Name: Devolo dLAN 500 AVmini - Starter Kit

Type: Powerline networking homeplug kit

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £99.99 from Amazon

Devolo's dLAN 500 AVmini powerline networking starter kit boats superfast, reliable internet speeds over your electrical wiring, effectively knocking out wireless blackspots. However, stability and speed come with a fairly high asking price attached. Does Devolo's latest kit perform well enough to justify the cost? Read on to find out!

For all the convenience a wireless internet connection brings, in many cases they also come with a fair helping of frustration too. Whether it's a signal blackspot or significantly reduced speeds, getting the most out of your internet connection over Wi-Fi can be a struggle. Where once the only alternative was to feed unsightly Ethernet cabling around your house to combat the problem, powerline networking kits, like the Devolo dLAN 500 AVmini starter kit reviewed here, are a far more elegant solution.

The powerline kit works by plugging a homeplug adaptor into a wall power socket near your internet router, and linking the two together over an Ethernet cable. A second homeplug adaptor is plugged into the wall near where you want to be able to pick up a stronger internet connection, delivered to your device of choice over a second Ethernet cable. The internet connection is then sent down the electrical wiring of your house, bridging the gap between the router and your internet-accessing device, offering speeds near-identical to those that you'd get from a connection directly wired to your router. Extra cabling is kept to an absolute minimum, while you're left to enjoy a stable, speedy internet connection.

The Devolo dLAN 500 AVmini starter kit is one the best powerline networking solutions we've so far seen. For starters, it supports incredible connection speeds of up to 500Mbps, and while there are few (if any) households in the UK that can boast such broadband speeds, all will enjoy significant improvements when compared to a Wi-Fi connection. On our test home broadband connection (which averages out at around the 19Mbps mark when connected directly to our router) we never saw speeds drop below 18Mbps with the Devolo kit, an improvement of as much as 25% over the speed of our best Wi-Fi connection. Faster connections will easily be able to serve multiple HDTV streams and even 3D movies with the kit.

It's a shame that the 500 AVmini plugs experience a slight drop in performance when plugged into an 4-way extension plug bar. For the best performance, you're going to want to plug the gear directly into a wall socket if possible. Thankfully, the slim build of the homeplugs compared to rival offerings mean that they should be able to slip discretely into some relatively tight spaces regardless.
Set up is incredibly simple too. Though a software installation CD comes included with the set's two homeplugs (as well as two short Ethernet cables), it really is a "plug-in-and-play" product, meaning connecting all the wires up to a PC, smart TV or games console and your router at the other end is all that's needed to get things up and running. If you do opt to install the included software CD, you'll be able to configure the homeplugs to prioritize certain types of traffic, such as VoIP or video streaming, handy if more than one person is using the network at once. It's worth mentioning that if you already own older Devolo 200 AV adapters they'll work alongside this newer kit without a hiccup too.

Setting up security features is just as simple. "Push button security" enables 128-bit AES hardware encryption, making it incredibly easy to protect the information travelling around your network.

Lastly, power consumption is also incredibly low. Keeping in mind that it's likely you'll rarely unplug the adaptors or switch them off, the fact that they draw just 0.5 watts when in standby mode will be a welcome one when it comes time to face your electricity bill.

If there's one issue to be had with the Devolo dLAN 500 AVmini starter kit, it's the price. While the slim design and high potential connection speeds are a bonus, there are cheaper options that will deliver performance that will be more than suitable for the average user. Only those really keeping a close eye on the minute fluctuations of the fastest broadband speeds will see every benefit on offer here.

Verdict

We're big advocates of powerline networking at Tech Digest, and this latest offering from Devolo is among the best we've tried. With a low footprint in terms of both physical size and power consumption, paired with the stability and speed of internet connection that the dLAN 500 AVmini plugs offer, we cant recommend them highly enough.

Name: Western Digital My Book Essential 3TB

Type: 3TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive (PC/Mac)

Specifications: Click here for full specs

Price: £168.75 from Amazon seller

If you're looking to do some super-quick, super-painless PC spring cleaning, you'll want to grab an external hard drive with USB 3.0 transfer speeds. Western Digital's My Book Essential range offers as much as a massive 3TB of external storage, and transfer speeds three times as fast as USB 2.0 thanks to their USB 3.0 connectivity options. We took a 3TB model for a spin. Read on for our thoughts!

As far as external hard drives go, the My Book Essential looks pretty snazzy, with its gloss black plastic casing and curved front. Three edges house discrete venting, with the front curved edge a white LED light that stays on constantly when the drive is in use, and blinks when in standby, which it tends to do quite a lot as the onboard software powers down the drive after a few minutes of inactivity. In a neat touch, the drive powers completely down automatically when your PC shuts down, and fires back up when the computer is switched on. When it comes to power management then, the drive is particularly savvy.

Though it shouldn't be treated as a portable drive, the My Book Essential is surprisingly small given its 3TB storage space inside. It measures just 165mm x 135mm x 48mm, and weighs only 1.18kg. It's also quiet as a mouse, barely audible when reading from or writing to its disk. Though rubber feet on the underside edge suggest the drive should be used in an upright position, we've had it running laid horizontally flat with no problems.

Though the drive is listed as a 3 terrabyte, as with all drives the actual usable space onboard is significantly smaller. You've in fact got 2794GB of space to play about with. This is by no means a fault of the drive (all hard drives have this quirk), but is worth mentioning if you're after specifically 3TB of external storage.

Things were going well until we started to install the latest drivers for the My Book Essential. While the onboard drivers worked fine, upgrading to firmware version 3.1.0.11 caused our system to go haywire, with the My Book Essential randomly connecting and disconnecting, our failing to appear at all when connected to our PC. It took a system restore to the initial driver settings before things calmed down again.

Using the USB 3.0 connection (the drive is also USB 2.0 compatible), we were very impressed with the My Book Essential's transfer speeds. See the chart below for our findings using CystalDiskMark:

As you can see, 5 passes at 1000MB saw average read speeds of 125.2MB/s and average write speeds of 92.61Mb/s, revealing solid transfer rates. In real world usage, we found it took just 49.4 seconds to transfer a 2.94GB ISO image file, with an average transfer rate of around 59.5 Mb/s. Not quite as good as the CystalDiskMark findings, but still impressive. Likewise, smaller file sizes transferred speedily at around the 70Mb/s mark, but wrote more slowly at closer to 30.5 Mb/s. It's still up with the best transfer speeds with experienced from USB 3.0, nonetheless, with each result averaging almost 3x as fast as when performed with a USB 2.0 connection.

The My Book Essential also ships with an impressive back-up software suite called SmartWare, pre-loaded onto the drive. Once a simple configuration process has been carried out, it works quietly in the background backing up your whole computer (or just files and folders of your choosing), keeping an eye out for changes and backing up accordingly. It's incredibly easy to use, and automates all of the tedious work that protecting your files can present.

Likewise, the security offerings onboard are equally impressive, with the ability to apply encrypted passwords and support for Kensington physical security locks.

Verdict:

A one-stop solution for your back-up needs, the My Book Essential offers speed, space, security and reliability. Were it not for the driver debacle we'd give this external drive a perfect score, but regardless it still comes very highly recommended.

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.