Monthly Archives: November 2005
Iiyama – ProLite H431S
Iiyama has long had a good name in the monitor market for quality displays, though often at slightly higher prices than its competitors. The 17-inch ProLite H431S continues in the quality vein, but also isn’t that pricey. What would you look for most in an LCD monitor? Picture quality, of course; adjustability, to be able…
Gateway – 8550GB
Here’s a blast from the past that you may recognise. Gateway, the company that was such a dominant force in the market until it disappeared into the sunset (i.e. back to the USA) in 2001, is back with a small range of desktops and notebooks. The first product we have laid our hands on is…
Microsoft – Age of Empires III
The third RTS in Microsoft’s acclaimed Age of Empires series picks up from the medieval 16th Century and leads on into the industrialised 19th. The single player campaigns, of which there are three, spanning twenty four missions, focus on the discovery and subsequent plunder of the Americas. Age of Empires III is typical sequel fodder,…
Samsung – CLP-510
Samsung has a good range of monochrome and colour laser printers, which sell well because of their good price/performance ratios. This latest CLP-510 colour laser is aimed at the personal market, but can be expanded into a small workgroup machine by adding an extra 500-sheet paper tray to the existing 250-sheet one and fitting an…
Mobotix – M10D
Don’t be fooled into comparing Mobotix IP cameras with cheap Web-cams, not even those that can be plugged straight into the LAN. The Mobotix products are in a completely different league, designed for twenty four hour use with unique built-in remote communication, alerting and recording features designed specifically to satisfy the professional surveillance market. The…
Steganos – Internet Security 2006
We immediately warmed to Steganos Internet Security 2006. It has manners. Whereas some products of its ilk would instantly have you installing every tool they had to offer in one go, Steganos doesn’t work like that. You pick exactly what you want and leave what you don’t. Radical thinking it ain’t, but it scores highly…
HP – xw9300
Not so long ago, the only choice you had if you wanted a dual CPU system was to go down the Intel route or be tied to IBM. Not so any longer. AMD’s Opteron is steadily gaining a foothold in the server and workstation market, and HP is the latest company to offer a dual…
Raptor Gaming – M2
You just know that when a modern day piece of computer hardware arrives in a tin, there’s likely to be something a little different about it. And this particularly device is certainly different. But with a £35 price tag and without wireless support (the mouse requires a USB port to operate), the Raptor Gaming M2…
Olympus – mju DIGITAL 600
Digital cameras are so widespread these days that it can be tough to differentiate between those on offer. This is very apparent if you have between £200 and £300 to spend, as the market is awash with options. Olympus has just added to your worries in this respect with its mju / µ (pronounced ‘mew’)…
Activision – Quake 4
Quake 4 is actually the sequel to Quake 2. If you’re feeling a little confused, let us explain. Revisionist videogame historians have completely struck Quake 3 from the records, mainly because of the infernally annoying noise the game made to denote a player being hit. You know, the sound like Noddy getting stuck in a…