Latest Inventions

posted by admin on Sep 4

Fancy a top of the range new MP3 players with everything included?

There are still a variety of MP3 players coming onto the market that now include almost everything you could need in a personal music-playing gadget.

I have chosen just the Creative Zen X-Fi2, one of the latest sound systems and video experts many mp3 players available today to represent all that is now available at the touch of a button!

The Creative Zen X-Fi2:
We are now at the stage where there is almost every gadget possible on your MP3 players apart from wind turbine and a microwave!

The new Zen X-Fi2 from Creative systems is one such player - and it looks stylish too.

Basically the features go way beyond playing your favorite tracks and the radio at the touch of a button, and now include photos and video and integrated recorder - to save forever those fantastic live summer concerts or boring morning lectures at uni!

Displayed on it’s 3″ LCD touchscreen are a whole host of easy-to-use icons that open up into files of music, videos and even your RSS feed reader (you connect via your USB). You can even forget that screen when you are indoors and connect it up to your huge widescreen TV indoors - or at your friends - via the AV cable! You can now share those videos and photos life-size without having to burn them onto a disc first!

Space-wise you can have either the 8, 16 or 32GB - but it doesn’t really matter that much as it has a microSD memory card slot for extra capacity! So you can have all your live music on one card, all your lectures on another and keep the main machine for great tunes!

The Creative Zen MP3 players also come with some EP-630 in-ear earphones which apparently send the music away from your ears creating a ‘room sound’ in a new concept. They also restrict the maximum volume to prevent ear damage when using long term! Nice.

And, weighing in at only 75g, this little nifty gadget also plans your life - containing a calender, and alarm, tasks and a contacts list!

All you need to do is switch it on and away you go…..

Try the MP3 Expert website for the best prices for Creative Zens.

posted by admin on Jun 14

The Palm Pre has now launched - and has won several awards, but it has already been having some problems - Apple don’t like it! 

The concept itself is fine: a new smart phone with multi-touchscreen, full keyboard, camera, media player and GPS as you would expect these days.  But it runs on Linux-based Palm webOS.

Not many people have worked with Linux - and this software has been designed from scratch just for this - so it’s like nothing you have seen before.  Some people say it is easier to use than the iPhone which can’t be bad except if you are Apple of course!

The Phone Itself:
Smaller than the iPhone but with a great 3.1 inch screen it’s size is similar to a basic phone which wins it the thumbs up - the iPhone is a lot larger but of course we just love the iconic look!

The Palm Pre has it’s neat little slide-away full keyboard (rather than on on the touch-screen) which although compact is very easy to use.

The touchscreen is also adapted to be used with fingers rather than the stylus so is much more receptive to contact than it’s competitors.

It has all the standard features you would expect including landscape-to-portrait flipping, sensors to turn of the touchscreen when near your face and a 3mp camera (with LED flash!)

It has several applications in the pipelines, but more will come no doubt - and it needs them to compete with the iPhones massive amount of around 50,000!!!

Connectivity?
With high speed EV-DO Rev. A depending on location, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR it’s all in the bag really!

GPS navigation was an obvious addition here, as was the microUSB connector for data-transfer ( 8.0 gb of internal flash storage) and for charging - plus the 3.5mm headphone jack for stereo sound of course!

Also Out New:
The Nokia N97 is also out there to compete with the Palm Pre and the ‘new’ Apple iPhone 3G S!

The best features of the Nokia N97 are the 5mp camera and a 400 minute talk time - and is great for gaming!

The new iPhone 3G S is just as good as the 3G was, but has 720 minutes talk time (!) access to thousands of apps and improved voice control for number dialling and iTune selection.

The camera - although only 3 mega pixels gives you the benefit of touching the screen on the item you want to focus on in the picture so can give you some great shots - which of course can be uploaded straight to the Internet along with your videos.

What’s your choice gonna be?

posted by admin on May 12

My little nephew has taught me something great about his new DSi!

I recently wrote about the new Nintendo DSi and how my little nephew was addicted to the thing!  Playing Pokemon games even when he was asleep!

Anyway, I was watching him playing one game (which I couldn’t quite understand) when he suddenly started playing a completely different one with just a few bangs of his stylus! 

How on earth??

Well, it turned out he had heard about the r4i adaptor card and was taking full advantage!

So, what’s the r4i adapter card then I hear you ask?  Well, it’s a modified flash memory card that is exactly the same shape and size as a normal DSi games cartridge - but it can hold more than just the one game!

Basically you can use it as a sort of memory stick.  You can download games that you have already brought from sites on the Internet for free - this way, you are getting a ‘back-up copy’ of your favourite game.  So, if you damage your original cartridge, you don’t have to buy a whole new one - just stick in the r4i adaptor cartridge and carry on playing.

Is that all?
Well, no.  The thing is that the r4i adaptor can hold more than the one game - therefore allowing you to download copies of all the games you already own into one cartridge - and as my nephew had just done - switch from one game to the next without having to swap cartridges - or spend 20 minutes trying to wrestle the other game off of his younger brother!

The technology is so simple that my nephew was downloading files himself from his Mac - it was basically using drag-and-drop technology to move the files across!

And, further to the whole games concept - the r4i adaptor can also hold anything else you fancy from your computer.  For example, you can download movies onto it to watch on your DSi, or music to play when you are supposed to be brushing your teeth!

It also allows you to perform other simple functions from your media, including browsing through your favorite photos with family, reading e-books about tips for your new games and you can read your own downloaded computer files including birthday lists (with more games on it) or boring work documents!

The r4i cartridges can hold up to 32gb of memory - so there will be plenty of space for a bit of everything inside!

What’s the catch?
To be honest - there isn’t one!  It does exactly what it says on the packet.  It is a cartridge-shaped flash memory ’stick’ that works with the new Nintendo DSi.

There is a separate r4 adaptor you can buy that works with the original DS, as these cannot be used for the new version, and vice versa.  That way, which ever console you choose to use - you just need the one cartridge!

Both the original r4 cards and the new r4i cards are readily available from www.gamesbackup.co.uk - so you can start moving your games across and enjoy your games and personal media files in a whole new way!

But, please remember- you need to have originally brought each game before you can legally download it from the Internet to make sure you stay within the bounds of copyright law.  These files are only meant to be an online back-up for damaged cartridges or to move your favourite games into a new media format - i.e. - onto the r4 cards!

posted by admin on Mar 20

.

We were already amazed when we brought our tiny iPod just before the new year - but to find there is a new even smaller one on the market with and even bigger memory was great news!!!

According to the official website, they have made some changes:

Controls:
The buttons aren’t on the iPod itself.  To make it so small and fill it with songs, the controls are now on the earbud cord.  This is great as you now don’t have to have your iPod clipped somewhere on your person in full view of others (unless you want it to!)  They are even easier to use as well which can’t be a bad thing!

Talking Heads:
For those of you like me, that can’t always remember the exact name of a track or have so many downloaded tunes that you don’t know what you’ve got coming up - just press the magic button and hey presto!  A lovely voice will tell you who sang it and what it’s called!  Great news for sharing!

Too much music?
Never.  With it’s gigantic memory you can now store up to 1000 tracks on your iPod!   It also allows you to sync your playlists, identify each one with it’s name and jump between them whenever you want!

Available for £59 and in black or silver.  You can even get it engraved with a personal message……

posted by admin on Oct 19

STUFF LIVE - The UK’s Leading Technology Show

Here is your chance to see the newest technology and computer games around today.

See exclusive gadgets

Play the latest video games

Quiz the experts

Chill out in the STUFF lounge

Hear the worlds best Hi-Fi

Touch tomorrows technology

Play Guitar Hero on stage

And win loads of great prizes

All at:

ExCel, LONDON - 31 October - 2nd November 2008

Book now to avoid the queues……

WWW.STUFFLIVE.CO.UK