Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

When it comes to kids products, parents really tell it like it is in their reviews at Reevoo.com…

Kids Weather Shelter
Bad points: quality, it blew away on a day with no wind!!!!

Spider-Man Reversible Costume
Good points: My grandson loved it, the first day he changed from red to black 17 times and the second day 21 times.

Postman Pat Friction Van
Bad points: The noise when he pushes the van along drives me mad and I can’t hear the TV. He can’t get Pat to sit behind the wheel himself so I have to help. The rubber wing mirrors were chewed off within 3 minutes!

Universal Boys 24" Dual Suspension Bike
Bad points: Seat hurts bum.

BosieBoo Video Monitor
Bad points: kept picking up BBC1

Bratz Fairies Bubbles & Wands
Bad points: I purchased these for my little girl’s 5th birthday party, and the girls were seriously underwhelmed. If you can’t impress 5 years olds with pink, sparkly, bubbly Bratz items, you’re definitely onto a loser!

Dr Who Cyberman Classic Figure
Good points: Excellent quality and numerous joints allowing infinite positions. It is also an excellent replica of the cyberman. So good in fact that my son uses it to ‘film’ his own episodes of Doctor Who on You tube.

For this week’s top five we’re looking at the highest-rated phones with a minimum of four Reevoo real customer mobile phone reviews. We’ve chosen only those that offer an MP3 player feature, so you can listen to music on the move, without having to have a separate device. Here’s those that real customers who’ve purchased these phones rate as the best:

9/10 from 51 real reviews is the Sony Ericsson W810I
Customers loved the great battery life but some found the keys a bit fiddly and too sensitive.

9/10 from 15 real reviews is the Ericsson K800I
The quality of the camera on this phone was a big hit and the reason many of the purchasers plumped for this model, though there’s a few concerns over battery life.

8/10 from 131 real reviews is the Samsung D600E
The battery life has divided reviews with some calling it good and others having problems with it. Reviews also include a bit of an essay from Abbie in Bristol about text issues and the alarm feature, who concludes ‘Samsung have decided that people are only aloud to press the snooze button 5 times, I’m an adult if I want to snooze past my alarm for longer than 25 minutes I should be permitted’. Samsung, you have been told!

8/10 from 40 real reviews is the Virgin Mobile Lobster 544
Many reviews commented that it’s simple to use and a few recommended it as good for children, which doesn’t surprise as it’s one of Virgin’s budget phones aimed at the younger market.

8/10 from 36 real reviews is the Nokia 6233
Several customers had issues with the keypad though a few were pleasantly surprised by some of the features, like John from Fleet who said ‘I have found it useful for watching video podcasts on the train. An unexpected bonus’.

Lots of people want to be able to listen to their CDs on the go, but how many hours worth of music can you actually fit on a portable music device? That’s the question posed on Ask Jack over at the Guardian today.

Predictably, the answer is variable as it depends on the type of compression you use for your music tracks. Most of us use MP3s - they’re simple to create and are playable on most devices, but they’re not always the most efficient in terms of space.

Jack tells us that a 1GB music player will hold around eight hours of high quality MP3 music, rising to 16 hours at a lower quality, and recommends a good guide to creating high-quality MP3s. If space is an issue for you, he suggests using the more efficient AAC encoding to save space but retain quality, as it will translate to about 12 hours of music on a 1GB player.

Now that you can get great-looking devices capable of holding 8GB of music like Sony’s catchily-named NW-A1200 Walkman, that means just under 100 hours of high-quality music in your hand.

It’s crucial if you have all that music on there to have robust power to keep it going, and that means good battery life. Looking at the Sony NW-A1200 reviews on Reevoo.com from people who’ve actually bought this player, shows they are impressed with the battery life of the device, rating it ‘average’ or ‘above average’ overall. On the down side, usability appears to be a bit of an issue with comments including ‘hard to work’ and ’small screen’.

But does the average music listener need all this? Would they rather sacrifice storage space in favour of price or ease of use? Looking at the MP3 players top-rated by four or more purchasers, the 4GB capacity Samsung YP-Z5A and old-style iPod Nano come out the favourites, followed by the 2GB Sony NW-E005.

The Sony NW-A1200 is priced between £100-180, compared to a second generation iPod Nano, now available at under £100. Plus each of the top-rated players received the comment ‘easy to use’, in contrast to the Sony.

How much music does one really need on their portable player? As one reviewer of the 4GB Nano says: ’small but with plenty of space for as much music as anyone could want’.

What people are getting excited about elsewhere in the blogosphere…

Engadget is this week at the Flat Panel Display International show in Japan, reporting on a range of new inventions and odd products (an automatic chair shaped like an orca anyone?). What really caught my eye was this 1 cm thin, 40 inch LCD TV panel from Samsung. Now that is flat!

The all-in-one beer machine (pictured) has piqued the interest of Sarah Meyers at Gizmodo. All you need to do is add the ingredients, tweak a few knobs and dials and presto, in two weeks, beer!

All this technology making you nostalgic for the good old days? TechDigest shows us how to hark back to those heady pre-CD/iPod days with a USB mix tape memory stick.

Want to avoid identity theft? The Which? October podcast has been released offering tips on avoiding ID fraud, preparing yourself for the digital TV switchover, and must-have toys for youngsters this Christmas. They also cover digital downloads and the rise of online music, DIY disasters, checking the tyres on your car and their campaign to make the NHS more patient-centric.

Related reviews:
iPod reviews
Shredder reviews
TV reviews
Toy reviews

I know it’s only October, but yes, I’m going to use the C word!

The Toy Retailers Association has made its predictions for the top twelve toys UK kids will want to see under the tree this Christmas. It looks like technology-related toys will feature highly, including a number of TV and film inspired items.

Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old? (RRP £19.99)
Baby Annabell (RRP £39.99)
Barbie Girls (RRP £49.99)
Doctor Who Dalek Sec Hybrid Voice Changer Mask (RRP£29.95)
Flytech Dragonfly (RRP £34.87)
Golden Balls (RRP £19.99)
GR8 Art Bindeez Super Deluxe Studio Centre (RRP £19.95)
In The Night Garden – Blanket Time Igglepiggle (RRP £34.99)
Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name (RRP £44.99)
Roary R/C Car (RRP £24.99)
Say What? (RRP £24.99)
Transformers Movie Leader: Optimus Prime Mask (RRP £39.99)

While the rest of the UK has until 2012 to get ready for the analogue-to-digital TV switchover, Whitehaven in Cumbria started making the change this week. BBC Two was the first channel to switch, with the others following suit next month. Local digital TV and electronics stores have reported a significant increase in purchases over the last few months leading up to the switchover, as people ready their homes for the change.

Related reviews:
Televisions
Set-top boxes

Being a big fan of efficiency, I was a bit disappointed to discover that the hamster shredder isn’t a product currently in production but an art/design prototype by Tom Ballhatchet. I rather like the ‘two in one’ idea of shredding sensitive documents to automatically provide bedding for your furry friends (and don’t let the name alarm you, it’s definitely designed to shred paper, not hamsters).

I’m not sure if the documents used in the images (a council tax bill and an Inland Revenue self-assessment tax notice) are designed to just be ’sensitive material’, or if there’s a deeper comment on bureaucracy being made by the designer. I guess we’ll just have to use our imaginations.

[via Strange New Products]

We know that reading product reviews when you’re looking to buy a new digital TV, mobile phone or other product is really useful. But one unexpected benefit is the humour you encounter when people speak their mind. Here’s a few of the choice nuggets Reevoo’s collected in reviews of household appliances over the last couple of months…

RUSSELL HOBBS 12911 kettle
Good points: It boils water.
Bad points: The kettle is so noisy that we use it only in our laundry room as we can’t stand the racket in the kitchen.

INDESIT IS60V VENTED tumble dryer
Good points: Good safety feature in that you have to close the door then press a button on the outside to start, so little ones can’t climb in and set themselves going (it has been known!)

BEKO CDA543FS fridge freezer
Bad points: It makes wierd noises. Quite loud and kind of scary.

DAEWOO ERF384MSG 11.9CF fridge freezer
Bad points: THIS IS THE NOISIEST FRIDGE FREEZER IN THE WORLD!!!!!! IT DOES NOT STOP BURBLING AND WHOOSHING AND MAKING A HELL OF A LOT OF NOISE.

NORFROST C6AEW 6.19CF fridge freezer
Good points: It’s in the shed
Bad points: can still hear it

ZANUSSI TC7103S + VENT tumble dryer
Bad points: seems to take a while to dry the clothes but I think that is probably my missus being rubbish

BEKO DWD5410S dishwasher
Good points: washes brilliantly, easy to fill the bottom, and mainly the top. Easy to work. Even the husband knows how to use this one.

Yesterday was Blog Action Day, a day for bloggers worldwide to devote their posts to an important subject: the environment.

I wanted to highlight the excellent Action Day post at Lifehacker, entitled ‘Easy Ways to Live Greener‘. We all know it’s important to change our everyday habits to be a bit greener, and simple ideas are a great way to nudge the environmentally apathetic into starting with small actions.

Lifehacker asked readers to contribute their top tips for living a greener life, and the responses ranged from the quite techie (automatically powering down external computer drives), to those that everyone can do (bring your own utensils to work instead of using throw-away plastic ones at lunch), plus a couple of quirkier ones (DIY pet poo composting anyone?). Great simple suggestions!