* Posts by cliff 2

32 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jun 2009

HP Envy 4-1010ea 14in Ultrabook review

cliff 2

Re: Unfortunate turn of phrase ...

There's a difference between "backed up by" and "backed up onto"......

cliff 2

Re: Mmmm - OK,

"Is Boot Camp a virtual machine or does it run on bare metal?"

It runs on bare metal - which in the case of the MacBook Pro includes a bog-standard hard disk. The Envy 4 has both a hard disk and a 32GB SSD module, which does seem to give its PCM7 score a bit of a boost.

Blizzard coughs to boring Diablo III conclusion

cliff 2

Good beginning, but....

There's no end-game in Diablo 3 really, and not much of a mid-game either for that matter.

Playing the game once only gets you to about Level 30, so to get up to 60 you just have to keep going through the same bunch of dungeons over and over. The randomness of loot is pretty boring too, as it means that you can finish a major boss battle and end up with bugger all worth keeping or selling.

I did enjoy Diablo 3 for about 3 weeks, but once I had a couple of L60 characters set up there was nothing left to hold my attention.

Devolo dLAN 500Mb/s powerline network adaptor review

cliff 2

500Mbps?

I like the look of their 200Mbps kit - three Ethernet ports and wifi too.

Also not sure that 500Mbps is really necessary, since the average UK broadband speed is still well under 10Mbps...

Man sues pr0n starlet after Twitter rejection

cliff 2

A moment's thought....

Ah but that's the problem with Twitter - people seem to say whatever comes into their head without so much as a moment's thought....

Adobe Photoshop Touch

cliff 2

Re: Whats missing...

<<It just seems so obvious, I don't why Adobe haven't jumped on it.>>

They're working on it....

CJ

Grid Lens

cliff 2

Re: Trying to work out...

The app does have an option to turn the flash On/Off....

NHS Direct

cliff 2

What is not erotic about cold rice pudding?

Some like it hot....

CJ

Splashtop Remote Desktop

cliff 2

LogMeIn - not any more

I have used LogMeIn - and a few other remote access apps too - but none of them match the speed and responsiveness of Splashtop.

That's why I focused on the Flash streaming in the review - to emphasis the sheer speed of the app.

James Sherwood 1983-2011

cliff 2

Only the good....

I was so shocked and sorry to hear this sad news - my thoughts are with James' family.

Apple Digital AV Adapter

cliff 2

Doesn't Work With iPhone

I had no trouble at all using the cable with an iPhone 4. I didn't have a Bravia TV or Acer projector, so can't comment on those models, but it did work with a Samsung TV, and HDMI monitors from a number of other companies. The photos in the review were taken on an LG monitor, for instance.

I also agree with the many companies stating that £35 for a cable is way over the top - but Apple isn't the only company that charges disgraceful prices for accessories. I'm still saving up to take out a mortgage for a replacement battery for my Sony Vaio laptop...

Western Digital WD TV Live Hub

cliff 2

Firmware Upgrade

I do believe that WD is working on a firmware update that would bring the new UI to previous WDTV models - although we don't have a release date for it.

Sharp Aquos LC-32LE210E 32in LCD TV

cliff 2

Bedroom Box

I've currently got a 26" CRT in my bedroom - used to be my main TV in the living room, but has now been relegated to the bedroom.

Although it's 'only' a 26" screen, the CRT is bigger, bulkier and about 10x heavier than the 32" Sharp, so it does kind of make sense for Sharp to push it at people who need a second set for a bedroom/playroom or whatever.

Apple files patent for iPad weight loss

cliff 2

Big Battery

As I understand it, most of the inside of the iPad is taken up by the battery, so there's not a lot of weight reduction possible unless you do something about the battery.

Ten... iPhone 4 cases

cliff 2

Yes, And....

This round-up was also prompted by the little matter of 'antennagate'....

If Apple was forced to give millions of cases away for free then most iPhone users will probably consider a case an essential item - which is not the case for most other types of 'phone.

Ten... Wireless Headphones

cliff 2

Missing Headphones

We did contact both Sony and Philips for this review and were informed by both companies that they were discontinuing their ranges of Bluetooth headphones.

Ten... Premium iPod Speakers

cliff 2

Premium Essential

I think the words 'premium' and 'essential' are contradictory, but the Starcke Zikmu speakers are astonishing....

NetSecure SmartSwipe credit card reader

cliff 2

Horses for courses....

I'm well aware that a device like this is going to have huge buckets of scorn and contempt heaped upon it by our regular readers - who are, after all, very tech-savvy and well-informed about security issue.

However, there are still many people who are a bit intimidated by this new-fangled internet malarkey and - as I concluded in the review - the SmartSwipe might at least provide them with a bit of peace of mind.

Ten Essential... iPad Apps

cliff 2

Ain't that typical....

Typical - we've been monitoring the iPlayer situation for weeks and then this happens.

You see, when the iPad was first launched in the US the iPlayer did work - it simply treated the iPad as an iPhone. However, about three weeks ago the BBC disabled support for the iPad - which is why we suggested using Sphere as a workaround.

We knew that the BBC was working on the iPlayer Big Screen site but what we'd heard from the BBC led us to believe that it wouldn't be ready for the iPad's UK launch......

Apple iPad

cliff 2

No Win Situation

Well I've got one comment accusing me of ignorantly slating the device and only giving it 80%, while another accuses me of 'fanboi propaganda' and scoring too leniently....

In truth, the wifi isn't a complete disaster - as I state in the review the wifi reception did pick up a bit during the initial testing period. However, the 80% score does reflect the wifi problems, as well as the high price.

Oh, and Mr Anonymous Coward - I'm happy to stand by my review and have my name on it. Unlike you.

cliff 2

180-degrees

<<180degrees view? I doubt it as you'd be able to see the image when the screen was perpendicular to the line of sight.>>

I actually said 'virtually 180 degrees'.

You can indeed see the screen clearly from just above the perpendicular.

Altec Lansing inMotion Compact

cliff 2

More than moderate

I thought the sound was pretty good for a speaker system of this size and price - much louder than my old iM3, which has served me well for many years.

Plantronics Voyager Pro UC

cliff 2

Desk phones

We did review a Sennheiser headset that does this a while back.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/01/14/review_bluetooth_headset_sennheiser_vmx_office/

Outlooked Office for Mac 2011 unveiled

cliff 2

Plus Ca Change

As I recall, two of the main changes in Office 2008 were the introduction of Entourage and the omission of Visual Basic.

And now the headline news for Office 2011 is that it's getting rid of Entourage and bringing back Visual Basic...

Now that's progress!

Conceptronic Grab'n'Go

cliff 2
Dead Vulture

Nothing Could Be Simpler..?

<<Nothing could possibly be simpler than setting up SMB (Samba) on a Windows pc.>>

Actually, *not* having to set up Samba would be much simpler - especially for the millions of ordinary people who have never heard of Samba or UPnP.

Cliff

LaCie LaCinema Black MAX

cliff 2

Not quite...

To be fair, you can get a Freeview tuner for £30, but not a DVR with 500Gb hard disk....

Seagate jazzes up HDD-to-TV box

cliff 2

Seagate Take Two...

Hope it's better than the last one - which really wasn't thought through properly at all.....

Netbooks popular among college kids

cliff 2

Yes, but...

What happens when those kids realise that their netbook isn't powerful enough to edit their YouTube video clips or play WoW.....?

Apple won't take tablet to September iPod event, says mole

cliff 2

Taking The Tablets

Apple's september event traditionally focuses on music - ie launching new iPods for Chrimble.

If they launched a tablet now all the headlines would focus on the tablet and the iPod would be forgotten.

It makes far more sense for Apple to hold back on a tablet until January.

Apple MacBook Air June 2009

cliff 2

MacBook Air battery can be changed...

No, Ted, the MBA battery can't be easily changed. It can only be done if you whip out a screwdriver and dismantle the entire base of the unit, removing no less than 10 tiny - and easily lost - screws in the process.

Try doing that when you're on a plane and just want to swap in a new battery so you can finish watching a film on the machine.

Panasonic Viera TX-P42G10 Freesat HD TV

cliff 2

Interpolation

With all due respect, we didn't simply copy the waffle off Panasonic's marketing brochures for this review. We spoke to the product manager for the G10 range at Panasonic and our first question was - "what's the point of 600Hz refresh if the original signal only refreshes at 50Hz".....

Panasonic specifically told us that the set does indeed perform some interpolation. Its internal processor generates multiple frames for each frame in the original signal, and then attempts to select the frames that best display the trajectory of fast-moving objects, such as a tennis ball.

So while the image that you see on screen is still only 25 frames per second, some of those frames are Panasonic-interpolated frames. It's possible that they were lying through their teeth, but at the end of the day we did think that it performed well with sports programmes (and less well with bog-standard talking-head SD content due to the relatively poor scaling - a bit of interpolation and upscaling might help there too...).

Ten of the best... noise-cancelling headphones

cliff 2

Sennheiser 450

It's always the case that prices for any product will vary a lot online. In the case of these headphones we either went with the price charged by the manufacturer on their own web site, or - where the manufacturer doesn't sell direct - the price charged by the manufacturer's preferred retail outlet.