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Sony Walkman A845 Review
February 27, 2010
A few weeks ago we had a quick preview of the new Walkman A845 from Sony – the main selling point of which was its incredibly thin form which at 7.2mm makes it the thinnest Sony Walkman yet – and now having had time to give it a thorough ‘going over’ were back to see whether or not it lives up to expectations.
Perhaps the most obvious thing to look at first with the Sony Walkman A845 is exactly that: how it looks. Whilst I have to say that I found the design a little bit off putting to start with (the screen seemed a little too big which in turn made the silver bottom look a little odd) but as with so many things it doesn’t take long to grow on you – although once you’ve noticed it you won’t forget the fact that the buttons look oddly like Mickey mouse!
Moving onto the rest of the device and the quality does continue: whilst the back is worrying proficient at picking up scratches (and even better at getting fingerprints) it likewise looks stylish and exactly what you would expect from a Walkman.
Continue reading »Google Nexus One Review (UK)
February 15, 2010
Google’s new ‘superphone’, the Nexus One, has been the topic of many conversations since its release a day before CES began in January. Released subsidised in the US, and also available unlocked to the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong from Google directly, it comes packed with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM and a 5MP camera (more on that later on).
Shipping and Initial Setup
The cost of the phone from Google is $529, although you’ll also have to consider international shipping costs of $29.65. DHL’s tracking service was great to have when biting my nails to see where my phone was, although it took an extra day to arrive after landing in the UK due to a shipping mix up – it was destined for Gatwick instead of Manchester, but I was just grateful that my Nexus One didn’t end up in Uganda…
Continue reading »Sony Walkman A845 – Ultra Slim MP3 Player
January 7, 2010
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before the tech industry has a tendency to try and get either bigger or smaller (or both) until it reaches the limits of practicality at which point manufacturers try and push the boundaries in a different axis – and that’s what’s happened with the Sony Walkman A845.
Having realised that MP3 players already have got small enough, have more than enough memory space (who realistically listens to more than 50 albums at one time?) and screens that are big enough to allow video watching but don’t make the player too big Sony are pitching for the crown of the next dimension – width – with their thinnest MP3 player yet.
With a thickness of only 7.2mm (although only just thinner than the thinnest laptop) and a weight of only 62g Sony have pushed the boundaries of what defines ‘Ultra-Slim’ and this really is the MP3 player for those of you who are very weak, supermodels or obsessed with technology. Unfortunately I do feel obliged to point out that I can’t remember consciously thinking “Oh, this MP3 player is too heavy!”, and in fact the iPod Nano beats it for ‘skinnyness’ at 6.2mm, but I’ll let that pass for the sake of progress!
Continue reading »LG’s CES Press Event Roundup (CES 2010)
January 6, 2010
LG held their CES press event earlier today, and after moving past sales figures for the past year (yes, LG are still booming in the recession), we got to some pretty interesting technology…
LG TVs
A particular point of interest was wireless technology in TV’s. All LG TV’s will be wireless ready in 2010. If you’re not familiar with wireless TV, it does what it says on the tin, allowing you to stream 1080p video to your HDTV remotely without the need for a host of wires ruining the view. It’s certainly a promising technology, and definitely beats the good ol’ cable organiser!
To go along with this, LG also announced improvements to their ‘Broadband Services’, bringing 35 different internet services directly to LG TV’s and hard drive equipped Blu-Ray players. They call this ‘DivX TV’, and I love the idea, as it helps cut out the set top box or PC you’d normally use and allow you to bring these directly to your TV.
Continue reading »Nexus One – Google Phone Announced!
January 5, 2010
Google held a press conference today in Mountain View, California at 10AM PST (6PM British Time) to announce their very own Android Smartphone: the Nexus One, which was developed “in very close partnership with HTC”. Erick Tseng, Senior Product Manager, went as far to say that the Nexus One “belongs in a new category of devices we call Superphones”. Owning a Superphone may sound impressive, but does it live up to all the hype we’ve seen over the past few weeks about Google’s Nexus One mobile phone?
As previously reported, the announcement confirmed that the Google Phone, the Nexus One comes packed with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Processor and 512MB RAM and ROM to match. Also packed in to the sleek design is a 3.7” AMOLED capacitive touchscreen (480×800), a MicroSD slot which is expandable to 32GB, not forgetting the trackball, which also acts as a multi-colour notification LED.
Continue reading »Sony Walkman X Series Featuring ‘Clear Audio’ Technologies
August 13, 2009
This is a bit of a two part review – firstly we’re going to have a look at the relatively new Sony Walkman X series and see how that matches up to the competition, but we will also have a bit of a deeper look at the actual technology that goes behind all of the Clear Audio tags that Sony music players have, such as DSEE and Noise Cancelling.
So first things first – the X series, and as you might expect from the Sony ‘flagship’ this is the kind of product that is out there to challenge the top of the market, in this case the Apple iPod Touch. And even from first glance you can tell that it’s going along the right sort of lines.
Continue reading »3rd Generation iPhone Rumours Roundup
June 8, 2009
Later today at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) we should hopefully be finding out more from Apple about their 3rd generation iPhone, what it will look like design-wise, what specifications/features it will have and a definitive release date of when we can expect to be able to buy one and start playing with it for ourselves.
However, before that official announcement we thought it might be good to take a quick look back at some of the rumoured features that we’ve reported on in recent months.
Continue reading »Microsoft Zune HD Video Demo
June 1, 2009
You can now see the Microsoft Zune HD in action in the following video! Last week we reported that the Microsoft Zune HD had been announced after much speculation over the months as to what it might actually encompass as a device. Some of the wilder ideas such as it being a portable Xbox gaming device or it being a Zune mobile phone to compete with Apple’s media player/mobile phone, the iPhone – as we saw these were pretty wide of the mark.
Microsoft Zune HD Announced
May 27, 2009
With regards to the Zune, Microsoft is generally seen as being a one trick pony – it can play music and videos, and that’s it, not that impressive from one of the world’s biggest companies. Not only that, but it has a very limited (if loyal) fan base as it doesn’t really stand up to the competition of Apple’s offerings in style, ergonomics or general brand appeal.
But Microsoft aim to change all of this with the release of the much rumoured Zune HD which should not only thrust itself into the top of the market, but also evolve Zune into more of a brand, something that hints of more diverse things to come.
Continue reading »Third Generation iPhone Specification Rumours – OLED Display with 17th July Release Date?
May 20, 2009
We’ve been following several third generation iPhone rumours for the past few months as like everyone, we’re very keen to see what Apple might have up its sleeve for the next iteration of its successful smartphone.
Engadget has reported on a rumour that it has picked up on via the Wired website saying that the third generation iPhone will feature an OLED display, which would tie in with a rumour that we’ve already reported, it will have a matte black rear casing (without the metal band around the edge of the iPhone which I’d be quite pleased with), a glowing Apple logo similar to on MacBooks (not sure on that one – would that not waste of precious battery power?) and perhaps most importantly a release date of 17th July 2009 which wouldn’t be long after the Palm Pre.
Continue reading »
