Technology Gadget Reviews

Free Templates download, Beautiful Website Templates, Free Wordpress Themes, Free Joomla Themes

2011-03-15T04:26:00.000-07:00

Free Templates download, Beautiful Website Templates, Free Wordpress Themes, Free Joomla Themes: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Wordpress SEO Tips | Solvater.com

2011-02-20T08:49:00.000-08:00

Wordpress SEO Tips | Solvater.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Time Management with Gcal (Google Calender) | Solvater.com

2011-02-19T05:58:00.001-08:00

Time Management with Gcal (Google Calender) | Solvater.com

2011-02-19T05:58:00.000-08:00

Time Management with Gcal (Google Calender) | Solvater.com

Increase your Adsense eCPM (Effective cost per Thousand Impressions) | Solvater.com

2011-02-18T11:23:00.000-08:00

Increase your Adsense eCPM (Effective cost per Thousand Impressions) | Solvater.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

How Google Search Works | Solvater.com

2011-02-18T04:43:00.000-08:00

How Google Search Works | Solvater.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Top Essential SEO Tips 2011 | Solvater.com

2011-02-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

Top Essential SEO Tips 2011 | Solvater.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Speed up your Apple Mac PC | Solvater.com

2011-02-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

Speed up your Apple Mac PC | Solvater.com Speed up your Apple Mac system by using advanced tips, using this tricks you can better your mac system's performance even 200% better than before

How-to Create a Successful Mobile Campaign | Solvater.com

2011-02-16T04:49:00.000-08:00

How-to Create a Successful Mobile Campaign | Solvater.com: Learn how-to create a successful mobile advertising campaigns, launch your ad campaigns like a professional, optimize your mobile campaigns tips "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

5 ways to Speed up your website | Solvater.com

2011-02-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

5 ways to Speed up your website | Solvater.com: 5 ways to super speed up your website, slow loading websites frustrate the visitors and search engines also, learn how to make your website faster. "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Build SEO Strategy with Google Analytics | Solvater.com

2011-02-14T11:09:00.000-08:00

Build SEO Strategy with Google Analytics | Solvater.com Build your SEO strategy using Google Analytics, this guide will help you to learn how-to build a perfect SEO plan using Google analytics tool.

Strengthen your Landing Page for Advertising Campaigns | Solvater.com

2011-02-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

Strengthen your Landing Page for Advertising Campaigns | Solvater.com: Online Advertising influenced with many factors, landing pages is one of the main, this article helps you in finding the common mistakes done in your landing pages and how-to optimize them. "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

How to SPAM Proof your website and Email | Solvater.com

2011-02-14T05:23:00.000-08:00

How to SPAM Proof your website and Email | Solvater.com: Spamming is growing faster than the websites, it is absolutely world known truth. This tutorial explains you How to protect your website and e-mails from SPAM. "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

How-to do Social Networking - Webmasters Guide | Solvater.com

2011-02-14T03:27:00.000-08:00

How-to do Social Networking - Webmasters Guide | Solvater.com: Social networking is the fastest growing trend on the internet, complete and short guide for all webmasters to learn how-to do social networking in a mass way. "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

How to Advertise your Online Business | Solvater.com

2011-02-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

How to Advertise your Online Business | Solvater.com Advertising an Online Business is very important to grow higher, but advertising in a proper way is very important in order maximize your revenues, this guide helps to advertise your online business

Top Ten SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) Tips for Bloggers | Solvater.com

2011-02-11T21:24:00.000-08:00

Top Ten SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) Tips for Bloggers | Solvater.com:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential thing for the Website owners and Bloggers.Blogging is an ever growing Industry,you can live a life with some SEO

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Hackers use Which Operating System (OS) ? | Solvater.com

2011-02-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

Hackers use Which Operating System (OS) ? | Solvater.com: which Operating system is used by Hackers ?.We can’t say that particularly all Hackers are using which Operating system "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Find Invisible Friends on Yahoo Messenger | Solvater.com

2011-02-11T05:59:00.000-08:00

Find Invisible Friends on Yahoo Messenger | Solvater.com: Find your friends status on Yahoo messenger, even he kept in invisible mode you can find it easily using this free tools, not only invisible and also you can find Online, offline status also "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Google Android Tops the Smart Phone Market | Solvater.com

2011-02-10T03:41:00.000-08:00

Google Android Tops the Smart Phone Market | Solvater.com: Google Android is the open source mobile operating system, According to a survey Google has smart-phone tops the mobile operating system usage "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Tips to Promote Your Brand with Social Media | Solvater.com

2011-02-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

Tips to Promote Your Brand with Social Media | Solvater.com: Social media promotion methods and strategies, learn how-to survive the social media marketing rivals and improve your brand name and leads "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

SEO Copywriting and Editing Tips | Solvater.com

2011-02-08T21:16:00.000-08:00

SEO Copywriting and Editing Tips | Solvater.com: SEO copy editing allows you to fix the existing copy on your website pages to include more key phrases in the copy. This will make the website friendlier to the search engines and users "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Google Website Optimizer Tutorial for Small Businesses

2011-02-07T04:48:00.000-08:00

Google Website Optimizer Tutorial for Small Businesses: Google Website Optimizer tutorial for small businesses and webmasters who wants to test their advertising campaigns results and optimize them accordingly "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

LinkedIn DirectAds Advertising Techniques

2011-02-06T23:32:00.000-08:00

LinkedIn DirectAds Advertising Techniques:

LinkedIn DirectAds advertising tips and techniques for webmasters and SEO consultants, learn about social media advertising campaigns, LinkedIn tips for your advertising needs

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

5 Tips to Top on Google Local Listings

2011-02-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

5 Tips to Top on Google Local Listings: Google Local listings is the best way to get targeted visitors and leads to your website, these 5 tips will increase your business listings on top of the Google listings "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

MySpace Advertising Tips

2011-02-06T01:50:00.000-08:00

MySpace Advertising Tips:

Myspace advertising tips for webmasters and SEO consultants, learn how to play with you social media advertising campaigns, Myspace latest tips for your advertising needs

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Facebook Advertising Tips

2011-02-05T21:40:00.000-08:00

Facebook Advertising Tips:

Facebook advertising tips for webmasters and SEO consultants, learn how to play with you social media advertising campaigns, latest tips for your advertising needs

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Chrome got fastest browser in the World rank – Firefox lose #1

2011-02-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

Chrome got fastest browser in the World rank – Firefox lose #1:

Google Chrome got the #1 position in the browser wars, at last it was declared that Chrome has win the browsers war

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Must have SEO plugin for Firefox

2011-02-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

Must have SEO plugin for Firefox:

SEOQuake is a SEO plugin for Firefox browser, this is must have add-on for every webmasters, this plugin has lots of features for displaying SERP ranking for pages and many more

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Social Media Advertising Tips

2011-02-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

Social Media Advertising Tips:

Social media advertising is growing rapid fast, social networking services, with crowded audiences, are adding advertising features as they strive to compete with mainstream paid services

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

How To Build a Content-Rich Website

2011-02-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

How To Build a Content-Rich Website: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Search Engine Partner Networks and Contextual Advertising - PPC Sesstion5

2011-02-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

Search Engine Partner Networks and Contextual Advertising - PPC Sesstion5: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Ten Ways to Improve Website Traffic

2011-02-04T04:54:00.000-08:00

Ten Ways to Improve Website Traffic: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Google offering $20,000 for Chrome sandbox exploit - Pwn2Own 2011

2011-02-04T01:36:00.000-08:00

Google offering $20,000 for Chrome sandbox exploit - Pwn2Own 2011: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Top Ten Useful Facebook Applications ever

2011-02-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

Top Ten Useful Facebook Applications ever: Top ten Facebook applications, these below list of applications are most widely used by the Facebook user community "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

PPC Geographical Targeting - PPC Tutorials

2011-02-03T08:27:00.000-08:00

PPC Geographical Targeting - PPC Tutorials: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Keyword Prominence, Density, Proximity and Frequency - SEO Tips

2011-02-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

Keyword Prominence, Density, Proximity and Frequency - SEO Tips: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Top ten Web Hosting Companies Ever

2011-02-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

Top ten Web Hosting Companies Ever: Top Ten Web Hosting Companies ever,Choosing a web hosting service is a breath taking process always,if you take a wrong decision it will cost your life struggle. "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Donwload High Pagerank Website Directories list for Free

2011-02-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

Donwload High Pagerank Website Directories list for Free:

Website directories are useful in getting backlinks for your website, download the 1300+ high pagearank website directories for free

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

PPC Ad Writing Tips - Session3

2011-02-02T04:48:00.000-08:00

PPC Ad Writing Tips :

PPC Ad writing tips for beginners and professionals, learn how-to write an effective Ad in order to get high CTR and good conversions from your PPC campaign

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Auto Publish your Posts to All Bookmarking sites for Free

2011-02-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

Auto Publish your Posts to All Bookmarking sites for Free:

Auto publishing posts in all Social bookmarking sites made easy by using Onlywire application, see how to improve backlinks using social bookmarking websites

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Hack Wireless LAN Network and Grab the Passwords – Man in Middle Attack

2011-02-01T01:35:00.000-08:00

Hack Wireless LAN Network and Grab the Passwords – Man in Middle Attack: How to hack a wireless or wired LAN network using man in the middle attack, this tutorial will explain you how to implement man in the middle attack "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Some Google Fun Tricks

2011-01-31T21:23:00.000-08:00

Some Google Fun Tricks: Google is just nothing but heart of the Internet, can you imagine internet without Google. These are some Google Fun Tricks, have fun of Google "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Free Premium Wordpress Themes Download

2011-01-31T09:48:00.000-08:00

Free Premium Wordpress Themes Download:

Free Premium Wordpress themes download for small business and corporate websites, These Wordpress themes are professionally made for the business people, download free

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Download Freshlife Theme-Junkie Wordpress Theme Free

2011-01-31T03:37:00.000-08:00

Download Freshlife Theme-Junkie Wordpress Theme Free:

Freshlife is a wordpress theme developed by Theme-Junkie.This is exactly looks like My theme.I have also purchased this theme from theme-junkie.Now I have the

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Social Bookmarking Websites List [Updated]

2011-01-31T02:27:00.001-08:00

Social Bookmarking Websites List [Updated]:

Social Bookmarking websites list updated with 1000 plus social bookmarking websites, now you can create a huge backlinks for your website

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Social Bookmarking Websites List [Updated]

2011-01-31T02:27:00.000-08:00

Social Bookmarking Websites List [Updated]:

Social Bookmarking websites list updated with 1000 plus social bookmarking websites, now you can create a huge backlinks for your website

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Search Engine Optimization tips, Google, Technology & How-to Tutorials

2011-01-30T11:22:00.000-08:00

Search Engine Optimization tips, Google, Technology & How-to Tutorials:

Solvater is a community website dedicated for Webmasters to get help on Search Engine Optimization tips, Google hacks, Adsense tutorials, Technology news and blogger tutorials

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Pay per Click Advertising Tutorials [Updated] - Session2

2011-01-30T09:32:00.000-08:00

Pay per Click Advertising Tutorials [Updated] - Session2:

Pay per Click (PPC) Advertising tutorials second session, in this session learn about the major PPC providers and how to work with them, you will get the 3rd session shortly

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Local SEO for your Website

2011-01-30T04:44:00.000-08:00

Local SEO for your Website:

Optimize your website locally, a full tutorial for local SEO for your website, target only your country visitors and local search engines, this will definitely increase your SERP's

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Pay Per Click Advertising Tutorials (PPC) - Session1

2011-01-30T00:07:00.000-08:00

Pay Per Click Advertising Tutorials (PPC) - Session1: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Google Pagerank Update Of 2011

2011-01-29T12:55:00.000-08:00

Google Pagerank Update Of 2011: Google updated its PageRank values of many websites within the Google Toolbar. This is the first toolbar PR update of the year 2011, the first one in almost 9 months. "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

How to use Content Delivery Network on Shared Hosting for Wordpress

2011-01-29T12:28:00.000-08:00

How to use Content Delivery Network on Shared Hosting for Wordpress: Content Delivery Network (CDN) is an excellent idea to speed up your Website,Using CDN will definitely increase your website speed which will gives a best performance to the end users and also Search engine bots.In the previous articles I have told you about Your Website speed will affect the Search Engine Ranking. "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tips of 2011

2011-01-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tips of 2011: "- Search engine optimization is getting interested for every one, it seems to be everybody love to learn the SEO tips, in the year 2010, I wrote plenty of articles on Search engines and website optimization tricks. Now for this year 2011, I want to present a wonderful article about top ten seo tips for my pretty visitors --Sent using Google Toolbar"

Free Professional Wordpress Themes Download

2011-01-29T09:46:00.000-08:00

Free Professional Wordpress Themes Download: "These below premium WordPress themes are freely available only for solvater.com visitors, these are perfectly suitable for your small and corporate business website and also along with that you can also have a blog inside

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Social Bookmarking Websites List

2011-01-29T09:17:00.000-08:00

Social Bookmarking Websites List: "Social bookmarking websites are the best way to get a quality and high pagerank backlinks, I have already wrote a post about how to auto publish your posts to all Social Bookmarking websites.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Paypal Problems in India

2011-01-29T09:02:00.000-08:00

Paypal Problems in India: Paypal is yet to close in India ?, answer is almost yes, because recently Paypal has changed its Terms and conditions in India, this time it get worst than ever..I think Paypal is alomost shutdown in India...."- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Plustek OpticSlim M12 Reviews

2009-04-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Scanners are usually bulky, hence the Plustek OpticSlim M12 is a surprise—weighing a mere 330 grams (only the scanner), the M12 is actually portable. It is an A4 size sheet-feed scanner capable of a hardware resolution of 600 dpi. Just two buttons adorn the sleek M12, a scan button and a custom button that can be assigned any of a number of functions. The M12 is decently fast—in our test, it scanned an A4 size photograph in two minutes 15 seconds flat. Colour reproduction and clarity were good for a scanner of this size. The greyscale quality was
good, too. The sore point was the really poor quality of text in black-and-white mode: the M12 took under 20 seconds to scan our document, but the text was barely readable. The only option would be to scan documents in greyscale mode. The M12 comes bundled with a soft carry case, and can be wall mounted with the bundled kit. It retails at Rs 4,510
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A-DATA FP1 USB 2.0 Reviews

2009-04-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

If you’re overly concerned about the security of data on your thumb drive, the A-DATA FP1 USB 2.0 Flash drive is just the device for you. This 512 MB drive has biometric security features as well as password protection. The core job of securing the data is performed by the utility software that comes with the FP1, without which it is an ordinary USB drive. Install the software, swipe your index finger over the sensor to register your fingerprint, enter a password, and you’re ready to store your data. You disconnect the drive using the software. When it’s connected to another PC, you are aga in prompted to swipe your finger, or enter a password. If there’s a fingerprint mismatch, the set password overrides the biometric security. The drive is compatible with versions of Windows 2000 SP4 and above. The A-DATA FP1 USB 2.0 comes for Rs 1,300, which is decent considering the fact that it lets you sleep peacefully—if you’re habitually paranoid, that is!
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Canon Digital IXUS i zoom Reviews

2009-04-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

The Canon IXUS is an ultra-compact digicam available in four funky colours. It’s big on features, incorporating a 5-mega-pixel sensor, 2.4x optical / 4x digital zoom, integrated flash, and auto-focus. It features 16 shooting modes, PictBridge, and a one- touch print/share button. Video recording is possible at 640 x 480 at up to 10 fps. The excellent 1.8-inch TFT is crystal-clear, the interface is intuitive and the photographs crisp. The IXUS features a docking station that works as a charger for the inbuilt Lithium-ion battery, and also connects to the PC via USB 2.0. The inbuilt flash is good enough, but the effective range is only about two metres. Shutter lag makes shooting moving objects a problem. The IXUS has no internal memory, and comes with a paltry 16 MB MMC card. We recommend at least 256 MB, so add that to the camera’s price if you want to buy it.
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MSI MEGA 533 MP3 Player Reviews

2009-04-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

MSI has just launched a Flash-based MP3 (and WMA) player—the MEGA PLAYER 533 SD. The clincher is the SD (Secure Digital) card reader—you only need to insert the card to start playing songs from it! It has its own 256 MB of internal memory, accessible from a PC via USB. The
player can also be used as a portable USB device; it can also function as an SD card reader for your PC! You can record FM—or a speech—directly to memory! There is also a graphic equaliser. The build quality of the casing is a let-down, and the earphones seemed a little uncomfortable and oversized. The AAA alkaline cell lasted for about eight hours, as claimed. For the price, this is not a bad buy at all!
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ASUS EAX1800XT TOP Reviwes

2009-04-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

The ASUS EAX1800XT TOP is based on ATI’s new-gun-in-town—the X1800XT chip. This Shader Model 3.0-compliant card brings a new degree of realism to games due to its support for HDR. It comes equipped with a core clocked at 700 MHz and 512 MB of DDR3 memory at 1.6 GHz—both of which are higher than the stock speeds. The card is quite large, and occupies two slots on your motherboard. Its higher power requirements are taken care of by the bundled external power supply. The card is a remarkably silent performer. The EAX1800XT proved its worth by scoring 10,330 and 4926 in 3DMark05 and 3DMark06 respectively—the best we have seen so far. Extreme performance was also noticeable in graphics-heavy games such as Doom 3 and Half-life 2 even when played at the highest graphics settings. ASUS has bundled a force-feedback game controller as well as some good software, along with games such as King Kong. The ASUS EAX1800XT is a great performer, and not too expensive for hardcore gamers with a price tag of Rs 42,120.
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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Reviews

2009-04-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

The X-Fi is Creative’s latest offering. X-Fi stands for eXtreme Fidelity sound, and this is made possible by the use of a Cirrus Logic 24-bit DAC and an audiophile-grade SNR ratio of 116 db. Its USP is a really fast audio processor with 51 million transistors capable of delivering over 30,000 MIPS of processing speed, making it 24 times more powerful than its predecessor from the Audigy series. This power is harnessed in Creative’s proprietary 24-bit Crystallizer, which essentially up-samples audio to 24-bit/ 96 kHz to improve sound quality. This is a godsend for MP3, and while we were testing, we found that the card fished out more details from our test MP3 collection than did the Audigy 2 card. The X-Fi Elite Pro we received for preview was fully-loaded with a well-designed ergonomic remote and an external I/O module, housing every possible interconnect any audiophile would wish for. This is interfaced with the sound card using a special 26-pin cable called the AD link. The components used on the cards are of premium quality, which is evident from the clicking sound that the high grade relays make when changing modes. The 400 MHz processor along with other processing elements like the DAC, SRC (Sample Rate Converter), filter, mixer, etc., allows a staggering 4,096 audio channels, and up to eight simultaneous real-time effects. This, paired with ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output), translates into zero processor overhead for frequency conversion. This is a welcome inclusion, as Creative was facing a lot of flak from audiophiles because the older Audigy line of cards resampled all frequencies by default into 48 kHz. The X-Fi, however, sports true hardware 24-bit 96 kHz audio playback for up to 7.1 discrete channels and 192 kHz for digital stereo playback. This card is especially a boon for gamers due to the onboard 64 MB X-Ram, which allows an audio buffer for storing uncompressed audio samples reducing quality loss and consequent CPU overhead. Desktop audio professionals, too, have a lot to be thankful for, with 96/24 audio mastering and editing quality, along with 24-bit sound fonts and the 3D Midi feature, with the ability to interface midi devices with the card. Our verdict: in terms of audio quality, the Creative X-Fi’s onboard DAC and Dolby and DTS decoders are capable of providing a high- quality movie experience. The sheer quality, power, and real- time audio editing will appeal to gamers, home theatre enthusiasts and audio professionals alike. Quite simply, this is the best piece of computer audio hardware you can buy right now.
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Western Digital Raptor X WD1500ADFD Reviews

2009-04-03T05:34:00.000-07:00

Finally, a hard drive for gaming enthusiasts—combining pure performance and innovative looks that will drive PC modders crazy. Western Digital’s Raptor X WD1500ADFD has a clear top—allowing you to peek inside the drive while it toils. At 10000 rpm, this is the world’s fastest SATA 150 drive. NCQ enables high data transfer speeds in multi-processor, multi-threaded
environments. RAFF technology prevents the drive’s performance suffering due to vibrations. This drive performs very silently. 75 MBps in the sequential data transfer test makes this drive the fastest we have tested so far—this means games loading faster. The cost of Rs 17,500 is not a surprise for such high performance devices, but that is still too much for just 150 GB.
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Motorola L6 Reviews

2009-04-03T05:22:00.000-07:00

The Motorola L6, a tri-band phone, is the slimmest candybar phone to have hit the shelves. At 11.3 x 4.9 x 1.0 cm, the L6 is slim; however, it’s a little too long, and this might hamper its pocketability. Though the body panels are metallic, the L6 feels fragile, and dropping it could prove fatal. The ergonomics is spot on—the keys have an excellent feel. But the user interface
is typical Motorola—unintuitive! Also, the display screen is not as vibrant as those on the latest phones from other manufacturers. The phone has only a VGA camera, and can shoot video,
but the anaemic camera ruins the fun. Features and the software bundle have taken a backseat to style, but surprisingly, the L6 is Bluetooth-enabled. A mini USB port on the side allows wired data transfer, and also doubles up as the power jack. The L6 has about 10 MB of onboard memory, and there’s no memory card support. Performance-wise, signal reception was pretty good, and the battery kept the phone alive for two days. At Rs 8,905, the L6 hits the sweet spot on the pricing front. If you’re on a limited budget and want a stylish phone, the Motorola L6 is perfect.
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Samsung SGH-D600 Reviews

2009-04-03T05:12:00.000-07:00

The successor to Samsung’s D500, the D600 quad-band GPRS phone retains the slider form factor. It’s a little more elegant, and has upgraded features in addition to a few new ones. The colour combination is a shiny black and dark grey, and the matte finish makes for easy grip. Featured here is a vibrant 240 x 320 pixel, 262K-colour TFT (QVGA) screen. The camera gets an upgrade to 2 megapixels; there’s no auto- focus, but picture quality is still good at higher
settings—it’s not so good at 800 x 600, though. The camera has a flash and a self-portrait mode, along with some software features such as multi-shot and mosaic. The quality of recorded video with sound is simply outstanding; however, the quality of the sound from the stereo speakers isn’t extraordinary. The inbuilt MP3 player is easy to use, but the phone doesn’t feature radio. It does feature Bluetooth, though. Using the not-so-common TV-out feature, the phone can be interfaced with a TV via the bundled A/V cable. Once connected, the TV screen displays the phone interface, which switches to full-screen when you launch the file viewer or the camera. You can also listen to MP3 tracks through the TV speakers. Another unique feature is Bluetooth printing to a compliant printer. The D600 supports popular file formats, so you can open files such as Word and Excel documents and PDFs on it. Inbuilt memory is 55 MB, and an external 64 MB TransFlash (MicroSD) card comes bundled. As for the phone interface, it’s quite intuitive. Nokia users should be able to adapt easily. The slider can be operated with one hand—this is a better design than Samsung’s typical clamshell models. The only thing that you may need a little getting used to is typing messages. Also, the T9 needs a little improvement. The D600 does feel a little overpriced, considering you can get a W800i for roughly the same amount—and the latter comes with a half-gigabyte external memory stick. But still, there are features on this device that you might not find on other phones, at least not in the models urrently available here.
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Zebronics GeForce Case 2 Reviews

2009-04-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

The Zebronics GeForce Case 2 a.k.a. the ZEB-GF2 is a gamer’s PC cabinet. It’s got an alienish look, replete with two eyes that glow when it’s powered up! It’s an ATX cabinet with two 3.5 inch bays and four 5.25 inch bays. Zebronics has implemented a screw- less fitting design for easy and convenient assembly of drives in the drive bays. Airflow and cooling considerations have been taken into account in this spacious cabinet—it provides a 12 cm fan at the rear in
addition to a Prescott duct and PCI vent on the side panel. The USB and audio ports are on the front of the cabinet for easy access. The cabinet, made from SECC material has a rugged build quality, which complements its good looks. Zebronics has also provided a 400 W 24-pin power supply that is enough for a non-SLI gaming machine. Since Zebronics is the official SLI Partner of nVidia, the cabinet bears an nVidia logo which—you guessed it—glows when the cabinet is powered on! All taken into account, we liked this product.
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Planon Docupen Reviews

2009-04-03T04:47:00.000-07:00

The Planon Docupen looks like a pen—it’s just a little larger, but is, in fact, a portable scanner. It is built on a line scanner element. You can scan full pages of text and graphics at a rate of 4 or 8 seconds per page in Standard and High- Resolution mode respectively. To scan, you need to press the button on the scanner and swipe it across the page—simple enough! The onboard red LED glows when the scanning speed is too high. It does require a bit of practice to obtain scans of acceptable quality. The inbuilt 2 MB of Flash memory can store about 100 pages of text, and its LEDs indicate the available memory. The accompanying ScanSoft PaperPort software allows you to download scanned images to the PC. The Docupen weighs just over 50 gm, and comes in a leather pouch. What we didn’t like about the Docupen is that it has a maximum scan resolution of only 200 dpi. Besides, being hand-held, the scans are never as accurate as you’d want them to be. Also, the scans are only in black and white. Rs 8,500 for this product is high, considering the negatives. You might want it only if you often scan while on the move
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Lenovo ThinkPad Z60t Reviews

2009-04-03T04:32:00.000-07:00

The first ThinkPads to feature widescreen LCDs, the Z series from Lenovo moves away from their strictly business styling for notebooks. The Z60t is a thin and light model in the range, and weighs a little less than 2 kg. Featuring a 14-inch widescreen LCD, the Z60t comes with an option of covers— black or titanium. The titanium special-edition cover provides added durability and a scratch-resistant finish. Powered by an Intel Pentium M 760J processor running at 2 GHz on a 915GM chipset and complemented by 512MB of DDR2 memory, the Z60t runs most standard applications with ease. An 80 GB 5400 rpm SATA hard drive provides ample storage space. Other features include an integrated DVD-RAM drive, keyboard light and SD card reader. Connectivity options include gigabit LAN, a 56K modem, Wi-Fi, Infrared and Bluetooth. Available ports include 3 x USB, FireWire, PC card slot, VGA, S-Video and audio jacks. The full-sized keyboard features new multimedia keys, along with touchpad and pointing stick options for pointer control. Security and protection features include a biometric fingerprint reader and Active Protection System for protecting data. The Z60t comes with Windows XP Professional with applications such as Rescue & Recovery, Client Security Solution, and ThinkVantage Productivity Center preloaded. You also receive a three-year global warranty. The laptop scored 21.3 in Business Winstone and 3,437 in PCMark 2004, which are above average; this means day-to-day applications will run faster. Battery life is over two hours
with DVD playback. This laptop is, overall, a very decent performer: with great looks, useful features and a host of security options, the Lenovo Z60t is worth the money
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Logitech G5 Laser Mouse Reviews

2009-04-03T04:23:00.000-07:00

Part of the gaming series from Logitech, the G5 is a corded laser mouse sporting Logitech’s new colour combination—a mixture of brick-red, silver and smoke black. The rugged feel and
rough texture makes for perfect grip. The mouse is designed to neatly fit into the palm of a right-hander, with a nice groove on the left for the thumb—but we do think it may be a little too big for those with smaller palms. The G5 is very light, and speaking of weight, it comes with eight little weights—of 4.5 gm and 1.7 gm—which you can add to a small removable tray at the base
to attain the right weight for your gaming comfort! Installing drivers for the mouse is not essential, as almost all the buttons function as they should even without driver installation.If you install the drivers, a lot of features can be controlled via the Logitech SetPoint utility that comes with the drivers. Apart from the usual buttons, the scroll wheel can also be used as a button—you could, for instance, use the button to enable page zooming, and then move the scroll up or down to zoom in or out respectively. There’s also a button just above the thumb groove—we wish there were two! Two buttons would not only enhance Web site navigation, but could also be configured for various gaming actions. The mouse sensitivity can be increased or decreased on the fly using two tiny buttons just below the scroll. Higher sensitivity suits fast FPS games such as Unreal Tournament, and decreasing the sensitivity while using a sniper will bag more ‘head shots.’ The sensitivity presets are 400 dpi, 800 dpi, and a max of 2,000 dpi. But using the SetPoint utility that the driver installs, you can change the sensitivity settings. You can add two user-defined sensitivity levels in between 400 to 800 dpi and 800 to 2,000 dpi. The G5 scores high for the level of customisation it provides, but at the end of the day, it is an expensive mouse
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Asus W1S00 Reviews

2009-04-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

The Asus W1S00 laptop is the first laptop featuring a TV-Tuner to have arrived at our Test Centre. Specifications include an Intel Pentium M 1700 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, a 60 GB hard drive, and a Combo drive. The vibrant 15.4-inch 16:9 wide screen has a WXGA+ resolution of 1680 x 1050 and good viewing angles. The 64 MB ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics card makes for a good gaming laptop. Almost all the connections are on the left - USB 2.0, LAN, phone jack, PCMCIA, FireWire, and the input to the TV-Tuner. There’s also a multi-card reader that reads SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro cards, as well as Wi-Fi and IR. The remote control is tucked inside the PCMCIA slot, where its Li-Ion battery charges; it can be pulled out when needed. The remote works with the bundled Asus Mobile Theatre, a media centre application. The sound system consists of two speakers and a subwoofer hidden on the bottom surface. The bundled earphones help realise the 4.1 sound mode, and the sound quality is commendably good for a laptop. However, the W1S00 is below par when it comes to office applications, and battery life is a relatively low 85 minutes.
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MSI MegaView 588 Reviews

2009-04-03T02:35:00.000-07:00

The MSI MegaView 588 is a great personal entertainer. The 3.5-inch, wide view angle QVGA LCD provides vivid video playback. It supports WMV, WMA, MPEG-4, DivX, WAV, MP3, JPEG and GIF. MSI has also provided a transcoding utility to convert videos into formats playable on the player. The device sports a 20 GB hard disk, a recorder function that allows you to record videos in MPEG-4, a microphone to record short memos, and an FM tuner. It is also equipped with USB 2.0 On-The-Go, and an SD/MMC card reader. The Li-Ion rechargeable battery lasted us 3.5 hours with video and six hours with audio playback. The audio quality of the earphones is acceptable, and sound from the inbuilt speaker is exceptionally clear.
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XFX GeForce 7600GS 256MB DDR2 DUAL DVI TV Xtreme Edition Reviews

2009-04-02T07:17:00.000-07:00

Yet another 7600GS-based card! This Xtreme Edition card comes with 256 MB of VRAM, and is XFX’s latest offering to the mid-range market. The core has been factory- tweaked—hence the “Xtreme” tag—to 500 MHz, making it identical to the faster but architecturally similar 7600GT. This is one cool looking card: the PCB has a matte black finish, and both DVI connectors are a
fluorescent green, matching XFX’s brand colours (green and black). The black heat-sink is powder coated, with nothing getting in the way of cooling. It managed a good job at cooling, and we never saw the temperature climb beyond the late 50s. The heat sink itself, however, gets much hotter than the two cards reviewed earlier. Owing to the faster core, this card was expected to perform better than the other 7600GS cards, and it didn’t disappoint: it led the other two cards by a minimum of 10 fps in our tests. The card also handled Far Cry beautifully with HDR off. At a resolution of 1600 x 1200 with 8x AF and 8x AA, the card managed a commendable 55.75 fps. At normal settings, F.E.A.R saw 62 fps—very, very playable for a mid-range card. The card comes with a decent bundle: Starship Troopers (a mediocre game), two DVI to D-Sub converters, and all the cables necessary to get you going
Specifications:
NVIDIA GeForce 7600GS chipset, 256 MB DDR2 RAM, core speed 500 MHz, SM 3.0
support, NVIDIA’s Cine FX 4.0...

Logitech Quickcam Image Reviews

2009-04-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Aslim form factor and an easy clip-on mounting makes this a practical Webcam to carry around with laptops. The Quickcam is very touchy on the lighting front. Normal room lighting simply won’t do! You need to have light focused on you to get rid of the “dots” that mar the image. Increasing the brightness does not help either. Thankfully, the driver comes with an option to optimise capture for low-light conditions—and this works well, brightening up the image to acceptable levels without adding dots. The downside is that this option drops frame rates, making even slow movements appear blurred. This will not concern most users though, as real-time relay via Webcams is near-impossible with the Internet speeds we have here in India. On the upside, the camera has a 1.3-megapixel still image capture (with a dedicated button), and quality is good when the lighting is strong enough. The focus adjustment can help you attain clarity for anywhere between half a foot and 10 feet.
Specifications:
1280 x 960 (1.3 MP) still image capture, 640 x 480 video capture, CMOS sensor, fits
notebooks easily, inbuilt microphone ...

Victorinox Swiss Pen Drive 128 MB Reviews

2009-04-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

It’s a pen, it’s a pen-knife, with a nail file and screwdriver all bundled into one! And it’s from the same world- renowned manufacturer (Victorinox) of Swiss Army knives. The Victorinox pen drive is excellently built, and the fit and finish is top-of-the-line. Not only is the pen drive extremely well built, the other accessories retain their utility, and are not just part of the show. The knife, for example is very sharp, and it is quite suitable for minor cutting jobs. The screwdriver is sturdily built, well integrated with the device, and can be used even on the
most stubborn of screws. This pen drive also has a small red LED that can be activated by pressing on the Victorinox logo embossed on the body. Even swapping of batteries is easily achieved—all you need to do it insert a clip from one side into the small orifice on the side, and the battery slides out from the opposite side. In order to clean the device, you can remove the pen drive and battery components, and then dip the rest in warm water-this is actually recommended in the manual, and speaks volumes about the build quality. Coming to performance, the pen drive is blazingly fast! No doubt about it: it’s much faster than nearly all the other pen drives we’ve tested. During regular usage, we copied 16 MB of data, and even before the file copy dialog box could appear, the data was done copying! This is a really well-built pen drive and offers top-of- the-line performance as well as features. Rs 3,250 might seem like a steep price for a pen drive, but this is Victorinox, for heaven’s sake! It’s a collectors item, and a device you’d like to show off.
Specifications:
128 MB, USB 2.0 interface, contains utility tools—pen-knife, screwdriver-cum-nail-file, scissors, LED light with swappable battery...

Gigabyte GV-NX76G256D-RH Reviews

2009-04-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

Here’s another card based on NVIDIA’s 7600GS chipset, with 256 megabytes of video memory onboard. The Gigabyte GV-NX76G256D- RH is clearly positioned at the discerning buyer who wants a clear combination of value and performance without compromise. The graphics core and memory modules are passively cooled, that is, with only a heat sink, no fan, and a metal plate on the back to aid cooling. The heat sink has a heat pipe attachment, and the heat sink is buff-finished, which aids in dissipation— unlike powder-coated heat sinks, which trap heat instead. Needless to say, we didn’t find any stability issues due to heat through our barrage of tests. The Gigabyte 7600GS turned out to be a good performer, and returned scores that were either on par or slightly better than those of other 7600GS- based cards. This card comes with a three-year warranty, costs Rs 10,000, and comes bundled with Serious Sam 2 and Power DVD 6—very nice. You will also find all the connectors you need, and good-quality ones!
Specifications:
128 MB, USB 2.0 interface, contains utility tools—pen- knife, screwdriver-cum-nail-file, scissors, LED light with swappable battery...

Forsa 7600GS Reviews

2009-04-02T06:17:00.000-07:00

Anew name in the graphics card market in India, Forsa’s 7600GS is based around NVIDIA’s mid-level 7 series chipset, the 7600GS. Like the mighty 7900 GTX, this chip, too, is manufactured using NVIDIA’s latest 90 nm fabrication process. The core is clocked at a sedate 400 MHz, while the 256 MB of GDDR2 memory is clocked at 800 MHz. The 7600GS is an underclocked variant of the 7600 GT core, the successor of the much-acclaimed 6600 GT. This, coupled with the 12 pixel shader / 5 vertex shader architecture, means that this card is reasonably well equipped to run all but the most demanding games (such as F.E.A.R and Oblivion), and at all but the most demanding resolutions. The 7600GS chipset fully supports Shader model 3.0, coupled with NVIDIA’s Cine FX 4.0. All this means you won’t miss out on the
eye candy, and can crank up the visuals to high settings in most games. The card is nicely laid out with a decent cooler and silent fan combo, which keeps temperatures in check efficiently.
The Forsa 7600GS performed decently in our tests—43-odd frames in DOOM 3 at 1024 x 768 at ultra high settings with 4x Anti-Aliasing enabled is not by any means bad. The card
does take a hit with AA and AF enabled, and as the Far Cry test shows, enabling newer features
such as HDR (High Dynamic Range) will further take a toll. For the gamer on a budget who can do without the over-the-top eye candy like AA and HDR, you’ll be rewarded with some sweet frame rates, and since you only shell out Rs 6,700, the deal’s sweet. We were impressed by the frames we got in F.E.A.R, very decent for such a card, since this game engine brings even the fastest cards down to a crawl! Forsa is a little skimpy on the bundled contents though—no games, and only a single S-Video connector. For a mid-range card, we’d have appreciated at least one full-version game
Specifications:
NVIDIA GeForce 7600GS chipset, 256 MB DDR2 memory, core speed 400 MHz, SM 3.0 support, NVIDIA’s Cine FX 4.0...

eConceal Pro Firewall Reviews

2009-04-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

eConceal Firewall is a software firewall from MicroWorld, the makers of eScan Antivirus. Whenever an application tries to access the Internet, eConceal prompts you with options as to whether that application is to be permitted to do so. You can create a rule to allow this application to always access the Internet, or block it permanently. eConceal can be configured for packet-level filtering as well. In addition to the powerful user-defined rules, you can choose from preset rules created for different applications such as e-mail, FTP, chat clients, etc. The software supports port monitoring and alerts you in case of unauthorised intrusion attempts. The attacker’s IP is automatically banned, and he can no longer attack using that port. You can surf invisibly— eConceal can be configured to only let in that content from the Web that you request. Other features include a pop-up blocker, parental controls to block porn sites (which can also be used by enterprises to block non-business Web sites), a graphical real-time report of network traffic, and password protection. A no-frills firewall that gets the job done!
Specifications:
Application and packet-level filtering, user-defined and preset rules, port monitoring, stealth surfing, pop-up blocker, parental controls, real-time traffic...

Creative DiViCAM 525D Reviews

2009-04-02T05:50:00.000-07:00

Creative’s DiViCAM 525D can moonlight as a video camera, a still camera, an MP3 player, a video player, a sound recorder, and even as a Web cam. All this in a package that fits perfectly in your palm. The screen neatly folds into the side, and turns on the camera when opened. This “multi-cam” has a 5 MP CCD. The 2.5-inch LCD screen is bright and has good colour reproduction. A proprietary motion stabiliser means jerk-free video. With a Kingston 1 GB SD card in the bay, the Creative 525D promises 1 hr 27 minutes of video, or 415 photos at the highest resolution settings. Video quality is amazing, considering that this is an all-in-one solution, even under artificial light, and audio quality was equally good. A true camcorder will give you better results though. Photo quality was average, both indoors and outdoors. The flash
is powerful enough to give you clear shots in the dark. As a media player, it was brilliant, and
played videos and MP3s without any distortion. This gadget is well- uited for users who want a single thing that can do it all. For those who are looking for a real handycam, we don’t recommend this one—get an entry level camcorder from Sony or JVC instead
Specifications:
5 MP still photo, videos at 640 x 480 at 30 fps, 8x digital zoom, 2.5-inch LCD viewfinder, video format: AVI, audio formats: MP3 and WAV, 32 MB internal memory, SD card support,
USB 2.0...

Kodak EasyShare P880 Reviews

2009-04-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

The mighty 8MP Kodak EasyShare P880 boasts of a fantastic mix of features. The sensor apart, the P880 has a superb wide-angle 24-140 mm lens. This allows taking close-ups and zoom shoots equally well. Fitted with optics from Schneider-Kreuznach, it offers manual zoom as well as a mechanically-linked focus ring. The ergonomics is spot on. Holding the camera is a little difficult, though. The body is completely made of plastic, but the P880 exudes a sturdy feel. The five-way joystick is just fantastic, and so is the mode dial—both of them can be easily operated via a simple flick of the thumb. The large 2.5-inch LCD is a crisp display, though the resolution could have been a little better. The 1700 mAH Li-ion battery lasts long enough for over 200 shots. The P880 comes with 32 MB of onboard memory, which can be expanded using the SD slot. What’s really special about the pseudo-SLR P880 is the sheer number of features Kodak has cramped in, most of which are traditionally found on SLRs. A live histogram is one such very useful feature. The ability to save files directly in TIFF and RAW gives the P880 an edge. Apart from the Auto mode, the P880 comes with complete manual, aperture priority, shutter priority and preset scene modes. Macro and super macro modes allow you to shoot subjects as close as 5 cm away. Dedicated buttons for white balance, ISO, flash, and focus let you change these parameters easily. Colour saturation is near perfect—a Kodak trait—no traces of any colour noise at ISO 50. Focusing was sharp; in low light conditions, the focusing seems to be searching, but the occurrence of this problem is rare enough to ignore. Close-ups were astounding—sharp focus and good depth. Flash performance couldn’t be better, at least for a camera in this range. At Rs 26,999, the Kodak EasyShare P880 is definitely worth the money. But hang on—what the P880 lacks is an image stabiliser, and that leaves some scope for looking at similarly-priced cameras from Panasonic, such as the FZ-30. For wide-angle shoots, the P880 is undeniably the best camera in its class.
Specifications:
8.0 megapixel, 24 mm - 140 mm, 5.8x optical zoom, 2.5” LCD, 32 MB internal memory,
SD/MMC card slot, video capture: 640 x 480 at 30 fps, 320 x 240 at 30 fps...

Aiptek mini PocketDV 8900 Reviews

2009-04-02T05:35:00.000-07:00

The Aiptek mini PocketDV 8900 is a compact, pocket-able DV camera. The body is made of plastic, and does not appear very rugged. The 2-inch swivel LCD is of no use on outdoor
shoots—it is almost impossible to view in daylight. Video capture resolution is only 640 x 480 at 30 fps, so forget about capturing DVD-quality movies. But the videos weren’t that bad, after all. It can capture still photos at up to 5 MP, which can be interpolated to 10 MP— but the quality was nowhere near even what a 3 MP camera delivers: too much noise. There is no optical zoom, but thankfully, the autofocus works very well. The PocketDV can also play MP3 and WAV, ASF video, and can display JPEG photos. You can even record voice and use the voice-canceling feature to turn it into a Karaoke machine. It can also be used as a Web cam. The 22 MB of inbuilt Flash memory is insufficient, but an SD/MMC card slot is provided to augment storage capacity.
The 8900 comes bundled with loads of accessories. A remote is provided, and so are cables to connect it to a TV. A carry pouch and a pair of earphones are also comes along. Aiptek even included an almost-unusable mini tripod. The bundled software suite from ArcSoft is decent
Specifications:
5 MP still photo, videos at 640 x 480 at 30 fps, 2-inch LCD viewfinder, video format: ASF, audio formats: MP3 and WAV, 22 MB internal memory, SD/MMC card support...

Philips HTS3105 Reviews

2009-04-02T05:04:00.000-07:00

How thoughful of Philips to include a 6 channel speaker setup with their new HTS3105 DVD player. Yes! its another bundle product, meaning you have a surround sound setup to watch those DVD’s right out of the box. Supporting multiple video and audio formats this sturdy looking player is suitably feature rich (remote control, FM radio). The 500W RMS speakers distort slightly at higher volumes (above 75 per cent). The subwoofer is decent, but lacks the depth necessary to go really low. The satellites deliver decent reproduction throughout the spectrum, but can’t handle high volumes at all. The overall sound experience was, to sum it up, a touch weak considering the on-paper specifications. Our test DVD movies did sound good, but only at lower volumes. Overall a mediocre product, simply because at 14,999, (its price), you can easily buy a DVD player and good set of 5.1 speakers. Even the inclusion of FM doesn’t do too much to sweeten the deal. Go for this only if you want the convenience of everything in one package.
Specifications:
Player: DVD/DivX/VCD/Music (multi-format) player, FM/AM radio inbuilt. Speakers: 5.1 surround, 500 W RMS (4 x 75 W + centre 100 W + subwoofer 100 W)...

Kaspersky Internet Security 6 Reviews

2009-04-02T04:56:00.000-07:00

With Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS), the anti-virus pioneer now offers a complete security solution for your PC. KIS consists of the trusty anti- virus, anti-spyware, anti- spam, firewall, and a proactive defence system. It has a very simple and neat interface that lets you tweak it to your satisfaction. The powerful file scanner is highly customisable. It skips files that have remained unchanged since the last scan, speeding up scanning. The e-mail scanner supports most popular POP3 and IMAP e-mail clients. E-mail scanning is excellent, and in our test, it eliminated all suspicious attachments. The anti- spam feature is also good; identification of false positives can be reduced to a great extent by training the spam filter. Anti-hacker, the firewall, blocks attacking IPs and bans the address for a certain period of time. Anti-Hacker puts all system ports into stealth mode, in effect making the PC invisible to the outside world. Virus definitions are updated very fast, almost once every hour. KIS is light on system esources, except when certain applications try to access the Net. A one-year license costs $59.95 (Rs 2,850) and has a “No risk, no questions asked” money-back guarantee...

Pinnacle-to-go Reviews

2009-04-02T04:50:00.000-07:00

Pinnacle-to-go is an external TV-Tuner that sports a flashy, diamond- shaped look. Picture quality is very good, with little noise. Thanks to the S-Video input, Pinnacle-to-go makes it easy to capture, preserve and enhance AV content from analogue and digital camcorders, digital cameras, and even TV. With the bundled Pinnacle Studio QuickStart, video editing is easy. The Pinnacle MediaCenter PVR software turns your ordinary PC into a Media Center PC, complete with a full-function remote control. Convert analogue video footage, photos, and TV shows to digital. You can also edit videos and add exciting effects and music. To top it all, you can encode video to a variety of formats to be able to watch it on a DVD Player, Apple iPod, Sony PSP, or TV. Creating DVDs from home videos to give your friends and family has never been easier. The high- speed USB interface provides for easy connectivity to the PC. The only feature missing is the ability to connect directly to a CRT, but we’re not complaining
Specifications:
TV signal: PAL, NTSC, SECAM; connecting ports: Coaxial, S-Video; recording formats (TV-Tuner): MPEG-1/2/4, DivX; software video formats: Input: DV, AVI, MPEG-1/2/4, DivX,
WMV, non-encrypted DVD; Output: VCD, SVCD, DVD, DV, AVI, DivX, RealVideo 8, WMV9,
MPEG-1/2/4...

Apple iPod Nano 4 GB Reviews

2009-04-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

The new iPod nano features a vivid LCD screen—useful for viewing photos. Its good looks are backed up by the superbly intuitive interface, driven by the ergonomic click-wheel. It is Flash memory-based, which means skip-free music and a tremendous saving on battery power—it played for almost 15 hours, which is actually better than the claimed battery life. The bundled earphones need serious looking into— though the treble is crisp, the bass is disappointing even with the bass booster on. Also, there is no FM radio or voice recorder. It appears as a USB mass storage device when you connect it to your PC, so you can carry around your data. The rated capacity is 4 GB, but it only gives you 3.7 GB—the rest is for the firmware. You need iTunes to transfer songs to the playlist. Frills include Outlook address book synching, games, and a stopwatch. Get a good set of earphones and you won’t regret having bought this one.
Specifications:
4 GB Flash memory; audio format: AAC; 1.5-inch colour LCD; earphones; USB 2.0 dock...

A-DATA Oriental Elite 512 MB Reviews

2009-04-02T04:24:00.000-07:00

A-DATA is a well-known name in computer memory and Flash drives. The Oriental Elite is a family of fast Flash drives with an artistic touch and customisable design. As the name suggests, the design of the drive is very “oriental,” and you can slide the plastic casing out and change the faceplate to your liking—it comes with two different faceplates you can use. This drive comes bundled with a USB extension cable and a mini- CD with utilities that let you format the drive, allocate partitions, and set a password for security. This is the fastest Flash drive we have tested thus far! It took just 8 seconds to copy a 100 MB file using the USB 2.0 interface. At a price of $21 (Rs 990), this is a perfect gift for tech-savvy art fans.
Specifications:
512 MB capacity; USB 2.0 interface...

GeForce 8800GTX Reviews

2009-04-02T03:40:00.000-07:00

The NVIDIA G80 (8800GTX), with 128 Shader units, is the first DirectX 10 compatible graphics card ever. The card sports an attractive-looking cooling solution well in keeping with such a large card (it’s 11 inches long). Testing saw the card running a bit hotter than the G70 and G71 series. It ran at 80 degrees under load; the G71 had rarely crossed the 60 degree mark! The G80 has 768 MB of GDDR3 memory (1.8 GHz). F.E.A.R. saw a staggering 150 fps at 1024 x 768 with 4x Antialiasing (AA) and Anisotropic Filtering (AF) enabled. Similarly, Prey saw just over 202 fps at 1280 x 1024, at the highest settings. For now, this is the fastest DirectX 9 card ever! Did we mention it supports SLI as well as Quad SLI? ATI’s response— the R600 is highly anticipated, and if it’s anywhere in the performance region of the G80, we should be getting a lot more realism in our games a whole lot sooner than we could’ve imagined
Specifications:
681 million transistors; 128 shader units (Unified Shader Architecture); 575 MHz core speed; 1350 MHz Shader speed; 1800 MHz memory speed (GDDR3); 384-bit memory architecture...

CAD-KAS PDF Editor 2.6 Reviews

2009-04-02T03:32:00.000-07:00

The need for a PDF Editor usually means you end up buying a copy of Adobe Acrobat. There are a few paid applications to do the same task. CAD-KAS’s PDF Editor 2.4 is one such application among a few other emerging ones. The interface is modular; it allows you to add and remove or even move panels around. It is a little cluttered, with the top end of the window taken up by the two toolbars and the tab bar, which are used to do the majority of the tasks—opening, editing, exporting, etc. Although looks aren’t a priority in software such as this, six menu colour schemes have been included as a way to improve the cluttered UI. One can change pretty much everything in an existing PDF file. Text, images, and even complete pages can be edited and moved about. New additions can be made easily in the same manner. Images in PDFs can be edited using the inbuilt image editor— which looks like MS Paint, but is a lot more advanced in features. A scanner can be used to add new pages. Bookmarks can be set, and existing ones deleted if required. CAD-KAS PDF Editor allows you to save PDF files in different PDF ersions, and also encrypt and protect them from being edited or even viewed if required. One of the missing features is the ability to export a Web page into the PDF format. Exporting to Word files and text files is supported, though. The way you use the software is a little different from what you’re used to. You need to first select the tool and then select the text or image that you’re trying to alter. Double-clicking doesn’t enable any kind of editing mode. There is no live preview of all the tasks done—on images for example. Users will take a while to get used to all this. The help file has sketchy documentation with the most basic explanations, and contains just a few screenshots. CAD-KAS PDF Editor skimps on some of the features Acrobat gives you, but it is way cheaper—just $79. Ignore the tiny missing features, and it’s a great tool for anyone who needs to create documentation or distribute important documents...

Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 Reviews

2009-04-02T03:24:00.000-07:00

Kaspersky is another one of the many anti-virus makers that’s gone the complete Internet security system way—not a bad thing. It’s known to be a resource hog, so we checked if anything had improved with this edition. The suite takes care of all your security worries—files, mail, system network security, etc. All the basic controls for the components can be accessed from the main two-pane layout window. Modifying settings means you go to another window which houses all the settings for the components, and there are plenty of them. The core anti-virus feature is standard and allows you to scan files and folders along with boot sectors, Registry, memory, startup programs, etc. The Anti-spam has a nifty training feature that learns by looking at mails in your mailbox through a Wizard to provide more accurate spam protection. The firewall monitors for incoming and outgoing threats and notifies you immediately. Any attacks targeted at your computer can be set to have the attacker’s machine blocked for a set period of time. The firewall also takes care of the blocking of ad banners and pop-ups from Web sites as well. The parental control is useful in not only stopping access to inappropriate sites, but also in setting limitations on time spent at the computer and on the Internet. User accounts on Windows can be set to Parent, Teenager, or Child and by default, all users are set to Child. Strictness of all the features can be adjusted using a slider. At the same time, manual changes can be made. This is especially useful for spam filtering, parental control and the firewall. Heuristic scanning is available in most of the modules, but not enabled in all of them by default. The help file doesn’t carry any screenshots, but the explanation is adequate and easy to understand. Kaspersky’s Internet Security Suite is a pretty good choice for anyone looking for a complete security solution—it’s right up there with the best security suites money can buy. There are no missing features, and everything is implemented well. New users might be a little confused by all the terms and huge list of options, though ...

Brother MFC-5460CN Reviews

2009-04-02T03:16:00.000-07:00

Print, scan, fax, copy and get photo prints all at a great price—seem impossible? Well, the Brother MFC-5460CN seems to be what you are looking for—at least at first look. Like all Brother MFDs, this one sports a no-nonsense, office look, with rugged build. It is quite small. At the front is a two-line, backlit LCD indicator that reports a lot of data and also lets you access the control panel menu. The input paper tray can accommodate 100 pages—just enough for a small to medium office—and the 35-page ADF tray is foldable. The printer sports a resolution of 6000 x 1200 dpi—fairly high. There are four colour cartridges, and access to these is made easy
by means of a door at the front of the unit. The flatbed scanner can scan legal-size documents. The printer supports most popular memory formats and it even has PictBridge. Connectivity is via USB and a network interface, but you will need to weave the wires through the provided channel into the heart of the device. The advantage: no accidental disconnections; disadvantage: it’s irritating, and wires may not last long due to all the twisting. The inbuilt 33.6 kbps fax can store up to 400 pages and is capable of broadcasting to up to 150 locations. The phonebook memory is 100 numbers. Printing is slow; the printer took half a minute to print a simple text document in normal mode, and it took over a minute to print the same in best mode. Print quality is decent and sharp. There is some amount of graininess in photo prints, but it’s good enough for the average home user. The copier does an excellent job. The software bundle consists of the MFL-Pro Suite (a control centre of sorts), PaperPort SE with OCR (a definite plus), and even Presto! PageManager OCR for Mac users. At its price, we can say this is a good buy, if you don’t mind waiting a bit for the print
Specifications:
Printer resolution: 6000 x 1200 dpi; Printing technology: thermal inkjet; Number of cartridges: 4; Scanner resolution (optical): 2400 x 1200 dpi; Input paper tray capacity: 100 sheets; ADF
capacity: 35 sheets; Memory slots: CF, MS, MS Pro, SD, MMC, xD Picture Card; I/O ports: USB,
RJ-45; Fax memory: 400 pages; Auto-dial: 100; Broadcast locations: 150; Weight: 9 kg;
Dimensions: 44 (W) x 39.5 (D) x 22.6 (H) cm ...

Sennheiser PXC 450 Reviews

2009-04-02T03:07:00.000-07:00

The PXC 450 is the latest from Sennheiser’s travel line of headphones. “Portable” and “circumaural” generally don’t see eye to eye due to bulk and issues with anchoring them to your
head. To remedy this, the PXC 450 has a very firm headband; thankfully, it’s padded and well-designed enough to not squash your ears. The patented active noise cancellation technology
called NoiseGard 2.0 makes its presence felt. This uses a combination of improved circuitry (over the previous version of NoiseGard), and better microphones (that detect unwanted outside noise). Their noise elimination algorithms have also seen an overhaul. Using NoiseGard will require a single AAA battery. Remove the battery and the PXC 450 can function as a regular,wired headphone set. There’s a talk-through function inbuilt. According to Sennheiser, two microphones (one on each cup) pick up external sounds in the immediate vicinity such
as someone trying to talk to you. We tested this feature, but it didn’t work too well, and the reviewer had to take off the headphones to hear what the other person was saying. Nevertheless the PXC 450 isolates noise beautifully even with NoiseGard off. Bass is quite a mixed bag: sometimes it’s there and goes quite low, on other tracks it’s not as pronounced as the mids and highs. We’d have liked for these phones to be a little kinder to vocals and mids—which, although
forward (not overly so), lack finer detail. (At this point we’re comparing them to udiophile-grade cans.) Their quick response means the PXC 450 is equally suited for fast heavy metal music as
to country or soft rock genres. They’re rather easy to drive—so using them with your iPod while
aboard a noisy local or bus is a possibility. These cans need to be used for around a hundred
hours before they actually sound good (burned in, if you will). We found a full 35 to 40 per cent difference in quality and bass reproduction, and highs became a little more noticeable. They’re still improving after the 120 odd hours that we’ve spent with them, so don’t go by the way
a brand new pair sounds. At Rs 29,900, the PXC 450 is far from affordable. Even if you can foot the bill, you will still need to accept that these aren’t the audiophile-grade cans that the price suggests. That said, they’re head and shoulder above most other headphones available in
India, and definitely one of the best noise-cancelling sets we’ve come across (including the Bose Companion 5). Of course they’re in a price league of their own!
Specifications:
8 to 28000 Hz; 150 ohms; Sound Pressure Level (SPL): 108 dB; Cable: 1.4 m; Weight: 240g;
Accessories: transport case, 6.3 mm stereo adapter...

Leadtek WinFast DTV1800 H Reviews

2009-04-02T02:57:00.000-07:00

The WinFast DTV1800 H is a hybrid PCI TV Tuner capable of receiving analogue as well as terrestrial digital (DVB-T) transmissions, which are currently available only in a few metros. The
Conexant CX23880-39 + Zarlink 10353 chipset enables t to decode stereo audio. The audio cable connects internally to the PC-audio solutions, so no more looping cables collecting cobwebs at the back of your PC. The front-end is provided by the excellent WinFast PVR2 that features Scheduling and TimeShifting, as well as recording in WMV, Transport Stream, as well as MPEG-1/2 (and no additional activation or purchase is required for its use). It remains perched
quietly in the system tray and springs into action when launched using the icon or the full-function remote. The PVR2 even lets you use two TV-Tuners simultaneously, so you can either watch two TV channels, watch one and record the other, or watch TV and use the second TV-Tuner for surveillance. It detects even the weakest of cable TV and FM radio channels. Video as well as audio quality is top-notch. You can force the aspect ratio to either 4:3 or 16:9—a delight for wide-screen users. To sum it up, the WinFast DTV1800 H gives you the best of both worlds, and we give it a double thumbs-up—no complaints
Specifications:
Chipset: Conexant 23880-39 +Zarlink 10353; Tuner: Xceive 3018 TV/FM Stereo; TV
reception: Analogue, DVB-T; Video standards: PAL, NTSC, SECAM; Software: WinFast PVR2; Video capture formats: WMV, MPEG-1/2, Transport Stream; Remote control; Input ports: Coaxial, S-Video...

HP Compaq 2510p Reviews

2009-04-02T02:42:00.000-07:00

Designed from a pure usability point-of-view, this little baby is built like a tank. The construction is rugged in general, and we liked the sturdiness of the hinges in particular. It’s not as flashy-looking as its competitors, but it’s sleek, and weighs just 1.29 kg. With an Intel dual-core processor and a decent amount of RAM, while running Windows Vista Business, this laptop packs in enough power to cater to business needs. The proc-essor’s and hard drive’s focus is on increased battery life. The 2510p sports a widescreen (WXGA). An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the screen’s brightness. The keyboard is very comfortable to type on, but the touchpad is a little too smooth. There’s also a highly responsive pointer-stick. The keyboard layout is good, and just above the function keys is a line of touch- sensitive cool-blue backlit buttons for functions such s Turning On/Off wireless, Volume control, etc. The 2510p features
connectivity in the form of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as well as Gigabit LAN—and even a legacy modem. It has a PC Card interface, SD memory slot, two USB ports and a FireWire port. You can buy the HP 2400/2500 Ultra-Light Docking Station to add more ports. There’s also a D-Sub
connector so you can hook it up to a projector. Security is taken care of by the biometric ingerprint eader and a host of utilities that can encrypt your hard drive and restrict data access
to only authorised users. Even theft or removing the hard drive will not expose your data to prying eyes. There’s not much to complain about with the 2510p; a webcam would have
been a great value-add. A faster hard drive would have improved performance drastically, while reducing battery life marginally. And remember, this laptop is not made for gaming. With a
one-year warranty and HP’s great support system, the HP Compaq 2510p is a reasonably good buy.
Specifications:
Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor U7600 @ 1.2 GHz; Mobile Intel GM965 chipset; 1 GB 667 MHz
DDR2@533 MHz; 80 GB 1.8-inch 4200 rpm PATA hard drive; Intel GMA X3100 graphics with
384 MB shared; DVD-RAM drive; 12.1 inch WXGA anti-glare LCD; Ports: 2 USB, 1 IEEE 1394,
Gigabit, RJ-11, D-Sub; Wireless: Intel 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0; Dimensions: 282.3(W) x
212.8(D) x 24.7(H) mm; Weight: 1.29 Kg; Battery: 3-cell (28 WHr) high capacity Lithium-Ion...

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS Reviews

2009-04-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

The Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS is the top-of-the-line high-capacity (750 GB) drive from WD.The drive uses a four- platter design with 16 MB of buffer, which is the norm in this segment. Like other Western Digital drives, the WD7500AAKS implements SecurePark and ItelliSeek for improved shock tolerance in powered-off mode and improved power management respectively. The graph below is a comparison between this drive and the 750 GB Seagate Barracuda ST3750640AS we’d received for our internal hard drive test in June 2007. After this, and an assortment of other tests, neither drive emerges a clear winner. The cost per GB comes to
about Rs 15—good enough. The price of Rs 11,500 is a little high for those looking to update
to a spacious secondary drive, though it’s a decent purchase as a primary hard drive.
Specifications:
750 GB; 7200 rpm; Buffer: 16 MB; Weight: 0.63 kg; Dimensions: 147 x 101.6 x 25.4
(W x D x H) mm; SATA 2...

Canon LBP 5300 Reviews

2009-04-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

Colour laser printer prices have never been this low, and the downward slide continues. The LBP 5300 from Canon is an economical printer for high- volume printing. Build quality is very
good, and the printer is more than suited for daily office work. At 22 kg, it is pretty heavy. It is also a bit bulky—a bit wider than a 19- inch CRT and taller than an average PC cabinet, but this
size is to be expected of a colour laser printer. The standard input paper tray has a capacity of 350 sheets, while the optional paper tray can accommodate up to 500 sheets. Duplex printing is supported. The device connects to the PC via the USB 2.0 interface, and also features a network interface—10Base-T / 100Base- TX. The bundled NetSpot Device Installer makes
installing this printer on a network straightforward.The optical printing resolution is 600 x 600 dpi, and when we tested the device, both mono and colour prints are fairly sharp. Text was legible at all point sizes, and colour graphics were free from the artefacts typical of laser printers. A mono text document at normal quality took us 11.6 seconds to print, while a complex colour document took 14.5 seconds—pretty good by any standard. We logged a sustained pages per
minute rate at a good 17. This isn’t really meant for photo printing, but we tried printing an A4-
size photo; it took 16.8 seconds, which again is very good. The warm-up time is about 43 seconds. The LBP 5300 comes with software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It consumes 415
W during operation and 45 W during standby, and just 13 W in energy save mode.
Specifications:
Printer resolution: 600 x 600 dpi (optical), 9600 x 600 dpi (enhanced); Printer language:
Canon Advanced Printing Technology (CAPT); Input tray capacity: 350 (standard), 500
(optional); Interface: USB 2.0, 10/100 LAN; OS Support: Windows, MAC, Linux; Memory:
16 MB SDRAM; Weight: 22 kg; Dimensions: 412 mm x 453mm x 437.7mm (W x D x H)...

Dell Inspiron 1720 Reviews

2009-04-01T06:46:00.000-07:00

With the Inspiron 1720, Dell ups the ante in the super-performance notebook category. A 17-incher, the Inspiron 1720 is quite bulky, but the good design hides this. You get to choose from eight colours for the lid—jet black and seven other satin finishes. The custom paint job, however, is modest, and will not last too long. The 17-inch glossy widescreen (1920 x 1200) panel is beautiful; colour reproduction is vibrant, and it has a wide viewing angle. The full-sized keyboard is a delight to type on—silent and great tactile response. The Matshita BD-RE UJ-220 Blu-ray drive means you won’t need to upgrade the optical drive in a long, long time! However, DVI as well as HDMI connectivity has been left out— criminal. 500 GB of storage should be enough for most users, and 4 GB of RAM is adequate for most applications, games, and for the bundled Microsoft Vista Home Premium. The NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256 MB powers the graphics subsystem; a score of 5318 in 3D Mark 05 is very good indeed. This Inspiron churned out 96.4 fps and 65.31 fps in Doom 3 and FarCry respectively at800 x 600—decent for moderate gamers. In terms of performance, the Dell Inspiron 1720 scores better than the Digit Best Buy Gold winner (the HP DV6226tx) in the Performance Laptops category of our July 2007 laptop test. The 85 Wh nine-cell battery managed to power this beast for 2:48 hours in our ests. The Inspiron 1720 can be configured at Dell’s Web site. The base price for the Inspiron 720 series starts from Rs 58,650—price varies according to the components you hoose. The laptop carries a one-year warranty with the option of on-site support for up to three years.
Specifications:
ntel Core 2 Duo T 7500 (2.2GHz); 17-inch widescreen XVGA; NVIDIA GeForce 8600MGT 256MB; 500 GB SATA hard drive; 4 GB DDR2 667MHz RAM; 85 Wh battery pack...

Acer Aspire 3684NWXCi Reviews

2009-04-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

The Aspire 3684NWXCi laptop is for value-conscious buyers. With a silver-and-black exterior, it looks quite presentable. Though slim in design, the Acer 3684 weighs in at 2.4 kg—moderately heavy. Ergonomically speaking, the keyboard is well laid-out; however, the keystrokes are bit hard—touch typists should try it before deciding to buy it. An Intel Celeron M 440 at 1.86 GHz runs the laptop, and that’s partly responsible for the low price. The Aspire 3684 has 512 MB of DDR2 RAM— we’re all praise for Acer for being so generous! Having an 80 GB hard drive with a Combo DVD / CD drive is praiseworthy, considering the price. In PC Mark 05—a synthetic test that measures overall system performance—performance was decent; the score was 2121, good for a budget-category laptop. 388 points in 3D Mark 06 means the laptop is good enough for games like Quake 3, Counterstrike: Source, and Call of Duty. Our real- world tests revealed enough power to multi-task between regular applications such as media players, word processing applications, browsers, etc. The six-cell Li-ion battery pack managed to power the Aspire 3684 for 2:18 hours— which is reasonable, but expect more time in real-world usage because our battery test is gruelling. HD video playback (1080p WMV) is smooth. The widescreen 14.1 inch TFT renders sharp images with good contrast. Acer doesn’t miss out on connectivity options in this budget offering—you get wired and wireless networking as well as Bluetooth. The Aspire 3684 comes pre-loaded with Linpus Linux, which has a command-line interface… thankfully, Acer does bundle Windows XP and Vista drivers alongside just in case you feel like installing (an original copy of) Windows. Priced at Rs 23,499, we think the Aspire gives local brands a run for their money. The lack of a proper OS is the only chink in its armour; otherwise, every thing seems to be on target for the value-conscious.
Specifications:
Intel Celeron M440; 512 MB DDR2 533 MHz; 14.1-inch widescreen TFT; DVD/CD-RW
Combo drive; 80 GB SATA hard disk; Dimensions: 14.3 x 10.8 x 1.3 (W x D x H) inches;
Weight: 2.4 kg...

Sony Sound Forge 9.0a Reviews

2009-04-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

Sony’s Sound Forge 9 is the latest version of the highly-acclaimed sound editing software. There isn’t much competition left in this space, but new releases and updates still keep pouring in. The interface hasn’t changed much since the previous releases. It is still easy to use for intermediate- and expert-level users. To start with, Sound Forge allows you to import from a wide range of formats—including video formats that contain more audio streams than stereo.
Let your imagination run wild with the number of effects Sound Forge gives you—flange, chorus, and reverb are just a few of them. The overwhelming number of effects and tools is what makes Sound Forge unique. Setting up parameters for each of the effects is easy. Windows pop up for every effect you apply where parameters can be changed, and real-time previews are played back instantaneously. It’s not all fun and games either. The Detect Clipping feature finds instances of c lipping in a track and marks them so they can be treated. The Plug-In Chainer queues up multiple effects. Several audio files can be processed and effects applied one after another automatically. Support for scripts is inbuilt, as well as some presets for normalising, cropping and fading, etc. These can be used to run automated tasks like extracting audio CDs and encoding them, for example. A script editor is provided; anyone with some understanding of programming can make his own scripts. Sound Forge stays well under the 50 MB limit while working on more than a couple of MP3s. As it stands now, Sony’s Sound Forge has become a well-refined and optimised audio editing software that performs well and manages to have as many features as you’d want. All is well, it might seem, but the price tag of $299.96 (Rs 12,150) is bound to create some hesitation for prospective buyers. Professional-level users already on older Sound Forge versions will have no such doubts, all thanks to support for new formats and standards—and the added effects and tools. Newcomers to the field of audio editing would be better off starting with open source alternatives— Audacity, for example...

Mundu Radio Reviews

2009-04-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

Listening to music on mobile phones while travelling has become one of people’s favourite pastimes all across India. The sudden blossoming of radio stations everywhere has contributed to this trend. The creators of Mundu Radio believe streaming music from Internet radio stations could be the Next Big Thing. (Geodesic is the company that makes software for mobile devices with the “Mundu” name; we tested one of their other products—Mundu IM—a while ago.) We tried out the Symbian OS version on a Nokia N70. The interface is colorful and elegant. Stations are stored by genre. There are some preset stations, and you can add more manually through their site, www.radio.mundu. com. Also, the default playlist, which contains all the stations, can be updated from your account on the Mundu Radio site. Recently- played stations can be viewed quickly from a list that updates itself when you play a new station. We must say it would be nice to able to add stations directly through the software interface instead of having to log in to the Mundu Radio site to add stations to your list. We used a GPRS connection to access the streams on Mundu Radio; you can use Wi-Fi as well—if your phone supports it. The streams we used were 32 Kbps and 24 Kbps, and the performance was quite decent—they sounded good enough for a mobile phone. There was, however, a lot of buffering even with the slightest drop in signal strength. The other concern, if at all, is the rates at what you are billed for downloads. For example, using a 32 Kbps radio stream for an hour willresult in around 14 MB of data transferred. There are lots of Internet- based radio stations, and you have no shortage of music to choose from. Mundu Radio is currently a free beta and upgrades can be downloaded from their site. How good the experience will be will eventually come down to the quality of service of your provider, and also the schemes suitable for long periods of radio listening. Either way, it’s a great concept that can be implemented on the current infrastructure without hassles, and it’s definitely worth trying out. Mundu Radio is currently available for Palm, Symbian 7 and 8, and Windows Mobile devices...

BenQ T91W Reviews

2009-04-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

The T91W is the latest LCD offering from the BenQ stables. It can be tilted up to 20° up and 5° down verti- cally, but it can’t be tilted horizontally. The three but-tons on the monitor take
care of all the functions, but they are placed behind the monitor—inconvenient. Furthermore, the buttons seem tacky, and are unre- sponsive at times. This 19-incher is sleek, and weighs just 4.8 kg. It has a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:10, and supports a native resolution of 1440 x 900— something movie buffs will love. With a fast response time of just 5 ms (millisec-onds) for grey-to-grey, this one will not disappoint gamers either; it is just as good for fast-paced gaming as your CRT. The T91W has an excel-lent contrast ratio of 700:1. The 300 cd/m2 brightness spec is more than enough. The backlight is placed evenly, so there are no bright / dark spots along the border. Colours are vibrant. It should be mentioned, though, that the LCD could not pro- duce the darkest regions as pure black, but it did fairly better than most of the LCDs we’ve tested. It has wide viewing angles of 160° for text and 150° for movies. Movies on this monitor are a treat; games look equally good. The black borders become inconspic-uous while viewing, adding to the immersive experience. VESA wall mounting is supported. Power consump- tion is 45 W at full load and 2 W in standby mode, meaning significant savings on your electricity bill. BenQ has put in a pair of speakers, though you might never want to use them—the quality of these is nothing that really deserves a men-tion. The sore point: a DVI connector is lacking. This will really be missed by videophiles who demand the purest of video sig-nals. In the final analysis, we think Rs 13,400 for the BenQ T91W is a little too much.
Specifications:
Viewable size 19”; Native reso-lution: 1440 x 900; Aspect ratio: wide (16:10); Response time: 5 ms (grey-to-grey); Contrast Ratio: 700:1; bright-ness: 300 cd/m2; Interface: D- Sub; power consumption: 45 W (max), 2 W (standby); Dimensions: 381.2 x 449.2 x 185.2 mm (H x W x D); Weight: 4.8 kg; Stereo speakers inbuilt...

Western Digital AV 160 GB WD1600AVBB Reviews

2009-04-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

The AV series drives have been tailored to deliver optimised AV performance, and is targeted at the CE segment (HDD Recorders, Video Surveillance Recorders, etc.) and digital video professionals. According to WD, a lot of research has gone into engineering these drives to incorporate enhanced features. These drives are touted to be very reliable with an MTBF (mean time between failures) of 1 million hours, and are rugged enough to survive high-temperature, always-on environments. SilkStream technology provides continuous smooth playback of up to 12 HD streams with an assumed transfer block size of 2 MB per stream. Its compatibility
with the ATA streaming command set also enables CE customers to use standard stream management and error recovery options. IntelliSeek is another technology incorporated here; it calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption and vibration. Indeed, we found this to be a silent performer. The recording heads are parked off the disk surface during spin-up and spin-down and when the drive is off, to reduce wear and improve reliability and non-operational shock tolerance (350 G as opposed to 250 G for standard drives). The drive features Pre-emptive Wear Leveling, which means the drive arm frequently and evenly sweeps across the disk to reduce uneven wear on the disk surface—a common thing with AV streaming applications. The drive consumes less power than non-AV drives; in fact, WD has removed the 3.3 V SATA power from this product. It also runs cooler than most. The drive was better than most other non-AV drives in the synthetic benchmarks. In the real-world tests, it was fast in the sequential file copy test, but lagged behind all the drives we have tested thus far
in the assorted file copy test, taking at least 50% more time. The 2 MB buffer appears
to be too little in an age where 8 MB is the starting point (and it did hurt the performance). At the same price as a 320 GB drive, this fails to justify its price.
Specifications:
160 GB; 7200 rpm; 2 MB buffer; SATA II...