Let’s not try and deny it: the netbook market is painstakingly boring. At the start, it had some imagination. Expensive Windows licenses were pushed aside for custom Linux distributions which were great to try out, but of course Microsoft came along eventually and killed off the resurgence of the Tux yet again.

A few years on and things haven’t really changed. Almost every netbook on the shelf now runs Windows, probably Windows 7 Starter Edition, the vast majority run on an Intel Atom processor, have the same amount of RAM, the same graphics chip and the same form factor. Don’t say I didn’t warn you: the netbook market is painstakingly boring. Fortunately for us, there might be one netbook that has brought a smidge of differentiation to the market. The Acer Aspire One is 10.1″ big – pretty standard – but that 10.1″ display doesn’t have a resolution of 1024 x 600, but a HD resolution of 1280 x 720. [Read more…]

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play – casually known as the PlayStation Phone – may be one of the most anticipated mobile devices of the past few years; rumours of such a device had been circling the internet for months before its eventual unveiling at the early stages of this year. The concept is quite simple really: take what is arguably the most successful gaming platform of all time and merge it with your everyday smartphone to give people a great gaming experience on the go. After all, if any company knows what it takes to make a successful games console it’s Sony, right?

With physical, slide-out controls and a dedicated PlayStation application alongside the Android market, the Xperia Play certainly has a lot of promise for those wanting to take their games with them, but does it live up to all the hype? Let’s take a closer look and find out for ourselves! [Read more…]

The original iPad, which launched around this time last year, brought with it a series of questions, mostly leaning towards the point of ‘what’s it for?’

It was criticised at first, many calling it no more than a giant iPod Touch, and that was probably the reason I promised myself I would wait for at least the second rendition of Apple’s tablet before I hopped aboard the bandwagon.

Not because I didn’t like the iPad since of course, it was ‘magical’. But more because it was obvious to me that the tablet industry would take time to truly discover itself, and it’s questionable as to whether the point has yet been reached when people know what tablets are for, exactly. I mean, it’s clear that each manufacturer has it’s own view as to what a tablet should be, with many opting for smaller screens, slide-out physical keyboards or what have you, but one thing is clear: nothing quite came close to the original iPad.
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You might be under the impression, having scoured the web for a set of iPod speakers, that anything that’s designed to be a little more than a rectangular unit of plastic and speaker cloth will cost you the contents of your wallet and maybe your whole bank account as well. However, as I have found in the past with products from Edifier, such as the “Sound To Go” Laptop Speakers and Prisma Speakers , the company provides an excellent anomaly to that sometimes infuriating trend. Put quite simply, the Edifier Luna 5 Encore iPod Dock/Speakers the furthest thing from typical for iPod speakers.
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The Google Nexus S is here, the second ‘pure’ Android mobile phone, but how will it fare against the latest and greatest mobile handsets? When the Google Nexus One was released just over a year ago, the tech world seemed to stop for a moment to admire. It was a feat of mobile engineering, incorporating the first 1GHz processor into a smartphone, amongst other quite brilliant achievements.

It almost goes without saying that it set the benchmark for what was to come, as for the next year or so, and even now, we have been seeing a multitude of devices with the same 1GHz processors, albeit maybe with some other better technologies in there, hitting the shelves.

Only now, are we hearing of perhaps dual core, or single core with a higher clock speed, processors finding their way into smartphones. However, the world didn’t exactly respond with major demand for the ‘superphone’, and subsequently Google pulled production and adopted it as the official Android developer device.
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NAS storage isn’t hard to come by, but it usually comes at a pretty hefty price. However, combining it with a router is something seldom scene, apart from the obvious Apple Time Capsule. LaCie, though, a company often praised for its aesthetic prowess here on Zath, has come up with the Wireless Space, probably the most direct competition for the Time Capsule on the market.

Design

As with any LaCie product, one of the first thing that strikes you about the product is the design. And true to form, the LaCie Wireless Space is not a bad looker, considering it’s a router, hardly a glamorous piece of gadgetry. The smooth black plastic finish is typical of the Neil Poulten design for LaCie, as is the down-facing LED indicator which is either blue, green or red depending on the state of the power and connectivity.
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If you’re ever away from home for a prolonged period of time, one of your first concerns is the security of your possessions. The last thing you need is the neighbourhood crook taking your TV while you’re soaking up the sun on the other side of the world.

You can always ask the folks next door to keep an eye out for you, but let’s face it, the lovely retired man on the other side of the street won’t be able to keep a constant eye on your house will he? If you’re looking for another option to keep an eye on your house, whether you’re out at work or gone for the month, then you may want to give Jabakkam a look. [Read more…]

HTC has gone through somewhat of a surge in terms of success in the last couple of years with phones like the HTC Desire and the Desire HD impressing many of us and setting great standards in terms of Android-based smartphones and now have they done it again with the HTC Wildfire?

As we saw in the announcement of the HTC Wildfire is very much a budget Android-based smartphone aimed at those who want the more out their phone for a smaller price tag than the likes of the iPhone 4, HTC Desire or Nexus One, and the £160 that you will have to shell out for one is certainly that. But have sacrifices been made for this price?
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