Publication History For : Paul Smart
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Are their occasions when your audio system is on but for whatever reason you are in another room, unless you have a system from a recent vintage it will not have Bluetooth so their choice is either turn it up very loud – and annoy the neighbours – or do without. Now there is a choice with this little dongle from Brando that allows you to transmit to Bluetooth headphones.
It can also work in the reverse direction so a Bluetooth enabled device can stream to your quality speakers in your audio system, truly a two in one device and unusually for Brando the Kings of everything USB no USB charging is involved, however there is a USB on one end of the dongle. So to keep things simple I shall call receiving mode ‘RX’ and transmitting mode ‘TX’.
External hard drives used to be large and also require external power now not only are they powered by the USB lead they are also very capacious and often far larger than the hard disc of the PC that they are often connected to.
The drive is 11x7.7x1.7cm and weights 216grams with the supplied 40cm long USB3 attached. This will add another 2cm to the 11cm length of the unit. If you do not have full size USB ports and only USB ‘C’ you have not been forgotten as a USB ‘C’ to USB adapter has been supplied. This fits into your USB ‘C’ port and sticks out 3.2cm to give you a USB3 port. The total measurements of the adapter are 4x2.2x1.1cm.
Cygnett are an Australian company – now with a base in the UK - and they have been around for a number of years, they tend to concentrate on things that allow other devices to work more efficiently and this device is one of those to let you charge your phone more quickly, while some phone companies produce their own devices to do this, those tend to be device specific.
It is 14x6.5x2cm and weighs 246 grams. The total capacity is 10,000mAh. This device has the advantage of being able to charge both wirelessly - for those items that accept wireless charge – and via the USB ports on the unit. There is yet another plus for this unit over others that give only vague indications of the amount of charge by LED lights this has a two figure number IE 84 to state the current percentage of power showing on the top front edge of the unit.
Having the ability to display four screens at once is possible for all users of this panel and while technically you could do the same manually with a 1920x1080 display I am not sure how long most people’s eyes would last and indeed how much you could see with it. Here however once used to the AOC software moving things is a breeze.
This AOC LED monitor has a screen that measures 66x40x1.5cm. This gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 28inches. It has a ‘V’ shaped stand 43cm wide at the front and 9cm wide at the back, the stand raises the screen between 3 and 16cm from your desk. Looking at the rear of the panel has a thicker area in a smaller rectangle with a four port USB3 hub on the right side and all the connections on the underside which makes then easier to access.
Samsung is one of the largest brands and certainly one of the companies that bring new things to the market. Here a slim sleek and powerful offering that will do everything you want and never look out of place even in a boardroom.
While I am aware that the Samsung range is rolling out ‘V10’ of some of its offerings a while after the launch is often a good time to invest or buy as any slight problems at the time of launch will have been sorted and indeed the amount needed to purchase could be a little less. It is 16x7.5x.7cm and it weighs 201grams. The screen resolution is 2960x1440. There are four colours available mine was Ocean Blue. The viewable screen is 14.5x7.
Being able to make a coffee shop coffee at home or in the office needs a machine that can grind beans and dispense the coffee and if a Latte is your choice then a device that can froth with steam from fresh milk this offering from Melitta does both.
The Melitta CaffeO measures 47cm deep, 32cm tall and 20cm wide, these are maximum dimensions. Unlike a lot of home coffee machines here there are only a few controls, these are for the number of cups – one or two – the size of the cup 30ml to 220ml, the strength of the brew and addition of milk for a Latte. When you unpack the box you only need to find a place for the machine – as the hard wired power lead is only one metre long – within a metre of a power point.
Last year Dell showed their new rugged range in London and as spring dawns one of their offerings arrives for me to give it the once over. Of course it will be in my office and the around surroundings and not as the early sample was in far flung places with very inhospitable conditions when things like battery life were truly life challenging.
It is 34.5x28x5cm and weighs 2694 grams as supplied to me. Unlike most normal notebooks the figures here need some explanation. The width is to the edge of the padding, the depth is to the extent of the non-retractable handle and the width includes the fairly substantial feet. The viewable screen is 30.5x17.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 13.8inches. The default screen resolution is 1920x1080 at 150%. It has an Intel Core i5 running at 1.
Another new phone company to the UK, freak UK weather and a taxi drivers protest caused gridlock in the part of London where the launch was due to take place so my first contact was when their latest offering the RX17 Pro arrived on my desk. So all I know is what I discovered during my testing as well as what is shown on the OPPO website.
The Oppo RX17 measures 15.5x7.4x.8cm and weighs 183grams. Going around the outside has the on/off button on the right side, the base has USB ‘C’ socket for charging as well as the SIM’s entry point, the USB socket can also be used for the supplied headset to listen to music. Also in this very congested area is a pin hole microphone as well as the speaker. The left side has the volume up and down buttons. The top is clear.
Music plays a big part in my life and while earbuds may help pass the time on a journey a decent set of headphones or as here a 2.1 speaker system in the home gives a far more rounded sound and may even take you to the performance as laid down by the musicians. My favourite Genre is Jazz and then small groups and a live performance.
This is a small 2.1 system as it has a sub-woofer to enhance the base and a pair of speakers for the rest of the sound range. While I have a pair of quality – large – speakers these days you do not need huge units and nor do they need to be expensive these at the time of writing are only 80 Euros (around £70). The sub-woofer is a virtual cube at 26cm. The speakers are 18x11x11cm so easily fit on a shelf or window sill. The two speakers have a single hard wired lead of 1.
If like me you are old enough to remember the original Ghetto Blaster it was large and you needed strong shoulders to walk it around, it did not have that many features apart from being very loud. This unit is very different.
Yes it is heavy at over 9 kilos (that more than 20lbs) it can be loud should you wish/want but it has four quality speakers and separate bass and treble controls as well as a balance control. It has radio – both FM and DAB – cassette, CD, it can also play from USB stick. It has Aux and Microphone inputs and also has the ability to record both to cassette and also to USB stick. It can be run via mains or battery power, there is a solid internally rechargeable battery provided.
Deezer is one of the most popular streaming services, however often people want to stream music when they are not at home on their Wi-Fi, and even if mobile data is available – it certainly is not on most tube lines – it is an extra cost. One solution is to save music when you stream on your Wi-Fi and then replay it when out and about, and with Deezer this is an option.
While you can only download for later playback with a ‘paid subscription’ you can investigate if your Genre of music is well catered for with a free trial and one of the best places to start is with one of the range of pre-selected playlists, find a tune by an artist that you like and then explore the whole CD to check if other tracks please you. For a while I have been tracking ‘Deezer Desktop’ as its very long BETA period has been evolving.
Subscription Vs Ownership
Published in Software
on
20 Mar 2019
Some years ago Microsoft vastly reduced offering the chance to own certain software notably their flagship Office product in favour of a subscription model where you continue to pay every year/month to continue using the product.
A cylindrical speaker with speakers on the side and top, it should withstand some water as getting in to charge it or insert a 3.5mm lead (if not using Bluetooth) is far from easy, to say the base is a tight fit is quite an understatement.
It is 14cm tall and circular at 7cm. At the top of the back of my blue unit is an orange loop so you could walk along with it over a finger – it weighs 477 grams – below this in orange is a large ‘O’ then a raised rib and below this a large ‘X’. I have just described all the controls and as it can do all the normal things like answer phone calls move forward or back a track etc. certain combinations need to be followed.
A powerful Windows 10 notebook for those who still need all the connections yes it even has Ethernet. So suitable for both work and dare I say the word PLAY. This is a solidly constructed offering that may even reduce the need for so many visits to the gym.
The Acer Nitro 5 measures 39x26x2.4cm and weighs 2.454 kilos. Going around the outside finds Kensington Lock Port, Ethernet, USB ‘C’, HDMI out, USB 3.1 and SD Card socket all on the left side. The front is clear apart from speakers at each of the chamfered corners. The right side has headphones out, two USB2 ports, two LEDs and finally DC input. The back like the front is clear apart from large heat outputs. The base has four structured rubber feet to also allow expulsion of heat.
A large curved panel is often the solution that may just get a panel to fit a smaller space as the curve allows slightly more to be shown in a smaller desk area. First however your eyes need to discount the fact that the curve is there.
It is 71x42x1.5cm, the inverted ‘V’ shaped stand has arms of 38cm and the open area at the front is 44cm across, the stand raises the panel 11cm from your desk. The weight including stand is just over 7kilos. The amount the centre of the screen differs from the edges is 3.5cm. The viewable screen when using the diagonal imperial measurement is 31.5inches in 16:9 ratio.
Certainly not ‘just another new phone’ this offering is an ‘Adventure’ offering badged Land Rover. While you could use this on your daily commute it would not be getting anywhere near what this off road offering has to offer you.
To call this an off road phone is probably the simplest thing to call it, it is packed with extra features for those who go orienteering, are geocaches and as it has GPS those who go to remote places. It is 15x7.2x1.2cm without the extra pack that magnetically attached to the back, that pack only increases the last figure the width. The front has a huge 4.8x.7cm speaker near the base that packs a good punch of volume. The viewable screen is 12x6.
littleBits link with other littleBits to become bigger bits and for anyone ‘8 Years Plus’ a simple solution to make answers to other problems, ‘start out with a voice activated robotic hand and after that the only limit is your imagination’.
On opening the box you see a total of fourteen pieces as well as various cardboard pieces that can be connected together to form various items in the base Inventors Kit. Also in the box is a small ‘Base Inventors Kit’ Instructions Start Here booklet that tells you how to create a a basic circuit to create a buzzer to get the basic inventor going. After this you download the Littlebits App from either the Android or Apple store to your Smartphone and after that the sky is the limit.
When walking through Waterloo station I noticed lots of adverts for a new razor that I have heard nothing about, there was even a pop up barbers salon where willing victims were receiving a shave, so I contacted their PR company and I received a razor and a canister of their new shaving foam so that I could try it myself and then tell you all about it.
My regular wet shave is the five blades Fusion offering from Gillette. This offering has two blades. Whereas the Fusion has a head of five closely spaced blades this head takes as much space over two blades, before and after contact with each blade your face is lubricated. The whole unit is 14cm long, 4cm wide at the head which is 1.7cm and my own Fusion head is only 1.5cm.
This is a compact panel that will turn your PC into a touch PC. Windows 10 was always marketed with the strap line of ‘made for touch’ and while a good number of notebooks have touch built in a far smaller number of Desktop offerings have that ability supplied as standard.
It is 54x31.5x2cm and has three sides of a rectangle metal stand that is 35cm wide at the base and the arms are 20cm long and fit into the rear of the panel so within reason you can decide the amount of back tilt for the panel. The external connections are all in one line that resides on an overhang around 7cm up from the base. 3.5mm in and 3.5mm out, HDMI, DisplayPort and HDMI as well as DC input. To make this a touch panel needs USB and there is an upstream port as well as two USB3 ports.
Having recently told you about another SmartPhone from this company, here – their latest – has landed on my desk. Anything designed by Phillipe Starck is always eye catching; an early DAB radio was his work and still sits on my bedside table in daily use.
It is 15.5x7.5x.7cm and weighs 219grams. The viewable screen is 14.7x6.8cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement of 6.39inches. When you switch on you immediately notice the lack of a notch at the top of the screen as the front facing camera is behind the screen. Going around the outside has the volume rocker and on/off button on the right side. The base has USB ‘C’ connection. The left side has a dedicated Google button and insertion point for your Nano SIMs.
While a proportion of the latest SmartPhones have USB ‘C’ connections there are still a good number of new phones arriving with Micro USB connectors so this latest device to cross my desk from SanDisk still has a place for lots of people.
It is a 16GB USB memory stick and at the other end the same memory shared for a Micro USB port found on SmartPhones. It fits easily on any key ring so data can come with you. It is only 3cm long and 1.5cm wide and .7.5cm thick with a weight of less than 6 grams. The middle has a metal clip that is 3mm wider than the casing which allows it to be added to a keyring.
A 34inch curved panel is large and probably larger than most TV’s of a couple of years ago. However the 3440x1440 display makes it a joy to look at. It supports two screens in side by side display using PeP or the second screen top right with PiP.
It is 81x37cm, its ‘V’ shaped stand is 50x30cm and the minimum raise from the desk is 10cm with the maximum being 26cm. The amount of curve means that the centre is 4cm behind the outsides. Looking at it in full screen mode is actually 21:9 ratio which seems to match a lot of recent cinema creations. So even normal 4K on a single screen has borders either side. I connected both my own PC and the recently reviewed Acer 5000 Predator and used PeP to give crystal clear output from both.
It is not often that I review the same phone twice; however a lot has changed in this offering since my initial review last May. So it’s probably best to call this a new phone that just happens to have the same name as an earlier version.
It is 15.5x7.5x.8cm and weighs 159grams. The viewable screen has the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement of 6.21 inches. The screen display is 2340x1080 which is better than a standard PC screen. The screen is 19.5:9 and the phone is available in Black or two shades of Blue called Sapphire and Aurora, mine was the last mentioned. It comes with the latest version of Android which is 9 and has an overlay EMUI which is also version 9.
While it is not the first toothbrush that uses the airwaves to store brushing results that has resided in my bathroom it is the first such device intended for adults. It comes from a company whose main lines are in the connected home.
Setup should be just turning Bluetooth in your phone on after installing the App from either the iOS or Android store. Once you have created an account it scans for devices and once ‘bound’ your cleaning regime should be just a matter of checking that you are brushing correctly and while the length of time you brush is important the firmness - or lack of – is also stored. There are three modes (speeds) of brush action.
Tea used to be a very expensive substance, and a couple of centuries ago was always kept under lock and key and mixed at the table by the lady of the house, normally a mixture of green and black teas. Then half way through the last century the tea bag was invented. Even today there are still a minority who prefer leaf tea and here a device that allows leaf tea mixed in the cup with the convenience of a tea bag.
Imagine a take away coffee cup with lid and then shrink it down. The lid is rubber helping it to float and the sides and base are metal with thousands of tiny holes – like pine holes – and you have the Magisso Lippa floating tea infuser. It is 6cm tall, circular 3cm across at the base and 4.5cm across at the top. Unlike a tea bag this will stay upright with the silicon rubber top remaining on the top.
This is an Android phone produced by Google. It is not a cheap phone as the Google Pixel brand only seems to do quality offerings and it is also no surprise to me that is was one of the first to get Android 9 as its operating system.
The Pixel 3 XL from Google measures 15.6x7.6x.7cm and weighs 137grams, although it is shiny black apart from the majority of the back – a light grey – it seems to repel finger marks quite well. I note that a while colour is also available. The left side has the on/off button and then the volume rocker. The base has USB ‘C’ connection for charging and connection of an OTG device or the headphones via the USB ‘C’.
First a big thank you to Cello for extending the loan of their recently reviewed TV that has enabled both this and the other 4K box recently reviewed so as to get the best from anything with ‘4K’ in the name is something that will display ‘4K’.
When the Fire TV stick first appeared it was quite naturally for HD TV’s now as the number of 4K enabled TV’s have ‘increased by 40%’ in the last year Fire have joined the party and hence a Fire TV stick that works in 4K. The stick is 10x3x1.5cm and because this is ‘oversize’ you will almost certainly need to connect the small 12cm long extender unit to get you clear of other HDMI connections at the back of your TV or panel.
The first thing that encouraged me to test out this security device is that it only costs £19.99 yes the decimal point is in the correct place. So while it is on sale from a company that make their money from Insurance but at that price for a retail purchase it must be a no brainer. If you then go on to get discounted home insurance that’s another win.
This is not a cheap no frills offering in fact it offers more than other cameras recently reviewed which cost a great deal more. Now available for all without their insurance for a little more. This camera offers Full HD 1080p images and video, a lot of others only offer 720p. In my tests the infra-red night vision was excellent and in good daylight it automatically gives colour however at this time of year there is not much of that, room lighting also gives a good colour image.
If you know what Amazon Alexa can do then this Hub from Google goes one stage further. It is a 7inch Landscape touch Tablet with the extended back being the speaker to give excellent sound and it sits like a triangular object.
A small amount of documentation that came with the unit led to link my Nest camera to the unit at first I could find no way to get it to give the cameras live view but the moment I said ‘Hey Google show Nest Camera’ I got the live feed shown by my camera, I realised that this device does really learn and as it currently understands 444 Apps….
This is one of the Predator gaming range, most of which are big heavy powerful notebooks, this is slightly different in that it is a big heavy Tower system, it has a rather unusual configuration of external connections in the supplied unit.
It is 56cm tall, 52cm deep and 22cm wide. The front has a couple of blue LED lines as well as the on/off button and an optical (DVD) drive. The front of the top of the unit has a pair of USB3.1 ports, another USB3.1 and a USB ‘C’. The rear has a pair of USB2 ports, a line of four USB3.1 ports, a pair of USB2 ports and an Ethernet port. Six audio ports next taking two of the eight expansion bays two Display Port sockets, one HDMI socket and a further Display Port.
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