Digital Reviews Network

TOMTOM GO 620 Sat Nav – How to Use Your Smartphone Legally and Safely While Driving

NavigationWritten by Martin Regtien on 11 September 2018.

We know that TomTom has a reputation of bringing out great Sat Navs even before Google Maps took a fair slice out of the navigation market but the GO 620 notches up the usefulness of having a TomTom in your car quite a bit.

We’ve all been guilty of accessing our phone while driving: a quick glance to see who’s texting us, pressing the answer button or initiating a call. Distractions galore which can be fatal. No wonder that in Australia police have had enough of attending crash sites where the use of mobile phones have been a contributing or the main factor. I know as I have two family members who are in the police force...

So TomTom has found a way to not only be navigating us safely to our destination but also still be in communication legally with the outside world.

Let’s go on a road trip with the GO 620.

Drobo 5D3 – The Thunderbolt 3 DAS and The Advantages of Direct Attached Storage. An Australian Review

StorageWritten by Martin Regtien on 27 August 2018.

We’ve reviewed dozens of NAS units, from very small to enterprise rack mounted models.

The advantages of a Network Attached Storage unit are well-known but why would anyone still bother with just essentially a bunch of drives in a box connected to just one computer?

Come with us and we’ll show you why.

Philips Hue: Lighting that Matches Your Mood (Or Influences Your Mood?)

MiscellaneousWritten by Martin Regtien on 12 August 2018.

LED lamps are a dime a dozen – well, almost. And they are so common and ordinary that they don’t deserve our attention.

Until the Philips Hue series came along.

How would you like to play around with 16 million colours and be able to choose the brightness of them wirelessly and from your app?

Australian Review: Meade LX 90 ACF Telescope - Stellar Access to the Heavens Made Easier with GPS, Wi-Fi and Remote Control

MiscellaneousWritten by Martin Regtien on 10 July 2018.

Last year we reviewed the Meade ETX 90 Observer telescope which is an excellent unit for people getting serious about wanting to study the observable universe. We liked the build quality and portability of that scope.

This time around Meade sent us the LX 90, which at the AUD4500 price point is a much more advanced unit though similar in design and operation.
The 8" LX90 we reviewed has an 8” diameter f/10 ACF optical system (focal length 2000mm). It’s the smallest in the LX90 series.

Interestingly, this scope incorporates the two features that we would like on every computer telescope: GPS based easy set up and remote access and viewing.

Our anticipation to start imaging the heavens with the optional colour camera as well as with my Nikon DSLR is building as we begin assembling the unit.

Do Try This At Home (or at the Office): Unleash the Power of Your Galaxy S8 or S9 With DeX! A hands-on with the Samsung DeX Pad. Part 2

Mobile DevicesWritten by Martin Regtien on 08 July 2018.

Do Try This At Home (or at the Office): Unleash the Power of Your Galaxy S8 or S9 With DeX!
A hands-on with the Samsung DeX Pad. Part 2

So, did we whet your appetite in Part 1 for more features and a cheaper price point for the Samsung DeX Desktop Experience?

Let’s have a close looks at the DeX Pad which Samsung introduced with the Galaxy S9 series.

Do Try This At Home (or at the Office): Unleash the Power of Your Galaxy S8 or S9 With DeX! A hands-on with the Samsung DeX Station Part 1

Mobile DevicesWritten by Martin Regtien on 08 July 2018.

Alright, so what is DeX?

DeX stands for Desktop Experience – allowing your Android phone to be used with a big screen through an HDMI cable connected with either the DeX Station or the DeX Pad.
In a way it’s similar to Microsoft’s Display Dock for the Windows 10 phones. Which was not a great success a few years back...

Will Samsung’s DeX really give you a good Desktop Experience? Can we throw out our laptops?

This review consists of 2 Parts: we’ll check out the DeX Station that came out with the Galaxy S8, followed by the even handier DeX Pad that was announced with the Galaxy S9.

Capturing the Unseen: Reviewing the Pluto Trigger for Photography

Digital CamerasWritten by Martin Regtien on 14 June 2018.

(This article is written by Richard Gaspari -- Ed)

Pluto Trigger is a high-speed smart camera trigger that is controlled through a free iPhone or Android app via Bluetooth. It is a very practical gadget, highly appreciated by DIY and commercial photographers who are involved in specialized projects with specific requests.

The Pluto Trigger can be used for remote shooting, time lapse, High Dynamic Range Photography, video recording, lighting photography and many other things. The reason why it is called a ‘’trigger’’ is simply because it is activated by light, sound, or anything that breaks the laser beam aimed in the direction of the Pluto Trigger.

QNAP TVS-673e Business NAS with Multimedia Focus

StorageWritten by Martin Regtien on 07 June 2018.

About a year ago we reviewed the QNAP TVS-473 which is very closely related to this model. So in this article we’ll focus mostly on what’s different from the model we wrote about before.

The TVS-673e is the middle brother in the brand-new QNAP TVS-x73e series. The line-up of these high-performance SMB NAS units consist of the TVS-873e (8-bay), TVS-673e (6-bay) and QNAP TVS-473e (4-bay) models (the first number indicating the number of bays).

Okay, so what’s the “e” stand for in the TVS-673e?

Could be for Enhanced (more features) or Economy (fewer features) than the 473 we had on the bench earlier?

Hands-on with the Victa 82V Lithium-Ion Chainsaw – Time to Ditch my Petrol Saw?

MiscellaneousWritten by Martin Regtien on 25 May 2018.

Readers of this review site will have seen our previous article on the Victa 82V Rapid Trimmer.

We were/are pretty enthusiastic about that quiet yet very capable unit and even more gushy about the Victa chainsaw in that same 82V product group.

Let me tell you why.

Better yet: I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.