Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom AF Lens for Selected Digital SLR

Really good product as always from CANON. It has been a marvel for getting close ups on wild life with having to try to get too close. The lens takes great pictures. It's fairly light, will fit it my somewhat small camera bag and it takes stunning long shot photographs.Optically, I've been impressed by the lens. It beats the Sigma easily, and it's light and well balanced. However the construction is actually quite good. It is designed to pair with the 18-55 IS and does so very well, providing a range that will cover virtually all everyday needs, though of course more specialist needs can be met by additional lenses. 


Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens




Investigation

IPAD DOCKING STATION

PHILIPS DS8550/10 Fidelio Docking Speaker for iPad/iPhone/iPod with Bluetooth - Silver

Sound quality is exceptionally clear and free from noise, and there is a surprising amount of bass, which I assume is down to the ported speaker design. At high volume, you have plenty of room-filling sound from this compact and heavy dock, but as with all docks, do not expect hifi or much stereo effect. The appearance of the unit is neat and unobtrusive, with its concave, black, metal front and silvery back. The simple, illuminated control panel just has on/off, bluetooth, and volume +/-. 



Bad points are: 
1. sometimes it takes a couple of goes at Bluetooth pairing, after which it works perfectly playing every time. 
2. The remote is not that powerful and needs to be pointed right at the dock to work. 
3. The Fidelio App which it nags you to install is pretty rubbish I think. Yes you can control the iPod's sound via an equalizer and it gives you the Tune In radio app, but I installed it and barely used it as it only lets you control the selected album (already playing) or playlists on the iPod (you can create lists as well if you want), but that is it. Plus I think the Tune In feature actually works less well than the dedicated one installed separately. 

That is it. Otherwise the dock is one of the best things I have ever bought. I have not looked at another dock review since I got it, and have been playing more music that ever since I got it. If you are suffering with this terrible affliction, stop reading reviews like this, go and listen to the dock in a shop, or buy it and get on with your life. 

Xbox 360 250GB Console with Kinect Sensor: Includes Kinect Adventures

One interesting point is how you interact with the games. With the Microsoft stuff it is hover wait for the ring to select, Dance Central uses the swipe mechanism. This is definately faster but also prone to accidental selection. Fitness evovled used a shorter selection time with a move to another button this also worked better then the long wait for the ring to select the function. 

Video Kinect is another application which you get with Kinect and it is actually rather good. I used it to call my daughter via her MSN account. The audio quality is excellent and the video quality is good but smears with the slightest movement. The Kinect sensor tracks you and auto zooms which is actualy pretty cool as well. We like Kinect Video and will use this over Skype. 

Your body is the controller. It use voice commands work in the hub - quite cool actually You can swipe through menus in a futuristic manner though I hope they adopt the Dance Central "swipe" method rather than hold you hand until the timer completes option employed in the console right now. It is great fun and, in my opinion, better than the Wii already - the Sports one is great 

Xbox 360 250GB Console with Kinect Sensor: Includes Kinect Adventures

Black & Decker TLD100 Thermal Leak Detector

Thermal Leak Detector

It's a lot of fun to walk around the house measuring all over the place. I discovered some unlikely leaks in my house. How to fix the leaks is a whole different matter. Black & Decker includes a small booklet on common repairs that might help. There's nothing really magic in there, calk, expandable foam, weather stripping, and insulation in the attic. The key is identifying the leaks and finding a way to slow them down. It's easy to imagine this will pay for itself in energy savings.

I also like this because it can be used for other things. I have built a few PC's; this is the perfect thing to find out where the real heat is in my computer cabinet. I'm sure there are other remote temperature sensing jobs this would be great at. The functional temperature range is -22 to 302 degrees F. The temperature accuracy is +/- 5 degrees at 32 degrees F, +/- 2.5 at 73 degrees F (the sweet spot this device would be used the most), and +/- 4 at 212 degrees F. For an infrared temperature sensor, this is not bad. Temperatures read out to 0.1 degrees F. The unit can be switched to degrees C with a slider switch inside the battery compartment. 

It's kind of surprising; the unit is not shipped with a battery. The packaging is eco friendly, all cardboard, save one tiny plastic strip to hang this on pegboards. 

Is an amazing, simple, useful tool, with an instruction book. In this case, I decided to open this up and see how easy it is to use without reading the instructions. It's cold outside today, so I had major fun pointing this at all kinds of things in our house. 


The Thermal Leak Detector makes it easy to monitor your home's energy efficiency by finding areas that let heat out and cold air in. Simply set the detector's temperature tolerances to one, five, or 10 degrees and scan the light across the area you want to inspect. The light will change to red for warmer spots and blue for cooler spots to detect air leaks in both warm and cool weather. The detector also displays temperatures in either Fahrenheit or Celsius on the LCD screen. Check for drafts or leaks around your fireplace, recessed lighting, electrical outlets, along floor molding, or any place that may have improper seals, caulking, or seams that aren't immediately visible. An included booklet gives you tips and instructions on how to seal leaks and improve insulation.

This couldn't be easier to use, pop in a 9V battery (the battery from the annual smoke detector change is a great idea), aim the unit at some normal warm object in the house (a couch, or an interior wall), press the great big power button, wait until the display reads the temperature and the light shining at the object turns green, then point this thing at everything in the house. When the color of the light changes from green to blue or red, the temperature of where you aimed is five degrees colder (blue) or five degrees warmer (red) than the thing you pointed at in the first place. It's just that simple. 

There are a few nuances that the manual helped clear up. The temperature inside the house needs to be fairly different from the exterior either colder or hotter it doesn't matter. All that matters is a temperature difference, the larger the better. There is a little slider knob that adjusts the temperature difference reading - at the top the light does not change color ever, 1 degree F means the light will change color if the first temperature is more than 1 degree different from the temperature currently being read, and 5 degree and 10 degree are just wider spreads. The closer the device is to an object the narrower the reading, or smaller area it will use to determine the temperature. Pretty simple idea, just like a flashlight spreads out wider the farther it shines. If scanning a big area, standing 10 or 20 feet away scans a fairly large area, about 2 or 3 feet around. And lastly, it does not work aimed at shiny objects or clear plastic (if the windows are covered with that clear plastic weather stretch wrap, the unit will read the temperature of the plastic, not the things behind it). 

It Cut Energy Bills and Improve Your Home's Efficiency
Sealing the leaks and improving insulation in your home can help you save as much as 20 percent on your heating and cooling bills. An efficient, greener home will stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter, increasing its resale value.

Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910

Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910

Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 with full 1080p HD recording HD 720p video calling on most major IM apps dual microphones for lifelike stereo audio and 10 MegaPixel photos software enhanced works with MAC OS X 105 and higher and Windows 960000598 Ca

The picture quality is the really impressive thing about this Logitech webcam. It sports an auto-focusing Carl Zeiss lens, the same as my digital camera! It captures both foreground and background images in amazing clarity, with video up to 1080p (selectable: 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p) and still images up to 10MP (selectable: 640x480, 1.2MP, 5MP, 10MP). Of course, that's local. When transmitting on a video call, you can get up to 720p, which is still pretty impressive. The C910 comes with Logitech Video Effects software for making filters, avatars, masks and fun effects etc. I have only used the webcam with MS Messenger, and it works perfectly. 

Mic functions even when you are not using the imaging element under USB Unknown Audio Input and in some software it self selected. It isn't good enough for intense talking-to- software like Rosetta Stone which is listening for pitch and precise pronunciation. Maybe if you hold it close to your mouth it would work well enough even for that application but you don't want to be holding a camera as you'll smudge and eventually scratch the lens by handling it. If you can find a way to mount closer to your face but keep your hands off it, then you can solve that little problem as well.

However, one drawback I have discovered is that the smaller size and slightly differences in shape of the "foot" means that the C910 is a little "wobbly" when perched on top of the screen of my laptop, whereas the Pro-9000 was absolutely solid. The "grip" system of the C910 is based on the same principle as that of the Pro9000, ie it is a friction grip, and not a "spring clip" or an actual clamp. I think if the foot was about a cm longer (still smaller than the Pro 9000) it might be more stable, or possibly the Pro9000 is more stable simply because it is heavier. This is not a problem on my desktop monitor, or if my laptop is on the desk, rather then actually on my lap. On my lap, or on a train, the cam can wobble a bit with any movement of the laptop. 


To summarise: 
PRO: 
-superb cam performance, both sound and picture 
- simple and robust software installation, no conflicts or problems found with Windows 7. 
- reasonably compact size 
CON: 
- does not sit stable on laptop display 
- no carrying case to protect it in my computer bag. 


However, I still highly recommend Logitech, and this model in particular.

Kindle Keyboard, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display

Kindle Keyboard, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display

Kindle is a great choice if you already have a high-speed internet connection and wireless router setup at home, and do not want the added convenience of a 3G connection which enables you to download books anytime, anywhere on the go. If you do not have Wi-Fi setup in your home, Kindle 3G would be a better option. Easy to use and all functions well explained in the handbook. Any queries easily researched.Data transfer to and from a PC/Mac for PDFs, etc., is as easy as it could be, and all in all an excellent design.

The book browsing and buying experience is good, as expected. It's perfectly fast on WiFi. I haven't really had cause to test the 3G yet. The experimental web-browsing function works quite well on Wikipedia, although is not something I'm particularly interested in on an e-reader. The music plays nicely, and the text-to-voice function is pretty good, although everything sounds like it's being read by Stephen Hawking. However, the quality of the speakers is very good (better, I think, than on my iphone) and so proper audiobooks come across loud and clear. These are certainly interesting features and it doesn't do any harm for them to be there. 

There's a free Minesweeper game if you press ALT+SHIFT+M. This is quite a fun 'easter egg', but I wouldn't want to encourage Amazon to detract from the main function of the device: reading. Not sure why there's an unused microphone on the device either. Goodness knows what they're planning. :) 

I've had the device running with WiFi turned on for 6 days now and it's just started telling me that the battery is beginning to run low. I'd say there's still about 10% left in it, judging by the little battery symbol. That's impressive, considering I've been using it a lot. I'll probably turn the WiFi off between book purchases in future, though. It's going to be great for holidays. 

Battery life - Excellent. I have not quite managed the 10 days that are mentioned with Wireless always switched on but then again I have been using the Kindle a lot over the last couple of days! 

Comics - Hmm, I have tried this with a couple of things. Something like `Calvin and Hobbes' works brilliantly so newspaper cartoons are a definite plus. However I also put on a couple of Batman comics on PDF and these were not great - I could not really zoom properly so changed the viewing mode to landscape (just press the Aa button on the keypad and change it from there) and this just chopped the comic page in half which is not ideal. I think this would be a much better experience if you used the 9.7 inch screen on the DX. 

Overall, Superb device in pretty much every aspect. I have read 4 books on it in less than a week, it literally invites you to read. Superb design and functionality. Hardly any gripes at all and a couple of software patches could make it even better than it is. And definitely make sure you get the leather case and light for it. It makes an already brilliant device even better.

Samsung UE55C8000 - 55" 8 Series 3D LED-backlit LCD TV - widescreen

Samsung UE55B7020W 55-inch Widescreen Ultra Slim Full HD 1080P Crystal LED TV with Media 2.0 and Freeview


It's the Samsung LED C8000. With its explosive 3D capabilities and immersive HyperReal engine, it delivers the world as you've never seen it before. Its LED screen amplifies images to such an extent that it's hard to believe they're coming out of an ultra-slim TV. Richer colors, smoother motion and mega contrast levels combine to make an unparalleled viewing experience. So whether you're watching your favorite television programs, web content or a video you shot yourself, it was designed to blow your mind.

New Samsung UE55C8000 TV

First of all, the look is very stylish. The brushed titanium effect is simply brilliant. Even though the screen is whopping 55", it doesn't look unfittingly huge. The ultra-slim design is really stunning. 

All the connecting ports are conveniently located. Some accessories are supplied to tidy up the cables, but that seems quite difficult if you have too many cables. Very easy to fit the stand. The stand is quite stable and sturdy, and stylish too. 

Overall the TV enhances the aesthetic of the living room significantly. 

The remote control is a cool one. There is a button to turn on the back-light so you can see the keys when it is dark. 

The package does include a free pair of 3D glasses, although Samsung website might have said otherwise. 

Installation is extremely easy. I use Sky+HD, but it can receive FreeView HD through freeview antenna. It also has built-in Freesat receiver. It is supposed to tune Freesat channels without the need of a set-top box if you connect satellite dish cable to the TV through that adaptor. But I was not able to test it because the adaptor was not included in the package. 

Watched the Monster vs Alien 3D using Samsung BD C6900 3D Blueray player and the experience was simply breathtaking. Overall picture quality in 3D and 2D HD mode is superb. 

Recently I've also watched a few football matches on Sky 3D channel on this TV. Experience was not as exciting as Monster vs Alien 3D blue ray, but still amazing. I felt like touching the players when they were taking corner kicks. 

Contrary to many comments about poor sound quality experienced in ultra-thin TVs, I found the sound quality in this TV to be excellent. Sound was clear and crisp and you have option to change the sound mode quickly (using the Tools button on the remote) between voice, music or movie. Even at 25% of the max volume level, the sound strength was very good. 

There is an option to watch the 2D video in 3D mode. The TV converts the images but the effect is not very pleasing - there is not much depth and the image gets a lot darker if you do so. Also it works reasonably well if the original material is in HD. 

Normal definition 2D picture quality is not that great either. Well. it could be because I'm watching the big-screen TV from only a distance of 11 feet. But the quality is still better than most other big-screen TVs I've seen so far. I tried to adjust several picture parameters to get a sharper and clearer normal definition pictures but nothing helped. I got the best result by turning off MPEG noise filter. I hardly see any impact of motionplus feature on quality of picture while watching football match on HD. Perhaps I need to adjust the settings a little more. Unfortunately there is no way to save your parameters in a customised profile which you can switch to. The existing settings e.g. Movie, Standard, Dynamic, Natural etc cab adjusted but should be saved on the same name. You can reset to factory settings though. But it would have been better to have a few customized settings options. 

I've seen a few high-resolution photos through USB stick - simply stunning! 

I haven't tried the networking option as it needs a USB dongle. Since my Blueray DVD player has in-built wireless adaptor, this feature is redundant to me. I browse the Internet using the DVD player. 

There are adequate number of ports for different input sources. However, there is no option to choose your own names for the input sources. You have to select the names of sources from a pre-defined list of names. For example if you connect PlayStation in one and Wii in other, and you name them both as Games, then user will get confused. This simple feature of editing the input source name should have been there. 

In many TVs, if you connect the headphone into headphone socket, the main speaker is still active. But in this TV, the main speaker goes mute. You must remove headphone jack to listen through main speaker. However, there is an additional audio out port that fits 3.5mm stereo jack. If use a wireless headphone connected to the TV always, without muting the main speaker, this additional port is extremely useful. 

If the broadcast channels are HD channels, then the TV automatically shows the picture in 4:3 format if the original is in 4:3. But for non-HD channels, the 4:3 format pictures are stretched wide to fill the screen. You need to change the picture format manually every time you switch from a 16:9 channel to a 4:3 one and vice versa. Simple feature of automatic format switching is not possible, which is a pity for a high-end TV like this. 

Be careful when you are buying the TV from non-UK retailer. You may not get an option to choose "UK" as your country while installing and you may run into problem during Freeview tuning. I called the Samsung customer service, and they said each TV is meant for a set of certain countries. 

Overall the TV is brilliant for its HD and 3D picture quality and sound quality, but it has some room to improvement in user friendliness. 

Canon Powershot SD4500IS

Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS Digital ELPH - Digital camera - compact - 10.0 Mpix - optical zoom: 10 x - supported memory: MMC, SD, SDXC, SDHC, MMCplus

I had my doubts before purchasing this one. From previous reviews it was clear that the picture and video quality are good, but battery life is really bad. And after using it for a while, it turned out to be true. 
It is a fairly simple device to use and for casual everyday picture/video taking it is a good device. Image stabilization is good and it has pretty good low light capabilities. Picture quality is also decent for a point-and-shoot camera. 
What impressed me the most about this camera, both on the fact sheet and in real use, are the video capabilities. It does full HD, has dedicated video recording button and one can use the whole 10x optical zoom while recording. The video quality is good. It definitely rules out the need to take a dedicated video camera for every trip. Image stabilizer does reasonably good in handheld mode and even in full zoom level, but then again don't expect too much while doing handheld video shots: it is a rather small camera and for completely shake/wobble free shots, one must use some kind of extra equipment (like tripod or handheld steadicam). In addition, it has a nice feature of doing slow-motion shots in low resolution. It is definitely cool feature to experiment with and provides true slow-motion clips for experimental video editing. But that's about it, for practical purposes the video is far too low resolution. 
And then there is the battery life... I guess I can wrap it up shortly: it is bad and having 1-2 or more extra batteries is a must. I purchased it with some cheap non-Canon replacement battery and it payed off immediately. Wish I had bought even 2-3 of those. Though, I didn't see any reason to buy a Canon brand battery, because it was about 1/4-th of the camera price, way too high in my mind. 
There are definitely better cameras out there, but it is a rather solid everyday point-and-shoot camera, with plenty of zoom and image quality. Video shooting capabilities are a reason to consider this piece. And you can get one for pretty cheap by now.


The Automatic feature is wonderful for most shots, even detecting the type of shot and making settings to match. 

The special additional features make the camera fun. A few of them are: 

1. Set it to take 5 rapid shots and the camera picks the best one. 
2. Set it to for smiles and it will wait until it detects a smile before taking the photo. 
3. Set it for wink and it will take the shot after detecting the wink - this lets you get in the photo and signal when the camera takes the photo. 
4. Taking photos at night, the camera combines 5 photos to create a great nighttime shot. 
5. The movie feature lets you take up to 2 hours of video, if you get a 32 GB card. 

All this plus Consumer Reports rates its predecessor as one of the top 2 digital cameras, and this one is even better.

Kindle Keyboard 3G. Free 3G Wi-Fi

Kindle Keyboard 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, 6" E Ink Display

The weight of the Kindle is a significant factor. A large paperback or hardback can be annoying to read, especially if you're in bed. Remember holding a heavy paperback above you? Or how annoying it is when you lie on your side and one page of the open book is easier to read than the other? Or pinning a book open on the pillow with one hand as you read? Well, all that's out the window. Reading a lightweight e-reader is comfortable and handy and it's almost impossible to lose a page. Need to stop reading for a moment? Just put the Kindle to one side, and when you return it's still there, on the same page. The only time I lose a page is when I grip either side of the device wrongly and turn a page forward or backward unexpectedly; easily resolved though.


I've tried turning pages on other devices. For example, on the iPad there's a page-turning graphic where the page rolls across the screen under your fingertips. Fact: page-turning is NOT the exciting part of reading a book. If you're enjoying a book you don't even notice that you're turning the pages. However, when I tried a different brand of e-reader I was dispapointed at the slowness of the page turns and the way the device seemed to have a fit as the page refreshed. It was distracting. This is not a problem the Kindle suffers from. The page turns are swift and delicate and do not interrupt the reading experience. On top of all this, you've got a crystal clear display and the ability to adjust the font size.

The first book I downloaded and read was "I Shall Wear Midnight" by Terry Pratchett, which had just been published. I found that, just like with a book, you soon forget you're turning pages and you get lost in the story. This is exactly what I hoped for. If the device had intruded into the reading, it would have been a lesser experience than using a book. I hope the day never comes when the Kindle beeps when an email arrives - this device is geared toward reading and I hope it stays that way. At the moment it is unobtrusive and the reading experience is fantastic.

The book browsing and buying experience is good, as expected. It's perfectly fast on WiFi. I haven't really had cause to test the 3G yet. The experimental web-browsing function works quite well on Wikipedia, although is not something I'm particularly interested in on an e-reader. The music plays nicely, and the text-to-voice function is pretty good, although everything sounds like it's being read by Stephen Hawking. However, the quality of the speakers is very good (better, I think, than on my iphone) and so proper audiobooks come across loud and clear. These are certainly interesting features and it doesn't do any harm for them to be there.

There's a free Minesweeper game if you press ALT+SHIFT+M. This is quite a fun 'easter egg', but I wouldn't want to encourage Amazon to detract from the main function of the device: reading. Not sure why there's an unused microphone on the device either. Goodness knows what they're planning. :)

I've had the device running with WiFi turned on for 6 days now and it's just started telling me that the battery is beginning to run low. I'd say there's still about 10% left in it, judging by the little battery symbol. That's impressive, considering I've been using it a lot. I'll probably turn the WiFi off between book purchases in future, though. It's going to be great for holidays.

I've also tried sending a Microsoft Word document by email to the device. It was a fast transfer and the final result was startlingly decent. It was nice seeing it displayed so well on the device.

The pricing of the ebooks is a bit odd; always shifting, and sometimes books disappear from sale (not from the device, though, as far as I know). I've been lead to believe this is because the UK prices are sometimes tied to the US prices. As the exchange rate fluxuates it affects the pricing. There's also some kind of dynamic pricing where Amazon will beat competitors' prices while they're having a sale. I don't know if this is true, but it seems to go some way to explaining why a Stephen King book will be £5 one day and £9 the next. It seems at the moment that there's a lot of significantly discounted bestsellers - which is a Good Thing. :) Hopefully prices will continue to drop as Kindle uptake increases. It certainly seems to be common sense that the saving made by publishers not having to print and distribute books should be passed on to the reader.

Overall, I'm so pleased that the device is as good as the advertising made it out to be. I'm going to start ditching the hundreds of paperbacks that I have in the house as I feel confident that e-readers - and in particular the Kindle - are the way forward.