There’s a world of fascinating products at your
fingertips
Plantronics Marquee M155
Price: $70 (www.plantronics.com)
Ratings: 3 stars
Plantronics
Marquee M155 - a much more comfortable way to chat
If you spend ages on your mobile phone
and are worried about developing sore wrists or headaches, you’ll find a
Bluetooth headset is much more comfortable way to chat. This dinky device from
Plantronics slips inside your ear and can be used to answer or ignore incoming
calls, and make outgoing calls.
Voice controls are also included for
hands-free use, including ‘answer’ to pick up an incoming call, or ‘ignore’ if
it’s an unwelcome visitor. We occasionally found we had to shout these commands
two or three times before they worked, however.
The headset lasts for hours from a
single charge, and we had no issues with sound quality. As long as we had
decent reception, voices came through loud and clear, although callers
complained that our own voices sounded a little tinny. The headset also
disconnected once or twice while we were using it.
TuneUp Utilities 2012
Price: $45 (www.tune-up.com)
Rating: 4 stars
TuneUp
Utilities 2011 rolls back the years and maximise your laptop’s performance.
Time certainly takes its toll on the
average laptop. Over time we start to see diminishing battery life lack of
space and a snail-paced startup process. Don’t we all long to reclaim the
pristine machine that greeted us on breaking open the packaging for the first
time?
TuneUp Utilities 2011 is the latest
iteration of the optimisation software striving to roll back the years and
maximise your laptop’s performance while getting rid of unwanted data.
Several new features have been added,
including an energy-saving economy mode with low power consumption and a
program deactivator to switch of unnecessary software.
Basic users will find TuneUp’s
uncomplicated interface and helpful directions easy to navigate, while
experienced users can tinker with all aspects of their laptop’s performance.
SteelSeries Sensei Mouse
Price: $120 (www.steelseries.com)
Ratings: 4 stars
SteelSeries
Sensei Mouse - the most customisable mouse in the world
Billed as ‘the most customisable mouse
in the world’, the Sensei is endorsed by gaming professionals – those lucky
geeks who get paid to play all day – and it’s easy to see why: it fits
comfortably in your hand and feels perfectly weighted.
The Sensei may look plain, but looks
are deceiving. A powerful processor is tucked away inside, making this mouse
incredibly sensitive – perfect for fine control in your favorite games, or just
accurate everyday use.
You can adjust sensitivity levels on
the fly at the push of a button for times when you’re checking emails and
surfing the internet instead of playing.
The side buttons provide extra
control, and you can also create a number of custom profiles, allocating
specific commands to each button.
An LCD display underneath can also be
used to swap profiles and adjust the glow of the logo and the mouse wheel,
giving it whatever funky look you like.
Rocaat Isku Illuminated Gaming Keyboard
Price: $105 (www..co.uk)
Ratings: 4 stars
Rocaat
Isku Illuminated Gaming Keyboard - a black slab of reflective plastic with
illuminated blue keys
Roccat’s Isku Illuminating Gaming
Keyboard is a black slab of reflective plastic with illuminated blue keys that
wouldn’t look out of place in Tron.
They keyboard not only looks great, it
features eight configurable hotkeys as well as an EasyShift function to assign
up to 36 keys with gaming options – turning them into macro keys for the more
complex controls required by some games. The keys are comfortable to type on,
although the size and weight of the board means it won’t be leaving your desk
in a hurry.
However, when we play games, we’re
usually concentrating on the screen rather than the keyboard and the high price
might be off-putting for some.
This keyboard is only a worthwhile
purchase if you’re serious about the gaming experience.
