Now that the new theme is in place you’ll notice a “Follow us on Twitter” link in the sidebar. This will take you to our Twitter page where you can, oddly enough, follow us.
We’ll be posting links to new posts and special content on Twitter throughout 2009.
Go on… you know you want to…
Read article. blog Gadget Nerd twitter
Happy New Year to you all to begin with.
As some of the more eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed, the new GadgetNerd theme is now active. It’s not 100% complete yet, but it’s close enough for us to put a live preview up for you. @MattShaw is busy working away at putting the final touches to the theme. Onwards and upwards from now on hopefully…
Feedback would be much appreciated.
Read article. Gadget Nerd New site theme theme
I bought the Sony CyberShot W110 just before Christmas so that I could have a compact camera to hand on Christmas day to take pictures of the gift opening ceremony that goes on in this household on the morning of the 25th.
I wasn’t disappointed with the Sony CyberShot W110 at all. It was easy enough to use straight out of the box. No instruction manual needed, but obviously there are some provided in the box. So firstly let me tell you what was in the box:
- Battery Charger
- Mains Power Cord (for charger)
- Rechargeable Battery Pack (NP-BG1)
- USB / A/V Cable
- Wrist Strap
- CD-Rom
Obviously the CyberShot W110 is in the box also. What was good was that the packaging was kept to a minimum, what was not so good was all the other leaflets they’d managed to cram into the box; register online, buy accessories and a map your memories guide. All in 6 or so different languages, never mind.
The Sony CyberShot W110 has some pretty impressive specs too:
- 7.2 effective megapixels for clear enlargements up to A3 size
- 4x Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens
- Smile Shutter waits until the subject smiles before firing the shutter with adjustable smile threshold setting
- Enhanced Face Detection with high-speed subject tracking for clearer portraits
- Large 2.5-inch LCD
- HD Output compatible with PhotoTV HD displays for optimised still images on BRAVIA TV
- BIONZ processor for enhanced image quality and fast response
- adjusts exposure and contrast in high contrast and backlit scenes
- High Sensitivity 3200 for clearer handheld shooting in low light
The Sony CyberShot W110 takes really impressive pictures for a 7.2 MegaPixel camera. The pictures I took all looked really sharp. I will however suggest you do have a look at the instructions when it comes to sorting out the flash. There is a button that lets you choose whether it’s auto, on, SL and off. The SL setting makes sure that the subject and distant backgrounds are well lit - don’t ask me how it does it… I have no idea.
The size of the camera is great too, small enough to fit in your jeans pocket without being uncomfortable. I have normal sized hands and the CyberShot W110 fitted in my palm nicely. The weight of the camera is what you’d expect for a camera of it’s size… not too light and not too heavy.
Sony have hit the spot with this camera in my opinion, sure there are better ones out there with more pixels, but the CyberShot W110 is an ideal everyday camera that even your granny could use. Turning the jog dial to chose which kind of picture you want to take brings up a brief description of that setting and the bright 2.5″ display is big enough to show off your pictures to your mates.
As with all gadgets there have to be some minus points, but I’m glad to say that the Sony CyberShot W110 only has two, in my opinion. Firstly there’s no memory stick with it; sure there’s built in memory, but it’s not enough. A 1Gb memory stick would have been a nice addition. Luckily I had one from my SonyEricsson mobile. The second point is the battery. Don’t get me wrong, the battery that comes with the CyberShot W110 is excellent and it will last you an absolute age but, it’s a custom battery. I would have liked to see Double A’s being used. Not a big problem though because the supplied battery is brilliant.
So there you go, if you’re after a sub £100 compact digital camera that’s a cut above the others with the same specs, the Sony CyberShot W110 is the one for you. I’ve been using it for a few days now and am besotted with it. Highly recommended.
Read article. compact camera CyberShot Digital camera Sony Sony W110 W110
I’ve just purchased an O2 Mobile Broadband on Pay as You Go. I do have a contract mobile with O2, but though it would be best for me to get this instead of adding a £7.50 a month bolt on to my current plan. I’ll be getting the iPhone in March which comes with this option as standard so thought it unwise.
So why did I decide to get the O2 Dongle? Well, recently I went on a rather long train journey and had to use my N95 mobile to access the net. I was actually using the mobile screen too, which isn’t quite up to scratch. I did think that it would be easier to use the mobile as a modem and connect that way, but didn’t want to drain the N95’s battery. I’ve had the mobile for well over a year (have an 18 month contract) now and it doesn’t hold a charge as well as it used to.
The O2 Mobile Broadband dongle does seem like a good idea to me though. plug it in to a USB port and you’re away.
There are three different options available to you as a PAYG user:
- Daily - £2 per day with a 500Mb allowance
- Weekly - £7.50 per week with a 1Gb allowance
- Monthly - £15 per month with a 3Gb allowance
All options come with unlimited WiFi access also.
There is a drawback though, the only way you can buy access is online with a credit or debit card. Standard methods of topping up cannot be used. So no E-TopUp or Vouchers. I’ll have to wait and see how that works out. Hopefully you’ll still be able to use the dongle to access the Top-Up page.
Having the dongle gives me much more freedom with where I can use my laptop. Sure it has WiFi, but not everywhere has WiFi available. I doubt there are many hotspots where I live. It’s all well and good in a large city, but a small town with less than 5,000 inhabitants…. forget it….
So, when I get the dongle I’ll make a post here about how good it is.
Read article. Broadband Connectivity Mobile Broadband O2 WiFi
This is a pretty good deal just before Christmas, an Xbox 360 60Gb console (with Fable II for £10). We all know about the Xbox 360 by now don’t we, and we all know about it’s fantastic abilities. But, there might be some people out there who’ve been living in a cave, and don’t know about the excellent features of the Xbox 360.
So, for their benefit, here are the specs:
Hardware Specs:
Custom IBM Power-PC Based CPU
- Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
- Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total
- VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
- 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
- 1 MB L2 cache
CPU Game Math Performance
- 9 billion dot product operations per second
Custom ATI Graphics Processor
- 500MHz processor
- 10 MB of embedded DRAM
- 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines
- Unified shader architecture
Polygon Performance
- 500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate
- 16 gigasamples per second fill rate using 4x MSAA
Shader Performance
- 48 billion shader operations per second
Memory
- 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM
- 700 MHz of DDR
- Unified memory architecture
Memory Bandwidth
- 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
- 21.6 GB/s front-side bus
Overall System Floating Point Performance
Storage
- Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive
- 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM
- Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB
I/O
- Support for up to four wireless game controllers
- Three USB 2.0 ports
- Two memory unit slots
Optimized for Online
- Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, gamer profile for digital identity, and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies, or listening to music
- Built-in Ethernet port
- Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g
- Video camera ready
Digital Media Support
- Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD
- Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PCs
- Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive
- Custom playlists in every game
- Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
- Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers
High-Definition Game Support
- All games supported at 16:9, 720p, and 1080i, anti-aliasing
- Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported
Audio
- Multi-channel surround sound output
- Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32-bit audio processing
- Over 256 audio channels
System Orientation
- Stands vertically or horizontally
Customizable Face Plates
- Interchangeable to personalize the console
You have to admit, they’re pretty good specs.
Now if your child, or even yourself don’t have a games console yet, this is one to get. The Xbox 360 has a huge choice of games available for it, with more and more being released constantly. You can also play against other people online through Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online gaming portal.
An Xbox 360 for this price is exceptionally good value, so you shouldn’t delay in getting on, just in case they sell out. Grab your Xbox 360 today!
Read article. 60Gb Fable 2 microsoft xbox Xbox 360 xbox live
Some of you might have seen us testing out our new Gadget Nerd layout earlier today, which is good news because we’re getting ever closer to having our very own theme. To celebrate the new theme we decided that it would be good if we gave away FREE advertising space.
There will be two spaces available for FREE for 1 Month when the new theme goes live. All we ask in return is that you tell your friends about www.gadget-nerd.co.uk either by word of mouth or by writing a blog post. The 125 x 125 spaces will not be hidden away down the bottom of the blog either, oh no… they’ll be in a prime spot at the top of the sidebar on every page.
If you’d like to be considered for one of the spaces then leave a comment on this post and we’ll get back to you.
Read article. Advertising FREE FREE advertising space Gadget Nerd
The Buffalo Drivestation 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive is a remarkable Gadget and it’s definately one that I’m going to be buying soon. Having 1TB of external storage will be a huge advantage to me.
Some of the features of the Buffalo Drivestation 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive
are:
- The Power Saving Utility offers reduced power consumption
- TurboUSB increases your file transfer speeds -up tp 20% Quicker
- Turns on and off automatically with your computer
- Easy Setup with no drivers required
- Pre-formatted drive for immediate use Silent, fanless operation
- Includes Memeo AutoBackup Software for Windows and Macintosh
- Secure Lock Ware software for Windows PC encrypts your data, preventing unauthorised access
- Connects to USB on any PC or Mac
And the
Buffalo Drivestation 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive
will look good on any desk too. When I saw this drive I was quite surprised to find that it was
selling for £80… Which is a good price for a 1TB External Storage solution I think.
Read article. Buffalo Drivestation External HDD External Storage HDD USB 2.0
This is simply an offer that can’t be missed…. a £150 shaver for less than £65…. You can’t go wrong with this deal.
I don’t know what it is with Amazon these days, but they have some absolutely brilliant deals. Not to mention the “spend more than £5 for FREE Delivery” promotion they have going at the moment too.
The Philips Nivea Coolskin HS8060 Moisturizing Rotary Shaving System is a brilliant shaver, it’s packed with some great features:
- Enriched formula with vitamins and chamomile to condition your skin and support a healthy look
- Philips Cool Skin shavers comes with an improved Nivea for Men emulsion
- Simply pump the Nivea for Men shaving conditioner from the refill can directly into the Cool Skin shaver
- Equipped with dual blade system to give you ultra close shave
- Flex Tracker automatically tracks the curves of your face and helps to protect against skin irritation
- The shaving heads have unique Glide Rings to help the shaver move smoothly over your face
- Anti-slip grip panel : Advanced layered rubber with integrated foil
- Waterproof
- Click & Go Refill System
- Quick charging
- Automatic conditioner dosing
- Silent power
- Automatic selection 100-240V
- Rechargeable Li-ion battery
- Charge indication
- Electronic Features
- Battery full and low indication
- Travel lock Lacquer
Can you find the Philips Nivea Coolskin HS8060 Moisturizing Rotary Shaving System for less than £65 anywhere?
I seriously urge you to get your hands on this shaver before stocks run out. An ideal gift for any man, and they’ll love you for getting it too. I was tempted to buy one of these when they were £150. I’m so glad I didn’t now.
Read article. Coolskin Grooming Nivea Philips Shaving
With a new Apple iphone 3G there has to come a new set of accessories. The iPhone 3G Dock is one of those accessories.
Is it an essential gadget or just a fancy gimmick?
I would lean towards it being an essential piece of kit. For a start you can leave it plugged in to a USB port on your computer be it a Mac or PC, so that’s a bonus. It’s always a bonus when you don’t have to root around the back…
Not only does it charge your iPhone, you can use it to transfer data between your devices too.
All good right…. or is it?
Why not just make a Dock adapter like Apple have done with their other products?
Maybe it’s a quick way to make £20 for Apple?
Who knows the answers to these questions? If you do leave a comment….
When I get my iPhone, I’ll also be getting this iPhone 3G Dock… I don’t care… it’s a gadget and it looks good :o)
Read article. Apple iPhone iPhone 3G iPhone 3G Dock
The Desktop Cradle Charger for Apple iPhone 3G / and standard 2g iPhone will be a godsend for any of you who are lucky enough to have both a 3G and 2G iPhone.
