News: Telecom Announces 4G Customer Trial

Posted on May 17th, 2012

Telecom announced today that it will be conducting live customer trials of Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile technology later this …full story

News: Dell Revolutionizes Design and Performance with New Line of Dell Precision Workstations

Posted on May 15th, 2012

Redesigned tower workstations give creative and design professionals new levels of performance New Dell patented technology eliminates nearly all memory …full story

Logitech Harmony 1000i Universal Remote – 58

logitech universal remote

Remotes are one of technology’s dirty little secrets. Every new gadget purchased by widget fetishists introduces yet another remote into our homes, adding more complexity for those who simply want to watch the telly. Logitech reckons AV complexity and a teetering pile of remotes could become a thing of the past thanks to the rather fab Harmony 1000i universal remote.

At roughly the size of a pocket calculator, the Harmony 1000 is a stylish bit of kit thanks to a brushed aluminium finish and a colour LCD touch screen. The first hint that the Harmony isn’t your average universal remote is its bundled charging cradle, USB cable and installation CD. Most universal remotes are a compromise between flexibility and complexity. Basic universal remotes have limited customising options, while their more fancy-pants counterparts are infinitely tweakable, but only if you’ve got a PhD in computer science. Not so with the Harmony. Thanks to sensible design and ultra-easy configuration, it’s incredibly flexible and a doddle to set up.

After installing the bundled configuration software and connecting the Harmony to my PC, I was taken through its setup process step by step ...full story

Posted by Tone on October 26th, 2007 in Gadgets, Reviews | | Tags:

Cracking A Fat – Parmenter Sound – 58

parameter sound

Fat is good, reckons Gary Pearce

Gazza, I have an interesting review for you”, squawked the editor down the phone. “You’re off to Parmenter Sound in Muriwai to review his Fat Boys!” Now you’d be excused for thinking I was off to interview a couple of chubby, pie-eating kids, but this was to prove a far more interesting and rewarding afternoon.parameter man

Jason Parmenter is the head honcho of Parmenter Sound, a boutique hi-fi dealership specialising in some of the world’s most exotic brands. He also manufactures his own distinctive audio products. Parmenter Sound is located at Muriwai on the wild west coast just north of Auckland, and the spellbinding view from his property was not the only experience to be savoured. Lurking menacingly in the downstairs demo room were the Fat Boys – and we’re talking real porkers here, folks. Weighing in at over 200kg each(!), these Kiwi-made heavyweights are built to withstand your average category five tornado – and they offer more than the typical in-yer-face horn sound ...full story

Posted by Tone on October 26th, 2007 in Articles |

Nokia 6288 mobile phone – 57

nokia phone 57

Shortly before beginning this review, I was confronted with a billboard for the Nokia 6288. Looking very much like one of the Motorola KRZR promotions, it showed the opposite side of the street reflected in a sleek, metallic finish on the 6288′s rear cover. Exciting. Unfortunately,  the phone is a little less shiny and far more plastic than the billboard suggests. But that’s advertising for you.

The 6288 is a handsome-looking phone, however. Compact and lightweight, it fits easily in the pocket yet isn’t ridiculously undersized for the hand. The numeric keypad is hidden beneath the screen, accessed by sliding out the lower portion of the phone. This is accomplished via a sturdy mechanism that gives no hint of breakability and allows for large buttons without compromising on screen size.

While the other buttons are fine, the first row (1, 2 and 3) can be a little hard to press, as they are only a millimetre away from the phone’s top portion – it’s especially annoying when entering text. This also makes it hard to comfortably move between the numeric buttons and the navigation buttons, which are nearly a ...full story

Posted by Tone on October 26th, 2007 in Phones, Reviews | | Tags:

Sony Vaio VGC-LA38G Lifestyle Panel PC – 57

sony vaio lifestyle panel

Kiwis are simple folk. We like things to fit nicely into two boxes. League or Union. Right or wrong. Australian or human. This, until recently, was the case for computers too. We had desktop PCs and we had laptops. If you owned a computer it was one or the other. Now Sony has gone and thrown a lightweight polycarbonate spanner in the works.

The new VGC-LA38G Vaio shelters under the nondescript label of ‘Panel PC’. Resembling a Sony Bravia X series LCD TV that has shrunk in the wash, looks are not a problem. Even with the bottom-mounted keyboard, it is still aesthetically pleasing and would not look amiss in a stylish modern home.

Music quality is surprisingly good, and with the keyboard in the up position the PC is pleasing to both eyes and ears.

The Panel PC does come to play, though, armed with the latest Core Duo 2 processor, a gig of ram and 120GB of hard drive space. There is space to upgrade the RAM to 2GB, and using a bit of forethought Sony has made sure that the 1GB that is already in ...full story

Posted by Tone on October 26th, 2007 in Computing, Reviews | | Tags:

Panasonic PT-AE1000 LCD Projector – 57

panasonic lcd proj

If you think projectors for home theatre, you’ll probably be thinking Panasonic. The company has an iron grip on the market and rightly so – it was the first major to introduce a genuine widescreen projector at a reasonable price, the venerable PT-AE100, and from those beginnings we have seen successive excellence at lower and lower price points. Not so long ago the PT-AE500 was considered a bargain at $5000; three generations later the vastly improved PT-AX100 can illuminate your big screen for just under $3500. Of course, all other manufacturers have done their bit to improve Joe Public’s big screen experience at a lower dollar, but Panasonic deserves kudos for leading the charge of the big screen brigade.

Which brings us to Panasonic’s very latest, top of the range, genuine 1080p projector statement, the PT-AE1000. It’s a vastly different-looking device from the PT-AX100, clad in very purposeful black casework and sporting no fewer than two HDMI inputs for more flexibility. And that’s just the start, for the PT-AE1000 has nothing in common with any Panasonic projector before it – from the giant lens assembly, motorised zoom and ...full story

Posted by Tone on October 26th, 2007 in Home Theatre/TV, Reviews | | Tags:

Canon IXUS 900TI – 56

canon ixus camera

Just another Ixus? Nope, this one’s different. The new 10 million-pixel Ixus 900ti is wrapped beautifully in that most durable of metals, titanium. Yet it’s not just the camera’s body shell that’s smart, it can recognise your victim’s face, targeting his or her rosy dial with precise focus.

In its own careful way, Canon has limited the number of buttons without limiting how many functions this superb model has. Want point and shoot simplicity? Leave the mode dial set to the first red camera setting. Want to be a bit more daring? Then move the dial to the second setting, which opens up all the options, or select the scene setting for still further alternatives. There’s the ability to make movies, too, at a bunch of different sizes including a high-resolution 1024 x 768 pixels, which will fill even a large computer screen.

The best feature on this little camera is the face recognition technology, which happily zones in on the faces on the screen like US troops targetting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The best feature on this little camera is the face recognition technology, which happily zones in on the ...full story

Posted by Tone on October 26th, 2007 in Cameras, Reviews | | Tags:
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