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07Nov 2011

LEGO Star Wars : The Padawan Menace

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Exclusive to Tesco in the UK, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox have released today the first LEGO themed Star Wars animation, named The Padawan Menace. IF you’ve ever played aLEGO Star Wars video game before, you’ll know from the cut-scenes that these are aimed at younger viewers and are steeped in more humour than normal. This adventure is no different.

It costs £5 for the DVD and £8 for the Blu-Ray – the latter comes with an exclusive “Young Han” Lego figure. There’s also a few extras to make up for the fact that the main feature is just 21 minutes long.

None-the-less, on Blu-Ray it’s the full 1080 resolution and looks brilliant – the LEGO brick animation is very well done. Sounds and music from the original movies are also used to good effect. It has a U (Universal) certificate.

I was not expecting a great deal for something cheap that’s aimed at younger kids but thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here’s the “official” description and a trailer video…

A routine Jedi Academy field trip is turned into a rip-roaring comic adventure in LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace. Tour guide Master Yoda leads a group of rambunctious Jedi Younglings through Senate chambers when he senses a disturbance in the Force. Summoned to help save the Republic, he discovers that one of the Younglings, Ian, has secretly boarded his ship…and young Ian has a taste for adventure! Meanwhile, C-3PO and R2-D2 are put in charge of the boisterous group and find themselves in over their heads. As the evil Sith prepare to wreak havoc, it’s up to Yoda and the Droids to ensure that their young charges aren’t torn to bricks!

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Summary of LEGO Star Wars : The Padawan Menace

It only has a short feature but it looks and sounds gorgeous. The story is fun and there’s an entertaining cameo too. Star Wars fans and kids will really enjoy it. Maybe a filler for Christmas?
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Reviewed by David Artiss on 7th November 2011.

05Nov 2011

New Currys / PC World Star Wars Ads

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Due to air for the first time tonight, Currys / PC World have new Star Wars ads. However, due to an unsubtle tip off from their PR pretending to be a member of the general public, they are available to view now.

I’m not quite sure what impression they’re trying to give – that their staff are trained by the dark side – but you can also see them on the Currys website.

What do you think? Clever cross over or George Lucas flogging a childhood memory for more cash?

 

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03Nov 2011

Solwise AV Homeplugs

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Having recently moved home – and to a much larger home – I realised I was going to have a problem with my internet connection. I need my router by my main PC, but that was upstairs. How was the signal going to be through multiple stories and thick walls? In addition, downstairs was my PS3 which is notorious for not liking wireless connections.

I’d for some time been considering HomePlugs, having tried the ZyXEL before, and knew this might be the solution. In the end I came across Solwise – they produce some excellent value-for-money solutions.

Therefore I bought 3 of their HomePlugs – each a different type. One was the basic model which I connected my router to. The other was in the living room and has 3 Ethernet ports – this satisfied my home media requirements. Lastly, I had one which extended my wi-fi.

What each have in common is their reasonable price, white plastic appearance and basic (but appropriate) packaging. I bought them directly from Solwise, as their prices are competitive. Delivery was also swift.

There are a choice of speeds – I went for the 200Mbps, as that is a good price point for AV (there are quicker 1GB and 500Mbps available, though). Again,in all cases, configuration is incredibly simple – plug 2 sockets in together next to each other and they will automatically configure themselves. This worked in all cases and I had to do nothing further. They have buttons to allow for them to resync and software to allow you more advanced configuration, including firmware updates.

The 3 I bought were…

NET-PL-200AV-MINI – This is a simple single Ethernet ported compact HomePlug. Priced at £25.74.

NET-PL-200AV-3PE – This is a 3 Ethernet port HomePlug. Priced at £34.49.

NET-PL-200AV-PEW-N  – This is 2 Ethernet port Homeplug with 11n Wifi capability. Priced at £46.94.

The latter has additionally configuration software to allow you to set the SSID, channel, etc. What this does is pick up your internet connection via your Homeplug and re-transmit on a different signal. In my case this means I have 2 SSIDs – one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Each are on different channels too, selected (via an Android app) to be the least congested in each area.

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Summary of Solwise AV HomePlugs

They’re simple to use, good value for money and, essentially, work – my home network issues have been resolved without a single cable between rooms!
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Reviewed by David Artiss on 3rd November 2011.

02Nov 2011

Grand Theft Auto V trailer released

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I’ve loved GTA since it came out on the PS2 with GTA 3. Now (and thanks to my contact at  Rockstar for the prompt!) a trailer for GTA V has been released.

Unlike the gritty, urban look of GTA IV, this looks a lot brighter – it reminds me of my favourite, Vice City. Having got into games such as Infamous and Prototype where you can explore pretty much everything a lot more fluidly, I’d like to see a lot more of that in GTA V.

Unfortunately, when I asked my Rockstar contact about his favourite…

My personal favourite is San Andreas. It was a breath of fresh air to see countryside in a GTA game. Also I’m not a big fan of the 80s.

Oh. Well, all we can hope is (that despite his lack of enthusiasm for the time period at least) that this captures more of the spirit of VC and brings back a needed boot to GTA.

30Oct 2011

Livewire USB Hub

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This review is part of the 1 Pound Challenge - can you find a decent gadget in a pound shop?

For the last of my current batch of 1 Pound Challenge products1 I have the Livewire USB Hub (with 4 ports). Costing £1 from PoundWorld, this is a blue, translucent plastic hub which has a male USB connector on on end and then bulges out to house 4 females connections. Plug this into the side of a laptop or into a PC and it will convert a single port into 4.

As well as the hub itself you also get a 40cm USB extension cable, in case you cannot plug the hub directly into a port (surrounding connectors, for example, may not allow it).

The hub has 5 green LEDs in it – one for each of the USB connectors (i.e. 1 for the male socket and the remaining 4 for the female connectors at the other end).

So far, so good. Unfortunately, in use there are 4 big problem areas.

1. Build Quality

The plastic case around the male port has come unglued and doesn’t hold together well. As a result the whole circuit board, and the attached USB ports move around inside the case when in use. I’d have put this down as a one-off duff broken one if I hadn’t read reviews elsewhere of people having similar case issues.

Additionally, the USB extension cable has a rubber surround on each of the ends. This appears to be some poor quality rubber which already feels as if its degrading – it doesn’t bode well for any longer term usage.

2. It’s USB 1

Yes, that’s right, with USB 3 on the market and pretty much nothing these days is USB 1, they’ve somehow managed to sneak a USB 1 product out. That means anything connected to it will be slooowwww.

I don’t know if it’s only the device and not the cables that can be USB 1 or 2, but certainly using the cable I had no issues connecting up USB 2 devices.

3. Those LEDs!

The thing about USB hubs is that, unless they have their own power supply2 you’re dividing up an already meagre power source – USB devices often struggle when plugging into hubs. That 5v supply is now down to, potentially, 1.25v per socket. However, with 4 LEDs lit that’s even less. The thing is, those LEDs are completely useless. All 5 come on when you plug it in and they don’t appear to do anything other than look pretty, yet, zapping what little power you did have.

4. Poor hardware support

I tried a couple of USB keys and really struggled to get any of them to be recognised – again reading other online reviews of this product backs this up as many other people have found them to be a hit-and-miss affair.

So all-in-all a pretty poor effort and a shame – for anyone wishing to enhance the number of USB connections they had this would have been ideal but all of those downsides above really mean that I can recommend this product.

The packaging shows the product is from ITP Imports, which shares an address with PoundWorld. ITP Imports have been in the news in the past for some suspect pregnancy testing kits and have to withdrawn dangerous items from sale (their “Deadly Dinosaurs” range turning out to be just that).

Summary of Livewire USB Hub

USB 1, seems to be dodgy at recognising hardware, poor build quality and zaps whatever power you may have wanted for your device on lighting unnecessary LEDs. Best left on the shelf.
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Reviewed by David Artiss on 30th October 2011.

  1. Yes, I need to find the time to head off to a major city and mooch around the pound shops for more products! [↩]
  2. which is what I choose for all my own hubs [↩]

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