Technology news: Canon HG21
03 December 2008
Canon HG21 Features:
Camera resolution: 3.3 megapixels
Optical zoom: 12x
Screen size: 2.7"
CMOS size: 1/3.2"
Hard drive storage capacity: 120GBPros: 120GB hard drive, excellent Full HD video quality, impressive array of modes and features
Cons: Too expensive compared to the HG20, poorly constructed viewfinder
The final word: When judged on its own merits, the HG21 is an exceptional high-definition camcorder that impresses on nearly every level - it even seems attractively priced. However, when compared to the near-identical HG20, its value for money is significantly diminished. Unless you absolutely must have 120GB of storage, go for its cheaper sibling instead.
THE Canon HG21 is another winner from a company that never fails to deliver the goods.
Boasting a stunningly vibrant Full HD mode (1920x1080p), an extensive array of manual features and a massive 120 gigabyte (GB) hard drive, it is easily one of the best camcorders on the market. With that being said, some users will be better off with the 60GB HG20 version, which offers an identical performance for significantly less money.
Indeed, if there is one criticism we can throw at the HG21, it would have to be its inflated price tag. At $1899, it is $400 more expensive than the HG20. For the extra dosh, you’re basically getting the same camera with an added viewfinder, a slightly larger LCD screen, and an additional 60GB of inbuilt memory; otherwise, all components and specifications remain the same. When you consider how affordable HDD memory is these days, we don’t think the extra features justify the higher premium. To make matters worse, the viewfinder is fixed to the camera and can’t be swivelled up or down, which severely limits its use. We consequently have few doubts that the HG20 will be a better seller. (Ironically, the HG21 is significantly cheaper than its chief rival from Sony, the HDR-SR12 E). If it wasn’t for the existence of the HG20, it would probably seem like a pretty good deal!)
Dodgy pricing aside, the HG21 is just as accomplished and impressive as its cheaper sibling, a model we enthusiastically awarded four stars to. Offering an extensive array of manual features and a point-and-shoot ‘Easy’ mode, it should prove equally suitable for experienced users and casual novices alike.
As mentioned, the HG21 comes equipped with a massive 120GB hard drive, which, along with the Sony HDR-SR12 E, is the highest-capacity of any camcorder on the market. At the highest quality setting, this will record 11.5 hours of high-definition video (or close to 46 hours in LP mode). In the unlikely event that you run out of recording space while on the road, the HG21 also comes equipped with an SD slot. This allows you to boost the camcorder’s capacity by an additional 32GB, though you’ll need to purchase the memory cards separately (32GB cards currently cost around $600).
(news.com.au)
Technology news: Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel
03 December 2008
Xbox 360 Wireless Features:
Battery size: AAPros: Solid design and build quality, good control interface, comes bundled with Forza 2 and Project Gotham Racing 4
Cons: Limited wireless functionality, foot pedals may cause ankle cramps
The final word: If you're a hardcore gamer with a penchant for racing titles, the Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel is one of the best peripherals on the market. It combines sturdy construction, force-feedback functionality and intuitive handling for a great racing experience. Well worth shelling out for.
THE Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel is probably the best offering yet, and certainly the best for this console
Steering wheel peripherals have come a long way since the days of the original PlayStation. There was a time when would-be race drivers had to make do with hideous chunks of wheel-shaped plastic that were far less practical than a regular control pad. Instead of adding extra realism, they added extra minutes to your personal lap times and made you look like a complete tool to boot. Thankfully, things have improved in leaps and bounds since then, with the latest generation of ‘racing’ peripherals finally being worthy of the name.
The product has been on the shelves for a while now, but in light of the recent 25% price-drop, we thought we’d get our butts into gear and give it a proper test drive. Featuring inbuilt force-feedback with dual ‘rumble’ motors, slip-resistant foot pedals, (semi) wireless functionality, and 270 degrees of motion, it should put a smile on any hardcore racer’s noggin. At the risk of sounding like a 1980s Scalextric commercial, it’s almost like having a racing car in your own lounge room. As an added bonus, you even get two free games thrown in too.
Unlike other racing peripherals, the Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel has been custom-built by Microsoft to ensure a perfect fit. Everything from the build quality to the colour scheme perfectly matches the Xbox console: they just look right together, like a Lamborghini Diablo and a bikini-clad model. If you’re a fan of the Xbox 360’s regular control pad, you should also be happy with how the wheel handles: it’s based on the same technology. To this end, all of the Xbox 360’s controls are replicated faithfully, including the navigation button, D-pad, start/back buttons and X/Y/B/A face buttons. The wheel feels solid in your hands, is realistically sized and responds as a real one should, with 270 degrees of motion. In fact, our only real issue with the device is its slightly misleading moniker.
Despite touting its “wireless” capabilities (going so far as to shoehorn the word into an overly clunky name), the Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel needs to be plugged into a wall socket for full functionality. While it can be powered by AA/rechargeable batteries, this disables the rumble/force-feedback, which is an essential part of the gaming experience. In addition to injecting an extra level of realism, force-feedback also helps you to gauge speed and cornering in the majority of racing games. We can’t imagine anyone choosing batteries over force-feedback, which makes the “cable-free” option kind of pointless.
Additionally, you also need to connect the foot pedals to the steering wheel via an RJ-11 cable. Since when has wireless been defined as “up to two wires”? Presumably, Microsoft got away with this because the wheel isn’t plugged into the console, but it’s still a bit of a fib to call it wireless. Still, as long as you have a spare AC socket near your Xbox, it shouldn’t be much of a problem.
In terms of design, the Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel sports the same cream-and-grey finish as the original X360 console. Unfortunately, no black alternative is offered, which means owners of the Xbox 360 Elite will just have to live with a clashing colour scheme. We found the build-quality to be top-notch across all components – this is a first-party product after all – with none of the flimsy plastic bits that can mar cheaper peripherals. We were particularly impressed with the quality of the table clamp, which fits snugly onto most table tops via a plastic screw arrangement complete with rubber stoppers. Once fastened, it is nearly impossible to wrench the clamp free, which is bound to come in handy during those sudden hairpin corners. The wheel is also designed to fit across your lap, though we found this a bit cumbersome in practice.
The pedals are equally well designed, and for once, the “slip free” claim seems to hold true. We used them on a polished floorboard surface – usually the bane of floor-based controllers – and they remained securely in place throughout testing. Our only reservation was that we had to overextend our ankles to get full throttle while sitting at certain angles. Over extended periods of time, this could start to feel painful. We tested the wheel out on a variety of games, including Project Gotham Racing 4, Forza Motorsport 2 (both of which are included free with the wheel) and Midnight Club: Los Angeles. As with any force-feedback peripheral, the success of the device largely depends on the game at hand, as it needs to be programmed into the software. For the most part, we think the developers did a pretty good job across each of the tested games.
Response time was lightning-fast and is easily on par with a regular wireless control pad. Much like a real steering column, the wheel will quickly realign itself to the centre after turning left or right, which is a nice tough. The force-feedback truly does make for an intuitive and immersive gaming experience, with every slick manoeuvre (or not-so-slick pileup) accompanied by an authentic shudder. All up, this is an incredibly impressive piece of kit that we have no hesitation recommending to racing fans.
(news.com.au)
Technology news: NEC Powermate S7000-003
03 December 2008
NEC Powermate S7000-003 Features:
Hard drive storage capacity: 160GB
Installed memory (RAM): 2GB
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 2.4 GHz
Wired terminals/ports: D-Sub, headphone jack, line in, line out, microphone jack, parallel ports, PS/2 keyboard, PS/2 mouse, RJ45, serial, USB 2.0Pros: Looks stylish when positioned as a tower, relatively easy to work on, energy efficient
Cons: Has a standard desktop-style optical drive, no media card reader, uses a 65nm CPU instead of a 45nm CPU, very limited expansion options
The final word: While it's not perfect, NEC's Powermate S7000-003 is a capable machine for the office that undertakes basic, everyday tasks.
DESCRIBED by NEC as being "sensuously slim", the PowerMate S7000 can also be described as being "deceptively heavy" and "not optimally designed". It's a business machine that's designed to be used either as a slim tower or as a flat desktop with a monitor on top, and for the computing power you get it's probably a tad too big.
It measures 34x34cm and is 8cm thick, so it's not really a space-saving design. If you lay it flat on a desk and put the monitor on top, it's still going to take up a 34cm square, and if you leave it as a tower, it will still require a depth of more than 34cm. However, it does look good and it is functional. The front of the case has a desktop-sized DVD burner, as well as two USB 2.0 ports and a huge power button. It is missing a media card reader, which is an essential piece of kit in some offices, and we do wish it shipped with a slimline, notebook-style DVD burner, as this would be easier to use if the unit is used as a tower.
Its steel case is sturdy, and the front cover slides off towards the front, exposing a centre-partitioned chassis with the optical drive and power supply on one side, and the motherboard on the other. Its configuration is made up of a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 CPU, 2 gigabyte (GB) of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and an NVIDIA nForce 630i chipset–based motherboard with integrated GeForce 7100 graphics. It's not super quick, but it's suitable for everyday office applications.
In WorldBench 6 it recorded a score of 80, which means it will handle office applications, including multitasking, with ease, but you probably won't want to use it for anything too taxing. In saying that, it can be used for some media encoding and basic 3-D rendering, as its times of 1min 14sec and 1min 17sec in our iTunes and Blender 3D tests, respectively, can attest. These scores are almost identical to a similarly configured laptop, such as HP's EliteBook 6930P (FW086PA) . In 3DMark06 the machine scored a paltry 362, which means it can't be used for any effective gaming or other on-the-fly 3-D rendering.
Power usage peaked at 81W when both of the CPU's cores were under a full load, while the machine consumed 49W when idle. It would be interesting to see this unit's power efficiency had NEC installed a 45 nanometre–based CPU instead of the 65 nanometre one it has used. Either way, these are relatively low usage figures, and they should be, as there is not a whole lot to this system.
While it's running the machine won't make too much noise, apart from a slight whirr from the power supply's fan and a ticking sound from the hard drive. The CPU fan is relatively wide, so it is not loud at all.
Getting the cover off the unit is a simple exercise: simply unlock the release levers and pull the cover forward. Of course, this needs to be done while the unit is flat on the desk. The layout of the chassis is clean and there aren't any cables cluttering the internal space. The motherboard's two DIMM slots are occupied by 1GB RAM modules, so these will have to be replaced if you want to install the maximum 4GB.
The chipset is cooled by a heat sink, and it gets somewhat warm after prolonged use; the hard drive is attached to a bracket above the rear of the motherboard. You do need tools to remove the hard drive and the optical drive, but there aren't any fiddly mechanisms to figure out while conducting an upgrade.
For connectivity, you don't get much. It has the afore-mentioned USB ports at the front (which won't support an external USB 2.0 hard drive even if the data and power USB cables are plugged in to them), and it has four more at the back. Also on the back are PS/2, Gigabit Ethernet, parallel, serial, audio and D-Sub ports. You don't get a DVI port, but the D-Sub port can run a high-definition monitor without too much of a fuss. Moving windows around while the resolution is at 1920x1200 does cause some jittering.
What it all comes down to is style. This PC won't necessarily be a space saver, but it does look good, and it is relatively easy to work on. It's a decent machine for an office that has basic computing needs but isn't willing to splurge on laptops.
(news.com.au)
Xbox 360 Wireless Features: