Reviews – Page 13 – Digital-Lifestyles

iPod – The Missing Manual: Review (80%)

Another in O’Reilly’s missing manual series, this covers the iPod and its companion program iTunes.

iPod - The Missing Manual: Review Although most of the information can be had elsewhere, it’s useful to have a single source where everything’s in one place. Forgotten how to reset your iPod? It’s in the Missing Manual.

Some sections are genuinely useful, especially the Power of Playlists. It describes how to set them up and even gives links to software and on-line services which may make your life easier, including things like shared playlists and what other people are listening to.

The book is US centric and the iTunes sections assume you live in the US and can purchase TV shows and such like (which us Brits can’t do yet), but it’s still a useful reference.

The sections on photos and video are reasonably complete and help users manage their photo collection on and off an iPod and convert video for iPod use. There’s also a good section on the other features available on the iPod so you can manage address books, calendars etc.

At around £14/$20 it’s not the cheapest book out there, but it should be the only iPod book you’ll ever need.

Verdict
Value – 72%
Information – 88%
Overall – 80%

Buy at US Amazon $12.59
Buy at UK Amazon £9.23

The chapters are: –
Meet the iPod
Bopping Around the iPod
In Tune with iTunes
The Power of Playlists
Shop the iTunes Store
Videos Everywhere
Picturing Your Photos on the iPod
Other Stuff the iPod Can Do for You
iPod Out Loud
What to Do When the iPod Isn’t Working Right
Advanced iPodding

One For All Kameleon 8 Universal Remote Control Review (50%)

One For All Kameleon 8 Universal Remote Control Review After growing tired of endless beer-fuelled, late night rummages around the house for a mountain of easily-lost remote controls, we thought we’d check out an all-in-one controller.

Wooed by its sci-fi looks, we decided to give the ONE FOR ALL Kameleon URC8308 Remote Control a run, a 50 quid number with the ability to boss up to eight devices as well as optionally control lighting systems too.

Opening up the package, the first impressions are good: the Tron-like electro-luminescent buttons are bright and the shiny, curved chrome finish was already starting to make our room look scruffy and outdated.

One For All Kameleon 8 Universal Remote Control Review

Smell the silver

Taking the thing to hand, a few doubts began to surface. The remote has a strange curved back with the bulge offset to one side, making it a little hard to grip, and the chrome finish makes it something of a slippery number to keep a grip on.

There’s no denying that the space age screen sure lights up mighty purdy, but it’s made of some weird vinyl-like material that feels horrible to the touch.

After a few Saturday night TV sessions we could imagine the vinyl being covered in bits of pizza and sticky beer residue that would be tough to clean off around the edges where the material ‘folds’ into the casing. Not very Star Trek.

One For All Kameleon 8 Universal Remote Control Review
As well as the ‘virtual’ buttons, the Kameleon comes with a central horizontal strip containing hardware buttons for volume up/down, TV channel up/down and a four way selector with a central ‘OK’ button, plus four slim coloured buttons at the bottom of the control for teletext functions.

The trouble is that these buttons take the form of small raised bits of shaped plastic which weren’t particularly pleasant to the touch and were hard to locate in the dark.

Head-scratching

Looking through the multi-language instruction manual (one of opur pet hates), we found ourselves being dispatched promptly into head scratching mode, thanks to unhelpful descriptions and confusing menus.

Programming in our individual components was a hit and miss affair, requiring us to trawl through pages and pages of manufacturer’s remote codes and keep on inputting numbers until we found some that worked.

One For All Kameleon 8 Universal Remote Control Review The Kameleon only managed to find one set of codes that immediately worked on our devices; there was nothing for our 3 year old AV Yamaha amp and it neither had codes for our new Humax PVR nor wanted to learn any either (the learning process involved us continually bashing a single button, but the remote kept quitting before it found anything for the PVR).

In desperation, we went to their website to see if we locate new set up codes for our devices – and what an unpleasant experience that turned out to be, with their support site being quite possibly one of the worst we’ve ever seen for a mainstream consumer goods manufacturer.

Not only does it look really awful (they’ve cocked up the style sheets), but it doesn’t even list their own Kameleon URC8308 remote control in the dropdown menu entitled, ‘Find your set up code’ and after wasting ten minutes aimlessly clicking around their site we were still none the wiser.

One For All Kameleon 8 Universal Remote Control Review By this time we were beginning to harbour thoughts about how far we could throw the streamlined remote, but thought we’d drop One For All a line for help instead.

Sadly, more frustration was in store as we discovered that the ‘contact us’ link only took us straight back to the tech section with no means of actually contacting anyone.

Conclusion

Much as we loved the hover-boot looks and Tron-like lightshow, and much as we admire a company prepared to push the boat out in design terms, the reality of the Kameleon concept singularly failed to excite us.

As a multi remote controller it was unable to actually operate our devices and the lack of information on their support website was hugely disappointing.

One For All Kameleon 8 Universal Remote Control Review Moreover, we were reminded of the shortcomings of ‘virtual’ buttons versus real hardware buttons – groovy glowing buttons emerging from the darkness of a black remote may look the stuff of Spock, but ‘real’ buttons remain easier to use and more responsive to the touch (something that those dreaming of an iPhone might want to consider).

Perhaps others will have better luck than us, but this is one remote we wish had stayed lost at the back of the sofa.

Our verdict
Features: 70%
Ease of Use: 40%
Build Quality: 60%
Overall: 50%
Super-slick Kameleon promo site

WordWeb 5 Freeware Dictionary and Thesaurus: Review (91%)

WordWeb 5 Freeware Dictionary and Thesaurus: Review (91%) We rather liked the nifty WordWeb 4 Pro dictionary and thesaurus when we looked at it in September last year and it’s remained a firm favourite in the office ever since.

A fast and smart English-language thesaurus and dictionary for Windows, WordWeb can be used to look up words from almost any program, dishing up definitions, synonyms and related words like a resident egghead lurking in your system tray.

With an upgrade to version 5 announced last week, we thought we’d take a shufti to see how it shaped up.

What’s new?
After downloading the free 7.5meg version of WordWeb 5, the first thing we noticed was that the Ye Olde Windows 95-style system tray icon had been replaced by a natty new icon which looks a lot smarter.

WordWeb 5 Freeware Dictionary and Thesaurus: Review (91%) Full Windows Vista support has been bolted on, with the authors claiming that the program now comes with “many thousands of new senses, synonyms and clarifications.”

What we immediately noticed – and liked – was the improvement in usability; now you just have to hold down your keyboard’s control key and right-click over a word to bring up a definition in WordWeb. There’s no need to even select the word first, making it very fast and very neat.

A large choice of synonyms and antonyms are offered for selected words, and you can easily replace a selected word with a synonym by hitting the ‘replace’ button.

Note that this features works in most word processing applications, web browsers and email clients, otherwise you’ll have to hit ‘copy’ and paste the word in yourself.

Online definitions
The main WordWeb database sits on your hard drive (so you don’t have to go online to look up words) but a new feature lets you speedily check web references on the Wikipedia, Wiktionary and WordWeb Online websites in the same program window.

There’s also a new Bookmark menu for bookmarking words (if that’s your thing), and a ‘Basic English’ option simplifies the results screen by presenting the most common definitions in bold.

WordWeb 5 Freeware Dictionary and Thesaurus: Review (91%)
Hyper-bowls are us
If you’re unsure how to pronounce a displayed word, clicking on the loudspeaker icon will play back an audio pronunciation guide.

Although it can sound a bit ‘Sparky the Magic Piano’ (it uses Windows’ less than stellar Speech Engine) it should be enough to avoid committing a crushing social faux like pronouncing ‘hyperbole’ as ‘hyper-bowl’ at a posh dinner party.

Like we did once. And it still smarts.

Conclusion
If you’re looking for a free, fully featured thesaurus and dictionary, you’ll be unlikely to find anything better than WordWeb 5 – it certainly knocks spots off what’s built into Word, for example.

The ability to instantly call up a definition by right clicking on any word onscreen considerably improves usability, and the new web tools are a nice touch.

We should point out that there is also an enhanced commercial version available, offering custom web references, 6,000 more definitions, custom glossaries, wildcard word search and other features, but can’t say much about it because the author steadfastly refused to send us a copy, despite several requests.

We can, however, tell you that it costs £14 and is quite probably excellent value.

WordWeb 5 Free

Score on the doors
Features: 85%
Interface: 80%
Ease of use: 86%

Overall: 91%

WordWeb

GRAW 2 First Look Review: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare 2: Wow (Pt 2/2)

Following on from yesterday’s introduction to the multi-player version of GRAW 2, today, we’ll dig a bit further into the detail.

Spawn Camping tackled
Players of multi-player will be very glad to hear that it has an updated version of spawning. In previous games, after death, players were brought back at set spawning points, which lead some naughty-types to sit at these points, just shooting people before they had a chance to escape. These rotters will be frustrated to hear that they’ll no longer be able to do this.

Spawning is now to a region rather than a set point. The spawn algorithm looks at the number of people who have previously been killed there, numbers of enemy soldiers present, etc. On spawning, the player is invulnerable, but able to fire. As soon as they fire a shot, they lose their invulnerability.

Customisation and clans
Building and managing a clan – of up to 100 people – is now built in thanks to Ubisoft’s tool that has been incorporated.

There’s lots of customisation of your player possible with a tremendous selection of clothing and headgear. Ubisoft tells us that lots of clans that have been on the beta have created a ‘uniform’ that all members must wear. Some may be sad to hear that there’s no face-mapping, but it had to go because of the customisation.

One new feature that should provide an extra dimension to multi-player games is the addition of the medic function, giving you the ability to get players back to full health when they’ve been hit with a round that has incapacitated them.

Maps
The developers have spent a lot of time on the multi-player maps, improving not only the quality, but also the details. In their words, they’ve “tried to create spaces that aren’t just normal.”

Examples of this are jungles that aren’t just jungles, but ones that have had a C130 aircraft recently crashed within it, still smoking and a village that has just been ravaged by a Tsunami.

The largest map is now a significant 500 x 500m.

Shhhh, listen to the audio
If you want to get that edge on your opponents, you’re going to have to listen hard, as sound has been brought further in to successful playing of the game. By turning your HiFi and ears up, you’ll be able to track other players simply by listening to their where their foot steps or gun shots are coming from.

To build your adrenaline, the music in the multi-player game changes as things get more difficult.

__Conclusion
The hour or so I had with it, doesn’t give you the opportunity to really get your teeth into a game like this. The real delight of it will be exposed after many hours of button and trigger jiggling, playing via xBox Live.

What I can tell you, is it looks very special with the realistic lighting heightening an already impressive experience.

They’re going to have to do something pretty disastrous between now and the launch to muck this up. To me, this has all of the makings of a hit game.

Buy it on Amazon UK or Amazon US

Have a listen to our exclusive audio interview with Christian Allen, Creative Director of Red Storm.

GRAW 2. Demo of the single player available.

Samsung ML-2510 Laser Review (87%)

Samsung ML-2510 Laser Review (87%) After one battle too many with our ever-flaky Epson printer (see: My Printer Hell), we elected to get ourselves a cheap laser printer for knocking out black and white documents (and those annoying PDF manuals that now keep coming with new products).

The printer was a cinch to set up, and for a laser it’s a compact jobbie too, measuring a reasonably modest 14″ x12″ x10″ (378 x 299 x 227 ) – perfect as a desktop printer for the home/small office.

The Samsung ML 2510 hooks up to the PC via USB, although Samsung have also included a parallel port for users still trundling on with steam-powered desktops (but there’s no Ethernet port for networking, unfortunately.)

We were certainly impressed with both the Samsung’s print quality and speed. Text came out every bit as crisp as you’d expect from a laser and our test prints managed to just surpass Samsung’s claimed 24 pages per minute, peaking at an impressive 26ppm.

Capable of 1200 x 600 dpi output, the ML-2510 handled text cleanly and crisply, although – as with most lasers – photos weren’t too hot.

Samsung ML-2510 Laser Review (87%) The printer tray at the bottom stores a useful 250 sheets, so you can let it get on with big jobs unattended, with the printer fairly quiet in operation.

With just a combined toner and drum to replace, maintenance is something of a no-brainer task, taking less than a minute.

Replacement toner cartridges can be picked up for fifty quid or so and should be good for around 3,000 pages; working out at around 1.6p per page (not including the paper).

It’s worth noting that although the ML-2510 comes with a free cartridge, it’s a bit of a cut-down number and can only handle 1,000 pages.

Still, that’s really nitpicking when you consider that you can pick up this fast, cheap-to-run and excellent printer for around £70. As cheap as cut-price chips!

Our verdict
Features: 82%
Ease of Use: 87%
Build Quality: 88%
Overall: 87%

Samsung ML-2510 Laser Review (87%) SPECIFICATIONS:
Monochrome laser printer
Format A4, 76 x 127 mm, Legal (216 x 356 mm)
Paper Classic paper, Transparencies, Labels, Cards, Envelopes
Resolution 1200 x 600 dpi
Speed Up to 24 pages per minute
Computer Interface Compatible USB 2.0
Optional Exthernal Ethernet box
Compatible Platforms Windows 95/98/Me/NT4.0/2000/XP/2003 Server,
Divers Linux including Red Hat 8~9, Fedora Core 1~3, Mandrake 9.2~10.1 et SuSE 8.2~9.2,
Mac OS 10.3
Cartridges Monobloc toner catridge
Dimensions (mm) 378 x 299 x 227
Weight (Kg) 5
Other 1st page printing time: 8.5 s
Sound level: printing 50 dB /35 dB on standby
Max monthly prints: up to 10 000 pages/month
Integrated memory: 8 Mb

GRAW 2 First Look Review: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare 2: Wow

GRAW 2 or Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare 2, to give it its full name, will run on XBox 360 and PC when it’s released in March (the PS3 should be arriving late-spring) but I was able to get to play it at a small, exclusive First Look event.

I’ll fess-up straight away. I’m a huge fan of the original Ghost Recon that first came out on the original Xbox. The game looked great, the missions were compelling and the co-operative multi-player via xBox Live! was like no other game I’d played. So much so, that you actually cared about the random strangers that you were playing with.

The single and multi player versions of the X360 were available for our willing hands. Both were highly impressive, but most of my comments will apply to the multi-player version.

The work on GRAW2 started during the closing stages of the development when the original GRAW was completed. GRAW being their first game on the then-next-gen consoles. Although united within the game, the two versions were developed separately – the Multi-player by Red Storm and the Single by Ubisoft’s Paris office.

The over-riding brief was to improve the customisation, ramp up the detail even further and to expand the weaponry to include the leading edge of killing things that the US military and special forces use.

The selection of arms is massive, stretching to include a new unmanned ground-drone called ‘M.U.L.E.’, giving the player mobile cover and ground reconnaissance, while also serving as a mobile weapon station.

The Look
Frankly the game looks stunning. A real visual feast with amazing detail.

The screen shots give you an idea, but won’t tell you the full story, as the real-time effects are what really bring the impressive dimension to this game.

The light and shade are dynamically generated, so anything passing between you and the sun, will cast its own accurate shadow. During missions, realism is heightened by the changes of lighting conditions as they would in the real world, with smooth transitions between the four lighting scenarios.

That sort of detail is also extended to the incidentals. Smoke is effected by changes in wind direction, so you can imagine the kind of complexity that is created when helicopters get involved and blow the smoke around. It’s details like this that can’t fail to impress.

While effects like this will be heighten realism, you’re also able to do things that aren’t possible in the real world. When you’re in the single player game you guide your team buddies around to different locations, but … and here’s the really cool bit … you’re able to disconnect your retainers and see though your team mates eyes using CrossComm 2.0. This isn’t a poxy mini view, but a full screen view, really letting you see the details.

When you select this feature, the transition is a neat pixilation of the screen, that sharpens when you join your buddies eyes.

This visual switch is also available with the M.U.L.E., the ground drone.

It’s full of superb detail, even in the transition between missions. Almost to prove the power of the X360, the transition isn’t just a dull static loading screen, but interactive scenes. The example we saw was a helicopter trip over a wrecked city that could be scanned around, while the next section is loading.

Buy it on Amazon UK or Amazon US

The second part of the GRAW 2 review, will be going into the details that really make this game special. Also listen to our exclusive audio interview with Christian Allen, Creative Director of Red Storm.

Pure Move Palm-sized DAB/FM Digital Radio Review (86%)

Pure Move Palm-sized DAB/FM Digital Radio Review (86%) Designers of DAB radios seem a strange lot.

Although the technology may be 21st century, DAB radios have often ended up looking like they’ve been teleported in from a previous age.

Perhaps charged with a mission to lure pipe-smoking Terry Wogan addicts into the wonderful digital age, there’s been a long string of DAB products cased in reassuringly old fashioned Ye Olde Wooden Panels or leatherette surrounds.

There’s been DAB radios harking back to an even earlier vintage too, with manufacturers like Roberts creating designs that wouldn’t look out of a place in a 1940s living room.

Whenever designers have taken it upon themselves to create something that looks vaguely modern, they tend to go to the other extreme, creating curious scary sci-fi creations that would send granny’s zimmerframe into overdrive.

DAB radios have also tended to come in just two sizes: big and bulky for carting around the house/garden or teensy weensy for the pockets of joggers and subway riders, with precious little inbetween.

Pure Move Palm-sized DAB/FM Digital Radio Review (86%) Sensing a gap in the market, leading UK DAB manufacturer Pure have come up with the Pure Move.

Offering clean simple lines with more than a nod towards the great transistor age of the 60s, the Move is an attractive compact portable, measuring in at 150 mm x 85 mm x 27 mm.

Look and feel

Substantially built, the 280g Move looks like it could handle a few knocks, with a metal finish on the front and rubberised material on the side and back giving a good grip.

A small kick stand folds out of the back offering a good viewing angle of the display, with an extending aerial helping reinforce its traditional tranny radio look.

We weren’t quite so impressed with the power on button, though. This sits on the side of the radio and has to be held in for several seconds before the radio will turn on or off. A simple switch would have been far preferable.

On powering up for the first time, the display glows orange and the radio scans for all available stations, a process that took around a minute.

Using the front mounted controls, it was easy to navigate to a station of our choice (BBC6 Radio please!) and we were impressed by both the sound quality and volume of the unit.

Pure Move Palm-sized DAB/FM Digital Radio Review (86%) Obviously, bass heads aren’t going to get their denture rattling fix from something as diminutive as this fella, but the sound quality was punchy and pleasing enough for everyday use.

Controlling the Move

Using the Move was pretty simple too, with the central circular controller letting you swiftly adjust the volume up/down and flip through radio stations.

Either side of the controller are Info/Preset and Menu/Dab/FM switches and – as with most Pure products – the interface was simple and intuitive.

Up to 10 DAB and 10 FM presets can be stored and the preset order arranged to your liking.

The Info button cycles the information displayed on the 2-line LCD screen, giving current date / time, station genre, multiplex, frequency, bit rate, signal strength and, most usefully, a single scrolling line of song info/news snippets.

The menu key gives access to EQ settings, display controls and firmware upgrades, with a hold key ensuring that no clumsy oaf changes the station by mistake.

Connections

Apart from the mains in socket, the Move comes equipped with a mini USB jack, aux in and a headphone jack.

Powered by their ChargePak technology, Pure’s internal rechargeable cell (Li-ion 4200 mAh) nearly managed to match the claimed highly impressive 40 hours of listening time, although we reckon most people will just keep it plugged in anway.

Reception on both DAB and FM was great with the aerial extended or packed away – not surprising seeing as we can see the Crystal Palace transmitter from our window – but we weren’t able to test coverage in less well served areas.

Pure Move Palm-sized DAB/FM Digital Radio Review (86%) Conclusion

With its extended battery life, simple controls and traditional looks, Pure have come up with a very attractive offering which deserves to do well.

The asking price of £90 is a tad steep, but consumers looking for a versatile DAB radio that is truly portable may find it an excellent investment. We liked it.

The verdict
Features: 87%
Ease of Use: 85%
Build Quality: 85%
Overall: 86%

Specifications:

Palm-sized DAB and FM radio with full DAB Band III reception.
Frequency range: DAB Band III 174-240 MHz, FM 87.5-108 MHz.
Input connectors: 5V DC power adaptor socket (230V supplied), 3.5 mm Aux-in, and Mini USB connector for software upgrades.
Output connectors: 3.5 mm stereo headphone output.
Controls: Power, Lock, Info, Preset, Navigator, DAB/FM and Menu.
Presets: 10 DAB and 10 FM. LCD display: Orange backlit LCD display with 16 x 2 characters, function icons (volume, battery life, time, EQ, signal strength, DAB/FM and stereo) and clock. Key-press activated backlight can also be set to ‘always on’ for optimum visibility or ‘always off’ for longer battery life.
Mains Power supply: 230V AC to 5V (0.6A) DC external power adapter.
Battery Power supply: ChargePAK-inside Li-ion 4200 mAh rechargeable battery provides over 40 hours of portable DAB listening.
Dimensions: 150 mm wide x 85 mm tall x 27 mm deep. Weight: 280g
Aerial: Recessed telescopic aerial supplied. Headphones act as an aerial when connected. (Headphones not supplied.)
Pure

Pocket Tunes v4.01 For Palm: Review (90%)

Pocket Tunes v4.01 For Palm: Review (90%) Pocket Tunes has long been the most popular audio player on the Palm OS, and the recent update to version 4 has produced a raft of cool new features including an Internet Radio Catalogue, a swanky new interface and album cover art support.

Loading up the application, the sleek dark blue graphics immediately impressed, offering a smooth, shiny, Vista-like interface.

Album art could now be seen on the main screen and clicking on the small image (or pressing ‘w’ on the keyboard) brought up a full screen version, albeit a tad pixelated.

Running along the top of the screen are current time and battery info, plus with access to the drop down prefs and options menus (more about them later).

Underneath is the song information area, displaying the track’s artwork, title, artist and album name.

A large, animated, two-tone horizontal bar keeps the user informed of the played/total time of the current track, with the option to tap or drag forwards or backwards through a song.

A window below displays five songs from the current playlist (six if you reduce the default font from small to positively teensy weensy), while bashing ‘L’ on the keyboard gives speedy access to the playlist manager.

Sitting below the track listing are tappable controls for shuffle & repeat and a draggable volume display bar with percentage readout.

Finally, a large row of five buttons at the bottom of the interface lets you rewind, play/pause and fast forward through your selections, either by clicking onscreen or by using the Palm’s hardware buttons.

Pocket Tunes v4.01 For Palm: Review (90%) Streaming Internet Radio
The final button is perhaps the most interesting, launching the Internet Radio manager, which offers a pre-installed catalogue of Shoutcast stations (previous versions required users to input station URLs in manually).

There’s a fairly comprehensive list available, although it has something of an American bias and, sadly, nothing from the good ol’BBC (the Beeb doesn’t provide the necessary aacPlus or MP3 streams).

Tuning into a station is a bit of revelation; even though we were connecting via a bog standard GPRS connection, the sound quality was generally excellent, with no stuttering.

We weren’t able to connect to all of the stations on the list however, but it was fun tuning into a Hawaiian radio station while looking out into the London gloom.

Of course, you’re going to need a very generous GPRS data allowance if you intend to use the radio frequently, so check with your network provider before settling into that four hour Icelandic folk remix.

Pocket Tunes v4.01 For Palm: Review (90%) As with MP3s we had no problems listening to radio streams in the background while we used the Treo for sending off emails and editing a Word document, although the phone was occasionally a tad sluggish when switching between apps.

The application handled phone calls well too – if we received a call, the stream would pause and then reconnect after the call had ended.

Mini console
Another nice feature is the mini MP3 player that can be called up when you’re using other applications and playing songs in the background.

This pops up on the lower half of the screen and gives quick access to song controls, so you can skip songs without having to open up the full program.

Formats
The player can handle all the major file formats like MP3, WMA, AAC, aacPlus, Ogg Vorbis, and WAV, with the deluxe version supporting PlaysForSure and DRM-protected content (but not iTunes files).

When hooked up to a PC, Pocket Tunes appears as a regular MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) media player and can then sync music, playlists and podcasts with any compatible desktop software.

Although we had no problem syncing over files, we preferred to make the job quicker by slamming the SD card into a media reader and transferring the files over that way.

Pocket Tunes v4.01 For Palm: Review (90%) Once the music is loaded up on your Palm, the program shuffles through the list and categorises the content into Artist, Album, Title and Genre sub-categories.

Sound quality
Although the makers Normsoft are making a bit of a hoo-ha about the improved audio quality in the new version, we were hard pressed to notice any big difference.

Maybe if we got out our Grado S60s it would become apparent, but seeing as Version 3 sounded good and, err, Version 4 sounds good too, we’re not complaining.

The 5-band graphic equaliser definitely seemed an improvement on the previous version though, as that seemed apt to distort when you tried to introduce Phil Spector-esque soundscapes. For some, the simple Bass Boost button might be enough.

There’s also support for cross-fading across variable bitrate tracks, if that’s your bag, with optional plug-ins adding expansion possibilities.

Options
As with previous versions, Pocket Tunes comes with a wealth of options to customise the program to your tastes. The program comes with a skinnable interface, with lots of mighty purdy free skins available from third party sites as well as Normsoft’s own site.

The skins can be moved to the memory card too, which is a good thing as the lardy 1.8 meg Pocket Tunes application will take a fair chunk of your Palm’s memory.

For those in a tight squeeze, it is possible to run the program off the SD card, albeit with some caveats, as Normsoft explained to us:

Pocket Tunes v4.01 For Palm: Review (90%) “We still do not recommend running Pocket Tunes from a SD card because you cannot launch a stream from Blazer (system limitation), however this is less problematic in 4.0 because it has a built-in Internet radio catalog, no longer requiring the user to use Blazer.

There is still an issue with Pocket Tunes sometimes being left in internal memory when running from a SD card. Some customers have found that PowerRun helps to prevent this from occurring.”

Conclusion
Sporting a smart and modern interface and a wealth of new features, this latest version of Pocket Tunes truly is a must-have application for music fans using the Palm OS.

We loved the new features – especially the Internet radio – and can thoroughly recommend the program, despite its upmarket pricing; $37.95 for the Deluxe version and $19.95 for the Basic (sans support for DRM-protected music, Internet Radio, AAC, WMA, crossfading and bookmarks.)

Features: 91%
Ease of use: 85%
Value For Money: 75%
Overall: 90%

Pocket Tunes

Technical Specifications
Audio Support: MP3 (all bitrates, CBR and VBR), AAC (all bitrates), WMA, Protected WMA (PD-DRM WMDRM9, Janus WMDRM10), aacPlus/HE-AAC v1, aacPlus/HE-AAC v2, Ogg Vorbis, PCM WAV.
Playlist Support: Stored on SD card: M3U, PLS. Stored on device: internal playlist format. Accessed via HTTP: M3U, PLS. Other capabilities: playlists that include other playlists are expanded automatically.
Streaming Audio: Protocols: HTTP, ShoutCast, Live365. Formats: MP3, aacPlus, Ogg Vorbis, WAV.
Album art: JPEG format any size (depending on available memory).

My Book Pro 500GB Drive: Review (87%)

Western Digital My Book 500GB Pro Edition Review Attractively designed in a rounded sleek metal jacket and sporting a funky blue capacity gauge, Western Digital’s MyBook range of external hard drives are aimed at consumers looking for a stylish solution to their storage problems.

The drives can be used horizontally or vertically and come in two sizes – 250GB or 500GB, – and three ‘editions’ offering extra features.

We reviewed the 500GB My Book Pro Edition which offers three ways of hooking up the drive to your PC; FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0.

All leads were provided in the box, and we tested both the FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 interfaces with no problem.

Also bundled in the package is the handy EMC Retrospect Express backup and recovery software, with the drive coming with a 3-year limited warranty.

Western Digital My Book 500GB Pro Edition Review Setting up the drive was a cinch: we simply plugged the drive into a USB port our Windows XP machine, and the drive utilities were automatically installed.

With the drivers installed, we were able to switch to our preferred FireWire 400 connection and the drive was ready for use.

Blue light fever
As the name suggests, the drive is hardback-sized, and could sit happily on a bookshelf although the glowing blue capacity gauge on the front might look a tad odd amongst the Mills & Boon.

Western Digital My Book 500GB Pro Edition Review We loved the glowing gauge though: it fades in and out when the drive is turned on and off and does a nice little shimmy when in use.

The outer ring displays the power/activity functions, while the inner ring is split into six sections which illuminate as the space is progressively used up. It’s a nice touch.

Lurking inside the 500GB drive is a 7,200rpm drive with a 16MB cache and a quoted seek time of 8.9ms, and we found it very fast in use and had no problems running video files straight off the disk.

Right now we can’t imagine filling up that 500GB in a hurry, but for drive space demons, Western Digital has recently announced the My Book Pro Edition II, which crams in two 500GB drives in an extended case to give you a massive whopping 1TB of storage – enough for about a zillion photographs (all right, up to 284,000 photos according to Western Digital’s figures).

Western Digital My Book 500GB Pro Edition Review Although the drive is quiet in use, you can certainly feel it vibrating if you’ve got it on the same surface as your machine, so we recommend lobbing it up on to a shelf.

Conclusion
We loved the My Book so much we went out and bought the thing – so now we won’t have any excuses to not back up our data.

It’s a shame that there’s no networking option, but with an online price hovering around the £180, the My Book drive still represents remarkable value for money.

With a choice of three interfaces, we should have no problem using the drive with a variety of desktop PCs and laptops, and unlike many other external hard drives, this one actually looks nice too.

Western Digital My Book 500GB Pro Edition Review Our verdict
Features: 75%
Ease of Use: 85%
Build Quality: 90%
Overall: 87%

Specs
Performance Specifications
Rotational Speed 7,200 RPM (nominal)
Average Latency 4.20 ms (nominal)
Seek Times
Read Seek Time 8.9 ms
Track-To-Track Seek Time 2.0 ms (average)
Serial Transfer Rate
FireWire 800
Serial Bus Transfer Rate (1394b) 800 Mbits/s (Max)
FireWire 400
Serial Bus Transfer Rate (1394a) 400 Mbits/s (Max)
USB 2.0
Serial Bus Transfer Rate (USB 2.0) 480 Mbits/s (Max)
Physical Specifications
Formatted Capacity 500,107 MB
Capacity 500 GB
Interface Triple Interface
Physical Dimensions
Height 6.780 Inches (Max)- 172.2 mm (Max)
Length 5.630 Inches (Max) – 143 mm (Max)
Width 2.23 Inches – 56.7 mm
Weight 2.60 Pounds – 1.2 kg
Electrical Specifications
Current Requirements
Power Dissipation
AC Input Voltage 100-240 VAC
AC Input Frequency 47-63 Hz

My Book Pro Edition

Genius! Internet App For Palm Treos: Review (83%)

If you’ve ever needed information fast from the Web when you’re on the move, Genius! by Hobbyist Software could be just what you’re looking for.

Genius! Internet App For Palm Treos: Review (83%) Designed for Palm Treo 600/650/680/700p users, Genius! gives you fast access to mobile-optimised sites, via a tabbed interface offering, ‘information,’ ‘shopping’ and ‘translation’ categories.

So if you’re out shopping and wondering if the pushy salesman really is offering you a bargain, you can just type in the product name (or product code, title, ISBN or brand) into Genius! and choose a price comparison site from the dropdown menu.

Pressing ‘go’ will open up a page full of results from the appropriate mobile optimised Website, saving you the hassle of opening up the Palm’s browser, looking for the right site, typing in the product name and then waiting for the results to download.

Genius! Internet App For Palm Treos: Review (83%) Devious cheating pub quizzers will like the ‘information’ tab which will quietly send your question to fact-filled sites like google, wikipedia and answers.com and bring up a Webpage with the answer already showing.

The interface also offers nippy, direct access to translation Websites, stock quotes, weather, directions and local info, with downloadable ‘plugins’ letting users customise the program to their preferences.

A bookmark management tool lets users edit and delete bookmarks with the option to select Google Optimiser to return results in a format enhanced for small screens.

Genius! Internet App For Palm Treos: Review (83%) Although it’s not one of those programs that is likely to change your life, power users regularly accessing the Web via their Palm Treos may find this an invaluable addition to their handheld – and at around a fiver ($9.99), it’s well worth a punt.

Features: 80%
Ease of use: 80%
Value For Money: 85%
Overall: 83%
Genius! by Hobbyist Software