Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

I am sure most people have noticed there has been a big push by the big mobile phone companies recently towards selling mobile broadband.

Most new mobiles come with 3G and some form of a web browser and most companies sell some form of web access on top of the normal phone contracts. Companies like O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone are also pushing the independent mobile broadband devices where you pay anything from £15+ per month for xGb usage.

This relatively new and compeatative market has led most mobile companies to try and lure the buyer in with free laptops or netbooks if you sign up for a set period of time.

I must admit I have been a bit skeptical about it all, I have had mobile Internet on my past 2 phones. I had Web 'n' Walk from T-Mobile on my Tytn and now I have a bolt on from O2 on my E90 and while I do find it useful I get the feeling the performance is not nearly as good as it is made out to be, nor do I use it as much as I would expect.

Anyway recently I have had chance to try out one of Vodafone's offers. It is the £30 a month mobile broadband with free Dell Inspiron Mini 9.

The contract is for 24 months and the download speed is up to 3.6 Mbps with an upload up to 384Kbps.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Review

I received the Mini 9 last Friday so I have had some time to play with it.

The specification of the Dell is:

1. Intel® Atom Processor® N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
2. Windows® XP Home Edition
3. Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)
4. 512MB² DDR2 at 533MHz
5. 4GB³ Solid State Drive
6. Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
7. Wireless 802.11g Mini Card
8. 32WHr Battery (4 cell) (Over 4 hours battery life claimed)

My initial impression of the Mini 9 were simply its size, I have a 15" Acer and the Mini 9 in literally mini in comparison. My winter coat has massive pockets on it and I can nearly fit the Mini 9 in one of them.

The general look of the Mini 9 is quite basic, it has a glossy shell and it is quite plasticy though you can hardly expect an aluminium casing when the Mini 9  only costs around £250 to buy without a mobile broadband contract. The general build quality does feel excellent.

On booting the Dell I was a bit surprised to see Vodafone have chosen to use Windows. These devices are only really designed to be used on the Internet and for basic activities so Ubuntu would of been more than adequate and it would of reduced the cost for Vodafone.

The initial boot up of Windows did seem very slow which was a bit of a shock as I was expecting it to be much faster as it uses a solid state drive, however this was likely due to the limitations of the processor rather than the SSD. I also found the machine was installed with a lot of the crap associated with Dell computers including Mcafee, Dell's Support Center, Dells Video conferencing etc etc. I am sure all of this will certainly be slowing down the boot time.

Vodafone have only added one piece of software to manage their 3G connections.

The keyboard on the Dell is very small, which is no surprise. I wouldn't want to be typing out a novel on their, however it is still quite usable, the only problem I really had was the right hand shift key as it really is tiny and I always use this key when typing the @ symbol so I frequently made mistakes.

The Screen of the Dell is good, the resolution is 1024X600 so you can comfortably browse the Internet. It is nice and bright though one downside is that it is glossy. To be fair most laptops now use a glossy screen but considering these netbooks are designed for mobility you would think some consideration would be taken for outdoor use. Unfortunately if you are outdoors in the sun viewing the screen can be very hard.

The dell also came with the usual ports and inputs, there were 3x USB, 1x VGA, Ethernet, Card Reader, and audio jacks. I was quite impressed it has 3x USB ports as you would think it wouldn't have room for this many.

The general performance of the Dell was actually quite good. Granted there was a bit of a delay in starting up but once running I was able to do everything I wanted, I was happily running Firefox with half a dozen tabs open and I had a few apps running in the background. I also played an AVI in VLC and it played smoothly. I didn't have any HD files to play but I suspect it would start struggling a bit here.

Finally I found the battery life to be quite good, I had a meeting on Monday in Manchester. I used the Dell on the journey to and from it which was about 2.5 hours in total and the battery was still going. I am not sure if it would last past 4 hours though my use was quite heavy and I did have a 3G connection at the time as well.

Overall I found the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 to be an excellent little netbook and I plan on using it for the foreseeable future on any trips I go on. It can easily handle any daily task while being extremely portable. Yes there are a couple of little issues but they are certainly not big enough to put you off it.

Vodafone Mobile Broadband Review

So now we know that the Dell is a great little netbook how does Vodafone's mobile broadband handle?

Surprisingly very well, connecting to the Vodafone network is a simple task, you just load up thei mobile connect software wait for it to find a connection, click connect and Bobs your Unkle, you are browsing the net.

I checked the speed of the connection via Think Broadband and Speed Test (Maidenhead + Dublin) and was pleasantly surprised with the following results

Think broadband = 1.8 Mbps down and 0.3 Mbps up

Speedtest Maidenhead = 2.5 Mbps down and 0.28 Mbps up

Speedtest Dublin = 2.05 Mbps down and 0.28 Mbps up

I agreed to review the netbook and Vodafone's mobile broadband expecting to slate the performance, I have always been under the impression there is a lot of mis-selling going on in this industry and while I am sure some people sometimes maybe able to get the full speed I always thought that due to reception issues, volume of users etc the average person would not get a fraction of these speeds.

I have even previously tried another mobile broadband connection from 3 and found the connection to be 0.1Mbps down and 0.1Mbps up. This was tested knowing the reception was bad but I was expecting to see similar results from Vodafone. So to receive the above speeds is a very nice surprise indeed, granted I probably wouldn't recommend this type of connection over a ADSL line but for someone on the move then it really is worth it.

Finally now we know the Dell is excellent and Vodafone is excellent is the deal worth it? Well I think it is up to personal opinion. I wouldn't personally go for this deal. £30 per month x 24 months is £720. You can get the same 3Gb monthly allowance without the Dell for £15 per month on a 12 month contract which is £180 this would leave £540 to spare on a laptop which could be used for a better laptop. Granted this would mean an initial outlay of several hundreds of pounds which a lot of people may not have in which case the £30 a month deal is certainly appealing.

So if you want mobile broadband I would 100% recommend Vodafone and all the deals are good, but I would look at the various options and find which one suits you best before you buy.

For those of you that despise the mess of wires and enjoy a bit of retro gaming on the Wii there are a growing number of solutions for you. One of which is the Snakebyte Wii Wireless Retro Controller.

The manufacturer of this controller, SnakeByte, a European peripheral manufacturer that is offering an increasingly large range of peripherals for the NDS, PS3, PSP, Wii and the Xbox 360.

The Wireless Retro Controller is quite simply what it says on the box, a wireless version of the retro controller.

The controller works by inserting a wireless dongle into the Wiimote, and it requires 2 batteries on top of the 2 you already have in the Wiimote. This is one thing I did think that was bad about the controller, just think of the number of batteries you could potentially go through? Though to be fair this is an unavoidable issue.

The controller itself is well built, it feels really solid, I haven't used any 3rd party retro controllers but I did use a 3rd party Gamecube controller (which I cant remember the name of) and I found the build to be quite poor.

Performance wise the controller met all expectations, it works just as well as the official Nintendo wired version and I had no issues with losing connection. I have not played it enough to test hw long the batteries last but all seems well so far.

The controller currently retails at £29.99 in comparison you can get the Official Nintendo Wii Classic Controller for £14.99.

In conclusion the controller is excellent, and if you hate having wires everywhere then it is a must buy, however if you are not that bothered about wires I am not sure if double the price is worth it. I would however happily pay £5-10 more than the official wired controller.

Along with the Snakebyte controller I also received the Snakebyte Wii Premium Component Cable, again this is what it says on the box. Some of the features of this premium cable include:

- Optimal picture quality with 480p signal

- Anticorrosive gold plated contacts for ideal signal quality

- Metallic cinch connectors with rubberised grips

- Additional stereo audio cinch connectors

- Solid copper wires with multiple shielding

- 2m cable length

My first reaction to the cable was very positive, the build quality is considerably better than that of the cable supplied with the Wii. All the metal connectors are gold plated and noticeably heavy compared to the cheaper Nintendo ones. The cable is also wrapped in a plastic/fabric sheath which decent improvement over the rubberised cover of the normal ones.

I have been told that the component cable is supposed to retail at £14.99 but I can currently only find it available on Amazon for £23.59.

If you are looking at upgrading your cable or want to get the best picture possible out of your Wii then I 110% recommend this.

Ever thought how good would it be if there was a way to reduce the harm of cigarettes without giving up the habit of smoking? Here is the answer, Myvic Electronic Cigarette is a revolutionary new product which is drastically healthier than traditional smoking. It will improve your health while giving the same sensations as ordinary cigarettes.

There are more than 4000 chemicals found in the ordinary cigarettes, of which at least 400 are harmful for the human body. They contain, tar, carbon monoxide, benzene, acetone, formaldehyde, arsenic and many others. This chemicals contribute to lung cancer and many other diseases associated with cigarette smoking.

While using Myvic Electronic Cigarette you have to change nicotine refills, which range from high concentrate nicotine to zero nicotine content. The refill contains nicotine and propylene glycol (harmless to human body). Nicotine is not believed to cause cancer, and compared to all the chemicals inhaled while smoking ordinary cigarettes it is relatively harmless.

This revolutionary device can be used anywhere where traditional smoking is forbidden: restaurants, clubs, pubs and even on the planes. It completely simulates the sensation of smoking ordinary cigarettes, it even produces 'smoke' which is actually water vapours. 98% of the nicotine contained in the inhaled mist is absorbed by the organism, leaving only propylene glycol which is exhaled and is absolutely harmless to people around you, therefore there is no passive smoking. The 'smoke' disappears within seconds after being exhaled, leaving no smoke what so ever inside the building.

Myvic Electronic Cigarette is also cheaper than ordinary cigarettes. It could save you £528 a year, or even more depending on individual smoking habits. The cigarette can be purchased at the price of £39, and a 5 pack of Myvic Refills is priced at £5. One Myvic Refill is equal to approx. 10-20 ordinary cigarettes, which means you pay £5 for the equivalent of approx. 50-100 ordinary cigarettes.

More information on the benefits of the Myvic Electronic Cigarette can be found on the official website at www.myvic.co.uk.