With only two days left till Christmas, you may still be thinking of what to get for that special someone in your life. Well fear not, as I have compiled a list of gadgety ideas for that last minute shopping spree.

Western Digital Live  - Streaming Media Player. I have reviewed one of these before, but this latest iteration includes a network port at the back to hook up to your home network. All the usual things are here, such as DLNA support which is greatly appreciated and playback for a myriad of file formats such as MKV and MPEG 1/2/4. The price has gone up a notch to just over £100, but it’s still a nice little player.

WOWee One Portable Speaker. I was quite impressed with this pocket speaker. The ingenuity lies in how it can turn everyday surfaces into boom boxes; you can play music anywhere without having to carry large speakers with you. This MTV branded device comes with a gel pad on one side which can be used to stick onto glass I.E a window. I was quite impressed with how good this was, considering how portable it is. I plan to do a real test with this in a later review. As advertised on their website, you can pick this up for £49.99 which is a real bargain.

Bedphones Earphones. This is certainly an interesting concept; a pair of earphones that you can sleep with. I know a few friends who need some soft music or ambient noise before they can drift off into dreamland, this would be just the thing for those sleepless nights. I had a quick nap with them and they took awhile to get used to, but they were reasonably comfortable. The alternative is to buy a pillow with speakers built-in, but these would be much more portable. At £19.99 they won’t break the bank.

Cresyn Pastel Headphones C300H. Another set from iHeadphones, this time these are headphones that come in a variety of pastel colours. It’s certainly different and less boring than the usual black or silver you see in most headphones. I was surprised by the sound quality, however it does not handle bass as well as I would have liked especially at high volume. But at £17.99 you really can’t complain and in comparison they sound better than some other ones I have tried in the past, from the likes of Sony et al.

Lightspeed i-Helicopter. A word of warning, make sure that no precious ornaments are nearby because you will destroy them with this helicopter. Having said that, this is a lot of fun to mess around with. You control the helicopter by downloading an app for your iPhone or Android and use the phone’s gyro for control. It’s not exactly the most accurate control mechanism but you aren’t controlling a real life Apache Longbow so this is not bad all things considered. I will have to try this more thoroughly when I’m not nosediving headlong into surrounding furniture. It’s on sale right now on Amazon for £32.99, go buy it now!

Last but not least… the Canon 7D DSLR Camera which I reviewed recently. Yes it is over a grand for the body plus stock lens but my goodness I love it to death. I love it more than I love Pocky, that’s how much I love this camera.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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First of all, I’m not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do appreciate a fine camera when I see one. I used to have a Sony DSC-R1 for many years; in fact at every event or spectacle it rarely left my side. I felt that it was lacking somewhat in certain areas and it was time to step up with something a bit more beefy. Believe me when I tell you that the Canon EOS 7D is beefy.

Solid build
With a magnesium body it feels weighty; it seems slightly heavier than my R1 but it was roughly the same so it did not seem too heavy for me. For some it may, but with most professionals cameras once you start using it, it becomes second nature to hold. I felt that holding a Canon seems more comfortable than say a Nikon; I’m not sure whether it’s the type of grip or the shape but in comparison, my significant other prefers the Nikon for this reason. The grip is very important and you need to feel comfortable, especially if you plan to shoot continuously throughout the day.

The Canon 7D comes with kit lens packs and I decided upon the body plus the 135mm lens. A nice all rounder and not a bad lens to start with; I took a picture of the moon with this lens and I was quite impressed. I will eventually upgrade to a higher zoom lens (perhaps a Sigma) but this will suffice for many situations. The only downside to this type of lens is the aperture does not go low enough for dark environments, so I bought a separate Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens on top. This lens is amazing in the dark if you need it for events where lighting isn’t fantastic, but the autofocus needs a little fine tuning during use compared to Canon lenses.

Features
Without going into immense detail because there are a lot of features here, the one that stands out for me is the continuous shooting mode. Built into the 7D are Dual “DIGIC 4” processors, and you see this in action instantly when taking pictures non-stop. It can take pictures at 8 FPS which is great for moving objects. I left the button pressed for mere seconds and the speed of which pictures were captured was insane. It is worthy to note that you should invest in a good memory card with large capacity; I decided on a SanDisk Extreme 60 MB/s 16GB CompactFlash card. The images taken are amazing and the autofocus does not disappoint. The camera is best used in full manual mode; I felt that if you let the camera work out the aperture and shutter on its own, you tend to not get the results you want. But trial and error when you have manual control is what makes it fun to use.

Other features that are useful include three custom camera settings for different conditions, a RAW JPEG button, spot/multi metering, plus video recording. The one thing that drew me to the 7D is the ability to record video in HD. I don’t particular want to carry a DSLR and a camcorder so this would be the perfect solution. The quality of video is impressive, using the zoom lens for zooming into objects if necessary. The only downside is that if the distance from the object changes, it will lose autofocus. From my experience, it cannot autofocus by itself without forcing it.

On top of all this, the ISO can go up to a staggering 6400 and an even more crazy 12800 when expanded. I have cranked up the ISO to 6400 on a few occastions and that was in pitch black conditions. You do lose some picture quality of course, but to be able to take a picture at all in complete darkness is something to appreciate.

User experience
The UI is very easy to navigate on the LCD screen, which they have enlarged slightly in comparison to other models. Button placement does not get in the way of using the camera which is also another plus; with a little practice I can flick through the buttons to change aperture or shutter speed without having to leave the viewfinder. Most of the functions will come from the multi-purpose dial and the buttons on the top to change ISO or aperture etc. Going back to the three custom settings, if you have settings for day, night, and indoors then it makes your life much easier. It comes with the usual modes such as shutter priority and aperture priority. You will find these two will be your best friend.

Overall
I love this camera, there is so much power under the hood and yet it feels effortless to tap into. Although perhaps pricey compared to the 60D which is very good as well, I would not want to swap the 7D for any other. My other consideration was the 5D which is a full frame camera, but the video capture with the 7D trumped this without breaking the bank. Of course, a decent investment in lenses will be the next step to fully take advantage at what this camera has to offer. If you buy this as a Christmas present for someone, they will love you forever.

If you are interested, my first foray with this camera was when I used it in L.A. Here’s some links to my flickr gallery. The real test was in Disneyland and BlizzCon where adequate lighting was limited in certain areas.

BlizzCon 2011 flickr set

Disneyland California flickr set

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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I had the pleasure of trying out the Neato XV-15, a helping hand to the busy modern lifestyle. I’ve always wanted a robotic vacuum cleaner, but I had reservations on whether such a device so small can carry out the functions of my Dyson. Suffice it to say, I was quite surprised and rather amused.

First impressions

With the Neato, you get a base station for recharging the unit and a roll of black strip. There may be places you don’t want the Neato to go and it will avoid these areas if it encounters the black strip with its sensors. I left it parked at the base station for an afternoon and then it was ready to go!

The house gets vacuumed regularly every week so it was interesting to see if it performs any better. The initial test was the living room, which comprises of various obstacles such as tables and chairs, sofas and the TV stand. To help it along, I put the chairs on top of the dining table. It is quite thorough and will go over the same spot several times. It may seem slow when you are watching it work, but you’ll most likely let it do its thing while you are out.

Always learning

As it trundles along, it remembers the layout of the rooms it visits. Sensors on top of the Neato will detect walls and such like; sometimes it may bump into a few things but it will most likely not do it a second time. It is quite remarkable how it remembers where things are, this was self evident when I placed a cardboard box in an area where it thought it was clear. But if I left the box there, it will remember it and try to avoid.

After the living room, it entered the hallway and then the kitchen. The great thing the Neato does is because it is so low on the ground; it can hug the skirting board quite happily to pick up as much as possible. There are times when my Dyson can’t do this because it just can’t vacuum that closely. Additionally, it transitioned to the kitchen very well and did not crash into any of the doors or furniture on the way in or out.

Laser technology

Even though the base station is downstairs, you can carry it upstairs to vacuum there as well. It will not traverse down a set of stairs of course to park back to the base station, but it will stop at the point where it started once it is finished. It will even politely tell you to pick it up and put it back on charge. In a way it is rather cute and unobtrusive.

I was apprehensive about how it detects stairs; I waiting at the top ready to catch it but I needn’t had bothered. On the verge of suicide, it stopped abruptly to turn around and veer back to safety. The sensors use laser rangefinder technology and triangulation, developed by Neato Robotics. The laser-mapping system or SLAM (Systematic Localisation and Mapping) is impressive to watch when I saw it in action; if you have antique furniture you don’t want to have the Neato ploughing into them!

However… it did have problems with my IKEA Poäng chair. Because the base of the chair is only half an inch high, the Neato couldn’t detect the obstruction and tried to climb over it. After several minutes, it was becoming more and more amusing as it tried to hump its way over to the other side. In the end I had to help it out of its predicament, but it decided to go back to the same place again. I can only assume it felt it had not vacuumed the last 10 square inches of carpet and was determined to finish the job.

Look at that dust!

Upstairs and downstairs took about an hour to do, 5 rooms in total. I decided to check the contents of the dirt bin and I was amazed at how much it had collected. Considering the house was vacuumed only 2 days ago, it did a good job. The only thing it may struggle with is long hair which wasn’t picked up 100% of the time, but one cannot complain too much considering how small it is. The suction on this for such a small unit did surprise me.

You can update your Neato via the USB port, just like any other gadget you may have in your house that require firmware updates and the like. I got rather attached to it at the end of my review and will be sad to see it go. An added bonus is that if you add a cup holder on top of it, it can also serve as a robotic waiter while it cleans the house

The XV-15 is priced at £399.99; although it is a large chunk of cash to invest in a vacuum cleaner, if you have a hectic lifestyle then this will be ideal and will save you a lot of time.

A snippet from Neato Robotics

NEATO ROBOTICS LAUNCHES NEW ROBOTIC VACUUM CLEANER TO KEEP BRITISH HOMES NEAT AND CLEAN

Some of the other innovative features and benefits of the Neato XV-15 multi-floor robotic vacuum cleaner include:

• Scuff-free navigation: The robot’s laser-mapping technology constantly updates its internal map so it can accurately detect objects greater than four inches in height and carefully clean around them without damaging furniture and walls.

• Low-profile access: The robotic vacuum cleaner’s low profile (less than four inches high) allows it to clean under beds, sofas, and kick boards in the kitchen.

• Smart design and large dirt bin: The Neato XV-15’s D-shape is equipped with a forward-positioned wide brush allows it to better clean the corners and edges of a room compared to other circular-shaped robots with short, centrally-positioned brushes. This industrial design also allows for a larger dirt bin (660cc or .65 litres) 

• Self-docking to re-power: After completing its cleaning, the robot returns automatically to its base to re-charge itself. By utilising the charging base, the Neato XV-15 is charged and ready to go when it’s needed most.

• Cleaning scheduler: With its easy-to-use interface, consumers can schedule the robot to clean every day, keeping homes spic and span.

EDIT: I reviewed the XV-11 which is the same as the XV-15 in the UK. The article has been amended with the UK model number to reflect the UK market.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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The latest “The Manga Guide To..” series brings us the universe. This is the second book from the series I have reviewed and I was looking forward to how this will encompass the vastness of the universe as a topic. As always, the story unfolds in manga form while teaching the reader all the questions raised. It starts with the Japanese story of Kaguya-hime, and her wish to go back to the Moon where she came from. This setting opens up the universe, with the book guiding you on your journey.

The history and discovery

What I love about this book is how it goes right back to the roots. Before modern technology, civilisations from ancient times only had their perception of the universe based from what they saw with the naked eye. The ancient Greeks for example adopted the geocentric theory (the Earth being the center of the universe) by Ptolemy for nearly 1,400 years until Copernicus arrived on the scene in 1543. These facts and many more make for an interesting read, with explanations on why each theory was adopted.

This then leads onto the development of telescopes and how great discoveries by Galileo et al changed the way we viewed the universe completely. There are some elements within the book that explain such things and calculations in detail, but the information is not overwhelming to the point where it is hard to understand. Diagrams coupled with analogies reinforces the explanations throughout. This reminds me of The Manga Guide To Relativity which was also laid out in the same vein. I am glad they kept this format as it works quite well.

Manga story with science

The manga story weaves seamlessly with the science; the manga is quite amusing and the fusion between the two works well. The enthusiasm for the topics discussed from the author is noticeable throughout, and you can tell that the passion is there. It is great to see this passion come alive in each of the pages, which makes it a joy to read. I am still amazed by what has been covered in those pages; even though there are so many unanswered questions about the universe it covers so much of what we know and what we want to know. From our solar system, to the universe and multiverses, the book itself seems to expand with knowledge just like the universe expanding as described.

In the end, the story of Kaguya-hime takes an interesting turn as the students play out what they have learned. Even Proessor Sanuki that help them on their cosmic journey plays a part in the end. Overall, I highly recommend this book; as a teaching tool for school kids and for anyone that has a love for manga with science thrown in.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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“The Manga Guide To…” series has been reviewed before, but this time we hit the topic of relativit­y. This being a lazy Sunday afternoon, I had several options. Play StarCraft 2, watch anime or put my brain into gear and see how much information I can absorb. I chose the latter, and this being a manga as well, I figured it would be fun at the same time.

The Prologue sets the scene; it is summer break and the crazy headmaster has decided that all students need to write a report on one topic over the holidays. A quick spin of the wheel and… it lands on relativity. All the students gasp in horror, relativity?! No one has a clue at all! But in steps the heroic Minagi to volunteer and take their place. However, he soon regrets his decision but he has Miss Uraga to teach him.

A dry topic made interesting

The sciences are not something I am particularly strong at; the interest is definitely there but all those numbers and equations. I was never fond of mathematics at all and of course a topic such as relativity does involve calculations a great deal. Also there are many concepts involved which you need to grapple with on top of everything else.

After reading the first couple of chapters, I started to ease into all the explanations. It helps that all the explanations Miss Uraga outlines are demonstrated in story form or scenarios which make it easy to understand. Not only that, but I felt compelled to read on to see the manga story unfold with Minagi. It’s not exactly a full on manga serial, but there are funny elements that keeps the interest.

From the brief to the in-depth

One of the things I like about this book is that after the initial manga explanations, there are much more detailed descriptions afterwards. All important equations are explained with diagrams to help cement them. The key thing with topics like this is the ability to understand without feeling overwhelmed. It does this superbly without having to dumb down too much any of the concepts involved.

Another nice touch is going through the history behind relativity; from Newton to Galileo and of course Mr. Einstein himself. E=MC2 is explained but the reader soon learns there is much more to relativity than this.

To summarise…

I like this book a lot; it is a perfect companion for children wanting to learn more about relativity and for them to develop a sound working knowledge of the theories involved. Even adults would enjoy this and it is pitched just right for people who have no knowledge before. And even if you DO have knowledge of it, you will still find this an engaging read.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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I got a chance to play with this laptop sometime ago; it has some interesting features such as the Beats Audio sound. The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was the brushed aluminium chassis. It is quite shiny and I cannot help but feel they tried to take a leaf out of Apple’s book, to come up with this ProBook. But the more I looked at it, the more puzzling it becomes.

A laptop with an identity crisis

With the Beats Audio soundcard, the 5330m seems to suggest that it is a multimedia laptop. A set of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones were given to test this out; although it may sound good a decent pair of headphones would work just as well. A set of Dre headphones were compared against a set of in-the-ear Atomic Floyd headphones and the difference in quality was minimal. Beats by Dr. Dre will set you back the good part of £100, which in my view is not worth it… especially if you based your purchase from the strong suggestion that you need it with this laptop. Because you don’t.

On the other side of the coin, it boasts fingerprint recognition scanning and facial recognition done via HP Protect Tools software and the lid webcam. From a business perspective it may prove useful if you store things such as client data, but the average consumer will not bother with such things. So which is it, a business laptop or a multimedia consumer one?

As a business laptop it may not be very practical, as it does not have a CD-ROM drive. I know, who needs CD-ROM nowadays? But if you compare this model to the business defacto Dell Latitude E5410, you are saving around £200 with the Dell and it comes with the drive as standard. For mass deployment within a business, you need something cheap without having to think about addons. Granted, the ProBook is slimmer and lighter, but having worked in large corporations for most of my life, most employers will go for price first unless you are buying for yourself.

Performance and useability

The Windows Experience breakdown score is not too shabby:

• Processor: 7.1
• Memory RAM: 5.9
• GraphicsL 4.7
• Faming graphics 6.1
• Primary hard disk: 5.9

The low graphics score was not surprising, but it will render most things without stutter such as HD video. It comes with a HDMI socket if you want to connect this to an external display.

I played the demo Windows nature video on loop and the battery will last 1.5 to 2 hours at most; nothing spectacular. For non intensive tasks, it should last a bit longer but the battery in general is uninspiring; it does not provide enough juice to go with the suggestion of light portability. Ultimately you will need to plug this in which means carrying a power adapter at all times, negating any lightness you had originally. The maximum resolution for the screen is 1366 x 768; it would have been desirable if it was 1440 x 900 although this is a 13inch laptop after all.

One gripe of mine is the enter key; the lamb chop design has been used for generations and for a good reason. Every time I try to hit enter, I hit the key above instead because HP opted out and preferred a smaller rectangle instead. Very frustrating. My second gripe is the amount of bloatware installed on here, I really do not need an empty icon for Microsoft Office that suggests I need to buy it or the trash Norton Internet Security pre-installed.

Overall

It’s “OK”. The build quality is solid and it is lightweight to carry around. But as I mentioned before, if you don’t have your power adapter with you at all times then you will not get very far. As far as a business laptop goes, since that is the original target audience, it seems doubtful that you will splash out on the headphones to accompany the Beats Audio branding. If HP added a premium for this function then you are unlikely to benefit from it. But you do get security features which may be useful to you.

The main competition for this is the Lenovo if you are small business buying for yourself, as a large corporation I cannot see this machine being widely adopted. Having said that, at £700 the price isn’t too bad, except the market for that price bracket is fierce so you have plenty of options to choose from.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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Date: Saturday 25th of June
Time : 10am
Location: Basecamp Swarovski Crystallized lounge, 24 Great Marlborough street.
Event: London Girl Geek Dinners meets #REGENTTWEET for an interactive shopping day

10am Saturday morning found me amongst the company approximately 100 girl geeks from London, Belgium and France at the Swarovski crystallized lounge where we registered to take part in the RegentTweet event.
‘RegentTweet is billed as a digital experiential event focusing on interactive engagement as well as a chance to network, learn a little more about Regent Street and meet like minded people from around the world’

Who could resist that?
At registration, we were handed a pack, which contained a guide and a deck of RegentTweet cards to a variety of stores. Most cards had special offers available to the first 30 participants who handed over their store cards so with that in mind, we sipped our teas or fruit juice quickly and mingled as we walked out of basecamp to get busy shopping.

There were so many stores visited and I can’t do them all justice, so I will simply pick out my personal highlights.

APPLE
11am found us at apple regent street for a presentation about future fashion by Olivia Soton from Wired.co.uk. Most of her presentation focused on wearable technology. i was really interested in finding out about the thunderstorm dress which reacts to sound created by @rainbowwinters and the twitdress by @imogenheap were the highlights for me.
After Olivia’s presentation one of the apple geniuses introduced us to a few augmented reality apps (wikitude, street museum)

BOSE UK
BOSE staff delivered an amazing presentation of their VideoWave entertainment system. Unbelievable sound quality with no sub woofer or extra speakers in sight, a variety of scenario movies were played to test the quality (lion in the jungle, cars on a racing track aeroplanes taking off) I was impressed but I needed a music test.
Question for BOSE: can you hear a clear undistorted base from this gizmo?
Answer: A resounding yes!
I was ready to buy it then and there, but at a cost of £6,000 (Yes, SIX thousand pounds sterling) I figured I might need to save a bit more money for it.
But all was not lost, I was one of the early participants so I got a lovely Garmin nuvi200.

TIBITS at Heddon Street (lunch)
If all vegetarian food tasted this good, I could seriously consider becoming vegetarian for maybe 3 days in a week. It was truly scrumptious.

JACK WOLFSKIN
Jack Wolfskin reminded us that it wasn’t all about strolling around regent street feeling pretty. They arranged a tent building competition for us girl geeks and it was one of the most competitive of the entire day. The winner @JudithLewis put up a fully constructed tent in 3mins : 32seconds to win a gorgeous jacket.
So, if you are out camping you might want to invite her along for tent building

KIRK ORIGINALS:
Like most geek girls I spend an incredible amount of time in front of a computer screen. So I was delighted that Kirk was offering a free eye test and a chance to win a pair of snazzy frames. The staff again seemed excited to see a bunch of us girl geeks and made us feel really welcome.

OLIVER SWEENY:
The work of a girl geek is never done, Oliver Sweeny had a competition which had us trying to design some spiffy gentlemen shoes using their iPad application. Quite genius really. Now if they start making women’s shoes, we could really give it a go.

HAWES & CURTIS
Was packed to the brim with girl geeks stocking up on office wear, to lift our spirits they kept the complimentary champagne pouring.

ANTHROPOLOGIE
Anthropology staff seemed genuinely excited by the stream of women wearing REGENTTWEET name badges wandering around their store. They were so enthusiastic and welcoming, in a dream world they would handle all tech support enquiries.

There was so much more to do and see such as Ferarri’s Hasselblad camera, the scents and smells at penhaligon’s, Tempting chocolate strawberry’s via Godiva sharp suits from brooks brothers, crisp shirts from TM Lewin, mouthwatering ‘eats’ from National geographic, la bottega del caffe and a few others

It was a really enjoyable day and I can’t wait for the next year’s event.

About designjuju

coded for the 22nd century. I also live here @designjuju

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Most homes now come with a satelite dish bolted onto the roof. But not all homeowners like Sky for satellite viewing; enter the EchoStar Slingloaded HDS-600RS to provide an alternative. Freesat is similiar to Freeview, but the channels differ slightly and minus the extortionate Sky subscription. Of course, you are not going to get the Sky Movies and so on, but there are over 100 channels to choose from. The direct comparison to this service would be Freeview but there isn’t much difference between them apart from the different channels available.

What differs with this Echostar unit to other freesat devices is that it touts “on the move” viewing. This means that you can watch your favourite programs on your iPhone, Android device or from your laptop/PC. I was intrigued with this idea and was also interested to know what kind of steaming capability it had. My friends were involved in my test one weekend, as they were interested in purchasing a Freesat box as well. Let’s see how it fared.

Looks the business

It has a futuristic feel to it, with touch sensitive buttons on the front that glow red and dim slightly when idle. I like the black trapezoid shape, and the design detracts from the average brick-like set-top box you normally find with Thomson et al. If it had a neon blue theme, it definitely would have given this a Tron feel. Maybe a Tron limited edition unit is in order.

From a personal perspective, it would not fit so well with my current setup at home. The surround sound kit, ampliflier and consoles etc. are either silver or white. Having said that, it would be the centre of attention surrounded by these other gadgets. It comes with a 500GB hard drive which is plenty for recording your favourite shows and enough connectors at the back to satisfy the different types of input for visual and sound.

Specs and connectivity

Exploring deeper into connectivity, there is HDMI as expected as well as SCART for older televisions. In terms of audio, using the optical out would be my choice to suit my ampliflier ­but HDMI can provide the sound as well of course. For networking, you must use a wired CAT5 LAN connection. Wireless is not supported and I was told that this is due to guaranteeing a better performance. I’m not entirely convinced that this is a good enough reason to omit such a feature as you can stream quite well wirelessly, but to get around this you can use Echostar Slinglink Ethernet bridges if your router is far away.

There are two LNB sockets at the back; it states in the manual that two is recommended for full functionality. If you have two LNBs it means you have two tuners coming from your satallite dish. This enables you to record one program and watch another at the same time. We only had one LNB for this test, so this will be the worst case scenario for a potential buyer. As we found out, this posed some limitations for us.

Another limitation was the lack of DLNA support. I was quite disappointed with this, as we had a Linux media server ready to test streaming. I know that this is mainly a Freesat receiver but still, my impression of it was a media centre hub as well and DLNA would have been great for this. It supports BBC iPlayer and ITV streaming, so why not your own? BUT it does have two USB ports at least; one on the front and one on the back.

TV on the go!

This is where the fun begins. But before we do so, we went through the setup smoothly which my friends and I agreed was a breeze. It found all the channels for us and the steps were clear and concise. After connectivity and setup, we tested the streaming on a laptop and an Android phone. In this  case, my HTC Desire. Before any of this works, you need to create a Slingbox account and  register your Slingbox with it. It may sound  straight forward, but it wasn’t for us. First of  all, to link the device you need to type in your Slingbox ID. It is ridiculously long and we  got to know the phonetic alphabet very well. No matter how many times we entered this, it  refused to confirm our registration.

Resorting to the manual, we went to a different URL which shows you what Slingboxes you have for streaming. Going into this did come up with my Slingbox as already registered. It made no sense to us; one can only assume the failure message at the beginning was false and it had in fact worked. I was very eager to see it in action, so we loaded up the Slingbox web interface. I used FireFox and it automatically downloads the plugin it needs. And this is what you get:

I was quite impressed with this. You get an on screen remote control which is a replica of the real thing and full functionality is available. The funny thing was, if you changed the channel, you also changed the channel on the TV itself. Basically it works exactly the same as if you were sitting in front it. This does beg the question of, what happens if I want to watch something different to what someone else at home is watching? This, I assume, is where the second LNB connection comes in. Because we only had one, you can only view one channel. It does mean you can spy on others to see what they are watching, or just change the channel to annoy them (I can be evil like that).

The framerate was quite good and the picture quality was excellent even via SCART, but there is a noticeable 1 or 2 second delay in streaming. Quite understandable, since it is getting the feed from a satellite and then pumping it out to the internet as well. However, if you are like my other half and needs split second accuracy in live broadcasts such as Formula 1, then there might be gripes with that.

For Android, I downloaded the Slingplayer. Unfortunately, this application is not free and it is priced at £19.99 from the Android Market. Regardless of how good this application is, I personally feel that is a bit too steep for a mobile app. At most, they can perhaps charge £9.99 but I would imagine it would put people off even at that price. Having said that, it does actually work pretty damn well, except… I could not get it to connect via HSDPA. This limits the “TV Anywhere” scenario they had enblazened on the box. Granted, the theoretical speed of 7.2mbps for HSDPA is not always available and you are looking at a lot less bandwidth wise. Perhaps the buffering technology is not quite there yet and the mobile network right now still needs work to accomodate our need for speed.

Overall…

I do like this unit; Freesat is a good alternative to Sky and plus the ability to access your shows from (almost) anywhere is a good feature. The fact that you can record your shows from anywhere as well is another great plus. The box DOES look good you have to admit, who says that everything has to be uniformly rectangular! Now the price… take a quick look on Amazon and we have it at £299.oo. Ouch. At 300 big ones it had better make tea and water all your plants around the house as well. They really should throw in the mobile app at that price. What makes this stand out is the mobile recording business, and this is the only unit that will do it properly so far. So you do pay a bit more than other Freesat recorders because of this.

I really, really want the DLNA feature; this one thing would make me jump up and take notice. A Freesat, mobile streaming, recording, DLNA media device. Can you imagine the possibilities! You would essentially have your own personal iPlayer but also playing your media files as well as normal television channels. I know you can do all this with a dedicated Linux box but this would be great for the average consumer. Come on EchoStar, you know it makes sense

Final thoughts from my friends that night…

Dan: Well I would go Freesat if it had G.O.L.D channel! It all does seem to work as advertised though but the mobile app is way too expensive.

Me: So who would buy this do you think?

Mark: There will always be someone to buy this. People buy everything these days! Also, can we keep it? Please?

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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This is really not something you want to be reading to your children as a bedtime story, unless you want to give them nightmares. An adult comic, Brimstone and the Borderhounds tells of a story of two sides of a coin; the mortal coil of our current existence, and the other worlds you may end up when you die. Where souls are a commodity and death is just the beginning, the remains of your consciousness drifts through the Nexus upon your demise: a corridor to other forms of existence such as Heaven, Valhalla, or Hell. Good deeds in your life or bad ones make no difference, as the choice of where you will end up was made before your inception. Unfortunately for some, Hell is the only destination you will go and centres around the main character Brimstone.

Brimstone and the Borderhounds, with a little Hostility

The black market for soul smuggling out of Hell is a common problem, and this is where Brimstone steps in. Soul retrieval is his speciality, and catching as many as he can along the wastelands keeps him in a job. The Borderhounds, meanwhile, try to contain the souls, watching them being ferried back and forth on cargo ships which are constantly being attacked and raided. The relationship between Brimstone and the Borderhounds isn’t exactly friendly; constantly vying to be top dog on the soul count.

At the same time back on our world, a psyhotic killer is on the loose: Mr. Hostile. Hostile was caught and executed before, but he is back with a vengeance with an unhealthy obsession about his dead mother. Detective William Altar, the man who caught him the first time, is having déjà vu and is once again out to hunt down the man who killed his family and almost killed him.

Mixed Influences

Having read 3 out of the 4 of the comics in this series, I was initially taken aback by how much violence was in it. Although to be fair, I had no idea what I was in for. A cross between Hellboy meets Mad Max meets Psycho, it combines a lot of elements from these to give you a futuristic yet murderous story. By the end of the 2nd comic, I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. But, it kept me engrossed enough to read the 3rd comic I was given. The story did pick up, as both worlds collide to meet head on trying to take down Hostile. I forgot to mention, Brimstone can cross over to our existence as well, which makes his hybrid origins very useful and also provides the bridge between both worlds for plot development. The mystery behind William Altar is also interesting. It seems he and Brimstone have met before…

The Brimstone character is very masculine and macho, I would expect so given the nature of his job! But it would have been cool to have a female protagonist that also kicks ass (unless there is one in the 4th and final comic). There is definitely room for expansion there, maybe in another series. Initially, it was all very bizarre to me but I am glad I stuck with it. Brimstone and the Borderhounds reminds me of a manga called Berserk. Even though both are set in different time periods, the similarities are uncanny and also deal with hellishly evil machinations with a very strong male central character, Guts. Of course, in Berserk, there is also ample bloodshed and violence. Basically, you wouldn’t want to upset either of them, comic, manga or otherwise! Overall, after reading the 3rd comic I did enjoy it and I am now thinking of grabbing the 4th one to see how it all ends. However, I definitely would not recommend this to anyone who suffers from hemophobia or has a dislike for extreme violence and gore.

I’m all for supporting independant comics, so if it has grabbed your attention then please do check them out on their website. You can also buy an electronic copy here.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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The ads for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini could not have been more tempting. Elegant model fingers slickly trip-trip-tripping on the highly touch sensitive screen had me drooling from the get-go.  Cradled perfectly in the palm of my hand with a screen size smaller than an average credit card, the Xperia X10 mini is beautiful, responsive and sharp. Looking at the Xperia-exclusive Timescape social networking feature and a beautiful camera – this tiny and probably highly lose-able phone was practically begging to come with me to Glastonbury.

The phone helpfully came with a micro USB charger, 5 colourful snap-on backs and a 2 GB micro-SD card. Me, the X10 Mini and my untested sleeping bag were ready to go.

Superfast internet, a responsive touch screen, a powerful processor and the killer Google Android operating system power the social mind-meld that it is the Xperia-exclusive Timescape. Timescape mashes missed calls, texts, multimedia messages and Facebook and Twitter updates into a one-stop shop for social networking on a home screen. Responsive, reliable and beautiful, it was a pleasure to use and a great way to check in with Twitter, Facebook and messages quickly.

The sharp 5 megapixel camera took beautiful pictures during the day and night. Even when crushed by revellers at 10 pm and battling with strobe lighting and the surging excitement of an energetic crowd, the pictures of Muse performing on the Pyramid stage came out perfectly. So well, in fact, that other festival-goers commented on their sharpness as I took them. Each photo could be easily and instantly uploaded to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, sent as an email or MMS, which had my friend in a fit of jealousy.

The fast processor and Android operating system does come with a drawback – the battery drained faster than a kitchen sink. This problem culminated in the X10 mini dying twice in one day leaving a very lost me frantically handing over the device to the lovely phone charging guys by the dance tents for an emergency 1 hour charge. Oops! I spent a lot of time in Orange Chill n Charge tent over the festival. On the plus side, I did get to see Ellie Goulding play an acoustic set in the tent. Unfortunately, I could not take a photo as… my phone was charging. A little investigation on return home revealed that the X10 Mini constantly scans for network so, if you are in a low network area or a particularly busy area (for example, Glastonbury!), the  X10 Mini’s battery will get sucked up just finding a network. Recommendation – switch the phone to airplane mode when confronted with this problem.

Overall, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini is a very impressive small smartphone, especially in comparison to the unresponsive HTC Tattoo. With the slick Timescape giving the phone a social networking edge, its £200 price tag, great processor and the Android operating system gives this impressive smartphone a great edge.

About Claire Coady

Some may say Claire Coady overtly excited by technology, gadgets, media and politics. She disagrees - it is impossible to be too excited by gadgets. She is a British-American hybrid and strategy consultant. Claire can also be found blogging on her website, www.techisthenewpink.com. www.linkedin.com/clairecoady

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