Hardware > Earlier Top Ten
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 …
Eleven - if you will - rocktastic music movies
Round-up 11 November 2011 - 11/11/11 - is Nigel Tufnel Day, a day to celebrate pushing the envelope as far as it can possibly be pushed - and then pushing it one step beyond that.
As Spinal Tap's lead guitarist would say: "An 'undred years ago, a great war - the greatest since the Romans - came to an end. It was all quiet on the Y …
Ten... high-end Android tablets
Product Round-up With Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich upon us, it's a good time to take stock of the impact - or lack of it - of Android 3 Honeycomb and Nvidia's Tegra 2, the chipset and release of Google’s mobile OS that were hoped would knock the iPad of its perch.
They've done no such thing. At the most generous counting, Android tablets account …
Ten... Blu-ray disc players
Product Round-up On mainstream Blu-ray players, 3D is fast becoming just another feature, so whether you want it or not, we couldn't really avoid it in this round-up – but don't let that put you off.
Here we have models ranging from the impulse buy to high-end kit, and you’ll find dimensional compatibility listed alongside other attractions …
Ten... mono laser printers
Product Round-up Mono laser printers have been available for 30 years and remain the bedrock of most business. From small printers in home offices to large ones in corporate departments, they print most of the commercial correspondence in the country, yet their technical specs have changed little.
They are now faster, have higher resolution and …
Ten... small screen HD TVs
Product Round-up Small screen TVs are riding a wave of austerity-driven popularity. The good news is downsizing isn’t half as embarrassing as it used to be. Ultra-thin LED panels, integrated USB media readers and even streaming IPTV services are there to be had if you know where to look.
Hannspree SV28LMMB
RH Numbers
This 28inch edge-lit …
Ten... earphones for mobiles
Product Round-up Here we go again with some more headphones, but this time I'm looking at those faithful friends you'd use on a daily basis with your smartphone. While still likely to be churning through MP3s, their function is also to act as hands-free kit, so conversational ability is key.
While you can spend silly money on smartphone earbuds …
Ten... Freeview HD recorders
Product Round-up The UK’s ongoing digital switchover means that Freeview HD has probably now rolled out to a transmitter near you. If you’re using old digital TVs or set-top boxes, you won’t get the four – soon to be five – high-def channels through your aerial, alongside the standard line-up.
One of the best ways to upgrade is with a new …
Ten... Androids to outshine the iPhone 4S
Product Round-up Yes folks, it’s that time again when across the land otherwise rational and even sensible adults feel the need to whip themselves into a frenzy over the pending arrival of the latest iPhone.
To be honest, I find the whole charade rather entertaining and have taken to sauntering over to the Trafford Centre come launch day, …
Ten... all-in-one inkjet printers
Product Round-up There are two types of inkjet all-in-one printer: one intended for photo enthusiasts and the other for people running offices. It's the latter lot I'm attending to here, with a selection of printers designed for those who value plain paper output as much as - if not more than - snaps.
The price ranges large, with the cheapest …
Ten... digital voice recorders
Product Round-up As mobile phones and other electronic gizmos generally pack their own voice recorders these days, the necessity of buying of a standalone dictaphone seems doubtful. Yet a dedicated model has distinct advantages with typically better recording quality, a longer battery life and voice actuation. Also, recordings are not going to …
Ten... gaming headsets
Product Round-up I wish I had my own flat, but I don’t. Cue Slayer Reign in Blood thundering from upstairs. Six hours into a raid and my housemate comes home and turns the volume up on their shitty boombox above my head and I have completely lost any sense of immersion. Yes I could get into a ‘speaker-off’ with them but luckily I have some of …
Ten... budget Android tablets
Product Round-up Tablets, eh? A nice idea but a shame about the price. From the iPad to the Xoom, the PlayBook to the TouchPad prices starting at or near £400 are a little on the steep side for many folk. Well, the TouchPad maybe an exception these days but only very recently.
You’ll pay a premium to buy into fondleslabs from Apple, HP or RIM, …
Ten... outdoor gadgets
Product Round-up Experiencing the great outdoors is fundamentally about escaping the trappings of modern life – leaving all the gadgets and gizmos we carry around at home – right?
Well, maybe not – as there’s a mountain of technology ready to enhance, rather than detract from your chosen outdoor pursuit, however extreme or placid. To document …
Ten... Desktop USB 3.0 HDDs
Product Round-up Despite somewhat lacklustre adoption of the interface in the last 18 months, USB 3.0 is starting to gain a foothold in the consumer market as availability increases and prices fall down to more reasonable levels.
The current offerings of USB 3.0 portable hard drives in our recent round-up turned out to be a pleasant surprise …
Ten... in-ear headphones
Product round-up It's time for another headphone roundup and considering we've already covered the bulkier over-ear and on-ear models, it was inevitable that in-ears would follow. After all, not everyone likes walking the streets, turning heads with a pair of oversized Mickey Mousers on.
The market is inundated with hundreds of in-ear monitors …
Ten... Portable USB 3.0 HDDs
Product Round-up USB 3.0 has been with us for nearly two years now, not that you’d notice, as adoption and availability of peripherals has been somewhat slow. However, things are looking up now as more and more portable HDDs are coming to market featuring the not-so-new interface. Here at Reg Hardware, we've put together a round up of the …
Ten... wireless speakers
Product Round-up The iPod can take credit for creating an entirely new market for compact speaker systems, yet iPod sales are now starting to taper off as people move their music onto smartphones and tablets.
No one wants their phone or tablet to be out of action while it’s docked inside a speaker system, so manufacturers are now adding wireless …
Ten... pocket compact cameras
Product Round-up When it comes to quick pics, the expedience of a phonecam can't be overestimated, yet the image quality expectations frequently are. With this in mind Reg Hardware has rounded up the smallest and cheapest compacts produced by all the usual suspects from the photography world.
Here are ten cameras that will not only take decent …
Ten... festival survival gadgets
Product Round-up With Beyonce's bouncy appearance at Glastonbury just days away, the festival season is well and truly underway and unless you sell wellies, you're probably praying for sunny skies. It can't hurt to be prepared for the worst, though.
So as you don those prosthetic horse-heads and gallop off for another weekend of hedonism, we …
Ten... Premium Android smartphones
Product Round-up Android handsets have been steadily stealing Apple’s smartphone thunder for a while now, due in part to their variety – the range runs the gamut from cheap and (not very) cheerful to the heights of the very latest technology. This round-up pulls together the latter type, with the very best on offer from the major manufacturers. …
Ten... Core i5 laptops
Product Round-up After a slight hiccough with its Cougar Point 6 chip-set, Intel’s spiffy new Sandy Bridge Core i5 chips are finally starting to arrive in laptops from all the usual suspects. To herald their arrival Reg Hardware has donned its Phil Drabble cap and rounded up ten of the new breed, poked them with a benchmark stick or two and …
Ten... DAB kitchen radios
Product Round-up A kitchen is incomplete without a radio. Like a garden without a blade of grass, a song without emotion, or a footballer without a super-injuction, there are many without, but it just isn't the same. And even though dates for the proposed digital switchover haven't been set in stone, there's no harm in being prepared. Indeed, as …
Ten... fantasy gadgets you wish you owned
Fictional Product Round-up Tomorrow is always round the corner in the world of tech, and gadgets that started life in the imaginations of mad folk are starting to become a possibility.
Tools that give us superpowers may seem impossible, but ultramobile computing is a reality these days, with commonplace kit that seems more capable than devices Gene …
Ten... 40-42in net connected HD TVs
Product Round-up If you’re looking to get the biggest bang for your thin-screen buck, then the 40-42in TV category is the sweet spot. It’s here that the most competitive price points jostle with bleeding edge features.
Almost to a man, our group combines high-performance Freeview HD 1080p screens plus some level of Internet connectivity. These …
Ten... tech treats for mum
Product Round-up Yes, Sunday, 3 April is Mother's Day, a celebration of matters maternal that stretches back to pre-Christian Roman times, but one no son - or partner whose significant other has offspring - dare ignore.
So, with a day or so to go, here is Reg Hardware selection of ten tech its the mother(s) in your life - will be pleased to …
Ten... on-ear headphones
Product Round-up Here we go again with another headphone roundup. This month we're looking at on-ear models, your everyday portable friends that cover the lugs and don't get coated in wax by sitting inside them.
That could mean flat-panel heaphones, or ones with small cups that don't completely enclose the ears. These guys are generally built …
Ten... fantasy swords you wish you owned
Weapon round-up At Reg Hardware, with the honorable exception of videogames, we tend to talk up tools that generally assist in everyday life. Today, though, we're going to break tradition altogether and run through some weaponry. Well, bladed replicas to be precise.
If you've ever fancied yourself as a modern-day knight - Jedi or Dunedain - or …
Ten... over-ear headphones
Product Round-up Personal music is an everyday part of most people's lives and at at the end of the chain, it's the gear we use to pump out the audio that impacts most obviously on the listening experience.
If you want to raise your game from the freebies given out with a PMP or just fancy a quality set of headphones for the home, then where to …
Ten... wireless keyboards
Product Round-up I feel sorry for keyboards. Despite tapping away constantly at one, I can't say I give mine any regard. Fairly rapidly, so it seems, they get covered in reminders of our lifestyle excesses and tacky habits. And when our computers are to blame for something, its usually the keyboard that soaks up the frustration.
Well, I'm going …
Ten... fitness gadgets
Product Round-up OK, so it's that time of year again, and every newspaper, website, daytime television show and franchised gymnasium is bombarding you with Xmas-excess guilt. But if you have decided to get fit in 2011, you might find some of these gadgets useful in your quest to attract the opposite sex... er, sorry... improve your health. …
Ten... sub-£150 PMPs
Product Round-up Budget PMPs are the missing link between a high-end video job and a standard MP3 player. With modern devices so advanced, some would class these PMPs as cell-phones without the option to call, a view I generally shared.
However, without the distraction of ringtones and txt msgs, they have space to focus on getting the rest …
Ten... dirt-cheap voice phones
Product Round-up World+Dog may be falling in love with smartphones faster than a large lass on a date with George Clooney, but there is still a place for the cheap and cheerful voice-centric handset.
To start with, basic phones shorn of the extravagances of 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, football pitch-sized hi-res screens and always-on connectivity can often …
Ten... sub-£50 budget MP3 players
Product Round-up Some might argue that, with music playback now integrated into most mobile devices, low-cost MP3 players are fast becoming surplus to requirements. Yet, despite a decline in sales, budget audio kit is still very much in demand this time of year, and manufacturers continue to bring new models out in a bid to compete with Apple’s …
Top Ten Arcade Classics
Product Round-up What do you remember about being twelve? I remember spending a whole summer wishing I could hang out with the cool kids but instead nicking stuff from Woolworths and ramming coin after coin into Dragon’s Lair and Defender.
Seventeen? Sometimes I ponder my misspent youth playing pool in Sneaky Dee’s and ramming coin after coin …
Ten... budget Android smartphones
Product Round-up In barely two years, Google's Android operating system has established itself as a serious contender in the smartphone biz. It's different from Apple's iOS not just in its open source nature, but also in its use for both high-end premium handsets like Samsung’s Galaxy S and HTC’s Desire HD, but also in a raft of budget devices, …
Top Ten Retro PC Games
Product Round-up Have you ever considered the qualities a game needs to feature on your own favourites list or any top ten gaming list for that matter? Opinions vary for sure, but for me it really must be like nothing you have ever seen before or at least innovate in such a way as to be stand-alone phenomenon in its genre.
Many alcohol-fuelled …
Ten... bedside iPod docks
Product Round-up When Reg Hardware last looked at iPod docks, we focused on premium offerings intended to take pride of place in your living room. This time we turn our attentions to some of the best speaker docks for more intimate surroundings.
All the docks included can sit on your bedside table and many have an alarm clock to wake you from …
Ten... iPhone 4 cases
Product Round-up Apple successfully put the ‘antennagate’ controversy to sleep when it announced that it would provide all iPhone 4 owners with a free case. Judging by the number of uncovered iPhone 4s I see around London, not many users were that concerned. But even if you're not worried about reception woes, there are good reasons to grab …
Ten... iPhone 4 accessories
Product Round-up The fuss over ‘antennagate’ seems to have died down without damaging the reputation of the iPhone 4 too much - thanks, of course, to Apple’s decision to give away a few million free cases and bumpers. However, the new iPhone’s sleek design has inspired a wide range of other eye-catching and ingenious accessories as well, so here …
Ten... Wireless Headphones
Product Round-up The last batch of stereo Bluetooth headphones I looked at, back in 2008, were something of a mixed bag, with some cumbersome designs and very variable audio quality. Fortunately, the current generation provides much better stereo quality, and we’d happily recommend any of them as an alternative to a conventional set of wired …
Ten Essential... Symbian Apps
Product Round-up Nokia may have come a little late to the app store party, but it's Ovi Store now has plenty of software to choose from, whether you're looking for games or utilities, productivity, comms or entertainment apps.
Not sure where to start? Well, you can start by downloading the following ten apps that will help you get the most from …
