July 3rd, 2008 by admin
As a kid, I remember my brother always working on his hot rod. He wasn’t a racer, per se. In fact, he had just gotten into the sport. But he wanted to look the part, feel the part, and even get some results on the weekend drag strip. And as such, he spent a lot of time at the local “speed shop” getting the parts he needed to trick out his rod. My other brother was the opposite. He hated working on cars in his spare time because as a mechanic, he did it for a living. As such, he went with a fast car that came that way straight off the showroom floor. The Canon Digital Rebel XSi is like that all in one solution. Packs a punch where it counts, has just enough features to get you into the game, and can grow with you.
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July 3rd, 2008 by admin
The Panasonic SDR-SW20 may be compact. And with the ability to record straight to SD cards, it may be even easier to use. But one thing is isn’t, is a quality camcorder experience. In fact, it’s downright average.
What’s really a shame is that while the SDR-SW20 incorporates cool features like Dolby stereo and wide angle video, the quality of the image is so blah that one walks away feeling like those features are wasted. That instead of getting a better experience, you end up with simply more average. More “gray.”
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June 4th, 2008 by admin
As a complete Karaoke virgin, myself and 3 girlfriends spent a night in with the EasySing Karaoke Microphone – a neat and compact Karaoke machine that comes with 2 professional microphones (one wired, one wireless) 200 pre-loaded songs, a song binder, carry case and USB cables.
With some trepidation (and a health warning issued to anyone within earshot), we started our little sing song. After a fairly quiet start, we all found ourselves browsing the well ranging song list to find something we could sing next – or get someone else to sing. Due to a second wireless microphone, duets were also an option.
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Posted in Miscellaneous Reviews | No Comments »
May 21st, 2008 by admin
With studies showing that only about 20 percent of digital camera users actually printing the pictures they take (much to the chagrin of 1-hour photo centers), having a digital picture frame in the house not only makes sense, but it also brings those pictures alive.
eStarling has created a seriously contender in digital frames with a wireless offering that lets shutterbugs download or email their pictures from anywhere in the world to their online account and have them appear instantly in the slide show run by the frame’s slide utility. This feature is not only great for photographers on the go, but also for grandparents who want the latest pics of the kids but aren’t tech savvy.
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April 29th, 2008 by al
We got our hands on the latest LG mobile last week, the LG Secret. It’s the latest addition to the Black Label (not the popular lager) range and is the follow-up to the LG Shine: first impressions are it’s a worthy successor.
It’s tough
LG have taken notice of how the current mobile contracts last 18 to 24 months and have made the Secret a tough, long lasting phone. It has a carbonfibre back and tempered glass touch screen front (as found on Rolex watches), thus ensuring you can smack the screen with a set of keys without breakage (a cool trick for down the pub).
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Posted in Phone Reviews | 6 Comments »
April 24th, 2008 by admin
Travelers who don’t wish to hand their expensive camera to an onlooker so they can be in the picture really need the QuikPod. Made of high impact plastic, the Quikpod’s telescoping monopod design allows shutterbugs to attach the camera to it’s end, set it on auto timer and merely hold it away at arms length to snap the picture.
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Posted in Photography | 2 Comments »
April 24th, 2008 by admin
Flat out. KODAK’s Z1085IS offers exceptional prints from its 10MP chip which also works with face detection and dual image Stabilization. But where it really excels is the HD video it delivers in full 720p resolution.
At 10 Megapixels, the camera doesn’t run into as much noise at higher ISO like most other point and shoots. This seems to have surmounted thanks to it’s larger 1/1.65” CCD, which not only has been designed to provide above average performance, but also takes advantage of it’s Smart Capture technology, which detects the light and subjects being shot in a scene and alters the camera settings to capture the best possible still image.
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April 18th, 2008 by al
The Blik Wi-Fi radio uses the Internet to receive a bucket load of different radio channels from anywhere in the world, at last count there was 11,443 different channels so no matter how diverse your taste there should be something of interest. Along with Internet radio it can also receive the more traditional FM and play any music stored and shared on your media server.
Setting up the blik internet radio is easy but a bit fiddly, if your Wi-Fi network uses WEP encryption (please say it does) you’ll need to enter you hash key by using the left and right keys to scroll between numbers, symbols, upper and lower case letters (a bit like entering your initials on the high score table of an old arcade machine). This does take a bit of patience but fortunately is a once only action (it remembers your entered WEP key between power cuts).
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Posted in A/V Devices | 1 Comment »
April 15th, 2008 by admin
The Orli Grab-It oven glove is an innovative piece of kit from a young team of London based designers. It is a one size fits all glove, being that it is oval in shape so those with smaller hands can use it horizontally or for those with larger hands, use it on the vertical. It is, of course, also suitable for us left-handers out there.
Coming in a range of trendy neon colours and the ‘bachelor’ black, it won’t look out of place in the funkiest of kitchens. You also shouldn’t lose it as it has an in-built suction cup device so you can stick it to the front of the oven or any flat surface (I prefer the cooker hood myself). However, if you do opt for the black glove, perhaps sticking it against a black background might not work!
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Posted in Household Gadgets | 2 Comments »
April 9th, 2008 by admin
Camera accessories are invaluable. And when you’re vacationing, they can be fairly vital. If users are hard core travelers who takes tons of pictures, it really helps to remember when and, more importantly where those pictures were taken. Enter the Gisteq PhotoTrackr, which is a pocket size GPS device which can synch with pictures taken and map them onto Flickr and Google maps.
Here’s how it works.
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Posted in A/V Devices, Miscellaneous Reviews, Photography | No Comments »