Author Archive: Matt

More than 20 years in the IT industry. Blogging with a passion and thirst for new technology since 2005.

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By January 13, 2011 Read More →

SSD bypass for a Netbook

OCZ With Christmas coming, I decided to give my netbook a present – performance upgrade in the form of a 64 GB SSD hard-drive from OCZ. Was it a practical gift or just an expression of love for the undeperforming cutie?

Remember when Apple charged an arm and a leg and a kidney for a 64GB solid-state drive in the original MacBook Air? Fortunately, those days are gone. With SSD drives prices in a slow free-fall, a very decent drive can be had for less than £100 pounds.

That still wasn’t the case a year ago when I purchased my Toshiba NB200 10Z. A great netbook with superb battery life but limitations of netbook-grade hardware were sometimes too annoying. Having maxed out RAM already, transplanting the hard drive was the only performance upgrade left.

I do confess, though. The final impetus in my decision-making were the new MacBook Air’s benchmarks – supposedly underpowered machine achieved surprisingly good results. I know, it uses different solid-state storage technology, but it convinced me that the upgrade would be beneficial.

Posted in: Editorial
By January 9, 2011 Read More →

Polaroid announces new mobile instant printer

zink Incredibly, it’s almost two and a half years since I reviewed Polaroid’s first instant mobile printer, the PoGo. Personally I thought that the technology itself was impressive, utilising special ‘Zink’ paper that requires no ink to produce a colour image.

The main limiting factor for the PoGo was the size of the prints, just 3×2 inches they were little more than stickers. The print quality was ok, nothing stunning but it was certainly cool to be able to go away with family and friends on a day trip and be able to print pictures from the day’s events there and then.

The PoGo was pretty battery hungry too, from a full charge you could probably expect, perhaps 10 prints. That would probably be enough for most people though as when it was first launched the special paper cost in the region of 40p per page!

I’m not sure whether the PoGo should be described as a success or a failure. When it first went on sale it was pretty expensive, about £100 and the paper was around £3-4 for 10 sheets. Not too many people splashed out and bought them until the prices began to tumble, in fact you can now get the printer for under £30 on Amazon and the paper is a much more reasonable 10p per page.

This week at CES Polaroid announced their new Instant Mobile Printer, the GL10. This new printer not only looks neater and small but also has a more respectable 4×3 inch paper handling and a claimed 40 prints from one charge.

I’ll be trying to get my hands on one over the coming weeks and hope to review soon. The full press release can be found below.

Posted in: News, Printers
By January 9, 2011 Read More →

Ocosmos announces gaming tablet

ocosmos I have to be honest and say that OCOSMOS Co. is not a name that I am familiar with but we just heard of the companies latest product; the OCS9 Tablet PC, designed to ‘revolutionise the professional and gaming PC markets’.

OCOSMOS describe the product as being the “World’s Only Tablet with Detachable Controller, Stylus Stand, Pouch and OMOS Key Brings High-End PC Power and Uniquely Intuitive Interface to Gamers and Office Workers”

You can find the full press release below, it certainly looks interesting enough with it’s 9″ multitouch capacitive display, front and rear cameras and running Windows 7. Just curious that the screen is described as widescreen but with a resolution of 1024×768 as the resolution is more like 4:3 than 16:9?

Posted in: News
By January 8, 2011 Read More →

Zaggmate with Keyboard unboxing video

ipad-zaggmate-10 We love our iPad’s and we love playing with new accessories for them. Today the latest accessory from Zagg arrived. In fact it’s two in one.

First of all it’s a hard aluminium case that matches the iPad design and offers a great deal of protection. while only adding a small amount of weight and only about 6mm to the overall thickness.

This Zaggmate is unique though in that it has an embedded Bluetooth keyboard and iPad stand. Simple remove the iPad from the case and stand it either portrait or landscape and turn on the keyboard and you’ve got yourself a mini-laptop! 🙂

Check out the unboxing and demo video below while I finish up the review!

 

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By January 7, 2011 Read More →

Acer announces the beTouch E210

Acer-beTouch-E210-silver_HOME-1 Acer announces another new Android 2.2 handset at CES, the beTouch E210. It;ll be one of the few Android powered handsets to have a front facing, fixes QWERTY keyboard.

 

The Acer beTouch range, easily recognisable with its attractive devices, now includes a new model, the Acer beTouch E210.

Its thin shape and refined design characterised by a rounded body – forever-perfect grip – make it the perfect smartphone for people who want to work and have fun. It is an example of style and practicality: compact, linear and professional. In a convenient small size: only 116 mm and 110 g.

The beTouch E210 is one of only a handful of smartphones to combine a touchscreen, a Full QWERTY keyboard and an optical trackpad with the Android 2.2 Froyo operating system. It is designed specifically for people who want to join the fantastic world of the touchscreen phone without giving up the convenience of a conventional keypad. Under the 2.6″ screen a full QWERTY keypad. The well-spaced keys permit maximum ergonomics to ensure precise typing.

 

Posted in: News
By January 6, 2011 Read More →

Acer annouces Liquidmini at CES

liquid_mini_BLUE More news from CES, this time from our old friends Acer. Hoping to capitalise on the budget popularity of the Acer Liquid, which we loved by the way, and have announced their new baby; the Acer Liquidmini.

Full details can be found in Acer’s full press release below and as always we’ll be doing out best to get our hands on one to review!

 

Posted in: News
By January 3, 2011 Read More →

JCB Toughphones unboxing video

jcb As you know, I love unboxing new things and today in this video I’m looking at a few new handsets that are a bit more out of the ordinary. When I tell you that they only have a 2MP camera, have their own operating systems and 2″ screens you might think that I’m looking at phones from a few years back but in fact these JBCB Toughphones are brand new. They may seem a little more basic than your average phone on the market but there is a reason; each of these phones is designed to be water and dust resistant as well as being ruggedised. Ideal for those in the construction industry or those working around water and other potential hazards.

So take a look at the video below where I have a look at each of the handsets in the Toughphone range.

 

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By January 2, 2011 Read More →

Podcast competition

Web banner

There are just a few days left to enter our Christmas podcast competition so I thought I would give you all a quick reminder.

For a chance to win either a fantastic Toshiba HD camcorder or a John’s Phone as reviewed by Gareth. Entry is easy, either listen to Podcast 100 or the reminder podcast for the competition question and instructions on how to enter.

We’ll randomly pick a winner later this week and will announce on the first podcast of the new year.

Good luck!

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Competitions
By January 1, 2011 Read More →

Happy 2011!

Happy new year to all of our readers, old or new, from all of us on the tracyandmatt.co.uk team! We hope you have a fantastic 2011.

Don’t forget that we have a competition running at the moment where you can win a fantastic HD Camcorder or John’s Phone. If you haven’t entered already the please do so by heading over and having a listen to our latest podcast. That’ll tell you how to enter.

I’d also like to thank all members of the T&M team for their contribution to the site throughout 2010 and to all of our sponsors and the PR agencies that we work with. We had a great 2010 and hope to keep expanding in 2011.

Hope you all have a nice relaxing new years day, free of hangovers!

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Site Announcements
By December 31, 2010 Read More →

Panasonic DMC-GF2 pre-order deal

panasonic-dmc-gf2 For those of you that love your photography and want DSLR quality in a compact form the new Panasonic DMC-GF2 might be worth a look. The GF2 was first revealed back in November and now Panasonic are accepting pre-orders and are offering early adopters a free photopack worth £150!

We hope to have one of these to review early in the new year too.

Full details in the press release from Panasonic below:

 

Posted in: News
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