Monthly Archives: November 2007
Epson – Stylus Photo RX685
Epson only recently released the Photo Stylus R285 for people on low budgets who wanted to produce good quality photos. Now they’ve released two All-in-Ones – the RX585 and the RX685 – for those with a bit more cash to spare and who want the option to print, copy and scan their documents and images….
Intel – Core 2 Extreme QX9650
Intel is releasing information about its next-generation Penryn Core 2 processors in carefully controlled stages. Penryn is the code name for the move from a 65nm process to 45nm, which dramatically reduces the size of the processor core. This reduces the cost of production and also frees up space on the core, so Intel is…
Asus – EAH2600XT
Whenever the big two in the graphics game launch a new card, there’s the usual bluster about how fast this is against that, and this card can do such-and-such while that card can run the latest game faster than anything else on the planet. Then comes the 64 million dollar question; how much does it…
Nero – Nero 8
As is now sadly the norm with seemingly every media-related program that we install onto our test machines, Nero 8 is keen, upon installation, to be the default app for every form of media possible on our PC. It’s got manners, so it does give you the option of changing what it associates itself with,…
Sega – Alien Syndrome
A surprising but not unwelcome choice for a modern-day reworking, Alien Syndrome was originally an entertaining arcade blast that owed some of its styling to the likes of Gauntlet. Viewed from overhead (and now moved to an isometric viewpoint), you ran around blasting things and generally having plenty of fun in a gleefully shallow way….
Epson – Stylus Photo R285
There was a phase when printers started appearing in various subtle shades of iPod cream, but fortunately that highly impractical colour now seems to be out of fashion. Epson’s latest low-end photo printer has sensibly opted for the smarter chrome and black look, which will fit comfortably into a home or small office environment. A…
Trust – BT-9300 Wireless PC Audio System
Clear explanations aren’t a strength of the Trust BT-9300 Wireless PC Audio System. The box is clear enough, promising that using the device you can send music from your PC to the likes of your stereo wirelessly, but the accompanying imagery gives little clue as to how you do so. Open the box up and…
Gear4 – Blackbox
Last summer we reviewed Bluetooth aficionado Parrot’s excellent Boombox and were impressed enough to assume that this form of wireless audio streaming had finally been cracked. Gear4 recently announced two similar solutions in the Blackbox and Blackbox mini; we have the larger of the two on test here but it’s still substantially smaller than Parrot’s…
Focus Multimedia – Trainz Railway Simulator
Don’t be fooled. While the outer packaging labels this as ‘Trainz Railway Simulator’ and the initial loading screen calls it ‘Trainz Railroad Simulator 2008′, it’s the 2006 edition of this particular program you’re getting. But, as we’ll discover, that’s still not a bad thing. Mind you, it’s not the only thing about the installation to…
Uniblue – SpeedUpMyPC 3
If you ask any computer user if they’d be averse to ‘speeding up their PC’ you’d be unlikely to find anyone who says no. Upgrading and overclocking aside, the only real way to do this is to optimise software, which usually turns out to be ultimately unfulfilling if you don’t know what you’re doing. Unless,…