Now that Microsoft is all set to release its much anticipated version of its new operating system, Windows 7, the big question is – Is it worth making the change? Well, if the new features and improvements incorporated in the Windows 7 Release Candidate1 is any indication to go by then the jump to Windows 7 will in fact be worth making.
Windows 7 RC1 (Release Candidate) has shown that Microsoft does not intend to make any earth-shaking changes but has instead opted to fine-tune the operating system to improve productivity and overall usefulness.
Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will include a feature called Windows XP Mode, which will run XP applications in an XP compatibility box, but to users it will appear as if the applications are running directly in Windows 7. If Microsoft does include this feature (This feature was not included in Windows7 RC1), then it will give the Windows users best of both worlds. XP users can opt for Windows 7 and take advantage of its numerous new features and also run XP as if it were part of Windows 7.
Windows 7 RC1 is a faster and more efficient operating system than the previous Windows versions. It also includes a number of subtle user-interface changes. For instance, the task bar adopts a new feature that Microsoft calls “task bar thumbnail overflow”. Numerous files that are opened in a particular application can be viewed by moving the mouse over its icon on your taskbar. With this feature, when you highlight any file on the list you get a peek at the highlighted window. Also, you can close the window by clicking a small “X”, similar to the thumbnail view.
People who prefer to use the keyboard over the mouse will welcome a new keyboard shortcut for the taskbar that makes it easier for users to jump to an individual window in an application without using the mouse. In addition to the above two points, there are many other useful features that have been included in the Windows 7 RC1 taskbar.
Other user-interface changes include a much improved Windows Explorer and file search utility. For instance, when you search for a file, pieces of information from the file searched are displayed, which is quite helpful in determining whether this file is the one you are looking for or not.
Microsoft has also done a few desktop tweaks in Windows 7 RC1, making it more attractive and useful. All the desktop backgrounds included are quite attractive and entertaining. In Windows RC1, you also have the option to hide the desktop icons and gadgets.
Windows 7 RC1 also includes a few networking improvements that previous versions of Windows PCs lacked. The most notable is the use of option called “HomeGroups”, which provides structure to the process of sharing devices, media files and other files over a home network.
All in all it will be correct to say that Windows 7 RC1 is a much quicker, efficient and attractive operating system when compared to the previous Windows versions and it will be worth investing money in upgrading your PC to Windows 7 when it is released
Showing posts with label REVIEWS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label REVIEWS. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Review: Sony NWZ-W252 Walkman – a water resistant portable music player
It was outrageously ‘different’, yet stylishly designed, when we first reviewed the predecessor of the NWZ-W252, the W202 it was pretty difficult to predict how well its interesting ergonomic design would be welcomed. But a sequel one year and a few months after, its initial release have proven it to be somewhat a popular choice. We were recently sent the new W252, water resistent version of the W202 and we’ve been trying it out.
Design
If you read our NWZ-W202 review in April last year, this part of the review will be nothing new to you because nothing clearly noticeable have changed on the surface. You still get the heart shaped like design of the original W202 Walkman and the accessories to go with it. Pictured below is the one we received.
The Sony Walkman NWZ-W252 is a sporty Walkman and its been designed to do its job for a marathon runner or an athlete who is committed to his / her training. It weighs just 1.6 ounces, making it extremely lightweight, though it does take up abit of your space.
For example if you keep it in your purse, your rug sack or your sports holdall, it becomes bulky simply because it needs to be maintained in its ‘heart shape’ using the included plastic clipper when in standby mode. If you don’t, you’ll find that your W252 will have exhausted its battery by the time you need it. Here’s what the clipper looks like, if you saw it before in the W202, you will notice that Sony has ’shrunk’ it this time round to make it more elegant.
The plastic clipper wraps round the back of the W252 too, like so…
A vital component of any music player that has to be done right is its buttons and control keys, this is especially so for the W252. In the W252, the main controls, ie the volume, play / pause, forward and backward are all located on one side leaving just the play option on the other. You can sense Sony have done this purposefully, to avoid inconvenience and increase ease of use for the type of users that are most likely to use the W252.
The buttons aren’t very large but they have plenty of space in between them, making them distinct and easy to press, even while you are jogging or in our case while playing tennis!
One small issue that we did encounter were the ear buds, because these are in-ear headphones, they’re not by any means very comfortable. And in many people, the left ear canal often differs slightly in shape to the right. Fortunately, Sony have thought this through and included a few spares with varying sizes.
For those who are fascinated by how the W252 receives music, there is a rather hidden plastic flap that opens up under the left ear piece. You will also note the plastic covering that Sony have put in place along the flap as waterproof measure.
How water resistant is it?
In Sony’s description, it stated that the W252 will even play for you while you’re in the shower. We’re not so sure about this as we didn’t test it in the shower but we can say that rain, light drizzle while running, not a problem at all. I’m afraid, as we didn’t perform specific tests, we can’t recommend you take the W252 for a dive in the pool!
A sporty music player
To be a sports specific music player, you need to have more than just a design. One of the main reasons why one would want to listen to music while doing exercise is simply because training does have its boring times. So to satisfy this, a sporty music player will at least need to have decent music quality to keep you entertained. We reckon, the W252 has inherited Sony’s reputation as a leading audio brand, its in-ear headphones design enhances this further too by canceling out noise from your environment. As for those of you who appreciate some bass in your music, there is ‘Bass Boost’, theoretically this does work, but practically when we tested it while jogging, it wasn’t significant enough for us to recommend the W252 just for the sake of bass. This isn’t to say that bass is non-existent but don’t be surprised when you can’t hear the bass effect you’re used to experiencing.
Another issue often faced by these so called sporty music players is that they’re just not comfortable enough for someone to wear throughout the duration of training. The W252 as I have mentioned already packs a few different ear buds to make sure you’re comfortable with what you’ve got. But in addition, its lightweight and wire-free design offers such an advantage over the likes of Speedo’s Aquabeat LZR Racer music player. This is also why we think Sony have so far been quite successful with the W202 and W252’s unique design.
What about a quick charge?
An hour and a half or so worth of charge would already get you approximately ten hours of playback time, for most this would be quite sufficient. Do make sure that you charge via a USB wall charger rather than the USB of your PC if possible to make the most out of your charge. But in case you forget to charge it once in a while or if your clipper went loose, there’s always the option of ‘Quick Charge’. This is a feature where Sony says to charge for just three minutes and you’ll receive in return about 90 minutes of listening time. We can’t say that we advocate frequent use of this, simply because your battery would not be very healthy after a long run of this but in case you need it, its there
Transferring music
Transferring music to the W252 is simple, simply connect it to the dock then drag and drop just like a flash drive. It supports MP3, WMA, AAC, and linear PCM audio. For more advanced users, you can also sync via Windows Media Player or iTunes. Both Windows and Mac OS X are supported.
Conclusion
The NWZ-W252 continues the successful legacy of the W Series first laid out by the W202. It remains to be superior at what its been designed to do. While some may argue that its pricetag of around £50 is far too expensive for a 2GB portable music player, we have highlighted the many benefits of the W252’s design in this review. In addition, Sony’s products have long been reasonably reliable, so you shouldn’t need to be looking for another mp3 player for awhile. Sony have deliberately kept the new W252 simplistic and for good reasons, we reckon if you do consider the W252, you would be buying a top of “its niche” truly sporty music player. It should be perfect for anyone who is serious about their training and wishes to seek some additional entertainment during their workout.
Pros
- Water resistant
- Decent sound quality
- Superior sports design
- Hassle free and user friendly, just put it on and go
- Windows PC and Mac OS supported
Cons
- Bulky when not in use
- No fast forward
- Offers limited bass
Review: Sony’s new skinny OLED Walkman A845 PMP
If you hate iTunes and apps and just want a portable media player that simply does its job, then you’re reading the right review. The latest Sony Walkman PMP to be launched with OLED is the Sony NWZ-A845 and over the last week, we’ve been given an opportunity to have a play with the new skinny Walkman and see what its like.
Design
We’ve reviewed a few Sony Walkmans in the past, so we sort of knew what qualities to look for in the new A845. The overall candybar design hasn’t really changed very much from other Walkmans, but you’ll probably have read plenty of headlines saying how slim the A845 is – 7.2mm to be exact. Not only is it slim, its also small, measuring in at just over 10cm long and and approximately 4.6cm in width. Its lightweight too, just 62g but it doesn’t feel that light, because it is quite comfortable to hold in the hand and feels solid just like the X1050 and not plastic-ky at all. The reason we often stress this is because some PMPs (like the Walkman S540) feel like they would crack open when under pressure (for example, when you leave it in your pocket), the A845 definitely doesn’t give any indication of this.
So its pretty slim (not as slim as the iPod Nano I’m afraid), similar in size to an iPod Nano and doesn’t feel as though Sony’s been cutting down on their budget. Another obvious design / feature you’ll notice worth mentioning is that it boasts a vibrant shiny 2.8-inch OLED, it isn’t the first Walkman from Sony to have OLED, that title went to the X1050, but nevertheless its been just as well exceptionally equipped on the A845. The keys / buttons are found on its front surface as well as to its left.
The premium EX in-ear style earphones that come with the Sony A845 Walkman were probably one of the most stylish earphones we’ve seen in a while, and this is including those not made from Sony. If you decide to buy the A845, you probably won’t have the urge to replace them and feel that “these earphones that came with the PMP were crap”, like you do sometimes when buying mp3 players.
Features
The Sony A845 Walkman boasts 16GB of internal memory and from what we know, this seems to be the only choice of memory capacity if you’re in the UK. As for those of you in the far east, the device itself will be known as A840 and will in fact be available in 64GB. Of course with 16GB (which is still not too bad) and a nice widescreen OLED, you’re going to start popping in films, movies and videos into the A845, that’s perfectly reasonable and the experience we’ve had so far definitely recommends that you do that.
he UI for the video player is fairly self-explanatory and has had no significant changes to other previous Walkmans. All videos are played in landscape mode and for those who are wondering, the A845 does not have an accelerometer. Also, there is no built-in speaker onboard the A845, so you’ll need to be putting in your earphones all the way through the movie. Its also annoying when you want someone to watch a video with you on a trip in the car, for example. On the other hand, the good thing about the A845 is that you can opt for a cable for the which allows the A845 to deliver the video to a supported TV at 720 x 480 at 30fps. Video playback is expected to last nine hours on a fully charged battery.
On the contrary, the A845 scores perfect marks for us as a photoviewer. This is largely due to its superior OLED display and fast and response slideshow interface. Anyone who has had a chance to play with its photoviewer will be impressed with how well Sony has perfected this compared to its predecessors. The experience would probably have been made much more better if the A845 boasted a touchscreen per se but then we’d be asking for abit too much.
Audio function wise, we don’t think Sony can do anymore to further improve the music player’s functionalities. Sony’s music player has always been filled with a range of functions which you wouldn’t be able to find in iPods and this is still the case with the A845. Sony has equipped the A845 with quite alot of tech and these include S-Master Digital Amplifier, Clear Audio and DSEE Sound Enhancement, our favourite of all as always has been the Digital Noise Cancelling. This if you haven’t heard of before works only with a range of Sony’s earphones which boast noise cancelling function, the Walkman is able to detect it if a non-NC pair of earphone is plugged in. While the specific NC settings do a pretty good job, I must say the earphones that were included with the A845 plays a role too. Music playback time is expected to be 29 hours on a fully charged battery.
Music, videos and photos can be transferred to the Sony A845 via drag and drop with a wide range of files supported or even via iTunes using the supplied software.
Conclusion
Other notable features which we haven’t mentioned in this review include FM radio and podcast, these are largely self-explanatory, simple and were practical to use during our review. We felt there were overall little that we could complain about and the A845 boasted many of its predecessor’s good features which Sony has appropriately brought forward. The elegant design of the A845 certainly merits taking a look if this is the quality that you look for in a portable music / video / photo player. Its also perfect for those who find it annoying having to fuzz with new applications, touchscreens and just desire something that simply plays good quality music and videos. Because the Sony NWZ-A845 haven’t in fact come on sale yet at the time of this review, therefore pricing information is still to be confirmed. We can’t comment on how practical it would be for its price range to buy as we do not have any idea of this ourselves but we will update this in due course. Overall we have summarised what we felt were the good and the bad bits of the new Sony A845 below…
Pros
- Elegant, well made slim and lightweight design
- OLED – great for watching videos
- Easy to use UI
- Practical functions that simply work well at what they do, as seen in previous generations of Walkmans
- Comes with high quality premium earphones
- Reasonable battery life
- Use its iTunes-supported software for transferring files if you like, if not just drag and drop
Cons
- Does not record videos, giving it a disadvantage if comparing to the likes of the latest iPod Nano
- No built-in speakers
- The UK version will only have 16GB
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