Altec Lansing Desk Speakers VS2620 Review

Rating: 8/10

Best Price: £24.95 here.

Pros	Cons
+ Best quality sound on the market for the price	-      No subwoofer
+ Much better looking than similarly priced speakers

First Impressions:

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            Ease of use – Very simple, just plug the speakers into the mains and into your computer and it’s done.

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     Design - The Altec desk speakers look great with a funky pyramid shape, brushed aluminium and clean lines. 

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     Sound Quality – The best I have heard from desktop speakers and well worth the low price tag. A very impressive volume range much louder than expected. Listen to a recording here.

What’s in the box:

-         Speakers

-         AC Adaptor

-         Manual

Tech Specs: See full specs here.

Conclusion: A great looking and very inexpensive set of desktop speakers with the best sound quality I have heard in this class for the money.

Edifier Soundbar USB Review

Rating: 8/10

Best Price:  £39.99 here.

Pros	Cons
+ Nice aluminium finish	-      Overly complicated volume control
+ Keeps wires to a minimum

What it does: The Soundbar is an all in one micro speaker powered by USB with full audio streaming capability designed to sit on your laptop just in front of your screen.  

First Impressions:

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            Ease of use – Set up is easy, just plug in and play. However the volume control is overcomplicated. The volume is controlled by a button on the side of the bar. To turn down the volume you have to hold the button down and to turn it up you have to push it multiple times. It would be simpler surely to have the same button but make it twist like a conventional volume dial.

-          Design – The Soundbar is cased in elegant brushed aluminium with a sleek and slim design.

-         Sound Quality – Good for its size, but don’t expect any great depth or breadth of sound from such a small system. Listen to a recording of the sound bar here.

What’s in the box:

-         Soundbar

-         USB Connector

-         Aux Cable

-         Carry Pouch

-         Manual

Tech Specs: - Speaker Dimensions (W x H x D): 261mm x 36mm x 44mm

-         Full specs here.

Conclusion:

A nice looking micro speaker system ideal for those times when you are watching films away from your desk and need to boost the usually pitiful volume of your laptops inbuilt speakers.

Jay Bird Sports Band Headset Review

Rating: 7/10

Best Price: £34.95 here.

Pros	Cons
+ No wires	-      Instructions could be clearer
+ Good quality sound for a reasonable price.	-      Hard to use the controls while running

What it does: Wireless Bluetooth headphones perfect for running, cycling, etc.

First Impressions:

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     Ease of use – The instruction manual could use a bit more than pictures, but once you have connected your iPod to the headphones operation is very self explanatory. The main trouble is trying to use the controls on the side of the headphones whilst running.

-         Design – A nice look with a plethora of colour schemes to choose from. And nice attention to detail mirroring the button configuration in the other ear to keep its symmetry.

-         Sound Quality – Impressive quality sound for inexpensive headphones.

What’s in the box:

-         Headphones

-         USB Charger

-         Manual

-         Spare Ear Guards

Tech Specs: Full specs here.

Conclusion: A good solution to the problem with wired headphones when you are doing exercise for a good price. However the short fall with the device is that when running it’s fairly hard to use the controls without stopping.

Auslogics BoostSpeed 5 Software Review

Rating: 8/10

Price: £32.05 for installation on three computers.

What it does:  A computer maintenance and optimization tool, to speed up the running of your computer.

Pros	Cons
+ A programme which actually does speed up your computer.	-      Some modules take a little while to load.
+ At £10.60 for each computer it’s very cheap for what you get.

First Impressions:

BoostSpeed 5 is far more detailed and actually has a noticeable effect on the computer its run on than any freeware in competition with it.

The different tools in this programme are almost endless. You can defragment your hard drive, monitor which programmes use most CPU and or memory, explore the largest files and folders in order to delete or move them and recover accidently deleted files. With all of the modules you could choose the preset option and let the programme do the work or manually choose specific areas to tinker with.

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    Ease of use – A nice simple and intuitive layout with easy to understand explanations of each process.

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         Tech Specs: Full specs here.

Conclusion:

A case of doing exactly what it says on the tin, it keeps your computer running fast and removes clutter from your hard drive.

Feel free to ask a question and leave a comment.

Reallusion iClone 4 Pro. Review

Rating: 8/10

Price: £122

What it does: Software with which you can accomplish real time 3D animation, in-screen motion editing and facial puppeteering.

Pros	Cons
+ Lots of customization	-      A limited number of avatars to choose  from
+ Pre made templates	-      Difficult for beginners

First Impressions:

-         Ease of use – Several steps to go through to start animating your character but after a while you get quicker at it.

-         Design – Uncluttered interface with easy to navigate tabs

What’s in the box:

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     DVD

-         Manual

Tech Specs: Full specs here.

To start off you choose your backgrounds; either a 3D preset or one of your own pictures. Then using the Set tab you add ground, sky, any water, grass, trees, fog and rain as desired. As well as manmade items such as floors, walls, etc.

Once your background is created simply change to the Actors tab and you have one male, female and child default avatar all of which are pretty high quality. But there are a limited number of characters.

Once you have your setting, weather, buildings and avatars you get to breathe life into them with the Animation Tab. You use motion paths to move your avatars and transition curves to make the movement less jerky.

Conclusion:

An exciting piece of software with the potential to make impressive animations with the right know how. Lacks variety of avatars, but you can tinker to make them more unique.

Feel free to ask a question or leave a comment.

iClone4 PRO + iClone 3DXchange2

Facial Animation Creator CrazyTalk 6 Pro. Review

Rating: 8/10

Best Price: £85.73 here. Standard version: £29.49 here.

What it does: Facial animation creator software with which you can take any photo and make it speak, smile and a host of other emotions.

Pros	Cons
+ Loads of features.	-      A little hard to navigate.
+ Upload to YouTube straight from the programme.

First Impressions:

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     Ease of use – Easy on the whole with the option to keep it simple in basic editing and effects, but with loads of features and configurations to play with if you are feeling more confident.

-         Design – A little tough to navigate, but after a while you get the hang of.

Once installed, it was easy to start a new project either choosing my own photo, taking one with a web cam or using one from the programme itself.

Then there are a few step by step processes to crop, rotate, adjust the colour levels and mark the points which at movement will be centred around on the photo.

Once you have suitably adjusted the picture, you can make it talk through a text to speech function with the ability to adjust volume, pitch and speed; or you can record your own voice. Then you can adjust the emotion on the face and the lip sync key to make the character talk more naturally.

You can then share your creations in a full screen viewing on your computer, or upload to YouTube in HD from the programme itself.

 

What’s in the box:

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     CD ROM software

-         Manual

Tech Specs: Full specs here.

Conclusion: An astonishing amount of features to play with creating great animations, all at a great price for the standard version.

Feel free to ask a question or leave a comment.

CrazyTalk6 Standard