Posts by Category: Reviews

In-depth reviews with video and intelligent comment

Cool Web Apps & Sites October 23, 2009 posted by

Yebol – Semantic web search

I’ve been playing around with Yebol, a newish, and still beta search engine, and to my surprise I’ve found that I like it. Yebol is one of these semantic search engines, in that it combines results found using computer algorithms with results found by people to give you a great mix of search results. Yebol takes the opposite approach to the now-mainstream way of searching. It’s the same way that Google was a much-improved version of the old cluttered way…


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Gadgets August 13, 2009 posted by

Orbita Mouse – hands on review

I was pretty fascinated when I first saw the Orbita Mouse a couple of months ago. I’m a fan of unusual mice, and the Orbita seemed to combine an ordinary computer mouse with the simplicity of a Griffin PowerMate so I had to have a look at one. Note: Apparently it looks like some kind of old, unpopular Apple Mouse? Well forget all about that, the Orbita is nothing like it, it says so here.


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cool tech June 10, 2009 posted by

Mophie Juice Pack Air – hands on with the iPhone lifesaver

Dudes sent me a Mophie Juice Pack Air rechargeable battery pack case for the iPhone for testing, and I’ve got to say it’s a cool bit of kit. Installing the thing is a cinch, just plonk the iPhone into the bottom slice, and clip on the top bit and your done, 10 seconds (well 20 if you’re fiddling around trying to get the handset latched into the socket). Once on, the first thing you notice is the fact that your iPhone…


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Awesome April 16, 2009 posted by

Acoustibuds – hands on with this brilliant earphone revolution

We featured Acoustibuds on the Ferret a few weeks back, and the PR company offered to send me a set to try out properly. To refresh your memory, they are adapters which you slide over your existing earphone ends to improve the sound and comfort. So, do they work? Well let’s put it this way, if you’ve been fretting about the random sound quality, uncomfortable fit and constant adjustment needed with your current set of earphones, run…don’t walk…to your nearest…


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Awesome March 20, 2009 posted by

Hands on with the Asus eeePC 1000HE – fabulous mini notebook marred by rip-off pricing

We got sent a sparkly new Asus EeePC 1000HE mini notebook computer to play with the other day and we’re very impressed in many ways and extremely disappointed in one. First the good news – this is the first laptop computer we’ve tried which actually delivers on the promise of a decent battery life without resorting to huge clunky add-on packs. When they say all day computing in the blurb, they mean it.


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Gadgets March 11, 2009 posted by

XSight Touch – universal remote control gets some glam styling

The folks at One-For-All sent me a new Xsight Touch universal remote control to look at, and it’s pretty impressive. Sleek, black, shiny. And that’s just the power plug. The rest isn’t too shabby either. I’ve tried a range of these universal remotes from various manufacturers over time and all of them have failed to deliver at some point or another, but it looks as though this Touch model has what it takes to cope with just about every hardware…


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Bookmark This! March 3, 2009 posted by

Winkku – cool bicycle turn indicator and mirror combo should save lives

The Winkku is a bicycle mirror and turn indicator combination which comes with bags of good looks, a practical design and a lot of plastic bits. The company sent me one to look at and it’s certainly a very well built piece of kit. Solid and dependable you might say. It’s powered by 3 AA batteries, and features a couple of handlebar attachment options, either a conventional into the end plug, or an over the top clamp with a Velcro strap…


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Reviews February 17, 2009 posted by

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 3G – Review

The new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 with 3G is, on the face of it, much of a muchness as far as small computers go. It’s pretty hard to find any real differentiation between mini notebooks when all of them use the same processor, same screens and similar storage and memory specs. However the Dell stands out because of a) the name, b) the fact that it’s the one which will probably sell the most via the company’s corporate connections, c)…


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Dell Inspiron Mini 9 3G – Review
Awesome February 5, 2009 posted by

Oral-B Triumph with SmartGuide – the best darn toothbrush in the world?

  Personal experience time. I seem to remember that the PR company for this product contacted me ages ago about looking at one of these Braun Oral-B Triumph with SmartGuide electronic toothbrushes, and I kind of scoffed. The idea of a wireless brushing guide which told you how long to brush seemed to be too much of a gimmick to be true, so I passed on the opportunity with a bit of a techie sneer. Know what I mean? Well in…


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hardware January 26, 2009 posted by

The Red Ferret Product of the Year 2008 – Imaging – Samsung CLX3175

There were a few contenders for the Imaging title this year, most notably the innovative Flip camcorder which broke the mould for affordable, good quality video recording devices, and the magnificent Canon EOS 5D Mark II which has completely destroyed the conventional separation between HD video and still image capture. However, Samsung’s new CLX3175 All-in-One Colour Laser printer has done something that may just tip the home printing market on its head. It’s brought the capital price of colour laser printing within reach…


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Reviews January 16, 2009 posted by

Windows 7 beta – hmm….not bad at first glance

Hmm…I’ve been playing with the new beta of Windows 7 on an aging Toshiba Tecra I’ve got lying around and so far…quite impressed. It’s certainly as snappy, perhaps…gasp…even snappier than XP was on the same machine. Plus the interface looks to be much simplified, it doesn’t seem to come with the same level of security paranoia bloat as Vista, and gosh it hasn’t crashed yet. The install was pretty painless, with just one glitch post install when an auto update reset the…


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opinion piece January 13, 2009 posted by

9 Days! – a random glimpse of my life with Windows Vista

I think I’m starting to understand why Microsoft is rushing to release Windows 7 to the public. Day 1. Dec 17th a) WiFi disappears for no reason. Refuses even to restart with the disable/enable trick, needs reboot. Did it crash? USB also fails to restart after sleep. Have to unplug the USB cable and replug it in to restart all the USB peripherals. b) Notice that I’m getting around 816 kbp/s off my 20 Mbps broadband connection on the Vista notebook….


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hardware December 30, 2008 posted by

La Crosse BC-900 – battery charging with smarts

Rechargeable batteries are great but they’re kind of an investment especially if you buy good quality ones. I have four sets of four batteries and for that kind of cash you don’t want to ruin them with some junk charger you found in a bargain bin. The La Crosse BC-900 battery charger isn’t new, but I’ve been using one now for almost a year and I’m very impressed with it. The BC-900 is like a massager for your batteries that…


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La Crosse BC-900 – battery charging with smarts
Gadgets December 27, 2008 posted by

Proporta Universal Charger – power on the go

I’ve been hanging out with a Proporta Universal Charger for a while now, and it’s pretty cool. The thing comes in a slimline pocket happy size, and contains a 3400 mAh rechargeable battery, which you charge up via the USB port on your computer. Once full, it will keep your mobile phone and other handheld devices going for a good while. The company claims you’ll be able to recharge your device between 3 and 5 times, which is pretty impressive…


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Free Software December 23, 2008 posted by

MozBackup fail – file size limit cripples large messagebase backups

I hate to do this to a cool Open Source product like MozBackup, but it really let me down the other day when I needed to transfer my email message base across from one machine to another. The backup file was fine, but contained only a small part of my data. Apparently the program can only cope with messagebases up to 4 GB in size. My messagebase is around 12 GB, hence the problem with only getting a portion of my…


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