Publication History For : Paul Smart
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In the case of this unit it is a four in one device as not only does it print, scan and copy but it also has fax capability and while this may not be required by the majority it is certainly used by my health centre to send urgent prescriptions to chemists.
The Brother MFC-J895DWmeasures 39x34x17cm. You would need around another 14cm onto the second figure the depth for paper output and another 5cm onto the last figure to insert sheets in the feeder mechanism to scan, however this unit is perfectly flat on top when the scanner unit is closed so as we also know any flat surface in the office is useful to put things on. The total weight is 8.5kilos so if on a shelf make sure it is strong enough.
The quality of music on most people’s phones is probably not great, I do not mean what they choose to listen to but the output quality, the old motto ‘garbage in garbage out’ is probably true here but even if you input better quality such as .WAV then the device itself probably strangles the quality of the output.
At the launch event I noticed they were using TIDAL to beef up the quality of input but then few if any have a decent set of speakers with them while they are traveling to and from work. While we were offered the possibility of a TIDAL subscription this in my case anyway has not yet materialised so is no help with this article. If it arrives later I will update as well as cover TIDAL itself.
As always I start by opening the box and looking at the components before I go anywhere near a car, if I need to refer to the Quick Start Guide then for me anyway the setup is not that straightforward, here I needed to study the Guide before I worked things out.
While a display is not essential this is the first such unit I have seen that does not have one, my first thought as the unit was not new when sent to me was there was a part missing, I was wrong. It works in a different way in that a powerful sticky 6.5x3.2cm pad is attached to the side of the back of the web cam and arrived in a separate bag giving me the wrong idea. Once clipped into place on the camera unit all became clear.
Avanca is not a name that I have previously heard of, this is a Bluetooth and NFC headset, the distance between the two buds is 34cm when the connection is pulled taught, they are designed to go over the ear and round the back of the neck.
A snug fit is required when such devices are worn during exercise or dare I say the words ‘a workout’ and on my normal size head they fitted correctly but I fear someone with a larger head might find the unit a little on the small side to pass over the ears and round the back of the neck. I did also try them the other way round where the connection goes under the ears and that would fit most people without problem. The total weight of the headset is only 18grams.
Not exactly a new phone but a chance to purchase this ‘mid-range’ phone at a lower price by simply accepting a static ad as your lock screen, so you get a new phone of a design only launched a few months ago at a price of around 60% of what you would pay without the ad lock screen.
The phone I was provided with is the Spark X which originally launched with a version of Android 6 and now with ‘Add-X’ comes with Android 7, at the event I was led to believe this was going up to Android 7.1.2 (the current version) but despite me keeping it on for a week no upgrade beyond V7 was offered and when I queried this with WileyFox I was told that was not the case and this phone will not be further updated. It is 15x7.5x.8cm and weighs 174 grams.
A large flat panel showing 1920x1080 may seem like overkill for spreadsheets or word processing but of course if you have 20:20 vision you can change the % rate shown, as an example a notebook will often show the display at 150% or 125% this defaults to 100% so you see a lot more.
Large panels are useful for group viewing and as almost all recent panels have near 180degree viewing angles you can gather a lot of people around one and it’s normally much easier than connecting a projector and it also avoids having to find a blank piece of wall that the projector would require for display. It is 62x37x1.5cm its stand raises it by between 8 and 21cm from your desk. The total weight of the unit is 7KG. It can be used either portrait or landscape.
A dramatic title but today there are people out there determined to make you crash into the back of them by their actions so unless you have an ‘independent’ witness the fact that you hit the car in front makes you automatically guilty.
A Dash Cam can tell via satellite and video the speed you were doing, the exact time and date as well in some cases if you were talking but more importantly it gauges where that vehicle you just hit came from if it has crossed lanes if it has braked excessively etc. Most importantly it is classed as an independent witness. So any money you spend on a Dash Cam is an investment against the possibility of losing your extremely valuable no claims bonus.
If you have ever looked at things on Amazon then you often get ads in the form of an email sometimes at the same price and sometimes at a price that is just too good not to buy, this item was under £3 but then there was delivery but as part of the recent Black Friday round of reductions it became only £2.24 with free delivery.
For a while the CD player in my bedroom has become rather picky about what it will and will not play. In the worst cases it said No Disk and whatever I did this remained the same, sometimes just rotating the disc 90 degrees meant it would play. Sometimes a disc would play for a few minutes and then stop and a few other nasty tricks which I will not go into. In all cases the CD’s in questions played without problem in my audio system in the lounge and in my PC’s CD drive.
A big silver grey notebook from Dell was their latest offering to land on my desk. A large screen and a surprisingly small keyboard almost lost with lots of free space all around it may not sound that encouraging for you to read on.
The Dell Inspiron 15 5000 measures 37.5x25x1.5cm and weight just over two kilos. Bootup is ten seconds and shutdown to blank desktop only two seconds. One fact I cannot normally give is that after a full charge and being left unused for ten days the battery was still 98% charged. The reasons for the lack of use were a nasty bug affecting me and then several trips out which meant that little was done workwise but since that useful fact is available I have shared it.
At the start of 2017 I told you about a pair of pioneer headphones, here what are described as DJ Active Monitors while they are that they are also a rather good pair of speakers for home use so even MP3 sounds can sound excellent.
They are two way bass reflex speakers with ¾ inch tweeter and a four inch woofer. The speakers are 22.5x14.5x22cm. The total weight is just under 5 kilos. The total power output is around 40watts. There is a power lead that plugs into the left speaker and a connecting lead that runs from the left to right speaker which connects via crocodile clips. Also supplied is a 3.5mm to RCA lead.
Most will think that once you have located the correct size of battery the only real choice is do you use Alkaline 1.5v or Rechargeable 1.2v. According to Panasonic while any battery that fits will work getting the best performance is down to the correct type of battery.
The four grades are EVOLTA, Pro Power, Everyday Power and Alkaline Power – each one with a different capacity. As different appliances require different levels of energy, Panasonic want to help battery consumers “see the wood for the trees” by guiding them through their purchase decision. So as with so many things today you need to use an App this one is available in the iOS or Android store.
It’s over a year since I told you about the indoor version and here at last is the promised outdoor version, it seems CE compliance takes longer than everyone thought. So here the camera that can work between -25c and +45c and it has no wired connection.
Slightly larger back to front than the indoor but apart from that it works in virtually the same way, the only difference rather than automatically shining a light when full colour images cannot be given because of lack of light this uses infra-red to give you a sharp image.
This board game for adults is based on a TV series, as I have never seen it I can only comment on the game. Strangely it has a 17+ rating that until now I did not know exist, I know of 18+ but that was/is a film classification which used to be – in my youth - ‘X’ or I believe ‘H’.
While there is a folded 22.5x22.5cm sheet with the rules you can probably get the idea better by watching the You Tube Video – link at the end – the box contains everything you need for a probably alcohol fuelled evening and it may even put a relationship of three to the test. The game is said to be for six to ten players – there needs to be an even number – as you play as a pair, six would be fine.
Brando used to use the strapline ‘everything USB’ this was rather disproved by an excellent electric screwdriver set recently reviewed that used standard batteries to power it stil looking at their website most thing are still USB orientated.
Recently I visited HMS Belfast and saw the whole range of Cello TV’s including the recently reviewed Battery TV offering, here is something that is a first for me in TV’s a curved screen offering although I have reviewed a couple of computer panels that have curved screens.
This is their smallest curved TV at 32inches. My normal TV is a little larger but I choose the 32inch for logistical reasons, Cello place their stand supports towards the end of the TV and what I sit my TV on would not be wide enough to support anything larger. Having moved my TV further back and unplugged my aerial input as well as the HDMI connection between my PVR and my TV I was ready to assemble and install the Cello in front on my own TV it weighs just over four kilos.
While I have seen All In One units in both grey and black colours this is a first for me, a black unit with a red top, before you ask it’s not my blood. While even if it has a CD to make installation easy it refuses to use it and downloads which could be a problem for those with a poor Internet connection.
Downloading and installing the drivers and basic software took 6 minutes and just under 400MB of hard disc space on my Windows 7 system. As seems normal on most Canon units I review, both the USB and power input are back left of the unit. This is a six ink offering. The last statement should tell you this is not a unit you would buy to print emails and documents but a photographic printer.
Having in recent years told you about Kaspersky Internet Security here a different product from Kaspersky their Family Security Cloud offering. This it seems is only available as a download product so for me to review it I was sent a link to download it.
The download is not large by today’s standards at just over 150MB but for it to work efficiently you need regular Internet access. This product firstly considers what is and is not safe for any devices that your children might have access to.
Prime membership from Amazon brings certain benefits including guaranteed one day delivery and extra substantial reductions on certain items; this coffee machine from Nespresso was £30 cheaper as a Prime member than for everyone else.
As a reviewer when you see various good quality coffee in a range of machines by Nespresso and others you miss it when they go away. While my normal instant coffee is one of the best out there I admit that I have become ‘hooked’ by better quality such as that supplied by two decent recent Nespresso review units.
A lot of homes need a Dehumidifier as there is too much moisture in the air or even the walls of a property but almost as nasty is having a too dry atmosphere especially if you have frail people, by trying to keep a home warm you could also make it too dry.
This item from Philips is circular 33cm tall and 22cm wide. It is in two parts with the point where the two parts join together being slightly wider than the top or the bottom. Where a Dehumidifier starts without water in its talk and stops working when the tank is full a Humidifier cannot work without water in it and once its tank is empty it will stop working until more water is poured into it.
A cutthroat shave from a barber is a treat that will probably take a long time especially with a hot towel treatment. Now this kit gives you chance to do it for yourself at home - certainly not something to try after a night out.
For me anyway the extra sound - quality and amount – that Dell can give you from a panel is a big plus if only from the point of desk space and the fact that you no longer need a pair of speakers on your limited amount of desk space.
This 22 inch monitor from Dell measures 49x29x1.5cm and its stand lifts it 10cm from your desk. The notional diagonal imperial measurement is 21½ inches. The area above and to the sides has virtually no border with only 1cm border at the bottom. It is of course a full HD offering (1920x1080) and allows you to connect via HDMI or VGA. The stand is ‘D’ shaped at 24x15cm; this connects to the arm from the panel by a twist screw.
Still quite a new idea, I have reviewed one such item previously a thermometer that you move across your forehead, it then gives a near instant reading. It can be used by the whole family as when the reading is taken you scroll through all the names and highlight yours; the reading is then transferred to your SmartPhone via Wi-Fi.
Most will think of Nokia as a mobile phone manufacturer but they have purchased Withings who have long been a name in health and fitness devices. It is 12cm long and 3cm wide the head is circular for the front 3cm, behind this area is the single control an on/off button, working back from this is a 4cm area made up of 1cm tall figures or letters which are white dots – six to the 1cm height – and that is it.
Do not think of this as something to get oil stained in the garage or that languishes in the shed. This is more like a piece of jewellery it even comes in a box that might otherwise contain a necklace or perhaps a bracelet read on to find the contents.
While never small this Backpack can quickly become cavernous so not only most Notebooks and all the extra bits that come it as well as a spare shirt pants and socks to facilitate an overnight stay can all be accommodated in this Backpack from Riut.
The Swift range was launched a year ago in Glasgow and I have previously looked at a different model from the same range. This is a rather smart looking Notebook with the screen capable of going back to 180 degrees.
The Acer Swift 3 is an ultra-thin notebook measuring 33x23x1.5cm and weighing 1629 grams. The base has a 27x1cm strip of rubber and the two front corners a 3x1cm front to back strip to protect whatever you sit it on, this matters because the body is all metal. Looking at the Acer site finds 21 different Swift 3 models with various memory and processor combinations. The one I have has silver body an Intel i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD drive.
StarTech is a company that has those had to find things that others do not have. Here something that could be a larger seller with more small notebooks being marketed with only USB ‘C’, so how do connect a standard USB device as well as other components.
‘Ultra-Portable’ is often the phrase the notebook is compact, and, as long as everything you need is already there that is fine. This 17x9x4.5cm box and all the likely to required leads are supplied by StarTech with the less than catchy name of MST30C2HDPPD Okay that’s the part number but the name is USB-C Docking Station for Laptops – Hard Drive Bay – MST and Power Delivery – 4K.
This Toughbook looks ‘normal’ which while it may sound like a criticism, it isn’t, some Toughbook’s are very rugged as they are used on building sites and other places where they get abused, here one that would not look out of place in a boardroom.
I first saw this over four months ago at a pre-launch briefing at Panasonics factory in Cardiff. The Panasonic Toughbook CF-XZ6 measures 28.5x22x2cm and weights 1.2kilos. The viewable screen is 25.5x17cm and it has the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement of 12inches and a screen resolution of 2160x1440 which never looks small even on the smaller than normal screen. There is a 2MP web cam and microphone in the centre at the top of the landscape screen.
Both these award winning products are now available in a single box. So if you normally take videos but want to get a photo from a video or if it’s the other way round then the solution lies in having both items to get the best possible results.
Two top of the range photo and video manipulation products supplied in a single box by Cyberlink, you not only get a good discount by buying both together but you also get a digital copy and 50GB of cloud storage for 12 months. It comes on two DVD’s, the basic programs are on DVD 1 and took ten minutes to install on my Windows 7 notebook, the installation took 2.69GB of hard disk space. DVD 2 has extra content for both packages. There is a six side 18x12.
Big it is, and the curve means that the centre is 3cm further in than the outside and unless you are viewing from a good distance away it is certainly noticeable. However while sound is often low on this list of priorities here there are fantastic up facing speakers mounted in the rear.
Most speakers in panels are at best ‘average’ here they are superb as the extra depth is used to have great up pointing speakers in the back. While – for me anyway – the red line of LEDs under the base of the screen and the two pairs of red LED lines of lights on the back do little they may suit some. You would never buy this panel for word processing or spreadsheets this is a gaming or video watching panel.
If you need to move data around then on a Ethernet or Wi-Fi network should be easy, if however the files are in different places this is harder, so maybe a large capacity USB stick can help, or possibly to move from a mobile device to a PC then an OTG device can help, both are covered with the below.
Inflation is a thing most of us have problems with in one way or another, as far as computer memory it means that programs and the data they use can be larger, much larger, a long time ago – yes I am old – the operating system its programs and data fitted on a floppy disc of less than 100MB here however is a USB stick that can contain up to 115GB of data.
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