Monthly Archives: February 2009
Big Bang – Universal Imaging Utility
If you have to install and configure new PCs as part of your job, you’ll know how handy disk imaging and cloning tools can be. You’ll also appreciate their limitations, especially when it comes to deploying images to PCs from different vendors or those with different components. Most have ways around these problems, but few…
Avanquest – Family Tree Maker 2009
Now published by Avanquest under licence from Ancestry, Family Tree Maker 2009 is the latest incarnation of what is possibly the best-known family history software. Admittedly, it’s now best-known for the wrong reasons, following the disastrous rewrite that was version 2008. Version 2009 rectifies the errors and some of the omissions of its predecessor, while…
Datz – Music Lounge
The slow but steady abolition of DRM (Digital Rights Management) has all of a sudden made music download services much more appealing, while at the same time catalysing the release of a series of more dedicated clients such as the recently reviewed Easy MP3 Download. As a quick refresh, that software allows you to browse…
HTC – Touch HD
The smartphone world is really taking off at the moment and to be at the top of the tree a smartphone needs to have a large front screen, Wi-Fi, GPS, HSDPA and a few other bells and whistles. HTC’s Touch HD offers all of these ‘must have’ features. It is a large format device whose…
Total Gameplay Studio – The Mastermind Deluxe
There are three types of mastermind. One is the real bad guy, sending out his goons to mug, extort, sell drugs and all the rest of it. The other is a legitimate business owner who uses muscle and guns to protect his interests. Finally, there’s the chap who sits in a black leather chair and…
Brother – MFC-250C
Last year Brother launched the world’s first compact multifunction inkjet A3 machines and now the company has kicked off 2009 with five new A4 multifunction inkjets, using the same engine as that series. At the bottom end of this new series is the MFC-250C which retails at under £80 and offers full print, scan, copy…
Olympus – µ TOUGH-6000
When a camera has tough’ in the title you know that it’s going to be out of the ordinary, and the Olympus µ TOUGH-6000 is not the kind of digital camera to let you kick sand in its face without facing the consequences. Released alongside its big brother, the µ (pronounced mu or mju) TOUGH-8000,…
Mindjet – MindManager 8
I’ve a confession to make. Although I’ve reviewed Mindjet’s mind mapping software, MindManager, a number of times now, it’s never really grabbed my imagination, at least not in the way it has with some of the users I’ve spoken to. The latest release, however, is starting to win me over, with a number of new…
HANNSG – Hi221D
One of the few advantages of the current depressing state of the economy is the compulsion that most retailers have to lower their prices more than usual, in order to attract customers with dwindling disposable income. So if you’re looking to expand the size of your present PC monitor to make the most of widescreen…
Soichi Hayashi – SimpleD Budget
You’d be forgiven for thinking that budgeting is something of a lost skill in today’s borrow-all society. Although given the possible harshness of the oncoming world economic depression, it’s one that might well come back to the fore. And should you need help planning your finances, then this program is certainly priced at a budget…