Judging from the photos on Plantronics’ website, the system requirements for its Voyager Pro headset include a goatee (recommended) or some carefully cultivated designer stubble (minimum). Fortunately, we were in unshaven mode when the box landed on our desk and it seemed to work just fine with a basic two-day growth.
Plantronics’ Voyager Pro: comfortable, if large
There was initially a little confusion about the name of the product. Plantronics quoted us a price of £80 for the Voyager Pro, but that’s just for the headset on its own. We’ve seen it on Amazon for about £55. Read the rest of this entry »
Round-up As another British summer disappears down the meteorological toilet amidst howling gales and driving rain Reg Hardware’s mind turns to getting away from it all for a few weeks to a place where carrying a solar charger is not an act of near criminal optimism. To help ease the miles we decided to take a look at a dozen gadgets for the tech savvy traveller that might be worth packing, along with the sun block and bug repellent.
Garmin Oregon 300 GPS
The Oregon 300 is a map, a compass, an altimeter and GPS navigation system all rolled up into one chunky unit. The standard device comes loaded with Garmin’s GB Discoverer maps. These include Ordnance Survey coverage of all Britain’s National Parks at 1:50,000 scale with 1:25,000 maps also available to download on microSD card. Garmin knows a thing about toys for boys. Hence, the 300 is encased in some serious shockproof rubber with a hefty mini-USB port cover and fully enclosed on/off button. Read the rest of this entry »
Review iRex extended its electronic book line back in September last year, but it’s taken us more than a couple of weeks to get used to its new DR1000s Digital Reader and understand that this is really a new class of product, rather than an evolution of the smaller readers of the past.
iRex’s Digital Reader
Electronic-ink screens have been pushed into the role of electronic books but, like Amazon, iRex has realised that the real money isn’t in electronic books at all, but in electronic document readers. Executives, or journalists – who have to plough through enormously long documents – will pay handsomely for a device that enables them to easily read, and make notes on, such documents with the minimum of fuss.
Indeed, that’s the market that Amazon’s latest, the Kindle DX, and the iRex DR1000S are aimed. Yet, the DR1000S isn’t exactly comfortable for reading books. At just under 27 x 22cm and a smidge under 12 mm thick, it’s much closer to a clipboard than a paperback, even if it is six hundred quid’s worth of clipboard. Read the rest of this entry »
iPhone App Review DataViz’s Documents To Go, born out of the file-translation tools the company made for the Mac nearly two decades ago, has been a mainstay of Palm OS devices for almost as long. That mix of Mac heritage and mobility made it seem inevitable that DTG would come to the iPhone.
And now, at last, it has. Well, sort of. What DataViz has released is a feature-incomplete version of DTG that’s really more public beta than finished product. True, the company is offering the app for a reduced price – until 30 June – and has pledged to provide buyers with a free update when the app’s complete – ditto – but we’re not sure we like this notion of charging for unfinished work, whoever does it.
Review Appearing a somewhat solitary member of the Asus Eee product family, the unique AiGuru SV-1 Videophone stands alone in more ways than one. At around 25cm tall, with curves akin a to Brancusi sculpture, this tabletop unit bearing a widescreen 7in LCD features built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and a rechargeable battery to deliver round-the-home portability.
Asus’ AiGuru SV-1: comes with full source code
While numerous messengers offer audio-visual communications on a computer, all this Asus device needs is an internet connection – Ethernet or wireless – and you’re away, waving a hand to far flung relatives or more select parts of your anatomy to a new best friend in Rio. The catch? It only works with Skype. Indeed, Asus is eager to point out that the AiGuru SV-1 is the world’s first ‘Skype Certified’ standalone videophone. Read the rest of this entry »
