Advantages: Can do a variety of exercises on it
Disadvantages: Bit of an eyesore in the house

...The gym ball, swiss ball, fitness ball, stability ball or whatever other name it comes under, seems to have taken the fitness world by storm. These balls can be purchased in most sports shops, department stores, tv shopping channels, chemists and even supermarkets. They cost between £5 and £15, come with their own pump and usually an instruction leaflet or DVD. Fitness balls come in a variety of sizes, 42, 45, 55, 65 and 75cms and you should select your size depending on your height. For safety reasons, the rubber material has been designed to deflate slowly in the event of unexpected damage, so the ball should not burst suddenly, leaving the user in a heap on the floor. Pumping up the ball, with the hand pump provided does take a little time and the novice user may be unsure of how firm it should be. I'm not sure how... Read review

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Advantages: It's Pro Evolution Soccer, in handheld format for crying out loud...
Disadvantages: Some long loading times and a lack of a Master League likely to put some fans off...

...that the actual football section of the game works admirably. But for many, the lack of creating your own team from scratch, training players into world beaters and looking for the best youngsters to bring into your club may put them off the purchase completely. Ultimately Pro Evolution Soccer on the PSP can't escape that same feeling that pervades many of its format stable-mates - that it's slightly over-ambitious. The PSP is a powerful piece of machinery but it's not yet ready for PS2 games to be merely copied and pasted into the format. For some its technical short-comings and the lack of a serious single-player challenge will prove a recurring irritant. With that in mind, though, we should be thankful for the necessary tweaks to fit the PSP and the great deal of effort Konami's coders have done to even get the game released on the system... Read review

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Advantages: many
Disadvantages: brands vary

...experiences. ~ The package ~ As I bought an OEM version(no fancy packing), I simpy got a brown box with everything inside it. This may sound stupid but you pay extra for a nice fancy detailed box when the contents are exactly the same. So I chose to save money. Inside was .... ATI Radeon X800Pro graphics card All the cables required A DVI converter Driver disc These were individually wrapped in plastic bags and the card was wrapped in an anti-static bag as required. The box was lined with foam and cover with a platic postage bag. Nothing special to look at but thats why it was cheaper. ~ Installation ~ The card itself is a PCI-Express design which means it will only fit into motherboards with that design too. Installation was simple, just plugged it in, locked it in place and plug monitor cable into it... Read review

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Advantages: seem to work
Disadvantages: price

...better I am not sure but wither way I am very impressed. The difference in the standard brush head and this new PRO design is the fact that the few middle brushes that the old head held in the centre have been removed and replaced by a yellow rubber type centre which is said to polish and buff the teeth to bring through the natural whiteness. The head pretty much looks the same with the same colourings of the turquoise bristles and the white bristles although I think they have shaped the PRO brush head slightly different meaning it really attacks each tooth with an enclosed bristle actions. The main difference of course is this rubber centre which to be honest I was fairly apprehensive of because it doesn’t really look as comfortable to use as the old design does. The head will fit any of the rechargeable Braun Oral... Read review

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Advantages: Looks great (different to other mats), Responsive, Durable, Less sliding, Comfortable, Cheaper than arcades in long-run, Play at home, Practice
Disadvantages: Requires space to play, More difficult to store, Less of an arcade feel

...Intro. • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ This is a review of the Logic3 PRO dance mat, a better and ‘meaner’ version of the Logic3 dance mat. A dance mat is a video game controller made specifically for dance games such as Dancing Stage (UK version of Dance Dance Revolution), although they can be used with regular games. Dance games can be found for the PC, XBox, Playstation, PS2, some connect directly to the TV, and maybe some for some other games consoles, but the Logic3 Pro mat I am reviewing is for the Playstation (PSX) or Playstation 2 (PS2). I’ve only got a PSX so have used the mat on that. You can use a regular joypad/joystick with dance games but that would be no fun. You can also use the dance mat as the controller for regular games, which would probably make them quite interesting and a lot more challenging. Would be a bit... Read review

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Advantages: Small and handy
Disadvantages: None

...it upward and exposure compensation becomes available. Press it downward and white balance options appear. The Lens The Pro1's lens is a 7.2 - 50.8mm f/2.2 - 3.5L optic. This is equivalent to 28-200mm in familiar 35mm terms. The big news here is that this is an "L" Series lens, the first time that Canon has applied this designation to any lens other than pro-level lenses for its SLR cameras The lens is provided with the usual petal-shaped lens shade. I'm not crazy about its design though. It doesn't fit firmly. When twisted into place it locks, but then a bit more firm pressure and it continues to rotate. Also, the front of the lens is not threaded for filters. Instead Canon provides a filter adaptor which bayonettes on and which then can take 58mm filters. But, the provided lens shade does not then fit. This is simply not an acceptable... Read review

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Advantages: Still makes for entertaining nights in
Disadvantages: Konami are stupid meddling meddlers

...I was looking forward to was an enhanced online mode. Surely Konami weren't going to let us down on all fronts? I'm afraid to report the pattern remains depressingly consistent. There are known issues with the online matchmaking system, but really this should be bread and butter stuff by now for an experienced developer. It can take upwards of 30 minutes to find a match, which is totally absurd. Worse still, the limited functionality that is provided (only 1 v 1 capability on the 360) is serviced by a confusing menu system which does nothing to welcome you into online play. Lag is also a frequent intruder, rendering many games a battle to see who can avoid fitting the longest before the other one quits. Now you're probably thinking I hate Pro Evo 6. I don't. It's just I'm horrifically disappointed. I expected something special and got... Read review

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Advantages: Superb manual, thorough and well structured
Disadvantages: Slightly Inflexible in places

...although for some strange reason, these need to be accessed online. Whilst useful as inspiration, it is best to avoid plagiarising them too much as it would be easier to just write your own than to worry about editing them to fit in your own details. I did come across some minor glitches along the way. Opening up the online help produces a scripting error every time although it didn't stop the help from appearing or working. I also noticed some sections referred to chapters in the manual that didn't tie up e.g. I was referred to "Chapter 9: Planning for Implementation" when chapter 9 actually contained information on working with Microsoft Word. Another odd one is that it is impossible to delete the first row in tables although subsequent rows can be removed. Conclusion I was very impressed with Business Plan Pro 2004. It can cope... Read review

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Advantages: Packed full of features, super macro mode is the best in its class!
Disadvantages: so many features its quite difficult to use at first, you can now buy the s7000!

...Purchased the pro version for my birthday last year. I had found an excellent deal - i managed to get the pro version for £30 more than the standard one. Basically this is a 3megapixal camera which interpolates to 6 megapixal. In fairness this does not offer the image quality at 6mp of a true 6pm camera. however its very close to it. Boot up times are very quick, loading in around 3 seconds. The pro version adds the following features: Studio flash socket 340mb microdrive (somehow I had a 512mb micro drive - no complants there as they are around £80.00 a piece!). Cable release thread All in all the only reason for the average user to go for the pro version is the bargin of a cheap IBM microdrive (the standard and pro versions also come with a 16mb smart media card - ok but at best resolution you can't fit even one image... Read review

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Advantages: Does pretty much everything a good SLR should do, but cheaper
Disadvantages: You can't change the lenses. Plus other little things. Read on...

...can be parameterised. I can adjust the startup sound volume and tone, the self-timer delay, the white balance, the ISO setting - in short, everything I could adjust on my EOS50 mid-to-high-end SLR, and a good deal more. Battery life is also good (well over 200 photos before needing a recharge). A slightly fiddly aspect of the camera setup is the filter/lens hood arrangement. Canon have opted for an unnecessarily complex design here, with a 'snap-on' hood. Or you can attach the filter adapter, to which you then attach 58mm filters. But then the hood won't fit! The joy of the Powershot Pro 1, however, is that you don't HAVE to do any of this. These are all parameters you can play around with once you get used to the basic features. The white balance setting, though, is particularly good at warming up indoor shots with tungsten light... Read review

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