Monthly Archives: October 2003
Ahead Software – Nero 6
Ahead Software has, it seems, been watching the market very closely. For the sixth generation of its burning software, the company has partly trodden the path followed by Roxio with its Easy CD & DVD Creator suite, although for Nero 6.0, things have been done a lot more carefully. Let’s explain. The last version of…
Microsoft – Encarta 2004 Premium Suite
The sheer comprehensiveness of Microsoft’s top notch multimedia encyclopedia program makes it simply impossible to cover the full breadth of its work in one single review. Frankly, the numbers can get bewildering. This time around, over 130,000 articles, 24,000 pictures and thousands of multimedia clips (including fresh video content courtesy of a deal with the…
Sony – Vaio PCV-RS226
When Sony first launched its desktop range, its systems stood out because of their design, but they were very expensive and not the best value desktops around. Now Sony appears to have had a change of heart and is aiming its new systems at the much more competitive market occupied by bigger OEMs (Original Equipment…
ViewSonic – Pro VP181B
While prices for smaller TFT monitors continue to fall, prices for the larger panels are still relatively high. Having said that, compared to the prices of a year ago they are beginning to become more affordable. Viewsonic’s Pro series of LCD displays is aimed at the professional user, offering the sharpness and size of monitor…
Samsung – ML-2152W
With wireless networked offices slowly becoming more popular, the need for wireless peripheral devices is gaining strength. One of the first office printers to have wireless networking built in is Samsung’s ML-2152W mono laser. The ML-2152W is a no-nonsense office workhorse of a printer; not overly attractive, but not offensively ugly either. It’s very well…
Kodak – EasyShare LS633
Kodak’s 3.1-megapixel EasyShare LS633 is the world’s first camera to use an OLED display instead of the more traditional LCD display. It’s a stylish design offering good features and image quality. The undoubted star of the EasyShare LS633 is the amazing 2.2-inch, 112,000-pixel OLED screen. OLED – or more correctly AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode)…
HP – PSC 1205
Although the idea of the multifunction or all-in-one device was originally HP’s, in recent months the company has lost out in the budget sector of this market to companies such as Lexmark. By highlighting the very low purchase price (and arguably recouping costs through expensive consumables) many people have been persuaded to buy sub-£100 scanner/printer/copier…
Brother – MFC-4820C
Brother has a lot of expertise in the design of office equipment, especially fax machines and telephony gadgets. This new multi-function device takes advantage of this and really is an all-in-one, incorporating faxing and telephone answering, as well as providing standard print, scan and copy functions. Even with these extra facilities, the design of the…
Crucial Technology – 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro
Not content to just sell memory, Crucial Technology has for some time been selling a small range of graphics cards based on ATI’s Radeon GPUs (Graphics Processing Units). Its latest card takes over from the Radeon 9700 Pro as the flagship model and is based on ATI’s fastest currently available GPU – the Radeon 9800…
HP – Photosmart 735 camera
HP has been plugging away making cameras for the last five years or so, yet many of the main digital camera outlets don’t stock them. This is a shame – just because HP’s background is in computing rather than optics doesn’t mean it can’t make a good camera. The latest Photosmart 735 may look a…