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« | RSS.HomePage | » 1. Personnal1.1 ReviewsToo late, too pricey?Review The ATI Radeon X1800 XT will go down in history as one of the shortest-lived flagship 3D graphics products in history. Launched three scant months ago, in October 2005, the lengthy delay in its introduction - said to be due to production problems with the R520 graphics processor that powers it - means that it's set to be replaced this month, January 2006, by the next generation of high-end ATI GPU.? I know Apple, and you're no AppleReview "This is a truly historical meeting of the established and new media," said Les Moonves, the head of CBS, about his network's new video partnership with Google. Um, no, Les. So far, it's just a really crap web site.? The best AMD consumer-oriented processor yet?Review The Athlon 64 FX, the pinnacle of AMD's consumer processor offerings, now has two cores, to more effectively run a modern OS. There's no surprise - the mystery of whether or not the next FX would be single- or dual-core was dashed a while ago, and really it was obvious if you think about it. Once you understood that it was dual-core, then going on to figure out the target clock frequency was a piece of cake, given Athlon 64 X2 4800+.? The Intel-powered alternative to the Mac MiniReview It's finally arrived - the first Mac Mini clone. Our review system was supplied by Evesham, but the barebone chassis is manufactured by AOpen and has been known as the 'Pandora'. Sadly this catchy name is gone - AOpen has re-named it the Mini PC, which is just plain boring. Anyhow, name aside, this is a really cool-looking little machine - it arguably looks even better than the Mac Mini, mainly due to its aluminium case.? »
[+] Sapphire Radeon X800GTO²The best worst-kept secret in the graphics market right now?Review Nvidia's GeForce 6800 GS chip is a respin of the 6800 GT. It's built on a 110nm process enabling it to offer higher clock speeds and, as such it has taken a lead over the cards based on ATI's X800 GTO. However, Sapphire is exclusively offering a part called the X800GTO². The 'squared' refers to the fact that this card's GPU has one 'quad' of pipelines that has been disabled, but that with a bit of jiggery-pockery from a BIOS flash and an overclocking tool, it can be turned from a 12-pipeline 400MHz card into a 540MHz 16-pipeline graphics card.? Latest and greatest?Review The W900 is billed as the latest and greatest in the 3G Walkman phone series. Spotted at the launch in October in black and in white, the latest news is that only the white version will be released in the UK. And for the first three months, the W900 will only be available in the UK on the Vodafone network.? »
[+] Microsoft Xbox 360It's here. It's impressiveReview Unless you've been living in a Buddhist Temple in the mountains of Tibet for the past few months you will be well aware that the Xbox 360 has launched in the UK. Although there has been a massive amount of coverage and speculation in the technology press regarding the 360, the general marketing has been slightly subdued. OK, so you may have seen the odd advert on TV over the past couple of weeks, but there hasn't been what I'd call a major marketing push. Perhaps Microsoft is waiting for Christmas to spend the marketing dollars, or perhaps the it knows that pretty much every 360 is going to sell on launch day whether it advertises it or not.? Review Asus' A8N32-SLI Deluxe is one of the first motherboards with two PCI Express graphics card slots that offer the full PCI-E bandwidth of 16 lanes to each slot. Rather than releasing a new chipset altogether Nvidia made a standalone x16 lane PCI-E controller, the SPP 100.? Format-tasticReview Buffalo probably isn't the first name that springs to mind when you think of DVD players, but the Link Theater is more than just a DVD player. Following in the footsteps of KiSS, Buffalo has created a DVD player that can play multiple video formats on multiple storage media. Gone are the days when consumers just needed MPEG 2 DVD playback in their living room, now MPEG 4 is as much a pre-requisite as retail DVDs.? Real overclocking potentialReview The GeForce 6800 GT was a cracker. While Nvidia wowed everybody with the 6800 Ultra, it was the 6800 GT that most people bought, offering most of the bang without quite as much of the buck.? Entertaining and stylishReview Slim and sweetReview Turn your Fs to PsReview The Avant Stellar keyboard stands as a major throwback in a PC industry that thrives on making devices smaller, sleeker and quieter. Creative VisionTechnologies has created a keyboard that's clunky, loud and heavy. And it may be exactly what you're looking for, especially if reprogramming keys is your thing.? Too short?Review Cinema on the move?Review Toshiba's Qosmio range is set up for entertainment and the G20 stands at its head. With a large widescreen display and running Microsoft's Windows Media Center 2005, Toshiba has pretty much thrown the kitchen sink at this thing in an effort to ensure that it can act as a full-on digital content hub.? Gorgeous?Review Just like Chelsea Football Club's manager, the D600 is a suave and sophisticated phone that comes across as one cool cucumber. But does the phone have the features to match or is it all style and no substance?? Outclassed by PSP?Review We might not like the idea, but manufacturers around the world are intent on telling us that we must and will watch movies on the go. One of the first companies to try and get you to swallow this mantra was Creative, and its latest attempt is its update to the Portable Media Center, the Zen Vision, writes Stuart Miles.? Treo beater?Review Much as I like i-mate's Jasjar - aka HTC's Universal - its size makes it less practical for me as a phone rather than a PDA. I'm clearly not the only one who favours a smart-phone device that operates like a PDA but is small enough to hold up to my ear and use like any other handset.? »
[+] Palm TX Wi-Fi PDABack in blackReview It's not so long ago that Palm launched the LifeDrive, the first PDA to include a hard drive, and Palm set itself up with a tough act to follow. Its twin autumn launches comprised one PDA designed to get newcomers interested - the £80 Z22, and one for the more serious PDA fan, the T|X, writes Sandra Vogel.? »
[+] NEC N411i i-mode phonei-mode arrivesReview I remember getting my first WAP phone. The hype surrounding the technology was massive and I was expecting an amazing experience. Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed, and WAP proved to be slow, poorly implemented and often expensive. One of the things that annoyed me most about WAP, was that I was well aware that the Japanese were enjoying the benefits of i-mode, writes Riyad Emeran.? Could do better?Review It seems like every other week I'm reviewing yet another tiny Pentax five megapixel compact camera. In fact a quick browse through my camera samples folder shows that this is the eighth one that I've written about this year. Come on Pentax, give my aching fingers a break, writes Cliff Smith.? Flash player perfection?Review Despite it's higher model number, the T30 actually sits between iRiver's T10 and T20 players (reviewed here and here). Like the T20, it's intended to be a compact fashion statement, but with space for a AAA battery, it's designed to offer a very long play duration, as per the T10.? High class tech in a non-nerdy caseReview Yesterday Cingular announced that it is bringing Nokia's 9300 Communicator to the US market starting in November. The 9300 puts a QWERTY keyboard, and a powerful computer, into a form factor apparently designed to repel gadget geeks, such is its conservative styling.? Films in your faceReview Many dubious products have stumbled on the rocky road to true innovation. Before the mobile phone reached mass-market saturation, yuppies lugged around lumps of plastic that were closer to army field radios than items of desirable personal technology, writes Jonathan Bray.? Wireless wonder?Review HTC has been tempting its fans with the Universal handset since the beginning of the year. The prospect not only of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GSM/GPRS connectivity but also 3G, and with them a landscape-oriented display and full QWERTY keyboard, not to mention Windows Mobile 5.0, has fuelled interest in the machine since T-Mobile announced in February that it would be offering the machine on its network.? One for the road?Review Too small?Review You've got to hand it to iRiver. Faced with Apple's iconic iPod, the company hasn't tried to emulate its rival by devising a single, clear product identity around which to build its range. Instead, it's gone for a scattergun approach: fire off lots of different models and hope some of them stick to consumers.? Worth the wait?Review If you have even a passing interest in 3D graphics, you've probably been waiting for the appearance of ATI's dual-GPU solution. It seems like aeons ago that ATI announced that it would produce a platform to rival Nvidia's tremendously successful SLi, but now, finally I have a CrossFire system in front of me and it's time to see if it was worth the wait, writes Riyad Emeran.? Too many corners cut?Review The Captain Scarlet of mobile PCs?Review We test the top LGA755 motherboardsReview Which motherboard to buy? Determining the answer to this question is, arguably, the most important of all hardware choices. The choice of motherboard defines, in part, just how future-proof a system will be. Making a bad choice can lead to problems that aren't apparent for, say, CPUs and processors. Having to replace a motherboard usually necessitates a long-winded process of reinstalling an OS, programs and data. In short, your motherboard has to be good or your system won't be.? iPod Nano need not panicReview In the early days of Windows Mobile smart phones Orange was the UK's leading light, launching the first UK device way back at the tail end of 2002. Since then Orange has been joined by other operators and by operator-agnostic vendors, but the company has kept its own line flowing with a steady range of new entrants. The latest of these is the SPV C550, a blatant attempt to jump on the music bandwagon, but with a few other nice plus points too, writes Sandra Vogel.? Treo-beater?Review Just as the great unwashed now think that all MP3 players are called an iPod, so there was a time when all handheld devices were simply known as iPaqs. This must have annoyed most vendors, especially Palm, but HP was never heard to complain, writes Stephen Patrick.? »
[+] Apple iPod NanoApple's master-stroke?Review Unless you were hiding in a cave last week, you'll have heard about the latest changes made to Apple's iPod range. Out went the iPod Mini, which on the surface seemed like a strange decision. The Mini enjoyed a fanatical reception from the millions of style-conscious consumers who realised that they'd never fill a 20GB iPod no matter how hard they tried, while its smaller dimensions made it even cooler than the original white icon. However, when it comes to dimensions, the iPod Mini looks positively obese compared to its replacement, writes Riyad Emeran.? Cross-platform development nirvana?Review Since its arrival in the mid-1990s, RealBasic has been helping amateur and professional software developers create applications quickly by side-stepping most of the complexities other languages and programming environments throw at them.? Cheap as chips?Review If you aren't a gamer, integrated graphics may seem the best imaging option to choose for your next PC. Integrated graphics engines may be cheaper than add-in cards, but they can hit system memory performance hard, and since on-board graphics are usually only available on budget chipsets and motherboards, you may also miss out on key features such as RAID storage or dual-monitor support, writes Andrew Miller.? Orange gets it right, second time aroundReview Just under a year ago I reviewed the original 3G Orange Mobile Office Card and was decidedly unimpressed. Sub-standard hardware and poorly considered software added up to a package that, quite simply, wasn't up to the job at hand. This situation was made worse for Orange by the fact that only a few weeks earlier I had reviewed the Vodafone Mobile Connect 3G data card, and it had performed flawlessly, writes Riyad Emeran.? Overclocker's dream - or too expensive?Review Think of mainboards based around AMD's Socket 939 processors. Now think of the chipsets on which they're based. We bet that Nvidia and VIA would be on the top of most people's lists, and with good reason, as both companies have a well-established heritage in designing chipsets for AMD CPUs.? Good for gamers and overclockers?Review DFI's popularity has risen steadily ever since it launched its Lanparty range of motherboards a couple of years ago. Since then the Lanparty family has grown with the introduction of a 'lite' version in the shape of the Lanparty UT, writes Lars-Goran Nilsson.? As fast as it's big?Review We've never done a review of a single hard disk before, but this Hitachi drive justifies the attention. It's the first 500GB disk drive to hit the shelves - Hitachi has got its drive to market ahead of the likes of Maxtor and Seagate, who have announced drives but not yet shipped them. Half a terabyte in a single drive. Blimey! writes Leo Waldock.? Time to scrap that PC music hub?Review Germany's Hermstedt isn't a name you'd usually associate with hi-fi or digital music. The firm is better known for its ISDN-based file-transfer solutions for media companies, so the Hifidelio Music Centre marks something of a departure - I suspect the hand of a company staffer who had the product developed because he or she wanted to buy one.? Solaris 10 on x86Review If Sun gets very serious about Solaris 10 on x86 and the Open Solaris project that it hopes will nourish it, Linux vendors had better get very worried. That's because, in the many areas where Linux is miles ahead of Solaris, Sun stands a good chance of catching up quickly if it has the will, whereas in the many areas where Solaris is miles ahead, the Linux community will be hard pressed to narrow the gap. In this series of articles, we take a careful look at Solaris x86, examining the good, the bad, and the ugly, with Linux as our chief point of reference.? Good things, small packages?Review Toshiba has been designing and manufacturing notebooks for 20 years, starting with the T110 in 1985, which weighed in at over 7kg, had a battery life of 60m and possessed a green screen. To celebrate, the company has chosen to revive one of its older ultraportable lines, in the form of the Toshiba Libretto U100. Initially there will be this one model but if it proves popular, the line will be expanded, writes Stephen Patrick.? Entry-level two-core champion?Review At the beginning of the month AMD launched its latest budget processor, the Sempron 3400+. Launched on the same day was the dual-core Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Right now you have the choice between single core or dual-core but before long dual-core will become very much the norm, writes Benny Har-Even.? Jack-of-all-trades...Review This Brother All-in-One is more all-in-one than most. Although it has a footprint not much bigger than an A3 sheet of paper, it can print, scan, copy, fax, download your digital photos, answer the phone and make you a nice cup of camomile tea. OK, the tea's just on our wish list, but all the other tasks are within the compass of the MFC-620CN, writes Simon Williams.? Real paper, a real pen, linked to a computerReview It's been given loads of different names, but my favourite is 'Gerard's syndrome', named after a chap I used to work with. This office-bound ailment is the pest of many an over-worked office type, who spends so much time in meetings, feverishly scribbling down notes, that they never have time to write them all up or action any of the points raised, writes Charlie Brewer.? Getting Turion rightReview The general consensus here regarding Acer's Ferrari 3200 notebook was that it was a decent, well-featured machine, but no one was really sure that they wanted a bright red laptop. It seems that Acer has taken this on board, and the new Ferrari 4000 is more understated - in fact the general opinion this time around is that it looks damn cool, writes Riyad Emeran.? »
[+] Nokia 3230 smart phoneBusiness or pleasure?Review Whereas a few years ago Nokia was big enough to see off the likes of Ericsson and Siemens, it's not quite the giant it once. Part of the reason for that is the fact it's made some odd decidedly odd handset design choices in recent years. It let Sony Ericsson overtake on styling, its early 3G offerings misfired and its more quirky designs rarely convinced, writes Benny Har-Even.? »
[+] Apple Mighty MouseRe-inventing the wheel... er... ballFirst UK review Apple has insisted that mice need only one button for so long that its stance has become an article of faith for many in the Mac community. What a shock then that this week it should release a mouse with essentially not one but four buttons. And some of you thought the shift to Intel was bad...? »
[+] Fujifilm FinePix Z1Slim, sexy, yes - but is it any good?Review The Z1 features the same CCD technology found in the FinePix F10 - SuperCCD HR technology - providing 5.1 megapixel resolution in an extremely svelte package. The camera is so thin because it incorporates a lens with folded optics that enable a non-extending 3x optical zoom lens to be crammed within its body; it's similar to the lens technology developed by Konica Minolta for its 'X' series cameras and also featuring in Sony's 'T' series models and Nikon's Coolpix S1, writes Doug Harman.? [+ desc][+ titles]
1.2 PCsVostro revampedDell still hasn't formally announced its Eee PC rival but it did at least unveil some cheap Linux machines today based on Intel's Atom processor - the forecast revamp to its Vostro budget business box line-up.? Want a Blu-ray quad-core PC on the cheap? Tesco is selling Medion's Akoya P36888 for a mere pound under 600 quid.? Rumoured Eee spin off hastened?Is Asus gearing up to spin off its Eee PC line, or has it lost the plot? Having extended the Eee range to a dozen laptops, it now plans to compete with itself by launching a 10.2in Atom-based mini-notebook.? Pen mightier than the keyboardIDF Intel has demo'd the third incarnation of its kid-friendly Classmate PC, a new model that incorporates not only a touchscreen but also one that swivels into a tablet mode.? Good news for Atom. Bad news for Core?IDF Worldwide shipments of mobile computers will match those of desktops this year - and it's all thanks to the Asus Eee PC and its ilk.? Five funky designs to choose fromDell has had a flash of artistic inspiration; five "bold and contemporary" designs were crafted by urban artist Mike 'Emperor' Ming and feature on the Studio 15 and Studio 17 laptops.? SCC adopters wish they'd waitedIDF Intel has quietly introduced its first dual-core Atom processor, the 330, and a new motherboard to go with it.? Microsoft pins hopes on lucky number 7Vista?s death march picked up some pace yesterday, after a metrics researcher revealed that nearly 35 per cent of PCs built to run the Windows operating system have been downgraded to XP.? SCC subsidisedOrange will tomorrow offer Brits Asus' newly announced Eee PC 900 16G for... well... nothing at all. Orange will expect however, punters to sign up for a two-year, £25-a-month airtime contract.? Or parents buy it for their kids to playAccording to a report by Game Daily, Nielsen Games questioned US GTA: IV gamers and found that 17 per cent of those who had purchased the game were between seven and 16- years-old.? Drivers ahoy!Acer has posted Windows XP drivers for its Aspire One mini laptop, allowing punters put off by the cheapest model's Linpus Lite Linux to switch to the more mainstream OS.? Light enough to carry in your pocketA laptop?s footprint can be dramatically reduced by removing the optical drive, so Freecom?s launched a slimline unit that it claims slides right into your pocket.? Small window of opportunityUbuntu-based things do well in tech circles, but the consumer space is different, as gOS discovered when Wal-Mart blamed poor demand from baseball caps and mullets for its decision to stop selling Linux-loaded PCs.? Amilo Mini coming to IFA, BerlinFujitsu Siemens Computers has expanded its Amilo PC range with a netbook addition. The Amilo Mini is based on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor running on Windows XP Home edition.? Motion controlled gaming for your PCAsus has finally officially launched its Wii-style controllers, which hit headlines earlier this year. Called the Eee Stick, the wireless controller allows users to play games in the same way as on the Wii console.? 'Completely groundless'Nvidia has denied reports that it?s planning to exit the chipset business, saying it has ?no intention of getting out of the chipset business".? More from the Taiwan rumour millThe web is alight with rumours that Nvidia has had enough of the chipset business and is poised to leave.? »
[+] Blu-ray to rule by 2011...gotta go out and buy all my favourite movies againBlu-ray backer Sony has announced that the format?s likely to outsell DVD globally in 2011, with over 5m Blu-ray discs having been sold around the world this year already.? Ultimate and Pro Fashion ranges addedAsus has designed a new range of Eee PCs designed to capture the hearts of a wider range of miniature PC lovers, the company has confirmed.? »
[+] EA preps video game PCsBuy a PC to suit the titleElectronic Arts (EA) plans to release pre-configured PCs alongside big name video game launches, in an attempt to blur the boundary between high-end PC gaming and hardware expense.? Offload tasks from the CPU for smoother videoPNY has unveiled its latest graphics card, which is designed to offload tasks from the CPU to provide more realistic gaming and smoother video replay.? So why is outlook unchanged?The world?s economy may be going down the pan, but PC sales are holding up pretty well. In Q2, demand from BRIC ? Brazil, Russia, India and China - held firm, while fire sales in the US fuelled big shipments.? Stylish Studio Hybrid line unveiledDell has unveiled a range of miniature PCs aimed at anyone looking to minimise their electricity consumption and maximise their desktop space.? Windows-only XO timidly opens curtainMicrosoft has quietly released to manufacturing a tweaked version of Windows XP to run on the One Laptop Per Child XO computer.? Not just HP, then...Dell says ten laptop models have been sucker-punched by the GPU problems affecting Nvidia chipsets.? School opts for voice recognition desktopsKids restocking their pencil cases with new pens at the beginning of a school term could soon be a dying sight. At least in one school Down Under, where voice recognition technology is now on the curriculum.? While avoiding trucksInterview Despite harsh economic times, Michael Dell hasn?t been complaining. "We've been growing faster than the industry for the last three quarters," the Dell CEO told a group of Latin-American and European reporters.? »
[+] Buffalo burns 8x Blu-rayThe fastest burners in the
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Placed firmly in the musical youth market, the W550i is one of latest edition to the Sony Ericsson Walkman series: a tri-band GSM phone with music, Java, web and email capability. As with the K750i/D750i, Sony Ericsson has again introduced a cluster of phones with a common theme and brand, all based upon the same internal technology. The good news is that Sony Ericsson gets it right and has a selection of solid phones to suit the needs of media-hungry consumers.?
Ultra-compact digital cameras don't come much thinner than the 1.5cm-thick Sony Cyber-shot DSC T5 a supremely pocketable 5.1mp digital camera that will really turn heads towards the lens.?
Alienware is still fairly new to the UK market and up to now has stuck to its guns and produced only very high-end, and very expensive, PCs. But Alienware isn't only well known for its high-end, high-powered gaming systems, but also for its large, stylish cases.?
iRiver's Flash-based T10 is one of the chunkier digital music players I've seen. It's clearly pitched at a more sporty audience - it's got yellow trim, always visual shorthand for a 'sport' model - and both its size and heft are intended to appeal to folk who maintain an 'active' lifestyle, whatever that is.?
Navman is hoping to win back business from its PDA-based GPS rivals by creating a new range of budget units that offer a scaled down version of its advanced rigs but at a fraction of the cost. One of the first, the Navman iCN 320 is for the GPS newcomer. There's no large touchscreen, and everything is controlled from buttons placed on either side of the screen. As for the screen itself, although fairly large, it looks incredibly small compared to the unit, writes Stuart Miles.?
Panasonic has been making notebooks for a long time, but you may not have come across the Toughbook brand before. The reason for this is that Toughbooks tend to attract a buyer who is more concerned with durability than design and performance. To get an idea of who the Toughbooks appeal to, next time you see a BT engineer working on a junction box in the street, take a look over his shoulder. It's a near certainty that he'll be working on a Toughbook, writes Riyad Emeran.?