Monthly Archives: October 2004
Encyclopaedias group test
The annual battle of the multimedia encyclopaedias has, over time, narrowed down to two suspects. While the likes of Compton, Grolier and Hutchinson are still going, you’re more likely to find them on budget labels than sitting proudly next to the two products we’ve got going head-to-head here. The two left standing are Encarta and…
Square Enix – Final Fantasy XI Online
A bit like movie sequels, game sequels tend to diminish in stature and quality with every succeeding release. On that basis, the Final Fantasy series should long ago have been consigned to the gamers’ trash heap, yet against all the odds every new release (a bit like The Sims) is eagerly awaited by its legions…
Motorola – MPx220
Motorola’s first MPx was quite exciting in that the company came up with the first Windows Mobile smartphone with a clamshell design. Now the MPx220 is on the scene we have a second clamshell – nobody else has produced one for the UK market. But we’ve been there, seen that, and now we are looking…
Microsoft – Digital Image Suite 10
Microsoft’s Digital Image Suite 10 finds the company once again attempting to take cash off people looking to get their digital camera and PC working in some kind of unison. While last year’s version was certainly smart, this is an area in which Microsoft still hasn’t hit top form. Version 10? There are some smart…
AVerMedia – AVerTV Cardbus
Perhaps manufacturers are running out of features to list on their boxes. With TV cards very much an everyday component to many PC users, AVerMedia’s latest notebook TV tuner is left to champion factors that, to be blunt, you’d expect anyway. ‘Plug and play’, for instance, is coming up to its tenth year of life,…
Microsoft – Autoroute 2005
At first glance, there’s no discernible difference between Autoroute 2004 and this latest version. Second glance? Er, the same conclusion actually, with the look and feel of the program seemingly photocopied from last time around. In fact, after a good hour or two of poking around, this reviewer had to cheat and call up the…
Carrera – Octan Ultimate
First there was ISA, then PCI, then AGP and now PCI Express. The evolution of the graphics interface in PCs reflects the increasing importance of fast graphics for games, video editing and digital photography (but mainly games). With the Octan Ultimate, Carrera is one of the first companies to incorporate PCI Express into a desktop…
Route 66 – Mobile Britain 2005
Navigation software has been around for PDAs for a while now, as an add on, as part of a hardware and software bundle, and even in a couple of cases involving PDAs with a GPS antenna built in. Several companies have taken the next step and are readying navigation software for smart phones, but the…
Epson – Perfection 2480 Photo
Is a reliance on brand names a bad thing? It’s an open discussion, but a case for the defence would surely be Epson scanners. Here’s a product area where the firm has barely put a foot wrong for years, and the Perfection 2480 Photo certainly isn’t going to put paid to that record. Selling for…
Vosonic – IC Drive
One of the only drawbacks to digital photography, compared with conventional film photography, is storage. It’s easy enough to carry a couple of spare films around with you, but if you have to carry a couple of spare Microdrives then things can quickly become expensive. One alternative is to carry a laptop with you, but…