Ashley Cornell, email: [email protected]

The only problem with most sat navs is that you need to keep them up to date all the time. Roads close and new ones open, layouts change, and speed cameras shoot out of the ground like the spores of a particularly nasty fungus. If you don’t upload map updates to your device, you’ll likely eventually be instructed to go the wrong way down a one-way street, or to take the detour when a much faster route is available. This is why I like TomTom’s Mapshare feature so much – it allows users to update each other on important road changes for free. And that’s also a reason why “live” phone navigation software like Telmap and Wayfinder 8 – tested here – work well.

Rather than storing all map data locally, Wayfinder’s maps are stored on a server and, just like Google Maps, portions of them are downloaded as needed. This not only ensures that the maps are automatically kept up to date, but also that the memory footprint is minimal. All you have to install on your phone is the application, so the rest of your storage space – especially important if you have a phone without an expansion slot – can be dedicated to storing videos, pictures and music. The route calculation also takes place entirely on external servers and is not dependent on the possibly low computing power of your mobile phone.

It’s also available on a wide range of phones – not just Symbian S60 and UIQ devices, but also Windows Mobile 6 Professional phones and Blackberries (see the Wayfinder website for the full list). And if you find you don’t like the thing, it hasn’t necessarily cost you the earth – the cost is £40 for a 12-month subscription and just £48 for three years.

What’s more, it’s packed with clever features. Log into the companion website – MyWayfinder – and you can add ‘favorite’ destinations without the hassle of typing them into your phone’s number pad. The application on your phone will then sync with the website and download the locations for local use. There’s also a Facebook app to post your location and a Google Earth tracking utility. Turn on the latter (and the tracking mode on the phone) and all your movements over the past week will be recorded in a downloadable KML file, with the track overlaid on the map. You can also download parts of the map from the MyWayfinder website and install it locally – useful if you know you’re going to an area with a weak mobile data signal.

Of course, the theory behind Wayfinder sounds like a brilliant idea, but how does it work in practice? Well, for simple point-to-point navigation, it’s a pretty good solution. I particularly enjoyed the voice instructions that are repeated, then repeated over and over as you approach each intersection. That can get a little irritating for passengers, but it’s worth it for the driver, who is unlikely to ever miss a turn because one of the kids in the back threw a tantrum.

The maps themselves are extremely clear in both 2D and 3D modes – even on the screen of a relatively small phone like the Nokia N82 that I used for testing. The track layout is clearly shown with a bold red line and POIs, such as gas stations, are shown as colourful, easy-to-see callouts. Of course, you’re not presented with as much information as you would with a dedicated device – there’s no ETA, remaining distance or even the name of the next street here – but the essential information is clear and doesn’t clutter up the screen. An icon for the next turn is displayed in the top right corner (or left, depending on your phone) next to the distance to that turn and an icon for satellite signal strength. Underneath you get a hint about the current street. Obviously a lot of thought has gone into the design of the map display.

But there are weaknesses. The most obvious is that you can’t do multipoint routing. This was an error I pointed out the last time I looked at Wayfinder and it is a serious issue that has yet to be fixed. This is a much more important feature than Facebook or Google Earth tracking, so I’m not entirely sure why it was implemented. Also missing – and one more important thing – is manual redirection. Wayfinder will recalculate your route for you (and quickly) if you get lost, but you can’t tell it to find the best route around a roadblock or traffic jam right in front of you — you have to guess that Your next right/left turn is the best way.

Other vulnerabilities are the constant problems of live navigation, which you rely on your mobile data connection (the reliability of this connection depends on your network and your location in the country) and the Wayfinder servers, which remain active. To be fair, Wayfinder tries to circumvent this potential stumbling block by downloading map blocks and caching them in the phone’s memory, so you always have some map data to work with. It also offers these map downloads. But if you get too far off track and lose your data connection (I’ve found my T-Mobile connection to drop on occasion, even in London), you’re going to get stuck. Using the product abroad won’t be a realistic proposition either, as the mobile data plans are such a rip-off, although that’s not the Wayfinder product’s fault – blame your cellphone provider.

What you can blame Wayfinder for is the cost of additional extras. Where the main product is reasonably priced, the speed camera and traffic information functions are not. Live navigation software is the ideal means of transmitting such data and keeping it reliably updated – it can be downloaded at the same time as route information – but you’ll have to pay a hefty premium if you want the privilege of having annual speed cameras -Updates cost £28 and traffic information an additional £20 per year.

It’s worth noting that Telmap and CoPilot Live 7 (the latter being my current favorite phone navigation application) both include free traffic information and Telmap’s rolling contract, which lets you pay just £5 for a month of navigation and then opt out, is much more flexible.

“‘Verdict”‘

So when it comes to ultimate flexibility, traffic, European mapping and speed cameras, Wayfinder will never be able to compete with full-fledged dedicated devices like TomTom’s excellent range of navigation devices. And it’s not as good as CoPilot either.

But I think that despite the lack of free traffic information, it’s – just – a better choice for live navigation than Telmap. It has more innovative features and better flexibility, and at £48 for three years of map updates, it’s a lot cheaper in the long run. If you want a basic navigation product that doesn’t exhaust your phone’s storage potential, it’s the best product of its kind that I’ve used.

Until the iPod came along and “ripping” from something related to fishing threads to something you could do with a CD, digital music was the computer enthusiast’s premise. Obviously a lot has changed since Apple’s first portable players hit the market in 2001, but it seems the influence of Apple’s player has yet to have a serious impact on the world of ‘proper’ hi-fi.

Obviously there are many iPod HiFi systems on the market and some of them are very good. Check out Riyad’s review of the B&W Zeppelin, which combined great design with wonderful sound quality. I was also impressed by Fatman’s iTube system when I tested it late last year – a tube amp with an iPod dock attached.

But not everyone owns an iPod, and using one as your main hi-fi isn’t a particularly good way to browse music from the sofa – the screen is fine from a meter away, but if you sit on the sofa, you’ll struggle Understand what’s happening on the iPod Classic’s 2.5-inch screen.

As an alternative, I think you’ll struggle to match the Brennan JB7’s simplicity and elegance. Now I’d always prefer to use an audio streamer to listen to my digital music collection and pump a digital signal through a DAC to my amp and speakers, but that adds a layer of complications (and chaos) that the most people can easily. do not bother. This device keeps it simple, allowing you to rip CDs straight to its internal hard drive and listen to them from there.

And it’s as easy to use as the original iPod. Minutes after plugging it in and hooking it up to a pair of speakers, I had ripped a few CDs and was happily listening to them. All you have to do is pop a disc into the slot-loading drive, press the big round button on the front, and a few minutes later the JB7 will have the tracks compressed and transferred straight to the unit’s hard drive . A mighty impressive feat from such a small component.

You have the option of ripping CDs uncompressed at 320kbps, 192kbps or 128kbps, and with a built-in music database from CDDB, the unit should recognize most CD titles, artists and track names without resorting to the remote control keyboard. It had issues with a couple of the newer discs I’ve put in, but you can name albums manually, which doesn’t take long, and updating the database is a simple matter of downloading the FreeDB ISO image, copying it to a blank one Burn a CD-R and insert it into the device’s CD drive.

Once you’ve ripped a few discs, browsing is easy too. The light blue display uses the same vacuum fluorescent display as the Logitech Squeezebox, and its large lettering makes flipping through albums, songs, and artist names a pleasure—no more squinting from the couch. You can do the expected digital music tasks, e.g. B. Shuffle tracks and search for albums. There’s also a text search, which works great if you get bored searching track by track.

Oddly enough, despite the built-in database cataloging genres, artist names, composers, etc., the JB7 only lets you search and browse by track and album names. And you can’t manually name tracks either. That being said, the only thing the JB7 needs is a decent remote – its grid of blister buttons makes it extremely difficult to use right off the bat until you get used to it.

It’s a shame as the rest of the system is luxuriously well equipped and as well designed as the user interface is easy to use. With its rubberized gray body and electro-blue aluminum faceplate, it looks and feels snazzy, and there are plenty of handy features. The front panel is adorned with a large, clickable knob that is used to select and browse music, as well as adjust the volume during music playback. Other controls are limited to four buttons for play/stop, eject, and skip forward and backward through tracks.

There is also a USB socket on the left edge of the front panel for not only connecting an MP3 player, external hard drive or USB stick, but also for backing up the music stored on the JB7 to an external hard drive and loading music from the other way. If you’ve already ripped your music onto the hard drive, this is a huge time-saver, although it’s worth noting that the Brennan is limited as to the format of music files it can play – only MP3s are supported.

But do you want to know the best about the Brennan JB7? It’s the sheer size of the thing. Incredibly, all of this functionality is packed into a case that’s just over one and a half times the width of a CD (220mm) and just 48mm high. It’s a great box for anyone who has a penchant for minimalism or can’t afford a spacious four bedroom house.

And I’m not yet at the end of the JB7’s feature list. Its tiny frame houses a 30W per channel amplifier along with the hard drive and a set of spring terminals on the rear for connecting a pair of standard speakers – basically everything you need for your digital music system. The rear also features a 3.5mm headphone output, a 3.5mm line out and, conveniently, a 3.5mm stereo aux input. The latter allows you to record this analogue source directly as an MP3.

Given all its features, I almost don’t care how the JB7 performs – it’s that good elsewhere. But to complete the picture I can report that it is a very capable little player. It’s actually surprisingly good considering all the electronics and amplifier packed into such a small box.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call it outstanding though. I hooked up a pair of Sonus Faber Concertino speakers to the Spring Clips, played the excellent Killers album Sam’s Town over them, and while the JB7 pulled out all the detail in the complex tracks, it was a little lacking in dynamic range – not quite so much punch in the music as I would like it to be. The same goes for the bass output: shove in a bit of Jamiroquai and the normal muddy bottom end doesn’t come through with as much control as possible.

But that’s probably just because I’m picky. After a few hours of listening, I didn’t care at all – there’s plenty of volume and the Brennan never gets too muddled, whether you’re hitting it with complex classics like Mahler’s 6th Symphony, Metallica’s classic “black” album, or Ulf Wakenius. cool swedish e-guitar jazz. The Brennan manages to sound crystal clear and effortless throughout. As I said, despite the small things in such a tiny all-in-one box, this is remarkable, and it’s worth sacrificing a little storage space for quality: the JB7 loses some of its musical depth when you’re playing with 128 Rip Kbps. so it’s a good idea to rip at higher bitrates.

“‘Verdict”‘

As a compact, stylish digital music system, the Brennan JB7 is hard to beat, but it offers so much more than that: USB input, backup and file transfer, recording from external sources and CD ripping really couldn’t be simpler.

There are small things, of course, like the terrible remote control and the sound quality could be better for the money, but these are minor considering what has been a hugely successful overall package. If you’re looking for a decent iPod music system, consider one of these instead.

With a couple of quality Blu-ray players due out later this year and a new range of cutting-edge plasma TVs hitting stores soon, nobody would blame Pioneer if the humble DVD player was on their priority list would slide down. But a DVD player market without Pioneer is like Man United without Alex Ferguson – it just wouldn’t be the same without them. The company has a duty to its legions of fans to continue producing standard def decks that push the limits of technology, and luckily Pioneer is keeping the flame burning bright this year with another great selection of players, recorders and systems.

Included in this range is the £90 DV-410V DVD player, the successor to last year’s superb DV-400V, which beat its budget competition by six with an unbeatable range of features and top-notch performance. At just under £90, it looks like the DV-410V offers more of the same great value without adding anything radical to the 400V’s already generous feature list. There’s also the more affordable DV-310 and the upgraded DV-610AV, which adds DVD-Audio and SACD playback.

In stark contrast to its bulky premium players, Pioneer’s budget decks have traditionally been slim and sleek, and the DV-410V continues that trend. It’s certainly attractive, but in a way that will appeal to techies rather than interior designers. Available in black or silver, the deck doesn’t have any minimalist pretensions – its front is unashamedly busy, packed with everything from menu controls and play buttons to logos and a USB port, the latter of which allows you to connect and play memory sticks and other digital devices media files.

On the back, the port selection might seem a bit light at first, but you’ll quickly find that it actually covers most bases. Of greatest interest to owners of flat screen TVs and projectors is the HDMI input, this time in the 1.3 variant, which will hopefully deliver crisp digital images in 720p, 1080i and 1080p flavors.

That’s joined by an RGB and composite capable SCART socket hanging in there despite it being an endangered species, as well as component and composite video outputs. You can connect the deck to your AV receiver via the HDMI socket, the stereo analog outputs, or the coaxial digital audio output (but remember there’s no optical digital output for those who need it).

One of the DV-410’s most impressive talents is its ability to play a wide range of compressed formats, including less commonly supported WMV9 (unfortunately only in Standard Def) and non-copy protected AAC, the format used by iTunes. It also plays MP3 and WMA audio files, and there’s a Hi-Res mode for JPEG playback, which will display photos without converting them to a lower resolution.

In addition, the player is DivX certified and plays all file types up to v6 and supports VOD with a registration code. All of these file types can be played through the USB port, saving you the hassle of inserting discs. The player can also handle any recordable CD or DVD format except DVD-RAM, and also accepts Video CDs and Picture CDs.

Elsewhere, Pioneer offers its usual flexibility in picture tweaking thanks to the Video Adjust menu, which allows settings for brightness, sharpness, contrast, gamma, tint and chroma levels to be altered. In terms of audio, you’ll find a range of equalizer modes (rock, pop, live – that kind of thing), as well as virtual surround, dynamic range compression and a dialog booster.

Changing those settings or changing the aspect ratio and HDMI resolution is an incredibly easy process thanks to the wonderful home menu system that hasn’t changed since last year’s models – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The presentation is self-explanatory from the start, the options are broken down into logical groups and presented with inviting colors and fonts, and the entire operating system is incredibly fast.

Adding further to the usability factor is the remote control, which looks the same as previous Pioneer DVD phones, apart from a few minor cosmetic changes. Key placement is near perfect and everything is clearly labeled.

In terms of picture quality, the DV-410V isn’t the best we’ve seen from Pioneer, but it does a pretty good job with the ‘Gladiator’ disc on our Toshiba 40ZF355D LCD set, bringing out most of the film’s detail Preview boosted to 1080p. Scenes set in the Roman Colosseum are the most impressive, with the deck easily processing the different patterns and textures, like gladiators’ mail and the densely populated crowd.

Also impressive is the player’s reproduction of skin tones, which are absolutely convincing throughout, and in the film’s brighter moments (like the gladiator training scenes) the colors appear vibrant thanks to the deep black level, giving the image a dense and cinematic feel.

It’s not perfect, however – the scene where Russell Crowe speaks to his troops before the film’s opening battle is quite loud, with some ringing around certain outlines, while shots of wide open spaces like blue skies reveal some pulsing noises. But overall, the Pioneer’s picture quality compares well with players in a similar price range, such as the Samsung DVD-1080P8 or the Philips DVP5980.

We also went through our range of test files and most of them played without any issues, although we did have a few lip sync issues with some WMV files.

Finally, we’re impressed with the deck’s audio capabilities, which deliver extremely smooth CD playback via the analogue outputs and clear stereo sound via the HDMI output and TV speakers. MP3, WMA and AAC files are also scrubbed well.

“‘Verdict”‘

It boils down to one question: has the DV-410V earned your hard-earned money? The answer is a resounding yes. Picture and sound quality are impressive and more features are offered than you’d normally get for £90 – but if that price still seems high, remember you’re getting a player from a respected and reliable manufacturer whose products have stood the test of time – and on that basis the DV-410V is a solid investment.

points in detail

• performance 8

• functions 8

• value 8

You would hope that Polyphony Digital’s Kazanori Yamauchi would know that Gran Turismo 5 has to struggle. When GT4 came out, GT3 was still the state of the art for serious racing games. Forza Motorsport has yet to make its mark, Project Gotham Racing has yet to find the right balance between sim and arcade racer, Codemasters’ TOCA series has lost its way, and PC has had nothing quite like it. Things are different now. Stop for a second and just look at the competition. With Forza Motorsport 2 and Project Gotham Racing 4 already available on the 360, GTR2 and RACE 07 and doing great things with physics on PC and the forthcoming GRID available on all three platforms, Gran Turismo can’t afford to stay in the to be caught standing still.

And that’s why the GT5 prologue is so important. In the past we’ve had to wonder why anyone sane would shell out £20 for a glorified demo, but GT fans – and I still am one of them – were willing to do so, just to get an idea to get what graphics and gameplay improvements a new console or version could bring. Whether Forza Massive agrees or not, GT is widely regarded as the gold standard for console driving games. The question is whether the brand can maintain this value.

Based on the GT5 prologue he has a real chance. That’s partly because it’s the first prologue that actually feels like a proper – albeit stripped down – Gran Turismo game. We’re still missing out on all the engine upgrade and car customization features that make Gran Turismo so addictive – although some limited tweaks will come later. However, we do get a decent starting roster of 30 single-player events, over seventy cars, six courses each with at least two variations, and – for the first time in a Gran Turismo – online play.

Your first port of call is the dealerships and here you will see that Prologue offers a range of models from European, US and Japanese manufacturers including Acura, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Citroen, Dodge, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Lotus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Volkswagen. At one end of the spectrum we get hot versions of everyday favorites like the Renault Clio Sport, Mini Cooper-S or our editors’ beloved Ford Focus ST. On the other hand, we get dream cars like the Ferrari F430 or the Aston Marin DB9 Coupé (but nothing from Porsche! – Editor’s note). In between is a strong selection of hot hatches, new school muscle cars, 4WD favorites and supercars. While about 70 fewer cars than in PGR4, let alone Forza 2 or GT4, the actual selection has been carefully targeted towards the European audience. Basically, if you’re a fan of the television activities of Messrs. Clarkson, May and Hammond, you will no doubt be very pleased.

Once you’ve decided on your first car, it’s on to the first of three sets of events, ranked by difficulty and vehicle type, to complete. As in previous GTs, there are open races as well as races specific to certain vehicle types or even models. The good news is that there are no boring license tests to work through first, and the events themselves scale up pretty well, with one extra particularly tricky set to work through once you’ve completed the first bunch. It’s hard to imagine anyone playing a Gran Turismo game before struggling with the early races, but as time goes on the events become more and more challenging. Staying on the same tracks gives you a chance to get used to the straights and corners, but once you’re halfway through the intermediate class you can expect to spend some time honing your racing line and technique .

Let’s get to the meat then. How does racing in the GT5 prologue compare to racing in GT4? Well, needless to say, it’s a better looking experience. Sony rightly boasts about the new car models that seem to use 200,000 polygons while GT4 only used 4000. They are incredibly detailed, beautifully shiny and all boast a compelling in-car view, making GT5 Prologue the best game for car fans. porn yet. The scenery is pretty gorgeous too, from the mountainous Eiger track familiar to Gran Turismo HD players to a golf course in central London that shows Project Gotham 4 how to do it.

What holds everything together is the lighting system. Polyphony has achieved this since the dawn of the original PlayStation, and on PS3 there’s something so cohesive and perfect about the lighting that even PGR4 can’t quite match. Look at the highlights and reflections on the car, how shadows move across the track, or how the camera adjusts to the brighter conditions when coming out of a tunnel, and you’ll understand why GT5 Prologue sets a new graphical benchmark for the genre is. On the other hand, it misses one thing that PGR4 has: the weather. Is this a feature Polyphony planned for the real thing, or does GT just do bright sunshine and warm tones? We’ll just have to wait to find out.

However, graphics were never really the issue. What is that while GT has always offered the best driving experience, it hasn’t always offered the best racing. So that we understand each other. Even after PGR4, Forza 2 and TOCA Race Driver 3, GT4’s handling is the best in the business, and GT5 Prologue continues the same tradition. For the first time we have the choice between a standard physics model and a professional model, with the former aimed at casual gamers looking for a more arcade racing experience and the latter at the simulation enthusiasts. The differences are fairly subtle, especially when playing on a control pad, but the Professional model is definitely less forgiving of late braking and imprecise cornering, and the feel of the tire on the track is even more tangible than in GT4. Watch a replay and it’s clear that GT handles wheel/surface interactions and modeling of weight, downforce and momentum better than its competitors. Play the game and each car feels just right. Is GT5 Prologue as punishingly accurate in its physical modeling as, say, GTR2? nope Is it as accurate as it can get while remaining an enjoyable mainstream game? You bet.

But if GT is unrivaled when it comes to driving feel, that can’t be said when it comes to exciting, hard-fought racing. We should be grateful that Polyphony has finally incorporated an AI system that actually fits the dictionary definition of intelligence. The computer-controlled racers now overtake, make mistakes, try to block you and even take a risk or two – as it should be. However, everything still feels a bit half-hearted. Play PGR4 or Forza 2 and you know the other guys want to win. Play GT5 Prologue and they still seem to play it safe. We want attitude, we want aggression and the GT5 prologue still feels like the reins are on. Combine that with Polyphony’s increasingly out of step with car damage avoidance – Kazanori Yamauchi can blame the manufacturers all he likes, but every other great racing game does – and despite that, GT5 Prologue is ahead of the competition when it comes to driving tech he still lags behind the best when it comes to putting on a decent race.

Fortunately, this error is easy to fix: just get your racing kicks online against other people. OK, the features are relatively basic by today’s standards, and GT5 Prologue leaves out such basic things as a built-in friends list or proper integration of online and offline leaderboards. Also, I’m not sure the ability to watch old Top Gear footage from within the game is a huge draw. Also, the actual business of finding a game is a bit complicated. First you have to choose an event from the current list – first make sure you have a suitable car in your garage – then select the start option and then wait for quite a while while the game matches you with some opponents. They’re also tied to the preset events, meaning you can’t just pick a course and vehicle class and go for it, as some players will no doubt want. On the plus side, Sony will continue to update the events list over time – and I’m sure we can expect additional downloadable content as well.

However, the actual action is generally very good. Where PGR4 and Forza 2 are stuck at eight players, GT5 Prologue manages up to 16, and with so many racers on the track there’s plenty of crowding around the corners and testosterone on the tarmac. The game is smart enough to penalize corner cutting, and the only minor oddity is that it also listens for odd behavior, turning off collision detection if it suspects it’s due to a network glitch. This certainly saves some trouble in online games, but it also means that you are never 100% sure whether you will crash into the car in front of you when taking a corner that is too fast or just slide straight ahead. It’s quirky, but it’s something you’ll get used to.

In fact, grading the GT5 prologue is difficult. It’s only about half what we’d expect from a full-priced game in terms of content, but then it’s only about a third of a full-priced game in price. Judging by the single player mode, I’m not sure I’d necessarily recommend it, but throw in the online action and there’s enough light here to keep you coming back until GT5 itself arrives.

The deeper question remains whether the GT5 prologue raises expectations of the GT5 itself. Well, the graphics, improved physics model, and improved AI definitely point in a positive direction, but I still feel like there’s still plenty of room for the series to improve its gameplay. We don’t just want the ultimate car toy set – we want the ultimate driving game. The GT5 prologue says it could be possible, but there’s still work to be done before then.

“‘Verdict”‘

The GT5 Prologue shows how the series is progressing in the right direction, with superb graphics, excellent vehicle physics and a decent online mode. Just two grumbles: damage modeling remains lacking, while the AI ​​still isn’t quite competitive enough.

characteristics

In terms of features and versatility, Samsung’s DVD recorders have always played second fiddle to competing decks like Panasonic and Sony, but the Korean brand makes up for it in one key area – price. No matter what the quality of the competition, you can rest assured that Samsung will come out with something that works almost as well for less money – and that’s the bottom line for most consumers.

The DVD-SR150M is a good example of this. You can find it online for under £100 – cheaper than the esteemed Panasonic DMR-EZ27 – but a look at the SR150M’s features shows it shares some of the Panny’s capabilities, the most notable of which is DVD-RAM recording.

It gives any DVD recorder using this flexible format the ability to behave as if there was a hard drive inside, with non-linear editing and simultaneous recording and playback. On the downside, only a handful of DVD players support it, which might limit you to just watching RAM recordings on that deck – a real bummer if you’re recording something downstairs and want to watch it later in the bedroom.

The solution, of course, is to use one of the other supported formats, in this case DVD-RW, DVD-R or DVD-R Dual Layer, the latter doubling the maximum recording time of a normal single-layer DVD-R. There’s no DVD+RW or DVD+R support, which belies its true “multi-format” status, but overall these four formats should do the trick.

Samsung gets it right when it comes to looks, giving the sleek SR150M the perfect blend of high-tech chic and down-to-earth practicality. The slanted bezel protected by an overhanging “hood” is an unusual but effective touch, while the sleek black color scheme and bright blue lights are guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. The minimal arrangement of buttons shifts the user burden to the remote control but leaves the bezel refreshingly uncluttered, while a number of AV inputs and a DV connection have been sensibly hidden under a flap.

The rear, however, reveals a disappointing – no, shocking – omission: there’s no HDMI output. Yes, the SR150M is part of last year’s range, but that’s no excuse – even the most basic of TVs have had HDMI inputs for a while. That means you don’t get the picture quality benefits that this all-digital connection offers, and it also means you miss out on the Hi-Def upscaling that HD Ready or Full HD TV owners tend to do could look elsewhere.

Instead you have a choice of progressive scan capable component video output and RGB SCART, both of which can deliver strong picture quality. There are also S-video and composite video outputs as well as a second RGB-capable SCART socket, which is used to connect an external TV receiver (e.g. a Sky box) for high-quality recordings or to loop through the signal Your TV.

On the audio side, you’ll find optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, used to feed Dolby Digital, DTS and PCM into an AV amplifier, as well as a stereo audio output for good measure.

The deck partially makes up for its lack of HDMI with a Freeview tuner, allowing shows to be recorded straight from the built-in 7-day EPG. If your Freeview reception isn’t up to scratch yet, there’s also an analogue tuner to fall back on. The digital tuner offers the usual MHEG-related features (digital text, interactive services) and favorites lists, but don’t expect any frills like daisy-chaining or infrared control of external digital TV receivers.

Before you click on the recording, you can select one of four quality modes – XP, SP, LP and EP. XP uses the highest bitrate of 8.5Mbps, which means you can only cram an hour’s worth of recordings onto a single-layer disc, but it offers the best picture quality. In SP, LP and EP modes, the bitrates drop to 4.5Mbps, 2Mbps and 1.6Mbps respectively, allowing you to pack two, four or six hours onto a disc – but the picture quality drops every time. In addition, there is an eight-hour EP mode (1.2 Mbit/s) and flexible recording, which selects the appropriate mode according to the space left on the disc.

After you’ve made a recording, it can be tweaked using the deck’s editing features. At the most basic level, you can rename the recording, protect it from accidental deletion, or define your own chapter points. But if you use DVD-RAM, you can create a playlist with selected scenes without affecting the original recordings. It’s a nice feature, especially for camcorder owners who want to piece together a montage from footage they’ve shot themselves, and it’s easy to do – an intuitive screen lets you enter start and stop points as you play back the recording.

In fact, the rest of the interface is impressively designed. The setup menu offers neatly arranged options supported by eye-catching graphics, while the EPG somehow fits the program list, program summary and a box playing live TV on one screen, but makes the whole thing look logical and uncluttered. Digital TV performance is generally good too, although changing channels is slower than we’d normally expect. The only other operational disappointment is the remote, which looks good but has too many small, indistinguishable buttons for our liking.

As for performance, and the SR150M takes an unusual approach to recording Freeview programmes. You can only record from the digital tuner in flexible recording mode, which means that when you press the record button, the appropriate mode (XP, SP, LP or EP) is automatically selected according to the quality of the incoming signal. For example, it chose SP for a BBC One recording but LP for a Channel 4 broadcast.

The idea is to keep you from taking up more disk space than necessary by choosing a bitrate that’s too high for the source, which is all very helpful, but to be honest we’d prefer to decide for ourselves Thanks. The only way around this is to set the timer, but it’s a bit of a hassle.

However, we don’t let this limitation detract from the deck’s strong visual quality. Freeview footage in XP and SP modes looks sharp and colourful, with pleasingly low noise, and in LP the results are superb to see. The images in Soft EP mode raised a few eyebrows, but that’s par for the course at such a low bitrate.

Luckily you can change the quality setting manually when recording from an external source via SCART. XP footage from a Sky+ box is superb, which is great news for those hoping to archive footage stored on a hard drive PVR.

Playback of store-bought DVDs via the component or SCART outputs benefits from the deck’s impressive color and detail reproduction, but HDMI might have eliminated the hint of punctual noise at the edge of some objects. The deck will also play DivX, MP3 and JPEG, all of which will look and sound great on a good TV or sound system.

“‘Verdict”‘

That might not worry the big Japanese guns, but overall the DVD-SR150M puts in a respectable performance. It looks great, recorded picture quality is strong and DVD-RAM recording and a Freeview tuner offer the stunning combination of flexibility and convenience.

Ultimately, however, the lack of HDMI output – and the HD upscaling that usually comes with it – makes it feel antiquated, and while the sub-£100 price point is tempting, we’d encourage you to spend a little more on an HDMI-equipped models like the Panasonic DMR-EZ27 or even the Toshiba D-R17DT.

points in detail

• performance 8

• functions 6

• value 7

Any of you who use PCs every day should be all too familiar with the constant struggle to keep at bay the latest viruses, trojans and all the other pieces of malicious software – collectively known as malware – that attack our workhorses. The daily deluge of updates and security alerts, combined with the overwhelming knowledge that the battle to rid your PC of these threats can never truly be won, is enough to depress even the brightest of us.

Of course, that wasn’t always the case in the past. You used to be fine as long as you protected your computer from unpredictable floppy disks. The real problems came with the arrival of the Internet and since then, attacks on our PCs have just skyrocketed. From the simple “click-me” virus attachments in emails to the most aggressive trojans that sneak their way through an unpatched hole in your operating system, they come at you from all angles to put them all at bay Keep in mind, the list of programs you need to protect everything has also mushroomed.

It’s not uncommon these days to have anti-virus and anti-spyware software, a decent firewall (either hardware or software), spam filters, and a browser that detects phishing websites. Given the already significant storage space and processing power of all these programs, there are probably two ways you’ll see the launch of Trustware’s Bufferzone software. The first is a skeptical mindset that thinks “I already have enough anti-this and the other programs to worry about, why would I want another” or the alternative is to be more positive about it, i.e. ” you can never have enough protection, so give me, give me, give me!’

Before I delve too much into the semantics though, let’s take a look at what Bufferzone actually does, and then we’ll see if it’s worth recommending, regardless of which of the above reactions you had.

First things first, BufferZone is Windows XP only, so you might want to stop reading unless you’ve been doggedly stuck with XP on your home computer, or are in control of one of the majority of corporate networks that still use XP now. However, since you know that a Vista version is in the works – there’s no release schedule yet – you might also want to read on to find out what’s in store for you.

BufferZone then takes a whole new approach to protecting your computer. Rather than using the retroactive method of most antivirus software, which involves manually identifying malicious software and then adding it to the antivirus software’s threat list through an update, BufferZone proactively protects your PC by hiding the actual operating system behind a wall and ensuring that all untrusted software is kept safe on the other side.

This wall of protection is created through a process called virtualization, in which software running on your actual PC creates a software environment that behaves as if it were your actual PC – it creates a virtual PC, or buffer zone. The trick is that the software running in this virtual PC is completely isolated from your actual PC, so if it tries to do something unwanted, it doesn’t actually damage your real PC. All that is required to get rid of the malicious software is to delete the Virtual PC and reboot.

Well, virtualization software has been around for a while and there are many solutions that allow you to run software this way. However, none has ever been as easy to use as this one. Setting up BufferZone is as easy as running an installer and restarting your PC. That’s it, you’re protected.

By default, the BufferZone protects Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and MSN Messenger, so anything downloaded through these programs stays in this pseudo-quarantine. In addition, any script or hack that exploits security holes in these programs will also be blocked by the virtual PC’s invisible wall.

You can also assign any other program to run in the BufferZone, such as your favorite web browser, peer-to-peer applications, IRC client, and email clients (in the case of email clients, the client itself will not be included in the BufferZone, but any attachments or other saved files are). It is also possible to run all software from other locations – such as CD-ROMs and USB drives – in the BufferZone. So barring a direct attack on your operating system, your computer has the potential to be completely safe.

Best of all, the buffer zone can not only run programs, but entire programs can be installed there. So if you want to test some software that you think is dodgy, you can download and install it (registration keys and all) in BufferZone and see if something bad happens. If everything is ok, just uninstall it from the BufferZone, move the installer to the safe zone and install it again.

The icons and windows of programs, files, and folders in the BufferZone are surrounded by a red line, so you always know whether you are working in a safe or unsafe environment. However, if you find this annoying, you can disable it in the configuration menu.

We started testing the effectiveness of all these protections by downloading and installing programs that our usual virus scanners found infected, and we were happy that our PC remained completely uninfected. Depending on the malware involved, we saw one or the other error message as the virus or trojan obviously fell over trying to cross the BufferZone. But a quick flush of the BufferZone later and we had a completely clean machine again.

We then tried different combinations of running and installing programs inside and outside the BufferZone to see if they worked properly. And in all the programs we tried, none came up short. The only oddity we noticed was that due to the way BufferZone actually stores programs in its virtual machine, links in certain menus, namely the quick launch section at the top of the start menu, could become broken. However, normal shortcuts worked as expected.

Overall, the experience of using BufferZone is simple and largely unobtrusive. Yes, due to the fact that it essentially doubles the workload when running certain programs, it can cause clogging with prolonged use. However, quickly deleting the BufferZone will quickly remedy the situation.

In fact, there are only two reasons why we can think of not recommending this software and neither of them is a technical issue. Rather, it addresses our original question of whether it’s worth adding another string to your guard bow. You see, while BufferZone protects the sensitive parts of your PC from a lot of malicious software running from web browsers or floppy disks, it can’t really prevent a direct attack on your operating system from a remote source. To counter this, you still need to stay up to date with OS patches and make sure you’re using a good hardware or software firewall. If your system gets infected in any other way, BufferZone cannot detect this either, so you still need a regular antivirus to guard against this possibility.

So if you don’t mind having yet another essentially third-party software to protect your PC, then we wholeheartedly recommend TrustWare’s BufferZone Pro – especially since you can try it free for 30 days. However, if all that software is getting a bit overwhelming, we’d advise you to maybe skip this and instead pay attention to where you browse and make sure you scan any software from external sources with your regular antivirus before running it . Oh, and always make backups!

“‘Verdict”‘

TrustWare’s BufferZone is a brilliant new weapon in the ongoing fight to keep your PC free of malicious software. It may not replace any of your existing solutions, but like any good weapon, it plays its part, and it plays it well. And at around £15 for a perpetual single-user license, it’s an absolute bargain.

Prada phones, diamond-encrusted phones, and fashion phones are a regular sight in the atmospheric glass-fronted shops of the average high street. Yet this glamor rarely casts its golden glow on the world of smartphones.

The iPhone was a rare bright spark, and there were the odd flares of light from HTC, E-TEN, Samsung, and Blackberry, but other than that, smartphones have largely adapted to the dull business model over the last year or two. Unfortunately, the latest handset from HP doesn’t change that.

The iPAQ 614c Business Navigator is a big and ugly phone made entirely of drab black and gray plastic, with no brushed aluminum accents or chrome trim to make it stand out. With piggy dimensions of 60 x 117 x 18mm, it’s also pretty chunky. And in other respects it’s hardly a design masterpiece – its integrated number pad has a rather cheap-looking glossy finish and is topped by a pair of “soft”, context-sensitive keys that look like a pair of malicious eyes grinning at you as you type Text or surf the web.

It at least tries to make up for its design flaws with a few clever tricks. The first of these is the touch ring controls (don’t laugh). Embossed in glossy relief at the top of the numeric keypad keys, it allows you to move a thumb or finger clockwise or counterclockwise to navigate through lists and the like. An innovative addition, for sure.

The phone supports the latest high-speed HSDPA mobile data networks with up to 7.2 Mbit/s. It also has a built-in GPS receiver… but this is no ordinary satellite receiver. It uses new Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) technology, designed to combine location information derived from the phone’s cell position with data from the satellites themselves to speed up the initial satellite connection. The phone unfortunately only comes with Google Maps – no navigation software to speak of – but it did a good job of locking on to satellites around central London, taking a fairly quick minute to lock on to five satellites and one provide position.

Inside, it has a very fast processor that uses a 520MHz Marvell part to power things along. This is one of the most responsive Windows Mobile smartphones I’ve ever used, keeping crashes, pauses, and hourglass fatigue to a merciful minimum, even with a handful of applications open at once. And it complements this with a whole range of high-quality smartphone hardware: Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and 802.11b/g wireless for data connections in Wi-Fi hotspots.

But as soon as I started using the 614c angrily, I found that these innovative, and one might say luxurious touches can’t compensate for a design that has more than just a flawed look. This touch ring control, for example, works well, but only in isolation. Once you reach the option you want, you’ll quickly realize that choosing isn’t that easy. The most natural would be to press the center button to select, but that has no effect; Instead, you have to crawl your thumb to the side of the keyboard to press Enter. It’s hardly what you would call great ergonomic design, and I found that I mostly operated the device with two hands – with my left thumb constantly resting on the OK button on the left edge of the 614c.

Another problem with the Touch Ring is that since it sits on top of the number pad, you’ll inadvertently activate it when you’re trying to type texts and emails. It’s annoying to find that when you look at the screen, after hopping onto the keyboard for a second or two, your cursor has mysteriously moved from the body of the email to the address field — and that’s where most of your text is landed . There also doesn’t seem to be any way to move the cursor left and right in text other than typing with a fingernail or the 614c’s telescopic stylus – the touch ring simply moves the cursor up and down.

Elsewhere it’s less of a disaster, but still not enough to lift the 614c out of smartphone mediocrity. The phone has a pretty decent three-megapixel rear camera with light and portrait mirror. It’s quad-band and can be used pretty much anywhere you can get a signal, although that’s nothing fancy these days. The screen is pretty standard – a 2.8-inch transflective touchscreen with 240 x 340 pixels. Battery life is unremarkable too: despite the seemingly high 1,590mAh capacity, I only managed to extract a couple of days of relatively low consumption – although that seems to be the sort of standard we’re sticking to now – at least until phones with more efficient ones 3G and HSDPA chips are built.

Even HP’s usual well thought-out range of software extras cannot fully compensate for the shortcomings. It’s nice to see that Remote Desktop is preinstalled, a decent PDF viewer is welcome, and HP’s Photosmart Mobile application is a nicer application than Microsoft’s default image and video tool. This also has the added benefit of integration with HP’s SnapFish online photo development service.

“‘Verdict”‘

The 614c is certainly a well-equipped handset. It’s not the first to pack so much into a pocket-sized body, but there are a few notable features, like A-GPS, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and a very fast processor. Merely the non-VGA display could definitely be described as backwards.

What really leaves scoffers reeling, however, is the fact that it’s not only a rather ugly and bulky phone – especially for one without a sliding keyboard – but also one that boasts awkward ergonomics. Its innovative touch ring control simply does not deliver what it promises and turns out to be more of an obstacle than a useful addition.

How we test phones

We put every cell phone we test through its paces. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features and we use the phone as our main device during the review period. We will always tell you what we find and we never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as our main phone during the period

Verified against respected industry benchmarks and real-world tests

Always has a SIM card installed

Tested with phone calls, games and popular apps

points in detail

• draft 5

• Ease of use 5

• value 7

• functions 8

Linksys has traditionally had a very low profile in the desktop NAS market, making the NAS200 its very first and only true appliance. Offered diskless only, it’s a compact little device that can house up to two SATA hard drives of your choice. The base unit is available for less than £100, making it very competitive compared to D-Link’s DNS-323.

When empty, the NAS200 is a featherweight, but it has a nice design and will look great on your desk. Adding hard drives is a breeze as you detach and slide in the back covers to ensure the release ribbon for each hard drive is accessible. No tools are required and you can choose one drive and add another later if you wish. For testing, we installed a pair of 150GB Western Digital Raptor SATA drives, which accepted without issue.

Network connectivity will be the Achilles heel of this appliance as you only get a Fast Ethernet port. As you’ll see in our performance tests, overall file copy speeds are well below those of Gigabit Ethernet devices, making this a poor choice for impatient users. Storage can be further expanded as the two USB ports can be used to add external drives which are automatically released when plugged in. The button on the front is more interesting as it links to the included NTI Shadow backup software and pressing this button launches pre-configured jobs on the PC running the software.

Installation doesn’t take long with the Linksys setup wizard, gently guiding you through every step of the way. Next, switch to the browser interface, which we found easy to use but frustratingly sluggish at times. The status screen provides an overview of the installed drives, total and used storage capacity, and details of all USB drives. With two hard drives in the house, you can opt for spanned, striped, or mirrored RAID arrays, or leave them as two separate drives. Access controls are limited to local usernames and passwords, but you can assign quotas to each to limit available disk space.

The NAS200 is designed for Windows users as it only supports CIFS/SMB protocol but also acts as an FTP server. Shared folders are easy to set up and you can view them all in a list and decide on read and write permissions for each user. Linksys provides a useful shared folder mapping utility that resides in the system tray and also allows you to shut down USB devices for safe removal. Usefully, we found that Windows PnP-X worked fine, so the default public disk share was automatically mapped to our Windows Vista system.

The appliance also provides a download manager feature that allows files to be downloaded in the background via HTTP or FTP. If users are allowed to use this, they can create their own jobs, but only individual files can be selected on the remote system and jobs cannot be scheduled. We had no problems creating jobs that copied files from a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ to the NAS200 via FTP. Multimedia is the order of the day, as the device offers UPnP media services for streaming to suitable media players, but not the ubiquitous iTunes server.

The performance tests confirmed our concerns, as copying a 690 MB video clip from a Boston Supermicro 3.2 GHz Pentium D system with Vista achieved read and write speeds of 3.9 MB/s and 3.8 MB/s resulted. FTP performance was marginally better as the FileZilla utility reported read and write speeds of 5MB/s and 4.5MB/s. We also connected an external USB Maxtor hard drive and copied a 300MB collection of music files onto the device, which was a modest speed of 1.4MB/s. To put those speeds in perspective, D-Link’s DNS-323 returned up to 23 MB/s over Gigabit Ethernet, while QNAP’s TS-209 returned up to 15 MB/s. We also configured the two drives in the NAS200 as a RAID 0 stripe, so the performance for the NAS200 is no better either.

(middle)”The ‘Linksys’ setup wizard makes appliance installation and drive configuration a breeze.”‘(/middle)

We like the NFI Shadow utility as it offers a good range of backup tools and, as the name suggests, can be set up to run permanently in the background, where it saves new files and changes as they occur. Alternatively, you can use it to run scheduled jobs at regular intervals and also specify how many file revisions you want to keep. The backup button on the device worked perfectly, as pressing it started our test job almost immediately. Remember that if NTI Shadow is installed on more than one PC and each instance has multiple backup jobs, this procedure will start everything together. Performance was comparable to Fast Ethernet speeds, with a backup of 1GB of test data returning just 3MB/s.

“‘Verdict”‘

The NAS200 is a nice little NAS device with a reasonable range of features for the price and a smart backup software package. However, it’s really a shame that it only has one Fast Ethernet port, as it severely impacts performance.

”'(middle)The web interface is quite simple but easy to use.”’

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”'(middle)User access to each network share can be easily sorted from this screen.

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(middle) No order scheduling, but the download manager works well enough.

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(Middle) NTI Shadow is an intelligent backup package and all jobs can be started via the button on the appliance.

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