Tech Digest

One Minute Video Review: Motorola KRZR

Here's Ashley and I looking at the Motorola KRZR, and having heaps of fun trying to figure out how you say it. There's also a respectable amount of time looking at what exactly it does. Expect it to appear in the shops in the next few weeks.

Review: Philips SHN9500 noise cancelling headphones

The Propaganda

The SHN 9500 noise-cancelling headphones from Philips promise to cut out 85% of background noise, so are perfect for planes, trains and automobiles. They're premium range, so expect a lot of padding. Did you not know that's what premium means? How disappointing.

Noise cancellation headphones are always pretty chunky, especially when they've got technology integrates which actually takes into account the outside noise, rather than just attempting to muffle it. These create an opposite waveform to the outside noise, and in doing so, neutralises it.  There is also a set of neodynamic magnets in the speaker drivers to deliver accurate sound

The Good

Comfort-wise, they're probably the most comfortable I've tried. There is a serious amount of padding going on on the earpieces, and there's more padding on the top of the headband. I wore them on a train for 4 hours, and they were only mildly uncomfortable by the end of it. This was despite wearing glasses, which normally makes headphones sit pressed against that particular pressure point which gives you a blinding headache.

With premium headphones come a few bells and whistles that you don't get on budget models (although admittedly there's only  a limited amount you can do with headphones). On these, you've got a mute button which will allow you to listen to things like train announcements (handy for finding out you're on the wrong train) and oncoming lorries.  There's also an adaptor for the two prong airplane jacks and a carry case. A further adaptor means you can use them with things that have both a 3.5 or a 6.5 mm jack. 

The Bad

The bad news is the noise cancelling element, which might be a problem for Philips. It's quite ineffective, making me check several times if I'd turned the switch on. I had, and yet I still had a significant amount of the tube noise. At one point I could even hear the tinny innnc-innnnc-innnnc  from the headphones of the boy next to me. 

It's supposed to be the low frequency noise that is best cancelled, and Philips quote an improvement of 85%, which means that the tube shouldn't have been a problem. Voices and sudden loud noises don't count, since the technology isn't yet that fast at neutralising, but even so. The overall effect was better than listening through something such as in-ear phones, but I suspect that this was because of all the padding around the ears.

In our opinion

These headphones are really comfortable. And they come with lots of extras. But unfortunately, the noise cancelling element isn't really up to scratch. When you've got to check that they're on, you know there' s a problem... You can however, pick up a pair for £150 at Dixons

One Minute Review: LG KG810, the Chocolate Clamshell

Too lazy to read? In this instance you're ok, since you can sit back and watch a brief synopsis of the LG KG810 in this video (you might have problems with the rest of this site though). If you want more details, check out the full review here.

Review: LG KG810 aka the chocolate clamshell

The Propaganda

The LG Chocolate phone took over the Razr this year as the phone to be seen with, from Southhampton to Solihull. It was loved for its smooth finish, touch sensitive buttons, and of course the massive marketing campaign LG put into it.

They followed up on this by launching the white and the pink version, and have announced a premium edition with gold and platinum trimming. But essentially, they're all the LG Chocolate.

Until now. The LG KG810 is a chocolate phone trapped in a clamshell boy. The touch sensitive buttons are still there, although now they only work the MP3 controls. Not launched yet, it's currently doing the rounds in Asia.

The Good

The KG810, or chocolate clamshell as it shall eternally be known, is aimed at a market that doesn't want to spend ages figuring out how their phone works, where the shortcuts are, or how to configure their own personalised settings. Some would argue that we're all that market, but ho hum. LG clearly know that, since their keypad may not be the most attractive around, but does make all the basic functions easily accessible. There's a shortcut key for switching it to silent, your inbox, contacts, camera and MP3 player, as well as two soft keys and a favourites button you can configure to show your most used functions. Phew. In fact, there are many times when you'll find yourself having to go into the main menu.

There are also lots of features you'd expect on a phone like this: the numbers appear in different colours as you enter a phone number. There are loads of ringtones to choose from, and thankfully at least one that sounds like an actual phone, for us more reserved types.

The Bad

I'm just going to come right out and say it: I don't like the design of this phone. Where the Chocolate was innovative, this is tired. Where it had excitement, this invokes shrugging of the shoulders and an ill-concealed grunt.  No doubt not everyone will feel this way, but there's something about the thickness and the silver surround which doesn't work. In fact, it looks remarkably similar to the Motorola Razr maxx I took a look at here, which comes with HSDPA and a 2 megapixel camera for a similar weight and design.

There's also the seemingly insurmountable problem of actually touching the phone. Whilst the shiny surface is polished and lovely, it cries out to be stroked and there in lies the problem. It's possible that I have bizarre amounts of finger grease, but I suspect the fingerprints I've left on it would happen to anyone.

The other selling point, the touch sensitive controls, are only relevant to the MP3 functionality. Since they only work whilst the music is on, you still have to open the phone to do anything, including turning the MP3 player on. Incidentally, whilst writing that I realized just how lazy I've become, that I actually object to opening up the phone to use it.

The problem I came up against most with this phone was the battery life.  It requires charging every couple of days, and even then, it's touch and go whether you'd make it home before it concked out. However, having done a bit of digging I did find an power save mode, which dims al the screens, which could eak it out for a further day.

Another really irritating feature is the alarm. I'm sure if anyone ever looked into it they'd find that 123% of people used their phone as an alarm, making this a function it is worth getting right. Unfortunately, LG have neglected to put a snooze button on this one. Yes, I'm lazy. Yes, I love my bed more than is healthy. But no snooze button? Why? Why would they do that?

Geek sheet

Display: Internal(262,000 colour, TFT type, 176x220 size) External(65,000 colour, TFT type, 96x96 size

Dimensions: 92 x 47 x 14.6

Weight: 86g

Standby time: Up to 200hrs

Band (in MHZ): >900 / 1800 / 1900 (Tri-band)

Sound: Polyphonic

WAP browser: 2.0

Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS, Email

Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB data kit

Accessories: Travel adapter, Strap, Stereo headphones and inline remote/Handsfree kit, USB data kit, Pouch

In our opinion

You only have to look at the balance of the good and the bad to know that I didn't like the phone. And whilst some of it is clearly subjective, such as the design, a lot of it seem like pretty obvious mistakes. The alarm for instance. But, if it's your cup of tea, you can get it for £285 from Expansys. It's not launched on contract yet, but if it's anything like its predecessor, it'll be free with contracts of about £30 a month.

One Minute Video Review: Philips Living Colours Life

More from the Philips Simplicity event now, and this time they're giving you a reason to completely give up on the whole decorating your house experience. With these lights you can throw practically any hue onto your walls, without even a hint of paint. They're planned for launch in the UK in the new year.

One Minute Video Review: Nokia 5500

Nokia has today announced the 5500 Music Edition, which is a super-rugged phone for sporty types. The music version features a 512 MB microSD card, a fitness carrying strap, bicycle holder and sports headset. I took a look at the 5500, not getting too worked up about the sport possibilities, instead focussing on the great game you can play whilst you're not out being fit.

One Minute Review: Dyson Airblade. Strike 2

YouTube is playing silly buggers, and I know the Dyson video isn't showing, so lets try it this way. It requires a bit more effort on your part, as you now have to click here, but just think of how much more clued up you'll be on Dyson's latest innovation. But you should know, there aren't actually any blades involved, despite the name.

One Minute Video Review: Dyson Airblade

Before you watch the video, it seems only fair to warn you that there are in fact no blades involved in this film, despite Dyson's name. It is in fact a hand dryer, but in typical Dyson fashion, involves something a bit different to your bog (geddit?) standard model.

Review: MobileWear bluetooth watch

The Propaganda

Fossil make watches. Sony Ericsson make phones. Together they make.... phone watches. This is their partnership answer to Motorola and Oakley who created the O-Rokr shades. The MobileWear watch uses Bluetooth to connect to your phone, displaying vital info on the screen in the clock face.  So is it a better deal than the not-so-lovely shades?

The Good

Unlike certain other partnerships that we could name, this watch actually looks like a watch. It's adapted from a number of existing Fossil watches, and to look at it you wouldn't notice anything amiss. There are two buttons on the side which control the Bluetooth functions, as well as a winding wheel to set the time.

To pair with your phone, it's simply a case of choosing the relevant icon and pairing it. Couldn't be easier. The icons are simple and just give you the ability to pair, turn the Bluetooth on and off (so it can just act as a normal watch) and choose whether you want to receive alerts for messages.

Once you've paired it the fun really starts. Receiving a phone call means you'll be alerted via a discreet vibration from the watch. You've then got scrolling text on the screen which alerts you who's calling. You can also reject the call from the phone, in which case the call goes to voicemail. There's also a vibration each time you get a message, and a little envelope icon is displayed.

The Bad

The watch is a chunky metal affair, and is likely to only be attractive to 50% of the population. The strap can either be metal or rubber, but either way, it's not going to set female hearts a-racing.

The functionality is great to begin with, but I was unable to secure a connection after about 30 minutes of use. This might be due to the battery power being low, or the fact that it was an early production sample, but either way, it didn't work.

It's a Sony Ericsson product, so does in fact only work with Sony Ericsson phones. This is contrary to many other Bluetooth devices which connect to everything, despite being made by one particular manufacturer.

In our opinion

When it works, it's fun. There are elements that would make it even more James Bond, such as being able to answer calls from your phone, or text messages being displayed on the screen rather than just an alert that they're on your phone. It's £150 from Widget.co.uk so not a cheap accessory, but you'll pay a large percentage of that for a Fossil watch anyway.

Shiny's video review round-up

Once more, our intrepid team has been out and about, trying to get their hands on the latest gadgets to give you a first-hand view of them before you part with your cash. Here's our latest pick of the week.

Fuji S6500fd camera
The Fuji S6500fd is the company's attempt to bridge the gap between compact and full SLR cameras. Do they succeed? Find out below.
Watch the video review

Parrot Photo Viewer
Parrot's Photo Viewer promises to proudly display the photos on your phone in a living room frame. See it in action.
Watch the video review

Motorola Razr Maxx
Motorola has a rather tasty new phone, which features HSDPA and a impressive MP3 player. Susi gave it the once over.
Watch the video review

Acer Ferrari 1000 laptop
Ok, you can't afford the car - but you might be able to afford the Ferrari-branded laptop. We took it for a spin.
Watch the video review

RS Media and Mark Tilden
More from the recent Boysstuff party, with Mark Tilden chatting about his Robo range, and in particular the new bot on the block - RS Media.
Watch the video review

One Minute Video Review: Fuji S6500fd

I look at the Fuji S6500fd, which is their attempt to bridge the gap between compact and full SLR cameras. You can get one here for £275.

Review: O2 Ice phone

The Propaganda

The Ice phone is the O2 branded phone, which comes with all their 3G bells and whistles. With it's smooth white casing, they're after the fashion buyers, who would otherwise be after a slim Motorola or chic LG Chocolate. 

It's available free on contract and on pay as you go, where it'll set you back £99.99.  It comes with a free bluetooth headset in both cases.

The Good

3G is often only added on to some serious handsets, which are noteable for their chunky design and complicated spec (although this is changing with the Samsung Ultra range). O2 are aiming theirs at an entirely different market, which is reflected in their partnerships with the likes of Ebay and Streetmap. It's not designed to be compatable with their WAP i-mode service, though.

The 3G capabilities are immediately evident on the design of the phone. There's a camera on the front and the back, the first for video calling and the second for taking photos. Whether said video calling will ever really be used, we've yet to find out, but it's there for those that want it.

It also features Bluetooth, as well as a MicroSD slot. This is essential to take advantage of the media player capabilities, which can play video and music.  It's not a key feature of the phone, as you need to enter the main menu in order to get into it, but again, it's there for those who want it. 

The simplicity of the design is echoed in the menu. There are only 9 options, with a simple grid icon display, although this can be changed. For those who want 3G without a million other option this will work well.

The Bad

The design is a key seller for this phone, but when you actually get it out of the box, it's a huge disappointment. The white plastic looks tacky, whilst the candybar styling makes it look like a remote control - a phone masquerading as a tacky remote is not going to be a massive seller. However, this is a complete Marmite phone - some people love it, whilst others hate it, so I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong should this go ahead and be the most popular phone ever sold.

O2 seem to have sacrificed a lot of other functions in the quest to make this a simple 3G phone. There's no shortcuts, except to the contact list, so you find yourself spending a lot of time going through the menu in order to get to what you want. The camera is also only 1.3 megapixels, and you experience a shutter lag of about 2 seconds, so be prepared for some blurry shots.

The other thing that ensured I'd never use this phone out of choice was the selection of ringtones. I was left mortified every time it rang, having decided that a circus tone was the least offensive of those offered.

The big services they're pushing with this phone is Ebay and Streetmap. I have to say that despite only having a small screen, the Streetmaps did appear easier to read than on many other devices, with the maps being adjusted so you could get a proper idea of where you were. However, for the amount of effort they've put into plugging the Ebay service I was expecting more. Yes, you can enter th 'My Ebay' section and check on your auctions, but that's as far as it goes. There's no way of bidding on anything, which makes it pretty useless in my eyes. I can't imagine much worse than being able to check to see you've been outbid and then being able to do absolutely sod all about it.

In our opinion

The combination of the design with the lack of features and the awful ringtones means this isn't a phone that I'll be pocketing any time soon. However, what I see as a lack of features others will see as a simple user interface, and the  design will appeal to others as being clean and curvy. However, even with these differences, O2's 3G service isn't enough of a draw for this to be chosen in that most competitive of markets, the mobile one.

One Minute Video Review: Parrot Photo Viewer

I took a look at the Parrot Photo Viewer, which is designed to display photos from your phone or other Bluetooth equipped photo device. You can pick on up for £150 here. 

Review: Samsung K5 MP3 player

The Propaganda

If you haven't already heard enough about the Samsung K5 today, you will have in about 3 minutes time. As we've said, it's available in the UK now, and was the shining star at the Samsung stand this month at IFA.

The MP3 player features an FM radio, touch sensitive buttons and most importantly, a slide out speaker. It's available as a 1GB,  2GB or 4GB model.

The Good

Samsung are selling the K5 based on the strength of the design, as well as the fact that it's got integrated speakers. And I'll admit, people do like the design - the touch sensitive keypad is lit with blue buttons (very Samsung), which is echoed on the screen with blue and green graphics, very much like the skins on Windows Media Player.

The speaker is hid underneath the screen, and flicks out with a satisfying clunk. Once it's displayed the player automatically switches to playing through the speakers. It also switches the display to horizontal so that you can lean it on a desk or where ever you happen to be.

Because of the speaker, you can set the player to act as an alarm, allowing you to either wake to one of several preset tunes, or to a song selected from your library. Like many mobile phone alarms, you can set it to come on on specific day. But, because of the lack of keypads, you're offered a  selection from Mon-Fri, Mon-Sat or Sat-Sun. Poor you if you need to choose the last option. You also can't wake to the FM radio, since the headphones act as a antenna.

The Bad

When I first whipped this out in front of someone, the first question they asked was 'why the speakers'. To which I answered, without really thinking, that it was so you could listen without headphones. And then they asked again - why? And they're right. The speakers are tinny, and although go quite loud, tend to be full of distortion at it's highest volume point.  There are actually no circumstances where you'd choose the speaker over headphones, as far as I can see.  They also double the width of the player, which seems to go against what every other manufacturer is striving for at the moment. And it's not that I begrudge not following the pack. It's just that if you do, I think you have to prove that you did it well.

The keypad is touch sensitive, which makes for a lovely design. Unfortunately, I suffer from lazy fingers, which means although I mean to hit only one button, I often stray over and pause the tracks accidentally. For a while, this lead me to conclude that it had an awful interface, until I realised it was the fault of my lazy fingers. Damn them. And of course with a touch sensitive keypad comes grubby finger marks. No matter how clean you think you are, this player wants to prove otherwise.

I've never come across Samsung earplugs like these before, and they're really difficult to describe, hence the picture to the left.  The bulk of them sit outside the ear, and it is a bulk, making them feel like they're going to drop out at any moment. There's probably some designer whose ears they fit perfectly, sitting somewhere at Samsung's head office, but it's not mine.  However, having said that, the sound through the headphones is very good.

Compatible formats for the K5 are MP3, WMA and Jpegs. However, with a screen size of 1.7" you won't be able to see a whole lot of your pictures, and some of the detail is inevitably lost.

Geek sheet

Plays MP3, WMA

Available in 2GB or 4GB, flash storage

FM Tuner

Playback 30hours, 6 hours with speaker

Built-in Li-Poly rechargeable battery

In our opinion

There's no getting around it - you're paying a premium for the speaker in the K5. A 1GB model costs £120 whilst you'll pay up to £180 for the 4GB version. That's £50 more than the recently released iPod Nano, which, lets face it, is likely to be the leader in this market of attractive medium sized memory MP3 players.  I just don't think I'd be happy to pay the extra for speakers I don't think I'd use, at the cost of not just a serious chunk of cash, but also the line of my jeans when I stick it in my pocket.

Review: Parrot Wireless Speakers

According to Parrot, Bluetooth is the future. In fact, they're so confident in this that they deal exclusively in Bluetooth enabled devices - everything from picture frames to speakers.

Their wireless speakers, or SOUND SPEAKERS as they've rather shoutily dubbed them, incorporate two 60W speakers with integrated amplifier, which use Bluetooth to stream music from your mobile phone, MP3 player or computer, as long as they support the A2DP Bluetooth profile.

The Good

Setting up the speakers is simply a case of taking them out of the box, connecting each to a mains supply (it obviously comes with two leads for this purpose) and turning them on so that they're 'discoverable' by Bluetooth devices. There's an LED light on the front of each speaker which indicates it's status, depending on the red/blue combination.

The speakers support Bluetooth devices which have the A2DP profile, as well as those which you can adapt for that purpose. For instance, I used the Bluetooth dongle from the Plantronics Bluetooth headphones to connect my iPod, which worked perfectly.  And because life hasn't quite caught up with Parrot yet, they've supplied a line in connection and lead, so that non-Bluetooth players can be used with the speakers.

The speakers have a synch button on the front of each, as well as volume controls. However, you can control the volume from the player you're using. I've found many other speaker systems don't let you do this.

In terms of the sound you get from these speakers, 60W delivers you a decent amount of volume for a living room, and the bass is relatively clear. It won't compare to the quality you'd get from a speaker manufacturer, but that's not really the technology you're buying here.

The Bad

The speakers are wireless in as much as you don't have to have them connected to an audio source, but there is still the power to consider. Each speaker needs to be close enough to a power source for the lead, and the two supplied are about 3 metres each. This isn't something that any other manufacturer can remedy without a massive battery pack, but does need to be taken into consideration when you think "fantastic, completely wireless speakers" - it won't be easy to lug it into the garden without an extension lead.

The controls on the speakers are minimal - there's basically just an on switch and a volume control. Parrot obviously believe you're going to use the controls on your player or phone to control the volume, since there's no remote provided. This is fine, but in my case, since I use an iPod with a Bluetooth adaptor, means extra handling and grubbiness on the casing. The volume control is also slow to register - it's a case of trial and error in trying to get a decent volume level since it doesn't seem to adjust at the same speed you change it. This is similar when you're changing tracks. There's a definite lag.

The speakers support Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP), a 2 channel stereo audio stream. Gradually, phone manufacturers in particular are ensuring their phones support this (LG and Motorola can both generally be relied upon). However, I use a Nokia N72, and the N Series isn't compatible so I couldn't stream music from my phone. I also had problems streaming from my computer. Despite installing the driver supplied on a CD from Parrot, and despite my computer recognising and connecting with the speakers, I couldn't get it to play music through them.

The speakers only come in a lacquered white casing, although you have the option of keeping the black covers over the speakers themselves, or taking them off and displaying them. They snap back over the top using magnets, so it's no fuss either way. However, the white finish might not fit in all living rooms, cover or no cover.

Geek Sheet

- Digital two-channel Class-D amplifier
- 60 W RMS power output per speaker
- 7band digital graphic equaliser
- Frequency range: 50 Hz - 20 kHz
- MP3*, MP3* decoder: 192, 160, 128, 112 Kbps
- SBC decoder: 320, 275, 250 and 150 Kbps
- RCA line-in input for all audio sources
- Power supply: 100 V - 240 V, 50 Hz and 60 Hz

In Our Opinion

I love the idea of wireless speakers - the reason I don't have an overly complicated home stereo set up is because I'm fed up with the rats nest of wires I always seem to acquire every time I move house. The only detraction from these in the number of devices that actually work with these speakers. However, this is changing constantly as more and more manufacturers recognise the benefit, so buying these now will probably see them growing in use over the next year or so.  They should be in shops now, although I've had difficulty finding them online. When they are in stick, they'll retail for about £245.

Shiny's video review round-up

While most sites are sat around shuffling their press releases, the intrepid team at Shiny Media are out and about, getting their hands on the latest gadgets, so you get a first hand view of what they're really about. If you've missed this week's video reviews, here's our pick of the week.

Navman ICN 750
Chris could have tested out Navman's latest GPS system in the city traffic or the Cotswolds. But to really test it out, he headed to the more isolated roads of rural France.
Watch the video review

Palm Treo 750v
Palm took on the BlackBerry this week with the launch of the Palm Treo 750v. Susi got her hands on one at the launch - here's her initial thoughts.
Watch the video review

Christmas Predictions from BoysStuff.co.uk
Susi met up with the BoysStuff.co.uk team, getting their predictions for the top sales slot at Christmas.
Watch the video review

Spyro and Creature JBL speakers
Another snippet from our team at IFA. This time, we take a look at the weird and wonderful Creature II and Spyro speakers from JBL.
Watch the video review

And if that's not enough, you can get a daily dose of technology reviews over at Tech Reviews.

Review: Blackberry Pearl

The Propaganda

The Blackberry Pearl is RIM's attempt to "get Blackberry out of the boardroom". They've made themselves indispensable to Serious Business People around the world, but now they're after said Serious People's kids. Or at least their less responsible, black-sheep-in-the-family, we're-not-sure-he'll-ever-settle-down, younger brother.

They're also hoping that people will now truly ditch the mobile phone they've been carrying around in addition to their emailing device, as they think they've cracked the perfect combination of data and phone functionality. But then, doesn't everybody?

The Good

Out of the box, the Blackberry Pearl emerges all shiny and new. I have to admit, if I didn't know about the phones magical abilities, I would be tempted to buy it on looks alone. This is an impressive feat bearing in mind the quality of the competition out there. I'm getting bored of saying it, but it really does have a 'piano black' finish which stays that way, despite being chucked in my bag to wrestle against keys, sand and other miscellany. The black is set off with chrome on the sides, and surrounding the camera. It's pretty. The best bit about it is the ball or 'pearl' you use for scrolling, in the centre under the screen. It's a great way of scrolling through the extensive menu, since it works in the same way to the ball in a mouse, not constrained to moving just left to right and up and down. It also lights up with a kind of purplish glow when you start using it. 

The email system itself is really easy to set-up, and is designed with consumers in mind, rather than those who have an IT guy and an Exchange server. It's simply a case of getting on the Blackberry website from your PC entering your email address and password, and you're done. There's no entering of smtp addresses, finding well hid settings or anything that you could mess up.  The only sticking point is that if you want Hotmail to deliver, you need to pay MSN for 'premium access', but that's an MSN problem rather than RIM's.

The performance of the Pearl could be battery sapping. After all, it's got a great screen that adjusts it's brightness according to your surroundings, Push email, and more backlighting than you can shake a stick at. In fact, I got about 3 days fairly typical use from a single charge.

In an attempt to catch up with other phone manufacturers, RIM have added a media player for music, photos and videos. To support this, they've included a MicroSD slot, and bundle a card with it, although they're not clear on what size it will be at the moment. They've also included headphones for your media.

The Bad

Blackberry are really pushing the inclusion of a camera on this one, but at 1.3 megapixels it doesn't stand up against the competition. It's the size now seen on budget phones, and those where the camera isn't anything more than a quick addition when needs must. Given Blackberry's excitement about it being there, you'd have thought they'd have got a better one. They've also put the MicroSD card under the SIM, which is a personal hate. It makes it really tricky to get to, and risks damaging the SIM card.

There are also certain things seen on your average mobile which you'll miss. There's no way of instantly getting into a new SMS message, or your contacts - all of these are done through the main menu. And to put that in perspective, the main menu has 33 different icons to navigate through, although you can move the order they appear in. There are 5 icons on the home screen, but they seem bizarre choices, including Enterprise Activation and Yahoo Messenger. There are two buttons either side of the handset which you can personalise, but there doesn't seem to be a way of personalising the home screen. [Update: you can move the icons by rearranging the main menu, which in turn changes the home screen icon order].

The keypad itself is a full QWERTY keypad, but has two letters to each button. And unlike other models, it's not a case of hitting each side of the key to get the different letter. So, this gives you a combination of predictive text and normal typing, where you've got to keep an eye on what you're being predicted to avoid having to go back and do it all again. I found it really difficult to get used to, as the predictive element fooled my brain into thinking that the keypad would be set up like a normal phone. I would have found it quicker and easier if it had I think. 

Another bone of contention is the lack of scroll wheel, which many Blackberry addicts will no doubt lament. Whilst the Pearl is attractive, and good for skipping about the screen, it's just not as quick when you want to go through emails or scan to the bottom of a document. For some reason, the test model I had would plonk me in the middle of yesterday's messages when I entered the email inbox, which meant I had about 40 emails to get through before I could see my new ones. It only started doing this after a few days, so it might just be a bug in an early model. 

There is no 3G on this model, which Blackberry put down to an issue of space. This does mean that web pages are slow to download, and in addition, certain pages are completely useless to you. The squares of images that make up a streetmap are put one on top of each other, making it impossible to see where the connections are.

Geek Sheet

Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.97 x .57 inches

Weight: 3.1 oz

Screen: 65,000 colors, 240 x 260 pixel color display

Camera: 1.3MP camera with flash

Memory: 64 MB flash memory with Micro SD slot

Network: Quad-Band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks

In our opinion

Despite it's faults, the Blackberry Pearl is tempting. Whether it'll get those elusive consumers emailing on the move I suspect will depend largely on the packages carriers put together - there's still a fear held by many people that they will somehow end up with an enormous phone bill come the end of the month if they use data services.

Shiny's video review round-up

Here at Shiny Media, we don't just sit around writing about the latest gadgets and technology - we get out there getting hands-on with it, giving you a first hand view well before the stuff hits the shops. If you've missed this week's video reviews, here's our pick of the week.

The BlackBerry Pearl
Having conquered the office, RIM want to take a chunk of the consumer market - and their weapon is the BlackBerry Pearl. We were at the launch to see what all the fuss was about.
Watch the video review

Samsung K5 MP3 player
Everyone's been getting excited over Samsung's latest challenge to Apple's portable player dominance. It looks good, has a pop-out speaker - but does it live up to the hype? We had a closer look whilst at IFA in Berlin.
Watch the video review

Philips' second generation wireless hi-fi - the WACS7000
Philips used IFA to launch an updated version of their wireless music system - the WACS7000. Ashley got up close to see if they had ironed out the teething troubles of last year's model.
Watch the view review

Samsung's Ultra phones
Samsung was busy at IFA, not only impressing people with the K5 player, but also with their Ultra range of mobile phones. Susi managed to rifle through the range in just over a minute.
Watch the video review

Robosapien and beyond
Susi was at the Boysstuff Show and caught up with Dr Mark Tilden, creator of Robosapien and subsequent variations to discuss how the models came about and evolved.
Watch the video review

And if that's not enough, you can get a daily dose of technology reviews over at Tech Reviews.

One Minute Video Review: Harmon Kardon/JBL Spyro Speakers

I took a look at the Creature II and Spyro speakers from JBL whilst I was in Berlin, including the limited edition shiny siver ones. The Creature II models are available now from £58 whilst the Spyro is yet to be released.

To subscribe to the Shiny Media YouTube channel click here.

One Minute Video Review: The Blackberry Pearl

A first look at the new phone and email device announced by Blackberry today, the Blackberry Pearl. It's aimed at the part of the market they've yet to convince - consumers who value the style of their phone above all else.

One Minute Video Review: Robosapien and beyond

OK, admittedly this one is *slightly* longer than one minute, but it's the amazing Dr Mark Tilden, creator of Robosapien and the like. Catch him explaining the evolution, and discussing missing the toilet bowl when going for a wee.

Review: Samsung NV3 digital camera

The Propaganda

Yes, that's the Samsung NV3, as in eNVy. Strangely, on the box the tagline is "A digital camera that others can only envy" which seems to refer directly to Samsung's competitors, rather than consumers. Odd. The idea behind this one is that it's not just a digital camera, and a 7.2 megapixel camera at that, but it's also a media player. It takes music, text and movies for you to turn it into an all singing all dancing media player

The Good

So, the NV3 is designed to allow you to dump your various media players, integrating it all into your camera. Whether it will stem the tide of people dumping their camera for their mobile phone remains to be seen. It's got two built in speakers positioned on the top of the camera, to take advantage of the MP3s you'll store, as well as a headphone jack for when you want to keep it personal.  Headphones are included out of the box, further indicating it's media player capabilities.

A key selling point for the NV3 is the design - they've gone for brushed gunmetal grey, highlighted with a very Samsung-esque blue light surrounding the lens and the power button. Overall, it's light and pocketable, and they're right, it does provoke envious glances.

The screen is clear, and at 2.5" takes up the majority of the back of the camera. It also completely does away with the traditional view finder still found on many digital cameras. The screen is used not only to frame pictures, but gives a visual representation of the mode you choose via the click wheel on the top, as well as displaying text and videos when it's in media playback mode.

The camera itself is quick to respond in most settings, and offers 11 different presets - more than the average person will ever need from their camera. It also allows you to manually change the ISO, for those that want to have a bit more control over the photos. There are the inevitable options that make owning a camera that much easier/complicated (depending on how you look at it) such as Wise Shot. This takes to successive photos - one with flash and one without, so that you can pick the best one.

The movie capture won't win anyone any Oscars, but is adequate for short holiday films and for sticking up on YouTube. There's also  the ability to edit the videos using software in the camera, although this is fairly limited to trimming and inserting within your clips.

The Bad

The two speakers on top of the camera are positioned so that the one on the right is larger than the shutter button, and it takes a little while to get used to it. It's a strange design, as the speakers protrude from the camera casing by quite a lot, and ruin the lines of an otherwise sleek camera. The headphone jack is also 2.5mm, rather than the more standard 3.5mm, so you'd need to find an adaptor to use headphones other than those provided.

The internal memory on the camera is none existent, and on it's highest setting I couldn't get anymore than 3 photos out of it. It takes SD and MMC cards, so is easily expandable, but since these aren't included in the box it's a pain. Bearing in mind the media capabilities they are so keen to push, it would be useful for the camera to be bundled with something that allowed you to take advantage of this.

The media capabilities all work fine, and the menus are relatively intuitive. There's no way of creating a playlist of your tracks, though. The text reader is also a fairly harsh green on black, and it's doubtful that it would hold anyone's attention for long without provoking headaches.

The camera functions are all easy to get to, although it's perhaps over-spec'd for it's audience with 7 megapixels and 11 different presets. However, the anti-shake mode, which does exactly as you'd expect, takes significantly longer to process and move on to the next picture - about 6 seconds, which is an age if you want to take another picture.

Geek Sheet

Image sensor: 7 megapixels

Lens focal length: NV Lens f = 6.3 ~ 18.9mm  (35mm film equivalent :38~114mm)

Shutter speed: 2 ~ 1/2,000 sec. (Night : 15 ~ 1/2,000 sec.)

File formats: Still Image : JPEG (DCF), EXIF 2.2, DPOF 1.1, PictBridge 1.0
                    Movie Clip : AVI (MPEG-4)
                    Audio : WAV

Audio format: MP3 (MPEG-1/2/2.5 Layer 3),

Dimensions: 94.5 x 57 x 17.5 mm

Weight: 142g (without battery and card)

In our opinion

For £190, this is a really nice compact camera. The number of megapixels means that you can always be sure of getting a high quality picture, and there are enough features to make the most of what you've got. Whether it would ever be used as a media player as they intend is up for debate. Personally, I think it's trying to do everything, and not succeeding in many, and would never replace my other devices with this alone. But if you're pushed for space, or want to minimise luggage, it might just work.

One Minute Video Review: Samsung K5 MP3 player

One of the final IFA videos, this time looking at the Samsung K5 MP3 player, which features in built speakers. You can get more info here or check out Samsung's promo video here.

Review: Samsung D900 Ultra slim slider phone

The Propaganda

Samsung's new Ultra range is designed to illustrate just how much technology they can fit into a slim phone design. So, whilst they've now got the skinniest candybar title, the slimmest HSDPA phone and a host of other accolades, they haven't skimped on the specs. The D900 was the first of these to be launched, featuring a sliding design and measuring just 12.9mm in width. And yes, it's the world's slimmest slider phone. Available free on contract, it's in the shops now.

The Good

It's seldom now that you can pick up a phone that does something that's truly new or unique to the brand. Cameras, MP3 players and office functionality are all present in the vast majority of phones on the market, to one degree or another. Any company that attempts to create something new risks straying over into the gimmicky territory occupied by novelty ringtones and crazy photo effects. So, with that in mind, I give you the Samsung theme screen. And I invite you to make up your own mind.

Basically, it features a home screen based on your geographical location, within reason. If you're in England you get Big Ben. France? Champs d'Elysees. Holland? Hmm. You appear to have no iconic landmarks, so you're stuck with windmills, I'm afraid. When you change countries, the phone recognises it and will change screens, as well as the local time. It does check with you first, in case you're particularly attached to Big Ben. I'm not sure if the screen changes if you change countries but not time zones i.e. Dublin. Unfortunately, I can't check for the purposes of this review, as I couldn't clear a jolly to Dublin with the Powers That Be. C'est la vie. The screen also indicates the signal strength - lots of clouds, and you've got poor signal, clear sky, and you've got loads, as the shepards say.

The camera is also the best found on a slider phone at 3 megapixels, which takes stills and video footage. There is 60MB of internal memory to store your photos, as well as a MicroSD slot for expanding that.  The screen is 2.1" which is noticeably larger than previous Samsung screens such as the one found on the E900. It also supports 262,000 colours, so is bright enough to take advantage of all the fancy pants graphics it comes with.

The buttons on this model are soft keys, rather than laser-etched, touch sensitive, or some other kind of nice-in-theory-awful-in-practice design.  This makes them easy to use, although not as attractive. On another design note, the soft finish on the phone is a nice touch, and unlike many similar models, doesn't get greasy after a few days. The inclusion of Stereo Bluetooth, means that you can use the MP3 player to send music to your bluetooth headphones, ditching the wires.

The Bad

The camera is a key point on this phone - it's the best available on this design of phone. However, despite offering 3 megapixels, it loses against the competition as it still appears as a camera phone, rather than something that you'd consider dumping your camera for. The light is LED, so doesn't use a flash, making your subjects look odd in low light. Unlike many of it's contemporaries, there is a limited number of things you can do with the photos once you've taken it. Yes, you can MMS it, and you can send it via Bluetooth to a printer, but there's no extended applications, such as loading it onto a blogging site, which both Nokia and Sony Ericsson  have included.

There are design issues as well. The battery is a nightmare to get out, and considering it hides the SIM card slot, it's one of the first things you notice about the phone. The call answer/reject button are an old skool green and red, making the keypad look old fashioned, confirmed by the large buttons. The lip that 'catches' the slider at the bottom sits right against the *, 0 and # key, which is awkward when you're writing a text, as these are the space and word change buttons.

Geek sheet

Size: 50x104x13

Weight: 83g

Talk time: 390 mins

Standby time: 200 hours

Camera: 3 megapixels

Music support: MP3, AAC, ACC+, AAC+

In our opinion

On paper, the D900 looks great. But it's once you take it from the box that you lose the excitement. Whether it's the large screen which makes it look bigger than it is, or the green or red buttons that make it look old fashioned, designwise they seem to have let the fact that it's thin excuse any effort on the rest of it.

One Minute IFA Interview: Archos and the future

A look at the forthcoming Archos 604 with WiFi, as well as a chat with the product manager about the future of Archos.

One Minute IFA Update: Philips WACS7000 wireless music system

Ashley looks at the Philips WACS7000 wireless music system, which was announced today at IFA. For further details, click here.

One Minute Video Review: Navman Mobile

I looked at the Navman Mobile Travel Assist S60 - there was a name change in the time between I recorded this video and you seeing it now, so excuse the trip into the past. You can read a full review here.

Review: Sennheiser PC120

The Propaganda

Sennheiser has a massive range of products, from proper audiophile headphones, to sport friendly earbuds, to the more serious VoIP end of the market. The P120 is aimed as an addition to the PC set-up, with the internet telephonist. In fact, like so may other products on the market, it's Skype certified. It's got one earbud that fits on the side of you head, with an over the ear contraption to secure it, from which a short microphone extends. It's a budget purchase, since you can pick it up for just over £16.

The Good

The microphone swivels 180 degrees, allowing you to wear the headset on the left or the right side of your head. Once you've got your hands on one, you'll probably find that one side is a lot more comfortable. The microphone is also sensitive enough for it to not extend right to your mouth - it's not in the line of sight, and picks up sound just fine from where it's positioned.

The cord, which extends from the bottom of the over-ear securor, has an in-line volume control and a switch to turn the microphone off and on, which as we've all found out through at least one disastrous ill thought out comment, is useful when you're on a conference call. Plugged into the volume control is a 2.5mm jack which can be fitted into (very few) mobiles so you can use it as a handsfree kit.

Coming from the other end of the volume control unit there are two jacks for plugging into your computer - one for headphones and another for the microphone. These are normally situated on the back of the computer, and although my computer isn't that near to where I sit, the 3 metre cord meant that I never felt particularly restricted in movement.

Design wise, it's incredibly lightweight and compact, making it perfect for anyone who travels around. Perhaps as HSDPA coverage increases, we'll see more people using it to take advantage of Skype, and therefore more need for VoIP accessories for laptops such as these.

The Bad

I clearly have abnormally small ears, as I found these to be incredibly uncomfortable to wear, and I always felt like they were about to make a bid for freedom. The over-ear mechanism seems to have been designed for those with massive lugholes, rather than my more delicate ones. There is little opportunity to adjust, since the shape is predestined, and any bending just results in it springing back to shape - an advantage for anyone that they fit.

As far as the noise quality is concerned, having been a user of two ear headphones for all my computing needs for so long, I find the single earbud to be a step backwards. Using it for gaming will mean you're always aware of what's going on around you in real-life, although this might not be such of a worry for VoIP users. What might be a problem in those circumstances is the microphone. It picks up quite a lot of ambient noise, and isn't noise-canceling like other VoIP products such as the Plantronics .Audio.

The reason I've used 2-ear headphones in the past isn't because I like to feel in the heart of the action, but because I don't want to have so many PC accessories that my desk feels like a storehouse for Dabs. Since this headset is absolutely constrained to internet telephony, you'll have to go out and purchase another piece of equipment for listening to music, and one with a microphone if you enjoy gaming.

In our opinion

There are better products on the market for VoIP users, which include better sound, noise cancellation and a more comfortable fit. However, it's available from £16, making it a good budget buy - especially if portability is important to you.

One Minute Video Review: Nokia N73

Susi looks at the Nokia N73, which features a 3.2 megapixel camera as well as all the applications you need to get the best of your photos. You can check out the full review here.

Review: Nokia N73 multimedia phone

The Propaganda

The N73 is billed by Nokia as the complete multimedia phone. It comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera, including a Carl Zeiss lens, an MP3 player and radio which play out of integrated stereo speakers with 3D sound. The big drawer for many people will be the integration with Flickr, making sharing your photos really easy.

It's a 3G phone and has a secondary camera mounted by the screen for video calls, as well as all the Symbian S60 functionality of mobile email, and applications such as Real Player.  It's available in three different colour combination - silver and plum, white and red or white and brown.

The Good

The first thing that you notice on picking up the N73 is the camera cover, which doesn't sit flush to the surface of the phone. However, whilst on first glance you might think it makes it look, well, odd, in fact it hides a key selling point of the handset - the camera. The camera itself is 3.2 megapixels, and launches as soon as you open the shutter - a revelation after being used to navigating various menus to get to a camera phone. You can adjust the resolution of the images, according to what you want to do with them, and how many pictures you want to be able to store on your phone. In a nice touch, they've added the size of print that each resolution will stretch too, which is exactly the kind of detail that your average user might not be sure of.

Taking a picture is also a piece of cake, thanks to the buttons on the side of the phone, which mean you can hold it exactly as if you're using a camera. All the settings are defaulted to auto, which means you don't need to worry about the flash (and it is a flash, rather than an LED light) or the focus, although you can switch to manual. In fact, there's at least 3 minutes of fun to be had revealing the lense and then watching the internal exposure mechanics adjust to the lighting - it's like shining a torch in someone's eyes and watching their pupils dilate. However, so far, so nothing new. But it's once you've taken a photo that the fun really starts.

The N73 comes set up ready for you to synch it with your Flickr account. It's just a case of entering your username and password, after which you're good to go. That means that when you take a photo, as well as the usual 'Send via text/bluetooth/IR' you have the option to upload on the Web. And once you've started, it's difficult to stop. I'm not sure when I'm going to need the pictures of my office that are now littering my Flickr account, but you never know.

It also comes with Nokia's Lifeblog, which is based on LiveJournal. It allows you to post items from your phone, including SMS, MMS and audio, onto your existing LiveJournal. If you don't already have an account, you can sign up from your phone and get started almost instantaneously. For avid mobloggers, there's an application which displays a timeline of all your activity from the day - the texts you received, the photos you took etc, which you can then go through and post to your blog.

Whilst its raison d'etre is the camera and all you can do with it, the N73 doesn't rest on its laurels when it comes to other features. There's a search application, accessible from the main menu, which connects you to both Yahoo and Yell.com, making finding business details, or just surfing the web a lot easier than navigating bookmarks. It's also got stereo speakers for the MP3 player, which play in 3D. There's another few minutes of fun to be had fiddling with the ringtones, hearing what they might sound like in a cave, a railway station or a duct. It's completely bizarre, but does illustrate the quality of the sound you can get out of them. 

The Bad

The camera is easy to use, and takes fantastic photographs, but it's not the reason to get rid of your digital camera all together. I found it slow to load - it took 4 seconds from when you opened the cover, which means if you're after that illusive spur of the moment shot, you'll probably have missed it. There's also the eternal problem with camera phones with the lag between when you've hit the button, to when the shot is actually captured. Again, you'll miss the spur of the moment pictures.

The Flickr application can also be a bit of a minefield. It asks you for your Flickr username and password - easy. Unless you signed up using your Yahoo ID. In this case, there's no explanation about what you should do from Nokia's side. If you root around on the Flickr website there is a page explaining that you need a whole new login for N73s, which is a completely random selection of numbers and letters.

The design of the phone is pretty nondescript. The lense cover doesn't sit flush against the back of the phone, which makes it look like the battery cover isn't pushed on properly. There's also a memory card slot for MiniSd cards, which you need the nails of an LA socialite to be able to get into.

Geek Sheet

Weight: 116 g

Height: 110 mm

Width: 49 mm

Thickness (max): 19 mm

Memory: 42MB internal memory, MiniSD slot

Camera: 3.2 megapixels, 20x digital zoom

Audio Support: AAC, MP3, WMA

Synchronization: MS Outlook, Lotus Notes 5.0, MS Outlook Express, Lotus Organiser 5.0, Lotus Organis er 6.0

In our opinion

It's rare that a product that promises to make it easier for us to share our life/photos/whatever actually does. However, I'm completely converted with the N73. The integration with Flickr and LiveJournal mean that it really does make it simple to add things to your online accounts. If you don't have a blog but intend to, this is the phone to get. And if you've got no interest in sharing your life with complete strangers? The camera alone might win you over.

Review: Optoma DV10 MovieTime projector

The Propaganda

The MovieTime DV10 from Optoma is a projector aimed at those who occasionally want a massive screen, without the commitment of having a projector installed. It's one stop shop solution, which means that you've got a DVD player and speakers built into the projector.

There are a few of these types of projectors about, such as the Epson TWD1, but it does come in at about £100 cheaper than other models.

The Good

The MovieTime DV10 is designed with simplicity in mind - you can take it out of the box and have it up and running in about 5 minutes. It's simply a case of plugging it in and loading your DVD into the player positioned on the top. The DVD function is automatically selected, so there's no searching for sources. The speakers are also in-built, so you don't even need to wire those up.  For those that want more than the 5.1 Dolby sound supplied by the two 5 watt speakers, there is an audio output dock for you to hook up your own speaker system.

You can also hook up your television or games console for the full cinema experience via the RGB connection - great if you're hooked on Sing Star on the Playstation 2. Finding the input is also easy, as the projector will scan through all the options until it detects a feed.

In keeping with its brief, you don't need a cinema room to get a decent size screen - you don't even need a large room. 1.5 metres away from the wall gives you a screen size of about 1.5 metres square (which is big enough for you to pretend you're in a cinema, albeit a small one).

The projector uses DLP technology rather than LCD. This is often criticised for creating a kind of rainbow effect on dark images which only some people can see. Now, either I'm not one of those people, or this projector doesn't suffer. But out of the four people that watched the film, nobody could see the rainbow effect, prompting me to conclude that Optoma have it licked.

The native resolution of the DV10 is 852x480, so it's can't be classed as HD, which starts at 1,280x720. However, it can handle the HD input signal, so can be branded 'HD Compatible'.

The Bad

I projected onto a beige wall, which was absolutely fine as a background, although there is an optional screen you can purchase. However, whilst it's bright and crisp in darkness, it's no good in the daytime, even with all the curtains shut. In fact, it's really annoying to be watching a film and then for the sun to emerge and completely wipe out the screen.

The positioning of the projector can also take a bit of getting used to. It's designed to be set up on a coffee table, so doesn't come with the option of mounting it. It can adjust up to 16 degrees of correction, which is useful when you need to project onto the space above a book case/television/whatever and need to set it at an angle. However, it takes its air input from the bottom of the projector, so piling magazines underneath it, or even carpet, can be a risky business. There were several remarks made about the burning smell that the fan gave off after a while.

The design of the projector itself ensures that it's not something that would take up permanent residence on your coffee table. The top loading DVD player reminded me of cheap CD players we used to get given for our birthdays from Argos, and the white plastic finish didn't help. The remote is also fairly old-fashioned. Noticeably, it's not backlit, which is annoying when you really need to be using the product in total darkness. This is likely a result of them trying to keep the costs down, but is annoying when it comes to using the controls.

Geek Sheet

Contrast ratio: 4000:1

Brightness: 1,000

Lamp Type: 200W

Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (16:9)

Projection Distance: 1.5 - 10 metres

Audio: 2 x 5W stereo speakers

Video Compatability: PAL, SECAM (576i/p), NTSC (480i/p), HDTV (1080i, 720p)

Weight: 3.5 kg

In our opinion

Personally, I can't yet justify spending £560 for a projector bought especially for watching films in the evenings, but if you want a projector that you can set up anywhere in the house, or cart about to mate's houses with you, this is a comparatively reasonably priced option. It's not designed to be a solution to replace your television, so I can't whine about the brightness during the day and the like.

One Minute Video Review: T-Mobile's MDA Vario II the first HSDPA phone to go on sale in the UK

We have waited a very long time for HSDPA phones, but now they seem to be coming in droves. T-Mobile looks like it will win the race to be first to market with its MDA Vario II, which goes on sale next week.

Here's a vid and a mini review

The phone is pretty similar to the Vario I but with the following key differences.

1 HSDPA - Yep it will be able to run at speeds of up to 1.8Mbps - four times faster than standard 3G. T-Mobile claims to have HSDPA across most of the major UK cities, which is far more developed than say Orange. Ultimately the speed of HSDPA does improve the web browsing experience on the phone - pictures certainly load much more quickly. The other key use for the phone in this space will be as a modem for laptops, though if you plan to use it in this capacity check out T-Mobile's data fair usage rules.

2 Better camera - It now has a two mega pixel snapper and the video shooting quality has been updated.

3 Different styling - it looks a little tidier now. Another tweak is that the keyboard apparently glows red in the dark - nice.

4 The device now has a BlackBerry style track wheel for speeding up access to applications.

Overall - the Vario I was a big hit in the Shiny offices, so there's sure to be a lot of interest in the second version. The HSDPA facility certainly worked well in central London

Review: Alienware Aurora m9700

The Aurora m9700 is  Alienware’s first 17” SLI notebook. Armed with a 64 bit AMD Turion CPU and up to 2GB of RAM this laptop will handle all but the most intense of modern gaming graphics without batting an eyelid. But, you guessed it, there’s a cost – the m9700 is one hefty beast weighing in at over 3.90kg and with dimensions of 4.70 x 39.75 x 29.85 cm. Not the kind of thing you’re going to carry to work or whip out for quick play on the train too often.

However, a decent selection of video inputs and outputs, as well as a optical and 5.1 speaker outputs make this notebook into a pretty decent desktop alternative. No it isn’t an ultra-portable but it’s hell of a lot easier to take this round to a friends house for a bit multiplayer gaming than it is to rip apart your desktop and stick that in the car, trust me.

The Alienware Aurora m9700 is available now starting from a  pretty reasonable £1,200 - check out GadgetCentre for the full review.

Review: Scala Rider Bluetooth Helmet Headset

The Propaganda

You don't realise til you get a motorbike how much stuff you need to buy to make it work. There's all the clothing to minimise scraping off the road situations, there's the bags, boxes and the like to make it usable day-to-day, and then there's the fact that you can't take any phone calls whilst you're on your bike. Unless you've got a bluetooth headset specially adapted for use under helmets - such as the Scala Rider headset from Cardo. It's a speaker that sits inside your helmet with a boom mike that you position inside the front mask. The idea is that it's simple enough to use on the road, without having to stop your bike to chat.

The Good

Securing the headset is easy, as you clamp the battery pack to the outside of your helmet using the clamp they supply. It's weather resistant, so there are no worries about the conditions you're biking in. It also doesn't leave a mark on the helmet, which given how much you've just shelled out on the helmet (definitely a piece of equipment you don't want to skimp on) you'll be thrilled about. 

You then position the boom mike by your mouth, and the speaker by your ear, which is fixed on with velcro. It's a speaker, rather than an in-ear piece, presumably to ensure that it doesn't fall out if you're on a particularly bumpy ride.

To make calls, you set up your phone with speech recognition. Alternatively, you can answer calls and dial your last number using the buttons on the battery pack.  Once I was on a call, I was amazed by how clear the sound was - the speaker really does make it easy to hear people. The speaker also adjusts the levels according to your speed levels, so it doesn't become deafening when you're at a standstill.  I've also been on the other end, and can vouch for the fact that when someone is using this, it really is impossible to tell that they're on a bike even up to speeds of 70 mph (apart for the "hang on a sec, just overtaking.." type comments).

The Bad

Whilst the sound quality is great on a closed helmet, the microphone does suffer when you're using an open helmet. Despite the manufacturers saying that it's wind-resistant, if you don't have your visor down, you do know about it.

Whilst they've made the buttons as big as they can, it can still be tricky to adjust, particularly when you're wearing gloves. There is a large answer button, as well as a separate re-dial button, but it's the volume buttons that are really tricky to get to. If you do have to adjust the volume, you might find that it's altogether safer to pull over.

There are also certain additional features that it would benefit from. For instance, there is a sudden crop of bluetooth headsets designed to work in tandem with your MP3 player. This would be perfect for the Scala Rider, as listening to music is something you miss on a bike  - what could be better than cruising along listening to Bat Out of Hell, or some equivalent biker type music, and knowing that you're not going to miss any calls. It's also impossible to get it to pair with a GPS device, which again, would be a great application of the technology.

In our opinion

It's a great piece of kit, and it's really surprising to hear exactly how clearly people can hear you. For anyone that travels regularly on their bike, £75 will be a small price to pay for the assurance that they're not missing calls. As for whether it's the safest thing in the world? Probably not.

One Minute Video Review: Oregon Scientific Smart Globe

Watch as Susi reveals she's not sure where Ghana is, and Gemma becomes strangely addicted to proving her own geographical knowledge. For a full review, click here. Alternatively, go and pre-order it for £130.

One Minute Video Review: LG U400 music phone

Katie and I look at the new LG U400 phone, which is chock full of music-related features. For an in-depth review click here. The phone is available free on a 3 contract.

Review: HSDPA T-Mobile Web'n'Walk card

The Propaganda

Everyone's going on about HSDPA. I hear about it in the queue for the bus, whilst at the bank, shopping for groceries.. Whilst that might not be strictly speaking true, there has been a race on to get the first HSDPA service up and running and some days it does feel as if no one will shut up about it. T-Mobile were highlighted early on as dark horses in the race, by the ever observant Tech Digest, and they have presented us here with their Web'n'Walk card that comes with unlimited usage, as well as a year's free access to the T-Mobile hotspots. The network is said to cover 65% of the population and is supposed to deliver at least 1 Mbit per second. This is the first step in their HSDPA plan (today has also seen the continuation of this with the launch of the MDA Vario II).

The Good

The first point of note for T-Mobile is that they're not asking you to buy any more equipment. To save any self-hatred by customers who couldn't wait for the HSDPA roll-out, all Web n Walk cards bought from the launch in May have HSDPA functionality built in.  They're also not asking for megabucks. The service has launched with a tariff that offers a free data card when you sign up for 18 months, and a monthly cost of £17. In this, they give you 'unlimited data' (not true - the small print restricts you to 2 MB) as well as a year's free access to T-Mobile hotspots. And as anyone who has walked around Soho recently will testify, there are a lot of T-Mobile hotspots, since they're firmly in bed with Starbucks, among others.

Setting it up is easy to do, as the instructions guide you through the installation process. Once installed, you get the desktop Communication Centre, as well as a Hotspot Locator. The Communication Centre is a small screen that can sit in the corner of your browser, measuring signal strength as well as letting you know whether you're connected to GPRS, UMTS or WiFi. From here, you can also send text messages.

T-Mobile coverage extends across the UK,compared to something like Vodafone which is mostly restricted to within the M25. It's currently citing 65%, although this figure is set to rise. When you are in coverage, it's a great feeling to see web pages appear almost as fast as they would if you were sitting in your office. Whether it will actually result in people running their business from the nearest pub/park/train remains to be seen, but it certainly makes mobile working more productive.

The Bad

65% of the population is telling - it's the population of the UK, not the landmass. This means that although coverage isn't restricted to within the M25, it is clumped around metropolitan areas. I had difficulty trying to get a decent signal strength on the train from Waterloo to the very suburban Guildford, which isn't in line with the predictions made by T-Mobile.

There are also certain restrictions on the card. As previously mentioned, the 'fair usage' limit is 2 MB per month which, if you're going to be downloading a lot of graphics or large presentations, you could easily hit. Fair usage is always quite an odd concept, and it's actually quite rare for networks to pursue an 'unfair' user so this may not be a problem. You're also prevented from using VoiP which will annoy many customers. HSDPA combined with VoiP has been dubbed by many as a nail in the mobile networks coffin, which may explain T-Mobile's stance on it. They've also prevented you from accessing any IM programmes.

In our opinion

I'm really surprised at the cost of the card. Under £20 a month really does make it accessible for those that pay their own bills rather than the money being provided by the company - it certainly compares favourably to Vodafone's HSDPA card. Once you're online, the speeds are impressive, and the ability to connect to a T-Mobile hotspot is also a bonus. However, you'll want to assess just when you want to use the card - will it be whilst you're waiting in the middle of town, or will it be on the commute. If it's the latter, it's worth finding out what coverage you'll receive on your journey, because you could be disappointed.

One Minute Video Review: Archos700TV

Watch Susi and Ashley watching Big Brother in this one minute video review, courtesy of the Archos 700TV. I can't work out if that's post-modern, existentialist or just plain weird. For a full review check here, or buy one here for £430.

Review: Oregon Scientific Smart Globe

The Propaganda

Oregon Scientific make all manner of strange and, to varying degrees, useful gadgets from weather stations to heart rate monitors. The Smart Globe is one that once you get your hands on, you really won't know what you ever did with your time BG. Before Globe.

It's an interactive globe which uses a smartpen to pinpoint areas of the world, after which it can give you all manners of information, from exchange rates to flying times. Did you know that Russia celebrates Christmas twice a year?

The Good

There's heaps of fun to be had from the Smart Globe, as soon as you've retrieved it from the packaging, built to withstand all but the most determined of reviewers. It works straight out of the box, with batteries and the like already installed. You then use the smartpen to choose whether you want straight information, (on weather, language, the national anthem or any number of fascinating facts)  to compare two countries (offering flying times, exchange rates, populations or time differences) or to engage in a battle of wills: You versus the Woman Who Knows Everything. "Find French Guiana" "Yes, I'm bloody trying to" has been a phrase echoing round Tech Digest with alarming regularity.

The globe revolves horizontally and vertically, to ensure you've got easy access to the whole world, in miniature. It also features a pull out tray which has a larger map of the United Kingdom on it, allowing you to play such games as 'how long does it take to fly between.. Middlesborough to Leicester' (approximately 22 minutes). There's also a chart of the world and national flags, which you can use the smartpen to find out more about. The smartpen itself can be detached from the supplied speaker cable, as it does have a speaker of it's own, although the quality is not as good.

For those that wish to use this as an actual real learning aid, Oregon Scientific have catered for you too. The Globe can be set to one of three age groups, 15+ being the oldest. And if you think 15 is far too young for you, ask yourself whether you're still taking Geography lessons three times a week. Exactly.

The smartpen is connected to your computer via a mini USB plug, through which you can update all the time sensitive material such as world news, weather and exchange rates. Unfortunately, we've got a super-advanced copy of the globe, so can't vouch for the updates.

The Bad

We're assured that the software issue will be sorted before the actual launch of this product, which is scheduled for September. When we tested it out, the exchange rate for the US came out as $1 equalling 55 GB pence, which is pretty spot on anyway.

The smartpen works the same way the scanner in Sainsbury's does, and you know the times where they have to type in the code for your loaf of bread? The smartpen does occasionally suffer the same fate. There is no worse feeling in the entire world than when you are frantically jabbing at New York, only for the Woman in the Know to say you've run out of time.  No worse feeling.

In our opinion

The SmartGlobe is something that no classroom should be without, no office should be without and no home should be without. In fact, it should be issued at birth. There's hours of amusement to be had, the only drawback being the serious effect it has on productivity levels.  It's available for £130 here, and is due to be available from September.

One Minute Video Review: Logitech Noise Cancelling Headphones

Susi looks at the Logitech noise-cancelling headphones in the second of these headphone reviews. You can read the full review here and buy them for £70 here.

One Minute Video Review: Pulsar Bluetooth headphones

Gemma looks at the Pulsar Bluetooth headphones in the first of these headphone reviews. The Pulsar headphones are available for £70 here.  For a more detailed review you can read the full article here.

Review: Philips VoIP321 dual phone

The Propaganda

Philips has brought out a phone that they believe might truly have a chance to integrate itself into the home phone set-up. It's a DECT handset (available singularly or in a pack of two) which can sit anywhere in the house thanks to the base station plugged into your computer.

Since I looked at the Internet Phone Wizard just  a few days ago, which 18 months ago claimed to have the same result but still left you hanging around your computer, I wanted to check how this one fared.

The Good

The Philips VoIP321 is so easy to set up that they've only included a Quick Start guide. This isn't an oversight - it truly is that easy. There are clear instructions with accompanying pictures, and if you do need extra help, there's ample manuals on the support site. It also comes with everything you need, including 2 AAA batteries for the handset - not a big deal, but a pleasant surprise when you're expecting to have to raid the Sky remote for some power.

Once you're installed, it's just a case of plugging the base station into the computer and landline. But be warned, the cables provided don't stretch that far. The handset and charging dock can then go anywhere in the house, provided there's a power source to charge it.

On picking up the handset it defaults to landline calls, which should please those (as yet) unconverted members of the household. To make a Skype call, you just press the 'S' button which then brings up your list of contacts alongside icons letting you know their status. Because this is a Skype accredited phone it comes with all the icons you're familiar with.

The base station should fit easily amongst your computer paraphernalia. It's a stand-up white box no bigger than a double CD case. I say it should fit easily - that's after you've removed the enormous blue "COMPATIBLE WITH SKYPE!!" sticker they've kindly included.

The Bad

Whilst the sound quality of the landline calls is absolutely fine, the Skype calls do come with a fair amount of interference. You can get a better quality of call by plugging something in directly to your USB port.

I also think that white as the handset colour was a strange choice. I admit that all our gadgets now come as 'iPod white' but this has yet to really come to pas