After the horror of the last dock that I bought for my Samsung I was reluctant to try another. However, after seeing a Zenis on a colleagues desk I was suitably impressed. So impressed that I bought 2 (one for home, one for work).

Available in either glossy black or white, this is a simple but well built desk dock. The only connector is a Micro USB port and there are 4 soft feet on the underside giving it a really good stability.

It also, and this is crucial, comes with a grey rubber insert that goes into the slot where the phone docks. Normally this would be needed. However, if you have a case on your phone remove this insert and you’ll find it fits without the need to take your case off. It’s not spectacularly snug like this (it wobbles a bit, but that may be due to the slim case I’m using) but it’s good enough.

The case comes in a clear plastic case with non-English details on it (not that you need any).

I got mine for about £8.50 from eBay¹. Despatched from Korea, I still received it within a matter of days.

Summary of Zenis DNA Dock

Good quality, a reasonable price and works even if you’re using a case – the only case for the Samsung Galaxy S2 that I’d recommend

Reviewed by David Artiss on 13th September 2011.

1. Note: It doesn’t come with a USB cable [↩]

The ZiiSound D5x is an enhanced version of the D5, which I reviewed last year. At the time I praised its sound quality and looks.

Well, with the D5x, none of that has changed – it looks and sounds just as good. What that extra letter on the end means, however, is that it now has an ability to link, via Bluetooth, to other D5x speakers and even to an optional sub-woofer (the DSx). In fact you can have 3 D5x speakers and the DSx connected together in total, allowing you to play back audio in a variety of ways – including using one as a centre speaker and then having separate left and right channels.

The same apt-X Bluetooth connectivity is present too so you know that the audio being shared across devices will be high quality.

As always, Creative have gone to town with the high quality packaging of their product. A well made, embossed, external box is opened up to reveal everything nicely packaged inside in smaller boxes. Little details, even down to an embossed card with the product details on, make you think you’ve bought  a quality product. Included is a thick manual with plenty of walk-through assistance on pairing and connecting other devices.

It’s a lot more compact than other premium iPhone docs (the B&W Zeppelin, for instance) and, although somewhat bland in its black, angled, rectangular form, it has enough aesthetic touches to make up for it. For example, the ends of the ZiiSound are finished in a dark-gun metal material  and the volume is shown via a series of white LEDs. To adjust the volume you simply move you fingers across the touch sensitive panel on the top – it responds and looks superb.

For testing I took my daughter’s iPod Touch and connected the supplied Apple adapter underneath. This gives it apt-X transmission capability and it docks nicely in the top (charging the iPod as well). I also had the DSx subwoofer (I’ll review that later). The speaker was placed one side of the room and the sub-woofer in an opposite corner. The result was an amazing sound, with the only wires being present being connections to the mains (the D5x has an external power supply, I assume, to keep the size of the speakers down). There was no interference and I’d never have known the connection was via Bluetooth – although that’s probably a lot to do with the use of apt-X. The link between speakers has a 30 metre range (whereas the Bluetooth connection is 10 metres).

Using the DSx sub-woofer is how most people will want to connect it, and that’s when it really comes into its own. As with the D5 you can use an audio connector rather than Bluetooth and, along with the DSx, it makes an amazing sound bar for the TV – discreet but with an amazing sound. With most flat screen TVs coming with poor quality sound this works as a brilliant alternative – and much cheaper than many equivalent quality alternatives.

Visually, the only difference is the addition of an extra light and touch sensitive button on the front for the purpose of device linking. Otherwise it’s still the same wonderful looking unit it was before – all shiny blacks and metallic ends! But that’s not to say that’s the only difference as the D5x is a lot lighter than the D5 – it’s only around 60% the weight of the original!

Sound and Vision Magazine said…

… beyond purer sonics, what this system really delivers is surprising horsepower for its size.”Room-filling sound” is a phrase that gets tossed around quite a bit these days, but the D5x/DSx 2.1 combo really does have sufficient power for a party.

Summary of Creative ZiiSound D5x

If you have no intention of buying more than one, or the matching sub-woofer, then I’d stick with the original D5 which is currently £50 cheaper. Otherwise, this is a brilliant sound system, particularly with the DSx sub-woofer.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 12th September 2011.

Artiss Content Reveal (formally Simple Content Reveal) has had a major revamp to version 2.

Apart from being extensively re-coded with various administration improvements (there’s an editor button for it, extra meta data in the Plugins menu, etc), there’s a lot of big improvements…

1. Cookies now store the state of each hidden/revealed section for each user – so if you collapse a section when you return to the page later it will still be like that! In addition, there are lots of options to override the default cookie settings.
2. Force all Content Reveal sections on the screen to do a single thing via the URL – e.g. make all content reveal in preparation for printing
3. The title which you click on to hide/show sections can be separated from the actual content, allowing you to place these elsewhere
4. Separate text can be specified for the title, allowing different things to appear depending on the state of the content

And much, much more!