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

At the moment, projectors are a pretty niche product. There’s a certain appeal to being able turn your living room into a drive in movie theatre, and to pull a dramatic image out of the bag without having a huge TV dominating the room. But to date only big screen junkies seem to be considering them as an option - probably due to an expected £1000 price tag.

I wonder if that’s about to change with In Focus’s latest model, the InFocus X9, an HD-Ready projector that will be available for less than £500:

The new In Focus joins the Optoma EP738 as HD-ready projectors to consider in the sub £600 price range.

There’s no doubt that having a projector that can compete on price with anything larger than a 32″ TV (average cost £465) will be pretty significant, but there’s still a way for these projectors to go before they are competing with standard flatscreens in terms of specs: both have only a single, 1.3, HDMI port - a way below the current minimum of 2 2.0 HDMIs.

And then there’s the fuzzier question of whether people actually like using projectors to watch normal TV, not just films.

Interesting times.

We love our gadgets but who knew that we were the second biggest gadget lovers in the world? Second only to the US, the UK spends the most on gadgets.

We spend a massive $44.3bn. That’s £24bn or €31bn, making us the biggest gadget buyers in Europe.

The survey was conducted by Euromonitor and covers gadget spending throughout 2007 but unfortunately doesn’t tell us what kind of gadgets each county invest in.

Here’s the top five gadget-buying countries from the survey:

1. US - £91.6bn / $162bn
2. UK - £24bn / $44.3bn
3. Germany - £17bn / $30bn
4. France - £15.3bn / $27.1bn
5. Russia - £13.9bn / $24.5bn

If you don’t feel you’ve lived up to this title, perhaps you should check out all of the other gadgets we’ve written about on Decide What to Buy or you can check out some gadget reviews.

Those shoppers over on Reevoo have been making us chuckle this week…

"
when freshly charged it is bursting with energy like a frisky mare" Picooz Insecta Night R/C Helicopter

"Spent the best part of a month staring at the screen blankly, being totally lost without the "Start Bar" before i finally cracked and spent 10 mins reading the built in help…And poke me sideways with a large mucky stick if its not all starting to make very pure and perfect sense. Apple I-MAC 24

"I have never been attracted to Yoga until I started Wii Fit…I like the personal trainers, (especially when a handsome young man tells me my "form is fantastic"!!!) Nintendo Wii Fit

"
Powerful Blow. Weak suck" Black & Decker GW370 Electric Blower Vac

"
dosn’t like to take ferries" Garmin Nuvi 250

Rumours have been flying around about a Google Android mobile for ages now but it seems that it may all come true sooner than we thought. Earlier today, Reuters leaked a story that Google and T-Mobile are on the verge of releasing the first mobile equipped with Android. The sleuths believe that we could hear news as early as the 23rd September.

Much to my disappointment, the rumours suggest that it will run on an HTC handset – not the most exciting of prospects but we know the technology will be worth it. Let’s hope the handset’s not too clunky.

Just in case you haven’t heard about Google Android, it’s an open source operating system and software platform for mobiles. Among other cool things, it will allow you to combine applications – so you could be looking up a contacts address and need to find where they live. With a simple click, you will be taken to the map application which will show you exactly where to go. You can also quickly switch your view to ‘street level’ so that you can see what the place looks like too. Very handy.

There’s also text chat that shows up at the top of the screen whenever you get a ‘notification’.

There are loads more features and functions – check out this video to see Google founder Sergy Brin and Steve Horowitz talking about Android with a demo:

You can also find out more on the Android website.

If you’re mad about music and own a load of old-school LPs, you might like this week’s Gadget Watch. You can now easily convert your old vinyls into super new MP3s and take them everywhere with you on your iPod.

The LP Dock will let you transfer songs either through your PC via the USB cable or direct to your iPod. If you go through your PC, the Gracenote MusicID techonology that comes with this genius device will automatically retrieve all of the artist, album and song info for you. And no worries if your vinyls are a little scratched, this software will sort all that out for you too!

You can also use the LP Dock to play your LPs through your HiFi system. Pretty cool, hey?! You can pick one up for £129 or $259.95.

Just a quickie on what we might be fighting in shops for this Christmas - The old, familiar Wii Christmas shortage is back. US games retailer GameStop predicts the shortage unless Nintendo has a massive increase in supply in the next couple of weeks. It’s unknown as to whether this will lead to shortages here in the UK but we can use wii-consoles.co.uk to stay up-to-date on the situation.

But if you don’t fancy a Wii, both the Xbox and PS3 seem to be in plentiful supply…Check out the games console reviews to find out what people think about them all.

I’ve been looking at the prices you can expect to pay if you buy a TV from the top brands. This will help if you’re shopping for a TV by brand - how much can you expect to pay for a Sony these days?

This data comes from thousands of purchases from Reevoo’s retail partners in 2008.

There’s no suprises at the top and bottom of the table - you can expect to get a Matsui TV for just over £200, while the average price forked out for a Pioneer set is over £1000!

Here’s the full list:

Matsui - £209
Goodmans - £250
Hitachi - £282
Philips - £522
LG - £547
Samsung - £578
Sony - £627
Toshiba - £639
Panasonic - £717
Sharp - £841
Pioneer - £1,258

This list tells us a lot about the screen sizes where manufacturers are selling the most products. For example, Matsui make televisons from 14-42″, with prices ranging from £60-550, but on average people are paying around £200, so I’d be cautious if I was looking at a £500 Matsui - not many people are buying them.

While that’s helpful, it’s also really valuable to look how the average cost for each brand varies within a particular screen size. Here’s how things pan out in 32″ TVs:

Toshiba - £414
Hitachi - £418
Philips - £445
Sharp - £455
LG - £456
Samsung - £458
Sony - £538
Panasonic - £600

Overall the average price paid for a 32″ TV was £465. Within a screen size, you’d expect to pay more for extra features, like 3 or 4 HDMI ports rather than just 2; higher picture or sound quality; or perhaps just to get a shiny logo on the front.

Of the top manufacturers, it’s interesting to see that only Sony and Panasonic sets are selling for above the average price. Although both manufacters produce models available for around £400, they stand out as the premium brands at this screen size.

On the budget end, few manufactuers are selling 32″ for much less than £400, but Hitachi and Toshiba’s low end models are very popular, making them the value-for-money pick of the 32 inchers.

Which brand do you think offers the best value-for-money? Who do you think is just charging for their logo? Share your thoughts with other shoppers.

This must be one of the simplest green gadgets we’ve ever featured on Decide What to Buy. The Paper Potter is a simple wooden tool that helps you to make pots out of your old newspapers.

Simply cut your old newspapers into strips, roll a strip around the Paper Potter and fold the excess paper over the end of the tool. Press the end into the base of the Paper Potter and hey presto! A mini pot for your plants that can be planted in the garden. Totally biodegradable and the growing roots will be able to push through the paper as it rots away in the soil.

The Paper Potter is made from wood from sustainable forests and comes in a recycled cardboard box. Not only that but you’ll save loads of money on pots! Great fun for kids too.

They are £9.95 in the UK but they ship globally.

Remember when we told you all about Near Field Communications (NFC) and how it was going to transform the way we do things?

Well the Japanese are now using it to promote movies through movie posters. Japanese mobile carrier, SoftBank has joined forces with Gemalto and NTT Data to develop the "smart poster system".

Information will now be able to be transmitted to mobile users through the posters. It’ll work a bit like our Oyster Cards in London and will send people trailers, screenshots and other free content.  Mobile users just need to stand near the poster and have a credit card application installed on their NFC-enabled phones.

Previously, Japanese mobile users could get information about products and services by using 2D barcodes. However, this new move will enable content to be sent without any effort whatsoever.

The possibilities are endless with this technology. People could receive taxi numbers just by stepping into a bar, supermarkets could push out special offers as you walk past them or you could get song lyrics by walking into a gig. I’m sure you can think of lots more exciting things too…

[Omio]

Back in the day, our kitchens were filled with mug trees, chip pans and egg slicers. Well a lot has happened since then and we now go home to plasma TVs, grilling machines and bread makers. Making meals from scratch has given way to microwaves, ready meals and expensive gadgets that cut down the time and effort we have to put into cooking. In fact, a survey conducted by Reevoo showed that in the 1970s, we cooked seven meals a week from scratch compared to only four today. We also spent 116 minutes a day in the kitchen whereas we only spend around 74 minutes nowadays.

Check out the stats below that show how our kitchens have changed in the last 30 odd years.

The survey also looked at regional changes and found that those in the North East were more likely to own chip pans in the 70s and in the North West and Northern Ireland, kitchens are more likely to come complete with games consoles, HiFis and plasma TVs today. However, gadgets aren’t as important in the North East – they are the least likely to have a dishwasher.

People in the East Midlands spend the least time in the kitchen with those in Northern Ireland spending the most.

Interesting stuff. Although, I do think that the culture of cooking from scratch is on its way back in. With more and more scare stories about packaged food, problems with our diets and the guilt factor pushed onto parents, I think that we are cooking a lot more than we did 10 years ago. It is a little worrying that more people have coffee machines than scales but here’s hoping that we all start putting a bit more effort into cooking healthy meals. The big issue is time but with all these gadgets, it has made things a little quicker than they would have been in the 70s.

Top seventies kitchen items

1.     Teapot and cosy (63%)
2.     Kitchen scales (61 %)
3.     Tupperware (59%)
4.     Chip pan (58%)
5.     Salt and pepper shakers (57%)
6.     Bread bin (56%)
7.     Hand-held whisk (52%)
8.     Casserole dish (49%)
9.     Spice rack (44%)
10.   Pressure cooker (43%)
11.   Tea strainer (42%)
12.   Mug tree (41%)
13.   Toasted sandwich maker (38%)
14.   Souvenir tea towels (37%)
15.   Shaped jelly mould (36%)
16.   Egg slicer (36%)
17.   Lolly makers (35%)
18.   Food mixer (35%)
19.   Soda stream (34%)
20.   Electric carving knife (33%)

Top items found in today’s kitchens

1.     Microwave (70%)
2.     Electric kettle (69%)
3.     Toaster (68%)
4.     Saucepan set (57%)
5.     Knife set (55%)
6.     Automatic washing machine (53%)
7.     Wok (49%)
8.     Sandwich maker (40%)
9.     Blender (38%)
10.   Hand held blender (37%)
11.   Tumble dryer (36%)
12.   Steamer (35%)
13.   Dishwasher (32%)
14.   Grilling machine (31%)
15.   Coffee machine (26%)
16.   Grill pan (26%)
17.   Slow cooker (26%)
18.   Electric scales (24%)
19.   Water filter (23%)
20.   Bread maker (22%)