Entertainment

Around five weeks ago (05-09-08) I told you about the Orbitsound T12, here it is its baby sibling designed for portable use and it is not much larger than a good sized iPod or MP3 player itself.

This is the first of a series of reviews on what Marks & Spencer have to offer in the gift line up for the coming season. Here I am looking at two well known packages, first Chess and Draughts and second an anniversary edition of Scrabble, both come with impressive wooden containers, pieces and boards.

Regular readers may well feel this is very similar to the cenOmax offering recently reviewed. It is a 7inch photo frame that comes with a cream surround and a clear Perspex outer, it has two additional sleeves for that different effect.

Headsets come in a variety of styles, shapes and sizes plus the ability to provide acceptable audio quality. Really you get what you pay for!

You've painstakingly loaded all your music onto your iPod and you want to enjoy it wherever you are. Headphones are not always the answer - but do you go for high-quality 'fixed' speakers for home and and to be limited to when out, or do you sacrifice sound quality indoors in exchange for portability?

This is a 7inch offering from the people who I recently told you about a 3.5inch photo frame (21-09-08) this is a unit that offers the ability to play MP3 files while viewing images and even possible to view movies.

Love your media player but annoyed about the piece of wire that is forever getting tangled, pulled from it's socket or just isn't long enough to reach the appropriate pocket? You need Bluetooth.

Well that's what my 13 year old called it. Perhaps a small exageration, but this is a games console designed to get 8 - 12 year olds moving to it's beat.

Roberts have announced a number of energy efficient radios in the past. The 'solarDAB' combines energy efficient design with an integral solar panel to augment traditional mains power.

Having just reviewed the excellent EOS 450D (29-08-08) I was more than chuffed to be offered the very new EOS 1000D. At this time of year everyone wants to tell you about what they have to offer for Christmas are you listening Santa?

These are a very unusual set of speakers from Harman Kardon a name that often comes up with speakers in notebook computers. However I doubt any other company has ever produced anything like these before.

If you or your kids love marble runs, this magnetic construction kit will take you to the next level of marble play.

I have used this for several weeks, however only around ten days ago did the HDMI cable arrive. Do not try using a Blu Ray player without the HDMI cable as you will hear music, sound effects but no speech when using Composite cables supplied.

All the latest generation iPods, with exception of the tiny shuffle, are capable of video storage and playback. This can be an excellent way of passing time, either on long trips or even if you're having trouble sleeping.

Huge Plastacine rabbits, that’s what I think of when I think of the latest Sony TV’s they were used to promote the vivid colours that these are capable of. Of course they are great TV’s but are they worth the premium the name brings.

Normally you would get my opinion as an experienced computer user but a very basic musician. Here something different the view of a very experienced musician but almost a computer novice.

Remote control flying devices come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The latest offering to fall into my hands is a mini-helicopter.

This new Personal Video Recorder (PVR) from Humax provides 160Gbytes of storage, enough for around 100 hours of recorded TV.

Here I am looking at the latest offering from Pure Digital the One Mini. Just as this arrived Pure announced they had sold 2,000,000 DAB radios this is of course DAB but also FM and you can connect an iPod or portable CD.

While headphones are a very convenient way of listening to your music it's good sometimes to go for the more traditional approach and listen through speakers. The EQ5 from Motorola are a small set of stereo Bluetooth speakers that double up as a speaker-phone.

Here two items the first a quality speaker that runs of three ‘AAA’ batteries and the second a headset that enables your phone to remain firmly in your pocket or bag and thus saves you from becoming a target for thieves.

It's september so as (recent) history dictates it's time for Steve Jobs to take to the stage and show us what he hopes Santa will be delivering this year.

As I mentioned last week, manufacturers and developers already have Christmas product line-ups in place.

This is the largest of three models that give a truly improved sound from the otherwise rather bland output available from the Apple iPod. While Orbitsound T12 unit comes with a sub woofer the really exciting stuff is developed in the main unit.

As a radio lover I was very interested to get my hands on this pocket DAB radio from Goodmans. Billed as the "smallest personal/pocket DAB radio in the world" this could be exactly the replacement for my pocket FM radio.

While this is a digital photo frame it also plays music and can even play .AVI movies both sound and video, in fact it is a rather nice product all round. There has to be a minus point and my tests have produced two.

We all know Digital TV is coming but before you chuck out perfectly good TV’s because they do not have a SCART socket there is a way to get Digital TV using this little box from TVonics.

Adding to its current range of video capture solutions, Pinnacle has developed its Video Transfer kit which does not require the presence of a computer in order to work.

Here a Hot Stone Grill to cook on and while it’s cooking how about a game of Boules but whatever you do not play it on the patio or the prize lawn.

Answering the call and donning my secret agent guise (actually it was no different from my normal appearance as that is the best way not to attract attention), I made my way to Sony’s secret bunker to discover about the company’s latest gadgets.