iTech Engine

One of the highlights of CES this year was the Casio Exilim TRYX (or EX-TR100). Sitting somewhere between one of company’s Casio’s stylish and compact EXILIM cameras and the Flip-style pocket camcorders, it’s a camera/camcorder hybrid with a few tricks up its sleeve.   At first glance it looks a bit like a compact camera, but surrounding the LCD is a frame that twists around 360 degrees, so you can hold it with one or two hands. The LCD itself then twists around too, so you can shoot both horizontally and vertically. This versatile design means you can take photos using either hand and from different angles depending on what you are shooting. You can even hang the camera from a pole or hook, should you desire.   We’ll be bringing you a video of the Casio TRYX over the next couple of days, until then: Check out our hands-on pictures of the Casio Tryx    
At 157g the TRYX feels light and fits comfortably in your hand. We’d suggest exercising a little caution when the frame is out; although it does help you steady the device to prevent camera shake, you certainly don’t want to give this to your kids to play with.   The TRYX has a 12-megapixel CMOS sensor and f2.8 (2.1mm) fixed lens. So, much like the Flip Ultra HD and Panasonic TA1 there’s no optical zoom. It captures 1080p movies and there’s an HDMI output.   Controls are minimal, with most features accessed by tapping the 3-inch 460,000 touchscreen, which you can also use to focus and take a picture by touching the screen. Pictures are stored on SD card, but Casio has yet to announce battery information. Where the TRYX differs from camcorders like the Flip, is a feature set that is much closer to Casio’s EXILIM camera heritage. Casio’s equipped the TRYX with HDR technology, which takes shots at different exposures, combining them to create a final image with less washed out highlights, while retaining detail in dark areas. This is expecially useful in high-contrast situations.   One feature Casio was keen to promote is HDR Art function, which lets you use three processing levels: strong, standard and light to turn your photographs into works of art We saw a few examples and results varied from very effective, to a neon mess, and although it’s a nice feature to have, it’s not necessarily one we’d use very often.   We really like the Casio TRYX, it turns the traditional compact camera design upside down, offering composition flexibility to the photographer. We do have reservations about the durability of the flip out frame and ultimately whether the Tryx has mass-market appeal, but we’ll reserve judgement until we get a review sample. Ultimately it’s fantastic to see something new. Available in black or white, the Casio TRYX is out end of March/early April in the US for $250. There’s no news on UK pricing yet.     Casio TRYX release date: TBC, link Casio Casio TRYX price: TBC     Posted by Hannah Bouckley

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Even the largest telly can’t fully replicate the magic of the cinema, but a full-HD projector can provide the necessary screen inches – up to 300 inches across – and the captivating image quality. Here, we’ve got one for most b…

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The D-Link Boxee is a dedicated service for on-demand TV, but unlike Apple TV, it’s open source, pulling together content from a range of content providers.   Boxee is the name of the software and the company has collaborated with D-Link on the hardware, the result of which is the Boxee Box. Typically streamers are dull rectangular boxes designed to be hidden under your television set. However the Boxee Box is a far more interesting affair, it’s an angular mesh of green and black. It shouldn’t work, but it does.   Around the back are HDMI out, Optical Digital, Ethernet and 2x USB ports. On the side there’s an SD card slot, which functions as storage because there’s nothing built in.   Plug the Boxee Box in and connect it to your television via HDMI. In theory it should instantly find your WiFi network, however it couldn’t detect our WiFi network. Even a firmware update (which sorted out many of our very early gripes) couldn’t fix it. Looking online this seems to have been issues with some other testers.   Boxee Box: TV shows Once connected you go through to user friendly main menu, split into four options: Shows, Movies, Apps and File. Thanks to a compact remote with basic controls, the Boxee is a cinch to use, and you get a full QWERTY keyboard on the back of remote which is far preferable to using conventional remote controls. ‘Shows’ has a list of thumbnail images of television content – over 40,000 episodes – with programs from a range of sources, including: 4OD, BBC and Channel 5. It’s when you start watching a program that things become a bit clunky, there are too many steps. Select a program like Peep Show, you then click through again and then have to select an episode, before going through to the source – in this case a browser version of You Tube – where you have to tick consent, before the program finally starts.   Demand Five is even worse, it’s not optimised, so you’re navigating a browser window with tiny icons and even when you click full screen the browser doesn’t fill the screen. BBC iPlayer is better, although screen quality isn’t fantastic and certainly not as intuitive as the dedicated app on Sony Internet TV.   Boxee Box: Movies   Choose from 1226 movies, which considering Sony’s Qriocity service currently runs hundreds is pretty respectable. NFB, Channel 4 and indiemoviesonline.com are among the free ad-supported providers, and while you’re not going to get the latest blockbusters, there are some decent titles like Chopper or Auteur. Quality is OK, if slight soft, but there were no issues waiting for content to buffer like with Apple TV.   The majority of the movies are only available if you have MUBI account. At £9.95 a month Mubi is great for indie fans. One issue we have is that unless you specify the specific channel, you don’t know where the film comes from until you click through. A couple of times we clicked through eager to watch a film, only to discover we needed a Mubi account. Boxee Box: Apps and streaming   Boxee currently offers 154 apps; the usual Flickr and You Tube are there, along with dedicated channels like Google Tech Talk, while Radio Time lets you listen to commercial and BBC radio stations.   There’s a respectable browser, it’s not very quick and navigation is a bit cumbersome, but we loaded T3 up without an issue and Flash videos play back smoothly.   Boxee includes Facebook and Twitter integration, along with Google Buzz, Netflix, Tumblr, Flickr, MLB.TV and MUBI. This needs to be done offline, where you can search for friends. When friend upload a video, it’s updated to your news feed. Likewise, if a video takes your fancy, you can recommend it to fell Boxee users.   File support is excellent, including DivX, Xvid and WMV 9, and didn’t have any issues with playback. An Optical Audio Output means you can connect the Boxee Box to an amp to listen to 5.1 surround sound. Boxee Box: Conclusion   We really love the idea of the Boxee Box, aggregating content from multiple sources and streaming it to your TV, mostly for free, is a great idea. Aside from a few WiFi issues, it’s simple to set up and use, but although the main menu is intuitive, doing certain things – like watching TV programs and films – takes too long and can (in the case of Demand Five) be frustrating. Although, other areas – like Social Networking integration and Apps work very well.   At £189 the box is expensive, especially when there’s no-onboard storage, and almost double the price of Apple TV. Although you can download the Boxee software for free and run it from your PC (such as a Mac Mini or Dell Inspiron), using an iPhone app to control it. At the moment, while we applaud the idea of the Boxee Box, usabilitye issues means it doesn’t quite feel like the final article, which is why it gets 3 stars. But the beauty of a web-connected service like Boxee is that it can be continually updated via firmware updates. During our time we the Boxee a firmware updated hugely improved performance, and we’d been keen to try it out again in six months. Either way, this is the future of television and Boxee is leading the way.
  D-Link Boxee Box launch: Out now.Link: Boxee, D-Link D-Link Boxee Box price: £189-£199 online Posted by Hannah Bouckley

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Board gamers with a thirst for world conquest have long been attracted to "Risk." Its simple mechanics make it easy to learn, and the thrill of annexing nations through simulated force of arms appeals to a bellicose streak in all but the most devoted pacifists. Hasbro and Electronic Arts have done an excellent job making the tablet version as exciting as its board analog.

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