Monthly Archives: July 2003
Samsung – Syncmaster 172W
History, so they say, repeats itself, and when we took a look at Samsung’s unusual new flat panel display, we wondered whether it might be about to do it again. What makes the Syncmaster 172W stand out from the crowd is its size, or more exactly, its width, hence the telltale ‘W’ suffix. In fact…
Time – Mercury Creative 3000+
It’s not often you come across a PC from a mainstream supplier which is properly geared up for key leisure interests. Time’s Mercury Creative 3000+ is one such, though, and could prove an ideal vehicle for digital photography or digital video editing. Although the price is comparatively high, Time has put the budget to good…
Corel – Painter 8
Corel’s Painter is probably the best-selling natural media painting software in the world. Used for everything from pre-visualisations in the movie industry to advertisement realisations and ‘serious’ artwork, it’s the digital equivalent of a box of watercolours… and a set of oil paints… and a load of photo-retouching spray cans, in fact just about anything…
ACi – Centurion
Centrino, Centurion… it’s an obvious choice of name, really, and it conjures up images of reliability and dependability, which is probably what ACi intended. And the Centurion doesn’t disappoint, at least as far as the design, build and specification of this mid-sized, 2.6kg laptop are concerned. As we’ve mentioned in previous laptop reviews, Centrino isn’t…
Lindy – USB 2.0 / FireWire Internal Combo Hub
There’s a growing trend among makers of PC cases to mount within them connections for the likes of FireWire and USB ports at the front of the case. It’s proven to be a great idea, and has subsequently led to the development of kits like Lindy’s latest, to help the port-wise unendowed achieve parity. Ultimately,…
Verbatim – Omnia 4x
Verbatim is very proud of the fact that it is currently the only firm in the world that designs, develops and manufactures high-performance, high-quality, CD-Recordable, CD-ReWritable, DVD-Recordable and DVD-ReWritable media products. And breathe… Thus it comes as no surprise that the company has now sought to advance to the next generation of 4x DVD ReWritable…
Atari – NFL 2K3
Isn’t it wonderful to see the Atari brand name up there in lights again, what with Infogrames having taken on the mantle of the famous label? It almost makes you feel like popping down the arcades with a pocket full of ten pees and indulging in a spot of Defender or Galaxian. Except of course…
Microsoft – Plus! Digital Media Edition
One of the many ways in which Windows XP differs from previous versions of the Windows platform is in the way it handles digital media. Significant improvements have been made in managing digital images and audio files, burning to CD and even creating your own movies. Microsoft has recently introduced a new Digital Media Plus!…
EQS – 292AM-DM4
EQS (“Efficiency Quality Supplier”) is fairly new to the UK market but has had a considerable presence in the European market for several years. Its manufacturing facility is Hong Kong/China-based and it has recently entered a joint venture with Sapphire Technology to add the latest ATI Radeon chipset to its motherboards. The 292AM-DM4 comes on…
Samsung – X05 XTC 1500
Would it be giving too much away at the outset to say that the only thing we really didn’t like about the Samsung X05 XTC 1500 was the nonsense printed all over it? All this guff about ‘Samsung DigitALL, everyone’s invited’. Get it? Ugh. Anyway, you’re not invited to the X05 XTC 1500 party unless…