HP Storageworks X510 Data Vault (Q2050A) - First Look
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
HP Storageworks X510 Data Vault (Q2050A) - First Look. This superb device allows you to centrally store all your content. With some great features for streaming, photo sharing and backing up your important files, you need to check this out.
Manufacturer website: HP UK
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Canon Pixma MP640 All-in-one Printer Set-up Guide
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
In this video I guide you through setting up the Canon Pixma MP640.
Check out TestFreaks for more reviews of this product.
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals
Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch Graphics Tablet Review
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Touch finally comes to the desktop computer, courtesy of the Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch Graphics Tablet.
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals
Asus SDRW-08D1S-U Portable DVD Writer Review
Friday, December 18, 2009
Check out TestFreaks for more reviews of this product.
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Polaroid PoGo Printer Review
Check out TestFreaks for more reviews of this product.
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Konica Minolta Magicolor 1650 EN Colour Laser Printer Review
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Blu-ray on the Apple Mac
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Well, it comes as no surprise that Mac users are longing for true blu-ray support on their computers. The LG External Blu-ray Disk Writer (Model BE06LU10) might not offer playback, but it does give you up to a massive 50GB of storage. Check out the review below.
Product: LG External Blu-ray Disk Writer - Model BE06LU10
Price: £169 (average)
Supplied by: LG Electronics UK
Contact: 0844 847 5454
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
NEC Multisync EA241WM 24-inch LCD Monitor Review
If you are in the market for a large widescreen LCD display, then there is certainly a lot of choice out there. If you want one that performs at a superb 1920x1200 resolution and that delivers accurate colour at under £300 then you need to check out the NEC Multisync EA241WM video review below.
Product: NEC Multisync EA241WM 24-inch LCD Monitor
Price: £299
Supplied by: NEC Display Solutions Europe
Contact: +44 (0) 208 993 8111
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner Review
Friday, October 09, 2009
If you are remotely interested in photography then it is likely you will have a digital camera. However, if you have been in the game for a while, you may even have a album or two, or maybe even a shoebox with some real photographs. You remember, the ones that are paper, that you hold. Well, if you want to bring them into the digital age, you could do a lot worse than the Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner. Check out my review below and also check out TestFreaks which scored this scanner 7.6/10.
Labels: Digital Photography, Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Macally Ecofan Pro Review - Bamboo Laptop Cooling Stand
Thursday, September 03, 2009
With Apple's latest MacBook Pro's, heat is less of an issue. However, working comfortably at the right angle is essential. This is one of the more stylish laptop cooling stands I have used. Check out the video review below.
Product: Macally Ecofan Pro
Price: £29 (expected)
Supplied by: Macally Europe
Contact: + 31 24 373 14 10
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Samsung Story Station 1.5TB Hard Drive Review
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
I personally use a LOT of storage space. Producing video eats up terrabytes, so having some reliable backup solution is very important. The Samsung Story Station offers up some serious storage in a nice looking package. You will also find a handy formatting tip for Mac users. Check out the review below.
Product: Samsung Story Station 1.5TB Hard Drive
Price: Under £100
Supplied by: Scan Computers
Contact: 0871 472 4747
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Liteon eSAU108 Slimline Portable CD & DVD Writer Review
If you have a netbook, but need a portable optical drive you could do a lot worse than look at this cost effective solution from Liteon.
Product: Liteon eSAU108 Slimline Portable CD & DVD Writer
Price: £42 (average)
Supplied by: Liteon
Contact: +31-40-2508000
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Review
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
If you want a cost effective Network Hard Drive, that does what it says on the tin, then check out my review of this tidy unit from Iomega.
Update: There is a new firmware update available here for this device. It adds Remote Access, Torrent Download, Time Machine and FTP support.
Product: Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive
Price: £110.99 (500GB as reviewed)
Supplied by: Iomega Europe
Contact form here
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Wacom Intuos 4 Graphics Tablet Review
Thursday, June 18, 2009
If you are a creative of any kind, your desk should have one of these babies on it. Check out my review of the Wacom Intuos 4 below.
Product: Wacom Intuos 4 Graphics Tablet
Price: £329.99
Supplied by: Wacom Europe
Contact: +49-(0)2151-36 14-0
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Buffalo WHR-G300N Wireless-N NFiniti Broadband Router Review
Monday, June 01, 2009
Check out this review of the very cost effective Buffalo WHR-G300N Wireless-N NFiniti Broadband Router and Access Point.
Product: Buffalo WHR-G300N Wireless-N NFiniti
Price: £31 (lowest)
Supplied by: Buffalo Technology
Contact: 0845 3511005
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Epson Stylus Photo R2880 Printer Review
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Something a little larger than an A4 printer can make for some very effective photos. The Epson Stylus Photo R2880 printer offers the ability to do larger prints and even produce panorama's. Check out the video review.
Product: Epson Stylus Photo R2880
Price: £499 (Amazon)
Contact Epson: +44 (0)8702 416900
Labels: Digital Photography, Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Altec Lansing FX3022 Speaker Review - pump up the bass
Friday, December 05, 2008
When choosing speakers for your PC or iPod there are certainly plenty to choose from. What manufacturers seem to try are adding flashy lights, docking features, touch sensitive controls. These are all well and good, but often at the expense of more useful features, like sound quality, frequency handling, and good looks. With the FX3022 from Altec Lansing, they may just have got the mix right.When you unpack these beauties, it is obvious that their gloss black exterior and good weight is hiding some goodies under the hood. The FX3022 are really quite large, but they are tapered towards the top and in such a way that it is very pleasing to the eye. The 1.5-inch drivers at the top protrude slightly and offer up 3.5 watts of mid and high range frequencies. These tiny driver are covered by cloth grills, which add to the quality feel. The only thing that detracts slightly from the value is that the main unit does feel a little bit too plasticky. Each speaker also house a downward firing 4-inch subwoofer, that goes down to 40Hz and is capable of delivering 9 watts per channel. This combination is pretty good, with the subwoofer seamlessly integrating into the speaker and filling the frequency gap.
On top of one of the speakers you also find a nice power button and volume controls. These are discrete and function admirably. The FX3022 is really designed as a PC speaker, equally at home connected to our iMac or a PC. However, around the back of the unit is an AUX in jack, so you can connect your iPod or other MP3 player and enjoy your tunes. I tested with both music playing from my iMac and from an iPod touch and in both cases was pleasantly surprised. The detail in the mid and high ranges was very good, the FX3022 never seemed to struggle. There was also a nice warmth to the sound. The subwoofer control was awesome, with deep frequencies sounding as though they were reaching far beyond the quoted 40Hz. Pumping up the volume for some movie watching was also a pleasure. Explosions seemed to set the FX3022 alive and added a great deal of enjoyment to the on-screen action. The same can be said with games, without the FX3022 speakers the sound was quite thin, but with these gorgeous speakers turned on I was fully immersed in my Call of Duty.Available in black (as reviewed) or white, for your £100, you get a really good set of multi-purpose speakers. The material used to make them does feel a little cheap, but the sound they deliver more than makes up for that. They are equally at home delivering in-game sound, movie madness or simply relaxing with your favourite tunes. Oh, and the guys at Altec Lansing throw in a two year warranty for good measure.
Product: Altec Lansing FX3022 Speakers
Price: £99.99
Supplied by: Altec Lansing
Contact: +44 (0)870 458 0011
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Epson GT-1500 Scanner Review
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
In the age of digital photography, the work of a scanners seems to be a lot less. They still have their place in your computer set-up though. Scanning in high resolution photos is essential if you are reproducing anything in print. If you combine this requirement with the need to scan lots of documents, then you need to look at something a little more capable though. I was lucky enough to be sent an Espon GT-1500 scanner to review and this smart device sits in the business category, but could find its way as a very useful addition to the SOHO sector too.The GT-1500 is not a lot larger than a regular flatbed scanner. The clue is in the height though, where you find a very useful and robust-feeling Automatic Document Feeder or ADF for short. The unit is made really nicely, it feels like a premium product. Even though it is primarily a plastic affair, it certainly feels solid. Setting up is really easy and installs Epson's suite of software, as well as Twain compatible plug-ins to the likes of Photoshop.
Using the unit as a standard flatbed scanner takes advantage of the full 1200x2400dpi optical resolution. I was impressed by the preview speed, as well as the actual final scan speed. For my tests I mainly used Photoshop, but using the EpsonScan software produced almost identical results. Colours in photographs remained true and had good depth and detail. Black and white photos were very neutral with a very slight green tinge. Scanning white sheets of text and business graphics resulted in crisp text scan, with hardly any shading.
The ADF on the top of the GT-1500 was my area of interest here, as this is what you are paying extra for. Using the ADF you can scan up to 600x1200dpi. The scanner head is simplex, so you can only scan one side at a time, but you can load up about 40 pages (though I did manage 50) and leave this baby doing its thing. It automatically de-skews wonky scans well, and a few that I noticed fed a little off-line wre fine in the resulting scan. I love the ability to scan direct to PDF files, as the results are easily filed and searchable, it is a very useful feature. Epson quote 12ppm in colour and 18ppm in mono, this is pretty accurate. The actual scanning I acheived was 10ppm in full colour and 17ppm when doing text based pages. This is only scanning time though, so if you have a really slow computer it'll take a little extra time to process the scans. My 2.4GHz iMac flew through them though, so I was very happy at the end of my testing.
At just over £200 you are paying about an extra £100 over a standard flatbed of comparable quality for the ADF function. Add to this that you get a one year on-site warranty. Throw into the mix all that added functionality and you can see that the GT-1500 offers very good value for money. The ADF really is the icing on the cake and gets my thumbs up.
Product: Epson GT-1500 Scanner
Price: £229 (average UK)
Supplied by: Epson UK
Contact: +44 (0)8702 416900
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals
Razer Piranha Gaming Communicator Headset Review
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
If you are really into your gaming, or perhaps you spend most of your day communicating with others on Skype. You really should take a look at a classy headset, something like this offering from Razer. Check out the video review below and see what you get for your money.
Product: Razer Piranha Gaming Communicator Headset
Price: £49.99 (average UK)
Supplied by: Razer USA Ltd
Contact: saleseu@razerzone.com
Labels: Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals, Reviews
Seagate FreeAgent Pro - new lineup for 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Seagate has announced its Autumn 2008 lineup of the award-winning FreeAgent™ external hard drives. This new generation of the Seagate® FreeAgent™ family includes attractive desktop and mobile options, for both Mac® and Windows® operated PCs that make it a breeze to back up, share and protect valuable digital content like photos, videos and music. I especially like the Go version for the Mac, which has this snazzy little desktop dock. The Mac Desktop version also looks the business... reviews will appear on the Geekanoids website in due course.The remainder of the official press release from Seagate reads as follows;
Seagate’s flagship offering, the FreeAgent Go portable storage solution, is the slimmest external drive available today. At a height of only 12.5mm, the new FreeAgent Go easily fits in a pocket while still including all the advanced shock and vibration protection people have come to expect from Seagate. Another industry first, the new FreeAgent Go is the first external hard drive to offer a docking option, providing a practical way to move from the desk to the road, while leaving the hassle of fumbling with cables and locating USB ports to the history books. With up to 500GB of capacity, the FreeAgent Go bridges the gap between standard portable solutions and desktop solutions with enough storage to carry entire libraries of movies, pictures and music. No longer does one need to sacrifice capacity for portability, Seagate FreeAgent Go provides the benefits and convenience of both in a truly seamless on-the-go package.
“With the amount of content being created and consumed today, the average broadband household will soon need close to a terabyte of storage to account for their personal media collections on PCs, portable devices, and DVRs," said Jane Shields, research analyst, Parks Associates. “With Seagate’s coupling of high-capacity, reliable and easy-to-use solutions with attractive designs, the company is helping more people enjoy the benefits that come with backup and sharing of their digital media collections.”
“The growth of the 2.5–inch form factor external hard disk drive market has been very strong – almost doubling in 2Q08 compared with 2Q07,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director, Removable Storage at IDC. “This growth is much higher than the overall market and driven by
the products’ convenient size and connectivity, as well as their large storage capacity and affordability.”
The FreeAgent Go desktop docking station is sold separately and comes paired with a black leatherette carrying case to add style while protecting the drive from the bumps and scratches encountered while traveling in hand bags and during other on-the-road adventures. The FreeAgent Go is now available in a variety of popular colours, including silver, black, red, and blue. The drive also ships with a flexible, thin USB 2.0 travel cable.
The FreeAgent Desk drive and FreeAgent XTreme™ drive are the family’s two 3.5-inch high-capacity desktop offerings, and provide up to 1.5 Terabytes of storage. The sleek and modern design of these drives provides the flexibility to sit horizontally or stand vertically to maximise your workspace. The FreeAgent Desk drive is a brushed aluminum high-capacity solution with a USB 2.0 interface. The FreeAgent XTreme drive is a midnight black, brushed aluminum high-capacity storage solution with a triple interface of eSATA, USB 2.0 and FireWire 400.
“The first FreeAgent storage solution offering introduced in 2007 unquestionably made a mark for Seagate in the consumer space, demonstrating that hard drives can be designed to provide a stylish complement to a computing environment,” said Pat King, senior vice president and general manager of Seagate’s Consumer Solution Division. This second-generation of FreeAgent storage solutions takes the extra step of providing easy-to-use technology in a consumer-friendly package.”
Seagate FreeAgent drives are compatible with Windows® Vista® and Windows® XP® Operating Systems and come equipped with Seagate Manager™ software, an enhanced application that provides scheduled automated back ups and multi-computer synchronisation. The FreeAgent drives for Windows also offer security in the form of software-based AES-256bit encryption and Seagate DrivePass™ password protection for drive access to help keep your information safe and private. The environmentally smart utilities help save energy by putting the drive in sleep mode once it has been idle for 15 minutes. Seagate FreeAgent hard drives include Energy Star 5 rated AC adapters and are now packaged in 100% recyclable materials. And with Seagate’s industry-leading five-year limited warranty, the FreeAgent storage solutions provide the confidence that your digitally-captured memories and life’s work is on a hard drive you can trust.
As part of this product introduction, Seagate will also unveil external storage solutions designed specifically for the Mac community. The Mac community has spoken and Seagate is listening. The FreeAgent Go for Mac and FreeAgent Desk™ for Mac are both formatted for use with Mac OS X out of the box and are Time Machine ready with FireWire800/400 or USB 2.0 connectivity. Seagate understands that Mac customers have specific needs and performance requirements and these demands are being met with the FreeAgent external hard drive for Mac offering.
FreeAgent™ | Go Drive for MacWith a FireWire 800/400 interface and USB 2, docking station and carrying case the Seagate FreeAgent Go drive for Mac is equipped to move seamlessly between the desktop and road. Formatted for use with Mac OS X and Time Machine ready, the FreeAgent Go for Mac is the perfect back up companion for any Apple® computer. Seagate FreeAgent Go for Mac is available this month for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £94.99 for 250GB and £110.99 for 320GB.
FreeAgent™ | Desk Drive for Mac
The high-capacity FreeAgent Desk drive for Mac features a brushed aluminum arctic silver finish that is a perfect match for the current iMac Desktop. With both a USB 2 and a FireWire 800/400 connection and tuned to be Time Machine ready, the FreeAgent Desk for Mac is available this month for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £102.99 for 500GB and £142.99 for 1TB.
FreeAgent™ | Go Drive
A pocket-sized storage drive that packs a punch, the Seagate FreeAgent Go drive is slim, compact and shipping in four colour options available as of this month in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £62.99 for 250GB, £79.99 for 320GB and £150.99 for 500GB.
FreeAgent™ | Dock and Case
Protection for those on the go and a dock station for convenient and quick access to your files, these accessories for the FreeAgent Go drive are sold separately. The dock and case will be available in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific for a manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) of £19.90.
FreeAgent™ | Desk Drive
This convenient desktop storage solution, Seagate FreeAgent Desk drive, is the perfect desktop companion for basic back up and security for all your digital files. This high-capacity USB 2.0 interfaced drive provides enough room to hold libraries of images, music and video. The FreeAgent Desk drive is available as of this month in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific, for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £67.99 for 500GB, £75.99 for 640GB and £107.99 for 1TB.
FreeAgent™ | XTreme™ Drive
Designed for performance, especially for those who work with high-definition video and graphic files, the Seagate FreeAgent XTreme drive is the perfect fit. The FreeAgent XTreme delivers a 3GB per second transfer rate with the eSATA connection. This drive also includes FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connection options. The FreeAgent XTreme is available worldwide for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of £94.99 for 500GB, £102.99 for 640GB and £134.99 for 1TB.
Labels: General News, Mac Peripherals, PC Peripherals
The Authors
Dave
Dave has been in the graphic design industry for 14 years. Long time reviewer of technology related products, he is Owner/Editor of Geekanoids.
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