Hardware > Earlier Top Ten
Ten... mono laser all-in-one printers
Product Roundup The mono laser all-in-one has taken the place of the friendly photocopier in many an offices, at home or at work. In some cases, it has incorporated the fax machine, too. Although in essence it’s a laser printer with a scanner stuck on top, it’s more than the sum of its parts.
Most folk use laser all-in-ones as much, if not …
Ten... Satnavs to suit all budgets
Product Round-up The squeeze is on for satnav makers stuck between the rock of smartphone navigation apps and the hard place of the built-in systems that are finding their way into ever cheaper showroom models. Of course, there are still a heck of a lot of cars on the road that don’t have built-in navigation and while using your phone is fine …
Ten... smartphone survival accessories
Product round-up As the weather starts to improve and the knobbly knees of British sun seekers start gracing the public eye, weekends away untangling guy-ropes and blowing up inflatable mattresses draws close. But the organic world of planet Earth is no safe place for a man of modern comfort, and taking a survival kit with you specifically for …
Ten... Bedroom Gadget Treats
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Sleep deprivation: a tactic for special ops assignments and a gift of nature to parents with newborns. Either way, not enough kip can feel like torture and likewise failing to get a chance to unwind of an evening will take its toll.
Given current property prices, the bedroom often doubles …
Ten... Kitchen Gadget Treats
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Most of us actually have more gadgets in the kitchen than anywhere else in the house. And looking at the list here, it’s easy to see why. There are gizmos for every conceivable task, from opening a tin of beans to knocking up a homemade Scotch broth. Most of the gizmos here are genuinely …
Ten... Living Room Gadget Treats
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Once, living rooms were the places kept solely for entertaining guests. Now they’re games rooms, home cinemas – and places to crash when you’re just too exhausted from all the fun to do anything else.
But kitting out your living room isn't just a matter of picking a TV and a console. There' …
Eight... Rugged Cameras
Product Round-up Has anybody not trashed a digital camera at some point while out and about? Dust or sand, water or ice-cream, the great outdoors ruthlessly claims its tech victims on a daily basis. While manufacturers have busily carved out a niche of rugged ‘adventure-proof’ cameras, the truth is that most people, whether on the slopes, at the …
Ten... ADF-based inkjet all-in-one printers
Product Round-up Inkjet all-in-one printers have two different focuses: photos and documents. Those aimed at document handling often forsake things like card readers and twin paper trays, in favour of fax and Automatic Document Feeders (ADFs). With an ADF you can scan or copy multi-page documents unattended, giving you extra time to drink hot …
Ten... new games you may have missed
Product round-up Following a fairly quiet January in the world of videogames, the release schedule picked up and publishers started to push hordes of titles to the shop front again, minus those ever-depleting shelves at Game, of course.
Here's a collection of ten you may have missed over the past couple of months that have certainly kept my …
Ten... FireWire 800 hard drives
Product round-up FireWire interfacing has been around since the mid-1990s and, as far as Apple is concerned, looks set to be ousted by its new Thunderbolt technology in due course. However, it still features on most new Macs, is available for PCs and remains popular in desktop audio and video environments. It's also a convenient option for …
Ten... in-car gadgets and accessories
Car Week Reg Hardware Car Week
With so much tech being built into the even the most mundane of motors, writing round-ups of car gadgets isn’t as easy as it used to be. For this list, the brief was even more exacting: only include kit that if you were given one for Christmas it wouldn’t be on eBay come Boxing Day.
There’s a lot here to …
Ten... stars of the Geneva Motor Show
Car Week Reg Hardware Car Week
The annual automotive get-together on the shores of Lake Geneva is arguably now the premier annual European car show. With auto makers having a better time of the current economic situation than many other manufacturing concerns, there was a definite feeling of optimism about the halls of the 82nd Geneva …
Ten... e-cars and hybrids
Car Week Reg Hardware Car Week
What started out as a dribble in 2011 is becoming a deluge in 2012 as e-cars in the form of pure electrics, range extenders and plug-in hybrids capabilities start to become ever more common. Until we see a major breakthrough in battery tech, the day will belong to the plug-in hybrids and REs, but that’s …
Ten... gaming mice
Product round-up The three qualities I look for in a gaming mouse are: comfort, aesthetics and accuracy. And considering the imminent financial meltdown of the entire world, I'd like to think that I can get these three qualities for less than a week's shopping at Sainsbury's.
Compared to last year prices, what's on offer seems to be slightly …
Ten... sub-£100 mono laser printers
Product Round-up Mono laser printers still produce better black text than any inkjet. If you want clean, pin-sharp characters on the page and don’t print colour, buy a laser. If you have a limited budget, look for one at under £100. Here are 10 you should consider, which can print fast, don’t take up much room on the desk and are very easy to …
Ten... Valentine's Day gifts for him
Product round-up Reg Hardware Sex Week
Valentine's Day is all about sharing, and while you can show your affection in many ways that won't cost a penny, it's also an opportunity to enhance your other half's lifestyle. Whether it's brightening up a dreary flat or indulging a passion, the choice is yours and so here are are ten treats that may …
Ten... Valentine's Day gifts for her
Product round-up Reg Hardware Sex Week
It's that time of year again, when chocolate manufacturers rub their hands with joy and florists dream of blooming profits. Yes, Valentine's Day is just around the corner.
Of course, those of you with girlfriends who appreciate originality, will know the traditional catalogue of Valentine's gestures …
Ten... Freesat TV receivers
Product round-up Whether you’ve cut the cord and churned away from Sky, or need to survive the digital switch-over without recourse to Pay-TV or aerial, it’s worth considering Freesat. The gratis satellite TV service matches Freeview for SD channels, and offers a smattering of high-def plus the BBC iPlayer, hardware permitting. It’s a good bet …
Eight... HD camera smartphones
Product round-up You know that really annoying person who is videoing the gig with their camera phone to stick on Facebook when they get home? That's me. These days my TV is HD and my games console is HD, so it only makes sense that my phone – the device I use the most, day in and day out – should be HD too. Luckily, HD on smartphones is …
Ten... A3 inkjet printers
Product round-up The most probable reasons for printing A3 documents are 1) posters or folded A4 newsletters, and 2) large photos. The types of printer needed for these two requirements are different. For posters and newsletters you want a machine intended primarily for plain paper print and it will save time if it can print duplex. For photos, …
Ten... smart TVs
Product round-up IPTV Week logo
Smart functionality has become the new must-have feature for TV. With hi-def and 3D pretty much taken for granted, it’s now ‘net connectivity, media streaming and IPTV which are driving sales. But with huge differences between proprietary network portals, both in the amount of free and subscription content on …
Ten... IPTV set-top boxes
IPTV Week IPTV Week logo
Nearly every new gadget can be connected to the internet. The smart TVs popularised by Samsung and others are the focus of this but you don’t need to shell out on a new telly - a cost-effective IPTV box can do it too.
IPTV means the delivery of TV shows and films over broadband. It can include live channels but …
Ten... boomboxes
Product round-up There are some really excellent iOS speaker systems available at the moment, but most of them are designed for a tasteful dinner party with friends rather than a full-on party scene. And, of course, they’re mostly mains-powered and designed for use at home. However, there are a number of boombox systems that can run off …
Ten... laptop accessories
Product round-up Those of you with laptops will undoubtedly agree that even with all convenience of portable computing, there remain compromises aplenty. Yet add a gadget here and there and mobile working can be improved tremendously.
Whether it's a tool to keep it cool, a way to boost the audio or simply better ways to keep the darn thing …
Ten... stars of the Consumer Electronics Show
CES 2012 CES 2012 Week
Las Vegas, gambling’s natural home played host to 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week. Here, the technology giants placed their bets and showed their hands with the launch of hundreds, nay thousands, of new technology products. On the table, PC manufacturers were upping the stakes with Ultrabooks …
Ten... mini hi-fi systems
Product Round-up Compact enough for a bookshelf but punching above their weight compared to a portable radio, mini hi-fis are an audio staple. These items can become the sole sound system for anyone pushed for space in bijou flats, bedsits and student digs or serve as a back-up in bedrooms, kitchens and other places around the home.
This part …
Ten... inkjet photo printers
Product Round-up There’s only really one choice of technology for printing photos well and economically. Inkjet printers produce better quality photos than traditional silver halide, one of the reasons digital photography has superseded it.
Most of the major printer manufacturers produce inkjet printers and even the most basic of these can print …
2011's Best... DSLRs
Xmas Gift Guide While few would argue that a DSLR offers the best combination of features, performance and image quality, 2011 didn’t really set the world alight with new models. For the most part manufacturers patched holes in their respective ranges, to provide a full spectrum of models to suit both budgets and ability.
A couple of years ago …
Laptop bags: 13- and 14-inchers
Xmas Gift Guide Fed up of lugging your laptop around in a tatty old backpack? Fancy something a little more stylish? Feel your other half ought to carry a pack that's more chic? Here are five of the best bags for 13in and 14in laptops that Reg Hardware saw during 2011.
We'd recommend any of the following bags, but our favourite is listed on the …
2011's Best... Games
Xmas Gift Guide With the likes of Bulletstorm, Gears of War 3 and Frozen Synapse narrowly missing out on my annual list of top ten games, it would seem 2011 has been a pretty decent year for videogames.
The vulture-eyed Reg reader will, however, notice the list is dominated by sequels and franchises – for which I make no apologies. It's simply …
2011's Best... Premium Tablets
Xmas Gift Guide Now, we're going to annoy some of you with this one. Choosing the year's best tablet is easy. Picking one that'll appeal to the more vocal Reg readers is easy too. Selecting a different one because you think it's right is another matter, however.
But let's say from the outset: all of the five tablets that follow are ones we'd …
Laptop bags: 15-inchers
Xmas Gift Guide Fed up of lugging your laptop around in a tatty old backpack? Fancy something a little more stylish? Feel your other half ought to carry a pack that's more chic? Here are five of the best bags for 15in laptops that Reg Hardware saw during 2011.
We'd recommend any of the following bags, but our favourite is listed on the next …
2011's Best... Cars
Round up Sky-high petrol prices and environmental concerns are leading to a revolution inside the average car. Across the board, we are seeing increases in power and reductions in emissions and consumption that even a decade ago would have been called fanciful.
And let’s not forget the electric car. No matter where you stand on the …
2011's Best... DVRs and Media Streamers
Xmas Gift Guide The days of piling shelves high with videotape recordings of shows once broadcast then forgotten are long gone. The current generation of DVRs and media streamers ensures that no TV programme remains unwatched for long, whether you snare it with a series link or stream it via a catch-up service.
These days it's hard to miss a …
2011's Best... E-book Readers
Xmas Gift Guide World+Dog might fancy a glossy, colour tablet, but for the more literary inclined an e-book reader will likely prove a more suitable option. Yes, they're not as flash as fondleslabs, but their screens are legible both indoors and out, and their batteries last an age between charges. And, to please the canny gift buyer, they're …
Ten... top Xbox Live game downloads
Product Round-up After looking at ten top videogames for PlayStation Network last week, it's Microsoft's turn to step up to the table.
As mentioned in the PSN round-up, forking out for the latest triple-A titles is unnecessary if you're prepared to live without the over-the-top graphics and the 200+ hour gameplay of epics like Skyrim. Spend a …
Ten... colour laser printers
Review There are two main technologies that can put colour text and graphics on paper; inkjet and laser. Though inkjet makers like Epson and HP have tried to push inkjets into the lower end of the office market, it’s still dominated by colour lasers, due to their speed and the high permanence of solid toner over liquid ink.
Colour …
Ten... top PlayStation Network game downloads
Product Round-up Games are expensive these days, with contemporary titles often commanding in excess of £50. Some people even paid thousands for an early copy of Modern Warfare 3.
But why should you fork out so much for games on disc when there's plenty of much cheaper and no less entertaining offerings available through your console's network …
Ten... Monster tellies
Product Round-up Back in the day you had to resort to a cabinet-sized rear projection TV if you wanted to watch Dallas on anything larger than a 37in CRT. Thankfully times have changed. Technically advanced, visually stunning super-screens are now the order of the day from every major brand. You need only oust some living room essentials – sofa …
Ten... noise-cancelling headphones
Product Round-up Based on technology developed in the 1980s for airline crews, noise cancelling headphones are getting better every year. They are no longer luxury items but essential for frequent travellers, making journeys more tolerable.
Built-in microphones detect extraneous sound, such as aircraft engine hum or noise from trains and buses …
Ten... remastered videogame classics
Product Round-up As the interest in this week's release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition shows, remakes of classic videogames are all the rage. Developers are dusting off canvasses and applying a fresh layer of high definition paint to the hits of yesteryear.
Halo is not the end of it. There are plenty more remasters on the way to …
Ten... best Blu-ray movies of 2011
Round-up If you’ve recently migrated to Blu-ray, or are already a dyed-in-the-wool evangelist, you’ll doubtless have developed an uncontrollable compulsion to build a collection of 1080p platters. But what releases deserve your attention? To provide answers of a sort, I’ve compiled this invaluable (and not at all off-the-cuff) guide to …
