recentlyreviewed.net

Toshiba Portege R500 - a real laptop alternative to a netbook?

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:42:00 +0000

The Toshiba Portege R500 - a couple of years ago - before the netbook world took off - the ultra compact Toshiba Portege R500 was a premium £1600+ laptop - it features a 1.2ghz (or 1.33ghz) core 2 duo processor, built in DVDRW, 12.1" screen, wireless, 2gb ram, 160gb hd, and even the option of solid state hard drive, before these even were heard of. So it was a fully featured mini laptop rather than a stripped down large netbook. And what's even more important, and relevant today, is that it is available for around £300 second hand on ebay, which is the price you will pay for a new mid-range netbook. But instead of minimal features, memory, and built to a budget price and build quality you get a premium ultra compact laptop, with premium features.

However, is it any good? Or would you be better off with a "modern" netbook with low power and efficiency built in? Or perhaps even a small laptop with a 12 or 13 inch screen?

The keyboard is a standard laptop layout without anything obviously wrong (unlike the Vostro 1510), although when you do compare it to normal laptop keyboards it is roughly 1cm smaller, so this does seem to effect touch typing speed.

The speakers are missing - and instead there is only one speaker that seems strained when the volume is at a reasonable level.

The screen seems to have a very poor viewing angle - blacks are grey - the range between white and black (dynamice range) doesn't seem very good. The resolution is very good though with the same resolution at normal laptops with 15.6" widescreens. You have to sit in front of the laptop at a very specific viewing angle otherwise it's difficult to view.

The "power" - the CPUs offer 1.2ghz or 1.33ghz dual core (Core 2). This should be adequate and better than most netbooks.

The Windows score is: 2.2 Overall (the overall number uses the lowest score and not an average - the average would be 3.66 if Windows used this)

CPU calculations: 3.8
Memory (RAM): 4.2
Aero (Desktop) Graphics: 2.2
Gaming graphics: 3.0
Disk performance: 5.1

Noise? The cpu fan is quite noisy when watching BBC iplayer - I wouldn't really expect a laptop to be strained when watching iplayer and should be able to cope without making noise - not so with this one unfortunately. Most modern laptops are optimised to make minimal noise, even budget laptops such as the Dell Vostro range.

Battery life - says you should get 4 hours out of it. Although this will depend on usage. I got about 4 and a half hours out of it with very light use.

It has wifi, bluetooth, VGA connection, 3 USB (1 powered), firewire (mini), mic / headphone sockets, analog volume control, fingerprint reader, LAN, wifi switch, DVDRW, SD slot, built in microphone? (no webcam), Tested running Windows 7 Professional 32bit.

Size, and weight? It's small - shorter than an A4 piece of paper in length, but wider than the width of an A4 piece of paper. It's light as well, with an ultra thin (and fairly wobbly) screen. The screen is roughly half a cm thick, and the whole laptop when the screen is closed is less than an inch thick.

Overall - it could be worth considering. However the screen makes it quite difficult to recommend for anyone who does photography or web design. In fact it's not great for watching TV or films either. There is a lot of backlight bleeding, and viewing angles are very poor. The fan noise is quite disruptive to watching online tv (especially with the placement of the speaker on the left near to where the fan is) and the volume doesn't really get loud enough to counter the fan speed at times, especially when the internal speaker distorts above a certain volume.

Finding a similarly high specification netbook could turn out to be quite a lot more expensive. The Samsung NC20 with 12.1" screen is £349 and uses a VIA Nano processor (1.3ghz), and the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 is £399 and uses an Intel Atom cpu at 1.6ghz, however very few, or probably no netbook actually features an optical drive... making DVD playback somewhat difficult. And when you are looking at spending £350 - £400 you are also in the same price range as normal "entry level" laptops with full size screens, DVDRW, and all the other features you'd want in a laptop such as dual core processor.

However - if you're looking at spending £350 - £400 on a laptop, you are now able to afford most entry level 15.6" laptops, or even 12.1" and 13.3" Dell Vostro laptops, which are available with 2.2ghz Core 2 Duo processors, and full size keyboards etc. The Dell Vostro v13 - with aluminium body is also quite a stylish laptop available for under £400 - and with low power CPUs and a 1 year warranty this could be a good option. Click the pictures to embiggen.

New Olympus PEN EPL-1 DSLR Black, Silver, Blue "Announced" (Cameras)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:13:00 +0000

The new Olympus PEN EPL-1 has just been announced, it looks good in silver from the front, but looks better from the back in black. A new budget version of the Olympus PEN EP-1, and Olympus PEN EP-2, with built in flash, it will be available in March, priced at $599 with 14-42mm (28-84mm Equivalent) kit lens.

Other specs feature: ISO 100 to ISO 3200, HD Video recording, 12 megapixel sensor, SDHC card support (Class 6 recommended), anti-shake sensor, face detection, in camera panoramic mode, 2.7" screen, 6 art filters, multiple exposure, dust reduction sensor, HDMI out etc.

Two new lenses have also been announced: "the new super wide-angle zoom ED 9-18mm f4.0-5.6 lens (18-36mm equivalent) or the high-power wide to telephoto zoom ED 14-150mm f4.0-5.6 lens (28-300mm equivalent)." and Olympus have also announced underwater housing for the camera.

Press Release below, Found at Pocket Lint, Crunchgear, Photorumors, 43rumors

POWERFULLY SIMPLE: INTRODUCING THE INCREDIBLE OLYMPUS PEN E-PL1 CAMERA - Simple Operation + High-Quality 12 Megapixel Images + HD Video + In-Camera Creativity + Interchangeable Lenses = Total Compact Multimedia Package

CENTER VALLEY, Pa., February 3, 2010 – The new Olympus PEN® E-PL1 is truly greater than the sum of its parts, with a surprisingly small camera body packed with technology normally found in bigger, bulkier and heavier professional Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras and High-Definition (HD) camcorders. This third-generation PEN is built for shutterbugs who always wanted better pictures and considered a DSLR, but were intimidated by the bulky size and complex interface. The new camera’s simple design and easy interface enable consumers to easily create amazing images never dreamt possible. It will make you wonder how Olympus managed to put all of these powerful features inside such a compact camera for only $599.99.

The E-PL1 equals an affordable and powerfully simple all-in-one package that travels with you to capture life in the high quality that your memories deserve. “Many of today’s consumers want a camera with the professional still image quality of a DSLR and HD video in a compact body that’s as easy to use as a point-and-shoot,” said John Knaur, senior marketing manager, Digital SLR, Olympus Imaging America Inc. “Thanks in part to an image sensor that’s approximately eight times larger in size than what’s inside the average point-and-shoot camera, the E-PL1 delivers outstanding high-quality images. Add the flexibility of high-quality interchangeable lenses, the convenience of a built-in pop-up flash, in-camera creative features and technology designed to produce images effortlessly, and the E-PL1 is the total consumer-friendly, multimedia package.”

EASILY PEN YOUR STORY WITH A BRAND NEW PEN - This third generation of the Olympus PEN series combines powerful features in an easy-to-use package that will make capturing your life more fun. The new direct record button makes taking videos easier than ever and the new Live Guide functionality makes it simple to learn photography techniques without requiring the skills of a pro shooter.

New Direct Button for HD Movies - Recording HD movies with the E-PL1 is simple, thanks to an easy-to-reach red “direct button” (red record button) on the back of the camera body. If you’re about to snap a photo and you realize a video would capture the spirit of the scene even better, simply press the record button and instantly you’re capturing videos! Easily toggle back and forth between capturing stills and videos by using your index finger to press the shutter button or your thumb to press the red record button. Having the ability to shoot still images and videos opens up a world of imaging possibilities.

New Live Guide Sets the Scene Before You Shoot - The E-PL1’s new Live Guide interface simplifies great photography and gets the results you desire at the touch of a button. Want more vivid or muted color in your shot? Want warmer or cooler color? Want a brighter or darker subject, or a sharper or softer background? Or maybe you want to capture the fast-moving action of your subject with a little artistic blur, or perhaps freeze the action? Simply select Live Guide and press the up and down arrows on the back of the camera to slide through numerous photographic effects. Make adjustments and watch the LCD as the effects are made live – before the image is captured! Don’t worry about learning technical things like f-stops, shutter speed and white balance; jump right in by composing, adjusting exposure and more before the shot is taken. Seeing the results before snapping the image ensures you are getting the shots you want, and it will change the way you photograph. Shooting Tips are also included with Live Guide, so you can leave the manual at home.

Automate Everything - Live Guide is just the start of automated technologies on the E-PL1 designed to free you up to focus on your subjects instead of focusing on your camera’s settings.

➢ 19 Scene-Select Modes: From portraits to sunset shots, the E-PL1 is equipped with 19 Scene-Select modes for effortless picture taking, including Fireworks, Sunset, Children, Macro and Panorama, to name a few. Capturing beautiful portraits is easy with the ePortrait Mode that enables you to smooth your subject’s complexion.

➢ Intelligent Auto (iAuto) Mode: When you don’t want to use the scene-select modes, the iAuto mode automatically identifies what you’re shooting and adjusts settings for you to capture the best result depending on the situation.

➢ Face Detection: Reduce the chance of blurred subjects in images by recognizing up to eight faces, tracking them within the image area, and automatically focusing and optimizing exposure for sharp portraits.

➢ In-Camera Panorama: Capture three images and stitch them together to create one amazing, seamless panoramic picture. Or use the included OLYMPUS [ib] software to stitch up to 10 images together for the ultimate panorama.

➢ iEnhance: With this mode the warm yellow and orange colors of a sunset are heightened to a dramatically lifelike color that’s truer to what you see with the naked eye. iEnhance can be used in any mode, and automatically engages when using iAuto to enrich color in any subject.

➢ Share: Just connect the camera to an HDTV with an optional HDMI cable and use your TV remote to control playback functions and navigate the camera’s menus from the comfort of your personal front-row seat. The E-PL1 records to SDHC (Class 6 recommended) media cards that can be plugged directly into many devices and accommodate large files, including videos.

New Powerfully Simple Pop-Up Flash - The E-PL1 is the first camera in the Olympus PEN series with a built-in pop-up flash that makes it easy to illuminate low-light subjects, reduce red-eye and fill in dark areas. The camera is also compatible with a range of optional external flashes, including the Olympus FL-36R and FL-50R, which can be controlled wirelessly by the E-PL1 so you can dynamically control lighting as your photography skills grow.

PRO-QUALITY IMAGES - How do professional photographers capture the stunning images you see in the pages of glossy magazines and coffee-table books? Talent matters, of course, but you also need the right equipment. Rest assured that the E-PL1 has everything you need to produce vibrant, professional-quality images: a large image sensor, in-body Image Stabilization, Imager Autofocus, the proven Olympus Dust Reduction System and the TruePic™ V Image Processor.

Big Sensor, Not a Big Body - At the heart of the E-PL1 is a large-size image sensor that’s the same sensor as the one inside the Olympue E-30 and E-620 DSLR models. The only difference between this sensor and what the pros use is that this big sensor is inside the much smaller body of the E-PL1. This high-performance 12.3-megapixel Live MOS image sensor (eight times larger than the average point-and-shoot camera sensor) delivers excellent dynamic range, accurate color fidelity, and a state-of-the-art amplifier circuit to reduce noise and capture fine image details in both highlight and shadow areas.

Stabilize All of Your Lenses - Instead of selling more expensive lenses that have image stabilization inside them, Olympus takes a different approach by having image stabilization built right into the body of the E-PL1. This means that any lens Micro Four Thirds™, Four Thirds and any third-party lens) attached to the E-PL1 will deliver blur-free images thanks to three modes of In-body Image Stabilization that automatically compensate for camera shake, including in low-light situations or when shooting without a tripod. Since the PEN cameras are the world’s smallest interchangeable-lens cameras with image stabilization built inside the body, you can take the E-PL1 with you and capture great images, and it won’t weigh you down.

Track Your Subjects Wherever They Roam - The E-PL1’s Continuous Autofocus (C-AF) Tracking and Autofocus (AF) Target Registration locks your subject into focus and constantly adjusts focus and brightness whether you or your subject is moving. With this mode, a simple push of the shutter release enables you to keep moving subjects in focus – tracking them from left to right and from front to back – within the frame, automatically ensuring that even active subjects, like kids playing sports, are captured clearly.

The E-PL1’s Imager Autofocus in Live View enables you to compose, focus and capture the shot quickly and easily without ever taking your eyes off the camera’s large, 2.7-inch full-color, high-contrast HyperCrystal LCD for an easy, seamless viewing experience when shooting still images or videos. The LCD also provides a wide viewing angle of 176 degrees, which ensures that images can be composed from even the most obscure angles.

This Camera Leaves Others in the Dust - If you’re just starting out with a camera that has interchangeable lenses, you don’t have to worry about dust spots on your sensor ruining the perfect image every time you change lenses. Spend more time shooting with the E-PL1 and less time worrying about dust with the proven Olympus Dust Reduction System that produces spot-free photos with the exclusive Supersonic Wave Filter™, a patented ultrasonic technology that vibrates to remove dust and other particles from the front of the image sensor, capturing them on a special adhesive membrane every time the camera is turned on.

True-to-Life Color - The E-PL1’s Live MOS image sensor is complemented by Olympus’ TruePic™ V Image Processor, which produces clear and colorful photos using all the pixel information for each image to provide the best digital images possible. The image processor is noted for accurate natural color, true-to-life flesh tones, brilliant blue skies and precise tonal expression; it also lowers image noise in photos shot at higher ISO settings (ISO 100 to ISO 3200), enabling great results in low-light situations.

EASILY EXPAND YOUR CREATIVE HORIZONS WITH BUILT-IN EFFECTS - Express yourself with in-camera creative features. Professional images are rarely unedited images. Video and still image pros use computer-editing software to render their images with effects that set their shots apart from the pack. Olympus appreciates that you may not have hours to spend retouching your images at the computer, so the E-PL1 incorporates editing effects inside the camera to save you time. Whether you apply in-camera creative effects while shooting an image, or apply them later to images captured without the effects, all are inside the E-PL1, so you can achieve dramatic results on the go without a computer or editing software.

The E-PL1 has six in-camera Art Filters, including a new filter called Gentle Sepia. This filter gives your images and videos a soft, warm sepia cast similar to historical images from the early days of photography. The sepia tones are softer and the blacks are a true black, unlike traditional sepia images. The new filter joins Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pin Hole, Grainy Film and Diorama (the filter that makes everything look as small as the E-PL1).

With the E-PL1’s Multiple Exposure function available for still image capture, you are free to tell a visual story your way. The image capture options enable you to shoot one shot, then another and combine them in real time, or capture both shots separately and combine them within the camera later. Take a shot of your significant other, and overlay your self-portrait on top to figure out what your kids will look like. If you have kids already, overlay your kid’s face on top of a shot of his or her favorite cartoon character for laughs. Your ability to manipulate space and time makes this new creative multimedia device a veritable time machine.
You often can achieve greater photographic expression by framing a scene in a unique way. The E-PL1 provides four aspect ratios that serve as masks to frame your image to the desired proportions, including the standard 4:3 aspect ratio that is suited to an 8 x 10-inch enlargement; the 16:9 aspect ratio that will display beautifully on a widescreen television; and other popular aspect ratios, such as 3:2 and 6:6. The Multi-Aspect Shooting further expresses your creative vision when combined with in-camera Art Filters and Multiple Exposures.

With the E-PL1, you have your own living library of still images, HD video and audio to remix at your command. In playback mode, you can seamlessly mix stills and movies inside the camera to create a multimedia slideshow, and dub in one of three built-in dramatic background music options to provide a soundtrack for your cinematic creation. With so many creative options, there’s no limit to what you can create. Choose whether or not you want to play back just pictures, just movies or a combination; also control playing back the whole movie or just a clip.

OPEN SYSTEM EASILY GROWS WITH YOUR ABILITY - With a basic point-and-shoot camera, you get one lens built into the camera. One lens, that’s it. And it’s likely a small lens, which doesn’t allow a lot of light through to hit the image sensor. So, you may have a difficult time in low-light conditions. And without the option of adding more lenses, you’re limited to what that one point-and-shoot lens can do. The E-PL1 solves these issues by accepting a variety of lenses to maximize its functionality. Whether shooting still images or HD video, you can add everything from an extreme wide-angle fisheye lens to a super-telephoto lens for a wide range of expressive options.

The M. ZUIKO DIGITAL Micro Four Thirds lenses are designed to be more compact and portable like the E-PL1. Choose from the ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 zoom lens (28-84mm equivalent in 35mm cameras) sold with the E-PL1, the ED 17mm f2.8 lens (34mm equivalent), the new super wide-angle zoom ED 9-18mm f4.0-5.6 lens (18-36mm equivalent) or the high-power wide to telephoto zoom ED 14-150mm f4.0-5.6 lens (28-300mm equivalent).

If you want to have even more options, the MMF-2 Four Thirds System Lens Adapter makes the E-PL1 compatible with all Olympus ZUIKO Digital Specific™ lenses and other Four Thirds System lenses from Sigma, Panasonic and Leica. Olympus OM film-based lenses can be attached to the E-PL1 with the MF-2 OM Lens Adapter, and there are third-party adapters developed for lenses from most other manufacturers.

SOFTWARE AND ACCESSORY OPTIONS WHEN YOU’RE READY - The E-PL1 incorporates an accessory port for connecting the optional VF-2 live-finder, a detachable electronic viewfinder, or the new optional external microphone adapter set (which includes the EMA-1 adapter, the ME-51S stereo microphone and a cord) for those who want to capture enhanced audio with any microphone that has a 3.5mm plug. These optional accessories easily slide into the camera’s accessory port and hot shoe.

Consumers who wish to hold the E-PL1 up to their eye rather than use the LCD will appreciate that the optional VF-2, which provides 1.15x magnification and a 100 percent field of view with sharp resolution, brightness and contrast. The viewfinder refreshes quickly to minimize image ghosting on fast-moving subjects. It also rotates up to 90 degrees to enable photographers to look down into it, which is useful when shooting subjects from challenging angles. The built-in diopter adjustment and high magnification offer easy viewing with and without glasses.

The E-PL1 offers OLYMPUS [ib] software that includes photography workflow, browsing, editing and unique photo-organizing functions. You can organize your photos by person with automatic face-recognition technology, by location with a Geotagging function or by event. You can easily view photos on an HDTV or on the camera’s LCD with the Photo Surfing or Slideshow functions. The name [ib] stands for image bridging, image browsing and image brightening. The software will be available for Windows operating systems only.

Underwater Housing for Aquatic Adventures - The new camera’s compact design makes it the perfect companion for all of your dive trips. The PT-EP01 underwater case has been specially customized for the Olympus E-PL1 and is waterproof to a depth of 40 meters (approximately 130 feet). With its durable, high-quality polycarbonate construction, this Olympus housing protects the camera from water while also cushioning it from knocks and bumps on land. The housing enables viewing from either the camera’s LCD screen or an optional electronic viewfinder. The flash connectors allow optional use of up to two UFL-2 underwater flash units via fiber optic cable. A nonremovable front lens port accommodates multiple Micro Four Thirds lenses.

New Exterior Design, Same PEN DNA - The E-PL1 streamlines the Olympus Micro Four Thirds PEN series form and is available in three new body colors, including Black, Champagne Gold and Slate Blue. Thanks to its compact size (4.51″ W x 2.84″ H x 1.63″ D excluding protrusions) and light 10.4-ounce body, the E-PL1 won’t weigh you down when you’re on the go.

AVAILABILITY - The Olympus E-PL1 will be available in March 2010. It includes the E-PL1 Body, M. ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 Zoom, USB Cable, Video Cable, Li-Ion Battery Pack (BLS-1), Li-Ion Battery Charger (BCS-1), Shoulder Strap, OLYMPUS [ib] software CD-ROM, Manuals and Registration card. U.S. Pricing / Product Configurations: E-PL1 Body with M. ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 Zoom Lens. Estimated Street Price: $599.99

Review: The Sony Satio 12mp Camera Phone - Re-visited (Phones)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:03:00 +0000

As a phone - it's okay. It has a great screen (the built in videos are quite impressive) although it's not as colourful as the Nokia's OLED screen. Acceptable touch screen - although I'm not a big fan - so never really got completely used to (or happy) using this phone. The stylus seems quite loose - which has resulted in me loosing it once, and nearly loosing it a second time. The phone feels a little cheap - very plastic - although the sliding lens cover is quite nice and the shutter button feels decent. It's interesting (and a little surprising) to see Sony ditch Sony M2 memory cards and instead include an 8gb Micro SD cards. (It looks like Sony are doing the same with all their cameras and giving the option of Sony MS or standard SD cards).

It's got WIFI, GPS, a huge 3.5" screen, and almost everything else you expect from a modern phone (except for a facebook / twitter app etc which are noticeably missing), and surprisingly it doesn't have built in stereo speakers, instead it only has one internal speaker.

Another thing noticeably missing is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and the new MicroUSB charging standard - instead it uses Sony Ericssons standard connection, and provides an adapter for when you want to plug some earphones in (which then ties up the connection so you can't use it for anything else like connecting it to your computer).

The earphones look better than the ones shown on the box but come with a really short cable so you can't use them with anything else - they sound fairly clear, but seem to lack bass, and the rubber fittings aren't as rubbery as they should be. (Cheap £8 Creative Labs EP-630/A Noise Isolating Earphones (Sennheisers duplicates/copies?) sound much better than the provided Sony earphones).

The Nokia N86 seems to have slightly better mp3 playback quality - and nearly no background hiss - whereas the Sony has noticeable background hiss when not playing anything. The Sony also distorts above 70% volume, with 80, 90 and 100% adding no extra volume other than additional distortion.

Software - Symbian S6 v5 - the buggy touchscreen version of the software - so buggy at one point that the phones were recalled / withdrawn from sale until they had a software update for the phone(s) involved (including the Nokia N97). Although it's been updated with Sony's own home screen(s): Quick contacts, Web shortcuts (default to the fairly horrible built in web browser), Home with Music, keypad, media, messages, and a Google maps shortcut, Photos (shows your most recent photos), and Shortcuts which can be customised.

The built in photo / media viewer seems quite poor - for example in and mode (portrait or landscape) - zooming into the photo doesn't fill the whole screen (see examples).

As a camera - it's better than most camera phones - simply because it's got a real flash. It's also got a focus assist lamp. But compared to real cameras - it's very slow to switch on - slow to focus - and slow to take the photo. Colour is good - bright and saturated - without being overly saturated and there is very little ghosting or "white-out" / lens flare.

Flash photo - camera flashes compared.

As mentioned above, the shutter button feels quite good with a two step process - half press to lock focus and fully press to take the photo (much better than the Nokia N86). It's strange that the camera doesn't have the "Cybershot" branding - even though previous Sony Ericsson phones have had the branding - even "lowly" 5mp camera phones.

Macro with flash on.

Focusing indoors in low light is mostly successful, although 1/10 is probably out of focus. The camera does a very good job of toning down the flash when taking macro photos with flash - which is quite impressive as often normal cameras struggle with this. (see the Delonghi Cafe Treviso Coffee Machine Review for numerous examples)

16:9 Aspect Ratio

Speed / Timings:
Switch phone off: 12 seconds.
Switch phone on: 35 seconds
Switch from phone to camera: 2 seconds
Continuous shooting "BestPic" mode (without flash): takes 9 photos at 9fps, at 12mp - then you can save one or all of them (or any number of pictures you want).
Menu speeds are fairly slow.

Touch focus is quite neat - and lets you press the screen where you want to focus and it'll take a photo. Overall having a 12 megapixel camera on your phone is overkill - particularly if you're only going to be uploading them to facebook! Even a 1 megapixel camera would be good enough for facebook - with it's 604 pixel wide photos (less than VGA resolution).

Photo editing options (same as Nokia N86) - the options are brightness, contrast, sharpness, resize, crop, rotate, annotate, clipart, text, something, square, red-eye reduction, black and white, sepia, something, shame there isn't the option to increase saturation / colour. (Using the contrast option does a good job of increasing colour though)

Video recording is better than the previous Sony camera phone (the C905) - it now records VGA/30fps but nothing spectacular or impressive like HD or 720p (like most real cameras). The phone also has a video light that you can use to light dark subjects.

Overall - this is a usable phone - with an excellent camera and flash for a camera phone. If you want an excellent camera on your phone, this is the best currently available (as you should be able to see in the included sample photos) mainly thanks to it being one of the only current camera phones to feature a real flash, but other aspects of the phone are a little annoying (lack of built in facebook / twitter apps, slow software and initial bugs). The touchscreen isn't really good enough to convert me into a touchscreen user, and I much prefer the buttons on other phones. Also, you would most likely get better results from a compact camera, with even budget cameras offering a 3x or 4x optical zoom lens, 10 or 12 megapixel sensor, and more photo options.

Pros:
Real Xenon flash
Large 3.5" screen
Good shutter button

Cons:
Cheap build quality
Poor touchscreen
Sony charging connection, and no 3.5mm jack built in

Nb. The fairly poor / average photos of the Sony Satio were taken with the Nokia N86.

Ultimate Ears Super fi 5 silver earphones by Logitech (Review)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:55:00 +0000

Ultimate Ears Super fi 5 silver earphones by Logitech. These are expensive earphones, priced at £95. They come with 3 different sized rubber covers (aka "silicone ear cushions", you get 4 sets in total, 2 are the medium size), and 1 size grey foam earpieces (you get 2 sets of these).

They provide a scary amount of noise isolation - especially with the foam ear tips - which I found the most comfortable. Walking down the street, you couldn't hear cars driving past. They provide better noise isolation than the Sennheiser CX-300 IIs, and the foam ear tips are more comfortable in my opinion.

However, the sound is not necessarily better than the CX-300 II's in my opinion - the CX-300s have louder bass, and crisper treble. The difference in sound quality is quite subtle, and the most noticable difference is in comfort, and noise isolation (it's like wearing foam earplugs). Although the price is also noticeably higher for the Super 5s, costing three times as much as the CX-300s (currently £30)!

One thing I'm not overly keen on is the slightly firm feeling cable - the CX-300s feel a little softer to the touch and the silicon / rubber ear tips are harder / firmer than the CX-300s - which seems to make the Super Fi 5s a little uncomfortable when wearing the silicon earpieces.

If you're looking for excellent noise isolation and comfort then the UE Superfi 5s have the best options and most choice available regarding size and type of ear tip, however, I think it could be worth saving money by trying some Sennheiser CX-300 IIs first, or even Creative Labs EP-630/A Noise Isolating Earphones which are excellent performers considering they only cost £8. Especially if you're upgrading from the free ones that came with your mp3 player.

UE Superfi 5 Specs:
Frequency response: 15 Hz - 15 kHz, Impedance: 13 ohms at 1kHz, Sensitivity: 115 dB SPL/mW at 1 kHz, Noise Isolation: 26dB, Gold plated 3.5mm jack

Sennheiser CX-300 II Specs:
Frequency response: 19 Hz-21,000 Hz, Impedance: 16 Ω, Sound pressure level: 113 dB (1kHz/1Vrms), Noise Isolation: not stated, Gold plated 3.5mm jack

Creative Labs EP-630/A Noise Isolation Earphones Specs:
Frequency response: 6 Hz - 23,000 Hz, Impedance: 16 ohms, Sound pressure level: 106dB, Noise Isolation: not stated, Gold plated 3.5mm jack

SuperFi Box Contents:

Super fi 5

Three sizes of soft silicone ear tips

2 sets of Comply foam ear tips;

cleaning tool

pocket ready pebble-shaped case.

Reviewed: The Delonghi Cafe Treviso Espresso Coffee Maker - 5 Year Review (Coffee)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:17:00 +0000

Intro: The Delonghi Espresso Coffee Maker (aka "De'Longhi Bar 14 Café Treviso espresso cappuccino maker"), is a fairly compact electric presurised espresso maker with a milk steamer / frother. It's £58 at Argos (link - Delonghi Pumped Espresso/Cappuccino Maker. Cat no: 422/3852) Delonghi Caffe Treviso is what it's called on the machine. Nb. Also available from Amazon UK for £62 as the "De'Longhi Bar 14 Café Treviso espresso cappuccino maker"

The espresso machine has the right amount of pressure to make proper espresso's (14/15 bar) - and the importance of being able to make a proper espresso should not be under-estimated - as it's the basis for all real coffee. Too hot and the coffee burns (giving you a bitter taste), too much water and the flavour of the coffee goes and then you end up with effectively a filter coffee machine (and watery coffee).

Shown above: Ground Coffee that's too coarse - it made watery (thin) coffee - with little crema - and a poor taste.

The coffee used with this machine is crucial - it must be espresso coffee to work properly - this is much more finely ground than standard "filter coffee" or ground coffee that says it's "suitable for all coffee machines". To get the best results, you may want to invest in a burr coffee grinder, such as the Dualit Burr Coffee Grinder (£87 from Amazon UK), and yes I do think it's worth the money, as you can then buy roasted beans (or roast your own), and then get some of the freshest coffee available (the flavour, intensity and freshness of freshly roasted beans is highly recommended).

Pros:
- Can make very good latte's and cappucinno's (with the right coffee)
- giving you coffee like you'd get in a proper coffee shop (starbucks, cafe nero, coffee union, etc) but much much cheaper, and in your own home.

Just stuff that isn't great, but isn't terrible:
- needs the right coffee, eg. Lavazza / Rose? Espresso, and Illy's make VERY good coffee. Dowe Egberts Espresso coffee isn't suitable, other strength 5 coffee isn't suitable (too coarse), unless it specifically says it's
- some 'Espresso' coffee, and coffee that's too fine might not be suitable either.
- 1 litre water tank isn't very much so you regularly have to refill it.

Cons:
- Normal sized cups don't fit under the coffee bit, or the steamer, as you can see in the picture - you do need the right size cups as they are not provided.
- you have to either buy a special small espresso cup (As shown in the pictures), or remove the drip tray to fit normal sized cups in it - also to steam / froth the milk you may have to lift the machine up to fit the cup under (unless you use smaller cups).
- There is no drip tray for the milk frother meaning your workbench gets all messy with milk.

Controls can be confusing:
- The controls, starting with the On/Off switch - this turns the machine on, when the machine is ready to make espresso the big red OK light lights up. To start making the espresso, you then switch on the top switch which has a coffee cup / tap symbol next to it
- you then switch this off when the big OK light turns off, meaning it's finished making the espresso coffee. The second switch from the top, is the steamer switch, in order to steam the milk this needs to be on, and then you can turn the nob at the top to steam the milk.

The machine also has a small white "presser" which you can use to press the coffee down after you have put it into the holder. Under that is the water level meter, which you can use to see how much water is in the water tank.

I found the following method produced the best results for me: (Despite the manual saying you should leave it switched on for a certain amount of time to warm up the machine)

1. Switch the machine on, with the frother switch also switched on, (Start with fresh water every time you use the machine!)

2. When the ready light comes on: (you might like to froth / steam some water to clean it at this point, then) Froth a small amount of milk (normally 1/3rd of a cup - I use semi-skimmed), this would normally be warmed up enough with one froth (finish frothing when the red light goes off again) - it's better to have the milk slightly colder than required rather than too hot, as making it too hot burns the milk and ruins the taste of milk for latte's or cappuccinos

3. Once the milk is ready (sometimes you may need to wait for the red light to come on again and froth a little bit more if needed or wanted) you can switch off the froth switch.

Adams and Russell Coffee Beans are HIGHLY Recommended! www.adamsandrussell.co.uk (Shown
here: "Dominican Republic Barahona AA" graded - Very intense and unique smooth
cream like taste, with little or no bitterness to the flavour - and the Dualit
Burr Coffee Grinder)

4. Run WATER ONLY (without coffee) through the coffee machine when the red light is on, using the coffee / tap switch, switch it off when the red light goes off. I normally do this 2 or 3 times so that the coffee machine has a) fresh water going through it, b) all parts are clean and free of any old coffee, c) the machine will be thoroughly warmed up and d) it lets you know if the machine is putting through the right amount of water consistently. If you have problems at this stage, for example if the water appears to stall or come through slowly, then you may need to clean your filter or check for blocked holes.

5. While the coffee machine is getting ready again, you can put ground coffee in the filter, push it down firmly with the "stamper", then load the coffee machine, when the red light is on, switch on the coffee / tap switch, coffee should come through with a decent amount of crema and will fill around 1/2 a cup (depending on the size of the cup - sometimes more, sometimes less), when the red light goes off, SWITCH OFF THE COFFEE MACHINE (If you leave it on, hot water will continue to come through, and fill the cup, but you'll end up with coffee that tastes like filter coffee - you don't want that). You're done.

6. Wait for the few remaining drips to come through, take the coffee, and add it to your cup with milk. Swirl the coffee cup so that the coffee is mixed with the milk, and you should be left with around 1/5th of the cup as white milk froth on top.

7. Clean out coffee, and frother, and clean / wipe over the machine, removing any spills, coffee, milk etc.

Overall: It can make very good coffee, although it can be a bit confusing, meaning you need to think about it when you first start using it, and the three switches all look very similar at a glance so it's easy enough to accidentally leave the steamer switched off and not realise. It also seems as though it could have been designed much better, simply by allowing normal sized cups to be used, and by extending the drip tray. It also seems a bit random in it's performance (unless you follow the routine outlined above), so whilst it is good, and is good value for money, you may be better looking at other espresso makers, if you want something easier to use.

I've had the coffee machine for nearly 5 years now and it took a long time to perfect the process - once this was done - it became very clear that the type of coffee used (the freshness, the source, whether it was freshly ground, the fineness of the ground coffee) plays a very important role in getting the best flavour from the machine. A burr coffee grinder is highly recommended and finding coffee beans that you like is worth pursuing. Comparing this coffee machine to others, this is perhaps the best value for money coffee machine available that can produce the kind of espresso needed for great coffee - spend any less and you might find you don't have the right amount of pressure, or that the machine will burn the coffee and produce bitter coffee.

After 12 months the base of the coffee maker was quite rusty, as it's quite easy to spill water underneath the drip tray and underneath the water container, the design of the coffee maker means that water doesn't escape very easily. The feet of the coffee maker doesn't raise the coffee maker very high either which means the coffee maker will simply sit in water, either water that's on your work surface or water that's managed to escape from the base after spillage from above. This means the base is quite successful at getting rusty. And it could be worth putting the coffee machine on a raised base.

After 5 years a small spider set-up home underneath the drip tray and was planning on making baby spiders - so it is very important that you clean all areas of the coffee machine (although some areas are very difficult / or impossible to access making it quite difficult). You may want to thoroughly clean the coffee machine more regularly than me!

Android Apps Update

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Whittaker) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:20:00 +0000

A couple of Android apps that are well worth a look

Photoshop Mobile

An excellent, free Photoshop lite. Obviously it's nothing like the desktop thing, it's a few simple functions to allow users to improve photos with editing tools. Open it for the first time and it generates thumbnails, then simply tap a photo and then select 'edit' from the home menu. It then offers the following tools from three tap-to-pull-down menus:

Crop
Straighten
Rotate
Flip

Exposure
Saturation
Tint
Black & White

Soft Focus

The interface is very clever. For example, to add tint, tap 'tint' on the menu, then slide your finger over the image. Slide right to increase the value, slide left to decrease it. Very clever. Once done, save image, upload etc. Superb, simple, user-friendly.

Scoreboard

A Google sports app. Who knew that geeks like football? Very simple. Install, open, select your sport, then the country, then the league, then the team. The app then runs in the background and pulls down live scores, providing periodic notifications. Great.

Aldiko

As a reader of Ebooks since the days of Palm I noted with interest recently that ebooks outsold paper books this Christmas for the first time. Aldiko is an ebook reader that has a great catalogue of freebies and will read Epub format ebooks. The interface is a virtual bookshelf and reading can be customised in terms of colour and touch controls. The only ebook reader for Android that is any good. Downloads are quick and there is a massive amount to read for free.

Review: The Nokia N86 8mp Camera Phone - Re-visited (Phones)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:32:00 +0000

Previously I was particularly scathing of the Nokia N86 8mp Camera Phone - but perhaps, after experiencing the touchscreen Sony Satio, and updating the firmware of the Nokia N86 - my experience using the phone has been a little more pleasant, and it seemed about time to post my re-evaluation of the phone.

Most of the issues originally reported still exist (and pretty much all of them are still relevant), but being aware of the limitations has let me work round most, sorry, some of the issues (and ignore or avoid the rest), until I can get a "real" smartphone (see Android phones), and finding 3rd party apps has certainly helped.

First of all you'll need to install Opera Mini (version 5 Beta 2 works very well*) as the built in web browser is pretty rubbish, and data hungry. Another good app is J1CK.Tweet which is a simple and easy to use twitter app, with a decent number of features, such as letting you take photos and post them on twitter / twitpic (and then onwards to facebook if you use the facebook selective twitter app and #fb). See what I mean about needing to find a work-around or two?

ISO100 - Macro Photo taken with the Nokia N86

You can also use Opera Mini for RSS feeds - but I haven't found an app for this problem yet. (The built in RSS feed reader hides inside the built in web browser).

ISO100

The built in Sat-Nav software is still pretty annoying, and limited to 10 days of use. One feature you can use is the walking mode - and as long as you don't drive over ~29mph - you can still use this as a handy navigation system when stuck with no other solution. (The N86's built in Sat-Nav software is by Nokia, and called Nokia Maps - and is noticeably better than the Sony Satio's bundled navigation software: "WisePilot" - when I first used it, it only had four locations available: Sweden, Germany, plus two other European countries, which were not much use when I was in the north of England!)

ISO100

There is still no facebook integration built in apart from the "Facebook app" - which is basically a shortcut to the website, and an icon. It uses the built in web browser, and the web browser still doesn't accept email addresses with the subject defined after a '?' question mark. You can get round this by adding an email account to the phone, and adding your facebook mobile email address to your contacts, or by using a 3rd party twitter app (see above). But it's hardly elegant or particularly easy.

ISO100

Running too many programs at once is an issue - and by too many - I mean about 4 or 5 apps. Load up Opera Mini, Web Browser, Email, Music Player, etc and then try sending a text message to someone - and the phone will freeze, unable to open the text message page, and will give no error message, just an empty screen. You can go to each application and quit them one by one, but sometimes it's just quicker and easier to switch the phone off and on again.

ISO107 - Macro photo Dirty Cache

Battery life is still awful. The only solution to this is to carry a USB cable with you at all times so that you can charge it when you're in front of a computer. If you're staying anywhere overnight, you will need to take the wall charger, battery life is around 1 or 2 days. If you actually use it, the battery life is appalling.

ISO123

The battery life can noticeably affect the visibility of the screen in bright light - so it's important to keep the phone charged at all times. The screen does look very good - the colours are very bright, the screen is clear and crisp, assuming the battery is fully charged - and the sun isn't out. Although the screen does seem to scratch very easily.

ISO132 - Keep Off The Rocks" How about "No large notices?"

Since the last issue with ovi.com and their on-line services I've avoided them completely. However I've had to use the OVI desktop software - this is a big huge mess of an installation - centering around "Nokia Ovi Suite". The most useful feature of this is the ability to plug in your phone and use it's internet connection when yours is down, but the Sony Satio version of the software is much better, simpler to install and use, and gives you more useful information when connected to the internet. (The Sony Satio software is also easier to install, being cleverly stored on the phone, so that you can install it where-ever you take the phone, instead of the Nokia software coming on CD, or needing to be downloaded).

ISO107

The camera uses an LED flash, which despite Nokia's claims of excellent low-light performance thanks to the f2.4 aperture lens, just isn't adequate for indoor shots of people. It simply isn't bright enough when compared to cameras with a real flash (see DigiCamReview.com or the Sony Satio) and photos of people with any movement will come out blurry (see the examples below, these are fairly typical of the results you'll get indoors). In fact it's so bad that one nights photos with the Nokia N86 8mp were completely unusable - I took about 12 shots with the camera with flash, they were nearly all blurry, with poor colour, featured lots of red-eye, and were not even decent enough to put on Facebook (with it's lower than VGA photo requirements). In comparison the same number of shots taken with the Sony Satio on the same night all came out well due to the Sony's Xenon flash.

ISO100

Photos outside, in good light, can be pretty good. By pretty good, I mean good for a camera phone (see the examples shown - these are some of the better photos taken with the camera). I still think even the cheapest branded digital camera from Kodak (see below), Fuji, etc would be better than the Nokia N86. The macro mode is fairly good, but often the photos look a little washed out (lens flare?), and the camera is very sensitive to any dirt on the lens. Photos are still overly compressed and end up on average between 590kb and 1.9mb which is quite small for an 8mp camera (averaging around ~1.2mb).

ISO374 - Blurry Red-eye

Overall - this camera phone is pretty rubbish - but "acceptable" as a phone as long as you don't expect too much of it. Don't expect it to do RSS feeds properly or well (it needs a dedicated app for this), don't expect it to do Facebook properly or well (ditto), and don't expect it to do Twitter at all unless you get a 3rd party app. Most of all, don't expect it to be a decent camera, simply because it can't take decent photos indoors. The twin-LED flash solution, is just not good enough, and if you want a camera on your phone then you will need to get the Sony Satio with a real flash, or better yet, just get a cheap digital camera, such as the Kodak Easyshare C140 for £49 - it had a real 3x optical zoom lens, and a real flash!

ISO497 - Blurry movement

After three months of use I've grown to accept the phone's limitations - and grown to appreciate it's design - I like the buttons, the sliding design, and compact size. It's easy to text and phone people*, and the camera is acceptable in good weather**. But saying that, a dedicated digital camera is always going to be better, thanks to a real flash and better image quality - the images from the Nokia look over processed, and the colour seems poor generally. The phone works fairly well on the internet (better with Opera Mini) and is a decent enough phone if you don't want to switch over to a touch screen, are a fan of Nokia, and you don't expect too much from it. However, saying all this, it's still pretty rubbish, and should have been, and could have been much better!

Pros:
Uses the new Micro USB connection which is now the world-wide standard for all mobile phones! Hooray!
Uses the standard 3.5mm stereo jack
Wide angle 28mm AF lens

Cons:
Satnav limited to 10 days navigation.
LED Flash (no substitute for a real flash) - doesn't light subject well, but does create red-eye
Poor value for money (especially when new, as with most new contract mobile phones - £238 sim free)

* apart from the crashes obviously.
** assuming you don't have a real digital camera with you.

Tested with software version 20.115.229.01, 21-09-2009. Face detection was added with the firmware update.

Android 2.1 Flashed to a T-Mobile G2 Touch

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Whittaker) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:40:00 +0000

First of all, this was made possible through instructions posted on YouTube by a chap known as tech0StickyAsGlue and his YouTube channel can be found here. A big thank you to him, even though it is almost certain that he will never read this.

Before I go any further please be aware of the following:

IF YOU PROCEED WITH THIS, OR ANY OTHER MODIFICATIONS TO THE ROM IMAGE ON YOUR PHONE THEN YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS KIND OF MODIFICATION VOIDS ANY WARRANTY ON YOUR PHONE. THIS MEANS IF YOU ARE LEFT WITH A BRICK AS A RESULT OF MODIFYING IT YOU ARE LIABLE. YOUR PHONE COMPANY OR SERVICE PROVIDER WILL NOT PAY OUT FOR A NEW ONE AND NEITHER WILL I OR ANYONE ON THIS WEBSITE. IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT ANYTHING IN THIS PROCEDURE, OR YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING THEN DO NOT PROCEED. IF YOU DO GO AHEAD YOU MUST BACK UP YOUR DATA FIRST. FLASHING YOUR PHONE WITH A NEW ROM IMAGE IS DONE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I MEAN IT

On top of that, this post is not a set of instructions on how to do it, nor is it a recommendation concerning which ROM to use. The video shows a particular ROM but I ended up using another in the end.

I decided to do this after getting extremely frustrated with T-Mobile. As I write HTC are preparing to roll out Android 2.1 to all HTC hero handsets and T-Mobile are still messing about with 1.6. Even more irritating than that is the fact that the update will not be rolled out over the air, instead the phone needs to be flashed. Even MORE IRRITATING THAN THAT is the fact that Mac is not supported so I have the most advanced phone on Earth and because of T-Mobile's useless tech support I have to take it to the shop to update it! Bloody ridiculous. I decided that if I need to flash it I might as well do it myself and get 2.1 with all the benefits that it brings, including Google Navigation. In your squidgy, fat face, useless T-Mobile tech support.

Firstly, thank god I am finally rid of the buggy, laggy, inadequate 1.5 Android release. 1.6 onwards brings speed, stability and a better interface. The ROM I sued dispensed with all sings of T-Mobile interference with the image, except for the boot screen. I am sure I could dump that too but who cares. I just wanted them off my phone. I wish someone would stop mobile companies from installing all that crap like web 'n' walk and suchlike. Nobody likes it and it just clutters the phone, consuming memory. If you don't believe me, look the success of iPhone on O2. Not a sign of O2 anywhere but the bills.

The only downside to this that I have come across so far are a few missing apps. It is a missing YouTube application. To be fair the image I used is not ready for full release yet so I can't complain about that. I got around this by installing vTap, a free application, from the Android Market. Also peep, the preloaded HTC Twitter has gone and been replaced by a new social network called Plurk. I've signed up, we'll see. worked around this by installing Twitli from the alternative, unoffical Android Market Mobentoo. One presumes that the name is a pun on 'mobile' and 'Ubuntu'. Mobentoo has a fraction of the number of apps that the official market has, but there are some exclusives, including some great games, and freebies which are better. The Android Market could easily become a collection of Lite apps that don't do much except annoy you in to buying the full versions. Still, variation can't harm anything. No-one is forcing Mobentoo on anyone. Personally I like it. The website has their full application catalogue with data matrix barcodes, so instead of squinting at the phone you can read on your computer, scan the barcode to download. Excellent.

This ROM, even though it's a cooked version of 2.0 is miles better than 1.5, which T-Mobile lumbered it's customers with. In future I will go SIM free from Expansys and buy a contract to get the phone free. It's far less hassle and you have control over your updates, meaning I on't have to go through this farce again. I am not really too big on modding but sitting like a lemon with 1.5 whilst even G1 users are on 1.6, with talk of 2.0 looming is irritating to say the least, I would go so far as to say outrageous and shabby service. Performance in 2.1 is way up and whilst I could say it's a nice surprise, it's actually what I expect. Cyanogen 1, T-Mobile 0.

The main plus points:

Free emulators. Emulators are available for free from Mobentoo for the following: NES, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Sega Genesis.

2.0 retains integration with contacts and Facebook. It pulls down all Facebook data to your contact, including profile pictures. Nice touch.

HTC generic: no more Web 'n'n Walk. This is good because when phone makers put that stuff on phones like this: WHAT'S THE POINT? Seriously, does anybody use that crap?

Tethering. Another glaring omission from Android thus far for me, being a Mac user and all. Plus, it's unofficial so it comes within my data plan.

And finally, the biggie, Google Navigation. It's every bit as good as everything else Google does. Voice commands are disabled in this ROM, I imagine the ROM coder will be on the case.Signal acquisition is quick, mapping and directions legible and it tracks perfectly. This is every bit the match for anything TomTom have ever come up with but the obvious kicker: IT'S FREE! Mark my words - this will blow the lid off the SatNav market. The others are going to have to innovate or die, it is that simple.

I will be watching to see what the Nexus One turns up. I may well get an Android powered netbook too if they are this good.

Kensington SlimBlade Trackball - £84 of Mouse (Computers)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:28:00 +0000

The Kensington SlimBlade Trackball may be the suitable for people with expensive RSI (Repetitive Strain Injuries) priced at £84 from Amazon UK. More details at Engadget, pic via SlipperyBrick.

Google Navigation update: TomTom throws down the gauntlet

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Whittaker) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

TomTom want to charge £99 for a cradle for the iPhone and £59.99 for the application with Western Europe maps. That's £160 (more than a standalone TomTom sat nav unit) for what Google is giving away for free. I really had to check to see that I had not misread the price for a piece of injection moulded plastic at £99 when it should be £9.99. Just for the record, when I get the Android 2.0 update I will be paying £30 a month for a free phone and an 18 month contract with unlimited internet, 800 texts and 600 minutes and I will have full Google voice guided navigation with just the cost of a cradle (seen on eBay for under £20). On the iPhone the closest matching tariff will cost me £184.98 for the phone, £34.26 p/m plus £160 for the TomTom kit.

In order to own an iPhone with decent sat nav I need to spend £160 on the GPS kit, £184.98 on the phone and an extra £4.26 p/m on the contract, which, minus the cradle for my G2 Touch, comes to an £401.66. I could buy the top of the line TomTom alongside my G2 Touch for less than that. This nonsense concerning the iPhone has to stop. The gross spend on this would come to £921.66.

I think it is time for someone to conduct a survey in to hallucinogenic drug use at TomTom in the sales/marketing departments.

Review: T-Mobile G2 Touch (HTC Hero)

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Whittaker) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:54:00 +0000

It was time to renew my mobile phone contract (well, actually my partner's contract this time - she gets the hand-me-downs) and after my experience with Android using the HTC Magic this phone was only ever going to be Android again. I did not want a slide-out keyboard so my options were either the HTC Tattoo or this. Given the better camera and less chunky design I was sold on the G2 Touch very easily.

For anyone interested I quickly flicked through YouTube and dug up this promotional video:

On with my review now.

First Impressions

I have the black version, which is nice. In the box is the phone, headphones/hands free kit, battery, 2GB microSD card which is already loaded in to the phone, and a charger. The charger is nifty because the plug has a USB port meaning that a separate USB cable is not necessary - a nice saving, plus, I don't know anyone who is ever stuck for a USB cable. They are everywhere, breeding like wire coat hangers. Picking it up for the first time felt good. It has a nice weight and it balances well in the hand. When I powered it up I went through the rigmarole of setting up my Google account, email and suchlike. I then immediately installed all the applications I had on my Magic. The performance of the G2 in doing so was better than the Magic, faster and smoother.

The screen is simply gorgeous - absolutely pin sharp and clear. I began to customise the phone and discovered what a superb interface it has.

Here you can see the screen. The wallpaper is customisable and you can have different ones for the lock screen and the open screen. What you can see here is the clock widget (one of 12 different clock widgets preloaded) and several shortcuts. The screen is one of seven fully customisable screens that are available with a swipe. It is set up so that the home key takes you to the 'middle' of the seven and obviously there are three screens either side, accessed via a swipe. Each screen has sixteen slots where application shortcuts or folders can be dragged, or widgets can be installed. Widgets vary in shape and size but as a rule you can install either a single full screen widget, two half screen widgets or four panel style widgets. The G2 comes preloaded with both Android widgets and HTC widgets. The Android widgets are functional but the HTC ones look way better. Currently pinned to my screens are the following:

Screen 1: (left most screen) Full screen weather widget

Screen 2: Twitter widget

Screen 3: People list (a neat widget that lets you add your frequently dialled contacts to a scrolling list - very cool)

Screen 4: (Home) shortcuts to my 16 most often used applications

Screen 5: Calendar widget and Google search widget

Screen 6: Photo album widget (allows you to scroll through your pics without opening the gallery application

Screen 7: TuneWiki widget

Installing these widgets makes the phone extremely user friendly and not only beats scrolling through the applications menu, but also the widgets such as Twitter, Facebook, music etc are live, real time widgets. As an Apple lover it pains me to say it, but sorry boys, this kicks the ass out of the iPhone interface. For my most frequently used applications it is often one tap, no opening of the application necessary. This is the most user friendly phone I have ever had in this respect. I think Android has an image issue as it is thought of as geeky because anyone who used this phone would think twice about iPhone. I never say never, but for my money Apple need to do something revolutionary to get my business back.

The phone has, aside from the touch screen, 6 keys and a rocker button for volume. Red and green phone buttons with the expected functions, home, menu which accesses setting in all applications and another rocker key that is both back and opens a search field, again in all applications. They are all easily accessible and responsive. The on screen keyboard is easy to use. Typing is comfortable (I have large goalkeeper hands) and there is an excellent predictive text and spelling engine which also learns any new words typed - a nice touch that has been a glaring omission in previous phones, occasionally making me want to launch them skyward.

Applications

The first thing I did with the applications was open the browser. It's the standard Android browser with interface add ons courtesy of HTC. It's lighting fast, loads pages smoothly and never crashes. Panning is smooth with no lags or dragging frames. I then discovered it allows tapping, zooming and pinching iPhone stye. Result! This makes it Safari's equal, and better for two reasons: it supports Flash, and functions can be adapted to applications, for example, if you tap a podcast feed link it will invite you to choose a default application to open it, either browser or whatever client you install. You can choose not to set a default and to just choose an application this one time too. After that I opened the albums application, where photos and video are accessed. Visual media look stunning on this screen, really beautiful. The interface allows you to scroll through photos or videos by swiping, and to view you simply tap. Excellent. Smooth, responsive and no lag. Bookmarks are viewed visually as thumbnails, and this can be exported to the home screen as a bookmarks widget. One up for Android.

I then started to rummage around through various applications and I then noticed something we all enjoy: freebies! The phone is shipped with a Twitter client called Peep. Quick Office and a PDF Reader, all preloaded. This is very pleasing and I suspect it was done not only to sell phones, but also to showcase the interface and widget live feeds. Many users would not automatically install these applications so adding them gives a good reason to create widgets which showcases the phone's power.

Peep is a fully functional Twitter client supporting photo uploads, geotagging, retweeting and the widget is a live feed pinned on the home screen. It looks great, is slick in Twitter's native black and cyan and can be customised for notifications.

Perfect.

Media

Finally, a HTC phone with a standard 3.5 MM headphone jack! This is a revelation as the phone has no EQ, meaning that a decent set of headphones is a prerequisite for anything other than passing media usage. I plugged n my Sennheiser noise cancelling headphones and I found an extremely satisfying, bassy, full sound. This works for me as I always set EQ's to bass boost anyway, but for hardened audiophiles the lack of an EQ may grate a little. The fact that the sound is good means that those who aren't too worried should be more than happy with the sonic output of the G2. The excellent quality is borne out when listening to podcasts and viewing YouTube too, so clearly there is decent hardware onboard. I use TuneWiki for music, an application I recently reviewed. In terms of audio it is no different to the onboard application, but it integrates Last FM and Shoutcast radio plus a lyric stream and album art as well as the ability to post updates to Facebook and Twitter saying you love/hate the current tune (or a custom message). The album art looks gorgeous on the screen and playback is smooth, no skips or lag at all.

YouTube playback is excellent, with the 3.5 G connection making it very fast indeed, loading videos within a second or two. Video playback is again, smooth, no lag and an excellent frame rate. Uploading to YouTube is massively improved. The Magic permitted only one minute of footage to be uploaded, whereas the G2 allows the full 2 GB/ten minutes allowance per video. The video resolution on recordings is such that they will only ever look home made, but that's more than enough for any mobile phone filmmaker. Videos can also be shared through your Google account, email and, by installing Qik or PixelPipe, practically every hosting service around. The video camera, as with the camera, struggles massively in poor or low light, often returning unusable footage in areas poorly lit. There is no flash or light in the phone to supplement the camera.

Camera

The camera is a 5 mega pixel, automatic zoom affair. It has no flash so well lit or daylight areas are as far as it goes really. Rather than tell you, below is a Picasa slideshow of the results it produces. It is the most random collection of images ever, but I went for all kinds of objects on all kinds of surfaces. I also did it in a hurry, so you might see a little shake-blur, wonkiness etc. I figure this all adds to the review. Click it to see the full size images.

click for full size images

There is so much to this phone that I could go on and on talking about it. It has 'wowed' me far more than iPhone ever did. Streaming applications such as Beebplayer (BBC iPlayer application) and internet radio streams work perfectly, as does photo editing software such as Picsay Lite and the superb, and free, Photoshop mobile. The Footprints application takes geotagged photos and links them to your maps in Google Maps, meaning you can take a tour of your photos through Maps, or have photos flag up when you pass/travel to locations you (or anyone else in your Google network) have already geotagged. This is similar to iPhoto on Mac, but this is mobile. This is one of the reasons that the cloud computing model is, I think, going to revolutionise computing, and in particular mobile computing. Also bundled are all the usual Google applications like Talk, Voice, Gmail etc. It is a testament to how far Android has already come that these excellent applications now look to be standard features, usurped in a review by the really flashy, slick stuff on board. Photos can be shared through Picasa, Facebook, Flickr, Peep (Twitter) - all of which are integrated in to the phone as baseline functions, meaning that no application is necessary to use the function, it's practically a part of the OS, as well as any other applications you install, plus email and IM applications. This phone is connected via WiFi, 3G, 3.5G (HSDPA, up to 7 mbps - very impressive), Bluetooth, GPS (which has a pinpoint accuracy when tracking and locating) and is a media and Internet powerhouse, fully connected and connectable with all the major location services catered to such as Maps, My Tracks, Google Sky Map. It's all there and it's executed in what it is safe to call the best Android phone to date.

And did I mention it makes and takes calls and texts as well? Very well it does too...

Android Applications: TuneWiki

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Whittaker) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:59:00 +0000

This review is for another great android application, TuneWiki. If you use your phone for music (I currently don't - more on that later) then this is the music application you need.

If you have a quick look at their website you'll see it is pretty interesting. You can download free music, get lyrics, post on forums and there is also a live feed displaying the music users are streaming. There is also a really cool music maps section where listeners are charted (anonymously) around the world according to location and taste. That would make for an interesting study in to musical tastes for anyone furnished not only the time, but also the inclination to study such things.

So, on with the application. It comes in the usual two flavours, lite, which is ad-supported, and paid. The functionality of each is the same, save for the aforementioned ads which are unintrusive and very much bearable for a cheapskate like me. I know that some people hate ads and suchlike, however, since the options are either accept a few ads in return for an all you can eat music service, or pay a nominal fee to remove them, I cannot see why anyone but the most cantankerous users would complain. The only information exchanged seems to be an account and scrobbling so there are no privacy issues.

Now, on to the application, which has several functions.

Music Player

TuneWiki plays the music stored on your Android device. Handy for a music player really. It goes further than that though. Album art is downloaded and encoded to the tracks, and a nice innovation is the lyrics stream. If TuneWiki has the lyrics to the song stored in its database then the lyrics are streamed to the device and, rather intelligently, played back in real time as they are sung, layered over the album art. All the usual controls are there, play, pause, skip forward & back, scrubbing, shuffle, repeat and repeat all. You have the option to search by artists, albums, songs, playlists or shuffle all. It never skips or stops and plays in the background, all the while happily keeping itself to itself and not hogging CPU capacity. A good start. I use my iPod as the HTC Magic has nothing like the same sound quality in headphones, however, if you use your phone for music it will serve you well. I do use it, say, in the bath or whilst I am busy and play music through the speaker, but as a music player it's nowhere near the iPod. Let's hope the Motorola Droid can change that. That is all to do with the hardware though. The software cannot change any of that.

At the bottom of the library screen there are five buttons. The first one is a music note icon and it takes you to the music player. The second is a microphone and it takes you to...

Internet Radio

Internet radio is provided via Shoutcast, which I do not use, and Last FM. This is a real boon for TuneWiki, not only in terms of functionality, but also because the TuneWiki module for Last FM works far better than the Last FM native Android application. TuneWiki provides a wide variety of tracks that are scrobbled evenly. This might sound obvious but, in my experience, the Last FM application has an irritating tendency to playback the same few tracks. If this confuses you then don't worry, you're in good company as I do not understand why this is so either. I would imagine that the same algorithm powers both so I am baffled by this, however, after using Last FM for months and now switching to this, whatever the cause may be, the difference is remarkable.

I also browsed Shoutcast, which differs from Last FM as it provides many internet radio streams rather than the Last FM library playback and scrobbling service. It plays just as well and the audio is excellent quality with no stops, skips or interference, thanks no doubt to the Magic's 3.5G HSDPA downlink speeds.

Internet radio via TuneWiki is first class, I have never heard better. It has the same album art and lyric streaming provided in the music player.

Video Search

This is another great innovation, and is accessed via the third button which is a screen icon. If you import music in to the TuneWiki library, for playback via the music player of course, then video search will automatically search YouTube and if it finds the music video, it links it to the song in your library, allowing you to watch the video whenever you like. This is another great embellishment which really enhances the feel and function of the application. It simply reeks of quality, and it is simple and easy to use. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

TuneWIki Community

TuneWiki community incorporates social networking in to the application. It provides several functions. The lyric search allows you to retrieve lyrics to songs other than those being played back. The aforementioned music maps:

provides a nice touch, and, if you use it a lot, is a great way of finding new music from listeners with similar tastes, sort of like manual scrobbling. The next two functions are linked, TuneWiki top 50, which allows you to listen to the most popular music being played and also Playlists, which allows users to upload custom playlists. This is an excellent function and unlike iTunes playlists, is free to listen to. The final three options are free music downloads, providing music under the Creative Commons licence, help functions, and, rather cunningly, an ad which looks exactly like another button. It's a crafty trick but, given the superb free benefits and functions you get with TuneWiki I'll let them have that one for free. I didn't fall for it anyway. The fifth and final button is a head wearing headphones icon and this takes you to the last song you were listening to in whichever medium it was. Remember this, because if you reopen the application itself then your last listening material is not there, although it is still retained via this key so it is not lost, just inaccessible through any other button. That's a nice touch and a great way to keep up with your playlist.

Other functions (oh yes, it's not over yet!) that I love are the option to post status updates based upon what you are listening to Twitter, Facebook and Blip FM. You simply access the settings menu, provide login details and you stay logged in via the TuneWiki application, only after you enable it to access your profile of course. After that, should you wish to update your status you simply tap the speech bubble icon that is in the top right corner, above the album art, next to the title, and you have three buttons, either a 'love it' message, or 'hate it', or a custom button if you want to post your own mini reviews. This is superb, I absolutely love it, and my Facebook status updates and tweets will soon be showing these. I already linked my YouTube accounts with Twitter, Blogger and Facebook so this is a nice function that takes advantage of the integration functionality that is slowly infiltrating social networking. Provided you have the accelerometer switched on you can also flip to landscape for maps, art and video.

This application is perfect in its execution and the only thing it lacks is an audiobook playback function. Of course it will play them as MP3 files but will not bookmark, download cover art or recognise chapter markers, all of which require M4B file compatibility. I am not too bothered about his yet as Android is young and audiobooks are very difficult to provide cheaply as the publishing industry is so resistant to the new technology. My own personal work experience has shown me how closed-minded the publishing industry is and believe me, you wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry if you knew the truth. It is currently having the debate we had with Napster all those years ago, and is more resistant than the music industry ever was. In light of that I understand why this function is not there. It would be an absolute nightmare fore TuneWiki, especially with Pandora yet to debut outside USA, meaning it's this, Last FM and Imeem making the headway as well as a few independent applications run by online stations. For choice, variety and function TuneWiki is the one to beat.

If you have Android then you must have TuneWiki. It's simply too good not to own.

Google Android Apps: My Tracks

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Whittaker) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:38:00 +0000

Google have struck gold in my opinion with My Tracks. My Tracks is the best of the glut of first generation GPS/location based applications to hit Android and it's really great. I used it for the first time today, just a dry run to see what it does and how well it does it. The journey was a one lap hike around Clowbridge Reservoir in Lancashire, and here are the results:

View Clowbridge Reservoir in a larger map

Or:

View it in Google Maps

This is what you get. All you do is open the application and give it a few seconds to acquire a GPS fix. Once done, tap the menu button and the record option and it now records your journey in real time using GPS data. Once done, tap end recording and you can then export it to My Maps in your Google Account, to Google Docs and save it to SD as either a GPX file or a KML (to export to Google Earth), or both. This is a superb application that allows you to track things like mileage, speed and so forth. There are things I would like to see added such as a pedometer (using the accelerometer), a compass (all android phones have a magnetometer so it's a simple process) and a calorie counter. These are the ones I can come up with off the top of my head anyway.

Once I had exported to Google Earth and Maps I was able to wow the kids with a 3D rendering of our journey and show them various possible routes, diversions and sights. If you love outdoor sports, the great outdoors in general, travelling etc them this application is simply essential if you have any need for, or interest in statistical data about the journey, or if you simply want to look at where you have been over the months and years. Superb. I will be taking this everywhere, holidays, hikes, bike rides etc. To me it is simply indispensable, and I take my phone anyway so why not make use of it?

Google strikes gold again. It's free and it's brilliant. Integration with Google Maps and Google Earth is seamless, ridiculously easy. I am really starting to love Android.

Samsung SyncMaster T220 Widescreen 22" 16:10 TFT Monitor Review (Computers)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:45:00 +0000

Samsung T220 22-inch Widescreen LCD TFT Monitor, 2ms Response Time, Rose Black, 20000:1 Contrast Ratio DVI / VGA

Why buy one? (or two) It's one of the cheapest 22" TFT monitors available with both DVI and VGA (most of the cheaper ones only have VGA) - and you want DVI for the highest picture quality possible. It doesn't have HDMI input or speakers - but you'll probably need to spend another £30 or £40 if you want these features (see the Samsung SyncMaster 2494HS or newer for these features).

It's got 84 reviews on Amazon UK, with an overall score of 4.5 / 5, even by Amazon standards - that's pretty high! There's more reviews on Ebuyer.com where the overall score is 5/5! Plus it's only £129 from Amazon UK inc vat and free postage!

Specs and Features:
Ports: VGA / DVI / Power
Speakers: No
Touch buttons: 1 for power only
Real buttons: Yes, on the side: Menu, Brightness, Up / Down, Source, Auto
Power light: Red (fades in and out heartbeat style when in power saving)
Warranty: 3 year warranty as standard
Panel: TN TFT Active Matrix, Dot Pitch / Pixel Pitch: 0.282 mm
Image Brightness 300 cd/m2
Image Contrast Ratio 20000:1 (dynamic)
Response Time 2 ms
Power AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
Power Consumption Operational 45 Watt
Environmental Standards EPA Energy Star , EPEAT Silver
Display Positions Adjustments Tilt
Low Power Consumption (0.3W Power Off, Energy Saving Mode)
Contrast Ratio: DC 20,000:1(1000:1)(Typ.)
Resolution: 1680x1050 (WSXGA+)
Response Time: 2ms (GTG)
Viewing Angle (Horizontal/Vertical): 170˚/160˚ (CR>10)

Dead pixels? No. Check yours with DeadPixelBuddy, but you do get a very nice screen cleaning cloth with the monitor.

Screen finish: Matte - this means very low reflection, and even on bright days the screen is bright and easily viewable.

Quality: Crisp - pixels are very crisp, sharp, clear. Colour appears to be very good, bright colourful, not TOO bright, not luminous. Black appears to be good. Will check colour performance more fully when I calibrate the monitor. After calibration - there was little difference - the pre-calibrated image was perhaps a little too bright, with a slightly magenta / blue cast.

Looks: Did I mention it looks AWESOME? Has a very stylish glass effect surround - that's perhaps a bit too reflective - but looks very cool.

Tilting base. The screens a bit wobbly - not sure why? It's like the metal plate doesn't clip in properly into the monitor. Seems a shame that this is not more sturdy.

Energy saving - the labelling on the monitor is quite subtle and barely noticeable in dim lighting. The monitor comes with all needed cables: power, VGA, and DVI.

Back - things it says on the box: "Samsung Design that performs, 20000:1 Dynamic Contrast, Vivid Moving Picture. 2ms Fast Response Time. 0.3W softPower OFF, lowest Stand by Power." and "SyncMaster T220 22" Wide TFT - LCD Monitor, Up to 1680 x 1050 (WSXGA+) Windows Vista Premium Certification"

Neat cable cover clips onto the back. Really there is very little to dislike about this monitor - maybe speakers would be nice to have - but it would add to the price, and you get better sound quality from headphones or dedicated speakers anyway. It's a great monitor, at a great price. Highly Recommended!

Pros:
Excellent price
Video Playback looks great
All cables included
Screen cleaning cloth included - nice unexpected bonus
Very good colour
Very good image quality
Looks very good / stylish
Good viewing angle
No dead pixels

Cons:
Wobbly base

Only £129 from Amazon UK inc vat and free postage!
View larger pictures and photos of the Samsung SyncMaster T220 in the Gallery

Samsung SyncMaster T220 (Left) next to Samsung SyncMaster 2494HS (Right):

Google Listen Podcast Aggregator Client.

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Whittaker) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:50:00 +0000

Google Listen

As one would expect, Google provides a raft of free apps for Android. One such app is Google Listen. Listen is a podcast aggregator and a very very good one. The catalogue of podcasts available is massive and every possible subject is covered, including commercial stuff such as BBC programs etc. Quality is superb. The sound is delivered through the speaker or headphones and the interface is simple, with controls, progress bar, subscription option buttons and album art which makes it look rather polished. The 3.5 G connection gives excellent playback. I have been using it for months and not once had a pause for buffering during playback. It buffers for a couple of seconds when you initially open the podcast and after that no breaks. Scrubbing is smooth and easy too.

Listen integrates brilliantly with Browser too. Simply tap a podcast link and it will give you the option to open it with either Browser or Listen, and the option to set a default application for opening podcast enclosure links. I recommend Listen to anyone, particularly those who enjoy knowledge and media. There is a wealth of academic and popular material available via Listen and it is all free, every bit of it. If you have a hobby that you love, search for it and you will find a huge amount of material pertaining to it. Google Listen comes with my highest recommendation.

The Beatles catalog on limited edition USB apple... (Music)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:54:00 +0000

I seriously can't decide whether this is pure genius, or just complete madness, or whether it's just another money hungry marketing trick designed to part money from the foolish. Can you backup the mp3s? Copy them to your PC or other MP3 device? Although it costs more for the USB drive - so it would make sense to buy the CDs, and then rip to mp3. It's a limited edition (100 units in the UK?) and costs £200. I'm pretty sure that's an insane price - especially as it only contains the stereo version - I'd expect every version ever made for that price. (via Engadget)

Google Maps Navigation (Beta) Coming to an Android Phone near you (Phones)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:28:00 +0000

Video demonstration of Google Maps Navigation (Beta), an internet-connected GPS navigation system that provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps on Android 2.0 phones.

Sony Ericsson Satio 12.1 Megapixel Camera Phone (Phones)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:44:00 +0000

Ah Sony... you take Nokia's Symbian operating system and make is so much better... yet you still fail at providing advertised features! Your advert shows Facebook, Twitter, all integrated into the phone... yet they're not, and Sony's own blog recommends using snaptu, or symabook (in ALPHA!) to get this functionality...

THE SONY BOX features a mystery facebook app - but is this on the phone, pre-loaded, or available anywhere? Not to my knowledge...

Someone, somewhere*** says you can upload images STRAIGHT to Facebook - this is simply not possible without MANUALLY adding your own personalised email address to the phone! And where's the direct uploading to Twitter? Nowhere, it doesn't exist. The phone comes with built in setup to send photos to message (MMS, email), bluetooth, To web - which features Blogger*, PicasaWeb, Webalbum**, Flickr, Youtube, and Other...

"Other" lets you add stuff, for example, you can add your personalized facebook email address to and this will work quite well to upload photos (you can also send MMS to facebook's email address, and add them as a contact to speed up the process), without you having to spend money sending MMS messages.

* Blogger is most annoying of all, this will upload your photos to a brand new blog on blogger.com - how about letting us upload to our own already existing blog?

** Webalbum takes you to Sony's "PlayNow" website, and simply says "There are no items available" so basically doesn't work.

*** will confirm source.

I'll update this further on the phone... but for now, I'm slightly unimpressed. And what happened to the Cybershot branding?

Links: Flickr Satio Photos

And on the subject of Symbian - it seems like Sony and Nokia are using Symbian for some unknown reason, like these projects started years ago before they realised that they should be developing for Android. Motorola "decided to axe the entire Symbian product line as well as phones using several other operating systems." (NYTimes) and have just released one of the most impressive new phones: The Motorola Droid based on Android 2.0. Even Nokia seem to be hedging their bets by developing new phones with Linux based operating systems: The Nokia N900 / based on Maemo.

If web connectivity and the ability to upload to social networking sites isn't built into the core of a mobile phone operating system these days, then it just isn't good enough, and releasing apps (Sony), patches (Nokia), and updates for features that should have come with the phone, isn't the right way to go about it. By the time your updates are available, people will have already jumped ships, and will simply be "putting up" with the phone until they can get out of their contract, or get rid of their phone, to switch to an iPhone, or an Android phone.

Picasa 3.5 Free Download with Face Recognition

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:23:00 +0000

Picasa 3.5 has added Face Recognition to the latest version of the popular free image editing and uploading software. The face recognition will let you tag your friends, and then find all other images with similar looking people ready for you to confirm the label. So it looks like you don't have to buy iPhoto and a Mac after all.

"Add name tags - Picasa 3.5 scans all the photos in your collection, identifies the ones with faces, and groups photos with similar faces together. It's easy to add name tags to dozens of photos at once by clicking "Add a name" below a photo and typing the person's name. Once you've tagged some pictures, you can make a face collage with one click, easily find all your pictures with the same two people in them, or upload your name tags to Picasa Web Albums."

More information on Picasa name tagging here.

Fuji FinePix F70EXR Review on DigiCamReview (Cameras)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:20:00 +0000

DigiCamReview have reviewed the new Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR - it's currently the world's smallest 10x optical zoom digital camera and features a wide angle zoom lens (27-270mm), a 10 megapixel SuperCCD EXR sensor that provides high resolution, high sensitivity, and high dynamic range modes, an anti-shake sensor, 2.7" screen, SD card support, 5 Film Simulation Modes, and VGA video recording at 30fps. The Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR is available from Amazon for £200

"The Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR was a little unexpected, so soon after the F200EXR, it's thinner, yet has an impressive 10x optical zoom lens! As a compact camera it's impressive that so much can be packed into a camera the same size as most other cameras only featuring a 3x optical zoom lens! Whilst the EXR sensor may not be as good as previous Fuji cameras for low noise, it does provide much improved dynamic range, especially when you would normally lose detail in the sky."

Read our Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR Review

View our Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR Sample Photo Gallery

Megadeth - Endgame - Album 2009 (Reviews)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:34:00 +0000

Megadeth - Endgame - £8.98 at Amazon UK - This is Megadeth's 3rd album since their "return" in 2004 with The System Has Failed. It sees a new guitarist join the band, Chris Broderick someone who, according to wikipedia, practised 14 hours a day, and you can tell. This has got to be the most technically impressive Megadeth has ever sounded, with extremely tight, fast paced drumming, very powerful bass guitar (even starting one track with the bass guitar with track 11), excellent solos and seemingly perfect performance from all members. All of the tracks vary in style through the song, and it takes some concentrated listening to fully notice the ability and skill of all musicians.

What I said previously about United Abominations definitely holds true with Endgame as well:

"The album as a whole, with quick "speed" / "thrash" metal, puts a high demand on your stereo, as a slow response or lack of punch, can result in the stereo being left behind."

Dave's voice is unique as always, but seems a little less hoarse this time round. Some have commented that Dave sounds angry in this album, and yes the music is very fast and heavy, but in my opinion lacks some of the raw emotion of the (in your face) United Abominations. Endgame is more about pure heavy metal / thrash with less synths, instruments and samples compared to the 2007 album, although saying that Endgame does go very nicely from one track to another with mostly no gaps in between the songs on the CD. As a whole album it works very well, with no obvious flaws or mismatches in the track list, and it is an extremely polished album (unlike The System Has Failed, which had one or two seemingly odd / mismatched tracks). It could seem like there is little variation from song to song in style, which to an extent is true, but it's when you listen to each individual track that you begin to notice the differences in rhythm and style.

Lots of very good tracks, and some standout awesome tracks, but this time it's because of the technical brilliance of the way the musicians and singer(s) come together, with excellent solos playing over great riffs, and lots of tempo changes, and variations in each track. The lyrics are not necessarily as raw as United Abominations, and there's not as much political energy this time round, but it seems as though they've moved more towards musical excellence in Heavy Metal / Thrash with this album, and that's got to be a good thing. Dave Mustaine and Chris Brodericks solos very smoothly roll into each other, and it's clear they work VERY well together.

I've heard it said that you've got to listen to the guitar solo on such and such a track, or that the drummer is excellent on this track, and I think this is perhaps one of the most impressive things that you'll notice when listening to this ablum. No matter what your favourite instrument or player, you can really hear the excellence of each player, be it the excellent guitar solo in 44 Minutes, or the excellent drumming in Head Crusher, or the pounding bass lines in The Right to Go Insane, or the snarling growl of Dave Mustaine's voice in Endgame, it all comes together in each track, and throughout the album the sheer excellence of each musician is clear. A Definite MUST BUY! 9/10

I'm still waiting for a Megadeth "concept album", as I think it would be the holy grail if Megadeth could pull it off, perhaps next time?

Full track listings and song descriptions continued below.

Track listing:

1 - Dialectic Chaos - 2 minutes 25 seconds of pure metal with no vocals, makes an interesting start to the album.
2 - This Day We Fight! - High speed, heavy metal, lots of fast solos.
3 - 44 Minutes - starts with police cb radio reports of open fire (211) from an AK-47, simply awesome grinding metal and great solos over great riffs. Great depth of sound and high speed solos.
4 - 1,320' - high speed, drums stand out in the middle, style changes around the middle.
5 - Bite The Hand - Heavy bass lead riffs begin this track, impressive guitar work while Dave's singing, sounds like they would have had fun playing this.
6 - Bodies - pounding bass line dominates the start of this track, classic Megadeth style riffs, gets quite musical towards the end, and then finishes with some high speed thrash metal.
7 - Endgame - somewhat dark, old skool, Rust in Peace style track (with some very clear nods to classic Megadeth riffs), with a dark theme and lyrics, and yet sounding extremely fresh, and bringing perhaps a slightly new sound to Megadeth. Dave's vocals are the most varied on this track so far on the album. It's also the longest song on the album, with the most political message about end times, and USA's anti-terrorist laws. Ending seems a little weak simply fading away (I expect it would be more interesting live!)
8 - The Hardest Part Of Letting Go... Sealed With A Kiss - Again, this track continues to introduce a new sound to Megadeth, building up from a musical love song, it kicks into gear half way through, with high speed metal, then brings you back down to the love song at the end with an marching drum beat, and classical guitar playing.
9 - Head Crusher - extremely quick thrash with highly skilled and impressive drumming, "on your knees prisonors, take your positions", reminds me of "Captive Honor", and this track just keeps getting darker, and heavier, as the bass guitar begins pounding, and Dave's vocals get more twisted and snarled. The speed continues as a high speed solo plays over the top. Wow!
10 - How The Story Ends - Impressive solos and guitar riffs.
11 - The Right To Go Insane - Great bass guitar riff starts this track, sets the heaviness of this track off nicely, however, I wonder whether track 11 and 10 should have been swapped around in order. Some great solos and drumming finish this track off nicely.

Ulysses 31 Box Set

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Whittaker) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:56:00 +0000

Recently bought by me:

I used to watch this show as a kid and bought it for £25 on Amazon. Excellent stories, heavily indebted to the Greek myths for the drama and tragedy of the plot and story arc, plus, the unforgettable theme music. They just don't make them like this any more. With that in mind I also bought:

Another excellent story. It brought back fond childhood memories to see the Thames TV logo, with the House of Commons reflected in the river Thames and I had forgotten just how dark some 80's children's TV was. This is based upon the story of the same name written by my one of my favourite authors, Jon Wyndham. Superb drama that, in my opinion, appeals to adults now as much as to children then and now.

090909: Beatles Remastered in Mono Released Today (Music)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:02:00 +0000

Gizmodo have posted information on why you'd want to buy the new Beatles release due today, available from Amazon UK, it doesn't come cheap:

"But that wasn't all. In the mono version you can hear stuff that is not in the stereo version. And not just bits, but quite a lot of things. Instruments, notes, even lyrics. Take the reprise version of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: It is full of shouting—Lennon going bananas at the end, and other bits at the beginning—that is not in the stereo mix." - Gizmodo

The Beatles In Mono [Box set] [Mono] [Original recording remastered] £199
The Beatles Box Set - Remastered in Stereo [Box set] [Collector's Edition] [Original recording remastered]£169

The Nokia N86 8mp Camera Phone and Ovi.com (Phones)

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:59:00 +0000

So once upon a time, when mobile phones were just that, mobile phones, they would come fresh out of their packet, and just work. They were simple, made phone calls, and worked, and that was GREAT! Now, however, they are multimedia computers with the photographic capabilities of a budget 8mp camera, wifi connecting, youtube streaming, iplaying, facebooking, emailing, fm radio, gps tracking, interneting wonder machines, all promising to keep you 24/7 connected to your new internet life...

However, the simple fact of the matter is that they fail. Badly.

The Nokia N86 8mp is case in point - here's where it fails:

- It offers an 8 megapixel camera, but has an awful LED flash
- If offers email connectivity that works, but wont successfully click an email link with the subject defined as a ? and therefore Facebook Mobile Photo Upload does not work
- If offers a web browser, which features a built in RSS reader as a hidden away menu item, and doesn't let you put your RSS feeds on the home page
- If comes with satnav software that can only be used for 10 days - would you buy TomTom if it only worked for 10 days?? So why do mobile phone companies get away with demo functionality? It also tells you to turn right anytime it looses GPS signal!
- It offers it's own photo hosting connectivity, and will let you upload to Ovi (by Nokia), Vox (who?) and Flickr, or email, but does not include built in Facebook support.
- It has a pretty user interface and multi-tasking applications that can run in the background, but they then stay in the background until eventually crashing the phone until you manually exit each program individually, rather than just quiting when you exit.
- It provides links to useful programs as downloads, such as a flashlight program, that sensibly uses the screen as a torch, that is free for a number of days, but when you download it and install it, it then updates itself and tells you that you have to pay to use the program. Even though the program should be included free with the phone as standard.
- The phone likes to go into power saving mode when it has 2 bars of battery life left, when it does this, the screen brightness is set to minimum, and can't be adjusted, and then when you go outside into the sunlight, YOU CAN NOT SEE THE SCREEN!
- Update: Note scratches on the glass under the lens cover - this is caused by the LENS COVER! Normally lens covers are supposed to stop the lens from being scratched, apparently this is the fixed version which only scratches AROUND the lens photo taking area, which is better I suppose than the N97 that scratches where the photos are taken!

...and this one deserves it's own section because it's so unbelievably flawed:

ovi.com (by nokia)

The phone can sync with Nokia's Ovi.com website over the internet, so that you can apparently backup your contacts to the internet, however, as I have experienced, after it's backed them up to the internet, it:

- Somehow removes all the phone numbers from the phone, leaving just the names.
- So you think, that's okay, I'll just restore from ovi.com to the phone
- You sync the phone, and then it removes all the names from ovi.com, leaving just the numbers on the website, and all the contacts on the phone have been named "Unnamed" and have no number:

And then you're stuck with 220 phone numbers on ovi.com and no idea whose number belongs to who... and 220 entries on your phone, all called "unknown" - it simply should NOT be possible for a BACKUP service to DELETE all the DATA from the phone and itself! Backup systems are meant to be about copying data, NOT DELETING DATA! (unless of course ovi was designed specifically to "hunt down data from across the internet and try to kill it")

And if that wasn't enough of a pain in the arse (particularly when ovi.com was supposed to be a backup of your contacts, rather than deleting them!) ovi then doesn't work when trying to invite friends and contacts, and provides completely different functionality when you have a different phone, for example the Nokia N97, which can send requests out, that simply don't work if you have a different phone.

To summarise: Basically, if you're going to make a phone, that connects to everything, please make sure that:

1) your bundled applications work (facebook mobile uploads),
2) standard internet technologies are supported WELL for example with a seperate fully functioning RSS reader that can be viewed on the home screen like it's email,
3) that your biggest selling feature such as an 8mp camera has the expected supporting features needed to make a decent camera, such as a real flash,
4) include REAL satnav features that works for as long as you own the phone,
5) include expected software for free (flashlight tool), and don't update it to disable the expected demo!
6) support multiple upload services INCLUDING facebook, not just your own dumb ovi.com photo hosting service
7) this is KEY: provide sync / backup software that NEVER EVER deletes data from the phone or the backup, but instead, you know, backs up the data!
8) once again support internet standards such as ? defining the subject of an email!
9) Make an operating system that doesn't crash because there are too many programs open, because the OS doesn't shut them down automatically!
10) Make a screen THAT WORKS OUTSIDE (even when the battery is low!!), mobile phones are meant to be MOBILE, they are not just for use indoors!
11) Standardise expected functions, such as copy and paste, so that you can copy from one part of the phone (ie text messages) into another part of the phone (ie web broswer or other apps)
12) Standardise what buttons do when using different programs, if the C key is the backspace key when writing texts, then why doesn't it do the same when typing something into the web browser? Instead it quits the web browser and everything you were doing! (This can be switched off, but for some reason may revert back to default settings)
13) New: Make a lens cover that, DOESN'T scratch ANY PART of the lens!

The list could go on, but it just goes to show that these products are being released with serious flaws and faults that anyone can experience and come across without even trying. You come to expect everything to work straight out of the box like in the olden days, and when it doesn't, you're left wondering whether anyone at Nokia actually tested this phone in real life, outside the perfectly functioning office, you know, perhaps outside in the real world?

It's as though they printed a list of 20+ features, except that 50% of them have a small * (star) next to them with legal print at the bottom in tiny tiny writing that goes on to explain "these features may or may not be fully functioning and may not provide expected features or functionality". Except they then forgot to print the disclaimer on the website / packaging and marketing material.

Update: The Nokia N86 comes with 8GB of memory built in, which is great for putting your MP3s on (assuming you keep them all on your PC as well), but not so great when you've taken 500 photos, and then the phone dies and is irrepairable. As you'll have just lost all of your photos. To avoid this it's worth buying a seperate memory card for the phone, even if it does cost you money (thankfully there is a memory slot, unlike some other phones!).

More links: Nokia N97 Reviewed by Gizmodo, Dumb phones must die (Gizmodo).

Android music apps: Droidify and Last.FM

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Whittaker) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Android sports two music and Internet radio applications. Droidify is a client for accessing Spotify and it sucks because it either does not recognise my password or it crashes every time. Sort it out Spotify. I am a fan but this is just not good enough.

Last.FM works very well. It has a neat interface with options to listen to your library, recommended music or create a station as well as search. Some of the recommendations are real gems - artists and bands who don't have a prayer in the regular music press or with the big labels. Perhaps that's why the industry is so frightened of these apps. After all, the last thing they want is an open marketplace for original content when the same old crap will do. If you're a fan of anything remotely unusual or alternative then this free app is a gem. I am sure Droidify would be another good freebie if the bloody thing worked.

I will definitely be buying music as a result of hearing it on Last.FM. Buffering time on 3G is under ten seconds and the audio quality is good, at least 192KBPS I would guess. There isn't much to say about this really, except it does exactly what it says on the tin, and very well too. Keep it up fellas. Spotify had better shape up pronto.