Have you ever watched the news? Of course you have. Well then, as an expert, you will know that at the end of the news, there tends to be a meteorologist flailing their hands about in front of a  map of the UK. The reason for their flailing is that they have only a rough idea of where the various areas of the UK are in relation to their hands. You see the map is not there, it is added in by clever technology that replaces a green background with a desired image.

The reason for this condescension, is that I am trying to convey that with Green Screen from Westcott, you to can have the power to be photographed in any situation you desire. As long as you have a photo of it, you can be there.  Green Screen allows you to use this technology at home, so with just a camera, and the kit, you can appear in deep space, or under the sea, even presenting the weather. So without further ado, lets crack on, and see if it is as good as you might imagine.

Review:

So, what do you get in the box if you buy Green Screen? You get the FX Home PhotoKey 2 Light software, 100 varied digital backgrounds, a 5′ x 7′ green sheet with holes for hanging, and two self adhesive hooks. The first thing to do is hang the green sheet on a wall big enough to house it. As mentioned, you are provided with some sticky backed hooks that you can pull off when you are done. These proved to be slightly less sticky than you might hope, and the green screen fell to the floor on a number of occasions. After a while, and  a bit of fiddling with sticky pads, the screen was up, and the photography could happen.

There is something about that guy...

The screen encompassed my bulk without problems, and can be hung either in a landscape, or a portrait configuration. The rest is quite simple in terms of the photography. Stand in front of the screen and strike the desired pose, and have your photo taken. The next step is then to upload the photos to your computer, and import them into the software.

The software you get is FXhome Photokey 2 Lite. The difference between the Light and full fat version are that the Masks function, and some of the effects are not available to you, as well as some of the filters and some of the more advanced tools. The Masks function allows you to fix some of the imperfections that you might get in a photo, like invisible green clothing. I thought that the Masks feature would be something they might like to give you in a green screen scenario, and clicking on it give you a link to where you can buy the full version. This is the same for quite a few of the functions, and had you just bought this, you might be forgiven for feeling a bit short changed.

However, having installed the software, in a quick and painless fashion, the whole process in fantastically easy, and really very good at removing the green screen background. I had feared that because the sheet came folded, the differences in shade where the creases were would throw the software out. I need not have worried as the whole background was completely eradicated. The only problem I had was of my own making. I had left a picture hanging on the wall, and the flash had reflected back, leaving a white circle in my pictures.

The software hand holds you through the stepped process. First you select your canvas size. There are many to choose from, postcard size, A4, to name but two, or you can have it use the photo as the template. Once the photo is imported, the green background is automatically removed, and the background can be added. The background can be anything you want, they have included 100 backgrounds as part of the package, but you can use any photo you wish. In fact, although 100 backgrounds sounds impressive, you are quickly discounting many of them due to suitability.

Next you go to the Key section, where you can crop some of the foreground, and play about with the amount of processing done to the green screen. It is also where the limitations of the lite version of the software start to become apparent. Clicking on the UV Blur setting tells you what it does, and gives you a link to where you can spend your money. Next is the filters section, where half of the options are greyed out. You can however, play with the main options of contrast, brightness, saturation and blur. In effect the main options you would hope to have. Incidentally, all the options you can manipulate, can be applied to both the foreground and the background independently.

You go on then to position your foreground and background in such a way as makes sense. You can adjust sizes of both photos, and change the rotation, and flip them on the horizontal or vertical axis. You then skip Masks, and you practically skip effects, as the only effect available it the transparency effect. You can add a overlay, but there are no templates available, although, you guessed it, you can buy them from the FXhome website! Lucky us.

The last couple of steps take you on to either export the image as a .jpg, .png, or a .tiff. All of which are welcome. You can also choose to print the image directly to your printer. Thoughtfully, they have also included a final step that allows you to upgrade to the full version of Photokey. Notice a pattern emerging here?

There is never a good time to mention deodorant to someone.

The Gaj-It Verdict:

Design: 7/10
Usability: 9/10
Features: 4/10
Value: 4/10

We Say:

A fun idea, and easy to do. Unfortunately hobbled by the lite version of the software. Available for purchase at around £60.00 it seems a bit steep considering you could buy a copy of Photoshop Elements for £10 less and achieve similar results, all be it with a bit more work. But you would have software capable of doing so much more.

Review: Westcott Green Screen is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Edifier have been well known for making posh and respectable PC speakers. From the commendable Luna 2, to the less accomplished, and competitively priced M1250 bob- a-job speakers. The speaker I am reviewing today lies more at the competitive end, but still manages to retain an aesthetic quality that belies its price. So before we embark on the review, I will give you the official specifications from the Edifier website:

Review:

The Edifier Soundbar is a multimedia speaker aimed at the portable market, it is attractively priced at £39.99. The  first thing to note is that you only get one unit, not two. You still get stereo, but both speakers are encased in the same casing. From my highly scientific investigation, it looks like there are five separate speakers in the unit, two each side of a longer central speaker. One assumes the longer central speaker looks after the lower frequency sounds, while the other four emit the left and right channels mid and high range. A 2.1 speaker set squashed into single unit.

The casing is brushed aluminium, giving it a solid and well built feeling while retaining a portable weight. On my scales it came in at just under 300 grams. Light enough to carry, while at the same time having enough weight behind it to give you a real sense of having something substantial. The brushed aluminium also give the speaker a tactile feel that makes it pleasing to hold. On the bottom, are two rubber feet, and the speakers are encased by a metal mesh. All this goes to make a speaker that will outlast me, and certainly being bashed about in a bag. If you are worried about superficial damage to the speaker though, Edifier supply a soft drawstring bag.

At one end of the Soundbar are the two inputs. One is a mini USB that plugs into your computer, the other is a 3.5mm jack that you can use to plug the speaker into a MP3 player. Both a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, and USB cable are provided. If you do plug something into the 3.5mm jack, it is this that will take precedence over the USB. The computers I used picked up the  speaker instantly, and it was usable straight away. Unfortunately I had no Apple hardware to test this on, but I am sure there will be no problem, the same is true for the Linux users as well. The USB audio drivers are fairly universal, and I have never experienced problems with this type of plug and play speaker.

The other end of the speaker houses the volume control, and a wee blue power light. The volume control flummoxed my modest intellectual capacity for a short time. The button, although a squat cylinder,  like many volume controls is indeed a button and not a knob. My frantic attempts to spin the button got me precisely nowhere, and had me reaching for the manual.  To increase the volume one repeatedly pushes the button, and to lower the volume, you push and hold. I am not sure that this feature is any better than a volume control knob would be. There is a depression in the plastic that allows the blue power light to shine through at the base of the volume button, and would allow you to thumb a volume control knob.

Once plugged into the netbook, the speakers instantly provided a better audio than did the built in speakers. The Soundbar punches above it’s weight, and pushing up the volume, I got to a level where it was uncomfortable to listen too, but there was no distortion. I am not sure that it was as loud as it could go, as there is no indication of the level you are at with the push button design. However, for most uses in a portable scenario I can see this being enough.

The sound reproduction is good. You have to think of it in the context of a portable unit, though having said that the Soundbar does well to produce a quality that is well rounded and natural. As is the Achilles heal with anything this size, the unit lacks the bass punch of a larger 2.1 system, but then you would never fit a 2.1 system into your laptop bag. The mid range and treble are excellent, and stand up to your average tweeters on a 2.1, and then some. Overall the performance of the Soundbar is better than the small form factor would suggest, knocking the average laptop speakers into a cocked hat.

The Gaj-It Verdict:

Design: 8/10
Usability: 8/10
Features: 5/10
Value: 9/10

We Say:

If you are looking for something to replace the speakers on your laptop with something more dynamic, and don’t want to  break the bank, I can recommend this small and capable unit.

Review: Edifier MP250 USB Soundbar. is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Back in the day, when I previously used the Norton Anti-Virus suite for my home computer, it gave me the hump. There were a few reasons I got narked with it, the main one being that the hit on system performance was pretty high for an AV suite, and for a chap who liked to play the odd online FPS, it was a bit of a pain. Secondly, once you installed it, it was installed. Every facet of your computers being was wormed into and monitored by Norton, and it felt stifling, and ominous. And if you wanted to get rid of it, you would have been lucky to remove all of its various components and registry entries without a team of Microsoft computer scientists, and a man with a hammer in reserve.

All that was a long time ago now, and when I was offered the chance to look a the new version of Norton 360, released in February, I thought, yeah, lets take a look, and see how things have come on since. So without any more introduction, lets have a butcher hook, and see what on earth it’s all about.

Review:

Norton 360 4.0 is the all encompassing security suite from Symantec. The main features that are included are the usual fair of, Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Firewall, Browser Protection, Parental Controls, Backups and PC tune-ups. Add to that a cloud based back up service, and something called a reputation service, and you have a pretty comprehensive suite of utilities at your disposal.

I won’t go through each and every feature, rather, I shall pick out what I deem to be the best features and shine a light on them. I will however, go through the install. My favourite part. I used a virtual machine, and installed XP SP1 on with 716 MB of RAM. The reason for the old version of XP was to introduce enough security vulnerabilities to drive a bus through, and hopefully introduce a few issues for Norton to have a go at. Pleasingly enough I wasn’t disappointed, having put the disk in, and running setup, I was informed that I needed at least SP2 to run the software. Now whether this is simply a issue of dependencies, or that SP2 is more secure is not made clear, I assume the former is true, but it still works for the latter.

SP2 or else.

This is the fun bit.

It was a bit of a shame that you were given no direction on how one might go and install SP2. A link to the Microsoft site would have been nice for the less well informed, who may not know what Service Pack 2 is, or why they might need it. Luckily for me, I have installed more service packs that the Pope has blind eyes, and after installing SP2, Norton was up and running.

Opening the interface of 360 yields simple enough choices.  PC Security, Identity Security, Backup, and PC Tuneup. Hovering over any of these gives more options for configuration. Under PC Security, you have access to the firewall, update functions, scans, and something called Norton Insight. The two interesting options here are the firewall and Norton Insight. The firewall has so many configuration options, it’s daunting. Luckily, it is pre-configured to a standard set of rules so you are safe from the get go. If you want to get a bit more involved, you can roll up your sleeves, and look into configuring various options for different applications, so you have full control over how you apps can connect across a network. You can also configure how the firewall behaves with various protocols, allowing or disallowing traffic depending on port number or protocol type. You can also configure intrusion protection that detects payloads delivered by an attacker, and cuts off connections depending on the configured rules. In fact there are more settings here than your average user would use, but rather too much than too little.

Firewall configuration.

Norton Insight is a feature that scans your computer and records all the processes, applications, and files that are trusted. Once they are, Norton will no longer include them in scans allowing the scans to perform more quickly by not scanning anything trusted. It is also useful for checking start up items, and checking programmes or processes that are having the biggest hit on performance. You can also sort by Highest Community usage, most Recently Installed, or Untrusted files, allowing you to sift through the files that may not be desireable.

Configuration by traffic rules.

Norton Insight.

Under the Identity Protection heading, you can manage the identity protection that the suite offers. Initially you will need to put in details such as name and address, and go as far as you like adding personal details, up to, and including adding card details. The profile can be stored on the local machine, or on removable media, such as a memory stick. The data can then be used to auto fill the corresponding fields in forms, or on credit card forms. This feature will also allow you to save user names and passwords for websites. Surrounding that is the ability to add exclusions to websites so the data is not stored, moving the data onto a removable drives and generally editing, giving you complete control. The only caveat is that you will need 360 installed on any machine you wish to plug a removable drive into if you wish to use the portability feature of the application.

Set up your identity protection.

Enter your details.

The Backup options to 360 will be familiar to anyone who has used online backup software. Firstly, you choose what you would like to backup. By default, Pictures, Music, Financial Files, Office Documents, contacts, and Internet favorites are selected in My Documents. Of course, this can be changed to anything that you wish, and from anywhere on the local machine including emails if you still have an .ost for example. You then decide where you would like to back up your data to. You have the option of backing up to a drive on your computer or network, or use the online backup option. To use the online backup option you first need to activate your online drive space, you can then select bandwidth throttling if you have concerns about playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 (my new favorite) while a backup is taking place. The last stage is then to choose when you would like to backup. By default Automatic is selected, backing up files when the computer is not in use. Other options are weekly, monthly, or manual.

Set up what you need backed up.

The last of the four sections in the main 360 interface is PC Tuneup. Here you can run the Disk Optimisation, Disk Cleanup, run a Diagnostic Report, or run the Start up Manager. The Disk optimisation will make sure that your applications and documents have the best chance of opening in the quickest time possible, and hopefully keeping the performance of your computer at optimum. File cleanup will clean temporary files from you computer, again keeping apps like Internet Explorer running in tip top shape. The diagnostic report will tell you what, if anything you need to do to keep your computer in perfect shape. This includes letting you know if you need any updates, or if you could do with more RAM. It can also tell you if any applications on your computer could do with updating or is starting up when your computer boots.

The diagnostic report.

That takes me to the last entry in this section that is the Start up Manager. The Start up Manager will tell you what is starting when you boot, and the resources that they use. Useful to troubleshoot computers that are taking forever to boot, and sluggish if you have a large ammount of apps taking valuable RAM and CPU cycles once they have started.

360 also has a parental control feature if you have children of any age you wish to shield from the less salubrious corners of the Internet. Setting this up requires activation of an account, and installation of the software. The wizard takes you through this with no bother, and allows you to create accounts for the sprogs. You have the choice of allowing or disallowing various category of site, and overriding those if there are some sites that you wish your kids to see. Unfortunately I could not get this working, as logging on with a kids account, Internet Explorer would be so slow to respond it was simply unusable. I cannot say that this will happen to you, but on the same token I cannot vouch for the efficacy of the application.

Gaj-it Verdict

Design: 7/10
Usability: 7/10
Features: 8/10
Value: 7/10

We Say

Norton 360 has come on a long way since the bad old days, and installing it on my test machine was a sinch. The problems with performance seemed to be resolved, as my computers responsiveness seemed unaffected by the software. A lot of the features on 360 have equivalents already in the more modern operating systems like Windows 7, parental controls, and disk cleanups and defrag for example, but it is nice to highlight these types of app, and centre them in the one place. The suite certainly is comprehensive , and if you are looking for an all in one solution I can say that this is worth considering.

Review: Norton 360 is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Overview:

In this review, I will be looking at the LG W2486L. A wide screen LED monitor. The LED backlight is more energy efficient, and another advantage is that the monitor can be thinner than your bob-a-job TFT, a mere 2 CM give or take. So, does this monitor deserve a spot on your desk, or should it be left on the shelf, all thin, and unused, like an old Kate Moss?

Review:

Lets first take a look at the specs first, and see what there is to get excited about:

• Screen size (inches) 24
• Aspect Ratio16:9
• Resolution1920 x 1080
• Brightness (cd/m2)250
• Contrast Ratio2000000:1
• Response Time (ms)2
• Viewing Angle (°)170/160 (CR≥10)

The design of the monitor reminds me of the Samsungs, and is sheer black, with a red tinge on the stand. As I have mentioned before, the LED backlight allows the monitor to be super slim, which is nice, but you will only really appriciate it if you look at it sideways, which you never really do. Another benifit of the LED backlight is that it generates little heat, and is more energy effiicent, a true plus. The base is an oval, and takes up only as much space as is needed to makea stable base. The front is simple and has a glossy black bezil arround the screen. There is a silver trim along the bottom, only bulging out of its contour hugging line to incorporate a power on light. No buttons on the front, as all the controls are touch sensative, which I will come to later.

Super thin!

On the back of the monitor, again we see the glossy black that stretches, unbroken accross the entire length. The only spot where it is broken is where the various ports connectors are grouped. If you are looking for a monitor with a vesa mount, then this monitor is not for you, as any such mount is missing. Indeed, the design of the monitor does not lend itself to a vesa mount as the stand is part of the moulded design, so taking the base off, would still leave the stand sticking  out. Focusing in on the ports, the W2486L is pretty generous. You get the DVI, and VGA, and you also get two HDMI ports. Basically, this monitor will take anything you care to plug in from a PC.

Those connectors in full...

So, back round to the front, and to the bottom right corner, the absence of buttons implies touch sensitivity. Touch the power symbol, and the lights glow on then off from the inside out, very posh. The touch sensative controls are slightly temperamental in my opinion, not always registering a touch, or a little slow to respond. It doesn’t help that the areas of touch sensitivity are not clearly deliniated, however, after a period of adjustment, and a bit of practice, the controls posed no real problems.

Delving into the controls a bit, we have, Smart, Fun, Menu, f-Engine, Source, and Auto/Set. The Smart setting allows you to adjust one of the features of the monitor, a light sensative brightness setting. A small sensor on the fornt of the monitor senses the brightness in the room, and adjusts the brightness of the screen accordingly. I thought this worked pretty well, although I did have one issue with it. In my office, I have a window direcly behind me, and at one point in the day, the sun streams straight through the window. When it does, the light makes the picture look washed out, and at this stage, the sensor should initiate the brightening of the screen. However, if my carcase is in the way of the sensor, the brightness does not go up. It’s only any good for the ambient light levels, not direct sunlight if I am in the way. You can also control a time setting here that allows you to have the monitor switch off after one or two hours. A fairly standard feature, but nice to have.

The Fun settings are not, as the name might allude to, that fantasic, rather I think, as do you, it allows you control over what is displayed, and how, with fun in mind. So get set to hold on to your seat, and get ready for the time of your life with EZ Zooming, 4:3 IN Wide, and Photo Effect. All facilitating the best fun you ever had. Well, OK, but useful features none the less. The first two are fairly self explanitory, and being able to change the aspect ratio of the monitor is useful. The photo effect allows you to apply effects through the monitor like monochrome, or sipeia. Not sure how often you would use it, but it’s there if you want it.

The Menu button gives you acccess to tracking, picture settings, brightness, contrast and so forth, you can also get to the colour settings here, allowing you to manually adjust the RGB levels. The f-Engine gives you some presets to play with. These are set up to give you the best viewing for web pages, games or film, and pictures. Again, this is all very well, but I don’t think I used it the entire time I was using the monitor. Next up it the input, and unserprisingly enough, this allows you to choose from the many input options that there are.

I tested the monitor with the Firefox web browser, the VLC media player with The Matrix, and more than enough Assassins Creed II. For web browsing the screen provides more than enough real estate, and reproduces colours and websites with vigour. Colours look sharp and vivid. The Matrix looked good, and well defined, with crisp images. Assassins Creed II worked nicely in widescreen, and was as sharp as the film and web browsing had been, and as you might expect in a monitor with a 2ms response time, the monitor suffered no ghosting or blur. Infact, I was very pleased with the way that the monitor handled all the media thrown at it. It certainly appears to be a superior panel.

The Gaj-It Verdict:

Design: 7/10
Usability: 9/10
Features: 7/10
Value: 8/10

We Say:

A good monitor, perhaps a bit lacking in features, but more than made up for by a good quality picture. In this price bracket, there is some stiff competition, but if you are looking for a quality 24″ TFT, this might just be the one.

Review: LG Flatron W2486L LED Monitor is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Audio Cleaning Lab 16 deluxe, is the next installment of the Audio Cleaning Lab software by Magix. As the unambiguous name suggests, this software cleans up your digital recordings from analogue sources. The price looks fairly reasonable at £25.00, but does the software provide bang for buck, or does the financial value reflect it’s abilities? I have been blowing the dust off the some of my old vinyl to answer this question. So, without further to do, lets put the needle in the groove, and see whats what.

Review:

The box contains the Audio Cleaning Lab 16 CD and a manual. You also get a copy of PC Check & Tuning 2010. As this review is about the Audio Cleaning Lab I will not be installing it, so have no idea of it’s usefulness or capabilities. Although in my experience, these utilities have a fairly immeasurable degree of success, but you never know. We all like free stuff though don’t we? You can also download the software straight from the Magix website.

Starting with the install, it seemed to take a fairly long time on my Windows 7 machine, and annoyingly offered to install the Ask toolbar. This wouldn’t be a problem if the software was free, but a bit cheeky if you are paying. Perhaps this is how they can offer the software at the price they do, by subsidising it in this way? Any way, once installed, and run, you are offered an instructional video before you get going on the software. In the name of research, yours truly sat through the video, and found it informative, if a bit long winded, but certainly worth while. After the video, you are plonked in front of an interface that looks clean, and straightforward.

The software is set up in a way that takes you through the process in four steps. The steps are as follows:

• Import the audio
• Cleaning
• Mastering
• Export

Audio Cleaning Lab 16 gives you three ways to import your audio, an audio file, directly from the source, or from a CD. The audio import supports all the usual audio files, and a few extra. You also have the ability to record the audio from files such as .avi, enabling you to clean up the soundtracks to your home videos. The second option is to record directly from the output of the audio device, be it turntable, audio tape, or anything, as long as it has an output the can be plugged into a PC. Which these days should be no problem. The third option is the ubiquitous CD. Simply put the CD in and you can rip it. The software will recognise the breaks in the music, and allows you to edit the track listing. Another nice feature it shares with the audio file import is an embedded preview player. This allows you to preview the music in the File Open window.

Your import options

For my test, I used an MP3 recording of a damaged record from back in the day. If anyone remembers the techno charms of Liquid Love by Caspar Pound, be excited! Once imported, the audio appears in the timeline in the main window. From here, there are a few things that you can do, but for now, the cleaning option is the one I shall focus on, and indeed, the point of the program.

When you click the Cleaning button, you are confronted with what appears to be some fairly simple controls. A DeClicker, DeCrackler, DeClipper, DeNoiser, DeHisser, and Spectral Cleaner. All of which, except the Spectral Cleaner, have a slider to control the amount the effect has on the track. Each control allows you to switch it off or on, or select a preset that in the case of the DeClicker, DeCrackler, and DeClicker amounts to weak, medium, or strong. If you click on the cog icon in the top right of each effect, you get access to a more advanced interface for each effect, allowing for grater control.

The DeNoiser, DeHisser, and Spectral Cleaner deserve more of a mention, as these three are a bit more complex. Clicking the DeNoiser, you get a panel with a plethora of options to fiddle with, but luckily for the less savvy, there are loads of presets for you to pick. The DeNoiser is used to take out background noises such as low rumbles, and if you want to go further into the application, the contextual help will take you to the relevant page, and you can have a good old read about the ins and outs of the application. If the noise samples given are of no good, you can even create your own noise samples.

The DeHisser is not quite as configurable, but still has scope for some movement. As the name suggests, the DeHisser will de-hiss all of your audio that has been recorded form a tape recorder, or vinyl perhaps, that have a background hiss going all the way through. You can select your preset, then tweak using the Noise Level, and Noise Reduction knobs, as well as selecting the audio type, orchestra or pop for example, for a better match.

Now, imagine that you are recording your favorite theme tune from the telly on your tape recorder. You are half way through the theme from Magnum, and your Mum shouts, “Tea!” That’s it, all that hard work down the drain. Ahem, anyway, the solution to this problem is to use the Spectral Cleaning utility 20 years on. The Spectral Cleaner could have it’s own review, but basically, it allows you to manipulate the audio, in order to clean any wayward sound. Firstly, the thing to know about this process is that it is destructive, so rubbing out a whole section will be permanent, so make sure that you have a backup. Altering a large spike in the audio is as easy as draging a box over the area of the audio you want removed in the time line. The louder a sound is, the more white it becomes, so to get that sound out, you need to focus on a distortion that is usually louder than the sounds around. Simple! If you get stuck there is a helpful video if you click on the Tutorial button, a great addition.

The Spectral Cleaner

Spectral Clean before...

And after.

If that is not enough for you, once you have done that, you can then master your newly cleaned track with the mastering tools. The tools on offer are, StereoFX, Equalizer, Brilliance, Sound Cloner, Dynamics, and Mulitmax. You also get another couple of effects you can add to the master, such as chorus, and energiser effects. Again, as with the cleaning tools, all of these have presets that you can alter, or tweak your own. In fact there are a seemingly infinite number of configurations for you to play with, it should keep you away from getting bored, and sniffing glue. It’s also worth mentioning that you can also add effects in the main window such as Reverb and Echo.

The mastering tools

Once that you have added the effects that you wish, and the audio has been cleaned, you will want to export the music. You can export to nearly any audio format, MP3, OGG, WAV, to name a few. And each format also has it’s own settings that you can adjust to effect the output. You can also export to a CD, DVD, or Data Disc.

Export Options

Eport options options

The Gaj-It Verdict:

Design: 7/10
Usability: 7/10
Features: 9/10
Value: 9/10

We Say:

After using this program for a while, I seem to have only scratched the surface of it’s capabilities. And all for £25.00, I think I can forgive the odd toolbar install prompt. The default settings did do a reasonable job of cleaning up my audio, and a bit more work produces even better results. Where the track became extremely distorted, the default settings simply were not enough, but the Spectral Cleaner does go along way to being a get out clause. For the price, if you have got old audio that needs a bit of polish, you could do a lot worse.

Review: Magix Audio Cleaning Lab 16 delux. is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

In the future, when we all have electronic eyes, we will be able to record all we do through the sensor in the pupil, and directly into our positronic brains. From there, we will put our interface finger into the computer, and upload all we know. For now the Swann MDV-450 Action Camera will have to do. This 90mm long cylindrical camera is a tough and light, and made for those without bionic eyes to record their action sports adventures. With a RRP of £89.99, would it be cheaper to become Steve Austin?

Review:

lets look at some of the specs of this camera, and see what we get for our money? It’s not mentioned what the MDV-450′s  sensor technology is, but you can take both stills and video. The camera will take video at a 640 x 480 resolution, and at 24fps, that works out at 4710kbps. The finished article will end up as an .AVI file and 30 minutes worth of recording will give you a file size of approximately 1GB. You can shoehorn MicroSD cards in of 8GB, but the camera will only last 90 minutes on a single charge of the Lithium-Ion 490mAH built in battery. Plenty for most people I would have thought. The camera will also take stills. Each photo will be roughly 700KB at a 2048 x 1536 resolution in the common .JPEG format.

Turning to the camera, it looks like a LED torch. The model I have is silver, and no other colours seem to be available. The literature says that the camera has a, “weather resistant anti-corrosive casing” so I am not sure exactly what metal it is made from, but due to how light it is, and the feel, I would guess at aluminium, but don’t quote me on that. There is a plastic panel halfway down the camera, that has four LED’s, one at each corner, and a REC/PAUSE button. There is also a small hole for the microphone on the panel as well. At the back of the camera is a screw top, that can be removed to expose the MicroSD card slot, Mini USB port, and on off switch. When the cap is on, the camera is a sealed unit. How sealed, I don’t know, but it won’t be waterproof. Splash-proof, and dirt-proof certainly though. Perfect for muddy use, but don’t take it scuba diving.

As well as the camera, you will also be in reciept of various bits and bobs that look a bit S&M, but in reality, help you to attach your camera to either your person, or extreme sports kit. One attachment will clasp your camera to the handlebars of a bike, one to attach the camera to a helmet via various straps that look fairly unfathomable. On top of this, you will get a suction cup and stick, allowing you to attach the camera to any flat, shiny surface, think car windscreen, inside or out! You also get a small viewfinder that attaches to the back of your camera, and allows you to peer through, and judge roughly, what your filming. I have to say, the viewfinder is tacky. Christmas cracker tacky. I could see it flying off when you go over a bump on your bike or any time a strong wind blew. And as your camera is going to be attached to your head, why have it?

To get going, unscrew the back of the camera, and flick the on switch. The blue and orange LED’s should come on. The orange LED lets you know that you are in video mode, and to start recording press the REC/PAUSE button. A green light should start flashing to give you some feedback that the recording happening. To switch to the photographic mode, hold the REC/PAUSE button down for three seconds. The orange light should turn off, leaving just the blue light on. This lets you know that you are ready to take stills. Press the REC/PAUSE button once, and viola, one photo. And that’s about it for the operation of the camera. It’s very simple. Perfect for those with gloves on, or not much time to fiddle with cameras, even the technophobe should have no problems.

Once you have done throwing yourself from a mountain or dangling from a bungee chord, you will most likely want to download the images to your computer. Thankfully this is very simple. The camera is plug and play in terms of storage, and my Windows 7 computer picked it up as a flash drive right away. Exploring the drive, you have two folders, AVI and JPEG. All your media should be stored in these two folders. Simply drag and drop the files to your computer. Using the camera as a webcam is slightly more complex. The camera comes with a driver that you first install on your computer, when you want to use it, you switch the ON/OFF switch to the OFF position, then, holding down the REC/PAUSE button, insert the USB cable into the back of the camera. All a bit fiddly, and not particularly intuitive, however it does work.

Here, I have to admit that my skateboarding days are over, so the chances of catching me attempting a 180 kickflip to noseblunt slide down the local handrail are over, however I did take the camera out in someone’s garden. The camera does on the whole produce reasonable results. In broad daylight the video that it takes looks sharp and clear enough. My only slight reservation is the frame speed, at 24fps, it still has a tendency to look a bit jerky, especially when the camera is moved quickly. Unfortunately for this camera, it will be doing just that. As the light levels decrease so does the quality, though even in low light the picture never becomes unacceptable. Head over to YouTube to take a look at a sample recording. The sound that is captured is OK inside, but outside, it suffers from wind noise, and whizzing down a hill is only going to exacerbate the situation.

The Gaj-It Verdict:

Design: 8/10
Usability: 7/10
Features: 6/10
Value: 7/10

We Say:

A capable and well designed camera, but perhaps a little lacking in the video quality department. The wind noise is also slightly concerning. However, taking into account all the various additions that you get, and how easy it is to use, well worth considering if you want to record your next action adventure!

Sample images:

Review: Swann MDV-450 Action Camera is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

The tablet form factor is not new of course, and has been in and out of favour a bit, with varying degrees of success. Many of these prior tablets have come with touchscreens, although perhaps not quite as accomplished. The problem with these devices in the past is that they often get compared to PC’s, perhaps unfairly, but tablets never came up to scratch against the horse power of the desktop, or laptop.

The iPhone has paved the way for touchscreen devices being more common about the house, but is there room for a 15″ device that has much the same capability, with less portability? Can you see yourself using it as a laptop in front  of the TV, or as an e-reader on the bus? All of these applications for it are possible, but there are devices that do it better. The battery will never last as long as an e-reader, and the ability to flex the screen towards you is a definite plus for the laptop. These devices are jacks of all trades, and masters of none, and it will be the quality of the technology that makes or breaks them. Something that Apple is very good at, only time will tell which devices get on and which don’t.

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Touchscreens to Push Sales? is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

I would like to start by saying that this review is aimed at the trendy section section of society. The ones who can pull off a mullet, and not be embarrassed wearing skin tight jeans, and a blazer. The focus of today’s review is the Sandbergs StreetBlaster headphones, which at an RRP of £35.99, might seem a reasonable amount of money. Aimed at the gamer, and the street smart poser, and possibly both, these headphones are a bit of a break from the norm for Sandberg, and is part of their new StreetGear range of PC accessories recently launched.

Review:

So, out goes the familiar purple and yellow packaging of the Sandberg line of products, and in comes the black and orange street stylings that is the StreetGear range. Inside the box is 1 x StreetBlaster headphones, a short 1.2 meter cable, and a longer 2.5 meter cable with microphone, instruction booklet, and warranty card. The longer cable is for attaching to your computer while gaming, and includes the microphone for the all important comms, and the shorter cable is for attaching to your MP3 player while out and about. The specs are as follows:

• Earphone:
• Driver unit: 57 mm
• Frequency range: 20 Hz – 20 kHz
• Impedance: 32 Ohm
• Sensitivity: 110 dB
• Microphone:
• Type: 6mm dia. electret condenser microphone
• Direction: Omni-directional
• Impedance: Low
• Sensitivity: -58 ± 3dB
• Frequency Response: 30 Hz – 16 kHz

The headphones are black and white, and are the type that cover the entire ear. They have a leather seal around each speaker, and a leather band that goes over the head, is supported by two plastic bands that provide the spring to keep these headphones clamped on. The leather band is attached to each speaker via a bit of elastic that keeps the headphones snug on your head, and makes sure the seal around the speaker is more or less intact. The overall upshot of this is a set of headphones that feel secure, and fit well. Above each speaker is a piece of plastic that has the letter L or R on, depending on which side the speaker serves, nothing new here. But on the other side of the plastic, they have the letters in braille. A nice touch for the visually impaired, and costs Sandberg nothing to implement.

On the side of each speaker is the StreetGear and Sandberg logos. I’m sure that on the right head these could look pretty cool, though unfortunately on me, they look like some sort of medical brace or scaffold for those with a broken jaw. All that engineering also adds to the weight of these headphones which for me is a little on the heavy side. Not a lot, but over time they got a little less comfortable.

The headphones come with two cables for plugging into various devices as I have mentioned before. Both cables plug into the  jack on the headphones, and secure in with a twist. The connection feels very secure, and I don’t envisage any problems. The shorter cable is designed with portability in mind, and is welcome when you don’t want to  have a huge cable winding itself about your person. The longer is to give you a bit of freedom while gaming, or doing whatever it is one does in front of ones PC. The longer cable also gives you the microphone that is placed at a convenient distance from the face. The housing of the microphone also gives you a volume control, and a mute button, so you can have a good old swear without offending you fellow gamers.

Once you are all plugged in and ready to go, it’s time to listen to your favourite popular music record, or perhaps have that game of Jet Set Willie on the PC. I chose to listen to Billy Jean by MJ (RIP), and watch the Matrix (again). I also had a hack at Tomb Raider: Underworld. Billy Jean was done justice, and the baseline never got distorted no matter how much I fiddled with the graphic equaliser. Overall the sound quality was slightly flat, but the headphones coped with all aspects of the music, from the tweet to the bass, nothing was too much or too little for the headphones.

The Matrix again was done justice, although the flatness of the sound that I mentioned earlier was compounded by the fact that the headphones will only be stereo, and The Matrix will be better off in surround sound. Apart from that the reproduction was solid, but not outstanding. The headphones worked better with Tomb Raider: Underworld, the grunts and general Lara noises were reproduced well, as were the explosions and the sound track. These results should be expected, as these headphones are aimed a the gamer, and the casual MP3 listener.

The Microphone performed pretty well, although the recordings that I made of myself singing Baa Baa Black Sheep seemed a little silly on the quiet side. I fiddled with microphone boost and levels, and was able to get a reasonable recording, and the quality was fine. Certainly OK for screaming orders to your mates to out flank the sniper on the hill. Also I prefer a mic to be less sensitive than over sensitive to a point. Too sensitive, and you sound distorted quite easily, also you won’t perforate a team mates eardrum accidentally.

The Gaj-It Verdict:

Design: 7/10
Usability: 7/10
Features: 6/10
Value: 7/10

We Say:

A respectable set of headphones from Sandberg. Solid reproduction of music and games, and slightly lacking in the movie department. Very comforable, although I am not sure I would go out in public wearing these!

Review: Sandberg StreetBlaster Headphones is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Welcome to the review of the Edifier e1100 Plus Multimedia Speaker. As far as I am concerned, Edifier has a history of turning out good quality speakers, although some have been at a price point that might make you wince at the checkout. So when the e1100 Plus speakers arrived, I was not surprised to see that they looked the business, and felt solidly constructed, something that was lacking a bit from the e3350 speakers. I then glanced at the price, and was pleasingly surprised at the cost. For these, you can expect to part with £39.99, or thereabouts. If you would like to know if these 2.1 speakers sound like they cost £39.99 or perhaps more, and hopefully not less, then read on dear reader, read on.

Sign of things to come.

Review:

The first thing you notice, of course, is the box the e1100 Plus came in. Mean and moody. There is a sticker on the box that has a depiction of a creature very reminiscent of one found in the film Alien, and follows the HR Giger school of design. One assumes that the speakers are aimed at the gamer perhaps? Anyway, opening the box and alleviating it of it’s contents leaves us with one bass speaker, two tweeters, a cable to connect the afore mentioned two, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack to 3.5mm headphone jack cable to attach the lot to your computer. You will also receive a sticker with our Giger inspired alien on, and a manual, plus a power adapter.

A satellite speaker.

Lets take a quick look at the spec. shall we?

•    Two 2” magnetically shielded drivers, 4 Ohm
•    One 4.5” down-firing subwoofer, 6 Ohm
•    Power Output: RMS 21 W (12W + 2 x 4.5W)
•    Signal-to-Noise Ratio: ≥ 85dBA
•    Input Impedance:10K Ohm
•    Input Sensitivity: R/L 450mV, SW 150mV
•    Frequency Response: R/L 200Hz ~ 20kHz, SW 20Hz ~ 160Hz
•    Dimensions: Subwoofer—-162 x 167 x 267mm (WxHxD) Satellites—- 68 x 105 x 103mm (WxHxD)
•    Audio Input: 3.5mm stereo line-in
•    Gross Weight: approximately 3.5kg

Fairly reasonable I think you will agree?

And from the other side.

Focusing in on the subwoofer, the unit is piano black. Looks nice, and as yet, hasn’t suffered too badly from the finger marks. The unit is an attractively styled curve almost like a skiing helmet, or the head of the alien in the film of the same name. At the apex of the curve is a back lit volume control that has a pleasing resistance to being turned; ever so slightly stiff, but still glides around. Looking underneath the subwoofer, we can see clearly the downward facing 4.5″ speaker. The idea behind this is that the speaker fires it’s low frequencies at the surface below, and the surface will scatter the resulting sound waves around the room. This is all fine until you put the subwoofer on carpet, or another surface that soaks up sound waves. Turning to the back, and we have all the connectors you might expect for this type of set up, one jack for the satellite speakers, and one input from the PC, and a power adapter socket. There is also a dedicated knob for adjusting the bass level.

Bass unit.

The Tweeters are similarly styled in the piano black, curved, Alien fashion, and look pretty good. The cone is 2″, and is magnetically shielded, so they won’t interfere with any of your other nearby kit. They feel solid and have a good bit of weight to them. Due to their attractive styling, they would look at home nearly anywhere, and their compact size means that they take little desktop real estate. To protect the cone, a small plastic bar goes from one side to the other. While this keeps the aesthetics in check, I can’t help but think that they are open to and accidental jab from a pencil, or a prod from a curious finger.

So description over with, what do they sound like? Well to give them a bit of a good test out, I used, AC/DC – Highway to Hell, Sasha – Mongoose (Exclusive emFire Edit), and Grand Daddy I.U. – Nobody Move, because they are all pretty hard on speakers. I also used the film “The Matrix”, and had a quick go on “Batman: Arkham Asylum” to cover all one might do on a computer these days.

From the back.

The music test was very good. Bear in mind that these speakers cost £40.00, they sounded a lot more expensive. The bass was warm, rounded and clear. I felt the mid range lacked a bit of punch, although reproduction of sound seemed very good. The top end came out clearly, although on occasion, slightly muffled. Turning the speakers up to 11, and likewise for the bass volume, did produce distortion, however, it was too loud at this volume anyway, and I’m not sure how often this would be an issue. All said and done, I was very impressed with the way these speakers sounded.

The film test was reasonable. I have to admit, having been so impressed with the way the e1000 Plus coped with the music, that I was a little underwhelmed at how they dealt with the The Matrix. Although they stayed true to the film score and sound effects, they lacked that rumble and precision that I hoped for. I am not convinced though that this is not due to the limitations of a 2.1 solution, and had these speakers been 5.1, then perhaps it would be a different story. They were still a pleasure to use though, and any excuse to watch The Matrix is worth it.

That bass speaker in full.

Batman: Arkham Asylum faired a lot better than the film test, and I am happy to report the dull thud of Bat-glove on thug was marvellous. The background music was handled with aplomb, as were the sound effects. There was still a bit missing in the mid range, but that is the worst I have to say about it. A sterling performance here.

The Gaj-It Verdict:

Design: 9/10
Usability: 8/10
Features: 6/10
Value: 9/10

We Say:

These speakers look and sound a lot more expensive than they are. It may have been nice to see some digital connectors on the back of the bass unit, but for the price, it is understandable. A very capable set of speakers for a very reasonable price. Highly recommended.

Review: Edifier e1100 Plus (Predator) Multimedia Speaker is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Sleek, and stylish.

The Cygnett Micro measures a pocketable 105mm x 20mm x 46mm (lxdxh), and has two speakers set about 60mm apart. The Mini has a Lithium-Ion battery that the manufacturer claims will last three hours of playback after a full charge. Charging is accomplished via a USB cable that is roughly 750mm long. Unfortunately, no audio is transferred down this cable, it is simply for charging. For audio you use the supplied 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack cable at a compact 330mm long. I do wish however that it was slightly longer. If you wanted to connect this to your computer, you won’t have much of a choice as to where the speakers go. I would also liked to have been able to connect the speakers through the USB cable. This way, I could charge the unit while listening to music, through one cable, and use the 3.5mm jack cable while out and about.

So once you plug it in, what does it sound like? Well, once plugged in, it’s worth noting that it does not have a volume control on it, so you could be in danger of giving yourself a fright if you have left the volume up.  The good news is that the audio quality is OK. Don’t get me wrong, something of this size and stature is never going to be the audio marvel of the decade, but if your laptops speakers are a bit weedy, or the speaker that came with your MP3 player is tinny this does make an acceptable upgrade. As you might imagine, the high end is fine if course, with good reproduction, and the mid-range too has a reasonable output. The achilles heal of all these products though is the bass. There is little room for the bass to resonate in speakers of this size, and although it makes a better go of it than my laptop speakers, it still could do with a bit extra in this department.

Using the 3.5mm cable to attach to iPod

This  then gives you a good idea of where these speakers are aimed. Basically, a slight improvement to stock speakers and not as good as the expensive ones. It’s a space that Cygnett are very good at filling. The presentation case looks very iPod-ish, and the price is affordable. At £20.00, it is certainly in the price range of the average teenage bopper. The units stye is good, and made from a solid plastic, so it should certainly survive life in a rucksack. All in all, a good little set of speakers for those on a budget, but don’t expect too much.

The Gaj-It Verdict:

Design: 8/10
Usability: 7/10
Features: 6/10
Value: 8/10

We Say:

Fine if one is on a budget, and wants a bit portable music, but don’t expect miracles.

Cygnett Micro: Review is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com