Advantages: Build quality, price,easy to use.
Disadvantages: Limited speed (USB2), no software.

...Before you buy this product, it's worth making sure that it's the one for you as there are 3 versions - Pro, Premium and Essential. As the name suggests, "Essential" gives you the basics - 500MB with USB2 support. It's easy to install, and although it should work via an additional powered usb hub (if you have one), it's probably safer to use a spare USB port direct to your machine. Other than that, it's really just a question of plugging it in and away you go. Your only main concern is which file system it comes preformatted with - at the time of writing it's FAT32, and most users will probably want to make their first job that of changing this to NTFS, which is both simple and quick. 500GB is obviously loads of space for either making backups on, or holding ripped copies of DVDs. The "Essential" edition has perhaps just two main... Read review

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Advantages: looks great, quiet, funky green ring light on the front, good value, easy/no setup
Disadvantages: cant think of any yet

...hard drive, i also wanted to have a backup of everything that is on my laptop, this my book allows me to do this, as i only had 2 usb ports on my laptop, i also had to buy a one to 4 usb hub to give me more inputs for example my mouse, webcam etc, this only cost me 5 pounds and may not be an issue to yourselves. soon after buying this, my flatmate bought the very same package, mybook 250 gb and a usb hub. overall i tihnk its a great buy, its great value, looks great and does the job very well.....what more can we ask for?!... Read review

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Advantages: Special Offers, Great Variety, Easy To Use
Disadvantages: Editors Choices, Postage Charges, Minimum Membership Orders

...for yourself from the starter offers and don't even have to pay postage. My Introductory Offer this time around came to £6.99 for which I got the following: The Elder Gods by David and Leigh Eddings Dragon's Kin by Anne and Todd McCaffrey New Spring by Robert Jordan Snare by Katherin Kerr and (a 2 book set by Terry Goodkind) The Pillars of Creation and Naked Empire Each book was in hardback version with exception of Snare. Not bad huh? Once you're a member you're committed to buying a book from every magazine for the first 4 mags you get. Be aware that not all of the special offers and sets count towards your membership. You also have access to other special deals such as pre-ordering books due to be published, buy two get one free, sales supplements, special edition books, extra leaflets offering access to other book clubs such as History... Read review

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Advantages: small, lots of storage and really reliable
Disadvantages: less portable than a small form hard disk drive, needs main to use

...This is my second hard drive. The first one I bought was a sony vaio that I bought off of ebay - a portable 120GB hard disk drive from the far east. It started giving me disk read and write errors about three to four months after I bought it. Moral of the story, buy from a reputable manufacturer and seller. So I bought this from Amazon co uk, who are by far a superior online seller. Prices have come down and i managed to get this for £60 including free delivery. The drive is compact, not portable. It needs to be plugged into mains as well as the computer which makes it less portable, but it is so quiet I can't even hear that is switched on even when it is writing or reading. I would highly recommend this product or even one of the bigger sized ones, though I couldn't afford the 1TB mybook. Remember 500GB is marketing, actual... Read review

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Advantages: Cheapest books available online
Disadvantages: Ugly, cumbersome site with little additional information

...for those paperbacks that are impossible to find in second-hand bookshops. The prices are 5-10% below amazon and there are no shipping costs to be calculated. For orders less than £50, there is a flat fee of £2.40. For orders above £50, shipping is free. I have bought a variety of books from swotbooks over the past three years usually in orders of £50 or more. On each occasion my order has been fulfilled promptly and accurately with the books arriving in excellent condition. The website is garish and the search facilities a little annoying especially when searching by author. Books are rarely accomanied by a picture but once I have chosen the version of a book that I want at amazon I search for it at swotbooks using the ISBN number to ensure that I get the same edition. You will definitely find books that amazon is selling cheaper than... Read review

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Advantages: The Discovery of The Beauty of Fact
Disadvantages: The Discovery of The Void of Fiction

...or not it is better than the 1986 front-cover that portrays various world recorder-holders as cartoon caricatures! Improvement 2: The Colour The 1986 edition had many different colours. Unfortunately, all of these colours were splashed out on the front cover. And, although, the 1986 edition contains photographs -they are all in black and white. I did not mind the absence of colour in the earlier editions but I must admit that some of the colour photographs in the 2003 edition have certainly made the book come to life. You must check out two of my favourite photographs: ‘the golden necks’ of the women of Paduang, a tribe in Burma, who hold the record for having the longest human necks in the world and the picture of the man who can hold the most straws in his mouth. Improvement 3: The new Category entitled Human Achievement Still not convinced. Well... Read review

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Advantages: great, simple game
Disadvantages: none

...Monopoly is one of my all-time fav games.... i even forked out 60 quid for the millenium edtion..... all i can say about this game is that it is a game that you can enjoy from the tender age of 3 to the just as tender age of 103.... there is so much that this simple game can offer Monopoly is a great way to break the ice at get-togethers... its a great way to reacquaint ourselves with friends we have long lose touch with... its a great way for a family to spend an hr or 2..... and its a great for couples to play (with a twist of course =P) I guess the reason that monopoly has proved to be this popular is beacuse it is not bounded by anything.. there are tons of versions of monopoly... from monopoly junior, to monopoly (singapore edition) to monopoly the man U edition.... there is a monopoly for everyone.... All households should have... Read review

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Advantages: Very easy to use
Disadvantages: USB only

...The ‘Essential Edition’ of the Western Digital MyBook only has USB2.0, which for me, is fine as I can plug it into any computer I wish. Other editions include Firewire, which of course costs more and not all computers support Firewire. It has a (fairly long) 3m power cable, a standard USB (type B) cable to connect to the computer and the box itself, that is very simple to set up and to use. The front has a green circle that lights up when switched on and flickers when in use. Apart from that, it is completely black in colour and has no other distinguishing features. It took me 2 minutes to set up and start to use, and that included opening the cardboard packaging! I decided to buy the 500gb capacity, as I already had another external hard disk which has 320gb, which was completely full. I needed another 500gb as backup and storing... Read review

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Advantages: Great Book, Comprehensive, Easy To Read Once You Grasp The Basics
Disadvantages: Need The Advanced Book For Year 2, Pricey.

...are a student going off to start your first year in a built environment course this September, don't buy this book for prior reading unless you already have some background in the subject because it may not make full sense yet! The book states it is suitable for first year students and suggests that the Barry's Advanced edition is suitable for year 2 onwards. This does make it quite an expensive book for 30 weeks of the year, although I did get a lot out of this book, I would certainly check with lecturers before buying this book. I would certainly recommend this book just on the fact of how useful I found it in my first year, it covers a wide range of topic and at least 50% of these would be essential to any built environment course. I personally feel that even though I will probably need to buy the Advanced version of this book for next year, I... Read review

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Advantages: Over 2200 entries and loads of useful info!
Disadvantages: No pictures! Some high profile TV stars missing!

...Being an autograph collector I’m always on the look out for interesting books and the TV Times Who’s On Television is just such a book! It’s filled to bursting with entries on over 2200 television personalities. These entries detail the professional work of each personality, television work; films; radio plays and series and to a lesser extent stage work. Where dates and places of birth are known these are also given as well as hobbies! But best of all for us autograph collectors the book also gives contact addresses for each personality - usually agents or managers addresses. Also included at the back of the book are useful addresses like Television Companies and Production Companies. This is now my third edition of the book and unlike the previous two editions this latest does not include a black and white photo of each personality... Read review

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