Kodak have announced that they are to stop manufacturing cameras digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames in the first half of this year in order to cut costs following their bankruptcy protection filing.

Despite inventing the digital camera, Kodak have been forced into the move after noting that it will save them somewhere in the region of $100 million dollars. On top of their long list of patent sales, it's hoped the move will save the iconic brand.

"Today we announced that Kodak is phasing out digital cams [sic], video cams & digital frames in 2012," read updates from the Kodak UK Twitter feed.

"Kodak will continue to honour all warranties and provide support as we phase out dig & vid cams and frames.

"Kodak will focus consumer biz [sic] on inkjet, online and retail printing."

Kodak's new focus will be on their printer business. We had a look at their Hero 9.1 All-in-one (pictured above) at the back end of last year and came away impressed.

3D: the Marmite of the technology world. It's very much a love/hate affair many of us share with 3D displays, but there's at least one thing we can all agree on; the sooner we ditch the glasses, the better.

Those with a very specific sized laptop display (15.6 inches, to be exact), got a reasonably affordable way of upgrading their machines to offer glasses-free 3D visuals today.

A company called Spatial View have revealed the 3DeeScreen peripheral, a magnetized mounting frame that clips over the top of your existing laptop screen to turn in into a makeshift lenticular display, using a series of tiny mirrors to give the impression of depth to what you're viewing. It's pretty much the same principle employed in Nintendo's 3DS handheld.

"Our goal is to provide a superior 3D viewing experience and enable existing laptops with 3D functionality at a reasonable price," said Spatial View general manager Ihor Petelycky.

Priced at $129, Spatial View ship to the UK too, should your laptop be one of the few that fits with the add-on.

Via: Slashgear

Name: Otone Audio Stilo

Type: 2.1 Desktop Speaker

Specifications: Click here for full specs

Price: £69.99 from Otone Audio

Otone Audio are the latest UK-based company to throw their hats into the home audio ring. As well as a range of 5.1 systems, they're also launching a range of desktop PC speaker set ups. Today we're taking a look at their Stilo 2.1 PC speakers. Read on for our thoughts.

Comprising two satellite speakers, a subwoofer and wired remote, the Stilo speakers are a bit of a missed opportunity when it comes to design. While the cube-shaped subwoofer is simple enough to be easy on the eye (measuring 220 x 211 x 230mm and making up a substantial portion of the package's overall  3.65kg weight), the satellite speakers, measuring  253 x 65 x 106mm , look needlessly cheap. They're a desktop friendly size, and we quite like the the cut-oval shape. However, the decision to make them from a mix of gloss black plastic and a matte silver/grey is a bit of a mess. Perhaps they'll suit the tastes of others, but we'd have preferred just the gloss black, thank you very much.

The pebble-shaped wired remote, which plugs into the back of the powered subwoofer, is a little tidier, with the mix of blacks, silvers and a green LED (indicating the speakers are on) reminiscent of the Android smartphone colour scheme. A dial controls the volume levels, clicking from a low volume setting to off at the counter-clockwise extreme. There's a little bit of a sharp spike in volume level when dialling past the halfway mark though. On the back is a handy pair of ports for auxiliary line in (letting you plug an MP3 player directly into the speakers and bypassing a PC) and a headphone port too, with a standard 3.5mm jack.

There are few other audio connectivity options on the subwoofer though beyond the 3.5mm line-in jack, so if you're looking for a more complicated set up with a high-end sound card, these probably aren't the speakers for you.

For everyone else though, they'll perform very nicely. Using a space-age sounding patented Vortex Drive system, they'll pump out 40W (2 x 10 + 20W) of power, easily reaching room-filling levels. 2 x 2" high-sensitivity twin drivers sit in the satellite speakers, and while a little lacking at the treble end, were otherwise warm and clear. We did experience a little rattling in the subwoofer cabinet at maximum volume levels and with the subwoofer itself turned to its maximum bass setting, but we're fairly sure that was down to a slightly loose fixture in our individual sample, and nothing that should worry any prospective buyers.


Verdict:

The Otone Audio Stilo 2.1 desktop speakers sound, for the most part, great, especially for the £69.99 asking price. You may need to scale the mid-levels back a little in your EQ settings, but our love of the odd spiky guitar shred and rattle of gunfire from Call of Duty wont likely line up with everyone's tastes. They're solid sonic performers either way. It's a shame then that the satellite speakers themselves looks so underwhelming. Sat on a retailer's shelf next to the sci-fi stylings of Harman Kardon's Soundsticks, it's unlikely the Otone Audio Stilo set will get a second look, which does the audio quality they're capable of something of a disservice.

Right on cue, Microsoft have announced the availability of the Kinect for Windows hardware and Software Development Kit, hitting the February 1st release date that Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer promised at CES.

Built for developers as "a fully-tested and supported Kinect experience on Windows", it shares the same look as the regular Xbox 360 version, but has a few key differences.

Most notably, it comes with a "commercial ready installer that makes it easy to install Kinect for Windows runtime and driver components for end-user deployments", but also offers better speech and audio capabilities thanks to the inclusion of the latest Microsoft speech components, as well as improved skeletal tracking and the ability to work within a Macro mode of just 40cm away from the sensor.

"It's been just over a year since we launched Kinect for Xbox 360, and we're only starting to scratch the surface of what's possible with Kinect," said Craig Eisler, general manager for Kinect for Windows.

"By offering hardware and software that's designed specifically for Windows applications, we hope to inspire visionaries around the world to create transformative breakthroughs with Kinect - taking its gesture and voice capabilities beyond the living room into other industries such as education, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail."

Launching intially Stateside for $249, it'll hit Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom in the near future.

After a gruelling period of decline, Kodak last week were forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, leading many to wonder about the future of the company and, in many cases, just what was going to happen to the much-needed consumable products that Kodak's gear needed, such as printer cartridges.

"After considering the advantages of chapter 11 at this time, the Board of Directors and the entire senior management team unanimously believe that this is a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak," Antonio M. Perez, Kodak chairman and CEO stated.

"Our goal is to maximise value for stakeholders, including our employees, retirees, creditors, and pension trustees. We are also committed to working with our valued customers."

That customer commitment has been backed up today by a statement from the Kodak UK team, who confirmed to Tech Digest that it was very much "business as usual" for the British arm of the veteran camera makers:

"The Kodak UK team is still very much in business and we are going full steam ahead with our planned activity," said the Kodak spokesperson, who also settled loyal Kodak customers' fears by explicitly stating there would be no changes made to the distribution of consumables in the wake of last week's news.

Kodak also took the opportunity to reveal UK launch details of their CES 2011 star compact camera, the EASYSHARE Wireless Camera M750.

Offering 16 MP stills, a 5X optical zoom, HD video recording and 3 inch touchscreen, it lets users send photos straight to Facebook, email or tablet devices over Wi-Fi, pairing up with the KODAK EASYSHARE Camera App on Android, iOS and blackBerry devices.

"The launch of the EASYSHARE Wireless Camera M750 marks the perfect union of the smartphone and digital camera," said Phil Scott, Vice President of Digital Capture and Accessories.

"The two technologies are now married to bring consumers the best experience from capture to share. Socially savvy users no longer have to compromise on image quality, now we can take great pictures and share instantly."

Available in silver and red for £129.95, it'll be hitting all major photography retailers in the Spring.

Camera and printer manufacturers Kodak have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, ending months of speculation of to the fate of the 131 year old company.

The company will go through a dramatic period of reorganisation, entering a protected period and taking $950 million worth of credit to settle their sinking ship.

"Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation," said Antonio M. Perez, chairman and CEO.

"At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003. Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetising non-core IP assets. We look forward to working with our stakeholders to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company.

"After considering the advantages of chapter 11 at this time, the Board of Directors and the entire senior management team unanimously believe that this is a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak," Mr. Perez continued.

"Our goal is to maximise value for stakeholders, including our employees, retirees, creditors, and pension trustees. We are also committed to working with our valued customers."

A glimmer of hope lies in Kodak's sizeable patent catalogue, the sale of which has already generated $3 billion for the company since 2003.

Via: Investor.kodak.com

Name: Kodak Hero 9.1

Type: All-in-One printer/scanner/copier

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £199.99

The Kodak Hero 9.1 throws into the mix pretty much every high-end feature you can think of for a consumer all-in-one printer. Can its print speed and quality live up to the allure of its silky 4.3 inch touchscreen and cloud-printing capabilities? Read on to find out.

If you're flushed with cash, the £199.99 Kodak Hero 9.1 is the premium offering from the company's all-in-one printer range. With a 4.3 inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi and internet connectivity, duplex printing and cloud printing, it ticks every box when it comes to high-end printer features.

It looks very stylish too. In keeping with the rest of the Hero range's boxy look, the rectangular Hero 9.1 features a mix of gloss and black plastics, as well as brushed metal effects either side of the print tray and a red trim just under the scanner lid. Two paper trays feature, one each for 100 regular A4 sheets and another solely for 40 pieces of photo paper. It's a relief not to have to swap paper load outs, and the powered photo tray also conveniently removes the need to manually push sheets. We'd like to see dual-trays hit consumer printers as standard. A printer is unlikely to win any style awards, but Kodak have made a strong effort here to make the Hero 9.1 look tidy and sleek.

Only one physical button (the power one) sits on the Hero 9.1's control panel. The rest, including home, back, help and preview keys, are touch sensitive, illuminating when they can be used to navigate a corresponding function on the gorgeous 4.3 inch touchscreen. A touchscreen this big makes a massively good impression; it not only allows a full QWERTY keyboard to be displayed, making the Wi-Fi set up really simple, but also gives you a far more legible look at any snaps you plan to print off too using the Hero 9.1's front-mounted USB and memory card ports.

Setting up the printer is as simple as it gets. After removing a series of protective tags, inserting the print head and clicking in the two ink cartridges, it's just a matter of switching it on, installing the relevant drivers to your computer, and choosing whether to connect using a standard USB cable, or over Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

If you choose to go down the web-connected route, you also open up the ability to use Kodak's cloud printing service, that lets you send documents to be printed to the unit no matter where you are in the world. The Hero 9.1 is compatible with Google's Cloud Printing service, further expanding your on-the-go print options and effectively doing away with the need to ever have it permanently tethered to your desktop machine.

Though not class leading, the Kodak Hero's 9.1 print speed and quality remains solid. A 10-sheet set of single sided black-and-white text documents printed in two minutes and one second, while a twenty page set of single sided documents sped up noticeably, taking three minutes and 47 seconds. Duplex printing, as you'd expect, was noticeably slower, adding a good third onto the time to print the same documents on a single side. Duplex printing on the whole had some quirks, with the printer automatically reducing the print size by a noticeable margin. Be sure to extend your page margins manually before printing duplex pages as a result, or you'll end up with considerable space around the edges of your prints. In all tests however, text was crisp and sharp.

Colour prints were considerably slower, but we were surprised at the snappy speed of photo prints. In just 45 seconds we had a 4 x 6 inch holiday snap sitting in our hands, ready to be tucked inside an album. Colour print quality was mostly great, delivering really vibrant, rich colours that shone on photo paper. There were a few isolated cases of banding (and dotting for those anally examining their photos with a magnifying glass), but overall it was an impressive show from the Hero 9.1.

The Hero 9.1 is fairly cost effective too, working out at roughly 2.25p per black and white sheet and 3.8p for colour prints, including paper costs. However, when it comes to colour prints you could argue that that figure could erratically jump. The Kodak Hero 9.1 uses a single cartridge for all of its colour pools. Should one run out quicker than the rest, you're going to have to swap out all the colours and abandon any reserves they may have left.

Lastly, printing and scanning. The scanner lid has an automatic document feeder, letting you scan multiple sheets in one go without having to replace each one manually. There's also a small hinge on the scanner lid, letting you more comfortable accommodate a book or magazine for scanning purposes. The 9.1 only manages single-side scanning however. Still, the scanner has a solid 2400dpi optical resolution, delivering accurate colour and detail levels. Copying capabilities are just as impressive, delivering a black and white sheet with great accuracy in just 17 seconds.

Verdict:

It's not the cheapest all-in-one on the market, nor the fastest, but the Kodak Hero 9.1 does deliver solid print and scanning results, as well as offering a premium feature set that you'll be hard pressed to comprehensively find elsewhere. The single cartridge for all colours however is a disappointment; while it may ease the set-up process, it does mean you wont be able to eke the very last drops out of of each colour pool should one run dry.

Nvidia have announced the release of their Nvidia 3D Vision 2 kit, updating their 3D-for-PC hardware to allow for more comfortable glasses and boosting brightness levels for a more vibrant gaming experience.

The active shutter glasses, paired with an IR emitter that works alongside compatible Nvidia graphics cards, now feature 20% larger lenses that feature the new LightBoost technology. While the size offers a larger viewing area than before, LightBoost boasts 2x brighter 3D images than previous 3D solutions, and also improves colour reproduction.

Environmental is also more prominent with the new glasses, meaning you wont have to strain to read your keyboard keys.

"Gorgeous, bright, crystal-clear 3D worlds are created by Nvidia's 3D Vision 2 glasses with 3D LightBoost monitors and notebooks," said Phil Eisler, general manager of 3D Vision at Nvidia.

"Nvidia's engineering team has made incredible enhancements in 3D on PCs, creating a breathtaking gaming experience that's better than the best Hollywood 3D movie."

So far only the Asus VG278H 27-inch (1920x1080) monitor works with LightBoost, though Acer and BenQ models are coming soon, promise Nvidia.

Launching by the end of the month, the Nvidia 3D Vision 2 kit will be available from all major PC retailers for $149, as well as Nvidia's online store. Spare pairs of Nvidia 3D Vision 2 glasses, without the IR emitter, will be priced at $99.

Name: Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Albino

Type: Customisable gaming mouse

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £89.99 from Game Shark

Part PC peripheral, part customisable Autobot Transformer lookalike, Cyborg's R.A.T. 7 Albino gaming mouse is one of the most unique pointers on the market. But is it comfortable, and most importantly, will it up your frag count come the end of the online deathmatch? Read on to find out.

An updated version of last year's excellent R.A.T 7 gaming mouse, the new Albino version draws gasps of "oooo" and "aaaah" from anyone that lays eyes on it. In some respects it's barely recognisable as a mouse, with its chunky, space age matte-white finish alongside cogs and gears sticking out at all angles. It looks like a long-lost Transformer character that's been making a living by masquerading as a PC peripheral.

The Albino's unique looks are more about function than fashion however. Cyborg have made a highly customisable mouse here; nearly every part of the Albino can be tweaked to your own preferences.

We're not just talking about custom DPI settings and the 5 programmable buttons (which we'll get onto in a minute). The actual mouse hardware itself can be physically altered to better fit your grip. Slotted in the underside of the Albino is a small screw-in key that can be used to adjust the width of the mouse and angle and positioning of the left hand side buttons, as well as opening up a spring-loaded compartment that houses five 6-gram removable weights, allowing you to make the Albino as heavy or light as you find comfortable.

The adjustments continue further with a sliding palm rest that lets you tinker with the length of the Albino. This piece itself can be swapped out with one that better fits lefties, as well as an alternate palm piece with a rubberised grip finish. Likewise, the right hand side pinky area can have a rubber piece attached, or swapped out for a sloping finger rest, giving the Cyborg a wide wing shape.

Now, all this tinkering wont be for everyone. Though the Albino remains a plug-and-play device, to really get the most out of it you're going to have to spend a few hours play messing about with different physical configurations to suit your hand. It's very easy to make an RSI-inducing monstrosity if you get too addicted to clipping bits on all over the show. However, once you've found your own personal sweet spot, you'll likely never find a more comfortable gaming mouse, even if it's not the most practical of pointers for everyday OS tasks.

As mentioned previously, the customisable elements of the R.A.T 7 extend to the device's buttons too. On the left hand side are two regular "back/forward" mini buttons and another round red button called the "Precision Aim button", which we'll detail in a second. Just below the left mouse button is an unusual chrome roller, which when turned left or right can represent a key or macro in either direction. Linking keys and macros to the buttons and roller is easy thanks to the ST software that can be downloaded form the Cyborg website, also allowing you to tweak DPI settings. Making use of a mode-switching button adjacent to the left mouse clicker which scrolls through 3 sets of programmable key settings, you've in theory got access to a whopping 15 separate programmable input commands packed into the Albino alone. It's worth noting that both the mouse and the software are Mac compatible this time around too.

In terms of movement precision, the Albino makes a sizeable jump from the original R.A.T 7. The first iteration had a max DPI of 5600; the Albino jumps up to 6400DPI with its twin-eye laser sensor. This effectively lets your mouse cover a 6 metre range in just one second. In other words, you'll be able to make lightning-fast adjustments to your aim on the battlefield. These settings don't necessarily have to remain fixed either; a rocker switch immediately below the mouse wheel lets you scroll between 4 custom DPI settings which can be set using the software described above, letting you quickly jump between slower and more responsive settings on the fly. Opting for a wired USB connection over wireless to cut down on even the smallest amounts of lag time, you'll be pleased to see Cyborg have put in a braided white cable, rather than a tangle-prone plastic one.

There's also a dedicated, programmable DPI toggle button on the left hand side which Cyborg call the "Precision Aim button", mentioned earlier. We prefer to call it "The Terminator button" thanks to the robot-like efficiency it adds to your aim. The button lets you switch to a super-low DPI setting when held down, letting you fine tune your aim minutely and make every bullet fired potentially a headshot. It's so effective it's practically cheating.

Verdict:

It takes some tweaking, but once you've got the R.A.T 7 Albino to fit your playing style, you'll find this flexible, responsive pointer gives you a real edge over the competition. The new white finish is stunning in our books, and that fact that this improved model ships for the same price as last year's original R.A.T 7 just sweetens the deal.

Logitech are having a bit of a wireless frenzy at the moment. Just yesterday they brought their Wireless TouchPad to PC owner's attentions, and now they're also launching the Wireless BoomBox speaker system and Wireless Headset too.

The Wireless BoomBox is a portable player with its sights set on your smartphone or tablet. It's got Bluetooth connectivity for streaming your tunes from a distance of up to 10 metres, 8 custom designed sound drivers and a built-in battery good for 6 hours per charge.

Moving onto the Wireless Headset and again Logitech appear to be aiming for your mobile devices thanks to its Bluetooth connectivity, though any computer or games console that can use Bluetooth headsets will probably play nicely with it too. Laser tuned drivers, a noise cancelling microphone and another 6 hour battery round off the headset's feature list.

Both set for an October street date, the headset will cost you £54.99 and the BoomBox £129.

Logitech are launching the Wireless Touchpad, a touch and gesture control alternative to the traditional mouse for PC users.

Much like Apple's Magic Trackpad, the Wireless Touchpad uses multi-touch input to allow you to scroll through windows, with two-finger up and down and three-finger forward and back swipe movements.

Using the wireless 2.4GHz channel, the TouchPad uses a discreet wireless USB dongle to pair with your machine.

"The Logitech Wireless Touchpad is perfect for people who want to surf the Web in a more fun and natural way," said Rory Dooley, Logitech's senior vice president.

"It lets Web surfers flick through websites and effortlessly scan long pages - making browsing easier than ever."

Hitting stores later this month, you'll be able to pick the Wireless TouchPad up for £44.99.

Do we really need a mouse/scanner hybrid? We're not sure, but the world's getting one anyway thanks to LG, who are planning to show off just such a device next week at the IFA 2011 conference with their LSM-100.

Pretty much the size of your average mouse if a little on the chunky side, it features a dedicated scanning button, which when pressed allows you to scan any document that you run the mouse over, turning them into images in a number of formats.

Optical character recognition is included in a device which LG are stressing is more than just a gimmick.

"The LSM-100 is also a top-end mouse," the Korean tech giant states in its press release.

"The laser sensor is accurate and durable, and the stylish design lends itself to easy, smooth motions as well as providing an ergonomic, comfortable grip."

I guess it makes sense maybe for business travellers? Or those with really tight work spaces? Pricing will almost certainly decide whether or not this is a worthwhile addition to the army of mad PC peripherals already out there.

Name: Yeti Pro (Blue Microphones)

Type: USB microphone with analog XLR output

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £229 from Amazon

Blue Microphones set themselves a high standard when they released the superb Yeti microphone, but they're out to top even those lofty aural heights with the Yeti Pro. Could this be the finest USB microphone ever built? Read on to find out.

The Yeti Pro is a sturdy as it is big and beautiful. Rising 29.5cm in its included stand and weighing 1.55 kg with the base attached, the textured black and silver metal casing is quite the looker, reminiscent of a 1950's radio mic in some respects. It's about as far removed from the cheap plasticy USB mics that dominated for so many years.

Now the original Yeti was a great mic, so much so that we thought it'd be hard to top. But the Yeti Pro is full of so many extra bells and whistles as to completely justify its premium price tag.

The first thing you'll notice from this successor is the 5-pin XLR connector on the bottom as well as the usual mini-USB port, allowing for stereo analog recordings. As it's stereo, it's not your standard 3-pin connection, but Yeti throw in a converter cable to make hooking up analog connections pain free. It's worth noting too that the volume knob on the Yeti Pro's front dial is a digital one as opposed to analog, so you can keep pumping that dial up infinitely here, and will have no bearing whatsoever on input volume on analog recordings.

XLR support would be reason enough to give this model its "Pro" suffix, but Blue go the whole hog and add the ability to capture 24 bit/ 192 kHz audio too. The accuracy of the Yeti Pro therefore is quite astonishing. With three custom condenser capsules and four mic patterns (Stereo, Cardioid, Omnidirectional and Bidirectional) you'll easily be able to configure the mic to be just as effective at picking up full-room live band recordings as a simple voice-only podcast. Either way, the sound going in is almost identical to the resulting recording, with the high resolution sound files produced revelatory in their clarity.

A headphone jack also sits on the underside of the Yeti Pro. Recognised as a full USB audio device, the Yeti Pro therefore allows you to use your headphones to fully monitor playback, with zero latency, adding to the flexibility of the kit.

If you hadn't already guessed, it's an incredibly sensitive mic. While in many cases this is a blessing, there are a few occasions when this could frustrate too. It's a joy to be able to pick up quiet sounds without worrying too much about recording levels, but this of course has certain downsides too. Recording just a few minutes of spoken audio with the cardoid pattern in 24 bit mode, with the Yeti Pro standing on my computer desk, the mic picked up the whirring of my external PC disk drive. It's fantastic that a USB mic has sensitivity levels this high, but you're going to have to make sure your environment is pitch perfect before hitting the record button.

Likewise, it's a bit annoying that there isn't a quick-switch option to swap quickly between analog and digital recording settings. As it stands, you'll have to physically unplug the analog connections before making a digital recording. It's not ideal, but unusual for dual analog/digital mics either.

Verdict:

The Yeti Pro oozes quality. From its construction to the clarity of the recordings it produces to the flexibility afforded by the dual USB and XLR connections, it's head and shoulders above the competition. But quality comes at a high premium however, so unless you're a dedicated musician, podcaster or video editor, cheaper alternatives may suffice. They'll unlikely sound anywhere near as good though.

Getting a great PC gaming rig together can be a bit pricey; if you're not shelling out for a Direct X 11 graphics card, you're updating RAM or buying a monitor with ultra-fast response times. As a result, your pistol-wielding mouse can sometimes be skipped a much-needed upgrade.

That doesn't always have to be the case though! Logitech have today announced the launch of the G300 gaming mouse, designed to give greater gaming precision, but at an affordable price.

Sculpted to fit the hand comfortably, it features nine programmable controls, and configurable memory profiles which can be assigned colours to the onboard lighting system, ensuring you can always identify which configuration you're currently using.

A 2500 dpi sensor should allow for smooth, accurate control, while automatic game detection boots up the correct configuration for each game automatically.

"The Logitech® Gaming Mouse G300 is perfect for PC gamers who want intelligent features that give them real benefits in-game" said Chris Pate, senior manager of product marketing for gaming at Logitech.

"Whether you need more programmable buttons for your MMO, better precision for targeting enemies in an FPS, or a compact, comfortable shape to get you through hours of gameplay, we've got it covered."

As we hinted at earlier, best of all is the price. Set to go on sale in September, the G300 mouse will retail at £29.99, leaving you with plenty of change to indulge in the bumper schedule of AAA PC releases this Autumn.

Bose are once again bringing their much-lauded audio expertise to the PC market with the Companion 20 multimedia desktop speakers.

Offering "lifelike, natural sound", the stereo speaker set up uses a proprietary electronics and amplifaction system to deliver deep low notes and the volume levels you'd expect from much larger systems, according to the press release.

8.9cm (3.5") wide by 11.1cm (4.375") deep, the speakers also make use of Bose TrueSpace tech to inhance the stereo image, even if your set up demands a physically narrow soundscape.

A small control wheel is used for volume control and one-touch muting, and also allows for another audio source to be inputted (such as an MP3 player), making use of the speakers without firing up an attached PC.

"Millions of consumers have computers in the home today, and they're used for both work and play," said Lino Pucci, Computer Speaker Product Line Manager, Bose Corporation.

"The Companion 20 system is sleek and unobtrusive, but its size doesn't compromise the audio quality or power it delivers. It's ideal for anyone whose computer is the go-to device in the house for listening to their favorite radio stations over the internet, or enjoying their games, videos or iTunes playlist."

The speakers are avaialble now for £199. Visit www.bose.co.uk for more info.

Name: Concept D 500 THX (Teufel)

Type: PC speakers

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £449

PC speakers come in many shapes, sizes and price brackets. While most of the time we'll be happy to sift through our iTunes catalogue with a respectably priced and spec'ed set of desktop noise makers, the audiophile in everyone sometimes wants a little bit more class to go along with those lossless tracks. Enter then the Teufel Concept D 500 THX PC speakers; massive in both physical size and pricing and packing THX certification, does more dough equate to more sonic bang for your buck?

Were we solely rating the Concept D 500 THX speakers on a matching price-to-size- ratio, they'd earn top marks. They're a gigantic pairing of two satellite speakers and a subwoofer (as well as a small wired remote) that will likely dwarf the other elements of your PC workstation. You're looking at 115mm x 290mm x 240mm for each satellite, and 210mm x 475mm x 455mm for the sub, with these weighing in at 1.9kg and 12.9 kg respectively. Solidly built, Teufel have sensibly kept to a minimalist approach in terms of design, with simple black gloss and matte surfaces accented by silver highlights. Despite their size, they'll fit in almost anywhere, style wise. The satellites can be supported by included metal stands, or can be free standing both vertically or horizontally, but their asymmetrical design can make them look a little bit strange in the latter orientation.

Flip the speakers around and on the rear you'll see the welcome sight of binding posts as opposed to spring clips for the cabling needed to link the satellites and sub together. It's also worth noting that Teufel don't supply the speaker cables here, just the power one; a little stingy considering the £449 price tag. As well as the binding posts, the rear of the sub also houses the power input, the connection for the wired remote, a microphone pass-through and a coaxial line-in connection. The LED-lit power button can be found on the subwoofer's front, sitting dangerously exposed to the point where it may be a little too easy to knock it off.

Taking a look at the remote itself, you'll find a handy microphone input on it, meaning you wont have to fumble around the rear of the speakers if you need to get chatting online, as well as a volume dial and dedicated bass dial too. It's a little annoying that Teufel didn't accommodate for a second audio source with another input here, if for instance you wanted to play a handful of tracks back from a mobile phone or MP3 player without firing up your computer.

The Concept D 500 THX's gigantic size gives them the advantage of being able to cram in some suitably large drivers. In the satellites you've got 19mm tweeters for your highs alongside 100mm woofers to hit mid ranges. The subwoofer pumps out from a pair 165mm drivers that, when cranked up to the max through the remote's bass dial, give you lowrider-rivalling levels of heavy bass. As such, you're going want to pair these speakers with decent soundcard; a 3.5mm laptop output isn't going to deliver the best results.

Find the right balance with that potentially over-powering subwoofer however and you're in for a wondrous performance from the Concept D 500 THX speakers, as you'd expect from a set boasting THX certification. The satellites are detailed and crisp, without sounding clinical, and drove the dialogue of Saving Private Ryan over the shells, booms and crack of gunfire from the Omaha Beach assault scene with aplomb. Likewise, you can expect similarly bombastic results if you're a PC gamer. Testing a range of music yielded similarly impressive results. The sample-heavy, summery delights of The Avalanche's Since I Left You album had a delightfully smooth feel, shimmering with the title track's flute hook and condensed vocals, while the faux-vinyl pop of the record's ambience was nearly as good as the real thing. Cranking up the bass a little for Nirvana's In Utero saw Dave Grohl's pummelling drum tracks pound around the room with satisfying snap and kick from the snare, while the high sequels of Scentless Apprentice were no trouble for the satellites. Even at ear-splittlingly loud volume levels, the speakers showed no obvious signs of distortion. Top stuff.

Verdict:

While the jump in sound quality from lower-priced, high-quality rivals to the £449 Concept D 500 speakers may only be audible to a keen audiophile, they remain a superb set of speakers indeed. Their imposing size allows for superb bass response, and a warm, considered tone, even if similar audio delights can be found in cheaper rivals. Provided you've the money and the space to house these sizeable speakers, you won't be disappointed.

The LaCie CloudBox offers the best of both online cloud-based and offline local storage set-ups. It not only houses 100GB of local external hard drive storage, but also automatically backs up whatever is stored on it to the big data party in the cloud. Your computer doesn't even have to be on; the CloudBox will work independently, pushing your files online.

Those looking to do naughty things with your personal files will find it incredibly difficult, as LaCie have implemented multiple levels of data security. Two copies of each file are stored online, with 128-bit AES encryption applied to all files before they are uploaded.

Up to ten computers can sync with the CloudBox, giving networked access to the files stored on it locally, as well as access to the cloud-based files. PC and Mac computers are both compatible with the drive, with the CloudBox Restore Application software available on OS X and Windows, offering support for 10 backups of the drive.

Costing £179.99 (including a year's worth of 100GB online back-up), it's available now.

Though it can be difficult to drum up excitement for the release of a new printer, LG have managed just that with the Machjet LPP6010N. The "world's fastest" desktop printer, it's twice as fast as traditional A4 home dektop printers, printing at a approximately half the cost per-page to boot too.

Developed by Memjet and first shown off at CES 2011, LG have now got onboard to manufature and distribute the tech.

Using Page Straight Array (PSA) technology that has over 70,000 ink nozzles on a single printhead (17 times the nozzle density of a regular inkjet) it's capable of pumping out 60 A4 full colour prints a minute. For those incapable of basic maths, that's a sheet every single second.

Don't believe those speeds are possible? Just check it out in the video below, courtesy of UberGizmo:

It's energy-conscious too, using just 32W compared to the average 600W used by similar printers.

"LG prides itself on launching truly innovative products and is pleased to bring the world's fastest A4 colour desktop printers powered by Memjet's game-changing printing technology to the Korean market," said Sihwan Park, vice president of LG Electronics' monitors and printers business unit.

"The Machjet delivers completely new levels of colour performance and affordability and uses significantly less energy versus laser printers."

No pricing or release date yet, but we'll let you know as details trickle in.

Name: Epson Stylus SX525WD (Epson)

Type: Inkjet printer/scanner/copier

Specifications: Click here for full specs

Price: £89.99 from Amazon

Boasting class-leading print speeds and a robust feature list that includes duplex printing and Wi-Fi connectivity, the Epson Stylus SX525WD sub-£100 all-in-one is certainly an attractive proposition. But have any concessions been made to hit this value price bracket, and can it really meet those super-fast print speeds?

Sturdily built, the SX525WD measures up at 455x359x164 mm. It's fairly chunky therefore, but makes itself more desk-friendly by featuring a front-rather-than rear loading 150-page feed tray. A 6.3 cm screen sits on the front of an angle-adjustable control panel. As the screen is not touch sensitive, you get a sensible array of control buttons on the panel, allowing you to print without hooking up to a PC should you insert an SD, Memory Stick or xD storage device into the front-facing card slot.

Thanks to an in-built Wi-Fi connection and rear Ethernet port, connecting the SX525WD to a wireless network is a cinch. The printer quickly found our network and within a few minutes all devices in our house were hooked up. Connecting the printer via USB however was an unexpected chore, with the printer repeatedly failing to pair with our PC.

The Espon Stylus SX525WD has claimed print speeds of 36ppm in both black and colour modes. Though this spec is quoted from draft speeds, we still found a discrepancy in how fast it churned out our pages. Five pages of black text showed print speeds of closer to 8.9ppm in print mode and 9.9ppm in draft mode; respectable, but a far cry from the 36ppm that Epson are touting. The figures don't seem to take into account the time the printer takes to process the pages before shoving them out, which obviously leads to a dramatically different speed when compared to real-world usage. Print a longer document and the SX525WD picks up the pace slightly however, once it's warmed up a little.

Full colour pages were produced at a slower speed than the marketing suggests too, with just a 1.5ppm real-world speed in our tests. Printing photos was again clocked at a fair speed (between 1 minute and 2 minutes 10 seconds depending on the quality), but didn't match up with the specs. Overall these are reasonable speeds though, and we can't fathom why Epson decided to open themselves up to criticism when the actual speeds would have been more than worthy.

Print quality is above average too. Though black text over colour images could muddle colours slightly, overall full colour images were solid, and text not overly jagged. Photo prints (at a rather good resolution of up to 5,760 by 1,440dpi) seemed to result in a slightly raised contrast ratio, which had a pleasant effect on some of our snaps, but washed out some of the deeper hues in a handful of evening outdoor shots.

Moving onto the scanner, it's of the CIS variety, A4 in size with a 2400 dpi resolution. It produced previews of pages in a little over 12 seconds, managing a 300ppp scan in 11 seconds. These aren't ground-breaking specs by any means, but more than a match for this price bracket, and more than enough for most home usage scenarios. Scanned images looked a little smoother than the pin-sharp originals, though barley noticeably to all but a highly trained eye. Colours however were a tad less vibrant. Copies on the other hand were nice and fast; 8 seconds for a black and white, 26 seconds for colour.

Where the SX525WD really shines however is running costs. Two cartridge capacities are available, and using the larger one resulted in page costs of 6.5p for colour and 2.5 p for black and white sheets, including the price of the paper itself. It's not quite a match for the value of Kodak printers, but manages to beat the majority of rivals in this regard.

As a closing point, we wouldn't recommend using this printer too regularly around flatmates or work colleagues, as it can get pretty noisy. Though it's hard to quantify the noise levels as I wasn't prepared for them and thus unable to take a reading, suffice to say it was annoying enough for a nearby pal on the phone to leave the room.

Verdict:

Though noisier than we would have liked, and Epson have exaggerated a little on the print speeds, the SX525WD is a solid all-round performer. With low running costs, above average print quality and print speeds, Wi-Fi connectivity and duplex print modes, it's a great value domestic printer that should meet all but the most demanding of needs.

Name: ML-1865 (Samsung)

Type: Monochrome laserjet printer

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £76 from Amazon

Image Gallery: Click here

In an age in which you can pick up a decent multi-functional colour inkjet printer and still get change back from £100 you'd be forgiven for believing that the days of the humble monochrome laserjet were numbered. However Samsung's latest laserjet model, the ML-1865, may well sway naysayers who say that the monochrome printer is dead. Read on to find out why.

You could hardly call the black, curvy box build of the ML-1865 exciting, but there's no denying it's one of the smaller printers on the market, and that's within its own streamlined single-function category as well as the traditionally-chunkier multi-function scanner-and-printer field. Measuring just 341 x 224 x 184mm, it'll happily sit tucked away under a desk or on a cramped office tabletop. Open up the loading and output trays and those dimensions expand substantially of course, but either way it makes for a very portable printer that can easily be moved around a house or office with ease. Seeing as this is a USB-only model (no Wi-Fi networking here we're afraid) it's important that Samsung have made the ML-1865 this easy to shift about.

The ML-1865 can be loaded with 150 sheets of paper at a time, with an output tray that'll hold 100 sheets before straining under the weight. Paired with a manual duplex mode, you'll be able to leave the printer loaded up for quite a while without needing to fill it back up, which makes it particularly useful in print-heavy office environments. No-one likes to be the one whose document doesn't come through because the printer has ran out of paper, do they?

Even for a monochrome laserjet, the ML-1865 spits out prints at a fantastic rate. It took about 1 minute 20 seconds for it to complete a 20 page document cycle, which works out at roughly a sheet every 4 to 5 seconds. Firing up from cold, the printer also performed impressively, getting to work in about 9 seconds. In terms of text quality at least, the printer was sharp and detailed, with no shaky edges or sliding lines in our heavily-formatted documents.

Though the box claims to have a print quality of up to 1200 dpi, we found that higher quality images in our print-outs suffered a little in detail and grey-level gradients. It's unlikely that this printer will be your first port of call for image printing anyway however, and is more than capable of handling the odd graph or infographic.

Though overall a very basic printer in terms of features, the ML-1865 does have one stand-out function that we'd like to see hit more printers over time. That would be the One-Touch print ability, triggered via a dedicated button on the device itself. Using this allows you to print your PC screen exactly as it appears on your monitor (except in black and white, of course), carefully scaled down to fit onto a single page. Perfect if you quickly need to take down a hard copy of typed notes or work on a presentation with a team, it's a nifty little function that we imagine would actually get quite a lot of use.

Verdict:

In terms of performance, it's hard to argue with the quality of the Samsung ML-1865. It's relatively pint-sized when it comes to printers, and though we'd like to have seen a little more detail in printed images, it does a sharp, fine job in pretty much every other department. The elephant in the room will always be colour multi-function kits however, and with an RRP of £79.99 the ML-1865 printer could do with being a little more competitive in that respect, or at least be packing Wi-Fi connectivity.