Category: Gadgets

These are posts about gadgets and any kind of tech.

November 16, 2012
… cos when I unpacked it, it leapt out at me and pushed my eyeballs into my brain.

But seriously, it was the Nexus 10 and not the Nexus-6 I got, and I’m blown away with it. Screen is wonderful, although I know I will be perpetually polishing prints off of it (which aren’t apparent in use, but boy, when you turn it off…). The case, which I have seen reviewed as “plastic” has a grippy rubbery feel to it, which I love. Sound from the front facing speakers has far more treble than bass, as you would expect from drivers that small, but is crisp and clear.

November 2, 2012
October 27, 2012
When Apple lost their UK court case against Samsung, the judge mandated that they should have to host a statement on their website to “correct the damaging impression” given by Apple that Samsung had copied their tablet.

Apple have now done this – their UK website has, in the smallest of print, a link labelled “Samsung/Apple UK judgement” leading to this page:

August 17, 2012
August 12, 2012
The first Youview device launched a few weeks ago, with a fanfare from the BBC and a lot of talk from Lord Sugar; who contrary to rumour, isn’t actually involved in the production of the device, but is a non-executive chairman of the Youview partnership.

Youview is an IPTV service developed and launched jointly by BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five; together with BT and TalkTalk. Youview have specified what a Youview box should do, to enable it to bear the name, and various set-top box manufacturers will be launching their own boxes, made to that spec. The highlights of the requirement are that it includes dual Freeview tuners, a hard disk recorder, and hosts all 4 channel’s catchup/on demand services. Furthermore, that this functionality should be fully integrated.

July 7, 2012
I find that spending money tends to make me spend even more money, and this story is no exception.

I have been having fun with my Bloggie 3D camera, but it highlighted something – that I lack a computer capable of doing any kind of useful video editing.

In the (distant) past, I used a desktop I had built for gaming and music, but that has long been superceded by modern requirements. It has actually been sitting under a variety of desks and shelf units for the last 3 years, and I know that it isn’t capable of anything by today’s standards.

Because I work from home, I now tend to use my work computer for most day-to-day stuff. This isn’t as naughty as it sounds, as for some years, my personal requirements have been mostly just for a browser and email (both of which I need for work, anyway). Any gaming I did was now on the Wii, and my Pokerstars account runs from either my smart phone or my Asus Eee.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I thought I would look for a high-end laptop, with a decent built in video card. That way, I could use it downstairs, in front of the TV, as well as in my office. I was looking at a mixture of AV-spec machines, and gaming machines, both of which would do what I wanted.

Then I saw the Toshiba Qosmio F750-12P.

May 19, 2012
May 18, 2012
I’ve been playing with Dropbox recently, which is a cloud service that allows you to easily share files between multiple computers and mobile phones.

I know that some people have the opinion that Dropbox is not as secure as it claims, but I’ve read up on the issues, and am really not that concerned, for the uses I am going to put it to. Being mainly a quick and easy way to dump photos/videos off of my smartphone and netbook when I am travelling, so I don’t have to worry about memory.

April 29, 2012
A couple of years back, I treated myself to a pocket video camera – a Kodak Zi8. I had big plans to do various things with it – including some music videos and perhaps some cooking demos on YouTube.

My first outing was to the Gadget show, where I filmed as much as the SD card would take; subsequently I filmed some other local events, just to get a feel for it.

But I was greatly disappointed, as almost everything I filmed had audio sync problems. I spent a long time online, and discovered this was not an isolated problem. The Zi8 saves to a MOV file, and uses a fairly obscure codec, little used by anyone else. As a result, films worked with the Kodak software, but loading it anywhere else (or exporting it), I found I had syncronisation problems.

I should have really returned it for a refund, but I was hoping to find a solution. In the end, the camera got put away, and my dreams of video editing were forgotten.

Then the other day, I saw that Amazon had the Bloggie 3D camera reduced to 89 quid. Last time I looked at this, it was over 200 pounds. So even though I have bought too many toys lately, I decided I had to have one.

April 11, 2012
February 24, 2012
[Note: thankfully this issue has now been resolved]

After it got dark, I was able to do the final test, and the answer is a minor *sigh*.

I really don’t know what it is about equipment manufacturers and backlit keys and displays, especially for machines meant for the bedroom. Am I the only one who thinks the bedroom should be relatively dark?

February 24, 2012