Gadget Review

Olympus DS-30 Digital Voice Review

The Olympus DS-30 is one of the latest digital voice recorders on the market. The question is would it meet my exacting demands as a journalist. Nowadays, it plays a variety of roles from dictating copy to interviewing a celebrity over the phone and a politician at their doorstep.

For me, any gadget has to fill four basic criteria. These are:

1. Is it easy to use? 2. Is it reliable? 3. Is it easy to learn how to operate?

4. Is the price right?

Olympus DM - 10 Digital Voice Recorder Review

The DM-10 promises high quality recording, with its 64 MB of built-in flash memory to enable the user to record up to 22 hours of interviews. I tried out the Olympus DM-10 when interviewing for a continental based news magazine, the controversial Danish writer Bjorn Lomborg, about why climate change is the not the priority for the world that Al Gore claims it to be. The recording's sound quality, I found was a distinct improvement on my old analogue Sony tape recorder. It was unnecessary to try out the noise cancelling features that come with its DSS Player software.

Alphasmart Neo

The Neo is a simple, minimalist keyboard, though it offers a thesaurus, spell checking and calculator functions. You can’t connect to the Internet or play Solitaire, but you can write in almost any environment! The keyboard is full-sized and wonderfully quiet - ideal for writing unobtrusively even in company. Some writers even use it while commuting, squeezing an extra hour or two of writing time into their daily schedule.

BUYING A LAPTOP

‘You need to consider what you need your laptop for. If its for a spot of listening to music, word-processing and shopping on the web, an entry level laptop, perhaps the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pro V2055 or the Toshiba Satellite Pro L100. Both are ideal for students and business people on the move. But if you are looking for laptops that match many desktops that are available, I suggest the Sony VGN-FS515H, which is ideal for editing photos and watching DVDs. However, for computer gamers, playing the latest popular computer games then it has to be the Sony VGN-TX2HP. Other features you need to consider include, screen size, weight, battery life, speed, memory and storage.’