The Register - Personal: ReviewsBiting the hand that feeds ITEveshamAOpen Mini PC Plus- December 22, 2005 The Intel-powered alternative to the Mac Mini Review It's finally arrived - the first Mac Mini clone. Our review system was supplied by Evesham, but the barebone chassis is manufactured by AOpen and has been known as the 'Pandora'. Sadly this catchy name is gone - AOpen has re-named it the Mini PC, which is just plain boring. Anyhow, name aside, this is a really cool-looking little machine - it arguably looks even better than the Mac Mini, mainly due to its aluminium case.http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/22/review_aopen_mini_pc/ Casio Exilim EX-Z500 5mp digicam- December 21, 2005 Is that a 2.7in LCD in your pocket Review The five-megapixel, 3x optical zoom Exilim EX-Z500's silmline design - it's just 8.9 x 5.7 x 2.1cm - and 2.7in LCD are the first things you'll notice when you take a closer look at this digital camera. The bright crisp screen is noticeably bigger than the one on most digital cameras available at the moment, save the Sony T range, and the extra 0.2in means it's even bigger than the latest iPod or Creative Zen Vision:M. If you've got one of these, you...http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/21/review_casio_ex-z500/ Sony Walkman NW-A1000- December 20, 2005 The best MP3 player from the big S yet - but is it an iPod killer Review When Apple's iPod began to take off in a big way, it left the rest of the market standing. Sony and most other 'serious' audio electronics manufacturers were either over-sceptical about computer-based music formats or were too conservative in their approach to catch the first bandwagon as it rolled on by.http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/20/review_sony_nw-a1000/ Fuji FinePix S5600 Zoom- December 16, 2005 A worthy upgrade Review The 5600 is around 30g heavier than its predecessor, weight that's in no way a burden but arises from the larger - but still small by today's standards - 1.8in colour screen. It's bright and crisp though, so is a cinch to use and it even comes with a fast, 'LCD brighten' button for fast switching if you suddenly find yourself in the spotlight - or in bright sunshine.http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/16/review_fuji_s5600/ Sapphire Radeon X800GTO- December 14, 2005 The best worst-kept secret in the graphics market right now Review Nvidia's GeForce 6800 GS chip is a respin of the 6800 GT. It's built on a 110nm process enabling it to offer higher clock speeds and, as such it has taken a lead over the cards based on ATI's X800 GTO. However, Sapphire is exclusively offering a part called the X800GTO. The 'squared' refers to the fact that this card's GPU has one 'quad' of pipelines that has been disabled, but that with a bit of jiggery-pockery from a BIOS...http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/14/review_sapphire_x800gto2/ Asus MyPal A636 GPS PDA- December 12, 2005 Neither fish nor fowl Review Low-end GPS satellite navigation systems fall into two categories: PDAs with bundled route-planning kit, and dedicated navigation devices. Asus' MyPal A636 falls between the two: it's a Windows Mobile 5.0 device, incorporating Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so it has all the hallmarks of an up-to-date PDA. But the hardware has clearly been designed with GPS in mind rather than accessing personal information, so it looks like a dedicated unit.http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/12/review_asus_a636/ Creative Zen Vision:M music, video player- December 8, 2005 Watch out, Apple First Look Creative went ahead with its Zen Vision:M launch today, despite the player's appearance on the company's Japanese website yesterday. Cock-up or conspiracy We'll leave that to others to decide, but we can say the Vision:M itself is no cock-up - it's an impressively engineered top-of-the-line music and movie player.http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/08/preview_zen_vision-m/ Sony Ericsson Walkman W900 3G music phone- December 7, 2005 Latest and greatest Review The W900 is billed as the latest and greatest in the 3G Walkman phone series. Spotted at the launch in October in black and in white, the latest news is that only the white version will be released in the UK. And for the first three months, the W900 will only be available in the UK on the Vodafone network.http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/07/review_se_w900/ Sonnet iPod battery replacement pack- December 6, 2005 How to revive a run-down iPod Review Sonnet isn't the only company to offer iPod battery upgrades, but it's the first to bundle a video installation guide. With printed instructions typically about as basic as it's possible to get, does Sonnet's approach make battery replacement an easier task for the non-techiehttp://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/06/review_sonnet_ipod_battery... Microsoft Xbox 360- December 5, 2005 It's here. It's impressive Review Unless you've been living in a Buddhist Temple in the mountains of Tibet for the past few months you will be well aware that the Xbox 360 has launched in the UK. Although there has been a massive amount of coverage and speculation in the technology press regarding the 360, the general marketing has been slightly subdued. OK, so you may have seen the odd advert on TV over the past couple of weeks, but there hasn't been what I'd call a major marketing push....http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/05/review_xbox_360/ |