Monthly Archives: February 2006
Bluesquad – Cloak 8.0
The idea behind Cloak 8.0, a small utility that amounts to a download of under 6MB, is that it will secure your personal information and documents from those who should be pointing their unwelcome eyeballs elsewhere. It’s one of a series of applications now available to purchase and download through the Bluesquad site, and at…
Maxtor – OneTouch II
Maxtor’s OneTouch II is designed to take the headache out of backing up your computers and it does so very well. The device itself is solid and pleasing to look at. Its metal casing means that it weighs around 1.38kg; drop this and it’s more likely that the floor will suffer than the hard drive…
Iridium – Durabook R15D-740
The brief for the Iridium Durabook (a.k.a. the Hardbook when sold via Rock) was as follows; a laptop designed to be rugged and waterproof, yet attractive enough to sit in a business environment. It’s managed to succeed on all parts of the brief. The Durabook not only looks good but it’s also got all the…
VIA – Epia-N 8000E
The Epia-N is the first of VIA’s new Nano-ITX form factor motherboards. This new form factor is a mere 12cm by 12cm, a development of VIA’s successful 17cm x 17cm Mini-ITX design. Officially launched in March 2004, VIA is only now bringing it to market, nearly two years later. To save space the board features…
Microsoft – Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species
‘God’ games are all the rage these days, encouraging you to design your own town, hospital, house or theme park. But not many of these are designed for the younger end of the market. Zoo Tycoon 2 was a welcome exception (though suggesting it was for 3 year-olds and up might have been a little…
F-Secure – Anti-Virus Client Security 6.01
A year ago, if you wanted to scan a computer for spyware, viruses and to prevent attacks via the Internet, you would have needed three or more pieces of software. But new products like F-Secure’s Anti-Virus Client Security are starting to incorporate all of the different product groups in one. Installing Anti-Virus Client Security is…
NEC – LT25G
The NEC LT25G projector has many plus points, including its performance and weight, but beauty is not one of them. It’s ugly and feels ‘plasticky’, plus it’s also quite loud. However, it does at least manage to keep below the 2kg mark, although the bulbous curvy styling and the bulky carry case make it seem…
Fujitsu Siemens – Pocket LOOX N520
There may be a PDA that has sleeker lines than the Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX N520 but off-hand we are unable to think of one. It measures 71 x 116 x 14mm and much of the surface area is taken up with a 3.5-inch TFT colour screen which has a conventional resolution of 320 x…
Esaw – Mini 110
The Esaw Mini 110 is a complete PC, crammed into a case the size of a slightly longer than usual 5.25-inch CD drive. It manages to squeeze a 1.4Ghz Intel Celeron M processor, up to 1GB RAM in two PC3200 DIMM slots, a slim 2.5-inch hard drive and a slimline optical drive into the tiny…
Pure Motion – DVD-Lab Pro
Lacking the backing of an Adobe budget and the refined presentation that makes some of its competition so attractive to use, DVD-Lab Pro is a case in point for that old cliché about books and their covers. Sold by Pure Motion, a firm that candidly admits it doesn’t have the marketing budget to push its…