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With Cinderella relegated to a secondary role, the focus falls on the Fairy Godmother.
As part of the Fairy Godmother series of games, the one based on the story of Cinderella is a Hidden Object Adventure title. Developed by Domini Games, this title conjures up a fresh take on the Cinderella story as the Fairy Godmother is accused of crimes and arrested. I have been looking at the Collector's Edition version of this game which comes with a number of bonus items. The bonus items in Fairy Godmother - Cinderella have been grouped together in an Extras section.
Tronsmart claim you can give your ears a treat with this product.
Tronsmart, a tech brand that designs and manufactures world-class tech accessories, has announced the launch of the Studio 30W SoundPulse® Portable Bluetooth Speaker. Featuring TuneConn™ pairing technology, this product also offers Type-C fast charging and voice assistant capability. It is expected to be available from the Tronsmart website and Amazon.com priced at £69.99 with Amazon UK expecting stock to arrive within the next two months.
This is a battery controlled external camera with Siren and Floodlight and you have the choice of what it can detect, as an example ‘human only’ would be great in my area with the number of cats and foxes that roam around, if can save lots of false alarms that both you and your neighbour's will appreciate.
The Arlo Pro4 Spotlight Camera measures 7x4.5x8cm, the last figure the depth is to the back of the camera the mount can add around another 4cm to the depth. Like so many things today it is linked to your phone and indeed the setup of the unit is on your phone in the Arlo App.
Continuing its two platform approach, Parallel has released the latest version of its Toolbox product.
While Windows like to think of itself as the ultimate desktop operating system, some would doubt this opinion especially with regards to utilities. Even Microsoft seems to agree with this as can be seen by its re-introduction of its Power Tool offering giving users access to various additional features. Parallel is another company that feels Windows lacks some easy to use utility features and has therefore developed its own Toolbox product.
Samsung are one of the most popular brands of Android Smartphones. As with most recent Smartphones the main advances are made with the cameras and for that reason you could say this is a camera phone as a lot of people no longer bother to carry a camera day to day.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra measures 16.1x7.2x1cm the last figure is at the large camera area top left .2cm less for the rest of the thickness, it weighs 225 grams. The viewable screen is 7x15.7cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 6.8inches. The screen resolution is 3200x1440 and can display 16 million colours. Going around the outside has the volume rocker and below that the on button both on the right side. The base has speaker USB ‘C’ (USB 3.
A new series of Brother inkjet printers
Currently I have only been provided with details of a couple of the new models. However I have been informed that all the new models, including those due to arrive later this year, will offer support for the new Brother Mobile Connect app. Available on Android and iOS platforms, this app will help users to send a file to a printer device from anywhere at any time. The app can also be used to monitor the printer's ink levels and order replacement supplies when necessary.
Modern computer games have changed out of all recognition. This next game is an example of how it use to be.
Dipping into my "oldies bag" I came across of the Mysteryville 2 game. Developed by Nevosoft and originally published by iWin.com, this game is an early example of Hidden Object game play. It is the type of game that would suit somebody taking their first steps into the gaming world of Hidden Object action. Allowing different people to partake in this challenge of Hidden Object and puzzle solving of this game, you can set up profiles to record the progress of each participant.
This is the latest item from Pure to cross my desk, it is a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Auxiliary music playing device that has Spotify support and also works with Alexa and the last named can allow you to select what you play on Spotify without leaving the comfort of your chair. Best of all the output from its speaker sounds excellent. So this is not a radio as such but a Smart Speaker with 360 degree playback.
The Pure DiscovR measures 13cm tall when open and is roughly square at 9cm. It works on its rechargeable internal battery and can be used whilst being charged. A USB ‘C’ to USB cable is supplied in the box but no USB plug front, Pure are being waste conscious and they say that any PC or other device can do the job.
By creating mosaics, you can earn the funds to pay for a mechanical horse.
This next game from Digimight shows a change of focus. Rather than deal with the Dwarf Brethren, this game concentrates on the work conducted at Mira's Workshop. While the location of the game may have altered from the forests and mountain homes of the Dwarf environment to the workshop, used by Mira and her friends to deal with mechanical matters, the style of game play remains the same. This is a nonogram game.
Last week I told you about the first eighteen tools in the latest version of Parallels Toolbox perhaps best of all you can choose if it loads automatically on bootup, so many other tools do not give you that option and startup can often be time to make a cup of coffee and a slice of toast and if all you want to do is check your emails then…
Hide Desktop so all you see is the Window you are showing and those other sixty nine icons remain hidden, ideal if you are show someone a presentation, a single click brings all the icons back. Launch this allows you to put several programs together and show the time it takes for them to launch, so you can have several ready to open on a single button touch. Lock Screen means exactly that no one else can ferret around if you have to walk away for a moment.
Rather than a trip to the cinema, a film story could come to you with a game like Righteous Kill.
With a title that might send a shiver running up or down your spine, Righteous Kill is a Hidden Object game developed by Starz Media. As you might suppose from its title, this is a game based on the film of the same title. The film relates the story of New York police detectives, played by Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, tracking down a serial killer.
Combining five different titles featuring the battle between good and evil but are you up to the fight?
Recently I checked out a five title pack from the Focus Multimedia label entitled Darkness & Sorrow. Now it is the turn of a similar offering from the same source. This time the package consists five Hidden Object games brought together under the banner of Angels & Despair. As with the Darkness & Sorrow games, originally launched under the Alawar brand, the five titles making up Angels & Despair have the same heritage.
There are a good number of things that can be done in Windows that are not always that obvious as to how you do them. Sometimes people find a way but often it takes a lot of effort to do it. Here are a package of little things that can make what was hard easy again. Best of all you can download a free seven day trial to see if they are for you.
The first of these is Archive this allows you to just drop items you may need in the future onto a window on your screen and while they are still available just not there in your face. Barcode Generator is a tool that helps you make a barcode you just choose what content needs to be encoded and drop it on a window on screen. Barcode Reader this is something most of us will have used on our phones to download an App here it uses the camera on your PC to read barcodes.
While gamers may take the accolade for success, it is often the keyboard and mouse that is the reason for their success.
Gamers, especially those of the hardcore variety, are a competitive breed who are always looking for ways to improve their performance through the tools they use. Trust Gaming aim to help gamers in this respect with the launch of its GXT 863 Mazz Mechanical Keyboard and its GXT 922 Ybar Full RGB LED Illuminated mouse. While I have yet to see these two products, I have been provided with some details of the keyboard and mouse.
During Lockdown and afterwards I spent a lot of time online with Webinars and various Zoom and various other online meetings both work and friend related, far too often people were moaning about the times they could not get into group simply because Windows was spending ages upgrading, other were getting problems with bandwidth for various unconnected reasons. The polite version from many was I am going to get a Chromebook as they do what you want.
So here one of the latest range that may help them and if there are programs and Apps that you cannot do without them Chrome already allows access to the Android store so Apps on your phone now work on recent Chromebooks. Better still Parallels is just launching a program that allows you to run Windows on your Chromebook. This offering from Acer measures 30.5x205x1.5cm the last figure is the maximum thickness as at the front it is only 1cm thick, it weighs only 1125grams.
Needing hard copies of your documents and images, this next product could help.
Adding to its J5000 range of printers, Brother has introduced its MFC J5335DW model. This particular product is a multi-function device based on its central ink-jet printer capability. Adding extra functionality to the basic printer operation are features delivered by a flatbed scanner, faxing option and an ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) unit. Brother is aiming the J5335DW at the small office / home office market.
If you are looking for something that is kid-safe, kid-proof and kid-friendly then this next product might fit the bill.
News has just reached me regarding a new set of headphones product that has been developed specially for the purpose of home schooling. I should add that I am sure that parents and innovative children will quickly think of other uses that would widen the appeal of this product. Launched by ONANOFF, a company founded in Iceland in 2010, the product in question is the BuddyPhones School+ Wireless kid's headphones.
Having recently told you about a small DAC from SoundBlaster here a larger one, this however is not just a DAC it is also an external 7.1 sound card and still more. While the recently reviewed DAC was useful for those on the move to get great sound quality here the X4 is definitely for those in a static position probably to get improved sound where an internal card is not available.
The SoundBlaster X4 measures 12.5x12.5x3cm with a big round volume control knob on the top that increases the height by close to another centimetre. Also on the top are three indented touch buttons for Audio Balance, Direct Mode and Super X-Fi. The front has 3.5mm input for microphone and 3.5mm output for headphones. Both the left and right sides are clear. The back has four 3.5mm Line out sockets for front, side, rear and Q/Sub, there are also Line in, Optical Out and USB ‘C’.
Developed in Spain, a new smartphone arrives to tempt users.
This is a quality speaker that has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Chromecast and Auxiliary input; it has control by voice curtesy of Google and of course like everything of quality ‘size is not everything’ as it is quite small. Setup should be a matter of minutes then just enjoy the quality of the sounds and wonder why other speakers even large ones do not sound so good.
The Braun LE03 measures 16x16x7.5cm but the power lead sticks out from the back by another 4cm, if you were thinking placing it on a shelf it weighs 1.7kilos. There is possibly another problem but I will mention that later. Setup is first placing the unit, then linking it to Google Home and then enjoying your purchase.
Continuing the Academy of Magic series, e-Funsoft turns a student into an evil wizard.
A new term starts at the Academy of Magic. As the new students arrive for their lessons in magic, e-Funsoft has come up with the next version of its popular Match-3 series as students need to battle the latest threat to their way of life from the forces of evil. This time the threat comes in the form of Dark Possession.
While there is plenty of publicity and action regarding the food we eat, there seems to be less concerns about the water we intake.
Turn on the tap in your kitchen and you should receive, unless there is a blockage somewhere in your pipes, an output of sparkling water. This liquid can then be used for a variety of tasks including providing the body with an important element for a healthy existence. However, while the water you receive from a tap might have the appearance of a clear water, it is not always the pure liquid we think it is despite the efforts that have been made to remove impurities by suppliers.
A lot of rather nice Tablets and Laptops come with only a 256GB SSD drive and once a few larger programs and Apps are loaded you start to see a smaller than 50% of free space load a few videos and things start to become critical. So this offering of an external SSD unit of 512GB – or even 1TB – is a very nice option to have.
This fingerprint secured external SSD from Verbatim provides 512GB of storage, measures 11x4x1.2cm and it comes with a 60cm USB lead. The lead plugs in to the top end of the SSD drive .5cm from the top of the unit is the 2.5x1.6cm finger print reader.
Sometimes murderers can get away with their crime but then you could step in and solve the murder.
This is the first product I have seen from Rock Jaw Audio, a set of in ear earbuds they are wireless and these Bluetooth buds come with a charge box that means the buds internal batteries can be quickly recharged without needing to find power as the box provides extra power for the buds and also provides a safe storage space for them when not in use.
So what do you get, a flip open box 7x3.5x3.5cm which is the charge point for the earbuds, a 30cm long USB ‘C’ to USB cable that is used to recharge the box. The buds are fitted with a pair of gels and there are another five sets in the with the unit, there are also a pair of silicon fit fins for those doing workouts to keep the buds in place. There is also an annoyingly small 9x4.
From where do authors get their inspiration? This next game may provide the answer.
With a title that seems more at home when uttered with a pause partway through, Enlightenus is a game that belongs to the Hidden Object Adventure genre. Developed by Blue Tea Games, Enlightenus casts you in the role of a detective who receives a message from an author, named Edgar Lee, who required your help. As Lee was your favourite author when younger, you were only to willing to help him locate the missing pages from his novels.
When purchasing a Xiaomi handset from Affordable Mobile with a specific contract, you could end up with a free gift.
A bag within a bag this backpack is very lightweight and indeed folds up to a small size to fit into its own bag for easy transportation when not in use. It’s made of a lightweight material and when folded in its bag it could even fit into a larger handbag and quickly be unfurled to carry a good amount of stuff before fitting onto your back. They even provide a waterproof drawstring bag to put it in for those times when it has been used and got wet.
When folded up in its outer bag it has a size of 20x13cm and its weight is 270 grams. When unfolded it becomes 39x28x13cm the last figure is at the top and bottom, the central area is slightly more at 15cm. The straps are well padded so it does sit comfortably on your shoulders, as a well-built man I needed the extension to easily fit onto my shoulders but a thin smaller person could easily take these in via the fitting strap and give several centimeters less in overall size.
Since its original conception, around 2004, CCleaner has made its life existence to improve the performance of Windows and make your computer a faster and healthier computer.
Following its usual start-up procedure, CCleaner will offer to run its Health Check feature on the host. This facility checks out a variety of issues that tend to build on a Windows system over a period of time through general use. These issues tend to be categorised as Privacy, Space, Speed and Security. As part of its check up on my test system, CCleaner found 4987 trackers resident on the computer plus 2797 items that were considered junk amongst other findings.
Available in two colours, when I delved into what colour I was sent I find it was listed as Pink but to me it’s more like a light violet. This is a rather nice and quiet powerful Laptop from a company known for producing top quality items.
It is 21.5x31.5x1.5cm the last figure is at the back, at the front it is only 1cm. The screen display is full HD 1920x1080 and the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement is 14 inches, it weighs 1428 grams. The connections on the left side are 3.5mm socket for headphones and a USB port. The front is clear.
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