Welcome to this, the first, of Pocket-lint's new "Field Tech" Column. Every month we will be looking at technology specifically designed to carry on working even in the harshest of conditions, and we've decided to start with the world's toughest Tablet PC.

Panasonic's range of rugged and semi-rugged Toughbook computers have been on the market for a while but seldom see a lot of high street publicity. Designed for engineers, surveyors and professionals who need to worry more about getting their job done than their computer breaking down after being throw in the back of a truck, the Toughbooks design reflect more of the requirements of the school of hard knocks than the latest in home computing conventions.

To appreciate how different the CF-18 table PC Toughbook is from everything else on the market it's best to look at the specifications of the bodywork surrounding the computers core.

The armoured-body measures 271mm wide, by 216mm long by 49mm deep and weighs in at 2.1kg. To keep the weight down, the outer shell is constructed from a magnesium alloy, 20 times harder that standard ABS plastic.

All the standard ports are sealed with rubber-bung style plugs to prevent the dust and moisture from the outside, getting inside. The larger doors, that cover the 6.5hour battery, PCMCIA and SD slots and removable hard drive have a locking mechanisms that would sub-mariners envious and extra work has gone into the construction of the high stress areas of the tablets screen hinge and main release catch, both looking like they’ve been designed with roadies in mind.

Under the shell, the core of the PC is powered by an Intel Pentium M Processor ULV 753 (Centrino) chip, delivering 1.20GHz of processing power and 512MB of RAM. The 60GB internal hard drive has been integrated into a removable, shock-resistant, steel lined cartridge that’s impact resistant to falls of up to 90cm. Should damage occur or drives need to be swapped, a handy feature when large quantities of data need to be sent back to base, then it as easy to change the hard drive as it is swap the 7.4V Li-Ion battery.

As the CF-18 is designed to be used in the field, quite literally, the anti-reflective 10.4 inch, 65K colour, display has been designed to be daylight viewable. Depending on the requirement of the user the type of touch-screen can be altered to either be stylus and pressure sensitive, so anything can be user to move the cursor or electronic stylus dependant so only a specially supplied pointing device will be compatible. Regardless, a tethered stylus is supplied and is stored in the bottom left hand side of the screen. The display is rotated by disengaging the catch at the rear of the keyboard and rotating the screen clockwise through 180 degrees and closed over the keyboard, being locked in place by the main catch. Once in position the stylus comes into use, as do the bank of tablet control buttons located on the front right of the main catch.

Due to the wide variety of locations the Toughbook has been designed to function in a 56k Modem is fitted as standard as well as a wireless, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g LAN but more exotic options are also available. For those further a field a SIM slot can be activated in the rear of the CF-18 allowing GSM/GPRS network communication and calls to be made.

Toughbook also offer an GPS package, so once in great outdoors users can not only tell you exactly what the situation is, but exactly where they are as well. Panasonic have also opted to add an SD media slot, next to the two PCMCIA slots, located under the locking door on the left hand side, presumably as the many other devices in the range use this type of removable media.

The professional status of the intended users is reflected in the lack of integrated CD/DVD drive, and although playing films of music might be regarded as frivolous, the ability to load software is not.

Naturally centrally stored software can be installed either by connecting to a network, via the onboard LAN port, or alternatively connecting the computer to it's docking station (CF-VEB181U). In order to install disc based programmes or to enjoy a movie the CFR-18 has to be attached to it's dedicated USB-linked DVD/CD combo drive (CF-VDRRT3W). Despite the size of the flight case the CF-18 ships in Panasonic seem to wish to further promote the serious nature of their Toughbook but not including the combo drive in the price, meaning another £200 just to watch Bambi.

With no immediate means of installing disc-based software, choosing the correct operating systems package at purchase becomes all important. Panasonic produces versions of the CF-18 with Microsoft Table PC software sitting on both Windows XP Home and Pro. The review model sent to us was running XP Pro, but seemed to lack any of the MS Works package that usually comes installed as standard, meaning this review was written in Notepad.

Gripes, well only a couple. For the price Panasonic should supply the external combo-drive. I fully appreciate that the average professional user will be running pre-installed software, specifically designed for their job, but without the ability to play CD/DVD’s the Toughbook can’t be anything but a work tool, but maybe that’s the idea.

Second problem is the keyboard. The size and configuration of the keys are just too small and I’d really have done my block writing anything much longer than this review. The orientation of the arrow keys, and the size and placement of the delete, enter and capslock buttons also takes some getting used to, which is a pain. As an aside the tablet function keys, on the front right hand side of the review model, refused to work but I suspect that is more the fault of the last person to review the computer than the Toughbook.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Panasonic Intel

FIELD TECH - Panasonic CF-18 Toughbook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 02 May 2006 00:00:16 +0100

It seems that trying to borrow an iPod these day is no easier that it was when these coveted devices were few and far between.

You'd think by now I'd have dug deep, bought early and be pining for an upgrade of the device blessed with reviving Apple's fortunes. But no, 2006 and I'm still on the scrounge for a pod so I can review the latest, in the never ending supply of accessories designed to empty the pockets the beleaguered iOwner.

the dock (all lower case according the Danes at Scandyna) may cost around £240, but looks aside, you are getting plenty in exchange for that swift swipe of your credit card.

Available in both black and white, you can colour match with the exterior of your beloved player, the dock system comes with the sit-in station for the iPod, complete with an integrated 15 watt amp, and two Scandyna Micropod SE speakers.

You can tell that the product designers suffered from the batteries not included syndrome from their childhood as they've even included a couple of speaker cables, so you can get up and running without a cheeky trip to Richer Sounds the following day.

Setting the system up is no more complicated than attaching the speakers positive and negative terminals to the back of the dock and plugging in the power cable.

Audiophiles will no doubt swoon to know that these terminals will also accept banana plugs, for those Ferrari like cables, they so adore so much.

Those who want a little more BOOM will also be pleased to see that there is a dedicated lineout port so that the 100 watt Scandyna Minibass unit can also be attached.

And that's not all, thanks to the design of the supplied Micropod SE series speakers, you can either stand the compact duel-driver speakers on their metal sputnik spikes or wall mount them, although the brackets have to be purchased separately.

To offer maximum flexibility the dock is supplied with eight separate inserts, allowing every current model of iPod, besides the USB based shuffle, to sit comfortably centre-stage. Naturally the player is charged all the time it is in-situ and the only hassle occurs when you try to get your player out of it's work-a-day protective sleeve before you are able to slide it's au-naturale form into the dock.

The only chink in the otherwise impeccably designed armour, would have to be the remote control. It offers all the features you would expect but lacks a menu button so you can toggle between album or artists on your play lists.

It's design also looks a little plasticcy and on the review version we received we could see that excessive glue had discoloured the plastic around the IR transmitter.

It's not that we're fickle, you understand, it's just the rest of the kit came to us pristine Persil White, so this blemish stood out.

Tags: Audio Speakers iPod speakers iPod

Scandyna the dock iPod speaker system originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 06 Apr 2006 01:28:39 +0100

American technology manufacturer, Oregon Scientific, have opted to enter the music technology market with their newly created StyleFi brand. The launch consists of four products, a music centre, two takes on a wireless speaker solution and a portable CD player and docking station.

As far as innovation goes the Music Sphere and the iBall are the more interesting of the new range with both products being essentially the same with one being aimed at he Apple iPod market, with its dedicated docking station, although it's the more general version may have wider appeal.

The overall concept of the Music Sphere is simple. A base station, with multiple source inputs, transmits sound to a receiver with a speaker, but the technology that enables this is a little more complex. The system relies on a 2.4Ghz digital audio signal transmitted upto 30 metres via FHSS technology (frequency-hopping spread spectrum).

The transmitter unit, about the size of a grapefruit, runs off mains power and will accept up to three separate music sources via two small jack plugs (headphone ports) and one set of phono sockets.

The larger receiver, about the size of a netball (W203mm x H187mm x D196mm), houses a pair of stereo tweeters and a subwoofer, capable of outputting a respectable 60db in total.

The top of the receiver houses a control panel used to switch sound sources, set clock functions and audio sound balance and activate the receivers remote control "learning" function. Power options are varied with the choice of either the mains, via an adapter, or six C-cell batteries.

A special finger hole is available to aid mobility, although audiophiles will later tell me this is part of the speaker system and I should not be putting anything, least of all my finger, in it. For those with a more permanent location in mind the receiver can also be wall mounted on the provided bracket.
The receivers overall design is simple, yet striking. Details such as the colour of the digital display, on the front of the receiver, changing from red to blue to green dependant on the audio source selected and the ability to teach the receiver the basic functions of the audio sources remote controls, get a special mention.

Low-level buzzing, battery life of the receiver unit and input connections are all contends for why you should spend your hard earned cash on this device. Even though Oregon has spent time, and Dollars, on the FHSS system I still got a low-level buzz through the speaker. This may well be due to a lot of other wireless technology competing for the airwaves in my apartment, but when the volume was turned up this became an annoyance.

Even though the receiver can be battery powered the accompanying literature paints a less than rosy picture of the longevity of this endeavor. Oregon estimate that a new set of six C-cells will last 5 days with an average of 4 hours play a day. So if you want to be totally wireless be prepared to buy a lot of batteries.

The transmitters connection offering of headphone jacks and phono seem to beg the question "what type of devices Oregon expect the user to attach?" My understanding of a technology like this would be to offer a connection that is additional to the audio sources primary speakers, rather than instead of them. When connecting either my computer or stereo, I used the headphone-out socket to the phono-in, via the cable provided. Problem is, to then use the main speakers, on either of the source devices; I have to unplug the jack from the headphones socket, making the whole endeavor complicated.

Tags: Audio Speakers iPod speakers Oregon Scientific iPod

Oregon Scientific Music Sphere originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:00:38 +0100

A damp evening in London was brightened up by the presentation of the new Lexmark P450, accompanied by a talk from music photographer Benjamin Johnson.

Compact in size, the P450 bares a similarity in design to its larger siblings in the Lexmark ‘P' series. Familiar features, such as the multiple media card ports, catering for Compact Flash types I & II, SD, xD, SM, MMC and Memory Stick (also Memory Stick Duo and Pro via an adapter) and the flip-up 2.4 inch colour screen, are present as ever.

The viewing screen allows images to be viewed, manipulated, cropped and even effects added before either being printed or burnt to CD. This, combined with the simple menu control system, means that even users with little to no previous experience should have no trouble in getting to grips with the printer's operation.

The newly integrated CD burner allows collections of pictures to be burnt onto a CD-R. Interestingly Lexmark claim to have enabled the CD writer to burn multiple session-tracks onto a single CD-R, until the disc is full, rather then having to rely on more expensive CD-RW technology. Another addition to the software is the ability to print direct from a plug-in USB flash memory stick, which can connect via the port on the front left of the printer.

The P450 has also been Bluetooth prepared and can be enabled by the simple addition of an inexpensive USB Dongle, attached at the rear, allowing Bluetooth capable devices, such as camera phones, to transmit direct to the printer.

Printing relies on a single cartridge system and the P450 accepts either the numbers 33 or 35 Lexmark inkjet cartridges. The number 33 cartridge will give you about 70 colour prints while the 35, the 'High Yield' cartridge will last for 140 prints. Printing options include full page 10cm x 15cm (6"x4") prints, a bordered option and contact-style preview sheets. The paper hopper, at the rear of the printer, holds up to 25 sheets.

Tags: Cameras Printers All-in-one printers Lexmark Digital cameras

Lexmark P450 - FIRST LOOK originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 24 Oct 2005 09:08:03 +0100

The Nokia 9300, the latest in Nokia's 'communicator' business phone range offers familiar features in a considerably smaller package. Sadly Orange only make it available to their Blackberry business users, while Vodafone offer the more open version.

The 9300, like its considerably bulkier predecessor the 9500, is hinged along the left hand edge of the body and opens to reveal a 640x200 pixel screen with a compact, almost useable, QWERTY keyboard.

The large navi-pad in the bottom right hand corner has been exchanged for a smaller version that moves the cursor while browsing and editing. The top of the keyboard retains the strip of pre-set hotkeys, allowing one-touch access to the phone's functions, while to the right of the interior screen a second set of keys offers various menu options, dependant on which application is in use.
Interestingly the 9300 is still only 2.5G, unlike the new SPV M5000 about to be launched on Orange, so even though there are 65,000 colours on the screen screen, both inside the handset and out, you are still constrained to a comparatively slow web connection.

Phone connectivity is Tri-band (EGSM 900, GSM 1800, and GSM 1900) with 4 hours talk-time and up to 200 hours standby. Broader connectivity comes through Blackberry email, Bluetooth and infrared connections. A desktop stand that combines the USB connector and charger is also provided, and used to handle cable-connection data sync.

It's curious that a device pegged in the business bracket seemed to lack identifiable email. The Nokia website mentions an on-board mail client which seems conspicuous by it's absence on the model reviewed. This is because Orange have configured their version of the device to be a Blackberry handheld, and while this has definite pluses to those business users who have Blackberry mail servers attached to their work systems this doesn't suit everyone and thankfully other networks aren't following suit.

On-board software will allow the creation and editing of documents, spreadsheets and presentations although the direct compatibility with popular MS applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint is limited with formatting problems common. To keep you occupied there is an MP3 player as well as Real Player and the Nokia PC Suite includes a CD music program to handle ripping, encoding and transfer from CD/PC to phone. On board you get 80Mb of memory to store all your media and business material, but a full-sized SD slot under the battery cover means that you can 'hot-swap' (change cards over with out having to power-off) memory cards, and expand up to 1Gb.

Keyboard layout, sync software, lack of camera and browsing were the problem areas for us. Even though Nokia have made the effort of putting a full keyboard they've switched enough of the keys around to make using it a little tricky, with the full stop and comma characters being particular examples.

The web browser often refuses to display images although I suspect due to the size of the local cache. The browser also lacks a display feature to make the web page being viewed scale to fit the full horizontal size of the screen, leading to unsightly horizontal scroll bars and zooming all over the screen courtesy of the navi-key.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Orange

Orange Nokia 9300 Communicator SmartPhone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 20 Oct 2005 11:27:33 +0100

The canapés might have been scoffed, but the UK launch of the latest offerings from Sony Ericsson more than made up for it.

Riding high on the success of the W800i ‘Walkman' phone Sony Ericsson's latest launch combines not only the Walkman brand, but 3G connection UMTS speeds as well.

Codenamed ‘Sakura', until the point-of-launch, the W900 has a larger body than the W800. The handset is hinged in a manner reminiscent of the S600, which launched in the UK market as the W550. Where as the W550 articulated by a hinge at the bottom allowing in the phone to be opened-up to either 90 or 180 degrees, the W900's hinge is sprung so that a light flick will cause the top section to revolve to the full 180 degrees to reveal the keyboard.

Features to concentrate on are the whopping 470Mb internal memory. When questioned on this somewhat arbitrary number Sony Ericsson revealed that there is actually half a Gb onboard, but the internal OS requires 30Mb to function, so the user gets the remainder. There is also the obligatory Memory Stick Duo port, meaning you can expand the memory up to 2.5Gb, increasing to 4.5Gb in the New Year with larger sticks coming to market.

The 3G UMTS connection speed has been coupled with dual cameras to allow video calling. The top left of the screen houses a small VGA camera while the reverse of the body houses a monstrous 2.0 megapixel camera. Following on the design of the W750i there is a dedicated shutter release on the top edge of the body, although the camera will only function when the handset is closed-up. The camera included auto-focus and a ultra-bright illuminating LED and in video mode can capture footage at 30 Fps.

A new music navi-key has been added to the front of the body, sitting above the swiveling hinge. This resembles the controls on an MP3 player and is dual-function to access the phone's menus and operate the Walkman playback functions. The alpha-numeric keyboard has also been redesigned making the orange backlit keys sturdier.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones 3G Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson W900 - FIRST LOOK originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 19 Oct 2005 14:08:46 +0100

Available in four formats, two sizes and the three colours there is certainly plenty of choice in the Philippe Stark designed range of clock-radio weather stations created in collaboration with American technology brand Oregon Scientific.

The Medium Music Clock lacks the projecting feature of the ‘Multi’ version and at only 13.3cm high is smaller than the 18.5cm ‘Large’ version in the range, but still has more than enough features to make the £100 price tag worth paying.

Time and date set-up are controlled by radio-signal updates from atomic clocks based in Frankfurt and Rugby so important settings will adjust themselves once the clock is powered up, although this auto-update function can be deactivated.

Up to three remote weather sensors can be added (with one supplied in the box), each one transmitting data up to 30M back to the main base station, displaying inside and outside temperatures, in either Centigrade or Fahrenheit, on the main unit's screen. This main display also covers a host of other data including barometric pressure, moon-phases, maximum and minimum temperatures and humidity and graphic representation of the general forecast (clouds and sun symbols), general outlook trends (arrows bending up or down depending on rising or falling barometrics) and comfort level (denoted by a smiley or frowny face).

The clock contains an AM/FM radio, with a soft wire antenna, whose functions are activated by depressing the buttons on the reverse of the clocks body. Each of the function buttons has been texture annotated so you don’t need to turn the clock round to see what your doing, but these take some getting used to. Frequencies range from 87.5-108.0Mhz FM and 531-1602kHz AM and there are up to eight available channels to store radio stations per band. The clocks alarms can be set to either be the radio or a melody tone, which increases in volume if ignored.

What we don’t like is the adapter cable, the alarm-off function and the external sensor. Before you learn the textured controls to master the core functions you will need to turn the clock around, and when you do, the adapter cable falls out. The power adapter socket, on the right hand side, is just too large for the pin on the cable. Even if you plan you use the adapter, which allows you to have the display illuminated all the time, also insert the batteries, this way you avoid of having to re-program all your radio stations every time you move the clock.

Setting the alarm is not complicated but I wish that Oregon had added another button on the top surface to turn the alarm off, as well as make it ‘Snooze’. To deactivate it totally you need to depress the bottom left hand button and this can disturb the adapter cable leading to a lot more than just turning the alarm off.

Tags: Gadgets Watches Oregon Scientific

Oregon Scientific STARK Music Medium Clock originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 19 Oct 2005 00:28:12 +0100

Renowned clothing and accessory designer Jessica Odgen has teamed up with GPS navigation supremos TomTom to make a designer shoulder bag for a piece of technology that's not an iPod!

Paris based Ogden has been a leading couture designer for the last decade and describes this latest collaboration as "Add(ing) a fashionable yet functional element to TomTom GO and MOBILE 5".

Throwing further weight into the partnership, Ogden and TomTom have initiated a competition to entice the next generation of budding designers from the UK, France and Italy to come up with their own innovative bags for the TomTom range, with part of the prize being a placement in Ogdens' London studio.

The body of the Ogden handbag is made of canvas with a rectangular painted wooden frame, providing both rigidity and shape to the top, by the opening. Each bag has a hand crocheted panel on the front as well as along the lining of the shoulder straps. A small, free-hanging croqueted bag is attached to the exterior, designed to hold the TomTom MOBILE5 GPS receiver, when in use.

Inside the bag large and small removable drawstring pouches are provided, the larger designed for the TomTom Go unit and the smaller for when the MOBILE 5's GPS unit is not needed. Both the lining of the main bag and material of the drawstring bags carry the distinctive pair of hands that make up the TomTom logo.

The bag looks great, if you like that style of rigid frame and the whole affair is surprisingly lightweight, when unloaded, and spacious enough to stash the kitchen sink when filled.

Tags: Car And GPS GPS TomTom

Jessica Ogden TomTom handbag originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 18 Oct 2005 00:17:51 +0100

Wanadoo is hoping that by sprucing up its internet router, more customers will be tempted to use the service, but is it a case of style over substance? Pocket-lint gets connected to find out.

The ‘all-in-one’ solution from French ISP Wanadoo is an interesting concept. Resembling an iPod that has mated with an atlas, the LiveBox is small enough to be tucked away on a bookshelf and flash enough to be the centre-piece of any cutting-edge internet office - especially the Wayne Hemmingway designed offering.

The core technology is a hybrid of a number of already existing devices, all neatly wrapped in a white plastic case and given a pulsating logo. The LiveBox encompasses an ADSL modem, a wireless transmitter, and a VOIP phone connection.

Set-up is as easy as plugging cables into ports and then following the step-by-step instructions on the installation CD-ROM. Once configured you can opt to either attach a computer, or a games console, via Ethernet or USB, or use the wireless receiver, supplied in the box, to access wireless internet. One receiver is supplied but others can be purchased, at a cost of £44.99, to expand the number of computers on the wireless network.

The VOIP phone function utilises any normal touch-tone phone, with a supplied adapter saving on having to purchase specialised additional handsets to get the voice service working. The LiveBox is also enabled with Bluetooth, although this function is currently deactivated, supposedly pending the next set of system upgrades or product launches. LiveBox is also capable of connecting gaming consoles, such as the X-Box or PS2, to the web to allowed online games to be played.

Even though set-up is easy, the structure of the package that supports the product is a little more complicated. There are three levels of usage within the ‘Wireless and Talk’ service, costing £17.99, £22.99 and £27.99 per month and although each of these packages offers a 2Mb download speed, each is capped, at 2Gb, 6Gb and 30Gb respectively. Strangely you will not be penalised if you exceed your monthly bandwidth usage but if you do so repeatedly then you will prompted to upgrade to a more suitable package. As a service incentive, for the first 6 months at least, Wanadoo are waiving the additional £4.00 a month for the VOIP service.

The ‘Wireless and Talk’ service is described by Wanadoo as offering ‘an additional phone line’ to households that already have an existing BT service and clearly states that you will need to maintain your BT line in order to use this service.

On the up-side the VOIP phone service will give you free evening and weekend calls to all UK landlines and other ‘Wireless and Talk’ customers. The savings also apply to calls made to mobile phones, with calls costing 10p per minute all the times. International calls are charged at 4p per minute but strangely are only offered to 20 countries. There is also a maximum call time of 2 hours on all calls, although you can redial as many times as you wish.

Gripes, capping, costs and countries. Capped internet usage is a real turn-off for us, especially if you have a wireless connection as it means that you will have to lock the network down to prevent neighbours from hijacking your precious bandwidth. You’ll also have to keep a tab on usage each month to avoid being bumped up to the next tariff.

The service contains lots of costs, you’re charged for the calls for example even though you have to pay BT to lease the original line and at some point the £4.00 PCM charge will be reintroduced for the VOIP aspect of the service. What looks like quite an economical deal could end up working quite expensive, especially if you are interested in downloads and bandwidth rich content.

And finally, why is the number of countries you can call dictated by the service provider? It would be understandable to offer different tariff bands depending on the country being called but to only offer a service to a select number of countries, excluding anywhere in Russia, India, Africa, South America or the Middle East, is beyond comprehension.

Tags: Software Broadband Wanadoo

Wanadoo LiveBox network box originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 27 Sep 2005 00:11:12 +0100

Coming in for a well-deserved silver medal, behind Lexmark’s new top of the range P6350, the 4350 all-in-one photo printer, scanner and copier takes some beating when it comes to the price-functionality ratio.

Launched in June 2005, the P4350 offers a complete print and copy solution to the small office environment and operates equally well with or without a computer connected. The printing relies on a duel cartridge Inkjet system. Inserting these cartridges has been made easier by simply lifting the printer apart, reminiscent of popping the bonnet on a car and then placing the cartridges in the allocated slots. Various combinations of cartridges are available, depending on the type of printing that’s being done, and cost around £15 each. An extra space has even been provided, on the inside left of the printer, to store spare cartridges while not in use.

Photo printing functions, without a computer attached, operate from either direct connection of a PictBridge compatible camera, via a USB cable, or by placing the camera’s memory card into the ports, located under a protective flap on the right of the control panel. MicroDrive, Compact Flash, Memory stick, SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MultiMedia Cards and xD are all catered for.

With a card or camera attached the content of the memory can be viewed on the printer itself, via the 1.7in colour screen. Simple to follow instruction will then let the user select the picture or pictures they wish to print, rotate, crop or resize them and even alter the brightness, to suit particular images. The print rate, in full colour, is around 15 pages per minute, although this will depend of the size and quality of the image, going up to 22 PPM for black and white.

Switching the 4350 from printer mode to copier and scanner is done by pressing the illuminated function button on the front display panel. The scanner offers a maximum resolution of 1200dpi and has an A4 flatbed-style imaging area. Both functions are ostensibly the same with one output being directly printed on completion of the scan, and the other being saved as either a TIFF or JPEG. A mention should given the to the integrated OCR text scanning features that the scanner’s menu offers. Pages of text and graphics can be scanned and then the associated text content is passed to FineReader 5 (supplied with the Lexmark software) to be recognised and reproduced in a text file to be edited or included in another document.

The dedicated Lexmark software supplied on the installation CD-ROM is meant to include, The Lexmark imaging Studio (Windows only), The All-in-one centre (Windows only), Print Properties - (Windows only), The Lexmark 4300 Series Solution Centre - Mac & PC, The Lexmark Photo Editor (On Mac called Touch Up Tools), The Lexmark Fast Pics (Windows Only). But a lot of these features are Windows only and simply don’t appear when installing the accompanying software on a Mac. Macs can operate the 4350 perfectly well but some advanced options and associated imaging tools are always useful and the instruction manual should break down which programs will and won’t work with the non-Windows OS.

The other gripe is streaking in the black shades when printing photos. This will no doubt be a dirty ink cartridge, that can either be cleaned or replaced, but nevertheless it’s still a pain and made worse by the instruction manual being less than precise on how to rectify these type of problems.

Tags: Cameras Printers All-in-one printers Lexmark Digital cameras

Lexmark P4350 All-in-One Photo Printer originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 13 Sep 2005 10:39:02 +0100

Adding to the H2 smart clothing range, the CommEnts jacket offers a tantalising combination of style, function and technology.

Like the rucksacks in the CommEnts range, the core of the jackets operating system is the H2 control hub, operated by the left-arm mounted ElekTex smart-keypad. As before, charge the lithium-ion batteries in the hub, attach the ribbon cable to keypad and attach your iPod, and you can control your music player's functions via the sleeve.

The hub and the iPod are securely stowed away in a pocket on the left hand side of the jacket with the headphone cable being run through the special rubberised port above, to minimise the chance of water getting to the electronics. The hub also contains a Bluetooth transmitter, so your mobile phone can be paired with the player. Any inbound calls will interrupt the music being listened to and calls can be answered by a touch of the sleeve's smart-keys. Your voice can be heard via the integrated microphone in the left of the collar.

The jacket is available in hi-visibility canary yellow, a more muted dark-grey or stealthy black. The fleece lining and advanced material construction will keep the elements at bay and for added protection a detachable semi-rigid hood and a wind-cheater button up skirt have been added. The four large main external pockets all unzip upwards to reduce the chance of them accidentally opening and your possessions falling out. The under arm section also has large zip-open vents to allow the jacket to breathe better when you get overheated from your exertions. Interestingly, the cuffs have been equipped with ninja-style thumbhole neoprene extensions which, we've been informed, are to allow the wearer to use wrist protectors while snowboarding.

Tags: Gadgets Clothing Solar Technology oneill

ONeill H2 series CommEnt Jacket originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 26 Aug 2005 00:06:41 +0100

In a recent review we pointed out Sony Ericsson’s expertise in creating one phone core and then placing numerous bodies around it, well just as the K750i and the D750i are effectively the same handset with the minor cosmetic alteration to the shutter covering the lens, the W800i is the D750i but with a paint job and a logo change.

The W800i is the first handset made by anyone to carry Sony's prestigious Walkman branding and to accommodate the expectation of all the additional stored music the W800i comes with a 34Mb internal memory and a 512Mb Memory stick PRO duo, this combination allowing you to store somewhere in the region of 150-200 songs, depending on the format. The PRO Duo range of memory sticks currently go up to 2Gb in size.

The lion’s share of the phone’s functions replicate those of the K750i and D750i. The calling constituent of the handset is Tri-band GSM (900, 1800 and 1900). The W800i is GPRS web and WAP enabled, and can perform all the standard message formats you’d expect including SMS, EMS, MMS and email. The battery life will give you up to 9 hours of talk time and around 400 hours of standby although with the music options you’ll probably find the majority of the handset’s charge goes on the media player rather than the call functions.

The reverse of the body houses the same 2 megapixel camera, with 4x digital zoom, as before, automatically activated by flicking the lens cover switch. Mounted above the lens is a powerful twin LED modelling light, which not only illuminates close-to photo subjects but is also useful for finding keyholes and can even be set to flash SOS in times of peril.

Again the W800i’s menus are a virtually the same as those of the K and D750i. The only perceivable alteration is the removal of the generic media player from right hand second row position, on the animated menu, to be replaced with a Walkman-branded version. This Walkman application allows your stored music to be viewed by either artist or track name as well as allowing you to create play-lists on the fly, from the existing music, as the mood takes you. The handset plays MP3 music files, although other formats are semi-compatible, and MPEG4 Video files. Transferring music to the phone is best done via the Disc2Phone CD ripping application that comes on the installation CD-ROM, although Mac users can simply attach the phone to their computer and it will appear as an external drive and then copy music files across.

The software in the pack offers the Sony Ericsson PC synchronisation suite allowing you to manage contacts and calendar function with your computer. Naturally you get the Disc2Phone application for transference of music and video to the phone but you also get a starter version of Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0, so you can arrange the images you snapped into collection to share and keep. Also included is hands-free headset that have been cleverly designed to allow users to plug any set of headphones so you aren’t stuck with the headphones in the box. Additionally you can purchase the MMC-60 music cable (£19.99), allowing you to connect the W800i and the 750i models to your domestic sound system.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson W800i mobile phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 25 Aug 2005 11:03:19 +0100

Sports equipment supplier O'Neill seem to believe that what every snow boarder needs is the ability to securely attach a board to their backs, ascend a mountain and then hurtle back down the same mountain at break-neck speeds, jumping moguls and zig-zagging to their hearts content all whilst deafening themselves to the latest downloads on their i-Pods, and who are we to argue.

The CommEnt Solar backpack is one of three new products created in collaboration with ElekTex smart fabrics. In the same range is also available the CommEnt backpack, essentially the same product but lacking the solar charging panels on the rear and the CommEnt Jacket which allows the user to control their music via arm mounted controls and mimics the Burton Amp Jacket, that hit the market a year ago.

The CommEnt Solar backpack's exterior is a combination of ballistic nylon and E.V.A pressure-moulded sections, designed to offer protection to the technology within. Design detail snacks of getting wet with waterproof seals on the two main compartment zips.

The Solar panels can be unzipped and a snowboard attached via tension straps underneath. The straps have even been specially designed with reinforced section where they'll meet the sharp edges of the board so they can be pulled tight without feast of cutting through the strap it's self. There is even a rear pocket designed to carry a collapsible snow shovel, complete with waterproof lining and drainage holes at the base to let snow melt-water drain off.

Inside the moulded compartment, that rests against the wearer's back, resides the H2 unit containing a rechargeable 1800mAh Lithium Ion battery, a power management system, a Bluetooth module and every possible port and socket you can imagine.

Upon the receipt to the H2 module, you remove it from the pack, plug it into the mains charger and leave it for 15 hours. Once this task is completed you need to set about plugging the H2 into the pack. This involves attaching a ribbon cable for the ElekTex smart controls, a 4-pin plug for the solar panels, a USB, a mono jack, a stereo jack, and that before you add any media.

The H2 unit comes with an integrated i-Pod remote cable and the system will work with al 3rd and 4th generation full sizes, and all mini versions, of Apple's device. The H2 unit and the i-Pod reside, once connected, under a Velcro flap in the rear of the backpack that sits against the spine when worn to minimize exposure to damage when moving / boarding / posing.

The i-Pod charger socket can also be attached to the H2 unit via a Firewire cable. Once all the wires are in place you can operate the music player via the controls buttons on the left hand shoulder strap of the bag, with options to play, skip and adjust volume all available. Your headphones attach into the system by a waterproof sleeve covering a standard jack socket in the in top of the left hand strap.

A mobile phone can also be integrated into the pack via Bluetooth connection. Pairing your handset is done by switching the H2 module to i-Pod and Bluetooth mode (which results in the LED in the H2 unit beginning to pulse), then depressing three of the smart-keys, in sequence, to make the H2 module detectable to the phone.

Once the pairing process is completed, the handset can be placed in a specially designed mesh pocket inside the pack and attached to the H2 module via a USB cable and a dedicated power converter, of which a number are supplied. If your phone rings whilst listening to music, the track will be interrupted by a ring tone, the call is picked up by pressing the skip-back smart-key, this also bares the green phone-up legend.

The pack contains a concealed microphone at the top of the right hand strap, denoted by a silver mic symbol. If you are lucky enough to have a mobile phone that supports voice commands you can also make calls by pressing the green button and saying the name of the person you want to call.

With everything wired together and with a full charge in the H2 module you will be able to control the operation of i-Pod and mobile phone as well as regulate charges to both devices. When moving around in bright light, O'Neil claim that the solar panels will provide enough power to extend the operating life of the both devices by up to 4 hours apiece.

Gripes? Let's gloss over the big why with a simple “because they can”, it's pretty cool and the sort of people who ask ‘why?' won't blow £170 on a rucksack and move to the more technical aspects. The i-Pod attachment is simple although pay attention with the two different jack-sockets, if you get the plugs swapped round you won't get any sound out of the headphones.

Getting the mobile phone to work is a little more difficult. I attempted to use a Nokia 6822 and although I had no problem paring with the H2 unit, this resulted in the phone believing there was a headset attached. This meant when the phone rang, and there was no headset, it went straight to voice mail.

I fared no better with the new Sony Ericsson W800i. The phone paired fine but didn't ring through the headphones and would only allow me to pick up the call, not to drop it. It should also be noted that even though there are a number of USB phone charger attachments, there isn't one for the new style of Sony Ericsson.

Tags: Gadgets Bags Solar Technology oneill

ONeill H2 series CommEnt Solar Backpack (Limited Edition) originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 18 Aug 2005 00:04:17 +0100

Once you place the Orange SPV M500 and T-Mobile's MDA compact next to each other you might be surprised to see how similar the two devices are. This may be a little less surprising though when you discover that the same company in Taiwan makes both products, HTC, which also manufactures 02's XDA products range.

The MDA and M500 are virtually the same size, with the MDA being fractionally shorter by 2mm (M500 W58mm x L108mm x D18mm Vs. MDA W58mm x L106mm x D18mm). Orange has also shaved off 20g though, with the M500 tipping the scales at 150g as opposed to T-Mobile's bulkier 170g. It's possible that some of the weight lost could be attributed to lighter electronics within, but more likely would be differences in the batteries, especially when both products offer the same 5 hours talk time but the M500 seems to have lost out on standby time, offering 7.5 days as compared to the MDA's 7.9 (190 hours). However, once we've finished with the comparisons, how does the M500 stand up on its own?

Users of MS Windows Mobile Edition 2003 will be familiar with the OS out-of-the-box, with menus and user interfaces baring the hallmarks of a dozen previously viewed products. What sets the M500 apart initially is the bodywork. The dark grey brushed metal body combined with sleek bevelled contours, by the battery section, and tactile edges, concealing the stylus and function keys and SD media port, make it the most aesthetically desirable of the current SPV group by a long shot. Button controls and configurable quick keys are located below the screen, centred around a familiar 5-way navi-paddle. The exterior dimensions have been well matched against the 2.8inch (240x320pixel TFT 64K) colour screen giving a product that sits well in the hand, while also not being over cumbersome as a phone and offering a screen large enough to be practical.

The reverse of the body houses a 1.3Megapixel camera and while the quality of these types of cameras is getting better all the time, the images captured on it clearly demonstrate that the camera is part of larger device rather than a dedicated imaging product.

For those who feel they need to know the processing core of the M500 is an Intel Bulverde 416MHz chip with an onboard memory of 64Mb. The SD port mounted in to the top edge can naturally be used to expand this up to 1Gb. With expandable media there always seems to be the need for an application to fill it and besides the camera the M500 offers Windows Media player for the playback of both music and video files.

The Windows OS comes will all the familiar programmes you'd expect, compact versions of Office's Word, Excel and Internet Explorer and applications to allow PDF and PowerPoint files to be displayed. Like most mobile telecoms companies Orange has had HTC spice up the product with some dedicated bespoke applications, in this case Orange Backup™, Packet Video Player, Orange Update, Orange Help. Orange Backup is a nice idea, albeit not new, that allows you to create an account via the device and the remotely store (as opposed to the MS xBackup application that only allows you to store data on non-volatile, or SD card, memories), all your contacts, calendar appointments and SIM contacts on a remote server. This means that if the PDA's contacts end up accidentally erased, you can automatically restore all that valuable data to your new device in a matter of minutes. Orange Update seemed to be masquerading as ‘Downloads' on the device I had but offers new and exciting software to trial, or would so if there was any on offer. The help section offers a complete-ish (ironically no help or instruction on any of the Orange products mentioned here) guide to the device on the internal memory, again useful but hardly groundbreaking in innovation terms.

“Packet Video player offers users access to Packets Video's innovative progressive video download service for smoother access to video content”, and this is quoted because it comes from the press release, sadly because the press release was the location I found of any evidence of the application. An oversight I'm sure.

The M500 connectivity is fairly standard. Alongside a Tri-band mobile phone (GSM 900/1800/1900), which is controlled by the call pick-up and put-down keys below the screen and the touch dial-pad, you also get MMS, SMS, GPRS web access, e-mail (POP3 and IMAP4). You can synchronise all your office data, including your work inbox, directly using a USB cable and Active sync or alternatively use either infrared or Bluetooth depending on volume and speed of connection required.

Gripes? Besides looking very pretty the M500 still fails to make that big leap to impress. The camera is nice but not special. The connectivity is practical but not persuasive, once you can get it to work. The e-mail seemed to have some funny quirks about sending messages but seems to shudder to life in the end. The battery life is OK but not dazzling. The M500 is the first mobile device I've seen with a battery lifting tab, and anyone who buys one please pay attention to this, that tab is there for a reason so please use it. If the battery is pushed into place with out the little tab being underneath it, to help you lift it again, you will have to take a knife to the thing to get it out. The screen is clear and easy to see but with a stylus and 4 equally awkward methods of entering large quantities of text (Block Recognizer, Keyboard, Letter recogniser and Transcriber) all the new technology still doesn't make the device ultimately more useable to write with. And all this for a device that turns its nose up at all Macs everywhere. Well honestly!

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Orange

Orange SPV M500 Smartphone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 11 Aug 2005 00:04:14 +0100

It's been given loads of different names, but my favourite one is ‘Gerard's syndrome', named after a chap I used to work with. This office-bound aliment is the pest of many an overworked office-type, who spends so much time in meetings, feverishly scribbling down notes, that they never have time to write them all up or action any of the points raised.

Until now, a few technology companies have offered partial solution to this problem including handwriting recognition systems and text scanning pens, but the chaps at ACECAD seem to have combined a number of these together to product a practical solution, the DigiMemo A501.

The A501 resembles a thick clipboard, 309mm long x 209m wide in size and 560g in weight, with an A5 writing area. The idea is simple. A pad of A5 paper is placed onto the clipboard, or portable digital pad as ACECAD refer to it, and then a special electronic pen is used to write on it. The pen has a ballpoint nib, so it's exactly the same experience as scratching away with your Biro in your ringbound office jotter. Every time you finish a page you simply turn over a new one and press the downwards arrow key to the left of the pad. This action generates a new digital page in the A501's 8Mb internal memory, so everything you write is kept separated to reflect the contents on the paper pages. If you want to go back to add or amend what you have written, simply toggle through the pages on the little digital display and then carry on writing on the page in question. If a page becomes surplus to requirements then the paper version can be torn from the pad and the digital version erased from the notepad by using the key marked ‘X'. Erm… and that's about it. Once you have completed your meeting notes / doodles / magnum opus, all you do is plug the USB connection into the top of the pad and run the DigiMemo Manager V1.00 software that came in the box and you jottings appear on your PC.

The digital pad takes four AAA batteries, which will last approximately 100 hours, and reside under the silver section at the head of the pad. Lurking beneath this cover is also a place to insert a Compact Flash memory card to expand the device's memory up to 4GB should this become necessary. As stated, the internal memory is only 8Mb but no indication as to how many pages of text this will store is given but it's certainly more than two at a time! The pen takes a single SR626SW (or IEC-SR66) cell battery and the bottom right of the pad also contains two spare nibs for the ballpoint, but replacements can be bought over the counter once these finally run out.

Once your writing is on the PC you can use the DigiMemo Manager application to open the pages, edit then in interesting and diverse ways including stitching multiple pages together to create an ACECAD e-book file, which is saved in a .dnd format. The pages can be cut and pasted into Microsoft word or alternatively e-mailed as .dnd or .jpg files, depending on the software on the recipient's computer.

The gripes we had were that lefties may suffer problems with the trailing-hands accidentally activating the buttons on the left hand side of the Digital notepad, but these are recessed and did require a fair amount of pressure to activate. The internal memory seems stingy but there is room for expansion. The display window does only have three number spaces for digital pages, so if you max up the memory you will still only have 999 unique page location possibilities on the CF memory.

The MyScript Notes' first attempt to convert my handwriting was a spectacular failure but I was writing at speed and my scrawl is sloppy, so I think more blame on me than the equipment. That said, at a cost of £100 per unit, the A501 is a little too expensive to be rolled out to everyone, which highlights the file compatibility issues.

Tags: Hardware it2 Gadgets

ACECAD DigiMemo A501 Digital notepad originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 09 Aug 2005 00:23:28 +0100

Like some remote theological concept, sometimes the more you search for an explanation for something, the harder it becomes to find. Understanding why American audio R and D guru's BOSE have chosen Ted Rogers' famous catch phrase, 3.2.1, for their latest home entertainment system being a case in point. The web and the instruction manuals are both curiously devoid of any reference to this curious choice of name although you do learn that the 3.2.1 relates to the speakers and not the entire system. Finally the chap in the BOSE warehouse cracked under questioning, well a question, and revealed that it stands for “3 wires, 2 speakers and 1 fantastic sound”, or at least that's ‘the way he heard it'.

The series II is available in two configurations, the choice of twin-driver 3.2.1 speakers being the only difference. The more compact, and expensive, of the two systems uses the new GEMSTONE speakers, hence gets the GS in it's title. These slimmer speakers offer the same basic audio-profile as their larger original 3.2.1 companions, but at only 10.5cm high x 14cm wide x 6.4cm deep and weighing .45Kg, as opposed to the older units which are 8.7cm high x 19.9cm wide x 13.6cm deep and weigh 1.2Kg each, they reduce the overall viewable size.

The complete system is made up of 4 parts, well 5 if you count the remote. The media centre acts as the dashboard and the brains, the twin GS satellite speakers, that are to be positioned either side of you television at a distance of no less than three feet, are the mid-range and tweeter, while, the ominous sounding, ‘Acoustimass' unit plays a triple role as bass-driver, power amp and energy management system.

It's here that BOSE demonstrates that hard work in the lab pays off in the home. The 3.2.1 GS speakers have been designed in such a way as to replicate, in conjunction with their Acoustimass counterpart, a ‘soundscape' that normally takes 3 times as many speakers to create. BOSE can sometime seem a little dictatorial with their set-up instructions but that's probably because after thousands of hours in anechoic chambers they really do know better than you about the way their audio equipment should be configured. That's not to say that between the laws of physics and the construction of complementary soundwave fields, there does not come sort some flexibility. The GS speakers can either be wall mounted, desk-stand mounted or floor stand mounted and the beefy Acoustimass (36.7cm heigh x 22.2cm wide x 48.5cm deep weighing 10.6Kg) can be tucked away down the side of the sofa, just so long as the air-port is unobstructed at the front. The GS units connect to the Acoustimass unit, via a single split cable (wire 1), the AC power connects to the Acoustimass (wire 2) and finally the Acoustimass connects to the media centre (wire 3).

The media centre will play DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD+R, Video CD's, Audio CD's, CD-R, CD-R/Ws and MP3 discs. Oh and it also has a RDS FM / AM radio, and that's just the stuff you have onboard. Flip the unit round the reverse side looks like the backend of mixing desk. There are a dazzling array of optical, digital and phone style inputs offering the most dedicated audiophiles options galore to connect the TV, satellite box and any other device that takes your fancy (all of which would go into the AUX channel).

The function of the media centre can either be controlled by the button on top or but the remote. Set-up is simple enough to let the average person get a good way down the line before needing to consort with the bulky instruction manual although the accompanying set-up DVD is useful to understand the core functions. An interesting function is the 3.2.1's ability to exert remote control over the other media devices attached, through the BOSE's central remote control. The instruction manual is supplied with 11 pages of product codes, corresponding to manufactures and types of device, you simply select the code for your existing device and ‘badda-bing, badda-boom' your TV/VCR/Digital receiver remote(s) need never be used again. BOSE do admit that set-up can be a little trial-and-error as some product have a dozen codes next to them and only by entering the right one will you be able to exert full control, but it still a nice idea. Naturally being a recent addition to the BOSE range the 3.2.1 GS comes fitted with BOSE-Link, the propriety BOSE system to allow complete integration of this system with the BOSE Lifestyle range.

Gripes, well I hade to carry it up my stairs, and that Acoustimass unit is no cream puff. The display is still a little on the small side. If you are going to use the media centre to control all you media / audio everything then the display should be larger, clearer and display more. The price is also another issue, even though BOSE are renown for producing excellent audio equipment £1250 can get you a lot of someone else's products, especially if you consider is that the media centre only plays, it offers no recording or storage in any capacity. Potential purchasers might be lured away to more future-facing systems, that offer DVD or digital recording functions.

Tags: Home Cinema DVD Bose

BOSE 321 GS Series II DVD home entertainment system originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:00:57 +0100

Created by the same family as the Casetec brand, Pakuma strives to move away from more traditional designs and offer an entirely new, rugged, and carefully conceived laptop carrying solutions.

The bags' concepts come from Christian Drew who, while living in Venezuela for 8 years running an expedition company, spent plenty of time with the Pemon tribe, noting that often the simplest designs can achieve the greatest goals. In fact the company name, ‘Pakuma', is actually the Pemon word for the woven bag, used by the tribes people to carry tools and hunting weapons in, and the companies logo is in fact the local symbol for a Shaman.

All manufacture takes place in the Far East by the same factory that produces the top-end Lowepro photographic carrying systems, so pedigree comes as standard, as do lifetime guarantee on all products.

The messenger bags come in two sizes, the K1 being the larger at 15”x15.5”x7” (designed for those of you who have to have 17” notebooks) and the K2 offering the more compact option, although not by much, at 14.5” x11 “x8”. The larger bags comes with more pockets, to secrete peripherals and accessories in, as well as having a larger, better-padded, strap. The smaller K2 is available in a wider variety of colour schemes though, and is aimed more at the unisex market. That said, all the colours are muted reds, browns, greens and blues, so military buffs and fans of hiding in the great outdoors should be equally stoked.

The core of the Choroka K series is the ‘notebook cocoon' and grandiose though it sounds this equates to a partitioned rear section, made of ribbed and reinforced memory foam, designed to cushion its precious contents from knocks and dings. The exterior of the bag is made of high grade woven waterproof fabric, with all zips being made by YKK and Duraflex clip-lock buckles throughout, reducing the chance of bits coming off in your hand dramatically. The interior of the larger K1 has enough pockets and hidey-holes in which you can lose all your possession several times over and both models come with a dedicated MP3 player pouch with headphone ‘out-port', so wires can get into the bag without having to undo clips or zips.

Gripes, well in order to get a messenger bag as large as the K1 to sit against the body and not bang around, as you wander around, you need to use what's called a ‘cycle strap' (a secondary strap that fits around the waist that draws the bag onto the hips). The only problem is in order to draw that much weight against the hips properly you need to tension the strap to the point where by it begins to bare some of the bags weight itself and, as it lacks any sort of padding, this begins to cut into the wearer after a while. This can be remedied by adding a second smaller pad to the cycle strap, so comfort over duration can be attained.

It would also be nice to be able to separate the ‘cocoon' section from the main bag, so that when you get to you destination you can decant the bulk of the K1 into a corner and go the last 100 yards pared-down to laptop, smile and your own good self.

Tags: Hardware Laptop accessories

Pakuma Choroka K1 Laptop Bag originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 20 Jul 2005 00:13:44 +0100

It seems that Sony Ericsson have been hard at work on their latest batch of handsets announcing no less than seven new models at the recent UK press event. Always the chameleon, Sony Ericsson seem to have perfected the art of squeezing the same technology into suitably different shells, so that four of the handsets being cat-walked were in fact two different chassis with two sets of bodywork on each.

The K750i and D750i are effectively the same phone with the ‘K’ being the unbranded original and the ‘D’ the bespoke version created for T-mobile in the UK. To be clear from the outset, besides a slight difference to the shape of the keys and a variation on a theme for the lens cover on the phones reverse, the handsets are identical. The D750i naturally carries T-Mobile’s trademark User-Interface, with a white background to reflect the sunny deposition of the baby-blue body with silver edging, while the K750i carries the darker, broodier, go-nastier-stripes of black and silver.

The 750i is designed as an update to the K700i, launched mid-way through last year to much screaming and shouting from the press, but in our case only when we came to use it. Roll forward almost 12 months and looking at the K750i almost every aspect, of everything, is improved, working, and making us enjoy playing with a mobile handsets again.

The VGA camera on the K700i was superseded later in 2004 with a 1.3Megapixel camera on the S700, now a 2.0Megapixel camera, complete with 4x digital zoom and active auto-focus, on the 750i’s. A phone that actually takes decent pictures! Wonderful. But it’s not just the quality that makes the camera useable; it’s the bodywork as well, the lens is protected by a sliding cover (this is manually moved on the K and moved by a flick-switch on the D). When the cover is moved to reveal the lens the camera function activates and is ready to shoot. There is a shutter release button is mounted on the right hand side of the body, so that when the phone is rotated 90degrees anti-clockwise the release in on the right hand side of the lens….just like a real camera. The cherry on the cake is that the shutter release button has been so designed that light from the keyboard’s LED escapes around its edges so you can find it more easily in the dark. We think that’s a stroke of genius! A double super-bright LED has been included next to the lens so you can throw a little more illumination onto the subject and the photo-capture options are more advanced than on some cameras we’ve reviewed.

Sony Ericsson even offer an additional flash unit (MXE-60) that clips onto the base, via the fast port. Apparently the Xenon light of the flash, in conjunction with the phones LED’s, can eliminate red-eye, but since no phone has ever been powerful enough to generate red-eye, it’s impressive they’re trying even if they fail.

The design of the body is compact, even though the 750i’s form has bulked up a little from that of the K700i, gaining 1mm in length and depth and 6g in weight. But the additional mass is worn with style. The screen has stayed the same size, 176x220pixels, but risen in resolution from 65K to a 262K colour TFT. The battery has also been extended to 400hours stand-by or 9 hours of talk-time, although with the number of media options crammed in there is the very real danger that you will have ‘funned’ the battery flat before you ever get a chance to answer any calls. On the subject of the battery, another ‘well done’ to Sony Ericsson for one of the simplest design of battery compartment, simply pull off the small cover at the base of the body and the battery can be slipped out, revealing the docking point for the SIM, so no straining to remove awkward body covers.

Operating systems and user interfaces have been refined, offering greater clarity and the 5-way ‘navi-key’, in the centre of the body, has evolved into something really useful from its messy prior incarnation. The designers persist with the removal of the red and green phone operation buttons, opting instead to use the top two quick-keys, which now seem to better suit the general décor of the phone.

Connectivity is available in every flavour conceivable, with GPRS, tri-band GSM, e-mail, Web, Bluetooth, Infra-red, and USB sync cable. The memory of the last time I tried to configure a Sony Ericsson handset was still at the forefront of my mind as I tried to get online to download a tune, and initially I was confronted by the same bewildering set of menus and options. It seems though that this has been universally acknowledged by the service providers and even Sony Ericsson themselves are now providing a one-stop set-up service. A simple service update from the Vodafone website transforming the phone from an unconnected-brick to an internet-feather in a single SMS, although e-mail and IM functions do still need to be had configured into life.

For those who need constant entertainment the 750i supports the latest Java-based games, and even though the graphics are stunning, the screen size and the sleek keys does make game-play a little like ballroom dancing in a garden shed. The RDS FM radio is impressive, picking up good strength signals, from 87.5MHz - 108.0Mhz, from well within large buildings. The hands-free headset needs to be attached to activate the radio function, acting as the antenna, but one working the radio can be played through the speaker. The built in MP3 player allows you to annoy your fellow passengers on London public transport with impressively loud 40 voice polyphonic sounds from the same micro-speaker, as the radio uses, mounted below the camera lens. The handset comes with 37Mb of embedded memory but also ships with a 64Mb Sony Memory Stick Duo, which locates itself snugly in the bottom right hand side of the body, and can be upgraded to 2Gb. Getting files onto the handset can either be done by downloading them from the web, with the standard double-whammy of charges for content and data applying. They can also be transferred by Bluetooth, infrared or Sync. The Sync works with both PC and Mac, although in the case of the latter the phone simply appears as a drive on the Mac desktop. The K750i ships with its own Sync software, to allow the handset to tie-in with office applications such as Outlook, although this advanced system is solely for PC’s.

We’ve got a lot less gripes with this update than with the K700i. The shutter release is very slow, but it’s a phone so really, you should consider yourself lucky to have a shutter release in the first place! The handset can be charged by USB, while it’s attached to a computer to transfer data, but the literature seems to omit the amount of time this will take to charge the battery. During the trial I left a K750i attached to my Mac overnight and discovered it was still virtually flat in the morning. Directly connecting to a socket will charge the battery in 4 hours. The Sync software refused to work once installed. The installation appeared to be successful but the PC, running XP Professional, refused to recognize the phone was attached via the dedicated USB cable. Finally, Sony Ericsson have gone and changed the charger point on the base of the handset to their new ‘Fast Port’ system, which is only annoying if you’ve already got a existing Sony Ericsson handset and wanted to have chargers in two places to use with a newer version.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Mobile phones Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson K750i Mobile Phone originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:54:52 +0100

The model 50 is the 14th camera to be launched in Pentax’s Optio digital range and with prices going down, and features going up, it offers a glimpse of the tough competition other manufactures will face in the second half of 2005 and the Christmas run.

Currently the Optio 50 is the second cheapest camera in the 5.0Megapixel band available from online camera retailers pixmania.com, knocked from the top spot, by a measly £3, by Olympus’s Camedia C-180.

For those with a functioning knowledge of the current Optio range the model 50, closely resembles the S50, launched in Autumn 2004, In fact if you pull up a comparison of the camera’s specifications that even though the 50 is almost £30 cheaper, both cameras are virtually identical.

This newer, cheaper, model would seems aimed at the beginner who wants quality combined with functional simplicity, without breaking the bank to get it. The body is predominantly silver plastic, with a strip of metal flashing on the top edge by the main command-dial and the shutter release. The overall dimensions, 61mm height x 27mm wide x 91mm long, are only a few millimetres different to the S50 and the weights are identical at 130g. Power comes from 2 AA batteries, further indicating the camera’s targeting at an audience who want to be able to change batteries wherever they are without the pain of re-chargable lithium-ion’s. It simultaneously reduces production cost as expensive batteries, chargers and cables don’t have to be included - you’re expected to get those yourself, and if you’re upgrading, you’ll already have a set. We’ve also got to be grateful that it uses an even number of cells, so any multipack you buy on the road will divide up nicely.
Another indicator of the camera’s intended audience is the inbuilt 12Mb memory. Pentax, as well as other manufactures, seem to offer this in a lot more of their recent cameras. The Optio 50’s internal flash memory can store about 16, 1.2Mb 3star quality shots. That’s a nifty amount, especially if, like me, you have loads of different SD cards knocking around your desk and can’t find any of them when you need to. Once an SD card can be located, and inserted in the slot next to the batteries, the camera automatically switches from the internal memory to the card. This can be a little confusing when you come to view images back again, as the pictures stored on the internal memory can only be accessed by popping the SD card out.

The lens is of standard Pentax design, complete the with the ‘eye-lid’ style parting lens covers that can get dislodged, if the lens barrel is knocked in a bag, although that happened on a previous model. The lens its self offers a respectable 3x optical zoom with a 4x digital booster, an improvement over the S50 which only offered a x2.6 digital zoom and although the apertures on both models are identical, f2.8 - f4.8, the focal length of the model 50 lens offers a little more zoom and a little less telephoto that the S50.

Camera functions themselves have been kept very simple. The command-dial on the top of the camera offers 8 options, two primary shooting modes with 4 additional pre-sets (landscape, portrait, sports and night time) one set-up menu and a movies option, with the power button located in the centre. The core shooting modes, ‘Simple’ and ‘Program’, are billed as being different, but with no dedicated aperture or shutter speed control available both ‘P’ and ‘S’ are effectively the same. The supposed advantage of the ‘S’ mode is that the camera will alter the settings to suit the environment, although in practice this happens just as well in the ‘P’ as to make the settings interchangeable. The presets are exactly as they describe themselves. And the movies are recorded in .mov format with sound, the resolution sits at a ‘slimline’ 320x240 but at 20fps shooting speed you get a viewable end result. The set-up menus on the command-dial relate to the camera inner-functions, such as date and time and card formatting, while the menu button, on the camera’s reverse, allows calibration of function such as resolution of image, ranging from 0.3Mpixels (640x480) up to the full 5Mpixels (2560x1920).

Gripes, well the low-light AF still needs working on. Much like the Optio WP, reviewed earlier in the year, the Optio 50 lacks a AF assist-light which means that even in quite well lit location the cameras simply cannot pull and lock focus. The AE works well enough but as you’ll see, in one of the test shots, in bright direct light the TTL multi-segment metering censor can get overloaded, resulting in overexposed images. The battery power indicator also needs work. In the course of the review I changed batteries 3 times, this wasn’t to do with poor power consumption, but more to do with the batteries that I inserted not having their current power levels clearly illustrated on the 1.8” preview screen, on two separate occasions the camera ceased to function due to the batteries running out without adequate prior warning.

Tags: Cameras Compact cameras 5 megapixels Pentax Digital cameras

Pentax Optio 50 Digital Camera originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 04 Jul 2005 18:34:20 +0100

Nothing says gadget quite like a wrist-watch that does more than tell the time, and nothing wastes time like watching TV, therefore a watch that is a TV is somewhat of a paradox.

Newly arrived in the UK, Japanese consumer technology company NHJ is treating us to the next generation of mobile media devices. Already a big hit in the Far East and selling well in the USA the wrist mounted mini-TV is a micro sized PAL receiver with a 1.5in, 130,000 pixel, colour LCD screen. The clock function is simple to say the least and when the ‘TV' button, on the left of the body, is pressed once the screen will display the date and time for about 5 seconds. Clock settings and the TV menu settings, used to select the band of PAL reception you favour, are altered using the buttons on the right.

The body of the TV can be removed from the watch frame, meaning that you can move the screen into optimal watching position with out having to take your arm with you, or undo the plastic strap. To activate the TV function simply press the ‘TV' button twice and the screen with turn into the familiar snow-storm of channel-less static. The headphone cable acts (somewhat fatally) as the antenna, and since there is no internal speaker you will need to plug the headphones in to listen, as well as receive a signal.

The tuner function offer a range of channels, ranging from 01 to 69, depend on the type of PAL reception you have set the TV to pickup and generally you get all 5 UK terrestrial channels within the PAL-I setting. You can either move up and down the channel range manually or by holding in the up or down key for about 2 seconds you can start an automatic search for the strongest signal just like most car radios.

To offer flexibility in viewing situation a battery-pack base-station is also supplied, this allows the receiver to be mounted and run off the 4 AA batteries housed within, the batteries can also be removed and the base station plugged into the travel adapter, so the screen can be effectively run off the mains. When on the go the receiver relies on an internal Li-Ion battery that lasts approximately 1 hour.

Gripes, well, the reception's not great, but what do you expect. Naturally being stationary will improve you chances of a decent picture, as numerous experiments on the top deck of London buses proved. Even though the tuner relies on Sony's PLL technology combined with the manual and automatic channel searches, the only way to get a really good signal is to wander around with the antenna stretched out, as if divining for water. In Japan that's fine, in the UK you might get sectioned for acting like this in public, it's bad enough when people are on hands free and seeming to talk to themselves.

The headphones' antenna uses a 3-ring jack pin. Try not to lose it as replacements would be tricky to locate. The variation in thickness between the cable the headphones are attached to and the antenna cable that connects to the receiver means that the whole thing dissolves into a Gordian tangle, the minute it hits you pocket.

The volume control is poor, you can just hear a channel when on the loudest setting and don't make the mistake of changing channel with the volume on max, the white noise of an un-tuned channel will rattle your brain. The locking clip could be stiffer on the catch that holds the screen into the wrist cradle, excessive waving of arms will result in the receiver and the wrist mount parting company, at speed.

A concession should also be made towards ‘weatherproofing', no one is expecting waterproof, but making the unit ‘splash-resistant might save problems is the long run.

Tags: Gadgets Watches Firebox

NHJ VTV-201 Wristwatch Colour TV originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 14 Jun 2005 11:20:02 +0100

Looking rather like Fujitsu have gutted a batch of bubblejet printers, ScanSnap brings new technology to a familiar package, and although the model number is longer than that of a Star Wars robot, this is the third iteration of this device. This latest version is £100 cheaper, and scans at almost twice the resolution of its predecessor (reviewed here)

Aimed at the small office or home, the scanner is incredibly simple to operate, with design following ‘Noah's principle', ports and buttons being provided in pairs. The two ports are located on the back, one for mains power and the other for USB2.0 and two operations buttons are located on the front, one for power and the other to activate the scanning function. To break this monotony of duos there are three dedicated applications supplied with the scanner, ScanSnap ‘Manager' controlling the functions of the scanner, and ScanSnap ‘Organizer V1.0' and ‘Card Minder 2.0', to arrange what's you've scanned.

The scanner's versatile enough to be able to handle paper sizes from Letter through to A3, although pages larger than A4 have to be folded in half and scanned inside a special carrier sheet, both sides being scanned simultaneously, using Duplex technology, and the resulting images being stuck together to give a single file. The carrier sheet can also used when small clippings are being scanned to keep little bits of paper from jamming up internal mechanisms. The scans, once created, can be moved and managed via the supplied ScanSnap ‘Organizer' software. Organizer allows the easy creation of file ‘Cabinets', ‘Organizer's' version of ‘albums', as well as offering a useful preview and e-mail facilities.

The scanner is calibrated via the ScanSnap ‘Manager' application, although certain type of pages require more tweaking than others to obtain decent results. Options can be altered to change the quantity of the scanning, which ranges from 150DPI to 660DPI for colour and 300DPI to 1200DPI in monochrome, as well as the level of file compression applied to the resulting PDFs. If the scan quality is low, and compression high, then the scanner can get through 15 sheets of A4 a minute, on the highest quality this drops to 0.5 pages per minute. The manager application also allows a number of programs to be selected as the default destination for the scans. The scanned images are stored as PDF files and both Adobe Acrobat versions 6 & 7 are supplied in the box, so you can load the version best suited to your PC operating system. While PDF files are a standard format, out of the 3 files I transferred from home to the office to include in this review only one could be opened at work and manipulated in Adobe Photoshop, so compatibility between systems may be an issue, especially as you need to reduce the PDF size for use online.

What's particularly impressive is the way in which the ScanSnap deals with business cards. Via the CardMinder software, simply press the scan button and a business card is scanned on both sides, in colour, and text recognition software places the clients name, company name, telephone number and e-mail address in the correct fields on a contact form. All the scanned entries are then arranged in alphabetical order, creating a contacts book. The text recognition is not perfect but out of the dozen cards tried, 9 were processed perfectly. If corrections need to be made, simply go into the contact entry and update any errors.

I struggled to find any gripes about this hardware. Lack of flexibility and customisation of the Manager application is the only one. Even on the highest setting of 1200DPI, a black & white print advert failed to come out with any depth of tone. This A4 image was originally printed in a magazine and when scanned and stored as a 16Mb file a better overall quality should have been attainable. Flatbed scanners running standard TWAIN acquire software allow the scan qualities DPI to be set in smaller increments, where as the ScanSnap simply uses ‘normal', ‘better', ‘best' and ‘excellent', offering no fine tuning. There is also no option to store the files in any format except PDF, which means that if you are trying to get images online you'll have to convert everything you've scanned in an application like Photoshop, which is time consuming.

Tags: Cameras Printers Scanners Fujitsu Lexmark

Fujitsu fi-5110EOX2 ScanSnap Scanner originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 08 Jun 2005 00:00:58 +0100

Picking up the baton of O2's ‘X’ range of products, the X4 is the first to offer 3G but will it offer enough features and is the usability any good? We test the dog and bone to find out.

Of the four 3G handsets currently supplied by O2, three are clam-shell designs, with the somewhat bulkier Nokia 6630 being the only exception. O2 are also launching the Nokia 6680 and even though this is a 3G handset on the Vodafone network it’s unclear as to whether this will be similarly enabled on the O2 network.

The X4 is a little on the ‘porky’ side to be considered ‘pocket-sized’, mainly due to the ribbed, integrated battery and rear panel, which pokes out, proud, from the body. Streamlining aside, the battery does offer between 110-300 minutes talktime and between 100-300 minutes standby time in GSM mode. Being a 3G handset, there are also times for using WCDMA, wide-band CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access and an expansion of the UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System - how 3G phones transfer data) - which is used to speed-up data transmission over 3G networks, although, according to these stats, the 3G will shave up to 60 minutes off the overall talk time off a full charge.

Like most media-orientated handsets there is a removable media element, mini SD in this case, but instead of the card being inserted into a location under the battery, a rubber flap is pulled off the bottom and the card inserted into the handset’s base, next to the charger and USB ports, making it possible to change cards without having to dismantle the phone.

The flip section of the phone exhibits the now-common duel screens, with a 96 x 96 pixel screen on the outside and a larger 176 by 220pixel, 262k colour screen on the inside. Unlike a lot of clamshells the flip section is better weighted, allowing a flick of the wrist to close it, making you feel all Captain James T Kirk about finishing off that conversation with your Grandmother. The outside edge also boasts a 1.3 megapixel camera, complete with a micro-flash, next to the lens. The camera takes adequate pictures and coupled with a digital zoom, white balance calibration, format options, including negative images and recording videos, there are plenty of opportunities to fill the supplied 64Mb removable mini-SD card and the 10Mb internal memory.

The overall user interface suffers from a grand excess of corporate identity with the O2 water bubble rising up the screen, accompanied by the slightly ‘whale-song’ theme tune, as the handset boots-up. Once done though, and once you have removed the default screen saver, the O2 colour scheme works quite well with silver and black of the body and no one should really grumble.

The menus themselves, accessed through either the top left hand menu button or a well laid out set of hot-keys on the 5-way paddle, clearly illustrate what you’re getting and even though the main menu screen looks a little dated, with overly cute icons, operations are simple to master.

The 3G aspect of the phone, designed to entice cash from your pocket at speeds never encountered before, offers all the usual tricks. Media menus are configured to offer cartoons, movie trailers, ringtones, wallpapers and game downloads, all with worrying ease.

The true speed of 3G is still a little stifled, more by geographic availability, than by content. The networks providers still need to catch up with the new breed of re-purposed content, although this is by no means a complaint solely affecting O2. The X4's capacity to play MP3 files means that your mobile can now double as your music player and although you’ll need to expand the memory to get any real quantity onto the phone, the polyphonic speaker, mounted on the rear, outputs a surprising amount of volume.

This means that not only does every head turn on the bus when you phone blares out Crazy Frog’s latest offering, but if you really want to be anti-social you can play chart tunes loud enough to annoy everyone around you.

Music can be downloaded, if you absolutely need it right then, and are prepared to pay, or can be transferred via the supplied USB sync cable. Strangely, when connected to a Mac, the phone appears but the directories are ‘read-only’ so nothing can be moved. On a PC the story’s different, the handset appears as a USB mass storage device and MP3 and video files can be copied to the memory with impunity. Along with the handset a CD of bespoke sync software is also supplied and although this is exclusively for use with PCs it does work perfectly well at transferring contacts, appointments, messages and media files between the handset and application when synchronised together.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones 3G O2

O2 X4 3G originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 26 May 2005 12:26:48 +0100

With the Coolpix S1, Nikon finally adds the missing link from its compact digital camera range, a truly compact digital camera. Once again Nikon has proved being last to market, can be an advantageous, learning from competitors' expensive mistakes. The slim-line body places the S1 in direct competition with ultra-compact 5 Megapixel modes such as the Canon Ixus i5, the Pentax Optio WP, the Casio ExSlim EX-257 and the Olympus Mju-mini, all of whom boast similar dimension and weights. The S1 has opted for a non-protruding zoom lens like models from Pentax, letting the optics work internally to operate the 3x optical Nikkor ED lens, although an improved feature is the ‘flick-over' lens cover that protects the front element when the camera is not in use, a feature the Pentax sadly lacks.

Like the Canon, Pentax and Olympus, the S1 is available in multiple body colours, with a white, silver and black option available. Again Nikon seem to have learned that the consumer market probably doesn't need the veritable kaleidoscope of shades that the Olympus Mju is available in, to sell the product to the majority of people.

The S1's body design is simple and effective. The exterior dimensions are 89.9mm wide by 57.5 high by 19.7mm deep, making it the thinnest after the Ixus, and weighting only 118 g. The front panel has a relatively small aperture for the 5.8mm to 17.4mm lens (35-105mm, 35 mm camera equivalent) optical zooms lens, with a 4 x digital booster, and next to it are the compact flash and the AF assist LED. The rear panel houses a 2.5in TFT LCD viewing screen with the 5-way control pad to it's right. The zoom rocker is situated above this pad and the shooting option sliding switch is located below.

When the shot selector-switch is in the left hand position the standard still-image mode is activated, equating on most cameras to the ‘program' (P) setting. In this mode the camera will activate standard auto-exposure and auto focus, although refinements can be selected in the shooting set-up menus. Move the slider into the central position and you access the pre-set shooting modes, a number of calibrated functions designed to give you the best settings, depending on your situation. There are 16 standard modes, some of which have a number of sub-settings, aimed then to help you further refine your shooting situation.

The portrait and landscape settings, for example, both offer a number of different ‘framing assist' options, which place gridlines, or outlines of characters, onto the viewing screen to help you compose better shots. Ideal for the amateur who wants to avoid cropping heads. One of Nikon's highlighted enhancements is their new ‘face-portrait AF', which tries to locate a face in the image being composed, identifying it via a red box, and make sure that section of the image is given focus priority.

The right hand setting on the slider is the movie option. This offers the fairly standard Quicktime recording option with images and sound being recorded at up to 15fps (640x480pixels). One new feature is the capacity to record time-lapse films. These can be set at one of 6 times intervals ranging from 30seconds to 60minutes and, once going, will continue to shoot still images until the card is full, the battery runs out or the operation is cancelled. Once completed the images are all sandwiched together to make a completed movie, which means you can make you own poor man's version of Peter Gabriel's ‘Sledgehammer' video, without really trying.

The S1 works with both Mac and PC and the supplied image suite software, PictureProject 1.5 will load on either platform so long as a relatively new OS is being used. When the camera is connected, via USB COOL STATION, and accessed directly through the computers, it appears as a standard USB external device.

Stored JPEG images, Quicktime movies and associated WAV sound files are held on SD removable media cards, although the S1 does come with an internal memory of 12Mb, meaning, on the lowest resolution, you can squeeze on 17 more 640x480pixel images. Getting the images off again is a little more complicated.

In an attempt to save space, and presumably reduce the number of ports in the S1 underside, Nikon have combined the charger socket with the USB, which is smart.

Supplied with the camera is a COOL STATION, Nikon's answer to Kodak's easy-share docking station, which the camera sits in, to charge and transfer images, and although the charger can be plugged directly into the base of the camera, the USB can't, as the socket is non-standard. This means either you have to take the COOL STATION with you or you have to wait until your back at your computer to download the images, which could be frustrating.

Other points of interest are the ‘D-lighting' effect which is included as part of the image playback suite of tools. This cunning digital enhancement rebalances the dark and light areas of any image (see sample images), better exposing the subject matter, with impressive results on both people and landscape pictures. Nikon have also increased the S1's reach but offering a completely waterproof housing (WP-CP5) allows the camera's range to be extend from the socialite's handbag to the ocean's depths, offering protection to a depth of 40m.

Tags: Cameras Compact cameras 5 megapixels Nikon Digital cameras

Nikon Coolpix S1 Digital Camera originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 09 May 2005 11:33:50 +0100

Time is important. Look around your house and you'll have lots of timepieces, whether it's the one on your wall, on your video recorder, wrist, phone, PDA… It's a pretty safe bet they are all telling different times, even if only within minutes.

In steps Oregon Scientific with its Easy Themo Projecting Clock. The key here is that the clock will receive via radio signals the correct time and update and tweak accordingly. There are two separate models on sale, the sole difference being the model number, the RM622P is set up to receive the DCF77 radio signal from the control clock on Frankfurt and model RM622PU is configured to receive the MSF60 signal from Rugby, England.
The advantage of these signals is that the clock, once turned on, will automatically keep time and date accurately updated throughout the year, with no tweaking from the user. If you live outside the range of these ‘super-clocks', or you wish to move the clock around as you travel, then you are offered the option to set the time yourself.

Included on the main panel display is also a thermometer that displays the current air temperature, in degrees Celsius, as well as storing maximum and minimum ranges that the clock has been exposed to since it was last reset.

The real sell though, is that the rotating side arm that swivels through 180degrees and projects the time onto a wall or ceiling, visible in a darkened room. If the clock is using its pair of AA batteries then the projector function is activated by depressing the snooze / backlight button on the top of the alarm clock. If, however, the clock is near a power point, it can be connected and the projector element can be set to be permanently on.

Cleverly, the arm also houses not only a focus wheel, but also another wheel to rotate the image so that it can be made to project the right way up no matter which way the clock is facing. The red-light projector throws a powerful and clear image a reasonable distance and with the adapter attached this is an ideal way to get a large display visible digital clock in any darkened room.

Tags: Gadgets Watches Oregon Scientific

Oregon Scientific Easy Thermo Projecting Clock originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 04 May 2005 00:00:40 +0100

For runners, stats are everything, how fast am I going? How far have I run? How long is there left? Are questions we all ask ourselves as we pound that pavement or country path. While Garmin offer the Forerunner, a beast of a unit, Navman has opted for a downsized, consumer-friendly unit. But is it up to the task. Deciding that the only real way to test this was by doing a marathon, we did just that. We’re dedicated like that here at Pocket-Lint.

The blue-shelled R300 is the running model of the Sport.Tool’s range, released by Navman and displays options and data applications geared towards the needs of the distance runners.

Navman has opted to choose an arm-mounted device rather than a wrist-based watch for the R300 and we found that best results are achieved by having it directly against the skin, to prevent movement, although it will stay in place over a jacket - it’s just a case of pulling the strap tighter. The triangular body is robustly built and light enough not to cause any discomfort over extended durations of use. Power comes from a single AA battery and the manufacturers estimate up to 16 hours’ use before it needs changing. The battery door is secured with screw-thread bolt, with a D-ring head, to maintain the waterproof seal that closes the compartment off from both the elements and perspiration from the runner’s skin.

The R300 relies on a GPS signal to locate the device and then track the runner’s distance, pace and speed overland. A GPS signal must be received for the device to work and close attention must be paid to running through urban areas where buildings or underpasses can obscure the signal for durations of time, leading to inaccurate timings. The R300’s on-board date and time are automatically updated via the same GPS signal, although there is an offset option to add in time difference, to get the correct local time. Personal information can also be entered into the device, so calories burned can be calculated while you run.

The relatively small LCD screen, which faces the runner when they gaze down lacks a backlight feature so can be quite hard to read when on the move. We personally would have opted for a bright LED-styled device that is clear no matter what the weather or light conditions are.

The displays show session and lap time (holding data on up to 50 laps, per session), total distance run and current altitude, your pace and maximum and minimum ‘zone’ alarms, which can be set to sounds if you are either running too fast or too slowly.

All operations are controlled by one of two mounded buttons on the R300’s top surface. These buttons are either pressed independently or simultaneously to change modes, displays, or to configure set-up menus. With the variety of options, this initially leads to the going round in circles a few times, not greatly aided by the instruction manual that could be made clearer, but overall operations are fairly easy to grasp.

Tags: Sports Fitness Running Sports Fitness equipment Navman GPS

Navman R300 sport.tool originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 27 Apr 2005 06:59:43 +0100