Gadgets | 1,263 views

This page is a sort of “wish list” / “have list”. I love gadgets, but not just any gadget. I tend to do a lot of research on a gadget before deciding whether it’s worth it or not.   If it’s worth it, then it’s most like on this page with a comment.

The Ultimate driving simulation aid for motor racing gaming. Take a look at this video. Given the opportunity I would get one tomorrow.

Three years ago I thought buying a Toshiba HDTV with two HDMI ports would be surfice, considering we didn’t even have a device that had a HDMI connection on it. Now I have four devices with HDMI and it was becoming a real problem. Not only that, a lot of the devices also have digital audio (XBOX360, PS3, Humax PVR, Popcorn Hour Media Centre) and it was  pointless unplugging these cables each time you want to listen or watch something.

• Introducing the Zektor HDMI5. This is the device I have finally settled on. It’s got the best features plus 5 inputs, not 4, as well as 5 Optical and 5 Coaxial inputs. I purchased it from the US as it’s a lot cheaper over there. It can also do home automation which is an added bonus.
  • This is the HDMI5 User Manual.
  • This supplemental manual describes the serial command set used by the HDMI5 RS-232 port.

• Logitech MX610 Left-Hand Cordless Mouse – You might not have thought it, but Leonardo Da Vinci, Aristotle, Mahatmah Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Mozart and my good self have something in common. Yes, like those famous figures I am left handed and much like them, I’ve always been frustrated at the lack of a computer mouse designed specifically for our way of working. Leonardo, Albert and me have always had to look on with envy at the carefully sculpted, beautifully contoured mice that have always been available for right-handers, while us lefties have had to either put up with bland non-moulded mice or suffer contorted hands.
  • Here is great review from Trusted Reviews.
• Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote Here is an excellent review on this remote. Needless to say I finally
  bought this remote to replace the seven remotes I had in my lounge. You can download some great TV icons at Square Eyes Icon Harmony. They have a great index of thousands of icons that can easily be placed on your favourite screens.  Here is a step by step guide on how to add the custom icons to your Harmony One remote.
  
• NAS Drives / Servers – There are a whole host of Network Storage Devices, so choosing one of these needs a lot of research, and time to decide which is the right one to get. I had a Synology DS-106e, until it decided to play up. Now I have the  Synology CS407 , which has 4 drives for plenty of space.
  
• Samsung HD753LJ – 750GB SATA2 hard disk I bought for the CS407. – These drives are excellent, fast and well really well in the Synology C2407
  
• I recently (May 2009) got a Myshogo digital photo frame after searching for the most up to date fully featured frame that will be future proof. There are lots of digital frames on the market but this one is pretty special in it’s feature list:
  • It has a touch screen for easy menu access,
  • has rechargeable batteries (therefore no unsightly wires,
  • has wireless built in,
  • has an ethernet port for super quick access to your network,
  • and best of all can stream photos from Flickr, Piacasso, Facebook or any RSS photo feed you have through at it. Basically the possibilities are endless. If like me you have thousands of photographs already stored online then this is the perfect gadget.
  • It’s got 1GB flash storage built in, to stores up to 25000 photos.
  • It also supports the usual array of memory cards, but honestly we don’t use the memory card option because the online optinos are so much better.
  • The frame has it’s own email address which is super cool, so you can email photos to it.
  • It’s sexy black with no logos on the front.
    
  • It has an online profile so what you do is login, and setup the feeds/photo albums that will be sent to the device. This is also a neat option because you can do this anywhere in the world, and it will update the frame automatically when it next updates. The update schedule can be set on the frame.
    
  • The frame does weather and internet radio as well.
  • It has two built in stereo speakers which are pretty good and a headphone socket out.
  • There is also a USB port for connecting to a PC and a USB host connection for plugging in external hard drives or USB sticks.
  • Highly recommended