AR Drone Spectacular HD Video Flight with Muvi HD Camera

AR Drone... check, Veho Muvi HD video camera on board... check, press record... check. You will be amazed what happens next.


Buy this product & accessories here http://amzn.to/ParARDrone

Useful Links
Camera supplied by: http://www.veho-uk.com/
AR Drone supplied by: http://www.firebox.com/

Geek Gifts Guide 2011

I love Christmas, the snow is on the ground (almost), tree is up adorned with tinsel and lights. The morning brings with it the excitement of the children, followed by the gorgeous smells of that lovely home-cooked roast dinner. But wait… who am I kidding? It is all about ripping my gifts open like the big kid that I am. What follows are my wishes for Christmas, here's hoping all you Geekanoids Geeks have an awesome Christmas too.

 

Money is No Object
I am not all that fussed about 3D, but I do like to watch a good movie and the bigger the better! The Sony VPL-VW90ES (£5,299 or $7,500) delivers full HD at up to 300-inches of glorious jaw dropping movies in my own home, yes please. It just happens to do 3D too, so I might give that a try in the New Year. Oh and since this in the my 'Money is No Object' category, best buy me a Beamax 10505 A-Velvet projector screen to go with it please, it's only an extra grand.

 

Gifts Under £2,000
For him and her, whether you are in the Mac or Windows camp, either of these beauties is sure to put a smile on your face…

 

MacBook Air (£1,349 or $1,599)
For me it would be the top end 13-inch MacBook Air, with it peppy dual-core i5 processor and superb display. The elegance, power and simplicity of the Mac OSX operating system means that even a beginner can open up this beauty and start enjoying it. Give the recipient of this gift five minutes and they will be surfing the net, sending emails and exploring the included iLife suite of software. Not to mention its gorgeous design aesthetics. It is so super thin, I might just carve this years Turkey with it ;)
Buy the MacBook Air here. 

 

Asus ZenBook UX-31E (£999 or $1,449)
And for those into getting their Windows thing on, you don't have to put up with heavy slabs of plastic on your lap any more. Thanks to the uber-talented designers from Asus, we have the ZenBook UX-31E. Not only does it look super sexy, it pack a punch too with either an Intel i5 or i7 processor cooking away inside. The latest WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 will keep you connected. Plus the battery life will see you through almost two weeks of standby. Almost matching the Air's minuscule measurements, the ZenBook is just 3mm at the front, so should make a good job on that turkey too.
Buy the Asus ZenBook here. 

 

 

Under £500
Everyone loves to take photos and what better time than when all the family is together at this time of year. The latest compact from Canon, the PowerShot S100 (£382 or $429) offers up superb quality in a very small package. Not only do you get 12.1 megapixel snaps, but also full HD video for capturing all those magic moments. The lens is superb too, very good in low light situations, one of the better compact cameras for sure. It's size also manes you can take it everywhere you go. Let's just hope it hits the shops in time for the 25th.

 

Under £250
Again, this might not make it to the UK quite in time, but the Kindle Fire (£199 or $199) brings colour to your world of books and magazines. This Android based tablet offers up web browsing too, plus free cloud storage for your Amazon content. Early reviews have been pretty good, revealing the ease with which you can install other launchers to take your out of the Amazonified user interface. Take into account that this is a dual core tablet with a capacitive touch screen, capable of playing games as well as delivering you movies & music. It certainly sounds like a bit of a bargain, coming it at under £200 you could also stuff a £50 Amazon voucher for some books in my stocking too.

 

I think I can get away with saying this one is educational and for the kids. Don't tell the wife, but I have always wanted a Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (£189 or $250). I love lego so so much, but being able to build a robot, alligator, or even a beach buggy complete with camera is amazing. "I will let you into a little secret… I have wanted one of these for years, but could never justify the price. Maybe one year Santa will pop one down the chimney for me". Note to Santa… this will keep me entertained for weeks.
Buy your Lego Mindstorms here. 

 

Under £50
Shop around or feel a little more generous and you might just be able to pick up a Logitech Tablet Keyboard for the iPad or iPad 2 (£49.95 John Lewis or $75) within this smaller budget. There are lots of this type of device around, but the Logitech took my fancy due to its sturdy design and tactile feedback. It is really nifty too, the keyboard case converts into a nice stand for your iPad or iPad 2, how cool is that! Logitech make some stunning products, so I would just love this to appear under my tree.

 

Give me a game and I will be a happy bunny. If your loved one has not yet got his/her frag on with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (£39 or $50), then you will be in their good books forever for buying this. Endless fun and a surefire way of improving one's sniping skills. Remember though, rated 18, this is not one that grandma will approve of… unless she has a keen sniping eye that is !!!
Buy COD MW3 here. 

Livescribe Echo… Echo… Echo Smartpen Review

I have reviewed a Livescribe Pen before (see here) and back then I was impressed with how it worked, the innovation and the quality of the device. Rather than put another video out, I thought I would get my own pen out, well actually my fingers and write up my impressions of their new Echo Smartpen. 

It comes in three capacities, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB, with the latter being the model I was sent to review. The pen is well packaged and when you hold it for the first time it feels very well made. Your initial impression is that it may feel a little bulky, but after holding it for a while the large factor does go away. Think of it as a pregnant ink pen, with some great features.

Let's get some of those features covered. Not only goes this thing write, it sports built-in memory, a micro USB connector, a 3.5mm audio jack, microphone, soft rubber grip and the icing on the cake is a 96x18 pixel resolution OLED display. This takes the Echo into a whole new league, as this OLED display gives you access to the menus and of course your notes. The overall feel of the pen is very nice too, with a soft grip area and replaceable ink tips, so when you run out it is fairly cheap to get going again. Livescribe so supply two extra ink tips in the package along with two pen caps in with the 4GB and 8GB versions of the pen (only one cap is supplied with the 2GB version).

Also supplied in the box is a notepad, you will need to use this to get going. It has quick press buttons to access the settings of the pen, plus some handy translation features and a calculator printed on the inside cover for you to tap the pen on. The rest of the pages are printed with an ultra fine array of dots and this is what allows the pen to track what you are writing, the position on the page and which printed buttons you tap on the page too.

So the idea of the Echo Smartpen is that you can take written notes, with the addition of drawings or diagrams. Whilst you are writing, the built in microphone can also record audio. The audio could be either your own memos, or perhaps a lecturer in class. This is great, as it allows you to track back on your notes and see what was being said in the audio playback at the time. Now, all this sounds great, but you could achieve this with a normal pen & paper and a digital recorder… what follows is the almost magical part. When you are back at your computer, dock your pen or connect it to your computer. Livescribe Desktop allows you to transfer and store your notes. You also get additional sharing options with email, Google Docs, Facebook and Evernote, how cool is that. (Again, please note the 2GB pen requires an upgrade to unlock all features at a cost of $14.99). Not only do you get these sharing features, but powerful search and playback features which allow you to find the notes you are looking for easily and quickly.

The good points are numerous, they far outweigh the negatives which I will now cover. First of all the paper or notebooks you use. They need to either be purchased or printed on a  laser printer. The fine dots are needed so the pen can track what you are doing. This is a limitation of the technology used, so not the fault of the Echo. However, I would like to see some development to get this to work with plain paper. The only other complaint I would have is that all of the software features should be given to the purchasers of the 2GB version of the Echo. If you can't afford the higher capacity, asking for an additional $14.99 is a bit of an insult. That said, the Livescribe Echo is an awesome piece of kit and very useful to anyone who relies on note taking.

Supplied by: Livescribe