Reviews

Reviewing digital media devices and services

Prem-i-Air PMTF-07 Mini Fan With Ioniser Review (80%)
Seeing as our office fan decided to go on the blink just as a sticky, sweltering heatwave sent temperatures soaring above 32C, we needed a new fan. Fast.
Being techie types, we decided that a conventional fan was a bit too old-school for us, so we invested in a Prem-i-Air PMTF-07 35W Mini Fan, which comes complete with a built in Ioniser.
Standing about 44cm (17.5″ tall) and around 14cm (5.5″) wide, the Prem-i-Air is the perfect size for slapping on your desk and getting a boatrace-bound breeze blasting your way.
Control layout
At the top of the mini tower sits a circular control panel, offering an on/off switch, fan speed control (three settings; low, med or hi), oscillating on/off control, timer and Ioniser activation switch.
With an obedient bleep, the fan starts up promptly after hitting the main on/off control, and we found the ‘low’ fan setting to provide a pleasant breeze with the fan situated a couple of feet away.
At full blast, the fan knocks out a fair bit of air (1.5m/sec, to be precise) although we’re not looking at office blasting wind tunnel effect here – this fan is definitely only for personal/small office use.
When the oscillating control is turned on, the fan slowly spins around 180 degrees on its circular base, but started to shuffle about a bit when the fan was at full blast.
Unfortunately, you can’t restrict the range of the movement, so some may find it a little too wide for their tastes.
The timer’s quite straightforward; keep pressing the button and a red light will appear next to the 1 hour, 2 hour or 4 hour markings, with the fan turning off after that time.
Ionisation time
Of course, the button that intrigued us most was the one marked ‘ioniser’ and we bashed the ‘on’ button with high expectations.
Ionisers work by sending out negative ions (which are found naturally by the sea and in the mountains, and after thunderstorms) and this should strip the air of particles and micro-organisms, pollen, dust, pollutants and airborne germs.
Reading the guff around ionisers, they’re supposed to do all sorts of wonderful things for your health, like make the air feel fresher and more invigorating, disperse unpleasant whiffs, help with hayfever, asthma, bronchitis and migraine and get rid of the headaches and tiredness caused by the ‘positive ions’ coming from computer screens and air conditioning.
Sadly, the ioniser didn’t promise to remove headaches and tiredness caused by a night quaffing yards of ale, but our preliminary tests seemed to result in the air feeling a bit ‘fresher’ around the office
The verdict
Although we’re still checking out the benefits of this ionisation malarkey, we liked the Prem-i-Air.
It’s well built, doesn’t take a ton of desk space and offers enough fan power to make working in an office in a heatwave a bit more bearable.
The price seems reasonable too (£25 from Amazon), although with a current sales rank of just 13 on the Amazon site, we’d recommend you get one quick before stocks run out!
Features: 75%
Ease of Use: 80%
Value for money: 85%
Overall: 80%
Specs:
Depth 5.91 in.
Height 17.52in.
Weight 4.85 lb.
35 Watt
Buy it on Amazon UK
7 July, 2006
Future Hype: Review: The Myths of Technology Change (71%)
Title: Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change
Author: Bob Seidensticker
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler
Buy at US Amazon $10.37
Buy at UK Amazon £9.89
With the constant bombardment of advertising and continuous slew of new products and developments, it seems like technological change is faster now than ever before, but is that really true? Bob Seidensticker would like to suggest otherwise.
In a new book, FutureHype, Seidensticker sets out to explode the myths surrounding technological growth, “The Internet isn’t that big a deal. Neither is the PC. Abandon all your technology and live in the woods for a week and see if it’s your laptop you miss most.”
Seidensticker, a programmer and former Microsoft programme manager, believes that so much information about technology is misunderstood or left out that the remainder resembles a kind of mythology. This is a refreshing point of view especially if, like me, you’re suspicious that most technology doesn’t deliver what it promises.
Seidensticker sets about contextualising modern technological change by analysing the effects of older technologies. As well as reminding us how important earlier developments are now just part of the landscape (the telephone, electricity, medicines), he unearths some fascinating examples of technologies that never happened. For example, the fax newspaper, broadcast by dozens of US radio stations in the 1930’s and 40’s, provided several daily updates but failed to take-off. This is intriguingly similar to the shortly-to-launch service from The Guardian newspaper offering a regularly updated PDF edition.
In other areas Seidensticker is less compelling. He sometimes glosses over details to make his point. Describing redundant proprietary software formats (WordStar is often cited as an example, the most successful word processor of its time, its file format is now unreadable by all modern applications) he neglects to mention developments such as Open Source software, XML or research into digital archiving, all of which are making progress to eliminating exactly that kind of problem.
On discussion of the Internet he asserts that “important applications aren’t new and new one’s aren’t important” a gigantic generalisation which, by his own arguments, is untrue. Sure, loads of current applications and technologies are simply developments from older ones and the great majority of them are not important, but, by his own logic, the chances are that the next big thing is already with us, just struggling to break through. It’s also more likely that it will not take the form of something that went before and so may be harder to recognise.
Quibbles aside, Seidensticker does make a good case and I found myself nodding in agreement with his assessments of new technology often being inferior to old (just compare digital TV to a decent analogue signal or an MP3 to a CD or an analogue recording) and how our garbage may be more permanent than our written records.
I did find myself wondering who FutureHype was aimed at? Many of Seidensticker’s observations don’t take a lot of thought to work out (anyone who cares to research even a little can find out that the Internet began in the 60’s, that there’s a law of unintended consequences or that technology is not always for the good), so anyone who is interested is likely to know these things already, and the general reader is unlikely to require this much detail. On reaching the final, slightly condescending, chapter – a list of do’s and don’ts that reads like a rather stuffy style guide – I realised that this book is for technology journalists.
On that level, FutureHype is a very useful primer about the way in which technology has affected society. Seidensticker does a solid and entertaining job of documenting the rather empty bravura that surrounds technology and its unpredictable and often unexpected effects. It’s a welcome addition to the burgeoning library of books about the rapid pace of change and one which provides a rather more sober and level headed overview. Nerdy tech-scribes will find it fascinating, a more general readership may be harder to reach.
Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change
Buy at US Amazon $10.37
Buy at UK Amazon £9.89
7 July, 2006
Packard Bell EasyNote ‘Skype Edition’ Laptop: Mini Review: Exclusive
We played with the Packard Bell EasyNote ‘Skype Edition’ Laptop, at its first European showing yesterday. The machine we used was the only one in Europe and had been jetted in from development labs in Estonia.
They claim it to be the worlds first ‘Skype Edition’ laptop, and we’ve no reason to doubt them. While many machines have been selling with Skype pre-loaded on it, this is the first to have a dedicated button built-in to the machine.
If your reaction is, ‘so what? It’s a laptop with a soft-button on it,’ that wouldn’t have been too dissimilar to our initial reaction – before we used it. After having seen it action, our view is more favorable.
Where’s the button?
Our first surprise was to find the Skype button at the top of the screen, where you normally find the catch. We’d expected it to be on or around the keyboard.
As you can see from the close-up photo, the Skype button sits on the right, the microphone on the left and in the centre is a video camera, a la new Mac laptops. There’s an LED between the mic and video camera and another surrounding the Skype button.
How does it work?
The button performs various functions depending on what you’re doing with Skype at the time.
If you’re working on another app and feel the urge to Skype someone, pressing the Skype button, brings the software to the foreground. No big shock there.
When a Skype call comes in to you, pressing the button answers the call, bringing you live.
There’s a LED surrounding the button that shows various states of call as follows
- Orange colored when Skype application is connected to Internet and in idle mode
- Orange/Green alternate blinking when there is an incoming Skype call
- Green when there is an active Skype call in progress
- OFF when Skype application is not connected to Internet or not launched
The green LED between the mic and camera shows solid green to indicated you have a call in progress, perhaps to save you from the embarrassment of slagging off the person you’ve just completed a call with, while thinking the call had finished.
Calling quality
One of the concerns we’d had was the placement of the mic and the call quality that might bring.
We know that the mic on the Apple iBook lid is less than great to be using with Skype. We often find ourselves craning our necks forward, and half closing the lid to get close enough to the mic to make ourselves heard by the other party.
Packard-Bell appear to have got over this. In the call that we placed, the other end reported they could hear us perfectly well, despite us being around two feet away from the laptop and the room that we were calling from being pretty noisy.
On reflection we realised that the palaver we go through with the Mac wouldn’t work on this machine as, if you were on a video call, they’d be getting a view of your space bar.
Video built-in
As I’m sure you know, video conferencing has been included in Skype for a while now (it was one of the most requested features). By including the camera at the lid, Packard-Bell have made it easy to video call while on the move – without having to lash video cameras to the lid of your machine.
Having seen the preview window, we can report that the results were pretty impressive. The quality appeared to be more that sufficient for video conferencing.
General spec and availability
The general spec of this machine is described by Packard-Bell as having a “high-performance Intel Dual-core.”
We’ve absolutely no idea what the general computing function of this machine is – that’s not what we were looking at. Given that PC designs has been perfecting since the release of the IBM XT, we’d suspect that it’s pretty much as you’d expect.
The Packard-Bell EasyNote ‘Skype Edition’ is expected to be getting to retail in August this year at a cost of E899.
Packard Bell
30 June, 2006
SanDisk MobileMate MS+: Review (99%): 2Gb MS Lifesaver
SanDisk makes tons of memory related products but how many of you knew that they made memory adaptors and converts? Makes sense doesn’t it?
One I’ve found that I can’t live without, is the SanDisk MobileMate MS+, Sony MemoryStick to USB converter.
I’ve been using a 2Gb Sony MemoryStick PRO Duo in my [link to my review]Sony Ericsson K750i for about nine months now.
When I picked up the 2Gb MS in Tokyo last year, I was feeling very pleased with myself. I’d fallen for the k750i, seeing it as the first true multi-media mobile phone, so figured that I’d be shooting tons of photos, videos and recording endless audio recordings. For that I needed some pretty hefty storage, so the not-available outside Japan 2Gb appeared to be the perfect solution.
It comes as no surprise to find out that as soon as it was fitted I was dashing around shooting my little sox off, gather interesting images from the strange world that Tokyo is to inexperienced Western eyes.
Setting about to download them to my iBook via my then current MS/USB adaptor was most perturbing experience. It refused to acknowledge that my beauties were there at all. Argh, panic! Logic prevailed and I reached for a PC laptop. While the PC saw the images, when I tried to copy them off the machine would get slower and slower to the point where it finally fell over.
Vaguely recalling issues with partition sizes over 2Gb, I fell into a cold sweat, considering that perhaps it couldn’t cope with the 2Gb MS, rendering my not-inexpensive purchase valueless.
SanDisk MobileMate MS+ to the rescue
I’d been fortunate enough to lay my hands on a number of MS/USB converters, but none of them were up to the job of copying information from the 2Gb MS.
Salvation was found when I discovered the SanDisk MobileMate MS+. It read my 2Gb without presenting any form of complaint and it did it with full speed. It works perfectly both on Mac and PC and hasn’t thrown up any problems in the six months I’ve been using it.
To use it, simply clip off the snug-fitting, light green cap that protects the USB port from dust; lift the flexible rubber cover that does the same dust-protecting job for the MS slot. Pop the MS into it and plug it into your computer. Err … that’s it.
It works with the many, varied versions of MemoryStick format, including plain old MemoryStick; MemoryStick Duo; MemoryStick PRO and MemoryStick PRO Duo.
Summary
This compact beauty has literally everything you could want and I can’t think of a single thing I’d like to do to change it. It’s the right size, and smaller and it’d be in danger of getting lost.
It’s a permanent feature in my tech grab-back whenever I leave the house and will continue to be until the day I stop using MemorySticks, or get a laptop with a MS port.
We’ve never done this before, but we’re going to give this 1% short of a perfect mark. It would be 100%, but nothing is perfect.
Score: 99%
Buy it at Amazon US
Sandisk
30 June, 2006
Sea War MultiPlayer For The Palm: Review (90%)
Some of the most compelling games are often the simplest, and games don’t get much more basic than the age-old game of Battleships.
The idea might be as old as the hills, but Russian developers Intorine have souped up the interface (supporting 320×320 and 320×480 screen resolutions), lobbed in a bucketful of attractive graphics, added some satisfying explosions and made the thing multiplayer.
Sink! Kill! Destroy!
You can either play the game against a computer opponent or do battle with another human – locally, via Bluetooth or over an Infrared connection.
As in the time-honoured game of Battleships, your aim is to guess where your opponent’s ships are lurking by dropping bombs on squares on the screen.
If you miss, you get a splashy sound (and quite possibly the derision of your chum across the room) and if you hit the target you get a gratifying kaboom (with the option to shout and jeer at your opponent’s misery).
We tested Sea War on a pair of Treo 650 smartphones and found it worked more or less flawlessly, although if we drifted a bit too far out of range the game would lose the connection.
Sad to say, we found ourselves “testing” the game for a considerable length of time as we vied for the top slots in the high scores table.
Our opinion
Maybe it’s because we’re easily pleased by simple things, but we got enormous pleasure playing cross-office Sea War tournaments. It’s a whole load of fun.
It’s not a bad single player game either, although the computer opponent sometimes plays like it’s imbibed strong drugs.
Either way, for a price tag of absolutely nothing, this game’s a great time-waster and an absolute winner in our book. We love it!
Features: 70%
Gameplay: 85%
Graphics: 75%
Value For Money: 95%
Overall: 90%
Sea Warm
29 June, 2006
Panasonic RP-DJ100 Review (55%)
Although in-ear bud headphones are all well and good for strutting down the street with your iPod/PDA/smartphone in your pocket, when it comes to DJing or listening at home, you might need something a little more substantial.
If you’ve got deep pockets (and don’t mind looking like Biggles coming back from a WW2 mission), you can’t go wrong with the amazing Grado SR60 headphones (review June 2005), but if you’re looking for something cheap and cheerful, the Panasonic DJ100 headphones are worth a look.
Optimistically described as ‘professional’ headphones (yeah, right), the silver and black closed-ear headset is more of the cheap’n’cheerful variety, although the build quality seems pretty reasonable for a street price of around £18.
In case you’re not sure what this ‘closed-ear’ stuff is all about, it means that the headphones completely cover yer lug’oles, and thus reduce extraneous sounds interfering with your music.
Designed for DJs
You’ll note the headphones describe themselves as being for DJs – this is due to their closed ear construction (a bit of a must for monitoring in noisy environments) and the fact that the individual earpieces rotate so you can listen to one earpiece without having to put the headphones on your head.
If looking like a DJ isn’t your thing, the ‘cans’ (as those in the music biz like to call them) felt comfortable enough when worn ‘normally’ with enough travel on the plastic extending headband to cover head sizes from a pinhead skinhead to a beehived big ‘ead.
There’s also a generous length of cable supplied with the ‘phones (around 2 metres) with a gold plated 2.5mm jack plug and 3.5mm adapter supplied.
A particularly nice touch is that the Panasonic RP-DJ100’s can fold up into an impressively small space, so that you can wedge them into your record bag or laptop case.
The sound
Naturally, at this price level you’re not going to get anything approaching hi-fi, but the RP-DJ100’s produced a sound that was neither too harsh or too overbearing, with the XBS Extra Bass System adding a bit of oomph which might come in useful when listening through a cheapo MP3 player.
The Panasonics were also capable of knocking out pretty loud volumes without too much distortion which is an essential attribute for Djing.
The verdict
Considering their build and price level, we were all set to give the Panasonic RP-DJ100’s top marks until the things let us down at a gig, when both channels cut out.
After some investigation, it seemed the phones had suffered the all-too-familiar problem of a dodgy jackplug, where the wiring had worked loose inside.
No problem we thought -let’s whip out the soldering iron and do a quick on the spot repair.
Annoyingly, once we’d removed the jack, ready for replacement, we found out that Pansonic were using the chuffing annoying lacquer coating cables (popular with Sony models), which are a ruddy pain to solder (see Headwize.com for solutions).
So after our own (paid for) headphones conked out after just four months and with no chance of a replacement after voiding our guarantee with the attempted emergency repair, we’ve had to rapidly downsize our enthusiasm.
We certainly wouldn’t recommend them for working DJs as we don’t think they’re up to the job. After all, if you’re serious about your playing, it’s defintely worth paying the extra for a robust, high quality pair. However, for bedroom-bound disk-spinners and iPodders on the move, they might be worth a look. So long as you treat them gently.
Looks 65%
Sound quality 60%
Build quality 50%
Overall 55%
Panasonic RP-DJ100 Specs:
XBS Extra Bass System
Travel fold design
28mm driver unit
Response bandwidth 14 – 24000 Hz
Sensitivity* 102 dB/mW
Impedance 24 Ohm
Diaphragm 1.1 in
Magnet Type Neodymium Rare-earth magnet
27 June, 2006
ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 6 Review (85%)
After happily using Zonelabs’ freebie Zonealarm firewall product for years on end, we were keen to try out their commercial Zonealarm Internet Security Suite 6, which bolts on a ton of extras to tempt skinflints.
The £50 suite certainly looks to be great value, serving up an overflowing platter of features including Zone Alarm’s famous firewall, backed by anti-spyware and anti-virus tools, ID and privacy protection, cookie management, email protection, phishing and spam blocking, parental controls for instant messaging and wireless network protection.
The Computer Associates’ anti-virus module has been souped up somewhat, now offering spyware integration, a new pause/continue function for the scanner, and a quarantine management area for any infected files you don’t want blasted off your system.
The suite offers what Zonelabs grandly describes as their Triple Defence Firewall – this claims to protect your machine from outside attack; monitor programs trying to access the Web; and protect your OS with a firewall that keeps a beady eye on the operating system, Registry and file system.
Zone Alarm’s anti-phishing widget has also been enhanced, and the privacy protection feature lets users specify what personal information they want protected, e.g. phone numbers, addresses, bank accounts etc.
Easy as pie
We found the suite dead easy to set up, and there’s a handy animated tutorial to guide you through the settings.
The program sports a simple, unified interface with straightforward ‘high, medium or low’ slider controls for security settings.
Fine tuning and advanced options were also available, but for many users the default settings should be enough to get them up and running within minutes.
Home networking
If you’re running a home network, Zonealarm will automatically detect the connection and prompt you to add it to the trusted or Internet zones, so that you can make sure your files are only shared on your own network and not by lurking hackers.
We found the network wizard pretty straightforward, although perhaps not as idiot-proof as the interface on the rival Norton Personal Firewall software.
SmartDefence
The SmartDefence service provides real-time updates and new attack-protection capabilities, with the price including a year’s worth of automatic updates – as soon as the year’s up, you’ll have to shell out for an upgrade or risk running outdated software.
Although there’s not a great deal new on offer here – save the anti-spyware feature – the Internet Security Suite is a solid product that gives you all the protection you need for a reasonable fifty quid.
Although it’s possible to gather together the same sort of functionality by using freebie products like AVG anti-virus and Ad-aware, if you’re looking for an all-in, tightly integrated fit’n’forget solution, you won’t find much better than Zonealarm’s Internet Security Suite 6.
As we went to press, Zone Alarms announced an update to their Security Suite, adding a new Game Mode which stops pesky security alerts getting in the way of the fragging action and some enhanced anti-spyware tools. More details on version 6.5 can be found here
Features: 85%
Ease of use: 85%
Value For Money: 70%
Overall: 85%
ZoneLabs
19 June, 2006
Casio Z1000 Review: First 10MP Consumer Compact (88%)
Just how much resolution do you need? Ten million pixels is a lot of information by any conventional measure, especially since most consumers rarely print out images larger than traditional 10x15cm enprints. That requires no more than the three megapixel sensors found on today’s very cheapest cameras, and now even high-end cameraphones.
Ten megapixels lets you produce sharp prints at up to A2 poster in size or, more likely, crop in to tiny details and still end up with a printable image. But with great power often come great problems: huge file sizes, noisy images and irritating processing delays. Impressively, the Z1000 suffers from only the first of these (if you don’t think 4Mb per shot is huge, wait until you run out of memory cards halfway through a holiday).
It’s a looker, too, housed in a smooth all-metal case that hardly hints at the power inside. In front is a 3x lens that is its weakest point: there’s some distortion and softness at wideangle. Focusing is also haphazard, although the Exilim has a fine range of features to make up for it, from a decent manual focus mode to a 6cm macro for close-ups.
Around the back, a bright 2.8-inch widescreen LCD monopolises the available space. Only 2.5-inches is available for framing – the remainder is taken up by a fantastic vertical menu strip for instantly tweaking image size, quality, metering and more. Creative features are eclectic rather than comprehensive: a continuous flash mode shoots three flash shots in a second, and there are more pre-programmed scene modes than even the most bored teenager could wade through.
Notable among these is a High Sensitivity mode for shooting at up to ISO 3200 (but beware of dreadful noise here) and a brace of digital effects, Illustration and Pastel, that apply fun Photoshop-style art filters in camera.
The Z1000 handles very well, with virtually no shutter lag or processing delays. Images don’t appear to have been rushed, though, demonstrating a confident control over colour and exposure, and plenty of fine detail. As long as you don’t expect the three-dimensional clarity of a 10MP SLR like the Nikon D200, you shouldn’t be disappointed.
Verdict
In digital photography, it’s rarely a case of how much resolution you need, but how much resolution you want. The Z1000 will fulfil your desire to extract the maximum detail from your subjects, without penalising you with a slow, ugly or stupid camera. Casio has taken a double digital lead in the compact market – but don’t expect it to last too long.
Rating: 88%
Spec sheet
Sensor 10.1 megapixels, 1/1.8-inch
Focal length (35mm equivalent) 38-114mm
Maximum aperture f/2.8-5.4
Shutter speed 4s – 1/2000 sec
Memory SD, 8Mb internal
ISO range 50, 100, 200, 400, (800, 1600, 3200)
Exposure modes Auto, 31 Best Shot
Metering modes Multi-zone, centre-weighted, spot
Focusing modes Auto (multi-zone, spot, free), manual, presets, Auto Macro, 6cm macro
Flash modes Auto, on, off, red-eye, slow synch (Night Portrait), flash power, Soft Flash
Drive modes Single, continuous (1.2 to 3fps), continuous flash (3fps), continuous zoom, self-timer
LCD monitor 2.8-inch colour LCD, 230,400 pixels
Weight 160g with battery and card
Power supply Lithium ion rechargeable, NP-40
Battery life 360 shots, CIPA standard
Transfer USB 2.0 Full Speed, video, PictBridge
Casio
15 June, 2006
Sony Alpha A100 dSLR: Brief Look
We had our hands on the Sony Alpha A100 last week, Sony’s first step into the Digital SLR (dSLR) market.
We’ve known for a while that Sony and Konika/Minolta would be producing a dSLR, following Sony’s purchase of the traditional SLR company. The A100 is the first product of the deal.
Sony tell us that they see the market for dSLR’s growing by 30% over the next year, which is lucky as the compact digital market appears to be stagnating. They’ve got grand plans for this market, with their stated ambition to be ‘challenging for the top position’ by 2008.
The key message from Sony with the whole of the Alpha range is “We want to make you a better photographer.” Highly appealing to those who may be scared off by crossing over from a compact camera to the SLR world.
What’s Hot
Sony have brought their own CCD technology to the party, giving a 10Mpx image, but it’s not full-frame (the sensor isn’t the size of a full 35mm film frame). They’ve combined this new CCD with anti-shake features seen on the Konica Minolta Dynax/Maxxum 5D, which stabilises the sensor instead of the lens element. Sony have labeled this Super SteadyShot.
The new Bionz image processor also adds a lot like the Dynamic Range Optimiser, which balances light levels between subject and background when taking photos into the light from a dark place.
A feature brought over from the Konika/Minolta includes EyeStart. Two sensors just below the viewfinder detects when the camera is brought to the eye and prepare the camera to start shooting.
As with previous cameras, Sony are working with Carl ZeissThe SLR lenses from Konika/Minolta will fit the A100, so the brave might be able to pick up a bargain or two buying them second-hand, quite likely when there have been 16 million of them sold worldwide.
First impressions
These are all based on the brief time we had with it. We plan to do a more in-depth review in a few weeks time.
First impressions are that of a quality camera. The battery grip is solid and comfortable, giving the impression that handling it over an extended period wouldn’t be tiresome.
The materials used vary over the body depending on the function and need. It’s with interest that we saw that the material around the shutter button was highly reflective providing a good feel, and we assume, reducing the risk of the area wearing excessively.

Sony Alpha A100 test shot – See the whole set at original resolution
When taking photos, small things like the solid sound that the shutter makes after you press the shutter button, as it raises out of the way to expose the CCD, also reassures you that it’s quality.
On the back of the body is a 2.5″ Clear Photo LCD which provides a very wide viewing angle, useful for showing off your recently taken shots. We can also confirm that Sony’s efforts to make the screen viewable in sunlight have been successful.
Sony claim that all of the commonly used functions are placed on dials, close to hand on the body, rather than burying it within on-screen menus.
Showing that the camera is a transition between Konika/Minolta and Sony, the storage on the camera is the size of compact flash. Not wanting to appear lacking in their support for their own format, Sony provide a converter to support Memory Stick.

Sony Alpha A100 test shot – See the whole set at original resolution
The lenses that come with it, especially when the two pack is considered, give good value, but as is so often the case with bundled lenses, we wonder if these will be cast aside after a short time. Although appearing to be competent, small differences from after-market lenses like the mountings being plastic, not metal, give pointers to the build quality.
Our only reservation is over the quality of the photos taken. Initially they looked great, but when zoomed to full screen we were alarmed to see the pixilation of the image. We’re not sure if this was down to the camera we used being on some strange settings or if the camera has a problem. We’ll know more when we get our hands on it for a longer period.

Sony Alpha A100 test shot – See the whole set at original resolution
Pricing and availability
The Alpha A100 is keenly priced
£599.99 – Body only
£699.99 – Body and 18-70 Lens
£849.99 – Body,18-70 and 75-300 Lenses
Sony are quoting that the whole kit and caboodle will be available in July 2006.
12 June, 2006
Personal Train Timetables Review: For Mobiles, PCs and Palms (85%)
If you’re a regular train traveller across the UK, or you’re planning a holiday involving lots of different journeys, keeping track of all the various train times can be a bit of a pain.
Normally, you’d have to lug around a bag full of separate timetables or fork out for those spoddy jumbo timetable books often seen in the clammy paws of trainspotters, but thanks to the cunning skills of the German railway Website bahn.de, you can download customised timetables direct to your PC, phone or Palm handheld.
Setting up individual timetables is simplicity itself – just type in your start and destination stations and then select the date period you want journey information on.
Then tick off what days of the week you want included in your timetable along with the outward/return journey times (or select ‘whole day’ for the all trains) and select what modes of travel you want included or excluded from your file.
Next, you have to you choose what format you want your timetable in: PDF, PDB (for Palm handhelds) and J2ME for Java mobiles, downloadable as a zip file or via a WAP URL.
Then it’s a case of bashing the ‘create’ buttom and waiting for a few minutes as the Teutonic technlogoy does it thing, before being presented with links to your timetable (you can elect to download the timetable directly from the site or have the files emailed to you).
Free Palm viewer
Palm users can also download a highly functional free custom viewer called, appropriately enough, Personal Viewer, created by the German company that powers the timetable engine, HaCon.
This small download provides a simple interface serving up enough timetable-related data to give train buffs a moist spot or two.
Users can store as many timetables as they like on their Palm (the files can also be run from the card to save space), with the tabbed interface letting travellers select their journey and time of travel and then see available trains, journey details and stops on the way – there’s even an indication whether snacks will be available on the selected train!
We’ve been using this program on our Palm handheld for years, and can thoroughly recommend it – especially as it’s totally FREE!
Overall score: 85%
Personal Timetable
1 June, 2006