Author Archives: Zara Stone

CES 2011

Hands on with the BlackBerry PlayBook

January 8th, 2011 | by Zara Stone

Tablets might be a ten a penny at CES, but I was eager to have a look at the BlackBerry PlayBook, a new step in terms of business technology. Merging the functionality of a BlackBerry with a stylish tablet, the 7 inch PlayBook could potentially be a market changer, in terms of business conferences and office functionality. It features a 7 inch multitouch capacitative screen and is 10mm thick. The BlackBerry PlayBook was surprisingly comfortable to hold, far lighter than the iPad (it weighs 0.4kg compared to the iPadâ€™s 0.68kg) and felt good in the hand. The gloss finish was attractive and the screen was beautiful to behold. The multitouch was a tad tricky to use, with a little display lag when zooming in and out of the pages- â€˜itâ€™s extra sensitiveâ€™, the spokesperson claimed, before elaborating that the model we had was still â€˜unfinishedâ€™. We couldnâ€™t look at document editing or spreadsheets as they werenâ€™t yet installed, which was a shame, as thatâ€™s going to be one of the big draws for people. The PlayBook features two cameras, a frontward facing 3megapixel camera and a 5megapixel rear camera. Connectivity wise, you get an HDMI port, a micro USB port and WiFi. As well as Adobe Flash 10.1. You can play videos in 1080p on the screen, and what we saw looked great, with rich vibrant colours and it was easy to adjust controls such as volume and brightness with a finger swoosh. As the PlayBook is designed to cater for the business user, you have full BlackBerry support, from integrated calendars to Blackberry Messaging services. In terms of video conferencing, youâ€™re able to use both cameras, and it has a 1GHz dual core processor for fast speeds, and 1GB RAM. There are more functions than just business to this device, as it provides an all round multimedia experience, with music, videos, pictures and games all as standard. Out later this year, price

CES 2011

The Pleo rb has a Jurassic Park moment

January 8th, 2011 | by Zara Stone

Think this little fella looks familiar? Well youâ€™d be right, as the Pleo has been knocking around for some years, but Jurassic Park style has just been rescued from extinction. This uber friendly tactile robotic dinosaur was canned last year due to poor sales, but thanks to some outside investment has made a comeback, and has a selection of upgraded features. The 'rb' stands for reborn, and the latest incarnation of this friendly dinosaur is an intelligent emotive robot, who actually builds relationship with its owner based on how itâ€™s treated. Think Tamagotchi in 3D and youâ€™ll get the idea. You interact physically with the Pleo, touching and stroking it, and you can upload various personalities to it via the included SD card slot. The Pleo rb features voice recognition, which allows it to directly respond to names, and motion sensors to help stabilize it. The multiple sensors it's fitted with give it a very distinct personality; for instance, itâ€™s temperature aware and will shiver if your heating is low. It can also register what time of day it is, and curl up for a nap or wake up accordingly. Well, in theory- the battery life is only 150 minutes, so thereâ€™s limited play time. You can also purchase accompanying packs full of Learning Stones, which are cute looking accessories (think leaf shapes) fitted with RFID chip, which you let the Pleo nuzzle up to, and they teach it new tricks or how to unwind. $469 from PleoWorld

CES 2011

Hands on with the Hanvon eInk colour Ebook reader

January 8th, 2011 | by Zara Stone

For years the debate has raged- do you opt for the pretty (but tiring on the eyes) LCD eReader for eBooks, or do you go for the drabber but infinitely better eInk screen, which lacks colours. That choice just got easier with news of the Hanvon eBook reader which uses eInk AND has a colour screen. How does it achieve this? Very simply, actually- it simply uses a colour filter to display 4096 colours. They did look rather muted on the devices we got to play with, but we were told they can look brighter with different PDF's. Hanvon hope that this option will change the way people choose which eReader to buy, as their reader will offer colour in combination with the 30+ days of battery time associated with most eInk readers. The eReader will play most common formats, including ePub, TXT and PDF files and will also display JPG's. It features integrated WiFi to allow you to download easily from their eBook store, and their are plans for a 3G model in the works. The screen is 9.7 inches and has a digitizer touchscreen, and you can use your hands or the included stylus to flick through pages or surf. There's seems to be quite a lag on the page turns however- we were quoted 2 seconds- which seems a long time to refresh, but hopefully this will be improved on. There's an SD card slot so you can expand the memory, and a 3.5mm jack, as the reader can also handle audio. It comes preinstalled with a selection of games and books, and feels rather nice in the hand- substantial, but not too weighty. A release date has yet to be confirmed, but it will be on sale for approximately $500 from, Hanvon in China later this year