Technology News

Best known for its extensive line of RAID controllers, Promise Technology is now entering the home and small business NAS appliance market with a modest range of devices. It also brings another acronym to the storage industry, although BYOD (bring-your-own-disks) simply allows you to buy an unpopulated unit and add your own SATA hard drives.

One feature that piqued our curiosity about the NS2300N was Promise’s new SmartNAVI client utility, as it claims to be equipped with artificial intelligence. This is a bit overwhelming, although the utility offers some useful features to help with general setup and configuration. SmartNAVI runs as a background task, accessible from the system tray, and automatically locates SmartStor NAS devices on the network.

Selecting an appliance from this interface launches the main window, which offers a useful one-click setup wizard. This applies a set of defaults based on what it finds on your network, and these include IP address, time zone, and automatic volume creation. The user interface does a lot more as it allows you to manage important functions of the appliance without having to use the PASM (Promise Advanced Storage Manager) web interface.

You can create volumes, manage users, groups and shares, and access the new Download Station tool. The latter is a feature that is appearing with increasing regularity in most desktop NAS devices, allowing you to access remote files via BitTorrent, HTTP, and FTP. We found it easy enough to create a link to our FTP server from the SmartNAVI interface, and once we added the link the download would start. Performance leaves a lot to be desired, with a 690MB video clip FTP download from both the NETGEAR ReadyNAS and Iomega appliances yielding less than 0.4MB/s average speeds

Promise can add new functionality to the appliance using plug-ins and also offers plug-ins for iTunes and DLNA servers along with Download Station. Previously these could only be added by copying them to the appliance and installing them from the PASM web interface, but this can now be done directly from SmartNAVI.

Enabling the DLNA plug-in automatically creates three new subfolders for storing music, pictures and videos, allowing you to stream content directly to UPnP compatible devices over the network. There isn’t much to see for the iTunes server as once activated the appliance will show up in the iTunes client as a new server and will advertise any music stored in its default music folder.

The device itself is a fairly well-constructed plastic box, although the front door doesn’t lock and the drives are held in place with thin plastic hot-swap trays. It is equipped with a 333MHz FreeScale MPC8313E processor along with 128MB of DDR2 memory and the embedded Promise PDC20771 controller supports mirrors and stripes. They have a Gigabit Ethernet port on the back and the single USB port next to it can be used to connect external storage, share printers over the network and add an intelligent APC UPS.

The main web interface of PASM is nicely designed and also offers a setup wizard to create new users and groups, enable file sharing services for Windows, Unix, Linux and Macintosh users, start the FTP server and create new shared folders be able. Security is good as the appliance supports both workgroup and Active Directory modes for Windows users and share access can be tightly controlled by granting each user read/write or read-only access. They can also use quotas to limit their personal storage space and FTP access can be set per share.

Backup options focus solely on the SmartSYNC tool, which provides functionality to back up local files and folders on the appliance. Access is via the SmartNAVI interface where you select your source data and either back it up manually or run it on a schedule. If you activate the one-touch backup function via the PASM interface, you can use SmartNAVI to start all predefined backup jobs immediately. Each SmartSYNC backup job creates a folder on the appliance under the user’s own share with subfolders showing the computer name and drive letter. Data can be easily restored directly from the SmartNAVI interface as it lists all your own backups and associated files on the appliance and you can restore them to their original location or any other location of your choice.

For testing, we installed a couple of Western Digital Raptor drives and configured them as a stripe. General performance is nothing special, as copying our test video between the appliance and a Boston Supermicro 3.2GHz Pentium D workstation over Gigabit Ethernet yielded read and write speeds of 10.5MB/s and 9.1MB /s yielded. FTP speeds were no better as the FileZilla client reported average read and write speeds of 7.5MB/s and 7MB/s.

“‘Verdict”‘

This small, two-drive NAS unit offers a reasonable range of features for the price, and Promise’s new SmartNAVI utility offers easy configuration and quick access to key utilities. However, our favorite dual-drive NAS box is still Netgear’s ReadyNAS Duo, as it offers a lot more for a similar price and better performance.

(middle)”‘The new SmartNAVI utility provides easy access to the main functions of the SmartStor”‘(/middle)

(middle)”‘New functions like the iTunes server can be added directly from SmartNAVI as plug-ins”‘(/middle)

(middle)”‘The SmartSYNC workstation backup tool can be run directly from SmartNAVI”‘(/middle)

(Middle)””The client support is particularly good and everyone can be managed via the PASM web interface.””(/Middle)

(middle)””Animated system status icons are provided and the fan can be turned off by the appliance if required””(/middle)

TV tuners are the unsung heroes of media center PCs. While Blu-ray drives, graphics cards and low-power CPUs make all the headlines, if you’re looking for a true all-in-one multimedia PC, the heart of your system is the TV card. After all, playing downloaded videos, flipping through your photos and listening to your music collection are all good reasons to set up a media center, but it’s not until you’ve added a TV that your multimedia experience is truly complete.

Furthermore, a few years ago just an analog tuner was enough to keep us happy, but with the advent of Sky+ and dedicated Freeview Personal Video Recorders (PVR) we are now demanding the ability to not just tune in to digital TV, but watch one channel while recording another. For this reason, dual digital tuners have become a must-have for the full-fledged media library.

So now that you know how important it is to have TV skills, what’s the best way to get them? First off, you can choose between a TV tuner card (either PCI or PCI-Express) or a USB device. There’s little reason to choose one, but considering your media center is likely to be a fairly permanent system once set up, you can also opt for an internal card to keep things organized.

Having decided which card to use, you now need to decide whether to go with two separate cards or a single card containing two tuners. Again, while it doesn’t matter what you choose, you might as well go for the simplest solution, which is the single card. In other words, if you’re looking to add TV functionality to your PC/Mediacenter, you probably want a card like the one I’m looking at today, the Compro VideoMate E900F.

This PCI Express x1 card not only has two digital tuners, but also accommodates analog transmissions, so you can theoretically choose between two digital tuners, one digital and one analog, and two analog tuners. However, there is a problem – Windows Media Center does not support the use of two different types of tuners at the same time. So you’ll have to choose between either two digital tuners or two analogue tuners – I don’t think that should worry most people too much. While the accompanying software does support the simultaneous use of analog and digital, as we’ll see later, you should avoid using Compro’s software.

The rear of the card also has inputs for receiving video signals from S-video, composite and component video sources, so you can use this card to record digital copies of your old VHS tapes, for example. There is also a mini socket for the radio receiver, another mini socket for the radio signal and two antenna sockets.

In addition to its TV tuner functionality, you also get an FM tuner, although we found that Windows Vista Media Center didn’t recognize this, so once again you had to use the crummy bundled software to listen. Not only that, the reception was unimpressive least of all for us who just about manage to record four stations. Admittedly, the radio reception in our office isn’t great, but it was well below what we would normally expect.

In the box you get the card, a driver CD, a copy of the Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5 SE (to convert the VHS tapes you just recorded to DVDs), a dongle for the extra video inputs, an FM antenna, a low profile board , a remote control, an aux-out audio cable for use with PCs that do not support digital audio, and a power button cable required for the remote to properly turn the PC on and off.

The basic installation of the card is very simple; You plug in the card, turn on the PC and install the drivers. If you just want to use the media center software built into Windows, that’s all. If you don’t, all you have to do is install the VideoMate software. However, if you want to use the remote control and turn the PC off and on properly, things are a bit more complicated…

When you install the card, you must also use the power button cable to connect a set of pins on the card to the regular power button header on the motherboard. You then take the cable from the actual power button on your PC case and connect it to the other set of pins on the card. Now you can turn on the PC with the power button on the remote control.

However, we have identified a problem with this system. When shutting down the system with the remote control while the Windows Media Center software was still running, the PC restarted immediately. Without the media center running, the PC would shut down gracefully, but it’s pretty important for a media center to shut down normally through the media center software.

As for the remote itself, it’s a typical copy of the official Windows Media Center remote, absolutely no different than any other we’ve seen in such a kit. While it works perfectly, if you plan to use this tuner card with Windows Media Center, we recommend that you also purchase the official remote control. It’s nicer looking, better built and doesn’t require fiddling with your power switches – it just works over USB.

When we first installed the card, we also thought that it wasn’t working properly or that it didn’t support using its tuners simultaneously. However, after a little research we found that this was because we didn’t have a second antenna plugged in for the second tuner (I had mistakenly assumed the second antenna socket was for a radio antenna). This was quite confusing as I’ve had a dual digital tuner card for a few years that uses a single antenna input for both tuners. For this newer card, using two seems like an odd step backwards. Compro has informed us that the retail version of this card does indeed come with a one-to-two antenna splitter, so you’re at least up and running right out of the box.

Once that obstacle was overcome, the card worked perfectly, recording over 70 channels into the Vista Media Center. We could easily record one channel while watching another, and (possibly because of the very fast review unit we installed the card in) channel switching was nearly instantaneous. The picture quality was also very good.

Realizing that not everyone will use this card just as a tuner for the built-in Windows Media Center software, we also tried the included software and were amazed that it could only recognize four channels. In addition, the interface is clunky and unintuitive, slow and generally so awkward that we advise you to avoid it at all costs. If you don’t want to use Windows Media Center, you essentially need to buy some decent TV software like SageTV.

“‘Verdict”‘

The Compro VideoMate E900F does a perfectly decent job as a basic dual TV tuner card, and while the remote control is a reasonable alternative to the official Windows Media Center, we’d still prefer the latter for ease of setup. The additional video ports could also come in handy and with some decent software the radio could appeal to some too. However, if all you want is a dedicated digital dual tuner for your media center, there are simpler, cheaper alternatives like the Hauppauge Nova-T 500.

Brand loyalty seems to be de rigueur at the moment and Ferrari must be one of the main culprits. Ferrari recently started handing out brand associations like Mentos at a Foo Fighters concert. You can now get Ferrari phones, Ferrari notebooks and even Ferrari Lego! If you’re not careful, the Ferrari brand will soon be so watered down that it won’t bring any caché with it at all.

Not that we’ve gotten there yet, but one has to think about the relevance of Ferrari branding on a piece of high-end audio equipment, even one made by the award-winning Meridian. Sure, having high-end audio in your Ferrari might be desirable, but vice versa? let’s find out

The F80 is a small desktop all-in-one home entertainment system designed and built by Meridian Audio in collaboration with Ferrari. It includes a 2.1 speaker setup, quality amplifier and digital sound processor, CD player, DAB/FM tuner, DVD player and a healthy selection of additional audio inputs for connecting your Personal Media Player (PMP) or other external audio sources. It all fits into a package that measures just 408 x 230 x 185mm, making it easy to fit on most window sills, bedside tables or TV cabinets. Of course, given its staggering price and eye-catching looks, you wouldn’t want it in any of the above locations, but would rather have it standing high up on a pedestal in the center of your living room, both to really show it off and to keep it out of reach keeping children and pets.

The version that was sent to us is finished in a bright yellow (red, black, silver and white are also available) or Modena Giallo to give the official name. Whatever it’s called, it’s definitely beautiful. The color is rich and bright, and the glossy surface is flawless. If the only impetus Ferrari had in the design of the F80 was the paintwork, it would still justify the connection.

However, you will be pleased to hear that this is not the case. Not only did Ferrari bring their painting skills to the process, but they were instrumental in the development of the low-resonance, high-mass composites used in the chassis. These materials were needed to enable the construction of such a small device – especially given its chosen curved shape – that could maintain the audio quality Meridian is associated with. Its stiffness and density suppresses resonances and eliminates the possibility of the rattling you normally associate with a plastic construction.

Speaking of construction, if the old audio equipment adage “the heavier it is, the better it sounds” is true, the F80 certainly has to be second to none. At 6.5 kg (14.3 lbs), this thing is without a doubt the deceptively heaviest thing we’ve ever tested. Without exception, everyone in the office who stopped by to see it picked it up and underestimated the effort – luckily there were no injuries in the process, save for a few slightly bruised egos.

That weight combined with the device’s mains operation pretty much negates the portability of the F80, despite its compact looks. It’s fine for going from room to room or going outside for a BBQ, but it’s not a boom box replacement.

In addition to the high-density composite materials used in the chassis, the F80 has two other features that ensure the unit’s excellent sound quality. First are the specially designed speakers, all contained in their own isolated compartments. The left and right speakers are full-range designs that use powerful neodymium magnets and high-temperature voice coils in conjunction with a die-cast chassis and magnesium/aluminum alloy diaphragms to deliver immense power and volume while maintaining pinpoint accuracy to guarantee. The subwoofer, on the other hand, is a special long-excursion design that offers high bass response despite its relatively small size.

The second pillar of the F80 is the Digital Sound Processor (DSP). Well, some of you may have hacked the mentioned DSP as visions of those horrible sound-destroying digital EQ settings that you get on MP3 players come to mind. However, let me assure you that this is the last thing the DSP does on the F80. Rather, it optimizes the distribution of the audio signal to make the most of the compact speaker layout to provide a wider soundstage.

The extent to which it affects the sound can be controlled via the menu system with seven ‘Width’ options on offer. Stick with the width setting of 0 and you’ll still get a very pleasing stereo effect when seated in the best position. If you’re too close or listening at low volumes, the effect is lost a bit, but cranking up the width setting compensates for this. We’ve found that setting the width to “3” is a good all-around setting if you just want to set and forget.

Other sound customization options include a location setting that lets you choose from Table, Shelf, Corner, Floor, and Free. The difference between the two is subtle but noticeable, and certainly choosing the “right” setting will ensure optimal listening. However, if you’re unsure, selecting the “Free” option seemed fine for most situations.

Bass level can also be adjusted for typical effect, and while there’s no dedicated treble setting, there is a “tilt” control that oscillates the frequency balance around a central point, reducing bass while increasing treble, or vice versa . As usual, we found we didn’t feel like leaving these controls set and simply left them both at “0” for the majority of our listening. Not that they produced a bad sound, but we were pretty happy with the default setting and we’re sure most other listeners would be too.

While touching on the menu issue, I have to say that it’s one of the best menus I’ve ever used. A large part of the usability is thanks to the crystal-clear yellow OLED screen. It’s perfectly legible from every angle, to the point where you can’t physically see it, and the high resolution makes even the fine text in the menu crisp.

The menu itself is controlled by seven of the ten buttons that run down the center of the F80 just below the display. Aside from the home button, which toggles between the main menu and your current display, all buttons are context-sensitive. So when you are in radio mode, you adjust the tuning and switch between the (radio) bands. When playing a CD they will play/pause, skip forward, skip back, etc. It really is that intuitive, I just can’t fault it. Best of all, unlike many other devices, the menu doesn’t expire when you adjust the settings. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been frustrated with menus disappearing when testing different settings – I’m in the menu for a reason, don’t try to question me!

And relax…

On the back there’s a wide range of input and output options, with digital audio in and out, S-video and composite outputs, and an iPod dock connector that stands out (this is compatible with the forthcoming i80 dock ). The video connections are for DVD playback and the quality from them is quite impressive. However, we consider recording component video to be the absolute minimum necessary to get the best video signal from your DVDs. Additionally, we’d ideally have HDMI output and Blu-ray Disc support to make this a true one-stop home entertainment system. The latter are forgivable, though, considering the F80 actually launched early last year – maybe it’s time for an update?

The remote control is also a bit disappointing. It’s a generic button cell battery powered thing that uses little popper style buttons. It’s not inherently bad, but it doesn’t have the classy feel you’d expect from a product this expensive.

There are two external antenna connections with three different antenna extensions included, as well as an internal antenna, giving plenty of options for an optimal radio setup. Unfortunately, radio reception, and DAB in particular, is very poor in our area so it’s always difficult for us to comment on the tuning abilities of one device over another. For what it’s worth, the F80 was no worse than any other unit we’ve tested, and when a signal was found the F80 shone just as brightly as any other sound source, which of course this unit is really all about.

No matter what genre of music or video I threw at it, the F80 not only handled it, it excelled at it all. Whether the violins of Mozart, the cheeky attitude of the Sex Pistols, the soporific tones of Dido or the pulse of the Serenity engines, it never missed a beat while maintaining clarity, warmth and brute power. It’s really fantastic and certainly on par with any conventional Hi-Fi that costs £1,000.

So is the F80 worth its £1,500 asking price? Not quite. Unless you really want a Ferrari-branded hi-fi system. Technically, it just doesn’t add up. On the one hand, the F80 pretends to be an all-in-one home entertainment center with its DVD playback, but it lacks key features like HD movie playback and HDMI connectivity. If you take DVD playback as an added bonus and consider the F80 purely as a compact hi-fi then it struggles again, simply because £500 is a hefty premium to pay just for the compact design. However, if you don’t have the space for a ‘proper’ hi-fi system and appreciate the convenience of such a compact unit, there are few on the market that can offer the same audio fidelity.

“‘Verdict”‘

With the F80, Meridian proudly follows Ferrari by crafting a stylish and beautifully crafted compact home entertainment system. The sound quality is unparalleled for such a small device and the extras like DVD playback are very welcome. The only sticking point is the astronomical price, but there’s little else on the market that can offer everything the F80 offers in such a small package.

Lexmark recently facelifted its line of all-in-one inkjet printers for home and school, and the X5650 sits firmly in the middle of that market. At a relatively low cost, the device is designed for printing, scanning, copying, photo printing and faxing. Even with the new look, the printing press has hardly changed compared to its predecessors.

Following Canon’s curved black and silver profiles, Lexmark uses mid-grey instead of silver and has designed its new device with an all-round effect that’s both functional and pleasing to the eye.

Lexmark has added a small handle on the right side of the product’s paper input tray to adjust the paper guides without having to move them by hand. We can’t see that as a major advantage and also wonder about the spring-loaded flap that sits in front of the shelf – as with so many newer Lexmark models. It doesn’t seem to do anything useful. We initially thought these flaps were to keep dust from falling into the feed mechanisms, but given the size of the gap between this flap and the paper, it must be pretty ineffective.

The most interesting thing about the front of the X5650 is its two-line status display, which appears to be a white-on-black LED panel rather than the more standard LCD. Although the size still limits the display to around 16 characters and longer messages require scrolling to be read, the display is much brighter and higher contrast than any LCD and is easy to read even in low light.

The control panel is well laid out, with four silver mode buttons on top, a power button on the left, and a start copy button on the right. Below that are the number pad, menu control and compartment keys for the address book, redial and other functions.

In addition to memory card slots for all common card types, the PictBridge slot also accepts a standard memory stick, which by default downloads all JPEG and TIF files found into a Lexmark application on your PC. It is also possible to use a proof sheet to select and print photos without a computer.

The Contact Image Sensor (CIS) scanner on the top scans optically at up to 600 x 1200 ppi and the 25 sheet Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) is clean and lays flat on top of the scanner. You can scan to a PC or a flash drive plugged directly into the device.

The X5650 runs with two cartridges, one black and the other tri-color, but you can replace the black cartridge with a tri-color photo cartridge to enhance pastel tones. Once you lift the scanner area of ​​the device, these two cartridges snap into a head carriage in standard Lexmark fashion and are easy to service.

Along with its looks, the supporting software that comes with the X5650 has been revised. Although Abbyy Finereader’s copy is OCR as before, other applications have been streamlined so Productivity Studio handles things like scanning, OCR, email and fax, and more standard photo editing. You can also use this software to create posters and greeting cards.

At first glance, Lexmark seems to be becoming more realistic with its speed claims, as it now states 13 ppm for black and white printing and 3 ppm for colour. However, our five-page text print took 1:04 and its 20-page equivalent 3:02, yielding real-world black print speeds of 4.69ppm and 6.59ppm, still nowhere near published specs.

Part of this is due to increased rasterization times before the first page begins to print. We’ve seen pauses of up to 25 seconds before documents are printed, and this may be due to a new default setting that prints multi-page documents in reverse order, so they don’t need to be resorted.

Our five-page text and color graphics document took 3:18, a print speed of 0.30ppm – a tenth of what Lexmark says. A 15 x 10 cm photo print took 2:09 from a PictBridge camera, rising to 2:22 when sent from a PC.

Print quality remains one of the most important attributes of any printer, and the X5650’s results are only fair. The text is black and fairly well defined, although there is some blurring around the edge of the bold characters. Business graphics tend to look faded, although there is no evidence of banding and registration of black text over color is good.

Photo prints are still hampered by obvious points of dithering in large areas of color like the sky, but detail in darker shaded areas has been improved over some of the previous Lexmark all-in-ones we’ve examined.

The two standard ink cartridges are available in two capacities and as return program and non-return program versions, with a small discount on the return program parts if you agree to return them to Lexmark. When using the higher capacity XL cartridges we calculate a page cost of 3.88p for black and white printing and 7.53p for colour.

That cost is higher than the Lexmark X6575 we recently tested, for example, about 0.5p per page for black and closer to a cent per page for color.

verdict

Subjectively, the X5650 looks better than its predecessors, with a neater profile and a much easier to read display. The software has also been improved, but print speeds are slower than before, if at all, and print quality shows no noticeable improvement. If you compare the photo output to prints from Canon, Epson or HP printers, you’ll see where Lexmark continues to lag behind.

points in detail

• print speed 6

• functions 9

• value 8

• print quality 7

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