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As a mere man this camera has a distinct disadvantage, so much so that the PR lady who sent it to me apologised you see its p i n k, quite a nice subtle shade but its still pink. However if you are a man I am assured they do other colours.
The Casio Exilim EX-Z550 compact digital camera measures 10.5x5.5x2cm, with the lens fully zoomed it adds another 2cm to the 2cm width. The unit weights 130grams. The camera is fitted with a 14.1mega pixel sensor, with 4x optical zoom and 26mm wide angle lens that takes rather nice images. The face has the lens with the flash above and to its right at least 2cm away.
With a tag line of "Create it. Play it. Organise it. Share it", a new product from CyberLink sets out to provide support for the upsurge in digital lifestyles.
As its title indicates, CyberLink Media Suite 8 Ultra brings together a number of tools designed to work with your digital content. Entering the same territory covered by products such as Nero Reloaded and Roxio Creator 10, this CyberLink software opens with an interface that categorises its functionality into the areas of Music, Movie Player, Data Photo, Video, Copy & Backup plus a number of utilities represented by icons running across the bottom of the screen.
Settlement development, hidden object game play and puzzle solving come together in a new title from the Alawar casual gaming site. The game casts you in the role of a 300 year old Emperor.
In the game of Settlement: Colossus you take on the role of a 300 year old emperor who was once honoured by the Gods and who ruled his people wisely. However events turned against him and he lost his true love as his kingdom was laid to ruin by his enemies. He was forced to lead his loyal band of followers in a search for a new homeland. After many years of fruitless searching, a ripe, uninhabited location was discovered.
First a rather fine set of upside down torch like speakers together with a beefy sub woofer from Altec Lansing. Second a rather beautiful set of Digitally Enhanced Audio Headphones from Plantronics.
These consist of a sub woofer and a pair of speakers that look like quite large torches, the difference is that the larger ends go down and get added resonance out of whatever surface you place them of, a wonderful design. The speakers are 27cm tall and 11cm across at the base but little more than 4cm at the top, the sound comes not only from underneath but also all along the front of the units. There is a single lead from the left speaker going into the sub woofer.
In this final part of the look into the iPhone economy I take a softer approach - looking at what you
can load onto your iPhone from Apples appStore
Human beings are endlessly inventive. A quick trip to the iTunes App Store will confirm that. I don't even know how to describe the breadth and depth of what is out there, but here a are few apps that I just love. Do you remember things in the middle of the night, when you are out and about? This app works just like a pad of post its. You can either use your finger to scrawl a quick note to yourself or the keyboard if you need more detail.
Once regarded as a luxury item, camcorders are now often looked on as a must-have companion for even the occasional traveller.
With the appearance and popularity of various basic camcorders, such as the and , manufacturers of more mainstream kit have needed to look to their laurels especially with regards to any additional features offered by their products. One interesting approach, adopted by Sanyo, can be seen with the company’s camcorder. This is sometimes referred to as a dual camera because of its capability to capture both movie clips and still images in a single session.
Until last month I was unaware that Panasonic did either headphones or earbuds, mind you they have also been around in the white goods sector (mainly in Asia) for 50 years but more about that on another occasion.
First the only set not truly new the these qualify as there is a new colour a vibrant red. They are a full headphone looking like the offerings of a decade or so ago but with of course a 3.5mm gold plated jack plug rather than the larger size plug that dominated the market in the period I am thinking of when big was the way to go. They come with a 1.2metre lead to allow your MP3 player or iPod to reside even in the lowest of the low jean pocket.
Doro are well known for their mobile phones for the elderly and those with limited sight and very good they are. However they also do phones for landlines and here is one ideal for those who work in the garden its rugged.
The phone is 14.5x5x2.5cm and coated in a rubberised material meaning it should withstand the odd drop or three. It weights 130grams. The charging base also has the ability to page the phone ideal if you have put it down somewhere and can’t remember where. The base is 11x8x4cm at the top and slightly more at the base. A red charging light on the right and the paging button on the left. As with most Doro home phones you can have more than one handsets for those who have large properties.
While not in the same league in terms of a long running series as Last of the Summer Wine, Murder She Wrote has an impressive pedigree with its number of episodes and has now made the transition to a computer screen.
The second part of my round up of some of the many accessories available for your Apple iPhone - starting with headphones!
I took a look at powering your sleek and trendy iPhone along with suitable cases to protect your little wonder of touch-screen technology. Today I'm looking at just a few of the many available headsets and related accessories. The final part will delve into Apple's appStore to see how your iPhone can help you when you're not making a call! Having an iPhone means I can leave my iPod at home.
For many a good nights sleep is rare, others need help in the way of sleeping pills, alcohol or maybe just a milky drink. Here is another way, no pills, no hangover in fact it is just following a light played onto the ceiling above your bed.
I have had the LightSleeper for sometime and while I have found it helpful, for me anyway it is not a total solution. That is why I have persevered and I also wanted the chance to try its effectiveness during the longer summer days where it still seems to do what is expected provided the room is still somewhat dim, it does not need total darkness. It is 11cm across the circular base which is rather like a saucer. The height is 11.5cm; the circular top is a maximum of 7cm across.
Part one of my round up of some of the many accessories and applications available for your Apple iPhone!
Having been completely underwhelmed by the recent fanfare launch of the new iPad from Apple I decided to ditch the Blackberry and succumb to the sexiness of the iPhone. There is something wonderfully intuitive about sliding things around on a screen but once you have played with all the preloaded applications, what next? There are so many accessories and applications you can buy for your iPhone that bewildering scarcely covers it.
Hands-free mobile devices come in a variety of shapes, sizes and appearances including those that are found in nature. So what would you think the Jabra Stone looks like?
A visit to a certain residence in Baker Street can lead you into a world of mystery and criminal activity. There is also a French flavour to add further spice.
Now available as part of the Focus Multimedia extensive catalogue of titles, Sherlock Holmes Nemesis is a first-person perspective adventure game that is set in the year 1895 and located in London. The story brings together the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson with the French fictional cat burglar, Arsène Lupin who was created by Maurice Leblanc.
Having recently looked at a dual TFT screen from Samsung this modern looking (mine was bright red) digital camera looks near normal. But not that long ago a 28mm wide angle lens and 5x optical zoom would not be normal.
The Samsung PL80 digital camera measures 10.5x5.5x2cm and weights 138grams. While the red colour is rather too bright for my liking it does of course not affect the images it takes! The top bottom and left side have a chromed band as well as the lens surround on the front, as the legends are written in white on the chromed area they can be difficult to see what they say in certain lighting conditions. The face has the lens that can extend by up to 3.
There have been various initiatives designed to ease the problem of recharging portable devices. The use of USB and solar powered devices are just a couple that have gained credence. Now we have a device that offers to recharge multiple devices simultaneously.
Unless you are exceedingly lucky, each of your mobile devices will require its own recharging facilities in the form of a lead and a bulky power plug or plugs in the case of those whose travels take them to distant climes. The clutter this causes increases as you add more devices to the collection that you can not live without. Managing the logistics necessary to keep the appropriate power lead and plug with the correct device only adds to the problem.
A small circular shaped speaker that can be connected and powered from any PC with an audio out socket and USB port. However it can also (via USB) be connected wirelessly and with a charged battery with USB power.
It is 7cm tall and both 8cm wide and deep; it is a matt black rubberised material and should handle the odd knock or two. First if you connect via a 3.5mm jack the lead supplied is 66cm long. If there is no power in the internal battery then you will also need a USB port for power and the supplied mini USB to USB lead is 75cm in length. Should either or both of these leads be required they both plug into the unit at the back near the base.
First an assortment of puppies and second a single cat, the latter doing what cats do best sleeping. Both these puzzles are delightful and are from the 1500 piece range, I am certain both will be very popular with puzzle doers.
It is landscape in shape and 80x60cm in size. This image is made up of eight boxes seven of which have a single puppy and the eight has two puppies. In theory this makes it easier to complete as the blue areas around each puppy give you distinct areas to work with. However the drawback is there is a lot of the single blue colour. The image is by Greg Cuddiford. However it would have been nice to know a little about each of the puppies.
Up until recently my walking music needs were catered for by the Sansa Clip device. This small (55 x 35 x 16mm) silver and black device has been a regular accoutrement clipped (a feature that explains the products name) to my belt but now it has been replaced. So it is time to say a fond farewell to the Sansa Clip as I welcome the arrival of the Sansa Clip+.
This small MP3 player is available in a choice of 2, 4, or 8GB capacities. Whereas the original Clip device came in a choice of five colours, this new model can be purchased in sleek black unless you go for the 4GB version which will also be made available in either burgundy red or ice blue. This review is based on the black 4GB model.
I first saw this demonstrated early this year, it looked great. However when I tried to do the same, problems occurred, I asked advice and now a later version of the software seems to have solved all the problems that I initially had.
It is 11.5x12x6cm it has a USB port on one end and three USB ports in a column on the other with Ethernet port below that and the two pin power input at the base. The whole thing is in a frame that is 17cm to keep it balanced. While the PogoPlug itself is cream the frame is pink. PogoPlug is basically a switch that allows you virtually unlimited storage in ‘The Cloud’ at no extra cost you just buy the PogoPlug.
Do you fancy being a journalist? If so then you can take on the role of Nicole Rankwist who works for a New York paper. However it is in her role as dutiful daughter that she gets involved in The Mystery of the Crystal Portal.
The Mystery of the Crystal Portal is a game in the popular hidden object adventure genre but, in this case, with a novel twist that adds an extra challenge for the player. As often happens in games of this type, it all begins with a message from one family member to another. Nicole has had a telephone conversion with her father in which he was rather excited about his latest discovery which, he claimed, would “change the cause of humanity”.
It is time to return to the scene of earthquake destruction as you join the Anderson family in an escape attempt.
From its title you would suppose that this next game was a sequel to the GoGii developed Escape the Museum and you would be correct. However if you were then of the opinion that Escape the Museum 2 was about being trapped and needing to plan your escape from a museum then you would be wrong although not completely.
Nero has been around for many years, first as one of two excellent CD copying programs (I remember using it with Windows 98) and more recently as a Back Up package of repute now with version 10 its a Multimedia Suite.
Even when installed on a Windows 7 system this package needs to install various Microsoft C++ and Direct 3D items then it requires a reboot and on my machine anyway you needed to remove the installation DVD or it tried to start a restore from the DVD. The total time taken for both parts of the install including the reboot was 26 minutes. In total my hard disk had lost 3.35GB of hard disc space after the Microsoft and Nero installations.
Often you need access to your important data from a variety of locations. One way to ensure you have this access is to invest in a portable hard drive.
Not another Photo Frame, well yes and err no. Yes it is a Photo Frame from a name known for their panels but I doubt anyone would initially recognise the unit as it comes built into a stuffed toy, mine was a Polar Bear.
This Hannspree digital photo frame is 43cm from tail to the end of its nose. 30cm tall to the top of its head and a maximum of 9cm wide. It weights 1.5kilos. The screen fits into the body and its legs support it, the viewable screen area is 17.5x10cm giving the 8inch diagonal measurement. Before I talk about the screen I wonder if this is meant to be a toy or a talking point. If a toy then well….
I received samples of the glue (two types) and the tape last year, a few weeks later I was rung to find out how I was going with it, my answer was I would review it when I had found the need to use each product in real situations.
Adding to its various image editing products, MAGIX has released Xtreme Photo & Graphics Designer 5 which brings together a number of applications.
MAGIX Xtreme Photo & Graphics Designer 5 integrates the features found in MAGIX Graphic Designer 5, MAGIX Photo Designer 7 and MAGIX FunPix. Like other titles from the company, this product comes with a couple of bonus items. In this case you get the regular offering of MAGIX Photo Manager 8 plus Reallusion Face Filter Studio 2 SE. These titles need to be installed separately if you want to get the full benefit of what is really a suite.
In theory you just connect this External Hard Drive (almost as easy as the USB unit reviewed on Wednesday) install some software and then you have 1TB of external storage, shame it did not happen like that.
This Network Attach Storage (NAS) unit measures 19x11x5cm and is matt black apart from the face that is shiny black. The front has a green pin hole LED in the middle. The connections are on the back, two USB ports, Ethernet port and DC input above this the on/off button. It comes with a CD-ROM that has an application called Finder, manuals and Nero Back It Up 4 Essentials. There is also a printed manual the first 51 pages in English.
While many games support the use of a gaming console, some users are not comfortable with this type of approach and would prefer to use their keyboard as their main control method.
In the past I have looked at a number of keyboards. Some could be classified as general purpose; others offer additional multimedia controls; while occasionally you would get light displays and one, if memory serves me correct, could be rolled up when not in use to save on space. However this is the first time I have looked at a keyboard designed specifically for the hard-core gaming community. The keyboard in question is the Microsoft Sidewinder X4 model.
Egyptian Gods, time travel, altering history and hidden object game play are just some of the elements found in the latest Luxor title.
As one of the most popular gaming franchises, the Luxor reputation has been built on numerous match-3 style shooter titles. However with this latest Luxor title, Luxor Adventures, the game’s developers have branched out into the area of hidden object adventure game play folded into a storyline that includes the good old standby of time travel.
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