I’m No Electrician | Tech Gadgets & Gizmos

When it came to backing up the data from my Dad’s Freecom Media Player before sending it back for repair/replacement I realized that I didn’t have enough space on my PC or Laptop to backup everything. This lead to the purchase of an external hard drive. The one I decided for in the end was the WD MyBook.

The thing that caught my eye about this product was its sleek design and look. A shiny black finish with a blue neon light that appears when the unit it switched on and moves when the unit is busy/copying data. The unit was priced at just £79 (about $135), for the 750GB model. This model gives you a whopping 698GB of usable space. Transfering files via USB 2.0 proved to be fast and the unit coped with a 200GB transfer first time with no connection errors at all.

One thing I’m not too sure about was the software that came on the unit itself and autoran when first plugged in. My machine running Windows XP SP2 found the device and it was ready to use from the off. The software however loaded and looked to ahve some option buttons but the next or images what should have been on them were not visable, rending whatever it did useless. The unit however is running great and I would highly recommend one if you need extra space.

A few posts ago I mentioned how I picked up a Canon 450D for £90, through the luck of an ebay auction. This isn’t the full hands on review, but sort of an intermediary as there is still so much I want to try out. I have however spent a little bit of time getting used to the camera and these are my first impressions.

• Using the view finder is really nice for a change but it would also be nice to see the image appear on the rear screen.
• The feel of taking a photo is great, the lag I used to get with so many compact digital cameras has disappeared.
• The camera is smaller than I expected, and also lighter.
• The push the “shoot” button half way down to light up the focus grid is very helpful when taking photo’s of people.
• I have a lot to learn about the camera, the settings and photography.

As you can see I will need to pick on on the technical lingo and also learn what most of the buttons do to take this bad boy out of total auto mode. Stay tuned though and there will be a full hands on review.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get my hands on a 3G iPhone, even luckier that my company is footing the bill for the slightly excessive £45 per month contract on O2. I never had an original iPhone so really cannot compare it to that, I have heard that the phone is very similar functionally and that the main difference is in fact the 3G part and the fact taht the back casing is now in plastic rather than metal. I can however compare this to other, more traditional mobile phones I have had in the past.

First Impressions

My first impressions of the iPhone were literally, “wow”. The screen is so big and the colours and icons are bright and vibrant. Getting around the features takes just a couple of minutes to get used to and the touch screen scrolling makes you feel in total control. How ever excited I have been to get a new phone in the past, this one easily topped it by 10.

No Keys

The one button fuction and touch screen work really well together. Apart from the volume and on/off buttons this is the one and only button and basically serves one function. To take you back to the main menu. Its a fantastic concept and I thought I’d have problems when it came to texting, but no such problem. You don’t have the same problem of scrolling through various words like with predictive text as you get access too the full qwerty keyboard layout, any miss-spellings can be auto corrected or ignored easily and after sending a couple of texts I was right in the swing.

Internet & Email

These are the 2 main reasons why the iPhone appealed to me and I was not let down by either. The email was a breeze to set up to my gmail account and I can not check my email from anywhere with a 3G signal. The process takes around 15-30 seconds to connect, check mail and download the messages.  Its not like Outlook either where just a copy of the message is downloaded. I have full control of my gmail account. If I delete a message and later log in from my PC I don’t see that very message again. This make things a lot easier to keep a track of what I have read and what I still need to deal with.

The internet through the safari browser is also a great tool. You get the web just as you would using the safari browser or any other browser for that matter, the full web page. You can zoom in and scroll easily and get the text to a size that suits you. I have been able to use it to keep on top of thinks and monitor my blogs and other sites too. Youtube has its own special icon on the phone too. There is no need to connect to the site just hit the youtube button and you have the options to search, check out the top rated or favourites section and watch all of the video’s through your phone’s 3G connection. I have got to admit that it is not only great for showing people clips or sites you have found while you are away from the office (like in the pub) but it also saves me sitting down in front of the laptop every hour on weekends to check if I have any new mail and check my own sites.

Music

The iPhone’s music function works just like an iPod. Hook it up to iTunes and transfer the music across. The phone I have has a 8 gig memory but you can get the phone with a 16 gig memory. The 8 gig however is plenty of room for what I will need it for. The music play back is great quality through headphones and the phone even has a speaker, although this is not great quality once the volume is increased.

Other features

The phone has many other features including easy to use calendar, clock, alarm clock and calculator. The maps feature lets you track your current position using GPS. You can also add in a destination and get directions there from your current location. This feature is great if you don’t have a sat nav or for if you get lost. I have already used it once after some road works put me way off course. The phone allows you to set individual ringtones for each person or group and you can get free iphone ringtones from around the net. You can set up your local weather forecast and stock prices so you have instant access to the information you need. A quick visit to the apps store will mean you can stock up on games and other applications, plenty of these are free too.  The phone’s camera is simple to use but lacks the extra features that other camera phones now include and the lack of bluetooth means sending information to a friends mobile is almost impossible. That said the good far out weigh the bad, the phone is stylish and easy to use. It does everything you need it to and more and I have not noticed it slow down even though I have 4 gig of music, close to 100 photo’s and have not deleted a single message since getting it 2 weeks ago.