Advantages: Lightweight, Slim, Auto-sync
Disadvantages: Shame there isn't a higher capacity

...This Freecom External Hard Drive is a 2.5" Hard Drive that has a USB interface and uses your computer's bus power to power itself. This means that an AC adapter is not required. With so few of these truly bus powered drives around, this is one of the best, followed closely by the Lacie bus powered drive. Thsi drive is ideal for laptop users who travel with a lot of data, or for those going on holiday with laptops who want to take their mp3's, movies and software with them. It is also great for transferring files to your laptop from another desktop computer. The drive is small enough to fit in a side pocket or to be held in yur hand without difficulty. The box comes with a good instruction manual, although really one is not needed. The drive is a plug and play device, and windows picks it up as any ordeinary drive. I recommend you... Read review

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Advantages: Extremely durable, vast capacity, simple to use, reasonable price
Disadvantages: Not always plug & pay ; needs software installation on a few PC's

...One thing about joining Ciao it encourages you to look objectively at the products you own or use regularly particularly if someone else may benefit. A product I like very much, use regularly and have had no problems with whatsoever is the Freecom ToughDrive Pro Hard drive 120 GB. This was given to me as a present by the man in my life (who in truth could be described as an IT geek) I have had several memory sticks in the past as I frequently carry projects to and from home, work, meetings and conferences and they have become a real part of my life and one that I couldn’t manage without ( sad but true) I’ve had problems in the past from loosing memory sticks ( not too bad if I can find them again !) because they are small or because the fiddly little clips break away (I used to keep them clipped to my car keys for safety (ha), and I... Read review

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Advantages: This allows you to carry along up to 4 hours worth of MP3 music.
Disadvantages: The buffering is not perfect.

...The Beatman is quite an achievement in that it allows you to transport up to 4 hours of music on 1 CD. To do this all I needed to do was write my MP3s onto a 210 MB Mini CD-R (these are 8 cm CDs which Freecom also manufacture). With my first attempt I fitted 34 tracks totalling about 3 hours of music. I was a bit disappointed because the CDs claim "up to" 4 hours. I first tried out the Beatman on a coach trip and I really appreciated it. At last I could listen to my choice of tracks virtually non-stop without having to reach into my bag to change CDs. However I got to be a bit disappointed when I decided to take my Beatman out with me around town. Although it looks pretty small, it was a tight fit into my jean pockets (and they are large!). The main problem however was that I had to walk lightfooted to avoid jarring it too much... Read review

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Advantages: Speed, price, ease of installation
Disadvantages: Heat (so a noisy fan is needed)

...I decided to build my own computer system around an AMD Thunderbird 750 mhz processor. I chose the Thunderbird over an Intel product because of of its superior price to performance ratio. The system was fairly easy to build, with the socket configuration of the Thunderbird processor making it very easy to install - just drop it into the motherboard socket and and fasten with a small lever. Then attach the heatsink and fan. This took a little more effort but was easy enough. I have had the system running for 2 months now and it has been reliable from the start. The speed increase from my old Pentium II is incredible, every application runs faster (especially games). I have also used the system to with packages such as Microsoft Access and Delphi, which have also shown speed increases. The fan on the processor is noisier than before... Read review

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Advantages: Sound quality, massive storage on 8cm CD-R or CD-Rw
Disadvantages: Size, battery life, does not support ID3 tags (Song name, artist, album...)

...and a monkey could probably pick them up quite rapidly. However, the player eats up batteries terribly fast. The battery life is only somewhere in the region of 6 hours. On top of this, the player did not read ID3 tags, simply numbering the track, and had something in the region of 120 seconds of anti shock memory. I would of really liked to see this player read the tags as when you have 3.5hours of music, scanning through them listening to the first few seconds and trying to work out what the song was can get a little tedious. If you are still interested, the Beatman II is now available for the price this one was retailing for last year. Its the same player at heart, but now has 12 hours battery life and 480 seconds of anti shock memory - a little more appealing I have to say=)... Read review

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Advantages: fast when running correctly
Disadvantages: quite bulky and noisy

...as there is only one drive. I was not able to install another drive and use it. System requirements ************************* Here is a list of system requirements. Windows 98SE or higher Pentium II 300Mhz 64MB RAM What you get in the box **************************** Here is a list of what you get in the box Software (Roxio Easy CD Creator 6) Blank Media Disk Freecom USB 2.0 Cable Power Supply Device Instructions The software **************** The software that came bundled with this CD-Writer is Roxio Easy CD Creator 6, it's not the full version but there is enough there to do what you need to do. So far with this software I have created a data disk, there is a nice easy to use interface where you choose the files to copy, click copy and then click on the burn icon, really easy. I have created a VCD, you have to select a new project and set... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Convenient size, usb connection for flexibility, good range of channels
Disadvantages: Stick antenna neeeds to be well placed to get a good signal.

...stopped for lunch and not fancied a walk. you get the full range of channels that are available on Freeview, I won't list them because there are so many and they vary from place to place, the scan takes a minute to update in a new location. When I am not travelling I use it on my home PC, being a slob at heart it means that I can do my work and have TV on in the corner of the screen. It is reckoned ot be the world's smallest TV receiver and at the size of a USB flash drive I can beleive it. Picture quailty is excellent on any of my laptops or PCs, the sound quailty depends on your computer's sound card and speakers. with the 5.1 surround sound speakers on my desktop PC it is quite impressive. if you want a tv for the bedroom and already have a PC there, this is a really good option to consider.... Read review

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Advantages: seemed sturdy and well-liked
Disadvantages: actually stopped working within a month of purchase date

...I purchased this "Toughdrive" to store my ever-growing digital music collection. It would work sporadically, often turning itself off. I emailed Freecom, who informed me it was a power related issue (they send you a free power adapter if you live in the UK). One marketed feature of the Freecom Toughdrive is that it derives its power from the USB port, and hence doesn't require any extra plugs. As a consequence, they are not sold with the necessary component to operate properly with low-powered notebooks. By this point, my Mac iBook wouldn't even detect that it was plugged in to the USB port. I got my power adapter, (which I had to buy from another company because I live outside the UK), and it STILL doesn't work. I want to return it, but can't because it has all my files on. AVOID THIS PRODUCT AT ALL COSTS!... Read review

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Advantages: ummmmm
Disadvantages: Doesn't work very well, slow, intermitently recognises disks, poor back up service, need I go on?

...I ordered my Freecom DVD Recorder LS USB 2.0 after my CD/DVD drive packed up on my 15 month old HP Desktop. I wanted it mainly to load CD ROM and burn DVD's from movies already converted to DVD format on my hard drive. Being that my PC had no disk drive I relied upon this external drive to load the bundled DVD burning software (Roxio 9). This took several days and many attempts. Then I tried burning my first DVD. After taking 3 hours to do a task that previously took about 30 minutes, this recorder produced a disc that no dvd player in my home recognised (and I have 4). I found the user interface very unfriendly and it simply didn't work. Needles to say, I'll be getting a refund!... Read review

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Advantages: Sleek, Light, Good sound quality, 30 mins Skype voucher and 2 yrs warranty.
Disadvantages: Only works when connected to a computer it is not standalone like some internet phones are.

...I originally started looking for a phone that can be used over the internet of more specifically VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) because my girlfriend and I were going to different universities. I had read a lot of news and other articles about how VOIP was the way to go, where rates to landlines are the cheapest of most providers and calls to other VOIP users are free. I then narrowed down my search to a phone which will work with Skype over the internet, as I think Skype is one of the easier to use and generally better VOIP services. This Freecom phone is entirely compatible with Skype, because it's "Skype Certified". My girlfriend and I planned to get two of these phones and would call each other on them, as we could both use the internet and as we would be calling another Skype user it would be free, which is always good... Read review

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