WiFi is a wonderful thing. It has untethered us from the corner of the lounge where the phone is; allowed us to make more use of our mobiles without being taken to the cleaners by exorbitant 3G/4G costs and saved us from all manner of trip hazards in the home and small offices. Unfortunately, this flexibility comes at a cost. WiFi using current protocols is far slower than over an ethernet connection. 802.11n may have a maximum throughput of 300Mbit/s, but a gigabit ethernet connection will have at least 3x that.

This may not matter so much for a straightforward broadband connection with one laptop connected to a single ADSL connection --your connection will not get anywhere near the maximum speed of the Wifi connection, at least for a few years. However, if you have a network storage device, or a network that includes a number of desktop computers that need to pass data between one another, the extra speed of an ethernet connection will be noticeable.

This is where this device comes in. You may be able to get away with the spare ports on the back of your ADSL router --I think my BT Homehub has four on the back. However, move beyond those and you're going to need a switch like this. This allows you to connect another seven devices to your network (one is used to connect your router/modem.

This device is pretty unassuming. It maintains a solid connection; runs pretty cool and requires no configuration whatsoever. It satisfies my needs in the home networking department. Thumbs up.

I love this stuff. I've recently gone back to using film after a decade of digital and I've been trying out different films each time. Sadly, I've not yet invested in any chemicals or darkroom equipment and frankly, I don't have the room or the time to get into developing at home just yet.

Fortunately, XP2 can be processed using the C41 machine at your local supermarket photo lab, making it really convenient for people who don't want to or can't develop at home. Unfortunately the result is a hint of colour in the prints where there shouldn't be.

If you scan your negatives into your computer, this blue/green tinge disappears and you are left with nicely contrasted images with a subtle hint of grain.

The trouble is, I think I'm going to have to pick up a 2nd SLR body pretty soon. Having B&W film in the camera leaves you in a fix when you arrive at a situation that calls for a bit of colour!

There are two types of coffee grinders in this world --blade grinders and burr grinders. Burr grinders are the better option, but blade grinders are a lot cheaper. The main difference between the two is that burr grinders tend to provide more consistent results and blade grinders will often chop the beans up unevenly. They also put the coffee quite close to the hot, spinning motor, potentially cooking the coffee if you're not careful.

That being said, you CAN get a decent grind suitable for an espresso machine with a blade grinder like this. You just have to put a bit more effort into it than you would with a decent burr grinder. To start with, measure out enough coffee (a large tablespoon full of beans for each cup, for example). Put the top on and grind the beans in 10 second bursts. Check the results, pause for a short while to allow the motor to cool, then repeat until the coffee starts to resemble coarse flour.

Ultimately, if an espresso grind is what you are after, you should really consider budgeting for a decent burr grinder. Results can be inconsistent and channeling can occur with an uneven grind. A burr grinder will allow you to get consistent, repeatable results that you just can't get with a blade grinder that has no timer and no settings of any description.

I have a KG49 and have achieved some decent results with it, but I'm looking to buy one of these instead, mainly to take the guesswork out of grinding coffee.
Dualit 75015 Coffee Grinder, Black

Reviewing an espresso machine is tricky. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of saying "it makes good coffee" or, "it makes bad coffee". There are so many variables to take into account --is the water quality ok; is the grind just right and did you use sufficient pressure when tamping the coffee. You also need to find the right beans for your tastes. Beans from dry, arid countries like Kenya will taste a lot different to those from tropical or rainforest regions like Columbia and Costa Rica for example.

Getting your espresso just right is arguably more to do with technique than the machine itself. Fortunately, this Gaggia does at least give you the tools you need to have a pretty good stab at the perfect shot. The standard 15-bar pump is here, as is a full-size 58mm portafilter that is reassuringly heavy, metal and fitted with two spouts for your coffee to travel down. There's also a milk-frother/steamer that my Costa-trained wife is very happy with. As with all steamers you need to make sure you are using a metal espresso jug or a plastic one at a push. Pyrex and ceramic jugs take too long to warm up, so I'm told.

I only have one gripe with my Gaggia at this moment. The portafilter spout is designed in such a way that if the grind is a little too coarse and the flow a little too fast, coffee will spurt out horizontally from the machine, showering anything in the vicinity. This isn't a huge problem, but if you are experimenting with a new grinder and trying to find the right setting, it's just something to be aware of --have some kitchen roll handy!

I'd also recommend buying a metal tamper as the plastic one included in the box isn't the best - it also isn't flat and has a seam across the surface.

It does have a plastic outer shell, but I'm able to get a great cuppa from it and that is all that really matters.

Truth be told, running Windows on my Mac doesn't interest me that much. I spend a fair amount of time testing Linux distributions and have been using Parallels and Virtualbox for this until now.

VMWare Fusion 5 comes with both a DVD and a USB-based installer. As the DVD drive is starting to disappear from Mac hardware, this was a nice touch (if a little necessary).

Installing Ubuntu in VMware is a breeze. The whole process is guided from start to finish. You simply give it a username & password and it takes care of the rest, even installing VMware tools for you. Other distributions don't fare so well. Mint for example requires manual installation of VMware Tools, but there is a comprehensive help document included in the Tools installer to help you get everything up and running.

Performance is good, Flash video plays full-screen without judder on my 2011 iMac, which is more than can be said for Virtualbox and Parallels.

Great product.

Few photographers have inspired me enough to want to buy their book, but Vivian Maier is the exception. After seeing her images appear on the BBC news website a couple of years ago I've been in awe. Her collection is only now being discovered, but this book represents the best of what they have so far.

The book itself provides an engaging collection of images of which there are over 100 pages worth, plus some self-portraits thrown in for good measure. There's very little text to speak of, mainly because very little was known of her. Maloof did a good job of filling two pages in the foreword at the beginning, but in all honesty, Maier was a bit of a mystery. Beyond the foreword, it's pretty much all photographs right up until the back cover.

Whether you like street photography or not, this book gives an incredible insight into US city life during the 60s & 70s. I love it and I keep it on my desk to dip into whenever the mood takes me.

As a camera the ST200F is pretty impressive. It manages to pack a mean 16 megapixels into its small frame and offers a good range of shooting modes to experiment with. I normally shoot with a DSLR and find the lack of control over depth of field on a compact camera frustrating. However, the ST200F offers a very good Macro mode that lets you get up close to your subject whilst isolating it from its background. There is also a useful portrait mode that will detect a face in the shot and crop the image around it.

Image quality is very good, but as is the norm with these small cameras, the flash is invariably overpowering and gives the shot an unpleasant, washed-out look. You can turn it off, fortunately but doing that limits you to shooting in good light only. I guess it is useful if a bad shot is better than no shot at all. Shutter lag is minimal though.

Where this camera really falls down is with the wifi features. Compact cameras are seeing their market gradually eaten away by mobile phones. The main reason for this is that cameras on phones are pretty good these days and they offer the ability to upload your image to the internet straight away. Unsurprisingly, the compact camera market is trying to adapt, but the way Samsung has implemented wifi on the ST200F is a bit of a waste of time. If you have an iPhone you can download their app, which lets you transfer your images wirelessly to your phone. However, this involves disconnecting your phone from your home wifi network (if you have one) and connecting it to a wifi signal your camera is broadcasting.

Unfortunately, the process is even more complicated than it sounds. If the app can't see a camera to connect to, it quits immediately, so you have to start the process on the camera then quickly load the app and hope that it all works out. It is prohibitively fiddly and you are unlikely to bother with that feature more than once. I've been unsuccessful in connecting it directly to my home router, but I can get it talking to my Samsung TV reasonably easily - again with a direct connection.

Another problem is the battery life. It seems to run flat quickly, whether you are using it or not.

These niggles aside, it isn't a bad camera but if the wifi feature is important to you, you might want to look elsewhere.

I think it is fair to say that the hype surrounding the Dyson range of vacuum cleaners is something that passed me by. I always thought they looked ridiculous and were overpriced for what they were. At the supermarket they were always stood next to similar-looking Vax and Electrolux bagless cleaners but invariably priced £50-£100 higher. Truth be told, if I hadn't received one through the Vine programme I never would have bought one, certainly not at this end of the range.

Sadly, I'd have been missing out because the DC40 is a brilliant bit of kit. I don't think I could ever call myself a vacuum cleaner enthusiast, despite this being the 2nd vacuum cleaner I've reviewed on Amazon, but compared to the previous one it is night & day. Admittedly, there is a £300 difference in price.

On paper there is very little to distinguish between the DC40 and the Vax U90-P2-P Power 2 Pet Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner with Improved Wattage. They both offer a similar air-wattage figure, they're both bagless and boast their pet power credentials. In truth, both will get your carpets just as clean but that is where their paths start to head in different directions.

You get the feeling with the Dyson that they've really put a lot of thought into the design. There are a number of tweaks and features that help you get around the various obstacles your house. For example, we have a number of rugs in the lounge to reduce the wear on the carpet in the high traffic areas. The Vax will struggle at the edge of the rug where it meets the carpet. Without all four sides of the suction head on the carpet the Vax collects almost nothing, but the Dyson has a flange on the underside that maintains better contact with the two surfaces and it continues to suck just fine. The flanged head also maintains better contact with normal carpet too, ensuring that you need to spend less time going over the same spot.

The ball design on the Dyson really does help you manoeuvre around the room, getting you into tight corners and makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. Yes, I did say enjoyable.

For other furnishings like the curtains and the sofa, the extension hose is built into the handle and the plastic tube retracts into the hose when you are finished with it, unlike the Vax which requires some assembly every time you need to use it. This allows you to seamlessly move between surfaces, even if there isn't anywhere particularly convenient to store the brushed 2nd head besides leaving it poking out of the top of the handle.

When you have finished cleaning and need to empty the canister, you simply point the end of the canister into the bin and press the eject button. With the Vax the filter is inside the canister and collects hair and dust in the folds, which requires plucking out and a light tap on the floor to clear. On the Dyson, the filter is somewhere else entirely and there's nothing for the dust and hair to stick to. It's a subtle difference, but it is a significant improvement in day to day use.

Now, a reality check. The Vax will get your carpets just as clean for £300 less, but it won't be as easy (or enjoyable) and you'll have to get used to picking hair and dust out of the filter. The Dyson isn't a necessary purchase in that regard. You can get a perfectly adequate cleaner for £70, but now that I've had a Dyson I'd try to find the extra cash if I could. You could say I've been converted.

For virtualisation applications on the Mac you have a number of options. The free option is Oracle's Virtualbox and it's a fine option, it's powerful and infinitely configurable. The paid options are VMWare Fusion and Parallels and both are highly regarded in the tech press. The new Parallels app offers the ability to virtualise Mac OSX, allowing you to run something like Snow Leopard in a virtual machine on your Lion desktop.

I've used Parallels 7 with Windows Vista Ultimate, PC-BSD 9, Ubuntu 11.10 and a number of other linux distributions. Performance in Windows Vista on my 27" iMac is perfectly acceptable and very useable. Best of all, it provides the option of using your Windows applications on your OSX desktop side by side, dispensing with the traditional desktop furniture.

Performance in Linux and BSD is just as good, but check the usual support forums for any oddities with the current versions. PC-BSD would only work once a particular version had been released.

Where Parallels comes into its own is with the accompanying iOS application. This allows me to view and use my virtual machines and my OSX desktop from downstairs in the lounge using my iPad or iPhone. Control is pretty clunky and not very precise, but if you are running a load of updates to your Windows VM or waiting for a long process to complete being free to get on with other things whilst you wait and still keep an eye on things is incredibly useful.

Unlike Virtualbox the Parallels user interface is a lot more polished and in many ways it is easier to use. Default settings usually work and it is rare that I need to delve into the finer details to make changes. You simply load the application, follow the prompts and point towards the ISO file or disk you want to install from.

As much as I like Parallels, my advice would be to first check out Virtualbox to see if it will do what you want, but if you want to control your virtual machines from iOS or run an OSX desktop virtually, this is an excellent way to do it.

The Mac is famed for its ease of use and that it just "gets out of your way" and of course, that other one - "It just works". Sadly, for Windows users who have made the leap over to the mac, there are a few head-scratching quirks that can halt you in your tracks when you first come across them. The first one that comes to mind is writing to a CD or DVD. Who would have thought that dragging the disc icon to the trash would start the burn process?

This is where the OSX Lion for Dummies book comes in really handy. If you've just moved over to the mac, or even if you've managed to avoid computers generally, the book is very helpful. Most if not all of the bundled applications are covered but laid out as tasks rather than applications. Topics such as preferences, music, organisation and file sharing are all covered in a very light-hearted and jargon-free way. It is a "for dummies" book though, so it does cover a lot of the incredibly obvious. Having said that, I've been using a mac for a few years and I've still managed to pick up a few Lion-specific things I didn't know or didn't appreciate.

At over 460 pages, it is perhaps not a book to carry around with you, but within easy reach of your desk. You'll probably find yourself dipping into it more than you know. If you are on the move a lot, there is an ebook edition, whether you are a kindle user Mac OS X Lion For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) or an iBooks user. The benefit of the eBook would be the ability to search for the bit you want rather than trawl through the index.

Useful book, especially for the novices right through to the keen amateur.