ReTrak, popular in the US, are now selling their range of products in the UK at retailers such as Dixons and Amazon.

You may have come across retractable cables before – often found on portable mice for laptops, they wind excess cable into real which is suspended half way along the cable length. What ReTrak have done is improved upon this, added other new technologies and then created a huge range of products. Basically, what you get are a range of electrical accessories that take up as little space as possible.

Their range includes computer, visual and audio cables along with power supplies, headphones, iPhone and eBook products, mice and even a retractable mouse mat with built-in USB hub!

The product I’m looking at today is their Retractable USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Cable with Multi-Tip “Star” Adapter. Long name – short product.

It’s a retractable USB cable, using the same inertia reel system that was used on their audio cable (pull out the cable on both ends to unwind it and then simply give them a light tug for them to reel back in again) with male to female ends. It also comes with a 4 way “start” adapter which plugs in the end, allowing you to connect USB-B, Mini 5-Pin, Micro 5-Pin and Mini 4-Pin.

The cable length is 1.3m with a transfer rate of over 480 Mbps. Again, it comes with a 3 year warranty, so you can be sure that reel is going to continue working.

At £19.99, this is a bit more pricier than the audio cable and, to me, seems to represent slightly less value for money – if you can get it for £15 then I’d consider it a much better prospect. However, it is compact and is ideal for throwing into a laptop bag for most eventualities.

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Summary of ReTrak Retractable USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Cable with Multi-Tip “Star” Adapter

An assortment of USB connections in a compact solution. A 3 year guarantee ensure it’s resilience but the price could be a little lower. None-the-less, a worthy computer accessory.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 8th September 2011.

ReTrak, popular in the US, are now selling their range of products in the UK at retailers such as Dixons and Amazon.

You may have come across retractable cables before – often found on portable mice for laptops, they wind excess cable into real which is suspended half way along the cable length. What ReTrak have done is improved upon this, added other new technologies and then created a huge range of products. Basically, what you get are a range of electrical accessories that take up as little space as possible.

Their range includes computer, visual and audio cables along with power supplies, headphones, iPhone and eBook products, mice and even a retractable mouse mat with built-in USB hub!

The first product I’ve looked at is one of the simpler ones. The Car Stereo Audio Cable is 1.5m length of cable with 3.5mm headphones jacks at either end. The plugs themselves are gold plated.

You reel out the length of cable that you require by pulling both ends. To wind it back in you simply give both ends a light tug before releasing.

I have an audio socket in my car but its a good metre away from where my audio player of choice, my phone, sits. Up until now I’ve had a simple cable draped between the 2 points, which I’ve left in place. More than once I’ve got myself caught up in the cable, or the cable has dropped out of the way. With this ReTrak solution, I can simple reel the cable back and put it away once I’ve finished.

The only issue I have with it is the reel in the middle which, unlike a standard cable, adds a weight when suspended. However, I’m able to simply hook that over something on the dash.

With a 3 year warranty, the £9.99 asking price is certainly not unattractive and is certainly something I’d recommend.

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Summary of ReTrak Car Stereo Audio Cable

A good solution to untidy cables and at a good price. With a 3 year warranty on top, it’s hard not to recommend this.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 6th September 2011.

The ZEN Style M300 is the latest MP3 player from Creative. Boasting a small size, budget price but some big features, it looks to be a promising option for those who don’t want everything Apple branded.

The M300 is obviously competing with the likes of the iPod Nano for size, measuring a sleek 55.2 x 44.2 mm and just 12.6 mm deep. The screen is a 1.45″ TFT with 128×128 pixels and displaying 262K colours.

I have the white version (as pictured) but it’s available in red, black and yellow. Prices are £39.99 for 4GB, £59.99 for 8GB and £79.99 for 16GB.

The thick black band around the screen is there for good reason – it’s a touch sensitive control. Simply touch the outsides of the screen to move tracks, access options, etc. That works well but the small size and low resolution of the screen means that although text is readable, it’s not of the highest quality.

There is a volume control on one side and a micro SD card slot on the other – this slot allows for up to 32GB extra storage to be added to the 4-16GB default – along with the microphone. On the bottom is a reset “hole”, headphone and USB socket. On top is a sliding switch which controls power and the key lock.

It uses the standard Creative menu navigation system – it’s okay but not overly intuitive. There are a wide range of options available – a built in radio, voice recording, photo and video viewing, etc. There isn’t the wide array of audio enhancements that my previously reviewed Creative Zen X-Fi Style had, but it does have apt-X on-board and you can stream audio wirelessly using Bluetooth – an excellent feature. Indeed, there is no custom equaliser and you can only choose from a small number of presets.

However, even without all the bells and whistles, the M300 still sounds good. And getting music onto it is a breeze – it appears as a hard drive when connected to a PC so you can simply drag and drop contents. Otherwise, you can use Windows Media Player to synchronise to the device.

In the box you don’t get much – some average wired headphones, a neatly folded set of manuals and a USB cable. A 3-in-1 clip is available for nearly £20. It’s best that accessories such as this are separate because it can keep the price down for those who don’t need it, but at £20 it is a bit steep.

Reading reviews from users, the main issues appear to be the lack of ability to neatly sync playlists (documentation on how to do it can be found here) as well as the Micro SD option. From what I can tell – I’ve not tried it myself – the player can’t actually play the music from the card but has to copy it onto the internal memory first.

But these, and the lack of sound enhancements, are really quite insignificant when you consider that you’d be getting a Bluetooth streaming, full colour, 4GB, small MP3 player for less than £40.

One tip – make sure you have the latest firmware if you purchase this device. The latest version has some extra stability for the Bluetooth and adds compatibility with .m3u format playlists.

Summary of Creative ZEN Style M300

It lacks some options but gains in others. For a tiny bluetooth MP3 player you can’t go much wrong and at less than £40 for the 4GB model, it’s an absolute bargain

Reviewed by David Artiss on 6th September 2011.