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Another new phone company to the UK, freak UK weather and a taxi drivers protest caused gridlock in the part of London where the launch was due to take place so my first contact was when their latest offering the RX17 Pro arrived on my desk. So all I know is what I discovered during my testing as well as what is shown on the OPPO website.
The Oppo RX17 measures 15.5x7.4x.8cm and weighs 183grams. Going around the outside has the on/off button on the right side, the base has USB ‘C’ socket for charging as well as the SIM’s entry point, the USB socket can also be used for the supplied headset to listen to music. Also in this very congested area is a pin hole microphone as well as the speaker. The left side has the volume up and down buttons. The top is clear.
How healthy are you? And what are your plans to improve matters?
Music plays a big part in my life and while earbuds may help pass the time on a journey a decent set of headphones or as here a 2.1 speaker system in the home gives a far more rounded sound and may even take you to the performance as laid down by the musicians. My favourite Genre is Jazz and then small groups and a live performance.
This is a small 2.1 system as it has a sub-woofer to enhance the base and a pair of speakers for the rest of the sound range. While I have a pair of quality – large – speakers these days you do not need huge units and nor do they need to be expensive these at the time of writing are only 80 Euros (around £70). The sub-woofer is a virtual cube at 26cm. The speakers are 18x11x11cm so easily fit on a shelf or window sill. The two speakers have a single hard wired lead of 1.
With awards aplenty on offer, Huawei led the way at accepting the applause.
There has to be a first time for everything and this was that kind of occasion for me when looking at this next product.
Photo editing software comes in a variety of brands and product offerings for different sectors of the market. I am not just referring to the Windows and Mac platforms here but also the areas at which the product is aimed. Some of these photo editing products are obviously targeted at the home enthusiast and amateur consumer, while certain products have a more professional feel to their feature sets and overall appeal.
If like me you are old enough to remember the original Ghetto Blaster it was large and you needed strong shoulders to walk it around, it did not have that many features apart from being very loud. This unit is very different.
Yes it is heavy at over 9 kilos (that more than 20lbs) it can be loud should you wish/want but it has four quality speakers and separate bass and treble controls as well as a balance control. It has radio – both FM and DAB – cassette, CD, it can also play from USB stick. It has Aux and Microphone inputs and also has the ability to record both to cassette and also to USB stick. It can be run via mains or battery power, there is a solid internally rechargeable battery provided.
Put away your fishing rod as this sea-based offering involves mermaids and pearls.
I have to confess to never having actually met a mermaid. I do not suppose that you have never had this type of meeting either. Perhaps, like me, you would like to attempt to rectify this particular omission in your life experience by playing a game entitled “League of Mermaids”.
Deezer is one of the most popular streaming services, however often people want to stream music when they are not at home on their Wi-Fi, and even if mobile data is available – it certainly is not on most tube lines – it is an extra cost. One solution is to save music when you stream on your Wi-Fi and then replay it when out and about, and with Deezer this is an option.
While you can only download for later playback with a ‘paid subscription’ you can investigate if your Genre of music is well catered for with a free trial and one of the best places to start is with one of the range of pre-selected playlists, find a tune by an artist that you like and then explore the whole CD to check if other tracks please you. For a while I have been tracking ‘Deezer Desktop’ as its very long BETA period has been evolving.
Adding to its extensive range of audio products, Edifier has released its M1390BT model.
This M1390BT piece of kit is a 2.1 speaker system. It offers users a choice of PC, AUX and Bluetooth connectivity. Included in the box, keeping the two satellite speakers and sub-woofer box company, is an 3.5mm to 3.
Some years ago Microsoft vastly reduced offering the chance to own certain software notably their flagship Office product in favour of a subscription model where you continue to pay every year/month to continue using the product.
You may have heard of the golden age of gaming. Now you can experience it for yourself or pay a return visit.
A few months ago I took a look at several gaming units which were based on those machines that ate up our pocket money and loose change as we spent time in various establishments such as cafes and social areas. These gaming devices, offering opportunities to play classic titles that included the Pac-Man™, Dig-Dug™ and Galaja™ blasts from the past, were table-top units with dimensions of 115 x 175 x 105 mm (W x H x D).
A cylindrical speaker with speakers on the side and top, it should withstand some water as getting in to charge it or insert a 3.5mm lead (if not using Bluetooth) is far from easy, to say the base is a tight fit is quite an understatement.
It is 14cm tall and circular at 7cm. At the top of the back of my blue unit is an orange loop so you could walk along with it over a finger – it weighs 477 grams – below this in orange is a large ‘O’ then a raised rib and below this a large ‘X’. I have just described all the controls and as it can do all the normal things like answer phone calls move forward or back a track etc. certain combinations need to be followed.
The Philips 27 inch monitor 273V7Q is a no frills basic 1920 x 1080 unit offering reasonable performance and so will meet the needs of many users who want to keep their eyes on their budget.
The monitor, which has a 16 x 9 aspect ratio IPS panel with WLED backlight, is approximately 24inches wide and, like many more expensive products, has a frameless black bezel on three sides and just 1 inch wide on the lower edge. Near its right hand end of the lower edge is the power indicator LED and, printed in white, are the labels of the controls which are located conveniently on the underside of the bezel.
This next title comes from that hot bed of creative gaming talent known as FIVE-BN Games.
Forming part of the Lost Lands series of game episodes, this offering is sub-titled Mistakes of the Past and deals with a dark sorceress who was buried centuries ago but now walks among the inhabitants of the Lost Lands. Your role in this game is to put right this mistake of the past and restore harmony to the Lost Lands. The game, which belongs to the Hidden Object Adventure genre, is available in Collector’s Edition format featuring a number of bonus items.
A powerful Windows 10 notebook for those who still need all the connections yes it even has Ethernet. So suitable for both work and dare I say the word PLAY. This is a solidly constructed offering that may even reduce the need for so many visits to the gym.
The Acer Nitro 5 measures 39x26x2.4cm and weighs 2.454 kilos. Going around the outside finds Kensington Lock Port, Ethernet, USB ‘C’, HDMI out, USB 3.1 and SD Card socket all on the left side. The front is clear apart from speakers at each of the chamfered corners. The right side has headphones out, two USB2 ports, two LEDs and finally DC input. The back like the front is clear apart from large heat outputs. The base has four structured rubber feet to also allow expulsion of heat.
One way to stop or reduce customer churn is to offer a reward that will help ensure their loyalty.
A large curved panel is often the solution that may just get a panel to fit a smaller space as the curve allows slightly more to be shown in a smaller desk area. First however your eyes need to discount the fact that the curve is there.
It is 71x42x1.5cm, the inverted ‘V’ shaped stand has arms of 38cm and the open area at the front is 44cm across, the stand raises the panel 11cm from your desk. The weight including stand is just over 7kilos. The amount the centre of the screen differs from the edges is 3.5cm. The viewable screen when using the diagonal imperial measurement is 31.5inches in 16:9 ratio.
Recorded messages are increasingly being used as a scammer's opening gambit to deprive you of money.
Scams come in a variety of forms whether delivered via email, phone (either mobile or landline) plus any other method of communication that you might receive. You need to be aware that these types of attacks, for that is what they are, on your personal details and financial information are combated and blocked by whatever means possible that are available to you. Let me tell you a true story.
Certainly not ‘just another new phone’ this offering is an ‘Adventure’ offering badged Land Rover. While you could use this on your daily commute it would not be getting anywhere near what this off road offering has to offer you.
To call this an off road phone is probably the simplest thing to call it, it is packed with extra features for those who go orienteering, are geocaches and as it has GPS those who go to remote places. It is 15x7.2x1.2cm without the extra pack that magnetically attached to the back, that pack only increases the last figure the width. The front has a huge 4.8x.7cm speaker near the base that packs a good punch of volume. The viewable screen is 12x6.
Just over a year ago I took a look at Secret Investigations: Nemesis. Now it is the turn of a follow-up offering in the series. This is Secret Investigations: Revelations.
As with the original title, Revelations belongs to the Hidden Object genre. I will not bore you too much with the story line behind this game but it starts with a Wedding scene and involves a number of locations initially represented by decorated furniture shields or they might be free-standing paintings.
littleBits link with other littleBits to become bigger bits and for anyone ‘8 Years Plus’ a simple solution to make answers to other problems, ‘start out with a voice activated robotic hand and after that the only limit is your imagination’.
On opening the box you see a total of fourteen pieces as well as various cardboard pieces that can be connected together to form various items in the base Inventors Kit. Also in the box is a small ‘Base Inventors Kit’ Instructions Start Here booklet that tells you how to create a a basic circuit to create a buzzer to get the basic inventor going. After this you download the Littlebits App from either the Android or Apple store to your Smartphone and after that the sky is the limit.
Listening to your favourite music can be a personal experience aided by the appropriate equipment.
Brainwavz (no that is not one of my typing mistakes but the way that the company spells its name) is a Hong Kong based multinational company. As fans of the company will attest, Brainwavz has built up an impressive reputation for the development and manufacture of high-end earphones designed to deliver a high quality audio output at affordable price points.
When walking through Waterloo station I noticed lots of adverts for a new razor that I have heard nothing about, there was even a pop up barbers salon where willing victims were receiving a shave, so I contacted their PR company and I received a razor and a canister of their new shaving foam so that I could try it myself and then tell you all about it.
My regular wet shave is the five blades Fusion offering from Gillette. This offering has two blades. Whereas the Fusion has a head of five closely spaced blades this head takes as much space over two blades, before and after contact with each blade your face is lubricated. The whole unit is 14cm long, 4cm wide at the head which is 1.7cm and my own Fusion head is only 1.5cm.
Announcements regarding new products can often result in follow-up news concerning additional offerings from third parties.
Chain reactions are phenomena that can be the result of many different actions or just a single instance. In this case the chain reaction, to which I refer, was brought about by an announcement from Samsung regarding the expected arrival of a new release. As one of the leading developers and manufacturer of high-end (an often used euphemism for expensive) mobile devices, Samsung announced the forthcoming Galaxy S series family of handsets, namely the S10, S10+ and S10e models.
This is a compact panel that will turn your PC into a touch PC. Windows 10 was always marketed with the strap line of ‘made for touch’ and while a good number of notebooks have touch built in a far smaller number of Desktop offerings have that ability supplied as standard.
It is 54x31.5x2cm and has three sides of a rectangle metal stand that is 35cm wide at the base and the arms are 20cm long and fit into the rear of the panel so within reason you can decide the amount of back tilt for the panel. The external connections are all in one line that resides on an overhang around 7cm up from the base. 3.5mm in and 3.5mm out, HDMI, DisplayPort and HDMI as well as DC input. To make this a touch panel needs USB and there is an upstream port as well as two USB3 ports.
Classified as a Hidden Object Mystery game, Dead Link – Pages Torn, has been developed by Phime. The game opens with a disturbing scene as a young woman is captured when taking a late night run through the countryside. Fortunately this video sequence can be skipped in order to move on to the main title screen.
Before embarking on Dead Link – Pages Torn you can create profiles for different players and adjust some of the gaming environment settings. Adjustments can be made to the volume levels for music, sound, ambience and voice delivery for the game’s dialogue. You can opt to play in full screen mode with a custom cursor that changes shape when different actions are possible. The game has four levels of difficulty that range between Easy and Expert plus a Custom level.
Having recently told you about another SmartPhone from this company, here – their latest – has landed on my desk. Anything designed by Phillipe Starck is always eye catching; an early DAB radio was his work and still sits on my bedside table in daily use.
It is 15.5x7.5x.7cm and weighs 219grams. The viewable screen is 14.7x6.8cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement of 6.39inches. When you switch on you immediately notice the lack of a notch at the top of the screen as the front facing camera is behind the screen. Going around the outside has the volume rocker and on/off button on the right side. The base has USB ‘C’ connection. The left side has a dedicated Google button and insertion point for your Nano SIMs.
Continuing my look at various handsets, it is the turn of a Huawei offering.
Opening the latest smartphone offering from Vodafone was a little confusing. I was expecting the product to be a Huawei P smart 2019 handset which Huawei was targeted at users who were looking for a reasonably price handset, with a price tag of sub-£200, but the box containing the handset was embellished with the letters “VX” along with the Huawei logo and the year 2019.
While a proportion of the latest SmartPhones have USB ‘C’ connections there are still a good number of new phones arriving with Micro USB connectors so this latest device to cross my desk from SanDisk still has a place for lots of people.
It is a 16GB USB memory stick and at the other end the same memory shared for a Micro USB port found on SmartPhones. It fits easily on any key ring so data can come with you. It is only 3cm long and 1.5cm wide and .7.5cm thick with a weight of less than 6 grams. The middle has a metal clip that is 3mm wider than the casing which allows it to be added to a keyring.
The arrival of 5G technology is underway as testing begins in earnest and Manchester by Vodafone.
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