Miele, the premium household appliance manufacturer will in April launch an all-new Combination Steam Oven — the Miele DGC 5080 XL — a fully-fledged oven and steam cooker in one appliance. The new oven offers a larger cabinet (39 litre) despite having a height of only 45 cm and demand in Germany has been so high that production targets have had to be increased. It will be available in April 2010.

Anyone familiar with the earlier steam oven models with appreciate the increased cabinet size, achieved by moving the water reservoir from beside the cabinet to a redesigned water-tray above it. This means that baking trays from the larger Miele ovens can be used in this combination model.

The dual functions of the oven can be used separately, or combined for specific cooking requirements.

Other features of the Miele DGC 5080 steam oven include:

• Oxygen sensor measures and regulates the amount of steam in the oven
• Automatic and Gourmet settings; wireless roast probe
• Stainless steel interior surface with non-stick PerfectClean finish
• Soak programme for heavy soiling
• Finished in fingerprint-resistant CleanSteel
• Also available as a plumbed-in model (DGC 5085 XL)

According to Miele, the oven combines

‘all the benefits of steam cooking with the programs and usability of a conventional oven to increase cooking abilities.’

And is:

‘unparalleled for roasting meat’

As it features an oxygen sensor and wireless roast probe to test if meat is moist and properly cooked.

The XL’s cooking abilities are available to cooks of various ability levels as it incorporates a number of automatic and gourmet programmes that allow a gourmet to cook just the way they like it and a hobbyist cook to follow the oven’s instructions and get it just right.

The oven is also available as a plumbed-in model (DGC 5085 XL). Both models go on sale in April.

Miele products have a good reputation for quality and durability and this is reflected in the price of around $3000.

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Miele have launched a ‘hybrid’ vacuum cleaner. No, it doesn’t have a gasoline engine but earns its ‘hybrid’ label because, like your laptop, it can be powered either by the mains or by a lithium-ion battery — and switches seamlessly between the two.

I was introduced to the Miele S4812 vacuum cleaner at the new Miele Gallery in West London which is a promotional venue for the company where the Miele vacuum cleaner was put through its paces on an assault course of dirty carpets, food-covered car seats and a stair-case covered in a variety of small household objects.

Concept

First, the hybrid label is nothing to do with the S4812’s ‘eco’-credentials. It’s not about saving electricity as you vacuum your home by switching power sources. The ‘hybrid’ nature of the Miele cleaner is to provide convenience for the user: extending range and allowing the cleaner to be used where no power supply is available or just to prevent power leads from being trailed across the house as you clean.

The Meile S4812 is therefore able to replace conventional full-sized vacuum cleaners as well as miniature ‘dust-devil’-like portable models.

Where the S4812 can claim to be environmentally-friendly is in the newly designed vacuum head which has been optimized for low-wattage cleaning, and a variable suction control so you only use as much power as you need for each floor surface.

The Miele S4812 is base on the S4 vacuum cleaner but with the addition of lithium-ion batteries that can run the cleaner at 600W for up to twenty minutes (compared to 1800W normal operation). This allows you to pull the chord out of the AC supply and carry on cleaning beyond the range of the mains lead (9m). When the cleaner is plugged in again the battery recharges and the user can switch between power sources any time the mains lead is plugged in.

Batteries

The batteries are made to last about ten years and charge in about three hours. Recharging is automatic and there is no need for an external charger. This function is assumed by the so-called AutoLoad function: As soon as mains power is reapplied, the electronic controls check whether the battery is fully charged and, where necessary, begins recharging. A charge indicator provides information on the recharging progress. The battery power remaining is indicated by a series of lights.

Lithium ion batteries are not prone to the memory effect we all know and love on mobile phone batteries so that batteries can be recharged at any time and are always ready for use.

Durability

The casing of the Miele S4812 is of ABS plastic and is said to be able to withstand a load of 100Kg. This was demonstrated to me by a sales representative standing on the casing with no ill effects (although she didn’t look anything like 100Kg!).

The hose is made of a memory material that even after severe stress (see video above) returns to its original form afterwards and does not split even after knotting.

Safety

The underside of the hose handle has an integrated metallic strip which is in direct contact with the hand when cleaning. This is an anti-static strip which prevents the user from receiving static shock from charges that build up from moving the cleaning head back and forth across a carpet.

Cleaning

Cleaning is initiated by pressing the power button on the casing which is large enough to be operated by foot. If the cleaner is plugged in to an AC mains supply the S4812 will operate at 1800W. If it is being run off the battery, 600W. If pushing the head over the floor becomes difficult because of the suction this can be dialled down by rotating a simple control on the back of the casing.

The head of the S4812 has a foot-operated switch which deploys a brush for use on hard floors. This lifts the metallic parts of the head above the floor to prevent scratching. The brushes themselves have a ‘castellated’ profile to allow air to pass under the head and into the cleaner and prevents the cleaner from sucking itself rigidly to the floor!

When you’re done cleaning and un-plug the mains a button on the casing quickly reels in the power lead.

Attachments

The Meile S4812 hybrid vacuum cleaner comes with the following attachments:

• Dusting brush — lampshades, blinds, picture frames, pelmets
• Crevice brush — narrow places such as between sofa cushions
• Upholstery brush — furniture, curtains, car interiors

Filtration

The Miele hybrid is filtered courtesy of AirClean’s latest generation of HEPA filters. Theses filters have 9 layers of filtering material to minimize amount of dust and pollutants that pass through the system and back out into the room.

The bags are FJM and have an integrated mesh that protects the bag material from sharp objects and prevents splitting.

If that wasn’t enough the bags also incorporate air flow guides so ensure that air and dust reaches all four corners of the bag so you don’t have to change them so often!

Miele recommends changing the filter once for every five bag changes.

Noise

Maximum sound levels are 77 dB and 69 dB for AC and battery operations respectively.

Price

The Meile S4812 will go on sale in March 2010 and is expected to sell at prices from £499, € 770.

Conclusion

The Miele hybrid is based on the Miele S4 vacuum cleaner and inherits the S4’s compact design and relatively low weight. Thanks to hybrid battery and switching technology, Miele’s hybrid is a fully fledged vacuum cleaner when connected to the mains supply but also offers all the freedom of a battery-powered unit in one package. The duration of battery operation depends on the power setting and offers a maximum of 20 minutes of vacuum cleaning.

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Canon’s EOS 7D has been around since September so time for a belated hands-on test of its abilities. We got hold of the EOS 7D along with the EFS 18-135mm lens and put it through its paces at Rickmansworth Aquadrome and Oxhey Woods.

The EOS 7D slots between the EOS 50D and the EOS 5D MkII in terms of price and features. In fact, its very similar to the 5D MkII on features except that it uses a smaller sensor (5184 x 3456 against 5616 x 3744). The EOS 7D is priced at up to $1700 while the 50D is around $1000 and the 5D MkII: $2700.

The main features of the EOS 7d are:

• 18MP APS-C crop sensor (new design)
• Continuous shooting at up to 8 fps
• Multi-axis cross-type 19-point AF grid
• 100% viewfinder with 1x magnification
• Environmental sealing
• LP-E6 battery (same as EOS 5D MkII)
• HD video at 1920 x 1080 pixels with frame rates of 24, 25 and 30 fps
• Dual Axis Electronic Level
• Integrated wireless speedlite control
• Manual control of aperture in HD movie mode.
• ISO 100-6400 plus “H” (12800)
• iFCL metering includes a 63-zone dual-layer metering sensor that reads both illumination and color

Controls

The top screen and dials are in a layout familiar to most Canon camera users and consists of a 10-position dial with the following modes:

• C1, C2, C3 – Custom modes allow registration of most of the camera functions, so, for example, you can set C1 to Aperture Priority, ISO 800, Highlight Tone Priority on, Spot metering and Single Shot AF
• B – Bulb
• M – manual
• Av – Aperture Priority
• Tv – Shutter Priority
• P – Auto (intelligent) program mode sets aperture and shutter speed, but leaves all other camera settings up to the user
• CA – creative auto is similar to the green square mode (in fact it defaults to it), but you can bias exposure towards larger or smaller apertures, darker or lighter images
• [] = Green Square -  is basically a “point and shoot” mode where the camera sets everything for you

On the right of the camera is the monochrome LCD (which can be illuminated), along with buttons for:

• ISO selection/FEC (flash exposure compensation)
• AF/Drive mode setting and metering mode/white balance setting.

With any one button the main control dial (near the shutter release) sets one parameter while the rear QCD (Quick control dial) sets the other.

Most of the rear of the camera is taken up by the three-inch LCD screen as well as the QCD (the large dial to the right). The button above the QCD acts like a miniature joystick and is used to navigate through the various menus. Near the view-finder is a start/stop button which in camera mode starts and stops LiveView mode (the ability to use the LCD screen as a viewfinder) and in video mode starts and stops recording and playback.

Five buttons down the left hand side of the camera back are:

• Menu – this brings up the camera control menus
• Picture Style – This allows selection of a picture style setting
• Info – This cycles through various information displays which can overlay or replace an image
• Playback – used to recall and image or movie
• Delete – used to delete files

Autofocus

Canon has introduced a completely new AF system for the EOS 7D. Its a 19-zone system divided into three regions the centre of which is a high precision sensor based on the AF system of the EOS 5D which can also detect horizontal and vertical lines. The basic AF system requires lenses of f5.6 and faster and the high-precision system requires f2.8 or faster.

In auto mode the EOS 7D can either select from all 19 AF zones or the user can restrict the camera to one or more of the regions (right, left, top, bottom, centre). Using the custom function III-12 different region selections can be used for different camera orientations.

the EOS 7D introduces “Spot AF Mode” which allows the user to select any of the 19 zones and reduce the size down to a smaller area to further restrict the autofocus area. The 7D also has focus point expansion previously only available on 45-point models such as the 1D. This allows one point to be the primary autofocus point but surrounding points are also used.

Resolution

The EOS 7D has the highest pixel density of ant APS-C DSLR, which is to say it has the highest pixel count (18MP) and the smallest pixels (4.3 micron pixel pitch). This is theoretically great for cropping but may result in more noise. The images below show an example of tight  cropping (click on any of the images below for the full-size version)

In use

In general landscape or portrait images the EOS 7D had no trouble making sense of the scene and focussing accordingly.

Zooming in on the higher branches in this image we can see that the autofocus seems to have compromised between some of the nearest objects as the primary focus point as none are particularly sharp.

Conclusions

The most significant feature of the EOS 7D is the autofocus system although our tree photo seems to have caught it out. The new 19-point system incorporates features that will appeal to those doing action or macro-photography. The 7D also features upgrades to the metering, processing, optical viewfinder, and flash system.

The new 18 megapixel CMOS sensor and expanded ISO range produce virtually no visible noise at all from ISO 100 all the way up to ISO 1600 so Canon has managed to increase image quality despite the relatively small sensor.

For the ‘prosumer’ camera buyer the Canon EOS 7D probably has every feature you would want for the next few years and even that wouldn’t be enough to discover everything it can do. The EOS 7D occupies a slot between the EOS 50D and the EOS 5D MkII but given the feature advantage over the MkII and the likely lowering of the price in the near future the Canon EOS 7D is going to be a ‘must buy’.

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The day has come and all the Apple Tablet rumours that have built up over the last decade will finally be justified — or dashed as many rumours before.

Concept

Apple had two conceptual roads that they could have gone down. They could design the iPad to be a larger version of the iPhoneA closed system on which you can only run apps which come pre-installed with the product or which you download from the AppStore. Or they could simply make it a laptop with a virtual keyboard. Well, it’s pretty clear from the above image which way thy went!

Introduction

Steve Jobs comes onto the stage to rapturous applause — a little older looking but fill with contagious excitement as he ever is at these events. First he briefs us with some corporate numbers and comparisons with competitor companies but then he gets to point… the new Apple device. An image of a tablet appears over his head very similar to images leaked by various sites in the past few months:

“So, gonna give you a little overview. It’s very thin — you can change the homescreen to whatever you want. What this device does is extraordinary. You can browse the web with it. It’s the best web experience you’ve ever had… Way better than a laptop, way better then a phone. You can turn it any way you want. To see the whole page is phenomenal.

Phenomenal for mail. Album, photos… you can look at all of them, flick through them, it’s a wonderful way to share. Calendar… months…”

Interface

The interface is reminiscent of an enlarged iPhone and the interface while similar to the iPhone OS features some new drop-down interface features and a large on-screen  QWERTY keyboard.

The Desktop view is similar to the iPhone grid of App icons and includes YouTube, Safari and many others.

Slide to unlock — just like on the iPhone.

Steve plays some movies and they look awesome on this screen.

Safari

A contextual menu drops down from the top of the page and Steve is browsing the New York Times site. The scrolling is very smooth.

Steve demonstrates that turning the iPad automatically changes the orientation of the screen.

While browsing the site a missing plugin icon is visible denoting the lack of Flash in this version of Safari.

Steve takes us to a similar visit at Time magazine followed by lots of his other favourite sites.

Mail

Mail looks very slick and benefits from the same contextual menus as Safari. It’s very similar to a mail application on a laptop or desktop machine: message list on the left, Massage on the right.

“Now if I want to send a message, I hit compose — up pops this gorgeous keyboard.”

“Next, photos… this is what photos looks like. I can look at everything as a list of photos. I can tap on it…”

He flicks and gestures just like on the iPhone:

“If I’m on a Mac, I can get events, places, and faces from iPhoto here.”

Other Apple Apps

Steve then shows us a number of other apps including Google maps, iPhoto and Calendar.

“It just all works. And of course videos… we’ve got movies, TV shows, music videos.”

Movies

Steve then shows us a clip from Star Trek.

Some Specifications

Steve tells us that the new iPad is half an inch thick and 1.5 pounds. The screen is 9.7 inches diagonal with full capacitive multitouch gesture recognition.

The iPad is powered by a 1GHz Apple A4 chip  and will be available with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

Battery life is up to 10 hours and Steve claims:

“I can take a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole time.”

App Store

Scott Forstall tells us about the App Store. He tells us that customers have already downloaded 3 billion apps.

He says the iPad can run all iPhone apps unmodified out-of-the-box as well as the specially modified apps Steve has demonstrated. The iPad can also ‘pixeldouble’ and play apps full-screen.

He shows Facebook which just looks lonely in the middle of the screen and blown up to twice the size doesn’t help.

“Gaming obviously will handle this better, but a text heavy app looks lonely or weirdly huge.”

He opens an OpenGLS game and it looks impressive on the iPad screen.

Scott tells us that if developers take the time to modify their apps they can take advantage of the larger display.

He then invites some developers to demonstrate their apps on the ipad. First Brushes:

Brushes is a very popular painting app which in its iPad incarnation takes advantage of the higher resolution of the iPad and uses the contextual menu interface we saw earlier in Apple’s own apps.

Travis Boatman then demonstrates ‘Need for Speed’:

“When Apple invited us to come on site, we couldn’t have been more excited. But we wanted to check out this device’s performance as gamers.Building for the iPad is a little different — it’s kind of like holding an HD display up to your face. It’s really cool.”

More Apple Apps

Steve then returns and announces the launch of iBooks. Essentially an e-Book shop and an ideal match for the iPad. Steve tells us that Apple has Five partners in this initiative: Penguin, Macmillan, Simon & Shuster, Harper Collins and Hachette.

The iBook store is very similar to iTunes. It has the same sample functions and the page display is nice. You can change the font, size “or whatever you want!” says Steve. Apple is using the ePub format to distribute its books and this may mean that there are limitations on the eBook stores ability to sell any publications where layout is important such as technical eBooks.

Steve surprised us by announcing that iWorks has been re-written to work with the iPad. That means you can now use Keynote, Pages and Numbers on your iPad — and they only cost $10 each.

More facts from Steve

• Syncs over USB just like an iPhone
• WiFi only
• WiFi and 3G using GSM microSIMs (unlocked)
• Two mobile payment plans via AT&T in the US:
  • 250MB per month: $14.99
  • Unlimited: $29.99
• No Contract (pre-paid)

International deals should be in place in the Summer

Price

So what are the price points for the iPad?

Last Summer we predicted a price of between $500 and $800. Well that wasn’t a bad guess — here are the actual prices:

• 16GB: $499 ($629 with 3G)
• 32GB: $599 ($729 with 3G)
• 64GB:$799 ($829 with 3G)

Shipping will start around 25th March (25th April for the 3G versions).

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This September Sony Ericsson launched the T715, a  stylish-looking sliding phone with emphasis on web interactivity. We’ve played with the T715 for a few months on the 3-mobile network as both a standard mobile phone and as a web browser.

I lent the T715 to my wife and suggested the following tasks to test the phone’s usability and features:

1. Create a Twitter account
2. Use the Twitter account on a regular basis
3. Try out Sony’s TwentertainMe service on Twitter
4. Browse the web
5. Interact with friends
6. Do as much as she usually does online from a computer but using the T715 if possible

Here are her comments:

I found theT715 quite attractive and easy to use although I had some initial frustration getting a reliable connection and download speed.

I was unable to set up a Twitter account so I did this from a computer and then was able to access it from the phone without any problems. The TwentertainMe service was great as it offers links to the best of the web and all the buzz that’s going on right now.

Twitter is probably the best use you can make of this phone (apart from making phone calls, of-course!)

The T715 also offers a good selection of messaging options:

• Facebook
• E-mail
• Messanger
• Twitter

And it also has some good games installed.

The Camera is 3.2 MP but doesn’t have auto-focus.

Overall there is nothing spectacular about the T715 but its a good phone to have if you have to social network on the move all day long.

T715 Specifications

• Main Display: 262,144 colour TFT
  • Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels (QVGA)
  • Dimensions: 2.2 inches
• Memory:
  • Phone Memory: 90 MB
  • Memory Card Support: SanDisk microSD
• Charge times:
  • Talk time GSM / GPRS: Up to 10 hours
  • Standby time GSM / GPRS: Up to 400 hours
  • Talk time UMTS: Up to 4 hours
  • Standby time UMTS: Up to 350 hours
  • Video Time: 3 hours
• Camera
  • 3.2 megapixel camera
  • Digital zoom up to 3.2 x
  • Photo fix
  • Send to internet
  • Video recording
• Media
  • MusicAlbum art
  • Bluetooth stereo (A2DP)
  • MEGA BASS
  • Music tones (MP3/AAC)
  • PlayNow
  • TrackID music recognition
  • WebAccess NetFront Web browser
  • Bookmarks
  • Search with Google (from standby)
  • Photo Feeds
  • Webfeeds
  • Messaging (Facebook, E-mail, Messanger, Twitter) free on 3 on top-up and price plan contracts

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UE46B7020 is the unfortunate name of one of Samsung’s recent offerings of LED HDTVs. In the store Samsung’s sales people (they have teams of ‘pushers’ in the larger London stores) will show you the superlative colour quality, the anorexic thinness, the subdued styling and the plethora of plug-in options on the back of what they can an ‘LED TV’. But what is the 7-series like to live with? Having lived with one for about a month I think I can say it’s made TV addictive again — but be prepared to make some compromises!

I’ve been late coming to digital TV. Partly through intending to move house for the last four years an not wanting to put a large but delicate appliance through the moving process and partly because of not wanting to commit a few thousand dollars to a technology that is in flux (it’s like decimal currency — I’ve been waiting to see if it catches on!).

I should say something about the setup I’ve plugged it into. I’m getting my broadcasts from BskyB via an Amstrad HD set-top box. I also have an old video player connected via the TV’s scart socket. There used to be a pair of DVD players attached but I so prefer ripping DVDs to hard disk and playing them from there that they are no-longer connected. There’s also a Nintendo Wii in the mix connected by HDMI.

Should I buy an LCD TV or plasma?

LCD seems to power most of the newer TVs on offer at the moment but there are many who claim that plasma is still superior in certain respects. So here is a brief HDTV buyers guide to the plasma vs LCD state of the art:

In the beginning there was plasma, and only plasma. The first plasma screens where first introduced in 1981 in PLATO computer terminals. They were horrid. In 1988 the first consumer LCD displays became available and were widely derided for their narrow viewing angle, blurred motion, low refresh rate and inferior resolutions. Things have changed a lot since then and the belated introduction of digital TV has spurred huge investment in both technologies so that LCD is at last rivalling plasma in terms of picture quality.

Here’s a run-down of the two technology’s main features:

Plasmas

• Burn-in particularly on older models
• Better contrast
• Size range 40″ – 65″
• Screen can be highly reflective
• Viewing angle comparable to flat-face CRT (close to 180°)
• Brightness declines over time
• Heavier than LCD
• Poorer performance at high altitude

Basic LCD

• Brighter
• More energy-efficient
• Motion can be blurry
• Picture quality deteriorates when viewer is ‘off-axis’
• Size range 19″ to 70″

So, common recommendations are that you should buy a plasma for viewing in a room with dimmed lighting or where several people will be watching and LCD for smaller numbers of people in brightly lit rooms.

However, one of the ways in which LCD has caught up with plasma is in the use of LED backlighting. This provides the following features to the displays in which it is used:

• Greater dynamic contrast ratio making it similar to plasma units
• Displays are much thinner — the 7020 is less than an inch thick!
• A wider colour gamut
• Less environmental pollution on disposal

Samsung calls this LED TV even though LCD is still providing the pixel colour information. The 7020 uses this LED back-lighting so we should expect to see the high contrast and rich colour promised by the technology.

I chose the 7020 for the range of lighting conditions under which it can be used, the picture quality, the networking capabilities (including DLNA) and the sleek look of the thing.

The 7-series on paper

The specifications for the Samsung 46b7020 are as follows:

• Panel size 46″
• Resolution 1920 x 1080
• Colours 16.7 million
• Viewing angle 178°/178°
• Power consumption
  • Standby 0.1W
  • In use 110W
  • (These are out-of-the-box figures, after calibrating and setting up the TV power consumption tends to be lower)
• Black 0.06 cd/m2, 0.01cd/m2 when auto-dimmed
• Brightness 188 cd/m2
• Contrast ratio 3,000,000:1 (Achieved through the use of ‘dynamic dimming’)

This suggests that the viewing angle problems have been overcome and the contrast ratio is high giving dark blacks comparable with Plasma screens.

Installation

The box comes containing the TV itself and the following accessories:

• Software CD
• Cleaning cloth
• Sticky wire holders
• Stand and connection cover plate and a bag of screws
• AV cable
• Component cable
• Scart cable
• Main remote
• Miniature remote
• Manual and various other paperwork

The first step is mounting the stand onto the TV. I found this was best done by placing the TV face down on a table with a protective covering with the mounting point at the base of the TV hanging off the edge of the table.  Five screws are used to connect the final enclosure to the TV to cover the mounting point. The manual recommends having two people lift the TV into place but the 7-series is so light that I was able to lift it into position myself by simply gripping either side of the screen and carrying it across the room walking sideways crab-fashion.

The 7020 includes inputs and outputs for:

• LAN (Gigabit Ethernet)
• AV in
• Component in
• PC (AVI) in
• PC/DVI Audio in
• HDMI x 4
• USB x 2
• Optical Audio

All of the sockets point either downwards or sideways minimising mechanical strain on the connectors.

After plugging in the 7020 the TV goes through an auto set-up routine including scanning for channels. It’s important to know that this scanning by the TV is for broadcasts received through the aerial input only. If you’re not using it (because you’re using a set-top box) it won’t find anything.

You can then start exploring the multitude of options buried deep in the 7020’s menu system. This was fairly easy to navigate though the remote’s buttons are soft and unresponsive so sometimes it was necessary to press a button two or three times before it registered.

User Interface

The series 7 incorporates comprehensive set of menus to configure the TV. These are split between a Menu and a Tools palette. The Menu contains all the items to configure the TV that will probably then be left for long periods of time (probably until the TV is moved to another room).

The Tools palette is a set of setting which might be changed more frequently such as the picture size or the sleep timer.

The menus are straightforward to navigate though a little clunky and time-consuming. The allocation of buttons to various functions could have been better designed. This in particular applies to the handling of the source. Press the Source button on the remote and you get a list af all the sources available. You then have to navigate through the list an press the ’select’ button on the remote. I would have preferred the source to simply advance to the next source and post up a small message briefly on the screen to tell you which source was active. A few clicks of the same button would be much simpler than navigating a list.

Watching broadcast TV

The SkyBox delivers a range of TV channels: some normal resolution and some HD. I’m going to concentrate on the HD viewing experience. The picture was stunning. The contrast was phenomenal: even in a brightly lit room with a full-height window behind the TV the Samsung 7020 was able to display broadcasts with enough brightness to make viewing a real pleasure. The LED backlighting also showed its benefits when the curtains were closed and the lights dimmed. The blacks stayed black with no evidence at all of the light grey cast evident on earlier LCD displays.

Colour quality is exceptional and I was particularly impressed by the quality of flesh-tones. I saw no evidence of the picture deterioration when viewing off-axis that is supposed to be an LCD TV problem.

Action sequences are fairly smooth and crisp with little blurring helped, perhaps, by the 100Hz refresh rate. If you intend to watch a lot of sports you may be better off with a higher refresh rate and there are 200Hz and even 240Hz units available now. The Samsung 8-series has a refresh rate of 200Hz and this seems to be the only difference between the 7-series and the 8-series (OK, they have a different remote too).

When viewing low resolution broadcasts the 7020 upscaled the live TV faultlessly. It can’t add any further information, obviously, but there was no evidence of pixelation and large blocks of colour were smoothed out convincingly.

Audio

At low volume levels the sound was adequate and included a reasonable amount of detail for a pair of 10W speakers. but I found that if I turned the volume up to even quite moderate levels it caused very audible vibration at a specific frequency of something in the TV casing. I don’t know if this was something unique to this particular unit or whether it’s a design problem but on the face of it it seems that the 7020’s audio system isn’t up to the job of producing ‘cinema sound’ for the home. I am tempted to bypass the TV audio and just route all my sound sources into a proper audio amplifier.

Built-in content

The 7020 comes with a built-in library of content to turn your TV into an interesting backdrop for a social gathering or as a reference tool. Some entertainment content is also provided.

The gallery includes a series of slide shows of professionally taken photographs that are probably a lot better that your most recent holiday snaps.

The Cooking section includes a database of recipes but to use them you’ll have to be able to see you’re TV from the kitchen (or have it in the kitchen!)

The Children’s section provides entertainment for kiddies and the Wellness section is designed for exercising.

DVDs and USB drives

Similarly, the 7020 had no problem in upscaling and playing standard resolution DVDs. I’ve read a review or two of the high-end Samsung TVs that say they are fussy about the quality of the player that they receive a signal from but I had no problems playing programmes from the following legacy equipment:

• Matsui VN9720 VHS player
• Sony DVP NS300 DVD player
• LG DV374 DVD player

Viewing content on a USB memory stick was no problem either except that occasionally the 7020 claimed that it didn’t understand the sound codec so the movie came up silent. The Samsung 7020 manual contains a chart of the compatible codecs you have to use to get movies to work via Ethernet, USB stick and, supposedly, WiFi network (see the next section).

Experimentation has shown that almost any USB device requiring a cable will not work. The documentation says that only MSC (Mass Storage Class spec) HDD devices are compatible and limited to 5v draw and 0.5mA. I tried an external LaCie pocket HDD rated at 5v and the Samsung 7020 just ignored it.

I haven’t had a chance to try a powered USB HDD but it is unlikely that these will conform to MSC specs.

Networking

The Samsung 7020 is certified by DLNA (Digital Living Network Association) which means it conforms to a networking protocol which allows the TV to access selected folders on your home network, play music and video files and display photographs. What a great idea! Unfortunately I had no success in getting it to work. I purchased the Samsung WiFi dongle along with the TV but as things turned out I shouldn’t have bothered.

My home network runs on a BT HomeHub which is able to penetrate all areas of my home upstairs and down. The Samsung series 7 TV had no problems picking up the network although it has no way of allowing you to identify hidden networks so you have to make the network visible, link the TV to it and then make it invisible again. I had a Mac Mini and a MacBook on the network at the time of testing which had no problem communicating with each other or with the internet. They are running MediaLink software designed to connect Macs to Playstations but its DLNA too so should be compatible. While the 7020 was able to navigate the folders on these machines whenever I tried to play a movie I got a message saying that the file was in an incompatible format. This even happened when trying to view JPEG photographs!

Some devices have in the past had trouble connecting to this WiFi network so I tried switching back to a BT Voyager 2100 which has proved to be very stable and compatible with every device thrown at it: it made no difference. I will be trying a Netgear router soon to see if that helps.

Samsung’s has a list of supported video formats and codecs which appears to be valid for direct USB and wired LAN but not wireless LAN playback.

Media Centre Options

I had hoped to use the WiFi connectivity to connect the Samsung to large hard disk in my home office in a front-room back-room sort of way but since this hasn’t proved possible I’m going to have to set up some sort of storage system in the lounge. By getting a dedicated box to handle data storage and connectivity I will be able to bypass the Samsung’s file format problems since it will just be getting another video source from the box by HDMI and it shouldn’t object to that. Here are the options I am considering:

Playstation 3

Playstations include Blu-Ray drives so in theory could be used as the Blu-Ray source for a home cinema system. However they do the decoding by software rather than by a dedicated chip so performance could be an issue. Storage space isn’t huge either at only 250GB (500GB upgrades are available). However, my mouth waters when I think of all those games I could play on it.

Mac Mini + Plex

The Mac Mini is due for retirement as a desktop machine and setting it up as a media centre would be a nice way of ‘putting him out to grass’. I’ve tested Plex on it and it looks like a great candidate for an all-round media machine. I’d need to get a large external hard disk connected for it to really be viable though.

Purpose-built

There are plenty of media boxes out there which do nothing but provide storage space and play facilities for your ripped DVDs. I may end up getting one of these and combining it with the Mac Mini.

Summing up

The Samsung 7020 is an exceptional TV for the price (£1400, $1900) with picture quality I’ve only seen bettered by higher priced plasma screens. However since all the features of the series 7 which differentiate it from the series 6 (wireless LAN, internet access and widgets) were either disappointing or just impossible to get working I would have been better off buying a series 6. It’s possible that some of my concerns may be addresses in a firmware release but in a fit of utter stupidity Samsung has decided to distribute its ‘All OS’ compressed upgrade files as windows executables rather than a simple .zip file which anyone could use.

I feel like punching someone.

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Peugeot have launched in London the BB1 electric car concept that seats four people in a vehicle just 2.5 meters long. The BB1 was originally launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show and is now being promoted as a concept in a number of cities around the World.

I asked Peugeot’s Managing Director, Jon Goodman, about the company’s future fuel strategy:

“We need to have multiple solutions. In about two years we need to have vehicles on offer that use standard fuels but are more fuel efficient than today’s models. We need to offer micro-hybrids — that’s cars that use carbon-based fuels but also recover energy when the car is braking. We need to offer Diesel Hybrids which we will do in 2011 as well as a range of electric vehicles in about three years.”

The BB1 is, Peugeot claims, a mixture of a scooter and a car and seems to be the car manufacturer’s first foray into electric car design. Athanassios Tubidis, the BB1’s designer, told assembled guests:

“The BB1 isn’t about long journeys, it isn’t about linear travel — it’s about the gesture: Stop. Go. Accelerate. Get in. Get Out.”

So clearly the BB1 is aimed at the young urban market in a World where gas prices could rise again to over $100 a barrel and stay there.

The Peugeot BB1 in day-to-day use

The BB1 is entirely electric so it just plugs in to a mains socket at home and the lithium ion batteries charge up in six hours. This electric car is obviously designed for city driving so you won’t be using it for a motorway trip to work but for urban journeys the BB1 provides rapid acceleration, space for four people and a 360° driver view.

The four people claim gives the BB1 an advantage over rivals such as the Toyota iQ and the Smart Car but it should be noted that the rear passengers are straddled on scooter-like seats and their legs actually wrap around the occupants at the front in order to squeeze them into the 2.5 meter BB1. Some people may not like this intimate arrangement!

The scooter analogy doesn’t stop there as the steering of the BB1 is done through a handlebar-like device that also houses an iPod dock. Dock your iPod to the handlebars and the central display uses it to access the internet.

The front occupants sit in a more upright position than most of us are used to. This is necessary to cram four people into the thing and its made possible by the complete lack of any foot pedals.

Propulsion

The Peugeot BB1 is powered by a pair of 20 bhp electric motors driving the rear axle but its the torque of electric motors that will give this diminutive vehicle its agility and responsiveness in urban traffic. Weighing only 600 Kg that’s nearly 40 bhp/tonne. The bubble-roof (a styling reference to the RCZ) has integrated solar panels that drive the air-conditioning system.

Styling

Peugeot has come a long way since the producers of Columbo selected a Peugeot 403 because it was the ugliest car they could think of. Some people will hate the styling of the BB1: it looks as if it’s back to front, the front windscreen leans forward at an odd angle (though this would be effective at removing reflections from the dashboard) but I can’t help loving the many exquisite details the BB1 has to offer from the front and rear lamp clusters to the quirky interior and bubble-shaped roof.

Performance

The BB1 has a top speed of round 50 mph and Jon claims a 0-20 mph time of 2.8 seconds thanks to the “very torquey” electric motors. The batteries give the BB1 a range of about 75 miles which is more than enough for a day’s urban driving.

Should Peugeot build this car?

Peugeot has no firm plans to put the BB1 into production but is listening to feedback from the various launches they’re making in the World’s major cities. The BB1 will be on public show in Covent Garden, London this weekend — you might even get a chance to drive it!

Here’s a movie of celebrity views from the launch party:

So here’s the question: Should Peugeot build this car?

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• Hopfgartner Gerda updates the traditional violin design

The iconic ‘figure-of-eight’ design of the orchestral violin has evolved little over the last 500 years so step up Hopfgartner Gerda to design a new form for the instrument based on the designs of ships and yachts of the 1950s as well as Baroque underwear!

It’s called the “Gavari”  Semi-acoustic violin and is product of a collaboration between designer Gerda and and a professional Viennese violin maker to guarantee the sound quality.

The Gavari has curves that seem familiar and the instrument is played in exactly the same way as a traditional violin.

Hopfgartner Gerda says:

The acoustic violin form in the baroque style exists for over 500 years. There has been very little change to it.
This design creates a new modern form, moving away from the baroque style.

Key aspects such as sound criteria, analogies, sledge, boat and corset as well as feminine curves of a woman gave rise to the design of  the Gavari violin.

It was a challenge to create a new modern form for the 21th century, maybe they will change the classical music busines

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3’s mobile WiFi product (a re-badged Huawei E5830) provides a mobile internet connection (either 3G or HSDPA) to any device with a WiFi interface and a browser. This means you can browse the internet from your iPod Touch while on the move or even from a Sony PSP or Nintendo DSi.

MiFi explained

So what is MiFi? MiFi or Mobile WiFi is the connection of WiFi-enabled devices to a mobile phone data internet connection.

Mobile internet connections have historically involved fitting your laptop with a dongle supplied my your mobile provider so that internet data was routed through the mobile data network. 3’s device is a little different though. It is a MiFi router and it creates a mobile WiFi hotspot. And, since it’s battery operated you can carry that hotspot around with you anywhere there’s a mobile signal. It also means that you can hook up a large number of devices instead of just having it just plugged into one machine.

What’s in the box

The MiFi router arrives in a small box containing:

• Card containing SSID and password
• SIM and phone number details
• Stack of cards giving usage instructions
• Power cord
• USB peripheral cable
• MiFi Router
• Miscellaneous ’small print’ documentation

Setting up a mobile WiFi hotspot

The first thing you’re going to have to do is fit the supplied SIM and battery and charge up the router for twelve hours. Once this is done press the power button for two seconds.

The small screen comes to life with a number of esoteric symbols most of which have to be looked up in the accompanying instruction cards to make sense. Annoyingly, these lights go out after a couple of seconds so you have to keep touching the power button to see the status of the device.

You can now use a WiFi device to log in to the WiFi hotspot created by the router.

Incidentally, I found that although the password provided contained spaces you must omit these when typing the password or the login will fail.

But you’re not done yet. Now you must press the connect button on the side of the router to connect to the mobile network. Once done you should have access to wireless internet in ways you never could before.

To change the router’s configuration you have to plug into a PC using the USB cable provided. If you’re running Windows XP or Vista software on the device will auto-start and install all necessary drivers and the WiFi configuration software.

Uses

Many possible uses come to mind for such a device:

• Surf the internet away from home or office (OK, that one was obvious)
• Turn your PSP or Nintendo DSi into a mobile phone
• Turn your iPod Touch into an iPhone (minus the geolocation) – use Skype for calls
• Set up a WiFi network on the train for a group of colleagues

Performance

We wouldn’t expect mobile internet service speeds to match hard-wired broadband either over HSDPA or (slower) 3G and indeed they’re not. But the results I experienced on the fringes of North West London were quite tolerable. Average download speeds of around 2.5Mbps were achieved with upload speeds of about 0.8Mbps. The best results achieved were 3.02Mbps download and 1.0Mbps upload.

The range of the 3 MiFi router was about 25 meters before falling off quite suddenly so there’s plenty of open-air range available. Of course, masonry walls will significantly cut down this range.

Wi-Fi support is limited to Wireless B and G. N is not supported but this should not be a problem while surfing the mobile internet since the provider’s network will be the bottleneck. The only time the older WiFi standard may become apparent will be when transferring files from one device to another.

Specifications

• Power: Li 1500mAh battery, Charger (Std. 3-pin UK), charge time in use: 5 hours
• Connectivity: USB cable (mini plug/standard plug)
• Network: WiFi 802.11b/g
• Memory: MicroSD Memory card supported up to 32GB
• Dimensions: 86 x 46.5 x 10.5mm with 90g weight
• User interface: 5 x LEDs

Summary

The MiFi router is a great way of providing wireless internet services for devices in the home, office or in the field that only have a WiFi interface built-in. I provides a roaming hotspot wherever there is a mobile signal and can accommodate several simultaneous connections. Speed is subject to your mobile provider network but I found 3’s to be adequate.

The screen is confusing and annoying. The meaning of the icons is not always clear and some use colour to convey information which in the days of accessibility and user-friendly design feels clunky and old-fashioned. A improved screen (perhaps LCD)  and user interface and a longer battery life would make this product a no-brainer.

Pricing

The following pricing options are available:

• From free on £12/month, 18-month contract, with 1GB data and 20 text message allowance every month.
• From free on £17/month, 18-month contract, with 5GB data and 20 text message allowance every month.
• At £99.99 with 3GB credit pre-loaded or £69.99 with a capped, £15 a month contract. (top-up and convert to add-on when preload runs out).
• At £69.99 on pay-as-you-go.

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This EVGA InterView dual-monitor system allows you to view it in just about any conceivable way. It’s a dual display supporting two 17-inch flat screens attached to a single centre stand. Its the mounting of these monitors that is so clever as it allows a huge range of mounting configurations and even allows you to flip a monitor over to show someone on the other side of your desk.

The monitor resolutions are 1440 x 900 which isn’t so great on their own but do combine to create some considerable screen real-estate. The screens can operate in continuous desktop mode (as above) or clone mode.

The base not only supports the screens but also houses a 1.3MP webcam and three USB 2.0 ports.

Both the flat panels can pivot vertically so both can be orientated to a comfortable angle but the clever bit is that they can pivot right over so that someone on the other side of the monitors can see your work. The screen contents is automatically rotated to compensate.

EVGA is currently pitching the system to business users but I can see a lot of home-owners seeing the benefits of a system like this. Available from the company for $649.99.

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