and braces and safety pin basic as I hate to be late. This clock however is digital – no hands – and it takes its setting from your phone either Android or Apple.
While i devices battle it out for supremacy with Android there is another player in the field and that is Microsoft with Nokia to mention but one. This the a rather nice Windows phone here sent courtesy of Vodafone in the UK.
The Nokia Lumia 930 Windows based smart phone measues 13.5x7x.8cm and weights 165grams.My unit looks normal from the front with a not that reflective screen and matt silver looking edges, my back however was a very vibrant green but I am sure there are more sober colours available such as white or black or even orange. Switch on was a very respectable 22 seconds and switch off only three seconds. The viewable screen is 11x6.3cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 5inches.
Over the years satellite navigation has improved greatly, you can now find satellites when indoors, the information you get is really up to date and best of all even mobile speed and traffic light camera information is included.
This is the top of the range model of four recent ‘nuvi’ offerings launched by Garmin. While not as large as some ‘built in’ units I have travelled with for an add in unit it is large at 13.5x7.2cm viewable screen this gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 6inches. The actual unit size is 16.5x9.2x1.4cm and weights – without the attachments – 246grams.
There are a lot of different brands of security cameras about, some very high end, others aimed at the home user. They all have one thing in common wires. Here a truly wireless solution that means not only no drilling through doors but also the ability to move them about at will.
While I have seen several of these demonstrated most bore a higher price and while I did ask to see one it never materialised, so when this was offered to me I took the change to test it with a couple of recent mobile phones and appropriate content.
For anyone who is not sure VR stands for Virtual Reality and it is branded by Thumbs Up who I have reviewed several very good speakers from. Here this items settles on the video side to give you 3D from your standard phone in a near skull cap. Three 3cm wide elasticated strips are at either side and on top of your head they all join at an 8cm triangular patch at the back of your head which forms the virtual skull cap.
These earbuds are Quad-Driver earphones with phase-coherent crossover design is what it says on a very large box for a pair of earbuds. When you open the box the array of extras that come with the buds is the reason for the box being so large.
I have seen smaller boxes with headphones than this box to contain a set of high end earbuds, the box is 20x14x8cm. Most decent sets of earbuds have extra pairs of silicon buds, often in three sizes. These have two pairs of extra buds in four sizes. The extra-large size – fitted – was far too big for me and I think anyone who needed that size would have a very large ear canal. I used the supplied tool to swap to medium and then all was fine.
This is a fast and powerful Gaming Notebook yes the screen is not huge but it does display a huge screen resolution. When I first saw it I could not believe the clarity and sharpness which of course along with sound quality is what gamers demand.
This is the first notebook – of any size that I have seen – that has natively displayed 3200x1800. It is 32.5x23x2cm and the screen is 31x17.5cm. On first startup after entering the normal Windows required information a screen opens on the Desktop with a range of fifteen items that Aorus think you might need to adjust. This is part of SmartManager V3. This is a very powerful machine with an Intel i7 processor running at 2.5GHz.
On first look, this looks like any number of other recent panels, however looks deceive as it is flicker free after all we all only get one pair of eyes and just for good measure it is QHD which means it can display up to 2560x1440 resolution.
It is 33x57x1.5cm at the edges. It sits on a rectangular stand 21.5x18.5cm which raises it by between 6-15cm from whatever you are sitting it on. The unit can also rotate to be used in portrait mode and this is effortlessly accomplished with the telescopic arm that sits just within the depth of the stand. The viewable screen is 54x31cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 25inches.
A set of earbuds with a twist literally that enable you to increase or decrease the bass heard at a twist of the earbud housing, so could this be a first adjusting the sound frequency level while a song plays and going only to your ears.
The buds are 2cm long and 1cm across, the lead is flat and 1.23metres long it ends in a right angled gold plated 3.5mm plug. The left earbud has 15cm of lead before the inline control and then another 18cm before it joins the right earbud to form a single flat lead to the plug.
This is quite a small Bluetooth speaker that can also be connected via 3.5mm cable. Being small I initially thought that sound quality would suffer. I was wrong and I was very pleasantly surprised with the sounds in gave out.
Not only can this give good sound both indoors and out but it also has a bicycle mount and a rubber suction cup both which connect to it using a tripod screw set in its base. As I as compiling my figures for charge and discharge times I began to wonder if I had a different model as my figures were vastly different to the claims. As an example the claimed recharge time was 150 minutes from empty my unit took 100 minutes for a full recharge.
Forget about capturing video in HD how about 4K, yes this tiny unit captures nice quality 4K images on micro SD card and you can then play it back on a TV or panel in 4K and of course it can get absolutely stunning images.
It is 4.5cm tall and 4cm wide and deep, it weights 95grams. However this is without any of the range of fittings that it comes provided with. Before you start thinking that you might shoot an epic production with it the 4K mode it is at almost half the frame rate that you are used to with normal TV so not ideal for fast moving action but for slow panning of a landscape scene excellent. It can of course capture at lower quality, there are two 4K settings 15FPS and 12.5FPS, 2.
I visited the Withings stand at the Wearable Technology Show early in the year. You have already heard about their health watch, here something else that was on display at the show a camera to monitor your home but with an extra feature.
This is a French company that is perhaps best known for computers especially smaller offerings. Here as far as I know their first venture into weather prediction with a very comprehensive range of parts to give you accurate readings.
You get three modules that can connect to a range of devices. They are a ball shaped indoor monitor mounted on a stand, a half ball shape that attached to a wall or shed side and a probe shaped soil monitor. The indoor monitor needs mains power and the required items are supplied. The outdoor monitor runs of batteries as does the soil monitor. All three devices report to an App that you can download to either an Android or iOS device from the appropriate Store.
Certainly not the smallest external hard drive but still just about able to fit inside a jacket pocket. It comes with an integral short USB3 cable that is hard wired into the unit, its main selling point will be its rugged design so it will stand the odd knock or three.
It is like a small book even to having rounded corners at the spine side, the dimensions are 14x10x2cm and it weights 276grams which of course includes the ‘Integrated Flex Cable’ that emerges from the top left and is channelled along the top and right side a total of 14cm to the USB3 plug so that is the maximum distance you have between drive and target.
This is an Inkjet All In One offering but not the basic two cartridge offering as this has no less than x inks. So this has to be something to consider if the printing output is more important than basic mono or quick print output to you.
The Canon Pixma MG7550 measures 42x36x15cm. Add 14cm to the middle figure the depth when the automatically opening paper output tray is lowered. This is a six ink unit the quality is excellent and just for good measure a single mono page will print in only ten seconds from switch on which is exceptionally good for those wanting a single page. Installation on a windows machine was not quick at 19 minutes and it took 1.
By the Ghetto Blaster standards when they were popular this is small, but it is powerful and not only has it an FM radio but also Bluetooth, ability to play SD Cards and USB sticks and has impressive sounds and speakers built in.
The actual name on the box is ‘groov-e wireless portable soundblaster’. It is 38x15x12cm. There are two forward facing 3inch speakers at either end and two 2½ passive radiators on each end. The central ara between the speakers has all the controls and most of the connections. The exceptions are the mini USB power input, headphone out, auxiliary in and USB for charging other devices that are in a line along the back all inset below an overhang.
These noise cancelling earbuds from Creative start with a puzzle, how do you get them out of the very solid packaging, the answer lies in a small sheet that lives inside the packaging. Having spent a while solving the puzzle the result was worth the wait.
They are of the ear stuff type which as they are noise reducing they have to be, they come with three sizes of silicon plugs that should fit anyone from an older child upwards. A small 13 language manual should get most up and running as the most important facts are in diagram form, luckily for me the first language was English.
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