Technology Gadget Reviews

Adobe’s Lightroom is made for professional photographers as the darkroom alternative for new-age digital-camera-armed photographers. Lightroom falls into a new category—image post-production software, with its only and closest rival being Apple’s Aperture. Lightroom does not come with most of Photoshop’s features like layers, tools, and effects. In fact, though it is an image editing tool, Lightroom looks nothing like Photoshop. Quick Develop in the Library module lets you make basic changes to an image in a matter of seconds. We used some photos of some wildlife taken in broad daylight to see how well the software’s results would be. An auto-tune feature sets the best parameters for a photo, which should be suitable for new users, but we found the results rather appalling. Manual altering of colour levels worked perfectly well,and is the best way to go. A metadata browser in Lightroom makes sorting and categorising large numbers of images effortless by categorizing photos by EXIF para

If you’re looking to burn virtual slick rubber, the ASUS Lamborghini VX1 promises to be a treat. The sharply-contoured lid—and its exotic finish—is reminiscent of its namesake’s bonnet. Distancing itself from the AMD Turion 64 X2-based Acer Ferrari, the Lamborghini uses an Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 (2.166 GHz). DisplayMate tests revealed a clear, crisp 15.4-inch LCD screen, as expected from such a product; unfortunately, it’s not widescreen. The 1680 x 1050 resolution means plenty of space for applications. The 140/100 degree viewing angles seem about right. The NVIDIA GeForce Go7400 VX Turbo powers the graphics—enough muscle for most games. Two GB of 667 MHz DDR2 RAM ensures the Lamborghini doesn’t run out of torque. The 160 GB hard drive provides ample boot-space, something its namesake lacks! The well-laid-out keys are soft and silent; response is quick. The touch-pad is small enough to be comfortable. LEDs illuminate the two buttons of the tracker pad, but unfortunately, not the pad i

After setting the market on fire and creating a new category of affordable D-SLRs, Canon ups the ante by launching the successor to the hugely popular 350D. The new EOS 400D—also known as the 400D Rebel XTi in other parts of the world—is a 10 MP compact digital SLR. For an amateur, the plethora of settings available might overwhelm, but then that’s what should be expected of an SLR. Light and compact it surely is; however, manual controls and performance are pretty much there despite the camera being an entry level D-SLR. New features include a nine-point AF sensor, a dust cleaning system via an anti-static coating on the sensor, and software-based dust pattern removal. There’s a large 2.5-inch LCD, but the status LCD has been shown its way out. An eye proximity sensor makes the LCD switch off while the frame is being composed. Ergonomically, the Canon 400D is near-perfect: nice large buttons, solid-looking command dials, and a massive grip. The new nine-point AF offers a significant a

All it takes is a look to conclude this is a flagship product, a high-end multimedia cell phone, with a hell of a lot of features crammed into one tiny shell. And what a shell that is—the colour combinations are classy (we received a silver-dull metallic green), as is the matte finish. Quality of plastic is top-notch. We were surprised at the compactness of the thing, especially when you consider the functionality: the 5MP camera, and the absolutely gorgeous 2.6-inch, 24-bit screen (nearly all phones still use 18-bit screens). The number keypad is well laid out—an achievement for a slider phone—but the hard touch keys combined with the slightly raised surface makes finger-pad touch-typing a pain. Thankfully the keys are suitably laid out for nail-touch typing. The double slider is a first—slide down and your number pad is accessible, slide up and four (blue backlit) media player keys pop into view. Another first—a 3.5 mm jack inbuilt on a Nokia phone! While grooving to MP3s, all calls

In-ear headphones have always been the choice for those on the move. Two reasons—they’re small, and they’re small! Where they lose out is comfort. It’s just not comfortable to have something stuck in your ear canal, no matter how soft they are… here’s where Bose’s Intra-Ear Headphones score. They’ve designed these earphones to mimic the contours of the ear canal. The plugs consist of the actual sound unit, to which silicone is attached. This silicone tapers to a thin, twisted, tube-like structure that exactly fits your ear canal, and delivers sound as close to your eardrum as possible. The plugs block out external sound rather effectively—good passive noise cancellation. While the build quality is exemplary Bose, we’d have liked a black cable—the white/black audio cable just doesn’t feel right. A few minutes of Bose’s test tracks saw them ditched in favour of some our favourite tunes. In a word, these earphones rock! There’s good tone isolation, and the vocals are spot on. A few sessio

This is an anti-virus program from Hungary… but don’t let that put you off! Let’s take a look at what it offers in comparison to other anti-viruses…Post-installation, the first thing you see is the unconventional interface. There are no menus, and the icons are cartoonish! In addition, you end up going through multiple windows and clicks before actually scanning something. VirusBuster Professional has the standard set of features—the main file scanner, a shield that looks at background processes, and an Outlook scanner. There is support for scanning network shares as well; the same interface is used for this. Different levels of sensitivity are available for each feature, and these can be altered by the user. The Quarantine feature lets you scan the quarantine folder after a virus database update, and there’s automated restoring of cleaned files. The updater lets you choose from different locations such as HTTP, FTP server, CD, etc. Security features were kept in mind as well. You can

Symantec has released an excellent product to automate all your system backup and restoring tasks—a product that might well kill Windows’ System Restore! The main feature is, it lets you create a backup of your entire hard drive, or a partition, to an image. The inbuilt scheduler automates the backup process. You can schedule a backup for any date and time. The software also lets you create new backups and only store the last, set number of updates. Backed-up disk images can be restored onto a disk or partition. You can use the Recover Files or Folders task, where only selected folders and files will be extracted to a specified destination. Mounting of the disk images as a partition without actually restoring the image to a location is also possible. The software CD can be used as a recovery disk. Network services are enabled as the CD boots. A lot more can be done through the recovery disk—everything from altering partitions to scanning your machine for viruses using an external virus

The HP Photosmart series is targeted at photographers who demand a high-quality photo printer. The Photosmart D7368 looks tidy; the design is elegant. Build quality is good, with sturdy, neatly-laid out trays. A transparent shutter gracefully covers the memory card slots, allowing for easy access and preventing dust build-up. The printer took about 6 minutes to print an A4 size photo at best quality. The colour prints were some of the best we’ve seen with an inkjet printer! Finer aspects were reproduced in detail, and throughout the test procedure, the prints had a neutral tone. In addition, colour contrast ratio is notably good, allowing for more vivid colour reproduction. Textures were reproduced in detail, and even metallic shine was rendered with the proper lustre on photo paper. In draft mode, black was reproduced as a dark shade of grey, but this was rectified when we switched to normal print quality. The low-resolution touch-screen is easy use, but still requires the use of some

Riding the Media Center wave comes Sahara’s MK10. Finished in luxurious black with a huge brushed aluminium dial, it looks more like a DVD player than a Media Center PC. The volume knob has a bright blue backlight and could have been designed to move smoother. A blue-lit alphanumeric display is slotted on the front; it displays the status when playing media files. A pull-down flap covers the media control keys and also provides access to card readers and the other regular PC ports. The media player has a functional IR for the remote control built in the front panel. An additional two wire lead is provided which can be set at convenient angle allowing the remote to be used in a wider range On the media front, the PC comes bundled with a TV-Tuner card, FM radio, a DVD player, and a 160 GB hard drive. There’s onboard 7.1 audio for connecting a surround sound system; however, Sahara has only bundled an Altec Lansing 2.1 speaker set. On the PC front, you have the Pentium D805 processor, whi

I ntegral’s (1 GB) USB 2.0 Flash Drive is encased in a flashy sky-blue rubber exterior. This means it’s not only rugged enough to be reasonably shock-proof, it’s also splash-proof. One problem: the rubber coating tends to attract dust. Performance was slow compared to that of other 1 GB Flash drives. Writing 700 MB of assorted data to the drive took 5 minutes, and reading the same data from the drive took a minute. (As a comparison, the Corsair Flash Voyager 1 GB, which is similarly rugged, writes 700 MB to the drive in 34 per cent of the time we’ve mentioned, and reading takes 37 per cent of the time.) Random access time, though, was 5.2 ms, which is quite good. The drive comes with SecretZip, a compression software that compresses data with password protection. SecretZip can only be run on Integral’s USB Flash drives. But that’s just about as much security as the software provides: the compressed files can be easily deleted… If ruggedness is of prime importance, you’ll like this driv

We got to review Samsung’s new Blu-ray writer, the SH-B022A. It writes the largest-capacity on discs that Digit has seen thus far—50 GB Blu-ray discs! You can back up your entire hard drive with just a handful of discs. The drive looks like an ordinary IDE optical drive with the BD marking on the bezel being the only differentiator. Build quality is average compared to the drives we have tested thus far, but the tray mechanism seems smoother, and is quite noiseless. Going well with “Blu-ray” is the blue LED that glows behind the Eject button. Blu-ray burning speed is 2x (8.78 MB/sec), a tad faster than 6x DVD (8.1 MB/sec). This doesn’t sound too good, since the much faster 16x (21.6 MB/sec) DVD writing is common today. Burning 25 GB to a 2x BD-RE (Blu-ray Disc Recordable Erasable) disc took us 47 minutes—agonisingly slow. But yes, the technology is still being improved, and given a few months, we’ll see faster Blu-ray drives. Backward compatibility has been taken care of, with support

From the looks of it, Ashampoo Antivirus is aimed at the home user. It lets you scan hard drives, memory, removable discs, etc., with a click of a button. Scheduling of scans can be set for a particular folder on a particular day, date, or time. Shell integration means one can right-click on a folder to scan it. Scanning doesn’t take too much processor resources. Our CPU utilisation levels floated around 40 per cent, and memory consumption peaked at around 60 MB. This means it is a light anti-virus to run and use on a day-to-day basis. The interface itself is probably the highlight of the entire package. It has a colourful set of icons and themes and an easy-to-understand layout. There’s even skin support, though we’re wondering why somebody would want to change the default skin of an anti-virus! Customising the various levels of strictness of scans and frequency of updates is as easy as moving a slider up or down. Logs of all scans are kept within the program, and can be exported when

Quick Heal Antivirus Plus 2007 is the latest security suite to be released by Cat. A company called Agnitum provides the fire-wall packaged with the suite. The installer allows the user to update the virus def-initions and register during the installation process. The standard features you would expect from an anti-virus program are all there. Files that can be pos-sible threats, can be tagged and quarantined to prevent any trouble. The DNA Scan feature looks for suspicious files, which can be quaran-tined and then sent to the Quick Heal labs for analysis. If the files are found as possible threats fixes for these virus or worms can be released in the next updates.In case of serious problems, an emer-gency disc can be created, capable of scanning NTFS partitions. For any viruses that load with Windows, a scan can be set to run during the startup process. Quick Heal can scan your mail for any possible threats, but it lacks the fea-ture to monitor Web traffic for worms or other mali-ciou

An anti-virus, firewall, spam control and parental control are all part of this easy-to-use complete security solution. Installation begins with the user being prompted with an option for a pre-install scan. After rebooting for the first time, an optional profile Wizard can be run to allot passwords, which will later be useful for parental control. The interface is not the cleanest, but there are advanced options for the user to fine-tune the suite. Based on rules set up in the profile Wizard, the parental control filters allow access to specific sites deemed suitable for children. A time scheduler further restricts online activity during a predefined time of day. In case of more than one network being used by your computer, your home network adapter, for example, can be set as “trusted,” and free, uninterrupted access will be allowed to all programs. Even Internet traffic is scanned for malicious code. The virus scanner itself is pretty light, and the scanning uses moderate processor

Kodak’s Z612 is positioned as a compact ultra-zoom. The 6.1 MP sensor, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, and Optical Image Stabilisation mean the Z612 is no slouch when it comes to serious photography. A delightful 12x optical zoom means you won’t miss out on long-distance shots, and IS (image stabilisation) complements this, especially considering the chances of blur increase at the wide-end of tele-zoom. Button placement is very good. There are a lot of discrete buttons for quick access to essential features. The menu, too, is very well-laid-out, intuitive even for beginners. There’s an ultra convenient click-wheel that allows adjusting of essential parameters like Exposure Compensation, ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed in full manual mode. For such a large zoom, there are too few steps, and the zoom tends to race ahead. The over-sensitive zoom button compounds the problem. Image quality: one problem is the Optical IS doesn’t work as well as expected in continuous mode, which is the recomm

The Commando is a P965-based board that joins the “Republic of Gamers” league, consisting of the Striker (nForce 680i based), and the Crosshair (nForce 590SLI based) motherboards. The first evident difference between the Commando and the P5B-Deluxe is the fancy heatpipe solution. Secondly, the newcomer features an all-solid state capacitor design, improving the board’s life. The all-practical E-SATA back port gets dumped for the LCD diagnostic poster. Overall a very well-laid-out board with all the SATA connectors facing outwards (opposed to upwards); ditto the solitary IDE port. There’s space aplenty between the CPU heatsink and memory modules. However, the heatpipe solution will make installation of larger heatsinks a little difficult if not impossible. Incidentally, motherboard temperatures remained well within acceptable limits during our tests. Neither did the heatpipe assembly get too warm. ASUS provides a plethora of overclocking and tweaking options in the BIOS. You can store v

The HL-5240 from Brother is a mid-range laser printer oriented towards a medium sized work group. This 28 PPM laser printer looks mean thanks largely to its robust looking design. The front panel controls consist of two buttons and many LED’s for indicat-ing common laser printer errors—out of paper, paper jam, toner empty, etc. The 250-sheet paper cassette is huge and fits flush with the body; paper capacity can be augmented to a massive 800 sheets. The output paper bin holds up to 150 sheets. The manual feeder has a capacity to hold 50 sheets at a time—quite good. The printer also supports the legacy parallel port, apart from the now de-facto USB; Ethernet is not available as an option, which is strange considering its target audience. Installing the printer took no time at all; a Flash animation on the CD gives all the details on how to go about installing the printer. It even shows you how to unpack the toner and prep it for usage. For Linux drivers, the CD has a link to Brother’s d

The LaserJet P2015D is HP’s solution for high speed printing in medium-sized workgroups. We received the non-networked version of the 2015D. The printer is designed beautifully and exudes style. It uses less desk space than older models with similar specs. The front panel has two buttons and a line of six LED indicators—pretty useful for quick error diagnosis. The printer comes with a deep 250-sheet paper cassette and the capacity can be augmented to 500 sheets via an option-al paper cassette. The output tray can hold 150 sheets, and the manual feed another 50 sheets. If you opt for the ver-sion with a duplexer unit, you can save a lot of paper by printing on both sides. If you want networking, you have to get the P2015n version, as the one we got only featured USB. Installation was simple and the driver CD had a Flash-based tutorial which will help anyone set it up. HP also provides a suite called as the FX tool box—an application to diagnose, maintain and administer any HP printer. H

The Xerox Phaser 3120 is a typical, vanilla design laser printer box that better suits the back office. Touted as a personal or small work-group laser, this machine doesn’t boast of cutting edge features. There is only one button on the printer and two indicators for indi-cating paper jam and online/offline. The Phaser 3120 connects to a PC via either USB or parallel inter-face; you have to opt (pay extra) for the network interface. The printer comes with a standard 250-sheet input paper tray and a 150-sheet output tray. An optional paper tray is available to augment the paper capac-ity by another 250 sheets—good enough for a small work group. The manual feed-er has a capacity of 50 sheets, and that’s much better than the sheet feeders most lasers have today. Installation was a breeze; the toner cartridge slides down in position with-out any problems. Driver installation took five minutes; the driver interface is nothing fancy—simple to understand and functional. Auto duplexing doesn’t

Here’s a personal information manager that not only manages con-tacts, appointments, tasks, and notes, but can also store your passwords. The two-pane interface is easy to grasp, and the tree-like folder structure makes accessing the main modules (Contacts, Events, Notes, Passwords, and Tasks) very easy. You can achieve most tasks via a right-click. You can also add and rearrange folders and organize them as you deem fit. Documents and folders can be secured by password-protecting them, and there is also the provi-sion to assign user-level security. Weaknesses: to import Outlook contacts, you first need to export them to CSV format. To sync with a Pocket PC, you need to shell out an extra $20 (Rs 900) for the plugin, and there is no provision to sync with a Palm PDA—a big letdown! WinOrganizer 4.0 costs $55 (Rs 2,500), a bit expensive for a PIM...

I f you’re an adminis-trator with more than one PC—say one running Linux and the other, Windows—or if you’re an enthusiast with multiple PCs, a device called the KVM switch (Keyboard, Video and Mouse) helps avoid the duplication of keyboard, monitor and mouse. That’s what the ATEN CS-62B brings you. The idea is to plug the existing devices into the respective ports on the CS-62B and attach the two PCs to the box via the ten 6-foot-long tentacles. The CS-62B has two pairs of connectors, con-sisting of one D-sub con-nector, two PS/2 connectors, and two audio jacks. These con-nect to the respec-tive PCs. The audio jack connects to the audio line-out and mic-in ports on each PC. We tried this with a Windows and a Linux machine, and we liked the instant switching between machines. The ATEN CS-62B is a cool addition to your arsenal of tools—if you need it, that is. Specifications: Two-PC connectivity; two PS/2 connectors; two D-SUB connec-tors; four mini stereo audio jacks; two LED indicator

LG’s latest external DVD-Writer, the Super Multi GSA-E10L, has all the features you’d expect in its internal counterparts. The drive is housed in a ruggedly-constructed silver and black polymer casing, and seems strong enough to withstand rough usage. It looks decent, weighs just 1.26 kg, and can be carried around easily. If you’ve got a lot of Hollywood DVDs and are worrying about how to back them up, forget lossy compression techniques! The Super Multi lets you back up uncompressed 8.5 GB dual-layer DVDs to dual-layer media at speeds as high as 10x! With 16x speeds for DVD±R, it is one of the fastest external DVD-Writers available. Video editing professionals and enthusiasts will love this drive because of its ability to write to DVD-RAM at a very speedy 12X. You can even drag and drop data to a DVD-RAM as conveniently as to a hard drive without the need for special software. The drive is LightScribe-enabled. The interface is USB 2.0. The drive performed on par with its internal coun

So Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendell gets his nickname endorsed by yet another gaming brand. XFX joins Creative, Abit, and Zalman in this respect. The XFX 7600GT Fatal1ty Edition is seriously more than just another G73 wannabe. It sports a completely fanless design, opting instead for a silent albeit bulkier heatpipe-heatsink design. The memory is cooled by discrete metal strips that have nothing to do with the heatpipe solution which evidently only cools the GPU. As expected, the solution is decidedly bulky, cooling a core like the G73 (basically a stripped down version of NVIDIA’s formidable 7900GTX a.k.a. the G70 chipset). Part of the radiator-looking cooling fins extend to the reverse of the card; ditto the heatpipes. What’s good is the heatpipes are not glued to the heatsink. Rather, they’re soldered, which aids thermal dissipation. We tested the 7600GT with a more than modest Core 2 Duo X6800 with 2 GB of DDR2 800 MHz memory. The XFX 7600GT brings up 7041 3D2005 Marks, about on par wi

Based on NVIDIA’s latest 680i chipset, the Striker is ASUS’ premium offering. It is targeted at enthusiasts and hardcore gamers. The Striker impresses, with neat frills—like the embedded blue LEDs, and the illuminated On/Off, restart and CMOS reset buttons. The board is most at home inside a see-thru cabinet to be shown off at LAN parties and such. With all its six SATA ports facing outwards (as opposed to upwards), even a large graphics card won’t hamper the functionality of the ports. ASUS has gone the all-solid-capacitors way on this board, and the substantial-looking heatpipe solution (which does a good job) adds to the appeal the Striker exudes. You could have a problem trying to install large CPU heatsinks on this board because the heatpipe actually covers the CPU region completely. All the other connectors are very well laid out. A 7.1 soundcard (PCIe x1 interface) is provided, which is necessary considering the packed-to-the-gills PCB. Below is a look at the Striker’s performan

Canon’s LBP-5000 is priced at Rs 29,999, so it doesn’t fit in the entry-level segment. It’s more of a mid-range colour laser. Canon has taken a minimalist design approach, which is OK, but we would have liked an LCD. The two-tone colour is nice, and the clean lines help hide its bulk. The 250-sheet paper tray fits snugly. Eight LEDs indicate different problems such as paper jam, toner empty, warnings, etc. There are no buttons; this is strange, considering the lack of an LCD. The driver is compre-hensive, though, and additional features such as watermarking, manual duplexing, etc., are cer-tainly there. Instead of basing printing on dpi, Canon uses pre-sets such as Graphics, General, etc., and a help box to inform you when to use them. Canon’s status window is still the best across the printers we tested. While installing the driv-ers, our machine hung, but a restart fixed it. The LBP-5000 has a single-pass engine, so paper jams are few. Canon claims 8 ppm for both black and colour, an

Samsung’s new CLP-300 colour laser is touted as the smallest colour laser in the world, and we agree with that claim. This smart-looking printer has been designed the ground up as an entry-level colour laser for professionals. The printer has just a single button and four LED indicators—one for each toner. The paper tray holds 150 sheets and juts out from the bottom. The toner car-tridges are small cylindrical tubes and slide into their respective grooves—the black cartridge is bigger; good, considering it will be used more. The photo conduc-tor drum can be removed, and the printer uses a carousel mecha-nism—each colour has to be devel-oped on the same drum in four different loads. The printer can be connected to a PC via USB, but you can also get the CLP-300N, which adds an Ethernet port for network print-ing. Installation was a breeze, and all you get is drivers and a status panel called Smart Panel. The sta-tus window is fairly informative, and pro-vides realis-tic toner usage. The

Splashed in red, this USB hub offers four USB 2.0 ports. You connect it to a free USB port on your com-puter, and you get four ports—useful, in fact essential, if you have more USB devices than ports. The Podera Launch weighs just 115 gm and is compact. The four ports are placed verti-cally in columns of two on opposite sides. The hub has a base, and the part above it can be turned for 30 degrees for easy accessi- bility to the ports. Installing the hub is just a matter of plugging it in, and confirming the status light at the bottom is on; you can then get started using it. The status light could have been placed better for easier visibility, though. At Rs 1,625, this one is a little expensive , considering most 4-port hubs can be had for less than Rs 1,000. Specifications: 75 x 75 x 63 mm; 80 cm cable length; four USB 2.0 ports com-patible with USB 1.1...

The spec-sheet for this camera is pretty much standard for most compact digicams—3x optical zoom, coupled with 4x digital zoom. (The latter is useless in our opinion, but it’s an important on-paper spec to some.) The camera’s built rather well—nearly all Tech-Com digital cameras we’ve tested are. It feels solid to hold as well. You just can’t go wrong with black and silver as a colour combination, and the DSC-520, while being far from a stunner, does look nice with an all-black face and rear and side trim silver all-round. The body doesn’t pick up fingerprints—very nice again. Button ergonomics are good. The shoot button has a distinctive half-press for auto-focus. As opposed to some cameras we’ve tested, here you can actually tell by the tactile feedback that the camera is auto-focusing, without having to look at any indicators. Incidentally, there’s no viewfinder: you’ll have to manage with the 2-inch, 1,15,000 pixel LCD—which does get grainy, especially in dimly-lit conditions, and

Talk about physical protection for your data—the Freecom Tough Drive XXS is about just that. The manufacturer says it has the ability to withstand shocks and bumps, which is something we haven’t seen on any other drives in its product category. The manufacturers have drop-tested it to two metres and state that it can withstand up to 200G shock while operating. The credit goes to its tough exterior, made of shock-absorbing, soft silicone, which also gives it a rubberised look and a solid feel, and also to an internal anti-shock mechanism that insulates the hard drive from shock. Aesthetics is not compromised, as you can see alongside. Not much larger than a matchbox, this featherweight (56 g) drive is slim enough to slip into your pocket. The drive is based on a 1-inch, 3600 rpm microdrive built specially for mobile devices. 6 GB (5.7 GB real capacity) means oodles of free space for most practical purposes. When the small, retractable USB 2.0 plug (which is attached to a small cable) is

This time we got the chance to test the Lenovo model that played the role of computerji in the popular quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati. Sporting a silver-metallic finish, the unit is quite sturdy. Weight is 2 kg. Ergonomic keys require light strokes and are placed close together, while the generously-sized touchpad feels smooth to work with, and has ample space for wrist support around it. The WXGA display provides excellent picture quality; viewability from wide angles isn’t a problem. Powered by a Core Duo processor, it doesn’t lack in the performance department either, churning out 38 fps at 1024 x 768 in Call of Duty. It encoded our test DVD to AVI video in 182 seconds, which is good. The feature set is sound: the buttons on the front can be used for battery management, there’s a 1.3 megapixel camera on top of the display, and a media centre called “Shuttle Center” which can also be controlled using the bundled remote. The face verification feature is also quite cool: it can disti

With Xara3D 6.0, you can add that extra zing to your Web pages with animated 3D headings, logos, and buttons. It lets you create stunningly beautiful 3D graphics from TrueType fonts as well as imported 2D shapes. This new version has a better interface than the previous one. Similarly, there are newer styles such as new Bevel types, boards, boards with holes, and borders. You can change the lighting, texture, colour, depth, font size, etc., but the controls are not very easy to use, especially for a novice. But once you get used to the interface, things get going pretty well. Creating a variety of animations such as multi-page sequences and even animated 3D screensavers is very easy. The anti-aliased graphics provide you the best possible visual quality, and it can also be optimised for use in Web pages. Xara3D can import from WMF/EMF, CorelXARA, and Webster, and can export to a variety of formats such as GIF, Flash, JPEG, PNG, AVI, and BMP. You can get yourself a 15-day trial at www.x

McAfee Internet Security Suite 2007 bundles SpamKiller, VirusScan, Privacy Service, and Personal Firewall Plus. You initially set up a password to access the Security Center. The main screen shows bar charts of various data in the form of indices—such as Security, AntiVirus, AntiHacker, AntiAbuse, and AntiSpam. The status of various services such as Personal Firewall Plus, SpamKiller, and others, are also visible here. WormStopper and ScriptStopper block suspicious behaviour in e-mail and scripts respectively. The SpamKiller module filters any POP3 account. The new gaming-suspend mode suspends confirmation pop-ups during full-screen gaming sessions. There is a File Shredder utility, as well as a rescue disk option—which allows you to create an emergency disk that can be used when your computer can’t boot as a result of an infection. McAfee Internet Security Suite 2007 is quite taxing on system resources, and the average scan time is slow. Nevertheless, you get a complete security solut

The new iPod throws in an ultra-roomy 80 GB hard disk. Apple hasn’t changed the look of the new model, but the display is slightly brighter, making it more legible outdoors. The bundle includes a USB connector-and-charger, a slick suede protective case, and tiny, comfortable ear- bud type phones. Sound quality is good, but the bundled ear-buds lack punch—other headphones gave better results. The new iPod also makes for a great photo viewer, but the lack of zoom, pan, and rotate abilities is sorely missed. Video playback is quite smooth, and movies look great as always. Battery life is excellent— we got 18 hours of MP3 playback on a full charge. Video playback drains the juice quicker, and you’ll be cut down in a little less than six hours. Specifications: Fifth-generation; 80 GB; 2.5 inch display (320 x 240); multiple audio and picture format...

The newest Seagate Pushbutton Backup class of drives boasts a gigantic 750 GB capacity. Construction is rugged, and it comes with a stand to keep it in the upright position. When stacked horizontally one above the other, each drive locks with the one above and below it. In addition to the USB 2.0 port, the drive has two FireWire ports, so you can connect multiple drives in a daisy-chain. The drive disappoints somewhat on the performance front: read speed is as expected, but the write speed was a bit slow. The bundled software includes data backup software, in conjunction with which the drive’s push-button conve-niently backs up data. The bundled DiscWizard adequately performs drive maintenance functions. The drive is priced too steep right now—if you need an external backup solution, you’d be well-advised to wait a couple of months. Specifications: 750 GB; 7200 rpm; 16 MB buffer; dimen-sions: 180 x 165 x 58 mm; weight: 1.27 kg; USB 2.0, FireWire400...

Weighing just 1.3 kg and with its small dimensions, this notebook puts the “ultra” in “portable”! The performance may not be jaw-dropping, but good enough for most users. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth apart from the usual LAN (10/100 Mbps) and modem ports. There’s also a fingerprint identification sensor. The battery will last a cool seven hours under normal use. At the price, however, we’d suggest you wait for a version that sports the Intel Core 2 processor. Specifications: ntel Pentium M 753 (1.2 GHz); 915 GMS with 128 MB shared onboard; 10.6-inch widescreen; 512 MB; 60 GB (4200 rpm); DVD ±R/RW; Wi-Fi; Bluetooth v1.2; 3 USB ports; FireWire; SPDIF, VGA, TV-out; RJ-45 and RJ-11...

The Typhoon iTek RF@Mouse and keyboard combination works on the radio frequency band. The unit isn’t ideal for long typing sessions. However, it’s a good bundle at an afford-able price...

This simple-looking wire-less multimedia keyboard and mouse gives a complete cordless solution for the desktop, ideal for users interested in a clutter-free workspace...

The Optical Scroll Mouse from Mercury is a low-end optical solution for those who wish to evolve from the ball-mouse. If you’re looking for an inexpensive optical mouse, look no further than this.

The King is a functional combination of a trackball and a traditional three-button scroll mouse. The trackball is extremely convenient for scrolling, and the device offers a good upgrade path for those looking to move on from traditional scroll mice...

This wireless mouse from Microsoft is a delight to work with. It fits perfectly within a palm of any size and shape, making long working hours easy on the hand. The twin colour—black and grey metallic—makes it look attractive. The mouse is good for both gaming as well as regular office sessions. In all, this optical mouse is a worthy upgrade from the previous corded optical or the cordless Infra-red mouse...

Samsung has got it right with a sleek, great-looking black keyboard that provides good value for money. All said and done, Samsung sure has a winner on its hands with this economical keyboard.

Microsoft’s Multimedia keyboard is a sheer delight to use. The keys are smooth, and the feel is fantastic. It's definitely a must-buy...

Fed up with slow, bulky external burners? The black beauty from Iomega gives you enough reason to smile. This product is a good buy for those on the move. Blazing-fast writing and rewriting speeds make this drive a total paisa-vasool product...

Fed up with slow, bulky external burners? The black beauty from Iomega gives you enough reason to smile. This product is a good buy for those on the move. Blazing-fast writing and rewriting speeds make this drive a total paisa-vasool product...

With good performance, protection against unauthorised access and a very good price, this drive hits the sweet spot. A very good buy if you need a solid dependable portable medium...

The Iomega 20GB Portable Hard Drive weighs only 400 grams and is ideal for those who travel a lot. Costing about 60 paise per MB, the drive offers great satisfaction as far as value for money is concerned. The manufacturers provide a one-year replacement warran-ty and its attractive price makes it a clear winner...

FREECOM’s FHD-1 20 GB drive manages to outrun every other contender in terms of pure performance. If you require a sleek drive that is USB 2.0 ready and does not cost a packet, go for this one!

LITEON’s LTD165H DVD-ROM comes at a price that will be a sure attraction for many. The price matches sim-ilar to that of CD Writers. It also serves as an excellent sub-stitute for a CD-ROM drive, thanks to its fast data transfer rate. The drive has 512 KB cache and comes bundled with Power DVD 4.0 DVD playback software. This drive offers a good blend of per-formance, features and price. It is also the cheapest drive available...

The BenQ DVP-1648A DVD-ROM drive gives the best results across the board. Its transfer rate is quite good. The best part is its competitive price, which will force rivals to rethink their pricing policy...