Author: Chris Bidmead

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Synology DS120j: Prelude

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I’m about to contradict myself. This is an interesting experiment for me and one I hope you’ll feel the same way about. In our earlier review of the Synology entry level DS119j I wrote confidently: The single drive isn’t technically a limitation on capacity—the DS119j’s specs allow for a drive as large as Toshiba’s magnificent helium-sealed MG07ACA14TE. Yes, that’s 14TB. But even if you can stump up the necessary £550, this is not an upgrade… Now read on…

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diskAshur PRO2 from iStorage

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Portable USB drives—the kind based on 2.5″ hard disk that you can slip in your pocket—have always been a huge convenience if you use more than one computer in different locations. But they’ve often struck me as problematic in several ways. Small rotating drives don’t travel well. Drop them more than a few inches while they’re in use and your data could be toast. Yes, rotating drives are considerably cheaper per gigabyte than USB sticks… Now read on…

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Omron HeatTENS Adds Temperature to Tingle

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Shutting the bathroom door last week I managed, stupidly, to slam it against my big toe. There was pain and there was blood. And words were spoken. Tested Technology doesn’t usually over-share like this but the incident is germane to this review. When Omron offered to send us their wonderfully Victorian-sounding “HeatTens Pain Reliever” I’d already had previous experience of TENS technology when I tore my rotator cuff early last year. I’d also taken to… Now read on…

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Tuning in to ReSound’s LiNX Quattro (Part 2)

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Part one of this review covered the technology and scope of ReSound’s new LiNX Quattro hearing aids and discussed the vexed question of the “Made for Android” marketing aspect. Our hope in breaking this review up into parts was that by now the issue of Android compatibility would have been resolved. That hasn’t happened. If it had, this section of the review would be telling a very different story. There would be much less need… Now read on…

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Adventures with the Optoma UHD51 Projector

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I’ve been writing about projectors for more than 10 years now, and it has been a delight to see the quality increase and the prices fall. And, of course, the technological developments. But, in truth, I haven’t been all that enamoured by the move to ever higher resolutions. Some years ago, I was telling readers that “720 is plenty”. Even on a 100″ projector screen, the resolution is enough to banish any blurring at the… Now read on…

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Tuning in to ReSound’s LiNX Quattro (Part 1)

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This is the third hearing aid review Tested Technology has undertaken in the past couple of years. Readers may be wondering why we’re paying so much attention to this niche market. Fair enough. Let’s deal with that question. It’s not the niche business you might think. In 2017 the global market for hearing devices was estimated to be worth a little under $6.5 billion and is expected to reach over $9 billion in the next… Now read on…

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Posturite’s Opløft Sit-Stand Desk

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The (probably) life-saving VariDesk sit-stand desk I reviewed last year, now a permanent fixture in my office as an antidote to that other fixture, my leather-upholstered Juniper Wall-Hugger recliner, has certainly bucked up my thinking about the ergonomics of office work. Google latched onto my renewed interest, and has been inundating me with “relevant” ads. For £1,000 mesh office chairs, for £200 articulated monitor arms to position my screen just-so and, of course, for other… Now read on…

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New Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote

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We reviewed the first Amazon Fire TV Stick back in 2015 and praised it for being a cheap “disposable” add-on that could turn a regular TV into a Smart TV. The problem with so-called “Smart TVs”, we argued, is that while the screen technology should be good for at least five years, the electronic smarts get outdated very quickly. Fine if manufacturers keep their TV firmware regularly updated. But they don’t. So buy a TV… Now read on…

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The P30 Pro: Huawei’s Last Hurrah?

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I began my review of Huawei’s previous offering, the Mate 20 Pro by calling it “the most complete smartphone that has ever crossed my desk.” So when I set off, in March of this year, to Paris with a contingent of some fifty UK journalists for the launch of the Chinese company’s new P30 series of smartphones I was preparing myself for mild disappointment. Why? The previous year, Gang He, president of the company’s mobile… Now read on…

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NVMe versus SATA: The Future of SSD

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WD NVMe Black, 1TB

The serial AT attachment interface, or SATA (pronounced “sarta”) has been with us for nearly twenty years as a means of connecting storage devices like hard drives and optical discs to our computers. At the turn of the century, it replaced the earlier parallel ATA interface, a clunky arrangement using thick ribbon cables that took up a good deal of space inside our devices. SATA has stood us in good stead, but it’s worth reminding… Now read on…