Publication History For : Paul Smart
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A product I have used since its very early days when it was ‘shareware’ it was purchased a good while ago by Corel who do what they do to improve and enhance its features, then they add lots of extras so this basic product is now anything but basic.
Like most products this has a lot of extra features so while the 442MB of download is not large this then swells and while the initial install took around 16minutes you may still find that some features need extra time. These days most packages have lots of tutorials and I suggest you give yourself time to watch them just to see exactly what some of the effects can do.
Another useful gadget from those clever people In Hong Kong, this time a padlock that can truly only be opened by you because it has no key and can only be opened by your finger so be it a box, a door or anything else the contents inside are yours alone.
Things like SmartPhones or Notebooks have had the security from Finger scans for a while now you can protect bigger things from your kids or others and you cannot lose the key as it is controlled by your finger. The hasp is .5cm so quite substantial, the lock itself is 4.6x4.6x1.5cm and the total weight is 126grams. Setting up the padlock is fully described in the instructions. You become the Administrator.
Recently a range of small home security cameras have been received to review. The trend is for them to be Wi-Fi operated so requiring where you place them just needs to be within the reach of a power point, this is one such device.
D-Link describes this as their smallest camera it is round at 3.5cm and 9cm tall. The face has no less than five things on the front, first Infra-Red illumination, below this the microphone, next in the centre of this column the lens, next light sensors that determine if it will show images in colour or infra-red and finally status LED it colours and what they determine are shown on the online manual. The rear has connection for the supplied Micro USB to USB lead.
The latest Bluetooth earbuds to cross my desk arrived close to same time as a couple of recent SmartPhones neither of which have a standard 3.5mm socket so ideal to test these earbuds with so they have had a thorough work out.
From one bud to the other is 54cm as these are the type of earbud that have a cord connection between the buds. This enables you to link them behind or in front of your neck according to your preference. There is a tiny 1cm button in the lead that enables those with small necks to get any excess lead out of the way. A 4.5x1x.6cm box sits 10cm down from one bud that allows you to make music choices, answer phone calls etc.
Passwords!!!
Published in Software
on
25 Jan 2019
Passwords are a pain, good passwords are a greater pain, but no password or one that is easily cracked are the greatest pain of all. Certainly you should never use words such as names and try not to repeat passwords however tempting.
In relation to another vacuum – many years ago – its founder said ‘so easy even a man can use it’ he was a man, so am I, his statement is also true of this offering from Philips. Literally you clip the base to the tube and the tube to the motor and storage container and switch on and use it. No screws and because each section fits only one way it’s that easy.
It can of course be used without the tube so you can vacuum things other than the floor – note I said floor – as it goes without changes required between long rugs to carpet to solid floors. So upholstery, curtains and even picture rails can all be cleaned. At its full size it is 114cm tall, the motor/storage container at the top is a maximum of 23cm from back to front and 12cm wide. The connecting tube is 4cm across and the cleaning shoe is 25cm across and 13cm deep.
To me anyway this is a totally new Chinese phone company, I first heard of them a few weeks ago when I received an invite at short notice to their new UK store at Westfield shopping centre, which due to conflicts I could not make, however I was sent their latest phone the Mi 8 Lite. Looking at their website sees they are far more than just a phone company as they are big – like the world’s fourth largest - in Internet, Connected Homes and Software.
On first look this looks like any of a recent breed of quality mobile phones, however it has plenty to offer. It is 15.5x7.4x.7cm; the diagonal imperial screen measurement is 6.26 inches. The screen is 1080x2280. It weights 171grams. It runs Android 8.1 (the last but one version) with a skin of MIUI which unlike certain other skins does not seem to affect performance. The processor is an Oca-core Max 2.2GHz. It comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB of Internal storage and around 50GB is available.
Power over Wi-Fi, range extenders and Wi-Fi Extenders are all ways to allow you to get a signal where you may not be able to do so normally, here an offering from Devolo called Magic 2 to allow places that otherwise would need a carrier pigeon to get information in or out help to allow you to stay in touch. Be it loft or basement you can now have connection.
The Devolo Magic 2 Whole Home Wi-Fi Kit consists of three units which each connect to a mains outlet. First the master that needs to be placed near your Modem it is 13x6.5x5cm and has an Ethernet port on the top of the unit and a 13amp plug on the face so whatever was in that socket before you plugged in the Devolo Magic LAN can still be inserted without affecting the Devolo.
Not everyone can afford all the bells and whistles available from top of the range panels, so here a basic offering that still offers a good sharp image and it is of course flicker free to give an excellent panel available at a budget price.
The AOC 27E1H 27inch Monitor measures 62x37x1.5cm and it sits on a stand that is 20cm square that raises the screen by 8cm from your desk. It has a lot more back tilt than most other such offerings at close to 20 degrees and amazingly offers nearly half that of forward tilt. The viewable screen is 59x33.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 27inches. The display is 1920x1080. This is described as a ‘Business’ Monitor.
A streaming service for more than just music as you listen via a small box and either input to your TV or from the 3.5mm port on the back of the box to external speakers, it is also possible to listen via a soundbar connected to your TV.
The box is either red, blue or black it is 13x13x2.5cm it has an on/off button on its top and a line of five connections under a small overhang at the back. These are 3.5mm socket for external speakers, USB, Ethernet, HDMI for connection to the TV and power input. In the box you also get a 17.5cm long wand/microphone/controller that is 3x3cm and also the same colour to match the box, don’t lost this as the box relies on it to function.
While a 1TB hard drive for a decent desktop machine is now the norm larger drives are available and as the size of the machine gets smaller a second drive bay gets rarer so having multiple partitions may be the way to go with a single larger drive. However with Windows making the formatting of anything over 2TB more difficult this 8TB offering may be more for those with more specialised uses.
While it is not impossible to format this as a single Windows drive the will require more knowledge than most have to do so. In fairness would you want such a large single drive anyway especially if it was the boot drive. It is most likely to end up in a NAS unit where even this huge capacity can soon be swallowed up by backups and the like. The drive measures 14.7x10.2x2.6cm which normally gets called a drive to fit into a 3.
Early in 2018 One Plus 6 had a worldwide launch for their flagship new phone in the Olympic Park in Stratford, here a phone from OnePlus 6 with an added ‘T’ that has a lot of the features but at around half the price.
The OnePlus 6T measures 15.5x7x.7cm and weighs 186grams. The viewable screen is 14.7x6.8cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of over 6.4inches. The right side has a slider switch which goes between silent, vibrate and ring and this is far easier than swapping things in settings. Also on the right side is the on/off button with three second switch off and fourteen second switch on. The base has USB ‘C’ port for both charging and connection of an On The Go device.
One of the latest batch of notebooks to come on the market from Acer and not only is it powerful but has the absolutely latest version of Windows 10 that is V1809. Another of the recent inclusions is just USB ‘C’ ports on the unit. However for those that still need standard USB2 and USB3 an adapter unit is supplied in the box to attach.
The Acer Swift 7 measures 32.5x23.5x.7cm and weighs 1185grams, so very thin and light as the width was at the thickest point at the back at the front it is only .5cm thick at the edge. I normally spend quite a long time upgrading to the current version of Windows and here this was not needed as it is even more recent than my PC as this has V1809.
I am sure we all have all the devices – and more – available as single tools, however in this small multi tool offering, but when you need them can they be instantly located. You are more likely to find them if located on your keyring and this comes with such a ring attached.
The tool comes in a fabric case with the keyring attached to the ‘multi tool’ via a short 3cm chain, this enables the tool to be in the case rather than rubbing a hole in your pocket as it would without the case. The total weight with the case is 81grams. The multi tool is when folded in on itself is 8.5x3x1.5cm and as it fits snugly in the case that has a Velcro flap, that is the overall dimension as well.
A visit to a barber between Liverpool Street and Old Street for a totally new brand to me had a presentation for a 99 year old company found me leaving after a very pleasant haircut from a barber at a shop called Ruffians and with a sample of the WAHL hair trimmer to try out in my own home, and before you ask the barber did use one for part of the haircut.
To give it the full name on the box it’s the Aqua Blade Wet/Dry Stubble & Beard Trimmer. It weighs 150 grams and is 16cm from base to tip 4cm wide near the head and 3cm deep at the same point. 8cm up from the base is the single on/off button. Just below this is an LED, the two pin power lead plugs into the back 2cm up from the base. The unit is matt black with silver coloured trim curving up from the front to the sides starting just below the on/off button.
A Wi-Fi security camera from Time2, this is an internal offering but I see this range of releases also has an external offering that I shall ask to look at when this one returns home. So what can this camera offer to help secure your home?
The camera is 9.5cm tall, 5.5cm wide and 5cm back to front. There is just one visible connection in the rear of the back of the unit a supplied micro USB cable. Setup is just a matter of downloading an App from either the iOS or Android store and following the instructions, there is a small Start Up Guide supplied but it just duplicates the instructions in the App.
The Ultimate Carryall, Elite Backpack, and now it’s actual name Solo New York and as we all know everything in New York is big and this backpack is no exception, perhaps so good they named it three times is slight overkill but your laptop and much more will all fit inside.
It is 52cm from base to the carry handle on the top. It is 30cm wide all the way from bottom to top and 16cm deep at the base and up to 14cm deep at the top. The back has a pair of 7cm wide shoulder straps which have subsidiary straps for width and depth towards the base so whatever your size it can fit snugly to your back. The outside closest to your back is padded and pimpled for breathability.
Occasionally I get the chance to stay in what is called a four - or even - five star hotel for a night and quite often I am left amazed as to how far standards have dropped, for instance finding a stained ironing board and iron in the wardrobe so when the opportunity to review a small traveling iron came up I said yes please.
Don’t get me wrong I am certainly not a snob and in normal circumstances only handkerchiefs and the occasional shirt get ironed but if one is in a top hotel you probably need to look your best for a dinner or other such event. This is a light unit at only 441grams (less than one pound in total weight) in the 16.5x15.5x5cm box. There is also a drawstring bag if you prefer to take it in that way. The iron itself is 12x7x2.
A recent visit to what used to be a very run down area near Paddington found lots of new offices off a busy main road with what I assume was a small river or canal running through all very upmarket. My meeting was with a top man from Kaspersky Labs to chat about the latest threats that affect us all even if all we have is a PC or mobile phone.
While it has ‘Cloud’ in the name this need not be a worry as this is Kaspersky Total Security with a plus. The plus is all the Smart Home devices like Alexa are handled as well as the more obvious items that you have input into like a PC, Notebook or Phone. My copy was what Kaspersky call a Family offering which covers up to twenty devices. This is a slightly different context in that you can allow others to have secure protection but they never get to see anything of yours.
A trip to London’s Excel saw the world launch along with about 2000 others from around the planet of the latest flagship phone from Huawei, the Mate20 Pro. Apart from being that bit faster, larger screen and better featured this offered new features including AI effects as well as having no less than three Leica cameras in a square section on its rear.
The Huawei Mate20 Pro measures 15.5x7x.7cm and weighs 189grams. My unit was mirror black but other colours are available. AI which stands for artificial intelligence is a real buzz word these days and in a demonstration I saw a toy stuffed panda come to life and dance on stage with a real person via this phone. So how was that possible? The latest Kirin 980 processor and the triple lenses of the inbuilt Leica camera, plus a lot of skill.
Not just another PowerBank but one with enough power to charge a mid-sized Notebook or Tablet so whatever the length of time it can go without slurping up mains power can now be at least doubled by the addition of this offering from Cygnett.
The Cygnett PowerBank ChargeUp Pro 20K measures 17x10x1.5cm and weights 462 grams (a tad over one pound in weight), this is considerably heavier than your average mobile phone PowerBank but this offering from Cygnett offers an amazing 20000mAh capacity. Mine was a duck egg blue in colour apart from the last 1.5cm at the front end that is shiny black. The only other piece of hardware in the box is a short 15cm USB ‘C’ to USB lead.
These are just gels that fit into the ear there are no wires or brace the Bluetooth connection is direct from the back of the bud to the SmartPhone. Unlike some other devices you can use just one bud should you wish so ideal if you have a hearing aid in the other ear.
Each bud weighs only 6grams. Rather than have a USB lead to clip into the bud the USB connection is to a 57gram case that is also a second battery so if the buds run out of power just place them in the case to recharge even if you are nowhere near external power. So you could wear the buds on your journey to work, place them in the case and they are ready to wear recharged from the case on your journey home. The case is 6x6x3cm and slips easily into a pocket, purse or bag.
This water bottle charges colour according to the temperature of either the internal contents or the external air temperature. While this on the face of it is little more than a gimmick it could possibly have other uses that may be more useful.
My bottle is what is described as peach in colour and even holding it will change that to white, if you fill it with a liquid then you know how much is in it because that’s the level that will be white, clever and perhaps more useful than I stated in my first comment. Reading the information on the link at the end the unit – you purchase – will come with a sleeve that was not sent with my sample and by the launch time there could well be more colours available.
This is the size of a small dogs and is in fact exactly that with tweeters built into the dogs glasses and the main speakers the back of its head, it has a pair of ears a couple of LEDs at the start of the front of the neck and there this wireless speaker ends.
It is 9cm tall and 9cm wide and weighs 129grams. While there is a small tripod screw in its base it sits on a table or desk and outputs whatever music you send it from your phone or other Bluetooth device. Although it has no 3.5mm socket you can also output sounds using the special double ended micro USB charge lead using the Y end that has both a standard USB lead and a 3.5mm lead, this of course needs to be attached to the rear charge point at the back of the dog’s neck.
A recent distributor event in London saw me get access to several brands new to me one of these was a firm with a range called Kitsound and I left with a pair of Active Noise Cancelling headphones that can be wired or Wireless.
In the box are the on/over ear headphones, a 1metre 3.5mm to 3.5mm lead, a 75cm USB ‘C’ to USB lead for charging, an airplane style connector plug and a drawstring bag to keep everything in when travelling. There was also an eight sided User Manual which at 21x14.5cm was printed single language in a font at a readable size even for those of us with less than perfect sight, others should follow suit.
I am a projector virgin or rather I was until this solid battery offering arrived a few weeks ago. It came with no instructions, it had a power adapter and an HDMI lead so I plugged it into my PC and pressed the power button and after a few seconds I was looking at my Windows desktop. To be fair I had seen lots of other projectors but only as a recipient of another person’s presentation.
This Optoma LV130 LED Projector measures 12.5x10.5x3.5cm and weighs 393grams. It can be placed anywhere standing on its four tiny rubber feet or mounted on a tripod using the tripod screw in the centre of the base. The rear has a line of connections, 3.5mm socket for headphones, HDMI socket (this can also be an MHL socket) USB which can charge at 1A and DC connection. Finally an on/off button with red and green LED’s above it.
Even if like me your daily shave is with an electric or battery razor there is nothing like a wet shave and even though a lot of recent electronic offerings are ‘wet or dry’ the scrape – for want of a better word – of a wet razor is a pleasure. My razor of choice for such a task uses the five blades on offer from Gillette here an offering that will make a perfect gift at a low price.
The Fusion offerings have five blades inline, and for those places like just under your nose another single blade on the other side of the shaving head. To give this gift pack its full name it’s Gillette (Limited Edition) Fusion 5 ProGlide. In the box is the razor 15cm long from base to tip and a stand. 5.5cm down from the head is a rubberised area of just less than 4cm for your thumb with the 6cm below that in chrome.
A lot of devices say ‘fast charge’ however fast charge will never be achieved by plugging the device into a USB port on a PC or even a wall socket unless you have a special plug capable of getting more power to your device which means higher power.
A lot of the figures given with this device are for iOS offerings but more Android devices are now allowing power to be transferred faster and even if your current device does not yet offer it with this plug and lead as supplied by Cygnett you are future proofing. I recently attended a mobile phone launch where the presenter talks about wireless charging and then without pausing mentioned that X% of charge was achievable in Y minutes.
This is a flagship camera for Olympus and is often sold body only. I was sent the unit with a 12-40mm lens. It arrived at a time when I had several events at iconic place, the OXO tower, the Shard and perhaps the most poignant the 100 years from the end of the First World War at the Imperial War Museum which is currently the home of the Ceramic poppies.
The Olympus E-M1 Mark II weighs 1026 grams with the provided substantial neck strap attached. The camera is 13x8.5cm without any flash attached to the shoe. The depth with the provided lens attached is between 15 and 18cm. An A5 book is over 200 pages but sadly this is a ‘basic’ manual so only nine of its pages are in English the rest are in 27 other languages. Let’s start with the 6.4x4.2cm TFT screen on the back it can be rotated through 180 degrees to protect it.
While vegetarianism and veganism and both becoming more popular I am of an age when a Sunday Roast is still my meal of choice. However everyone is more safety conscious and while eating pork pink is acceptable meat does need proper cooking and the larger the joint the more important it is that it is properly heated through hence a meat thermometer is required, even in the home, especially if the meat has previously been frozen.
While I have used several other meat thermometers this is the neatest rather like a small good quality biro in size. It is 13cm long and only .5cm around, it weighs only 10 grams. The difference between this probe and all others I have used is that it stays in the meat during cooking which means you never need to open the oven to check the meats temperature. It sends signals via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to an Android or iOS App.
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