Casual Games Market Growing By 20 Per Cent A Year

Casual Games Market Growing By 20 Per Cent A YearThe casual game industry is hauling in $2.25 billion a year and expanding by 20 per cent annually, according to the 2007 market report released by the Casual Games Association (CGA).

The study claims to “shatter” the industry belief that such games appeal mainly to women, but we’re such N00bs we didn’t even know what a casual game was.

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Toshiba Libretto 50 Ultra Mobile PC- Ten Years On

Toshiba Libretto 50 Ultra Mobile PC- Ten Years OnWith the industry’s focus once again looking towards Ultra Mobile PCs, we were prompted to dig out our old Toshiba Libretto 50 and see how it shapes up in comparison.

Released over ten years ago in January 1997, the Tosh was seen as something of a mini-marvel in its day, being the first mini-notebook computer to both pack an Intel Pentium (hurtling along at 75MHz) and run Microsoft Windows 95.
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Palm Treo 500v Review: Smartphone (Part 3/3: 87%)

Palm Treo 500v Smartphone Review (Part 3: 87%)This is the last section of the review – check back on parts 1 and 2.

Camera and video
The onboard 2MP camera produced reasonable enough results although the accompanying thunderous shutter sound effect is likely to startle sleeping babies and send nearby cattle stampeding. We sure it’s in there somewhere, but we couldn’t find a way to turn the ruddy thing off.
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Palm Treo 500v Review: Smartphone (Part 2)

Palm Treo 500v Smartphone Review (Part 2: 87%)In part one we took a look at the Palm Treo 500v’s ergonomics and form factor, and in part two we’ll see how it shapes up as a phone.

Booting up the Treo for the first time took around 30 seconds, with a succession of logos appearing on screen: first the Palm logo, followed by Vodafone’s animated feast of redness and finally the Window Mobile branding.
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Palm Treo 500v Review: Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone

Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone As anyone who has been tracking the various ups and (considerable) downs of Palm’s fortunes recently will know, there’s quite a lot hanging on this latest release for the company.
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Olympus Evolt E-410 Review: Digital SLR Camera (Part 4 – 78%)

In this final part of the Olympus Evolt E-410 Digital SLR Camera Review we look at image quality and give you our conclusion.

Image quality
Straight out of the box and set to auto, results were pretty good, although we found the camera had a propensity to over-expose in high contrast scenes with bright sunshine and shade (curiously, other reviewers found that the Olympus under-exposed, something we only encountered a couple of times).
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Olympus Evolt E-410 Review: Digital SLR Camera (Part 3)

Yesterday we looked at the lens, screen and viewfinder on the Olympus Evolt E-410 Digital SLR Camera.

Using the camera
First off, we have to say that we loved the size of the camera. Although it’s by no means pocketable, the skinny shape meant that we were more inclined to grab the E-410 instead of a digital compact, and the minimal weight meant that it wasn’t a burden to shunt about all day.
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Olympus Evolt E-410 Review: Digital SLR Camera

Currently the lightest and slimmest digital SLR available, the Olympus E-410 might bring a nostalgic tear to the eye of old school Olympus owners, with the camera’s traditional lines evoking memories of the legendary OM series of film cameras.
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Sandisk ImageMate 12-in-1 USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Reader Review (70%)

It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were confidently predicting that our Targus USB Card Reader should see us in good stead for the future with its ability to read 14 varieties of memory card.

Sadly, the recent purchase of a SHDC-capable device proved us wrong. Although the SDHC card fitted in the reader’s SD card slot just fine, it wasn’t interested in playing ball and a brief search on the web confirmed our fears: the Targus and SDHC get along like Cardiff City and Swansea City fans.
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