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Great sound and creative design from Geneva Sound System Model S
The Geneva Sound System Model S is a stylish, attractive iPod speaker dock and function actually follows form in this case as it sounds as good as it looks but it comes at a high price.
In terms of design it’s basically a box measuring around 24 x 15 x 17.5 cm so it’s not very big. The small size in combination with the stylish design means the Model S would fit in well in most rooms, whether they are living rooms, offices are something else. You can place it directly on a surface or on the included circular-base stand, which raises the Model S about eight cm from the surface. The Model S that I received for testing was white, but the system is also available in bright red or black.
On the top of the Model S is a touch-sensitive power button. Powering on the unit lights up the on-board controls, which are similarly touch-sensitive buttons arranged much like the classic iPod Click Wheel controls.
One cool but not particularly functional characteristic of the Model S is the iPod/iPhone dock. When you turn on power a piece on the top of the Model S turns around and reveals the dock. Turn power off after taking out the iPod/iPhone and it turns back into the enclosure again leaving the top almost completely smooth.
Smooth is also a keyword for much of the rest of the design of the Model S. It’s beautifully void of the knobs, dials, displays etc. that tend to clutter competing products. The metal-grill face covers two speakers. In the top left corner of the front, behind the grill, sits a small LED display showing the time, radio station frequency and a few other pieces of information.
The only other things you’ll see on the back are the plug for the included AC adapter and a 3.5mm line-in jack for connecting another audio source.
Sound quality is quite simply excellent and I struggle to find anything to complain about in terms of sound. The sound is rich and despite its small size the Model S easily fills quite a large room. Clearly, given its limited size, you won’t get much separation of left and right but that’s to be expected. That means that even though the Model S has an input for external sound it won’t be suitable for using with a TV or other similar audio-visual source.
At 1800 Dhs the model S isn’t cheap. But it sounds much better than many cheaper competitors and just about as good as many more expensive ones. The motorized tray is a bit of a gimmick but the whole unit looks striking. Most importantly, the sound it produces is very good.This article originally appeared in Khaleej Times. The articles are published here one week after they appear in print. You can find all my Khaleej Times articles here.
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Canon Pixma iP100: portable but pricey
Have you ever wanted a printer that is portable and that runs off a battery? If so, take a look at Canon Pixma iP100.
It’s a very compact printer with a footprint slightly smaller than an A4 page. A big battery is attached, which will give you a day of modest printing from anywhere you go. I guess I expected a portable printer that runs off a battery to not produce very good prints but I was pleasantly surprised in that regard with colors coming out bright and accurate, no smudges or smears and very crisp blacks.
It has a five-color ink system, which should be saving you some ink, especially if you print a lot of color. The resolution is up to 9600x2400 dpi which is more than enough for most business-purposes like letters and presentations.
Print speed is not the best though as one full A4 page with business graphics at the highest quality setting took about two minutes to appear. According to Canon the iP100 should print up to 20 ppm in black and up to 14 ppm in color.
In terms of connectivity the printer is also limited. You can print wirelessly with infrared IrDA but how many computers support that today? You can also connect with Bluetooth but that’s an extra piece of kit to buy. That leaves plugging in with a USB cable. A portable printer like this screams out for wireless printing and in that regard Canon disappoints.
Other complaints I have are that there is no case for it. Even buying a cheap PC notebook today you get a case but not with the printer, not even a simple sleeve.
What also puzzles me is that Canon didn’t see fit to equip the iP100 with a card reader. There’s nowhere to insert a flash memory card like SD or CF. That would require a display, which would add cost and power consumption, I guess, but it’s still something this sort of printer should have.
It’s somewhat of a consolation that you can at least connect a USB cable to a PictBridge-compatible digital camera and print from the camera.
If you’re considering buying this printer you do so for the simple reason that you can take it with you anywhere because you don’t need AC power. Print quality is very good but it’s lacking too much functionality for you to buy it if you don’t need portability. At 1,239 Dhs with battery you pay quite a bit extra for the pleasure of carrying it around but if that’s what you need, the Canon Pixma iP100 is a good choice.This article originally appeared in Khaleej Times. The articles are published here one week after they appear in print. You can find all my Khaleej Times articles here.
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HTC brings passion back with Desire
HTC brings passion back with Desire
by Magnus Nystedt
Although it was introduced at Mobile World Congress in February, the HTC Desire smartphone has just arrived in the Middle East. Finally, after we’ve been told since April that it would launch here, it’s available at a list price of AED 2,299.
Much has happened in the nine months since the introduction but it’s still one of the best Android smartphones available right now.
Google’s Nexus One, introduced in January, was manufactured by HTC and Desire is basically their version of that same smartphone. It has a 3.7-inch 480 x 800 pixel display, which is very bright and clear. With a 1GHz processor it’s fast and I’ve yet to experience any slow down even when running multiple applications. The 512MB RAM could be a bit larger but for most users it will be enough and with micro-SD card slot (up to 32GB) you can expand storage.
The Desire feels high-quality without any of the typical plastic noises when you press and bend it slightly. I would say the only exception is the back, which you have to take off with a small measure of violence, making me very nervous every time. Behind the cover you find SIM card, MicroSD card and battery.
One obvious drawback is the lack of Android Market on Desires sold in the UAE. If you spend over 2,000 on a device you really expect more. But practice your Google skills and find out how to hack it to get Market enabled and you’ll be fine. It’s sad you have to do that though and the parties should really come together and sort this situation out.
Desire comes with Android 2.1 and HTC in Dubai wouldn’t say when 2.2 can be expected. My review unit updated Over The Air (OTA) to 2.2 “Froyo” without issues and it makes a big difference.
There’s simply no doubt that you want Android 2.2 on your Desire as it brings a line of updates and new functionality. For example, with 2.2 you get 720p HD video recording, portable Wi-Fi access point, iTunes sync, and Adobe Flash support.
Desire’s 5-megapixel camera produces very good photos and video. For a lot of users and with good available light, the camera is good enough to replace a low-end compact digital camera.
The WebKit-based web browser is very fast, probably due to the processor, and loading pages, zoom in/out, scroll around, etc. all happens instantly. This obviously also depends on your connection speed.
HTC Sense, their proprietary software, is by and large nice but I wish it could be disabled as I would prefer just the standard Android look. The functionality of the built-in apps like the Twitter app Peep is also substandard. However, for many of you, Sense will bring different functionality together in one place under one interface.
Overall, the Desire is an excellent smartphone. The choice between it and Samsung Galaxy S is tough one. Although it is late arriving to our market, for now, I prefer the Desire.This article originally appeared in Khaleej Times. The articles are published here one week after they appear in print. You can find all my Khaleej Times articles here.
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Want affordable network storage? Buffalo delivers.
Most hard drives connect to your computer using USB or FireWire cable. NAS or Network Attached Storage means a hard drive that is not connected to a computer but which you can still access over a network. Since you access it over a network, whether it’s wired or wireless, you won’t get the same speeds as you would plugging directly into the storage but you do get the convenience of placing it where you want and accessing it from anywhere.
There are many brands in the market with NAS solutions but Buffalo is arguably one of the more interesting ones and their latest TeraStation Duo is more evidence of that. To set it up is very easy. Just plug in the power and Ethernet cables, install the software and you’re ready to go. You can even skip the software and just watch what IP address the TeraStation has on the small display on the front. Then you connect to that IP address with your web browser. From the browser interface you then do all the administration.
The TeraStation I tested had two Western Digital 1TB drives inside, configured as RAID 1 producing a single 1TB drive. This means that one drive is automatically mirrored to the other creating another level of security for the data stored on it. You can also configure the drives in TeraStation as RAID 0, which in this case would have created a larger drive (2GB) but without the duplication of data.
In terms of sharing files you have plenty of choice: CIFS/SMB, AFP, HTTP/HTTPS, FTP/SFTP/FTPS, NFS, and BitTorrent. The alphabet soup also extends to LDAP and media sharing with iTunes, UPnP AV and DLNA servers. All that means you can share files in almost any way you would need to. Performance depends of course on the network you connect the TeraStation to but in my testing speed was more than satisfactory.
Buffalo won’t win any design awards for the TeraStation but since it’s a NAS you can place it wherever you want to- it doesn’t have to sit on top of a desk. It does have a fan but I could never hear any noise from it nor from the hard drives so even in a quiet environment it shouldn’t be a bother.
Overall there’s not much I can find at fault with the TeraStation. USB 3 would have been nice but it’s NAS so it’s not critical. Available in 1, 2 and 4TB sizes from around AED2,300, Buffalo TeraStation Duo is a good choice for your home or small office if you want storage attached to your network.
This article was originally published in Khaleej Times. -
Dell’s colorful netbook inspires
It’s really hard to review netbooks because most of them are almost identical in terms of hardware specifications. Dell’s Inspiron Mini 10 is also not that different from what’s on offer from other manufacturers but it beats them in style.
In specifications it’s a rather average netbook: Intel Atom 1.66GHz processor, 250GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, 10.1 inch screen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, webcam, SD card slot and Windows 7 Starter Edition. Basically, this is not a powerful computer, that’s for sure, but it’ll suit you well if you want email, web, word processing and other not too demanding tasks. To be fair, those are typical netbook tasks so it’s what you should expect to do with a computer like this.The Mini 10 is an updated version of the first line of netbooks from Dell and one thing Dell changed was the hinge for the display, how it attaches to the main part of the netbook. It’s a bit hard to explain but now the display sits on top of the bottom part and doesn’t swing to the back like it used to. This makes for a more compact computer when you’re using it and it’s one of those things to which you go “why didn’t I think of that.”
Battery life, with the standard 6-cell battery, is about eight hours on “Power saver” mode, which reduces performance, but not to an unusable level. For a netbook today that’s good but not best in class.
For a netbook, 250GB of storage space is more than enough for most users and with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet port there are connection options for all your needs. If I had a choice, I’d pick a solid state (SSD) drive for a netbook because it’s faster and less susceptible to breaking if you drop the computer. However, SSD would jack up the prize considerably and make it a less attractive purchase for many customers.
Like many other netbooks the low screen resolution (1024 x 600 pixels) may be an issue. I’ve had to make the task bar- typically at the bottom of the screen- automatically hide to be able to see some dialogue windows fully. In at least one application the task bar, while visible, covers the OK and Cancel buttons in the Preference dialogue.
For a netbook, the keyboard is great but the touchpad is frustrating because of the integrated mouse buttons. The buttons are part of the pad but clicks are only registered on a small area. Windows 7 Starter Edition is another issue with the Inspiron Mini 10. There are just too many limitations to Starter Edition and chances are you’re going to get annoyed with them quickly. It might be worth upgrading to a more complete Windows version but that adds to the price of the Dell of course.
Available from AED 1,299, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is a good alternative if you’re in the market for a stylish netbook but make sure you can get along with the trackpad and Windows 7 Starter Edition before you buy it.
This article was originally published in Khaleej Times. -
Lenovo Thinkpad Edge continues IBM’s tradition
When Lenovo bought IBM’s PC division in 2005 I had concerns that the great line of Thinkpad notebooks had come to an end. I am very happy to say that I was wrong and one of the latest Thinkpads from Lenovo, the Edge, proves that yet again. Lenovo has kept the brand alive through not just good design but also quality construction.
I tried the 15.6-inch model, which is top of the range with 13.3 and 14-inch models available as well. One curious thing is that Lenovo apparently decided to make all of the displays the same resolution (1366 by 768 pixels) despite the difference in physical size. This unfortunately makes the larger size less attractive.
With the Edge Lenovo takes the IBM Thinkpad heritage and tries to make it a bit cooler. In design you clearly see it’s a Thinkpad but the display cover is brightly colored so it could even fit in a college dormitory. Lenovo also shows an almost Apple-like attention to detail in some elements of the design. For example, the dot in the “i” in Thinkpad on the lid lights up when the computer is on.
In performance there’s plenty for most business-oriented users: Intel Core i5 2.27GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon 4500 graphics card with 512MB VRAM. Although it won’t make much difference for many users it’s nonetheless good that Lenovo put Windows 7 Professional in the Edge. Especially corporate users should benefit from that.
Looking around the outside of the Edge you’ll find three USB ports, an optical drive (dual layer DVD burner), audio connection, SD card slot, HDMI out, VGA out, Ethernet and eSATA. One USB port sits on the back of the Thinkpad and it’s the only powered one, meaning you can charge your USB device from it. Although it’s typical that not all USB ports are powered it would be nice if they were. The SD card slot is well hidden on the front and you have to turn the computer over to find it. I think Lenovo could have made it more accessible.
The keyboard is a joy to type on and the multitouch trackpad works very well. I never really liked or understood the trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard but I know many Thinkpad enthusiasts swear by it.
The extended battery on the review Thinkpad gave me almost six hours of effective use with battery-saving mode enabled. That’s a very respectable amount of usage for typical tasks.
All in all the Lenovo Edge 15-inch continues the best of the Thinkpad tradition, throws in some exciting styling and decent performance. Although the screen resolution is disappointing this is a solid business notebook and the look will get your colleagues talking around the water cooler.
This article was originally published in Khaleej Times. -
Review: Panasonic HDC-TM700 camcorder
HD or High Definition has become the standard in TV and video today. Dedicated camcorders as well as digital still cameras that also record video pretty much all support HD, whether it’s 720 or 1080. Full HD or 1920x1080 pixels is what you should look at today if you’re going to buy a camcorder and there’s a lot to choose from. In many ways Panasonic’s TM700 is not that different from the competition but in one substantial way it’s way ahead.
Without getting too technical the TM700 supports full HD at 60p or 60 frames per second progressive. That’s double or more the frame rate of most other camcorders which means smoother and higher quality video. The downside is that the recorded video files are larger, take longer to transfer and process and many video editing applications don’t fully support it yet. There are ways around that though and it shouldn’t put you off buying this camcorder.
Besides the 60p mode this is well-equipped camcorder. Panasonic’s usual Intelligent Auto mode makes the decisions for you if you want to let it but you can also control everything manually, which is rare on this type of camcorder. If you record a lot of people the camera can detect and follow faces, a great feature I find when I do video interviews with people. The lens starts at a respectable 35mm wide angle and has 10x optical zoom and digital zoom after that. Video and photos are recorded to the internal 32GB of flash memory or to an SD card. The 32GB is enough to record about two and a half hours of video at the 60p setting but you should know that the standard battery gives up after about an hour of continuous recording.
Although I admire the video quality coming out of this small camcorder I also see things besides battery life that could be improved. For example, to remove the battery you have to open the LCD display, which means the camera turns on, if only for a fraction of a second. I’m glad there is an accessory shoe for a light or microphone but it’s awkwardly placed on the side and requires a special adapter. Finally, still images from the TM700 look dull in terms of sharpness and color despite Panasonic’s claim of them being 14.2 megapixels.
But besides those complaints, to sum up, the TM700 is more expensive than other camcorders in the same class but it’s well worth the price. At AED 5,199 you pay a premium for the 60p mode but if it’s high video quality in a small package you’re after this is currently the camcorder to get.
This article was originally published in Khaleej Times. -
Review: Samsung Galaxy S
Apple’s iPhone 4 may be stealing the headlines lately in the smartphone world but Samsung has an apparent success in the Galaxy S. Judging from early sales figures it’s doing well in different parts of the world and there is also a lot of interest here in the UAE. So what should you know about the Galaxy S?
Undoubtedly the main attraction of the Galaxy S is the 4-inch Super AMOLED display (480x800 pixels). This technology makes what you see on the screen appear bright even outside in sunlight. Colors are also more vivid and brighter than on any other smartphone display I’ve experienced. Sure, iPhone 4 has more pixels but, as mentioned, Galaxy S delivers in other ways.
Samsung has put together a speedy smartphone, largely due to a 1GHz processor and 512MB RAM. There’s plenty of built-in storage with 16GB of space and you can expand that with a microSD card. In terms of connectivity there is a microUSB port, 3G data, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0.
All this is packed in a very slim and sleek case, which feels very thin and light to hold and operate. To me the Galaxy S is one of the best looking smartphones available today. Unfortunately the all-glossy plastic case is a magnet for fingerprints, dust and dirt.
The 5-megapixel camera produces sharp photos with good contrast and colors. Also he 720p HD video comes out looking very good. However, there is no dedicated camera button on the outside, a strange omission, and there’s no flash so don’t expect to shoot in low light.
This hardware will require a lot of power obviously and the battery on the Galaxy S lasts a full working day if you’re lucky but like with most smartphones don’t venture too far away from somewhere you can charge. You can buy an extra battery though and just swap when you’re running low.
In terms of software the Galaxy S runs Android 2.1 but Samsung has said an upgrade to 2.2 is on the way. They’ve put some of their own software on it like TouchWiz interface and Social Hub for integrating your social networking activities. Samsung’s software is not bad, especially TouchWiz adds functionality to standard Android, but personally I prefer just a standard Android setup and then I can pick my own apps.
However, that’s a problem in the UAE as all Android smartphones officially sold here, including the Galaxy S, don’t have the Android Market app installed. That means it’s up to you to figure out how to get apps on to it, which is a major drawback for a high-end smartphone in my view.
The Samsung Galaxy S is available in local electronics retail stores for AED 2,699 and it’s simply put a great smartphone. Right now I’d say it’s the best Android phone in the market.
This article was originally published in Khaleej Times.
