Publication History For : Paul Smart
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This item can help you discover why you electricity bill is so high. If you have a Smart Metre all it tells you is how much you are using and how much you have spent. It does not tell you what item is using what, this plug from TAPO will tell you what is using what over a given time period.
It is no bigger than most plugs so can fit in beside others on a dual socket or gang lead. It is a little taller as the plug from whatever you want to find out the hourly or daily cost from fits onto its back. There is an LED it shows green once linked and green and orange towards the rear of its top when being setup. You may need access to its left side so on a dual socket plug it into the left one so you are able to complete its setup.
This is an Android Tablet from HONOR. On initial setup it offers to transfer Apps from your phone so that the transition allows most of your Apps to work seamlessly and without having to do an additional download.
The Honor Pad X9 has a viewable screen area of 26x16cm - 11.5inch display - and its overall weight is light enough to carry around. The left side has ventilation outputs, the base has speaker outputs 2cm in from each edge, the right side has ventilation outputs as well as a single USB 'C' output in between, the top has volume rocker and on/off button towards the left. Finally the back has an AI camera towards the top right and two downward facing speakers. The overall size is 26.5x16.5x.
This item can be played with by children as soon as they can crawl, the shapes and colours will fascinate and then as they progress they can progress to the art of building designs. This set consists of 120 magnetic tiles a bit like a stained glass windows for the older child to create a masterpiece of design that does not have to be flat.
The weight of the individual pieces vary from 18 to 34cm according to their size and shape. There are eight different colours all of which are pastel to make the whole range of colours. There are seven different shapes. Even though they are far too big for a young child to eat I see the box says they are 'food grade non toxic'. The actual age stated on the box is 3+. It is by no no means a cheap item but the items mentioned above encourage young learning while they play.
First a pair of cheese knives that are at home when together. Second a card game based on the BBC TV Series The Traitors. Neither are that heavy so will be easy for anyone to post.
These knives are rather different and although sold as a pair they are for different types of cheese, the solid blade for hard cheese and the patterned blade for use with softer type cheeses. Each knife is just under 14cm long with 6.5cm of that being the handle. When together the blade is facing inwards towards the other knife. When apart the cutting part of the knife is a curve. The oblong top part forms a face when together and in that position there is no danger to anyone.
There are several versions of Panda ranging in price from Free to around £30 depending of what is covered, however if you have more than one PC extra PC's seem to be covered for only a few pounds extra when purchased direct from Panda. There are also options for more than a single year. Here I am looking at Panda Dome Premium.
Once installed it will automaticity start a full scan and unless its a new PC this is likely to take several hours just leave it on in the background to do its job. I downloaded it from the Panda site it took only a few minutes to starting the full scan which can be more than 30,000 files to scan. After the full scan you can choose one of three types of scan, full scan, custom scan or critical areas.
This is far more than a Smart Watch it could perhaps with careful use save your life. The original Smart Watches had some health details, a Scan Watch goes further and now the Scan Watch 2 is more like a doctors surgery on your wrist.
If you are new to Withings then download their App to your phone and then once you have an account just link the to it. If you already have a Withings account you just need to link your new watch to it and in a few minutes you can be going through its new features. Its a big jump from a Smart Watch to the Scan Watch 2. In fact it is also a big jump from Scan Watch Light to Scan Watch 2. The main features of the Scan Watch Watch 2 are divided into five main feature areas.
The original Monopoly is probably the most famous board game in the country, it was far from new even when I played it as a child. Based on the streets of London but how many of you know which is the only street south of the Thames? Here however is the chance to play a version based on the streets of Cardiff.
is stated as suitable for anyone aged eight and over. A good solid board folded in four so that it can fit in the box, I remember the original was only folded in two but the box itself was separate with the pieces, the money and the Chance and Community Chest cards, now all in the box. I am pleased to the playing pieces remain the same except that are all chromed. The houses are still green and the hotels still red, the box has compartments for all the board streets etc.
As Christmas draws ever closer here are two boxed game products that remind you of the fact every time you look at their boxes. First a box that contains eight games in the one box. Second a fun filled race to the North Pole and it does not get more Christmassy than a visit to the North Pole.
The eight different games in the one box are Xmas Lists, Xmas Charades, Xmas Trivia, Santas Sack, Bah! Humm Bug, Under The Tree, Santa Says and Silent Night. These are stated as suitable for 12 plus and 2 or more teams. There are eight packs of different cards – actually four packs of double sided cards – to get get the eight packs. Also in the box are a large while pad of plain paper and a slightly smaller marked ad of paper to keep scores for all eight games.
A Chromebook is an alternative to a Windows PC if all you use it for is emails, scouring the web and suchlike. These days a Chromebook has anti virus built in so you are already saving money and you should be safe to trawl the net, but as always remember if the offer looks to too good to be true it almost certainly is and you will probably get bugs that you do not want.
The measures 36x23.5x1.5cm. Going around the outside it has USB 'C', HDMI and USB on the left. The front is clear, the right side has 3.5mm audio socket, USB 'C' and Kensington lock port. The back is also clear as the screen goes back to 190 degrees. The back has four 3x.5cm small rubber feet in each corner the two at the front vertical and the two at the back horizontal. The weight of the unit is 1.37 kilos which is a tiny amount over three pounds.
As Christmas draws even closer more games come in for review. Here I am looking at Nostalgia something that as an older person I have a lot of and this game reminds one of the past. The second offering is Family Quiz Nights and it has questions suitable for both children and adults.
The first thing to say is that it has a good solid box, the board is 25.5x25.5cm and is one piece - no fold - to tear or rip. The inside of the box has nine compartments eight of which have appropiate packs of cards the ninth has playing pieces and a rather special dice that has two of each one, two and three.
Very few pieces of software have been used by me for as many years as Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office, these days it is more important than ever, earlier this year I told you about a hard drive that expired and a recent backup allowed full restore of everything in an afternoon onto a new SSD drive. Now just after the installation of this latest version another disaster the motherboard expired and while this required a new – second hand PC – the SSD meant I was back up and running quickly.
The job of Acronis is to protect you from whoever and whatever tries to destroy your files and data and for the past few years the way they do this is Ransonware which means once infected you have a very expensive doorstop. Apart from protecting from almost any intrusion regular backups will still protect you from your own stupidly like visiting dodgy websites and this year another new feature is Identity Protection.
As Christmas draws ever closer more items pass onto my desk that could be suitable as gifts. First a jig saw that could also help you discover where your favourite wine comes from while you solve it. Second a card game that enables you to find out where the Yeti is, your job to get its picture before anyone else.
Unless you are Italian of go there a lot then the shape of Italy as a leg with a foot could be one of the few things you know. Another being the fact they like their wine and they grow a lot of grapes. The traditional Chianti bottle that has a straw basket could be another way to recognise the wine as Italian, now where in Italy does your favourite wine cone from, is it the foot, the calf or up at the top of the leg.
Most toys and games are purchased in the three months before Christmas, and while I told you about the two games below in early summer I thought a little reminder in October if their subjects suit your household, these are for older children and adults.
Both games are from a company called Cyanide & Happiness. Players vie for attention and also try to create perfect or horrible dates using a range of specific – and perhaps very unusual – interests. You need to match cards using the three packs of cards ‘Head’, ‘Body’ and ‘Interests’. The ‘Head’ and ‘Body’ cards are slightly larger than the more prolific ‘Interest’ cards.
As Christmas draws ever nearer I get the occasional chance to try games and puzzles here is one such item from a range by Geomag. This product is one of a range that gives the child a chance to use their brain to create an item that works.
Aimed at ‘8 plus’ this product should be for child old enough not to try eating parts of it but the ‘safety’ guide covers what younger children might try to do. The manual is in three languages all on the same pages with English always listed first. There are 130 pieces in total that come in four different sealed bags.
Writing this at the start of September but this product being small and easy to post is an ideal present that auntie or uncle can send to their niece or nephew without exorbitant extra charges. I don’t get the chance to see too many items aimed at younger children. But to my knowledge this is the first item of this type that I have knowledge of.
The product consists of a wipe clean ‘Mini Mat’ which has outlines of 13 wild animals and three felt pens (wipe clean). The mat is 30x20cm and has 13 different outlines of animals to colour and each has a capital letter beside them which can also be coloured in. Once the mat has been coloured in it can be wiped clean ready to be used again on another day. The three Hey Doodle felt pens have clip on lids in the colour of the ink while the rest of the pen is white.
While I have previously looked at many scanners, I think this is my first A3 scanner. I have looked at several A3 units that were ‘All In One’. So while any A3 unit is somewhat larger than an A4 unit this seems not to be that much larger. So if you have need to scan items of A3 size rather than using A4 and joining the two images together this is for you.
The measures 41x33x46cm with the input and output trays open; it is 41x23x11cm with them closed. The power input and the USB connection – lead provided - are side by side back left corner, the controls on the unit are on the right side of the top in a vertical line. The exception is a slider on the front edge when you choose U-turn or Straight as the image path.
While headphones both over and on ear have their place there are also times when what you need are ear buds and this latest offering from Creative come in a case that is only the size of a medium sized pebble.
The case is 5x4.5x2cm and weighs only 33 grams with the buds inside. Unlike all earbuds I have previously seen there are no gels so the bud itself fits into the ear, they are 1.5cm from top to bottom and less than 1cm wide at the base, there is a 2cm long arm at the base that balances what is in your ear without excessive plugging. The back of the case has a USB ‘C’ socket and a short USB to USB ‘C’ cable is supplied to let you charge your buds.
Do you have hard water from your tap? It is especially hard in the area I live in. So being able to filter the water you drink is important. The filter removes lots of different items that arrive in your cup/glass if you drink direct from the tap.
The unit is 26cm tall, 25cm from front to back and 11cm wide. It can hold up to 5 pints (2.8 litres) of water. When you open the box you have the main unit, the top, the lid and the filter. There is a ‘Quick Guide’ but the assembly guide could be better and I tried – unsuccessfully – to put the top in the wrong way but this would mean that water would take many hours to get into the unit instead of a few minutes.
Acronis is a piece of software that I have used for years, even if a virus or worse gets through a complete reinstall is possible and you are even protected – although not without cost – from a hard disc failure and this latter event happened to me a few months ago.
Any disc over time will eventually fail and a few months ago my hard disc failed to boot, sometimes the reinstall of this section of the hard disk can then rewrite this important section but not on this occasion. So instead of a new hard disc I purchased a SSD drive and then proceeded to transfer my complete ‘C’ drive to it and once done I had a PC full of life, booting instead of taking up to around five minutes was complete and ready to work in less than 20 seconds.
This mid-range offering from Honor is the latest to cross my desk. Based on the recent Honor 90 it’s a bang up to date offering for those whom a full priced unit is out of reach.
The measures 16.55x7.3x.7cm apart from the area back top left where the cameras are which is 1.2cm, the unit weighs 180 grams. Going around the outside has the volume rocker and on/off buttons on the right. The speaker and microphone are on the base split by the USB ‘C’ connection which is not only for charging but also allows easy access to remove photos and videos. The left side has SIM entry point. .
One of the advantages of a curved display is you see more screen from a smaller width here its 60cm to see 27 inches. So while the display shows QHD 2560x1440 it takes up a little less desk space. It has both HDMI and DisplayPort connections as well as a USB hub.
The screen is 60x36.5cm and its inverted ‘V’ shaped stand is 28cm from back to front and at its widest point it is 46cm. Unlike a lot of stands it allows side to side movement. The stand can raise the screen by between 3cm and up to 16cm from your desk. The connections are in a line under a slight overhang on the back. 3.
This is a powerful rugged notebook designed for the sort of conditions that most notebooks would very soon give up. While I can tell you about the unit I was sent, the connections it has can very to suit the use you plan to have for it, so the actual price will tend to vary somewhat.
It came with 32GB of RAM; it has an Intel 12 Gen i7 processor running at 2.1GHz. It has a 1GB SSD ‘C’ drive with 865GB of the 928GB free and a 1GB ‘D’ SSD with 953GB available. The Windows version is Windows 11 Pro 22H2 which is the latest available. Boot up was a reasonable 15 seconds, shutdown is around 10 seconds.
Having a set of noise limited headset for a younger child is important as once a child’s hearing starts to get impaired it’s a one way street. Also important for a younger child is not to plug the ears and that any headphones or headset are wire less for obvious reasons as you don’t want them strangling one another.
The distance from the centre of the well-padded headband to the top of the also well-padded ear pieces is 10.5cm with no side expansion, this can increase to 13cm fully expanded, total weight is 123grams. Unlike other headsets where the speech arm sticks out or is a removable piece this unit has one that is curled up inside the right earpiece and pulls out to the chin area when required, it is up to 8cm long and is flexible.
This has helped me function during the recent really hot weather, I know many will say that it is great for lying on a beach however if you are in a home office and walking down the hall and back brings you out in a sweat then something of this type not only allows you to feel cooler it also checks the air quality and improves it by drawing air from the room through its HEPA filter before blowing it out of the top of the unit.
There are two different models in this range, this is the more basic one that has a more limited range of functions but for anyone wanting a smaller area covered it is great. This model is a circular tube 57cm tall, the back half is the air input which starts 8cm from the base and rises to 33cm, from the base behind this area is the HEPA filter so all air is drawn through it. The air output is on the top of 57cm unit so while there is a good amount of breeze coming from the top loose papers etc.
While most will get a set of scales in an attempt to lose weight you may be surprised to know that losing weight when you are not trying to is far more likely to conceal a problem that is likely to require medical assistance.
While trousers or skirts becoming smaller when not worn for a while is a good sign of gaining weight and them becoming bigger is a probable sign of losing weight. If you wish to keep your weight a secret then this scale can help. The measures 32x32x2.5cm but there is a second set of feet that clips into the already fitted ones to give you another .5cm of clearance which can be useful on certain surfaces like carpets.
What better equipment to review this latest gaming monitor with but one of the very latest gaming PCs from Acer – reviewed 21-06-23. This AOC gaming unit is a 24inch flat panel that has outputs for both Display Port and HDMI.
The measures 53.5x31.5x1cm, the viewable screen is 52.5x30.5cm, and these figures give the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 23.8inches. It has an ‘X’ shaped stand with the smaller part 8cm behind the central arm and the larger part 16cm in front of it, and the front of the ‘X’ it is 43cm wide. The stand can raise the screen by between 8.5 and 18.5cm from your desk.
This is a very powerful and also large tower system. This tends to buck the trend of making things smaller and smaller. It is also quite heavy so will need a strong table or desk. It was sent to me as just the unit with just the mains lead.
The Acer Orion 7000 measures 51x49x22cm and you will need a further few centimetres clear behind for any connections. Both the front and back have a clear covering so you can see the fans and various coloured lights. The top has a large ventilation grill as well as four USB ports (three are USB, one USB 'C') and a couple of audio ports, there is also one other item.
This set is a little different, it can be Wireless or Bluetooth and does not need any batteries, it can be connected to up to three devices, the mouse is small and the keyboard even smaller. While the alpha and numeric keys are full size the other keys are small and the top row and function are on a rotation basis so don't lose the User Guide or you will be scratching your head for a while.
The mouse is 10.5x6x2.5cm and weighs only 66grams. The Keyboard is 28x12.5x1.5cm the last measurement is at the back at the front it is only .8cm. The keyboard has 82 keys but as the top line doubles up it could be 96 as actions vary. The keyboard can be set for iOS, Windows, Android or macOS.
This is an SSD drive that is encrypted so unless you enter the correct password it remains unreadable by any software. It is connected to a PC or other such device by either a USB ‘C’ or USB cable.
In the box are the 500GB drive, a USB ‘C’ cable, a USB cable. Also the all-important Getting Started Guide and a padded zip up case so you can take the drive with you. The face of the drive has three LEDs, numerals 1 to 0 and two other buttons red and green. Read the Getting Started sheet as there are combinations that will not be accepted. First you need to set an admin passcode, once this is set other subsidiary passcodes can be set if others are to use the drive.
This is the latest offering from Honor the Magic5 Pro. Like almost all recent mobile phones the emphasis is on the cameras and what they can do both in photo and video mode. Not so long ago a units cameras were hidden away in one corner of the back, now they are spread out, here they are in a large circle taking the top 6cm of the phones back.
The dimensions of the Honor Magic5 Pro are 16cm tall, 7.5cm wide and 1.2cm thick at the cameras. The unit weighs 207 grams. The diagonal imperial measurement of the screen is 6.8inches. Boot up is a very respectable 21 seconds while shutdown is only 3 seconds. By default it wants to use gestures but it’s easy enough to change to the older back/home/show all. The right side has volume up/down and on/off buttons.
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