Yearly Archives: 2003
Intel – Pentium 4 Extreme Edition
Intel has taken everyone by surprise by announcing a new processor aimed fairly and squarely at the gaming market. Or rather, with this price tag, at the elite, high-end gaming market. Unlike Intel’s other processor launches, the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition arrived without too much fanfare or fuss and also stole some of AMD’s thunder…
NEC – MobilePro 250E
If you are on the look-out for a PDA running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC, then mid-priced models that hover towards the £300 mark may seem attractive. In theory they should offer better features than the really budget-priced models, yet they won’t burn quite such a large hole in your pocket as the…
Electronic Arts – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Usually the thought of a game franchise based on a movie is enough to have you running screaming for the hills, but EA made such a good attempt at translating the second of the Tolkien trilogy (The Two Towers) to PlayStation 2 that this one has been eagerly awaited by fans of Middle Earth. The…
Aopen – XC cube
When they first appeared almost two years ago, cube PCs were sometimes seen as little more than a gimmick. Yes, they had a very small form factor, but performance was best described as adequate. But things have moved on in leaps and bounds and now cube PCs represent a powerful, compact, real alternative to the…
Minolta – DiMage Z1
Standing out from the crowd on looks alone, the Minolta DiMage Z1 is a 3.2-megapixel camera with a 10x optical zoom, and should please both point-and-shoot and more advanced users with its mix of automatic and manual operation. Compact for a long zoom camera – measuring 110 x 78 x 80mm – the DiMage Z1′s…
Pioneer – DVR-A06
Pioneer has updated its DVR-A05 DVD writer and given it the catchy model name of DVR-A06. You can’t say that those marketing blokes miss a trick, can you? You may also come across the DVR-106 model, which is the OEM version. The DVR-A06 is faster than the previous version, with write speeds of 4x for…
O2 – XDA II
One of the dilemmas for anyone looking to buy a PDA these days is whether to go for something that is GSM / GPRS connected. If you decide you do want the kind of device which can act as your phone as well as your PDA, then the next thing to do is decide whether…
Microsoft – Links 2004
Last year, PC owners were treated to Links 2003, arguably one of the finest titles in its genre (and without the presence of EA Sports’ Tiger Woods franchise, it would be competing alone). This year? Microsoft, in its wisdom, has decided to make the game XBox exclusive, making Tiger Woods 2004 the sole contender on…
Nikon – Coolpix 5400
Looking very much like its predecessor, the well-liked Coolpix 5000, the new 5.1-megapixel Coolpix 5400 from Nikon features an improved 4x Nikkor zoom lens and other updated refinements. Like the earlier model, the Coolpix 5400 is a compact (108 x 73 x 69mm), well made camera, built from a combination of high grade plastic and…