GadgetSpeak Articles

GadgetSpeak has close to 5,000 product reviews and other articles. You can use this page to find others opinions on anything from mobile phones to computers to the latest kitchen appliance

 
Once upon a time a phone was just a phone. Now companies such as Sony Ericsson are adding features by the bucket load.
Music, images and Bluetooth connectivity are all featured in the latest Sony Ericsson new phone product line-up recently announced at an establishment known as The Hospital.  I suppose Sony Ericsson's PR company might suggest that the choice of location was just in case the gathered journalists were so overcome by the new products that some form of medical attention might be required.
canon pixma iP5200R printe

Canon Pixma iP5200R

Whilst network inkjet printers are not rare, Wireless Network ones are, this offering supports wired and wireless networks and of course USB.
It is 43x30x14cm add another 4cm to the middle figure when there is paper in the vertical A4 tray and add another 20cm to the 14cm height. First the printing speeds and these should not vary whichever method you choose for connection providing you have a good signal. Printing the nonsensical 200 word document in 'fast' mode produced a page that was black and far better than some other manufacturers 'draft' modes.
Originally referred to as the Mouse Company, Logitech has let loose a new rodent.
Adding to its range of mice, Logitech has launched its LX5 Cordless Optical model.  As its title implies, this is a wireless mouse that use optical technology, rather than the ball method, for providing positioning information.  Tastefully coloured in black and matt grey, this two-buttoned, wheeled mouse connects to the computer via a wireless receiver that can be attached either to a USB or PS/2 port through the use of a supplied adapter.

Scrapbook Factory Deluxe V3

This is V3 of this Art Explosion product, but it is the first one I have looked at. The idea is good, replace all those items lying around in various places with one collection.

eTrust Internet Security Suite

Protecting your computer is not a task to be taken lightly. CA offers an all-in-one approach with its Internet Protection Suite.
avermedia hybrid cardbus tv tune

AVerMedia Hybrid TV Card

To be precise this card gives you analogue and digital TV and just for good measure FM radio all from a PCMCIA card into your notebook.
It comes with one of these Getting Started in 'x' languages books that do not quite say enough. I played safe and installed the software first but I think you could probably have inserted the card first.
The success of the iPod has seen numerous add-on products enhancing its functionality from companies such as Kensington.
pure dtm 300 dab radio and cd playe

Pure DTM-300

Fancy a stylish looking DAB/FM unit that also plays CD’s in a quite flat enclosure and all topped off by being in various shades of black.
Pure Digital have been in the forefront of DAB radio in this century. The DTM-300 is probably a design icon rather like their 'Bug' that was designed by Wayne Hemingway. Maybe it's me and it just looks stylish, I can see this unit sitting proudly in a office unit, the main feature making this suitable is it's lack of depth. It is 44cm wide, 28cm tall and only 16cm deep.
Today’s technology devices often need to be stylish as well as functional. The Oregon Scientific wireless speaker solution is a prime example.

NETGEAR® MIMO

There are two things in the computer world that always seem to give me problems and both require non wired connections, recently I have succeeded with both.
The first is GPS connection for navigation and the second has been solved by this NETGEAR® MIMO router. I have used with only limited success several modem/routers from various companies. Getting them to talk to the Internet is easy, getting the notebook to talk to the Internet without security is easy, with security is trickier, the hardest part is getting the notebook to talk to other PC's on the network and visa versa.
Multi-function capabilities come to the humble remote with the arrival of Logitech’s new advanced universal device.

Technology or Gimmick

Two small items that do a vital job, the first a device in daily use with a twist. The second something even grandma had but here you should be never in the dark.
Not every document needs colour. For medium and heavy duty work, a laser printer can be the preferred option.
Image Courtesy of Dell Inc. The Dell Laser Printer 1710 is no shrinking violet.  Designed for the home or small office user, this printer has a solid and permanent appearance, emphasised by its 396 x 355 x 247mm (W x D x H) dimensions, giving you the reassuring feeling that this piece of kit should be able to cope with whatever printing tasks you aim in its direction.
canon A620 camer

Canon PowerShot A620

This is a 7.1 mega pixel offering with 4x optical zoom, however it is still small enough to fit in a pocket or bag.
I wonder if any manufacturer will be brave enough to produce a camera designed for those of us who are left handed? The majority of the body is only around 3cm thick that's until the right side where another 2cm creeps in to make your grip secure for the right handed. The total dimension are 10x7.5x6.5cm and the weight is around 350grams. Let me explain the 7.
As Internet traffic increases, so speed of operation tends to suffer. We take a look at a possible solution.
Let's face it, we all want more. It doesn't matter whether we talking about speed, quantity, capacity or whatever type of measurement you care to think of, the very fact of human nature means the desire is there except perhaps when it comes to waist size and those final demands that mistakenly get pushed through out letter boxes.

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Why did they not have cartoon Dogs like Clifford when I was at School? Don’t worry I know the answer, and before someone says they didn’t have TV, they did!!!
Printers tend to remain in one location. However the HP DeskJet 460 has other ideas.
Printers come in all shapes and sizes.  I have to say that the HP DeskJet 460 series, dedicated label printers aside, ranks as one of the smallest printers I have seen.  This thermal inkjet printer, with its appealing silver casing, measures a compact 13.4 x 6.45 x 3.17 inches (W x D x H).  Weighing around 4.5lbs, it is eminently portable as you move from location to location.

Fujitsu Scan Snap

Should you need to scan a lot of documents – both single and double sided – then the Fujitsu Scan Snap can do it at 15PPM and this is a true figure I have done it.
Be honest, how many torches do you have that are not working because of a battery problem? There is a solution.

Yakumo Alpha GPS PDA

Last week (10/2/06) I told you about the Navigation software supplied on this PDA, now as this is a functioning PDA in it’s own right I can tell you about it.
The unit is 12.5x7x2cm and weights close to 200grams. It has a nice solid feel and the screen resolution of 240x320 is clear and sharp. It is a PocketPC 2003 unit and the operating system is WinCE 4.20. You have 27.5MB of available RAM.   I found battery life a little disappointing especially when using the Marco Polo Navigation software (reviewed 10/2/06).
As the advert states “You can’t but them in the shops” yet that has not stopped Dell from becoming a household name with a range of products that include PDAs.

The Ultimate Troubleshooter

I’m still not sure why I was sent this software, but it looked interesting and as I was sent an activation code I had access to the full package.
The Sony Ericsson W800i is the first mobile phone with a Walkman music player built-in which by itself would make the W800i worthy of attention but this phone does have some other features going for it.
Sony Ericsson w800i with headphones Measuring 100 x 46 x 21mm (L x W x D) and weighing 99g, the W800i is certainly small enough and reasonably lightweight making it suitable for most users.  However I, for one, am not enamoured of the W800i's colour scheme.

Microsoft Keyboards

Here I am looking at two keyboards, both from Microsoft, the first the Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 and the second Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Centre.
The Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 is not as outrageous as some non conventional designs I have used in the past. The curve places the main qwerty keys in a slight smile configuration. In fact the main area takes up little more space than a conventional offering. It is a 108 key keyboard with nine extra Internet keys at the top making it a little deeper than a standard unit.
Deciding which data to keep and which to discard should no longer be a problem - especially when 400GB drives are available.

Yakumo PDA with Navigation

A Pocket PC PDA with navigation from Marco Polo the unit being sold in the UK by Evesham Technologies. As regular readers will know I do not have a great record with PDA navigation.
Style is now competing with functionality with certain devices. Take the latest flash drive from Integral as an example.
Blue, green, yellow, pink or lilac - the choice of colour is yours. Although some might regard this statement as being fashion related - and why not if that suits you - there is a far more practical reason that I can offer for the different colours used by the Integral USB 2.0 SPLASH Drives. Each colour could be used to identify a specific task or a particular user.

It’s Naim Time

A string quartet, now you would assume that would be classical, although Naim do a classical section they also have what they call contemporary I just call it good music.

Diskeeper Reaches Version 10

One way to help speed-up hard disk activity is to use a defrag tool. A leading contender is Diskeeper.
No matter how careful you are, the content of your hard disk will become fragmented over the passage of time. This will happen quite naturally through the normal course of business as files are removed and new data is added. Rather than look for a space big enough for the new information, Windows will break the file into portions which can then end up in various locations on the hard disk rather than a contiguous area.
Be it called pen drive, smart drive or a range of other names a USB stick is a huge advance on a floppy drive in both of the sizes, smaller dimensions and much larger capacity.
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