Monthly Archives: August 2004
NEC – Versa M340
It’s a truism that the essentials in life are not glamorous. If you want a dependable runabout, you don’t buy Ferrari, and for practical purposes a Timex will do just as well as a Rolex. This combat boots vs Jimmy Choo’s philosophy applies equally well to notebooks. A slice of carbon-fibre techno-flash no thicker than…
Gainward – SoundXplosion 5.1
The trade off you’re lumbered with if you opt for 5.1-channel headphones is that to get all the necessary technology and speakers packed in, manufacturers need a fair amount of space. So headphones like Gainward’s new SoundXplosion 5.1 are bigger even than those that you used to plug into stereos in the early 80s. That’s…
Acer – Ferrari 3200
There probably isn’t a man alive who hasn’t dreamt of having a flaming red Ferrari in the garage, before returning to the real world where that sort of price is well beyond his range. Likewise, the gadget-minded businessman who’d like to own a notebook that’s a cut above the legion of silver-and-black would normally be…
Sony – Athens 2004
The last ten years have been lean times for the button-basher. Whereas the 80s were chock-full of Epyx games, the virtual challenges of Daley Thompson and the bloke with the ropey moustache in Hyper Sports, we haven’t even seen a Track & Field spin-off or clone for a good few years now. The answers to…
Xara – Xara X1
British software developer Xara is well-known for its cheap, easy-to-use Web graphics software for home and business, such as WebStyle and MenuMaker. But its eponymous flagship product, Xara, is unusual in its universal appeal to everyone from professional designers to home users. This is because it too is cheap and easy to use, yet the…