Peter

Excellent high-capacity single-disk media streaming device, 19 May 2013

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)

This is a chunky little single-disk NAS drive, using an up-to-date high-capacity Seagate hard drive. There are some nice media and remote-access functions built in, but because there's only one drive, there's no protection against drive failure.

The unit has a curved plasic front and back, and a mesh wrap-over top and sides. This is to allow convective cooling - there's no fan, and therefore very little noise. The top becomes warm to the touch, but not by any means hot. The power plug is one of those self-assembly things where you choose the UK or European pins, and clip them onto the transformer part. The back of the drive unit has just three sockets: power, ethernet and USB… Read more

A debut album to be proud of, 13 May 2013

This is a very good debut album indeed. Aplin's talent is almost ridiculously obvious. Most of the arrangements err on the side of simplicity, giving plenty of space for Aplin's voice and words. The Power of Love is the only cover, and its relatively understated (though undoubtedly slick) arrangement ensures it doesn't stick out awkwardly from the rest of the album. Comparing the EP version of Home with the version on this album, the performance is almost identical (at least at the beginning), but the sound is much smoother, polished. It's gorgeous. Aplin's sound is quieter and more reflective than, say, Amy Macdonald, but the material is all the more powerful for its lack of flashiness… Read more

Found my keys, found my phone, 9 May 2013

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)

It's not obvious from the product listing what the difference between the two key-fob-like devices included in this pack is. In fact the oval one, which is intended to be put on your keyring, works in two directions: you can find the key-fob from your iPhone, and you can find your iPhone using the key-fob. The other (round) device, which Kensington calls a "tag", only works in one direction: it can be located from your phone, but not the other way round.

The two basic functions are loss prevention and finding lost things. Loss prevention works by making the iPhone alarm if either the fob or the tag move too far away - "too far" being configurable in the free app you need to… Read more