New Super Mario Bros: 2 (Nintendo 3DS)

The game is what you would expect for the sequel to the best selling DS game, New Super Mario Bros.

It isn't incredibly challenging, but can still keep me - a teenager - interested. The children will love it too!

There are eight levels, two of which are secret, and the game certainly has longevity. It isn't your complete-in-2-hours-Imagine-game. It seems interesting and I expect longevity from this.

As for playing on the 3DS XL, it is simply amazing. The graphics are excellent and you feel as though you are in the game. The 3D effects are good, but not necessary to enjoy the game. Thus, those under six (or the who hate the 3D) can still enjoy this gem.

It is very similar to the original, but the levels are quite different. There are perks and new suits, etc. but it is still familiar enough to know what to expect. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it creates a feeling of nostalgia.

My only concern is that the collecting coins thing could become tedious. I know they needed a different plot-line  but listening to that sound could become monotonous and hanging around for coins can be frustrating! But, it encourages you to spend more time on the level, thus allowing the game to last longer.

I love this game and I would recommend this to anyone!! If you haven't played the original, I would recommend you buy that as well. Truly amazing - you won't be disappointed! Pretty and with substance...a true rarity in the gaming industry today. And, this is why Nintendo still sell consoles...The quality is undeniable.

HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Sim-Free Smartphone

I got this phone three weeks ago, and so now I'm going to share some of my thoughts about it. I am very impressed with it, as it is a massive improvement on my last phone which was a blackberry bold. The first thing I noticed is that it's really fast, and I never notice any lag opening apps and playing high graphics games, so I love it.

It's screen is really good, and I would say it is the best screen you can get on a phone. The colours are very clear, especially the whites, and it can go very bright. Watching films and using the internet is also really easy on this phone because of the large screen, and the text resizes on the internet to fit the screen which makes it really easy to read.

The headphones are extremely high quality, and better than any other phone. They pack a lot of bass for such small buds, but the high notes and mid-tones are great as well. The beats audio EQ makes them sound even better, as it boosts the bass and high notes to make the sound suit the particular headphones better.

The battery is not, amazing, as it only lasts a day and a half for me when I'm using the phone a lot. However, there is a free app on the android market called juice defender which I would recommend downloading, as it improves the battery life dramatically by turning off battery draining aspects of the phone when you're not using them.

Lastly, the design. I think that the red accents on the speaker grill and the camera look really good, as they give the phone a limited edition feel, and with design becoming more and more important in technology, the red accents make it stand out from the rest of the market as a premium handset, with the beats logo on the back adding a bit of "cool" as well.

The camera takes really high quality photos for me that still look good even when I view them on a computer. Surprisingly, it takes better photos than my actual camera does, and I use it the whole time. The video also seems great quality, and you can choose what quality you take photos and videos in, in settings, if you want to take up less space on the memory card. Another great thing about the camera is that it comes with some editing functions, like cropping, and you can add effects to the photos like negative or sepia and more. The phone comes with a 16GB micro sd card already in it out of the box, which is great for storing music, photos, and videos.

The last strong point of the phone is the Android operating system, and that is a major factor to thing about when buying this phone. The Samsung Galaxy SII also has Android, but the Sensation XE also has HTC Sense, which is a skin, changing visual interface that you interact with when using the phone, to make it look much better and do more, and this is much better than Samsung's user interface, called Touchwiz. HTC have announced that the HTC Sensation XE will receive an upgrade to the latest versions of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich, in the next three months, which will bring more features, and make it an even better phone.

Overall, from my experience of using it over the last few weeks, and then comparing it to the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy SII, I would recommend it as the best phone out there at the moment, beating all the competition due to its design, its sound capabilities, its phenomenal speed and the Android versatility.

Apple iPod nano 16GB - Green - 6th Generation (UK)

I have had my ipod nano a few days now and here is my review:

Appearance and general:
This thing is tiny! It has a 1.5 inch screen and is very thin and light. I got mine in a pink color and it look fantastic! The battery life is impressive. You can get hours of playback- I think I get about 20... Loading music on is very easy. You need to install itunes and load up any CDs and then they can be synced onto the device.
 
Features:
Here are all of the features on the iPod nano:

Playlists.
You simply let your favorite songs and create your own albums. I find this feature very useful when I just want to listen to half an hour of my favorite songs.

Genius mixes.
This is a feature where, from what you have been listening to and what is in your library, it suggests new songs and albums for you to try. I found this feature good at times but it mostly goes unused.

Music.
This, obviously, is the main part of the ipod. You can select what songs to play via Artists, Songs, Albums, Genres or composers. Music quality is excellent, but I would recommend that you buy some half decent headphones. You can shake to shuffle. There is a voice-over feature, by holding on the button on the apple earphones, it can tell you what song you are listening to and who it is by in a robot voice. I do not use this feature and so did switch to better quality earphones.

Radio.
Not the best. But what, really, can you expect? Some stations have decent quality, like the local stations the nano finds for you. You can select certain stations as your favourites, and then you can find them easily. You can also stop and rewind the radio.

Podcast.
High quality stuff. There are loads of podcasts to choose from, for free, on the iTunes store. It does not play any podcast that are video and not audio, instead you can listen to it whilst you see a freeze frame.

Settings.
You can basically change the brightness wallpaper, set a pedometer goal, change photo settings and other settings.

Photos.
The photos are incredibly high quality. You can play slideshows where they zoom in on the photos.

Fitness.
A basic pedometer. You can also view your pedometer personal bests and your workout totals.

Clock.
As you would expect. Also includes a stopwatch and timer.

The bottom line is that it is a very good device. Some people may be missing the video and camera features. But I do not. The small size and shape just wouldn't be suitable for video or a camera.

Basically, I LOVE IT!

Nintendo Wii Console (Includes Wii Sports)

I'm going to aim this review at people who have never really played video games before or who have only had a passing interest, as I think there may be quite a lot of you who are considering, or actively trying your best in, purchasing a Wii. If you are a more experienced gamer, you may find another review more helpful.

Basically you take the Wii home, get it out of the box, plug it into your TV and into the mains just like a DVD player, and then plug the 'sensor bar' into the Wii unit. You then place this same sensor either on top of or just underneath your television. The sensor bar is basically a long, slim grey piece of rectangular plastic with a cable running out to plug it into the Wii.


You then put some batteries into your 'Wii-mote' (Wii remote, included with the Wii console), and use it to turn the unit on. Of course, you're going to need a game to play. The Wii uses a disc format the same size and shape as a DVD; you just slot these into the unit. To get you started, Nintendo includes a game disc with the machine called 'Wii Sports'. This features Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf and Boxing. To actually play the games, you'll have to go through a few menus. Just use the Wii-mote by simply pointing at a particular point on your TV screen and clicking the buttons (the Wii-mote is kind of half-way between a computer mouse and a TV remote - but so much more).

It's when you actually get into the game that the fun begins. You don't just sit there pressing a series of buttons like with most video game consoles. Yes, you will probably have to push or hold one or two buttons, but the real idea here is that you move the remote around, and the sensor bar (which I told you about earlier) does the rest. The sensor bar can tell the Wii the place on the television screen where you are pointing the remote - but it also tells the machine exactly *how* you move the remote. Basically, motion sensitivity! What this means is that to play golf you hold the remote like a golf club, and take a swing; and hey presto, your on-screen character hits the golf ball with just as much power, lift and spin as you put in. There is some very well developed technology at work here!


Tennis is much the same: swing the remote like you would a tennis racquet. In bowling you hold the remote as if it were a ball and 'throw' it (you don't actually let go of it!). Each different game makes subtly different use of the remote, and there are loads available to buy: from one called Zelda where you get to sword-fight using the remote; to Wii Play which features a number of fun games; and of course, Wii Fit...but that's another review.


I can testify that this is fun for everyone, from age 3 to 63 or older. Nintendo have been sorting out supply difficulties so it's generally now much easier to get your hands on one. If you are having difficulty, I would suggest checking out the Amazon Wii 'Customer Discussions' for helpful advice, just scroll down to under the reviews on this page. Good luck!

Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR Camera (Inc EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens Kit)

I've now had this camera for 10 months now. I do plenty of photography and spend a good deal of my time shooting wedding photographs, events and parties. This camera now has a soft spot for me.

Key features for me are the 18 MP APS-C CMOS sensor, 19 point AF-system, the much improved metering systems or iFCL, which takes into account focus, color and luminance across 64 zones. The brilliant (and I can't reiterate this enough) new custom controls interface; you can have countless customizations for control. A god-send if you ask me. How many times would you just like to use the custimisation you want in a jiffy.

On top of this it has weather sealing, believe me this is brilliant, I had a Nikon that failed on me during heavy rain session, I used this camera during a session at a wedding and it stood through the torrid rain and I just kept on shooting. Another brilliant addition is the integrated speedlite transmitter, this allows you to open up the system and no requirement for a master unit. This is brilliant for family photo's and studio photoshoots, I rigged this up to set off 4 slave lights in 2 groups, under certain condition to just give enough light to my shoots and no over exposure.

Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR Camera

 

The build of the camera is great, it feels strong and very well built. You can work with this camera all day, I have no issue with weight and feel. It is a semi-pro camera with pro features. The camera has performed very well. I carry a 64GB CF pro card and all my photo's are generally shot in RAW and not once have I lost a shot. It is fast and very responsive. I was shooting in continous mode and the 7D never missed a beat.

Once of the strong points of the 7D is it's AutoFocus and this thing never missed a beat, I mainly use the Ultrasonic lenses and this baby rarely gave any unfocused images. Maybe out of a 1000 photos I may have 2-3 that were not focused correctly, but they could have well been my fault as well as tiredness creeps in and the un-focused shots were all during the end of my days.

Also, if you do plan to use this camera at high ISO levels, for example 16000 onwards the 7D is a star performer. I was getting decent results at 32000 so that is great news for any photographer.

Just a point on the movie mode, in the 7D you have full manual control for shutter speed and aperture. the best part is you can use your varied lenses to give a good short video. I created one as an experiment for a wedding and it was impressive although it's not always practical as you need to change lenses, but it works well however you want to look at it.

The images this camera produces are top notch and it's ability to work extremely well in low light conditions and give good images are it's strongest points.

My colleague who is a Nikon fan for 15 years has succumbed to the point to say he would be taking this camera out with him than his D300S, now that is a testament to how good this camera is.
I by no means am a Canon fan. I believe in using the right camera for the job. I personally switch between a D3X and Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III for special events, so I can say with hand on heart, that this camera in this class is the best there is. At the end of the day it is upto the consumer to try them out and then make a valued decision.

If you can afford it then this is the camera of choice in my personal opinion.