Posts Tagged ‘Review’

Nose Right Review

First of all, the nose right is a very good tool ONLY if you follow the instructions. I was very skeptical about this product naturally, but have to tell you it worked wonders for my nose. Something you should know is that it is not that comfortable at all, if you didn’t have to wear it for only 15 minutes it would be a lot better.

Second of all, after two weeks you can start seeing a difference BUT not a major difference i don’t know if its because peoples noses are a lot different, but the nose right takes more time than a week to see real results which is really disappointing. My honest review is that it is good not great. It will do the job, make your nose look smaller but its not as great as I thought it would be. I was kind of disappointed that you have to wear it everyday for a long time to mold your nose to the right shape, but hey what are you going to do a nose job costs so much more.

Camera

I also am baffled, don’t understand why the nose right is like this big secret, if it works then shouldn’t a lot of people know about this? Weird, but i guess that’s what getting the plastic surgeons millions of dollars. Nose right is great, but an honest review i would have to say when you order it, make sure you follow instructions very carefully, its really extremely easy to use the nose right but you must follow there simple instructions because they are really good and the genius of the product in my opinion is the tool, its a crazy thing,kind of scary looking actually.

Oh yeah, and people are really skeptical of this product its like the newest thing that i have ever seen to totally defy everything a plastic surgeon stands for, but I wish there are more studies on a product like this, its amazing. Oh yeah, you have to know to a big draw back is that you look ridiculous while wearing it so you have to wear it at night lol you look like an alien maybe can double as a cool Halloween costume? Anyways nose right is awesome.

Nose Right Review

Sony 3D Camera – Best Features Review

The best thing when buying a 3D Sony camera is that you do not have to be a professional photographer to use it, or produce great pictures.

The first feature in this Sony 3D feature review is the 3D panorama capability of the Sony Cyber Shot! This capability made it a 3D camera, without this feature theTX9 would have been a very good 2D digital camera.

Camera

Because the camera has only one lens, unlike the Fujifilm 3D W3 Camera which has two lenses, the only way it can produce a 3D image is when it takes short panoramic clips.

What happens when you press the Sony TX9 button and sweep the camera sideways in a panoramic motion, is that it will record thousands of frames each sees your object in a slightly different angle. The Sony processor takes all those images and combines them together digitally as 3D clips.

The second feature you may probably love in the Sony TX9 is the back LCD screen that is capable to show you all the 3D clips, in bright vivid colors crystal clear. But what will knock all your friends is that they will see them selves in 3D and without the need for special 3D glasses.

This feature promises the person holding the Sony 3D camera to be the center of the party, as everyone will want to gather and see 3D live without any 3D glasses (nor active and nor red and blue glasses).

Those features make the TX9 a fun 3D camera, and puts Sony up front of the 3D technology leaders. Other features you will find in the Sony TX9 are features they have in their 2D cameras too. Those are photo modes which makes the Sony a flashy gadget able to help any one take the best pictures.

The Sony ‘Smile Shutter’ technology is a sneaky little mode that enables you to bypass the most frustration feelings in picture taking. The feeling you point at a smiling friend or child, you imagine you get a great shot, with a wide smile, only to see after you press the button that you just missed it by a fraction of a second only to capture a dull face with a blank look on it.

Well forget all about that! The new Sony TX9 Camera Smile Shutter technology that captures a smile the moment it happens.

Before you chose the Sony TX9 as your new 3D camera, see all the features and price options and discounts available for it.

Sony 3D Camera – Best Features Review

The SVP Digital Camera Review

With the age of digital imaging, nearly every (shallow water) diver can be involved with underwater photography. This review is of a true beginner camera outfit. The Chinese made, SVP Acqua digital outfit includes the camera system and waterproof case for under 0. There are obvious limitations and we’ll cover them in this review.

Don’t expect professional results with this camera, but you’ll be surprisingly pleased with the versatility this little compact outfit provides. With all the features you’d expect to find in popular brand ‘point and shoot’ cameras, this compact system will easily fit into your BCD pocket. The specifications are listed after our review comments. Since the factory marketing brochure supplied these, we cannot confirm or dispute them.

Camera

First of all, before using this camera… view the enclosed DVD instruction manual provided with the camera. There are many features and settings that you’ll need to know before you get out on the water to use your camera system. We’ve used many different brands and all seem to have some logical settings and some not-so-logical procedures. Like most ‘point and shoot’ cameras, there is a delay between pushing on the shutter and having the actual shutter operation. After you become familiar with the operation of the camera and the features you’re ready for the underwater part.

Like any housing, you need to keep the housing clean and free from sand or grit that could create a leak. Since the main seal is not really an o’ring, I was very careful to clean the surfaces with a cotton tip (Qtip) and apply some o’ring grease to the surface as well as a thin film on the seal itself. The seal is sort of a wedge shape, so it should provide a good positive pressure seal. The clean part is more for all the little control buttons that allow you to change settings of the camera underwater. We’ll get into the best settings we found when using the camera underwater.

When they say the housing is good to 15 meters or around 33 feet, they are not lying. Not that we were trying to flood the housing or anything, but at 60 feet the camera is not operational because the pressure is squeezing the controls and shuts the camera off. At 40 feet, you might get the camera to work, but don’t count on changing the settings. At 35 feet the camera seems to work fine with all the features and settings operational. For many divers, this will be too limiting because most of your dives will be deeper than 35 feet. However, keep in mind that the red/yellow/orange end of the spectrum is filtered out beyond this depth too.

The camera and housing combination are well matched and easy to operate. With the clear plastic housing, you can easily see the settings on the camera. Like most digital displays certain angles are more difficult to see, but with the proper shading and angle everything is visible on the 2 inch screen. Even though you can change the lens focal length from wide angle to zoom, we kept the setting on wide angle for the dives during the whole process because of the water. Keep this in mind for all underwater photography; stay close to your subject and use the widest angle possible for better results.

For the still shots, the camera was set for the strobe to fire with each shot. This uses up your batteries faster, but if the subject is closer than 8 feet, you’ll have better imaging and color. The best results were our macro shots where we set the camera for ‘close-up’ and used the flash. When using the movie mode, you’ll be impressed with the sharpness of the images, but don’t expect high quality audio. The housing must absorb a lot of the sound as much of the underwater audio is muted. More than likely, you’ll edit with some musical background anyway.

The color balance was a little off. We did change the settings according to the instructions and the results were that the color balance was a little on the blue side for topside shots. This was not an issue for the underwater shots as the greenish tint of the water was eliminated. Most of the color balance issues can be handled in the editing phase.

The claim of being 12.0 mega pixels is a little deceiving because this is the ‘hardware interpolation’ not the ‘image resolution’ which is 5.0 mega pixels. All in all, we were not disappointed in the quality results of the better pictures. However, some of the shots showed camera shake even with the built in flash. This means that the shutter does adjust for the amount of light, so it’s important to squeeze the cameral and hold it as still as possible.

We used an 8 GB SD card because we expected to take a lot of video and had ample memory space for two dives. We didn’t use the provided USB cable because we use a card reader to our laptop and then back up the memory to a portable hard drive. The power source uses two triple A Alkaline Batteries, so it’s not a problem having new batteries for each dive. We didn’t use the ‘voice recorder’ feature, but from our underwater video experience, it would not be recommended inside the underwater housing.

Now for the bottom line advice on this gear: If you plan to take your underwater imaging seriously, save your money for a more comprehensive system. This could be the perfect outfit for a sport diver that wants to share their diving experience with their friends and family. For less than 0 (prices range from -100), not including your SD Memory card or batteries, it is a value. The SVP cameras are available at some dive shops and are directly marketed from several importers online. The next “point and shoot” underwater outfits, without an external strobe, will most likely cost over 0. So, if you are going on vacation and thinking about having your own digital camera outfit for shallow water, this is the answer. Of course, for around at most diving centers you could rent a camera with everything included. Sometimes the choice is not easy, but you can know a lot more from someone who has tested the SVP out. It is a great still and video camera outfit for around the water and underwater to about 35 feet.

Specifications from the Manufacturer:

· Waterproof design: Don’t be afraid to take this Aqua camera to the water-even underwater. The waterproof case will protect this camera to depths of 30 feet.

· Very sleek and small camera design

· Takes Pictures, Video, and Audio Clips with it’s built in microphone.

· Resolution sensor gives you the option of taking: 5 MP, 3.1 MP, 1.3 MP, and 300K Resolution Images.

· Takes, 12 and 8 MP pictures through hardware interpolation.

· Movie mode: When a picture isn’t enough, shoot 640 x 480 (VGA) video, with sound, at 30 frames per second.

· 2.0″ LCD screen: This compact color screen has plenty of room to help you compose your shots.

· Zoom: The 8x digital zoom enlarges pixels to fill the frame with your favorite part of the image.

· Adjustable Flash

· Self timer: 2/10/10+2 Seconds

· Tripod Capabilities

· Onboard White Balance

· Waterproof to 50ft

· 16MP Built in Memory, Takes SD Cards to expand memory.

· Power Source: 2 triple A Batteries

· Time Stamp Options: Off/ Date only/ Date and Time

· Comes with software, hookup via USB 1.1

· Video/TV out supported- Via video out cable.

· Automatic power mode- Prolong batteries life by auto-switching the camera power off.

· Auto Flash, Auto Flash with Red-eye reduction, Slow Sync, Fill-in Flash, Flash off, Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Tungsten, Sunset, Custom etc…

· MULTI-LINGUAL INTERFACE 8 Menu Languages including: English, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, T. Chinese, and S. Chinese.

The SVP Digital Camera Review

Acer Aspire 5542g Review

The Acer 5542G is the company’s replacement model for it’s very popular 5536/5536G series. The new model comes with an improved processor and a whole new Tigris platform. It was after more than a week’s wait and phone calls that I got hold of one Acer Aspire 5542G. From the moment I read the specification sheet, I have been very thrilled to get the machine in my hands. The specs boasts about a AMD Turion II 2.2 Ghz, 3GB DDR2 Memory, ATI 4570 Dedicated graphics card with a 512MB DDR3 memory and a quite generous 320GB Hard disk drive for a price tag of less than RS 34000, which is quite a tempting deal.

In this detailed review we will see how these specs meet the real performance needs.

Led Lcd

Key features:

In this section, we will look in detail at the key components that makes up this laptop. I will also try to include as much specifications and details as available from the manufacturer’s source.

Processor:

Acer Aspire 5542G comes with the second generation AMD Turion Processor (AMD Turion II M500) clocked at 2.2Ghz which houses a 1MB L2 Cache. The Turion II M500 is fabricated using the 45nm technology. It belongs to the Caspian generation of processors and supports HyperTransport 3.0 and hardware virtualization.

The Turion is AMDs answer to mobile processors, which provides excellent performance while keeping the power consumption at the minimum. The Turion processors generates less heat compared to AMD’s desktop work horses that have a bad reputation in heat emission department. The Turion II being the next version of the decent performer Turion, it sets high expectations in terms of competing with the Core 2 Duos in the market. We will see how it scores in real performance when we benchmark it down the road.

Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 512MB DDR3

One of the main attractions of this laptop is the graphics engine that lies beneath the hood. The Acer 5542G comes with a dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 with 512 MB of DDR3 memory.

For those of you who are not clear about the difference between an integrated and a dedicated graphics solution, I’m adding a few words. An Integrated graphics solution (eg: the Intel’s X4500) doesn’t come with dedicated video memory; it eats up your system memory for graphics processing and thus the slower path between the system memory and the graphics engine causes the biggest bottle-neck when it comes to performance. Also the integrated graphics processor would be less powerful than a mainstream dedicated one in raw processing power. On the other hand, a dedicated graphics card will usually have a high speed dedicated video memory (eg: DDR3) which is coupled to the graphics processor. This removes the bottle neck and gives the card superior performance. The graphics processor on a dedicated card would usually support high-end effects provided by the latest DirectX and OpenGL APIs which gives the realism and visual-candy in the latest games.

The HD 4570 is a faster clocked version of the Mobility Radeon 4530/4330. It has a 64 Bit memory bus and comes with a 512MB DDR3 VRAM. The 512MB should be adequate for most gaming and graphics needs, unless you play in the craziest resolutions. (As rendering resolution increases, the more memory it needs). The DDR3 memory will meet the needs for the fastest and huge volume texture processing that modern games demand. However the 64 bit bus stands inferior to the 128 bit bus that most mainstream cards offer.

The ATI Mobility Radeon 4570 is based on the RV710 chip and it provides 80 stream processors. The Mobility Radeon also provides the video technology called Avivo HD that provides an on board 7.1 sound chip. The graphics solution also features a 2nd generation Unified Video Decoder that supports full bitstream decoding of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 streams. The 4570 graphics unit is capable of handling all video tasks including HD video decoding.

Display:

The Acer 5542G comes with a 15.6″ High Definition LED backlit TFT LCD display that provides 220-nit high brightness and Acer’s Cinecrystal display technology. The pure widescreen (16:9) display supports a maximum resolution of 1366X768 and provides a 60% color gamut. It has a high-def response time of 8ms.

Memory: There is nothing much to boast about a 3GB DDR2 800Mhz memory that comes with the Acer Aspire 5542G when compared to the current line of laptops many of which sports a 4GB under the hood. The 3GB is sufficient for most of the computing needs which can later be upgraded to 4GB. However the 3GB deal would appear reasonable when we keep the price tag of the Acer 5542G in mind.

Hard Disk Drive: Again there’s nothing jaw dropping in this department. But I would say that the 320GB that comes with the Acer 5542G is generous for most of your storage needs.

Processor performance and benchmark:

I was initially reluctant to switch from the Intel’s proven workhorse Core 2 Duo to the AMD’s Turion family of processors. It is a widely accepted fact that the Intel’s processor outperforms the AMD counter part, provided that both runs on the same clock speed; the main culprit being the lower L2 cache in AMDs. But my reluctance to move on to the AMD Turion II was swept away by the performance benchmarks. The AMD Turion II M500 2.2 Ghz outperforms the Intel Core 2 Duo 6670 2.2 Ghz. When AMD Turion II M500 scores a decent score of 1426, the Intel Core2 Duo 6670 managed to get only 1379, though the margin is not huge.

The Turion II M500 also scored higher in the Windows 7 performance rating with a score of 5.7 against the score of 5.5 of the Intel’s Core 2 Duo 6600.

The Turion II without doubt has improved it’s architecture dramatically compared to the previous generation Turion, which helps it to achieve a higher performance benchmark, while competing head-on with the Intel’s counterpart, even though AMD Turion II M500 houses only 1MB L2 cache compared to the 2MB offered by the Intel’s variants.

The AMD Turion II M500 is doubtlessly an excellent performer and is commendable for being the first AMD processor model overtaking the Intel Core 2 Duo along the performance lines, both of which are clocked at the same speed. Though the Turion II has only 1MB L2 Cache it brings excellent performance and computing power on a budget. The Turion II M500 processor gives the Acer 5542G with great number crunching efficiency, that was much noticeable when we ran tests involving compressing/extracting, Gaming and Video rendering using 3D graphics tools. The Acer 5542G showed brisk performance during daily computing, and the Windows responsiveness and multi-tasking were significantly quick.

Graphics card performance:

The Acer 5542G with the ATI Mobility Radeon 4570 with 512MB Dedicated DDR3 VRAM is not an exceptional performer in terms of the latest gaming standards. But very few laptops comes with a high end graphics card that meets the high-end gamer’s needs and those machines will burn a hole in your wallet for sure. The HD 4570 in the Acer 5542G is a decent graphics card to play a little older game titles in full detail whereas when it comes to the most recent games, you might have to tweak the detail level to a medium to get reasonable frame rates.

The Acer 5542G is an excellent choice for gamer’s on a budget as well as 3D Graphics designers and Animators.

I found the Acer 5542G delivering very smooth frame rates on Test Drive Unlimited even at the highest settings, though a video review of the Dell Studio 15 housing the same graphics card showed significantly lower frame rates in YouTube. May be the performance boost is due to the DDR3 Video Memory as well as the better number-crunching done by the AMD Turion II M500. The card fared really well in older titles like Need For Speed Most Wanted, Need For Speed UnderCover, Unreal Tournament 2003, and Crysis Warhead even at the highest detail settings with 1024X768 resolution and FSAA turned on. The Acer 5542G also delivered consistently playable frame rates in Microsoft Flight Simulator which is a quite resource hungry game, due to the presence of huge textures and extensive terrain.

Display performance:

The 220-nit high brightness display of the Acer 5542G, gives excellent display quality with good sharpness and contrast. It also delivers very good and accurate color reproduction (60% gamut). The viewability from sides is not exceptional, but is adequate. The only major disadvantage of the display is that it’s high glossy finish attracts glare. Hence it is not suitable while viewing against any direct light source.

Audio Performance:

The Acer 5542G sports a Dolby certified audio system. The Realtek chip provides 32bit audio decoding and provides SP-DIF and Dolby Digital output. It also supports Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Surround modes. It means you will be in audio bliss, if you connect the Acer 5542G to a nice home theatre or high-end headphones.

The built-in speakers of the Acer 5542G clearly lacks the bass and was a disappointment during our tests. The sound clearly lacks the thump element in it. It doesn’t mean that the speakers are worthless. The speakers give you very nice high and medium range frequencies quite well. The audio volume levels were loud enough and will be adequate if you are not in the middle of a very noisy environment.

Battery:

The Acer 5542G comes with a 6-cell battery pack. It would probably disappoint you, if you are looking for a laptop with 3+ hours battery backup. The lower battery backup can be attributed to the modestly big 15.6″ display paired with the dedicated graphics card that can drain out quite a lot of battery power. With the screen brightness at low, I was able to obtain a 2 hours 50 minutes backup with no audio, video or games turned on. At highest performance setting, you can expect roughly two hours of battery backup.

Heating:

Being an AMD based laptop most of us who have used an AMD based sytem would have concerns about over-heating. Stay cool. The Acer 5542G handles heat well. When you use it for extended hours for your daily computing needs, it doesn’t generate any significant heat. I found the heat near the palm rest regions less compared to some other Intel based competing laptop models. The Acer 5542G has adequate ventilation at the bottom and has a vent at the back, that blows the hot air out. The fan steps into high speed the instant things start getting hot.

It doesn’t mean that the Acer 5542G won’t generate heat at all. The moment you start playing games, the rosy picture changes. Though the Acer 5542G’s body remained just warm, the vent at the rear end was blowing out really hot air, which obviously means heavy heat generation, though it gets displaced well. Though the Acer 5542G gets away with the heat quite well, it would be a good choice to get an efficient laptop cooling pad if you are into serious gaming.

Other components:

The Acer 5542G comes with a good DVD Writer, Bluetooth, Wireless LAN etc. These devices performs quite well and doesn’t seem to have any specific points worth mentioning.

Accessories:

The laptop comes with a nice backpack from Targus with Acer logo on it. The backpack has adequate space to carry some extra stuff in it while you are on the move. It’s build quality is good and provides adequate cushioning for the laptop compartment.

Conclusion:

Acer 5542G is a laptop that brings great value to those on a budget, who need excellent processing and graphics performance. I highly recommend it for all gaming enthusiasts and graphics designers, owing to the excellent performance of the processor and the graphics solution built-in. It’s powerful processor can meet most of the extreme computing needs unless your needs target the ultra-high-end like an i7. The Acer 5542G equipped with it’s Turion II processor competes really well with the Core2 Duos out there; no need for the ‘Will AMD perform equally well?’ question anymore. It delivers brutal processing power.

If you are an audiophile who would play music through the laptop’s built-in speakers round the clock, Acer 5542G may not be the best suit for you. If that is not a top-priority for you or if you have a nice home theatre/headphone, then the Acer 5542G gives you great joy in the audio department too, through it’s Dolby processing and digital outputs. It all depends on your needs.

The battery suits the home computing / gaming / designing needs. It’s 2+ hours backup can handle your presentation, on-the-go needs too, though a 3+ hours backup would have been more recommendable.

The laptop model I purchased comes loaded with Linpus linux operating system (command prompt only) and eliminates the Windows dependency, which helps the Acer 5542G keep its price down. You might also get a version with Windows pre-loaded but for a higher price tag.

Pros:

Excellent processor

Excellent graphics for designers and budget gamers

Good Looks

Quite sturdy design

Good Audio processing and digital out

HDMI

Cons:

Built-in speakers do not match the good audio processing and lacks bass completely

Glossy screen difficult to work with in direct light

Volume control keys could have been softer to touch

Arrow keys needs refinement

Pricing and final words:

This laptop is available in India in many online shopping websites at a sub RS 35k price tag. I got hold of one for RS 33700/- (approximately 717 USD) through a local dealer. With such reasonable price tag and compelling set of features, I strongly recommend the Acer 5542G.

Acer Aspire 5542g Review

Review of the LG 42SL9000 LCD Television

If you know anything about LCD televisions, you’ll know that LED backlighting is all the rage at the moment. Although the RBG Dynamic method offers better contrast ratios and truer blacks, it seems that the Edge-LED method is just as popular, simply because the models carrying it are so mind-bogglingly thin. First impressions count for a lot, even in the markets of cutting-edge technology, and the sight of a giant screen that is only an inch thick certainly making an impact. Samsung have really taken a lead in this field, and have built up a great range of Edge-LED LCD televisions, carving themselves a nice little chunk of market share in the process. Not to be left behind, LG delivered their first Edge-LED model, the 42SL9000, in late 2009. Although it has taken them a while to enter the fray, it was certainly worth the wait.

Available at just under £1000, the LG 42SL9000 is not the most expensive proponent of Edge-LED technology on the market today. Most models of this size cost well over a grand, so it’s to their credit that LG have priced the 42SL9000 so competitively. However, if you’re thinking a competitive price tag means inferior quality, you’d be very wrong. LG certainly haven’t skimped on design – the unit is just over an inch thick, with a glassy finish and a gloss black bezel that sits level with the screen. It looks like a sheet of polished obsidian, the sort of TV you want to look at even when it’s switched off! LG are known for making good looking LCD televisions, and the 42SL9000 won’t do that reputation any harm at all. The model also sports good connectivity, with four HDMI sockets, an RS232 port, a USB socket, and a wireless Bluetooth connection.

Led Lcd

Power up the set and it’s pretty obvious that the 42SL9000 looks just as good when it’s turned on. Although Edge-LED LCD televisions typically don’t have the best dynamic contrast, the 42SL9000 still boasts an impressive ratio of 3,000,000:1, with better shadow detail than you’d find in a comparable RGB Dynamic model. The screen is also capable of Full HD resolution, 100Hz TruMotion video processing, and has an incredibly vibrant palette of colours. For those who like to customise their televisions, the 42SL9000 has an excellent sequence of menus that allow you to fine tune every aspect of the audio and visual output.

The sound quality of the 42SL9000 is also very good, and is certainly more powerful than the many Samsung Edge- LED LCD televisions currently on the market. The audio could do with a greater range, particularly the bass, but it’s more than capable of meeting the needs of most consumers. You could certainly live without a separate audio set-up, that’s for sure. Overall, this is another excellent package on offer from the Korean manufacturer, especially considering the low price. Top marks to LG once more.

Review of the LG 42SL9000 LCD Television