Entertainment

Not entirely new as I am told this first launched more than eighteen months ago. However at an event specifically to showoff its larger sibling I left with one of these smaller units to review. The brand new larger unit will follow later.

Tt can be worrying (well only slightly) if you are put in the situation where you come across a product with the word "Retro" in the title and you realise that you can remember this particular look from your youth or even later. Surely Retro has to mean before "my time" but sadly that seems to be no longer the case. In my defence I will state that with this next item, the Retro designation did refer to the appearance of the product rather than its in-built functionality wh

A while ago someone who knows more about audio than most, told me that the CD would become niche –like vinyl – I was unaware such a revolution was taking place, but it does mean that higher quality audio is now downloadable.

Recently the Sony team was out in force at a Central London location to demonstrate some of the company’s new products that could end up on your wish list for the Christmas season.

Friendly ghosts, shimmering portals and dual locations meet up with an evil spirit in a Hidden Object Adventure game available from Avanquest

A while ago I reviewed another high quality device from Audyssey. Here a Wireless device that can also be attached via 3.5mm cable. However this is mainly Wireless – and I mean Wireless – not Bluetooth and can be used in several ways.

Having recently discovered the Bayan 3 I am looking at its bigger sibling the Bayan 7. This is the biggest and they also do a ‘Grand’ however it is still designed as an iPod player but you would definitely not move it too often.

Keeping your customers satisfied is the aim of this next game as you run a made-to-order store in fashionable parts of town.

This consists on a pair of glasses with earbuds connected by a short lead to a small box. My thoughts go back to early handheld CD players however here you not only get sound but also vision and the box has an Android system.

Aliph has recently introduced a big brother to its original Jambox audio device.

To some Bounty is a tasty treat that combines a chocolate coating with a coconut filling. Others will immediately think of Bounty as being a reward on offer for completing a specific task. Really the concepts are not all that different as a Bounty bar could be your reward for completing a job of work. Bounty is also the title of a match-3 and puzzle solving game developed by Total Eclipse.

Forget among a split personality, in this next game you can switch your role backwards and forwards between four characters.

Speaker units have been a popular topic of late when I have been reviewing items. One such product is a speaker set from Sandberg.

Time to join a school of magic and increase your powers through the use of words.

With a title like Jambox you might think it was a container to store your preserves but instead it is a device for enhancing audio.

Regular readers will know I bemoan the lack of manuals in the box, many think the iPod is easy to use but it has more to offer. The second book in the same series is for Motorola’s Zoom, both these tomes offer help and advice.

Alongside its normal catalogue of games, Focus Multimedia has introduced its BlackLime budget line of titles. This next game is one such offering

First from Revell a very light remote control radio car that can even do tricks in the hands of a skilled child. Second something that may encourage a child to use their imagination rather than require something to imagine for them.

As its title suggests, 4 Elements II is the follow-up to 4 Elements. Developed by Playrix and available from Avanquest, this game belongs to the match-3 genre but is unlike any other that I have played in the past.

Here two items that relay sound, first from Sennheiser the Travel MM 550-X with rather good noise cancelizing. Second a pair that has a secondary function as ear warmers, they also carry out their main role well.

At the time of writing this review, a major topic of conversations was a hose-pipe ban being implemented in the midst of heavy downpours and flooding.

It is time to visit an island that has been used for scientific research that appears not to be all that successful.

First a set of 2.1 speakers shaped like a helmeted head –single unit – and no doubt will be sold on the Angry Birds name. Second a set of high specification 7.1 headphones designed predominately for those who are into gaming.

With a yet-to-be princess and two of the leading popular singers of that period, High Society was a musical remake of the Philadelphia Story. Now High Society is a Hidden Object Adventure game.

This book reader is one of the backlit type and so colour is available. Archos have a background in screens, often smaller than this as it was with early devices just larger than phones, but of course they also do computer type items.

Think back a generation and perhaps your TV had a basic remote to change the channel or increase/decrease the volume. Now almost any electrical item that is not tethered to you has a remote. So here a control that uses your ‘i’ device to control most of your device whose remotes have vanished, been eaten by the dog or just stopped working.

When you take up residence at the Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital you enter the world of the television series known as House M.

Having appeared as a book, film and television series, this classic fairy tale of love conquering adversity reaches the gaming platform.

One of the discoveries I made at the Gadget Show is a company with a range of speakers otoneaudio.co.uk I have started by looking at their two smallest offerings the Aporto and the Avcento, both give good quality output.

With so many people turning to iPods or MP3 those –like me – who have large CD collections need a way to condense the output and this offering allows an easy way to transpose to WAV, MP3, Flac or Ogg Vorbis with little effort from you.