Monthly Archives: January 2004
DigiMagic – DM220
While the cost of digital photography media is coming down, if you’re a professional photographer – or a serious amateur – then shelling out for several Microdrives or other forms of high capacity memory card can still become expensive rather quickly. But you probably don’t want to carry a laptop around with you just so…
Hercules – 3D Prophet Radeon 9800XT
Well, it’s that time of year again; the time when the big two graphics chip vendors try to wrestle your hard-earned cash out of your wallet. Both ATI and Nvidia have come out with new, high-end 3D graphics cards. But ATI’s replacement for the Radeon 9800 Pro is not, as you might expect, something called…
Ulead – PhotoImpact XL
PhotoImpact is rarely spoken of in the same breath as Adobe Photoshop or Jasc’s Paint Shop Pro. However, there’s good reason to push PhotoImpact XL, the latest version of Ulead’s product, well up there with the leading photo editors and bitmap painting programs under Windows. PhotoImpact XL is a graphics program with a good pedigree,…
Palm – Tungsten T3
Nobody can accuse Palm of dragging its heels when it comes to upgrading its PDAs, and this is especially true of the Tungsten range. The T2 was only just beginning to feel comfortable in our hands, yet now we have the sequel, the T3. Any comparisons with the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies should be resisted at…
Asus – P4P800S-E Wireless Edition
Here’s a funny thing. Asus has brought out a new Pentium 4 motherboard that doesn’t have dual channel memory support, yet despite that apparently fatal flaw, the P4P800S-E Wireless Edition is absolutely superb. The key to this motherboard – as ever – is the chipset. Intel has updated its 845PE and released it as the…
Pinnacle Systems – Instant CD/DVD 8
Billed as an all-in-one solution for burning CDs and DVDs, Pinnacle’s latest is up against a crowded market that has an excellent front-runner. It doesn’t quite do enough to displace Nero 6, but there’s nonetheless much to admire about the way Instant CD/DVD 8 does its work. Not least because it’s really quite straightforward to…
Punch – Professional Home Design Platinum
Ever had the joy of an interior design company coming and planning some home improvement for you? Noticed the way they bring along a laptop laden with some clever program that churns out a design you don’t want at a price you can’t afford? Well, here’s where you can join in the fun. With Punch…
OpenOffice.org – OpenOffice.org 1.1
OpenOffice.org is one of the main pretenders to the Microsoft Office throne, one of the few that can measure up to one of the most formidable office suites in the world. There’s a number of features that differentiate OpenOffice.org from some of the other non-Microsoft office suites. The first is simply that this is an…
Logitech – IO Personal Digital Pen
The theory behind the IO Personal Digital Pen is sound. You want to write onto paper, but want your notes and drawings stored on your PC too. So, you use a pen that digitises and software that can turn your doodles into images, your handwriting into text. That’s pretty much what Logitech has achieved here,…