Monthly Archives: October 2007
Pioneer – BDC-S02BK
One of the things holding back the wholesale adoption of the Blu-Ray disc format is the high price of the drives to read and write the discs. Rumour has it the price has been kept high by Sony taking most available units to put in PlayStation 3 consoles. That demand should be easing off now…
Sapphire – Radeon HD2600XT Ultimate
The HD2600XT is the latest addition to Sapphire’s Ultimate range of passively-cooled graphics cards and is worth looking at if you are building any sort of media PC, not so much for its gaming performance but because of what’s built into the card’s hardware. Aimed at the mainstream market, AMD’s HD2600 (RV630) is a cut-down…
Ascaron – Loki
In days gone by, pen and paper role-players referred to a combat-oriented adventure as a hack-and-slash affair. With the success of Diablo, the videogame world received its equivalent; the click-and-slash, where the emphasis is on combat performed by pointing and clicking on the enemy. A lot. Until your index finger feels like it’s going to…
Corel – Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
Without giving a history lesson, but for the benefit of those whose life has more exciting things in it than tracking the evolution of software companies, Paint Shop Pro was acquired by Corel a few years ago from a company called Jasc, which had spent years building it into a viable low-cost Windows challenger to…
BenQ – CP120c
There are plenty of so-called portable projectors weighing in at three or four hernia-inducing kilos, which is to say they’re probably heavier than the laptops that drive them. To our minds a truly portable projector should tip the scales at around 2kg, and to be classified as an ultra-portable we’d expect a projector to weigh…
GSP – Ice Age 2: Paint & Create
Those CGI animated kids’ films are quite marvellous things. They always manage to pitch them well for both children and adults, with daft slapstick humour mixed in alongside plenty of jokes laden with hidden meanings and layers that the grown-ups can chuckle knowingly to each other about. Although this Paint & Create design package is…
Binatone Carrera – X350 GPS
The entry level arena has traditionally been a bit of a tricky market when it comes to GPS devices, but we’ve seen a few recently that suggest consumer research is finally paying off. Although not as well known in the UK for its prowess in the portable navigation market, Binatone Carrera does have a decent…
Fujitsu Siemens – Amilo Pro V3515
Fujitsu Siemens claims that its Amilo Pro V3515 is “designed to deliver breath-taking performance.” Sad to report that our review model fell well short of that claim, due to the choice of processor. Although it costs just £333 (including VAT), shopping around you will find other laptops in the same price bracket but with faster…
Capcom – Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
If you’re one of the Xbox 360 owners who hasn’t yet explored the Live Arcade Marketplace component of the console’s online service, then here’s a compelling reason to do so. Effectively, it’s a store where you can buy downloaded games using ‘Microsoft Points’, and it’s a mish-mash of old games, new indie releases and spruced-up…
HTC – TyTN II
Choosing a Windows Mobile device isn’t easy. If you have the luxury of not being tied into an operator contract, then there is a huge array of SIM-free options, and weighing up their features can be a challenge. Unless, that is, you decide to (and can afford to) opt for the device with everything. That’s…