Reach-a-Mail is a small free email program that’s designed to give you full email handling facilities when you’re on the road and away from your computer. Store all your contacts and stuff on a USB memory stick and then stick it into any Windows PC USB port to start downloading and using your email service. Sure you can use Mail2Web or forward stuff to a webmail account, but this looks rather more sophisticated than your average webmail mess, which could…
Read MoreMonthly Archives: October 2008
Logitech’s fatal mouse flaw – or why involuntary double clicks are a real pain
I’ve had three of the Logitech Revolution family of computer mouses now, and I’m rapidly building up a love/hate relationship with them. On the one hand I love love love that free-wheeling mouse wheel, it makes browsing so much more pleasant and easy. On the other hand, every single one of the darn things have decayed rapidly on me, with the result that they deliver unwanted double clicks from the left hand button as it wears. Every one. Same fault. And…
Read MoreTooth Tunes – get that song out of my head!
Toy behemoth Hasbro has released a music-playing toothbrush called Tooth Tunes. The idea being you keep brushing your teeth until the music runs out. The freaky part is the music is transmitted into your ears via bone conduction through your jaw so you can only hear the music if you’re brushing correctly. Now don’t get me wrong, anything that helps children to clean their teeth more effectively and makes it fun gets a tick in my book. However each toothbrush…
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EARTH Atlas – a global investment
Looking for an alternative to those pricey GPS systems? Then how about the EARTH atlas, a very limited edition 580 page silver bound tome measuring 36″ by 18″? EARTH has been a 20 year labour of love for Sydney-sider Gordon Cheers who couldn’t get any of the big name publishers to take his idea of a luxury atlas seriously. Undeterred he started his own publishing company and gathered a team of 100 cartographers and 50 editors to compile the facts…
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WildCharge Wireless Chargers – power for your small devices moves on slowly
The WildCharge Wireless Charger tech has been around for a while, but now it looks as though they’re just about to expand the product range out to include Blackberry and iPhone handsets in the roster. The idea is you slap a charger sleeve onto your device and from then on all you have to do is drop it onto their special charging mat to power up. No cables, no mess. There’s pros and cons of course, and the whole wireless…
Read MoreKlipsch AWR-650SM Speakers – stone cold rock and roll
These Klipsch AWR-650SM weatherised outdoor stone speakers are designed to let you rock out, yeah. OK, we admit it, we only featured the things so we could go all cheesy cliche corny in your face. And now we have. How d’ya feel? Dirty? Yeah us too. Priced at around $299.99. The AWR-650-SM is a true two-way design that employs a 6.5-inch dual voice coil polymer woofer and dual ¾-inch polymer dome tweeters. The speaker’s dual tweeter design allows it to…
Read MoreYou Need A Budget – free personal budgeting software for troubled times
You Need A Budget is a free household budgeting program which comes with a ‘unique, powerful and proven way to manage your money’. If that hasn’t sold you, nothing will, eh? You’ll need to follow their 4 step rules to make it all work apparently, but who knows, you may even be able to save the Porsche when you’re done. There are two versions, free and Pro, with the latter offering bank account synching and auto-budgeting recommendations. I suggest…
Read MoreFerret posts this week
Here’s a quick round-up of Ferrety posts from the past week for anyone who missed them. Enjoy. Circulation Booster – the essential geek tool? – The Circulation Booster is an… Pig Tones – funny voices you can download to your GPS satnav – Pig Tones is designed…
Read MoreDraganflyer X6 – the R/C helicopter gets a very cool – if expensive – makeover
The new and very cool looking Draganflyer X6 is a masterpiece of fly-by-wire technology crammed into a hand portable spying machine. The multi-rotor design makes it robust and strong enough to carry a camcorder or stills camera aloft complete with remote control pan and tilt, shutter release and everything else you might need to run a covert operation against your neighbour’s annoying brat children. Unfortunately you’ll need around $15,000.00 to satisfy those urges, so it’s probably back to the kite and an…
Read MoreColorRight – fix that pesky white balance for good
One of the easiest ways for someone new at digital to photography to spice up their photos is to use the correct white balance. Sure you can leave the choice up to the camera but it’s pretty much guessing and it never looks quite right. So you do it yourself. Can you see the sun? Press the sun button. Inside under fluorescent light? Press the glowing bar button. But with compact fluorescent lights everywhere and sunlight mixed with tungsten lights,…
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Targus Express Port Docking Station – just like USB but faster!
If you use your notebook on a desk everyday, chances are you’re finding it a pain in the back. Well, peripherals-maker Targus may have something to help you. The Express Card Laptop Docking Station is a docking station that will connect with any laptop via the notebook’s Express Card slot. The docking station itself is equipped with Gigabit ethernet, 4 USB-A ports, a microphone input, Toslink S/PDIF 5.1 sound output, front, rear and centre analogue audio outputs and of course…
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BlueAnt Z9i – where i stands for improvement!
Despite the stigma, Bluetooth headsets are pretty darn useful things and bluetooth specialty company, BlueAnt, is doing some great things. Their latest offering is the Z9i bluetooth headset which adds some extra oomph to their CES 2007 award winning Z9 headset. First it allows you to pair it with up to 5 devices instead of the usual 1. So you can pair it with your phone, your other-half’s phone and even the laptop so you can Skype with it. You…
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Rocket Launcher Alarm Clock – may your zoom be fruitful and your splashdown light
This Rocket Launcher Alarm Clock reminds us of the time we were abducted by aliens while picking up the laundry a while back. Well actually it doesn’t really, because these particular beings arrived in a rather battered VW Golf, but perhaps the story’s best left for another time, eh? Anyhoo, here we have yet another variation on the ‘hunt the maddening alarm clock component in the dark’ meme, which should immediately give you pause. Or snooze. £19.99. Has anyone ever said that you…
Read MoreNicro Solar Fridge Fan – improve your fridge’s cooling efficiency by up to 40%
The Nicro Solar Fridge Fan promises to improve the efficiency of your refrigerator by up to 40%. The idea is to attach it to the back of your fridge and let it blow air across the coils to help it use less energy and cool better. Does anyone know whether this is likely to work? It’s featured on a marine site, so maybe it’s only for boats and camping type fridges? Interesting. £72.25. Fridge fan increase your refrigerators cooling efficiency by up to…
Read MoreStarBurn – freeware DVD authoring tool offers big name features for a great price
StarBurn is a free DVD authoring and CD burning program which provides the kind of sophisticated feature set that you usually have to pay for. It supports Blu-Ray for the three of you out there using that format, and comes with a useful set of wizards to help the novice do things right. Most impressively for a free program, they offer an active support forum, which is always a good sign of a developer’s commitment. With StarBurn you can perform grabbing,…
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