Leading real hands on tech review site in Ireland with technology, business news and more. Jim O Brien Tech.
Author: Jim O Brien/CEO
CEO and expert in transport and Mobile tech. A fan 20 years, mobile consultant, Nokia Mobile expert, Former Nokia/Microsoft VIP,Multiple forum tech supporter with worldwide top ranking,Working in the background on mobile technology, Weekly radio show, Featured on the RTE consumer show, Cavan TV and on TRT WORLD. Award winning Technology reviewer and blogger. Security and logisitcs Professional.
Global communications company Poly has launched the Trio C60, a smart conference phone designed to bring people together to collaborate in meeting spaces of any size.
The Poly Trio Conferencing Series is flexible and with the introduction of the Trio C60, this goes even further. The Trio C60 can stand on its own as a high-quality conference phone, or, it can be used to control other endpoints like the Poly Studio X Family or G7500. Additionally, the Trio C60 will support a variety of the leading open SIP and UC&C services, allowing for flexibility of platforms without the need for multiple endpoints. This makes it easy for Administrators to standardize on the collaboration experience throughout your organization and also gives you peace of mind that should the organization’s needs change, your endpoints can change with it.
Along with a striking new look, the Trio C60 has a number of key features including:
NoiseBlockAI technology which enables speech to flow uninterrupted and delivers native experiences at the touch of a button on its gesture-based touch screen
Can be used to control an increasing number of video endpoints, offering a consistent user interface from room to room
New hardware and operating system give the Trio C60 up to 4x better performance than its predecessors
For wireless deployments, the C60 features 2.4-5GHz WIFI with multiple-in multiple-out (MIMO) — a technique for sending and receiving more than one data signal simultaneously to ensure a more reliable meeting experience over Wi-Fi
To learn more about the Poly Trio C60,check out this blog
The new iPhone SE goes on sale tomorrow, Friday April 24th. A new iPhone means new accessories so here is a selection from Twelve South, the company known for designing beautiful accessories exclusively for Apple products.
Journal for iPhone
£39.99
Available from Amazon UK or Twelvesouth.com
The Twelve South Journal is a stylish premium wallet case for iPhone made from full-grain leather that is not only used on the outside, but throughout the interior as well. Each case is stitched to perfection with features including card slots, an ID window and a pocket for cash and receipts. This folio case can also be folded into a hands-free display stand, perfect for watching Netflix on your phone or taking a video call.
A leather lined shell securely holds the iPhone whilst a hardback cover and a reinforced spine provides a shield against drops and dings. The leather wrapped shell is beveled to protect the screen in the event the folio opens if accidentally dropped. The Journal for iPhone comes in two colours – black or cognac.
HiRise Wireless
£79.99
Available from Amazon UK
The Twelve South HiRise Wireless is a 3-function beauty: a gorgeous upright desktop stand and wireless charger for your new iPhone SE, a wireless charging pad for AirPods and a USB-C portable wireless charger for travel, all in one beautiful package. Now users only need one wireless charger for both at home and on-the-go. The stand is made of heavy, polished metal for a solid luxurious feel, and the base of the stand is topped with soft leather to cushion the bottom of your phone.
PowerPic
£59.99
Available from Amazon UK
The Twelve South PowerPic is a wireless phone charger disguised as a picture frame. Just set any Qi-compatible phone like the new iPhone SE inside the frame to begin charging. Available in black or white, the PowerPic blends seamlessly into any home or office decor. With PowerPic, your favorite photograph will become your favorite phone charger.
PowerPic enables up to 10 watts for wireless fast charging and will charge through most popular phone cases up to 3mm thick, including Apple iPhone cases and the Twelve South Journal.
AWS Ground Station is a fully managed service that provides you global access to your space workloads. AWS Ground Station enables you to downlink data and provide satellite commands across multiple regions quickly, easily, and cost-effectively without having to worry about building or managing their own ground station infrastructure. AWS Ground Station is available today in six AWS Regions around the world. To see a list of supported regions, please visit the Global Infrastructure Region Table webpage.
The recency of data is particularly critical when it comes to tracking and acting upon fast-moving conditions on Earth. This timeliness depends on frequent communications between ground stations and satellites, which can only be achieved with a large, global footprint of antennas maintaining frequent contact with orbiting satellites. The AWS Ground Station deployment in Ireland provides a second region in Europe to communicate with your satellite. Stockholm is the other AWS Region in the EU that offers AWS Ground Station.
Customers can easily integrate their space workloads with other AWS services in real-time using Amazon’s low-latency, high-bandwidth global network. Customers can stream their satellite data to Amazon EC2 for real-time processing, store data in Amazon S3 for low cost archiving, flow data through Amazon Rekognition for imaging analysis, or apply AI/ML algorithms to satellite images with Amazon SageMaker.
To learn more about AWS Ground Station, visit here. To get started with AWS Ground Station, visit the AWS Management console here.
The brand is built on the principles of superior quality, earth-friendliness and a commitment to global charitable causes. All House of Marley products are consciously crafted from mindfully sourced materials, including FSC certified woods, solid bamboo, consciously harvested cork, non-toxic silicone and Marley’s own signature blend of REWIND™ up-cycled fabrics made from organic cotton, reclaimed hemp and recycled plastic bottles.
In an effort to spread awareness of global reforestation needs and corporate social responsibility, House of Marley set up Project Marley, a charitable initiative contributing to the planting of trees through non-profit organisation, One Tree Planted. Through the Project Marley initiative, over 223,000 trees have been planted to date across the globe.
There is no shortage of free PDF readers and viewers you can use, but which one should you choose?
One really successful representative of this category is Slim PDF Reader developed by Investintech.com Inc.
Slim PDF reader is acclaimed as the most lightweight, minimalist PDF viewer ideal for basic PDF viewing that takes only a couple of MB on your computer, though it lacks some advanced functions.
Now, the well-known free PDF reader has received a major update. Version 2.0 keeps its small footprint (15.1MB) while adding some powerful new features and functionalities to its toolbox.
Let’s find out what this updated free PDF reader has to offer.
The New & Intuitive UI
Slim PDF Reader has gotten a new modern, and simplified UI that allows for a clear and streamlined PDF viewing and handling.
If the user interface looks familiar, it’s because it’s inherited from its older sibling Able2Extract Professional, an all-in-one PDF solution we already had the pleasure of showcasing here.
Once you run the program, you’re welcomed by a nicely designed Start Page that provides you with quick and easy access to your recently viewed documents.
Besides being able to access the most recent files you opened, you can also adjust the UI scaling, and switch between the default light and new dark UI theme.
On top of looking modern and stylish, the new dark theme uses a colour palette that doesn’t hurt the eyes as much as the default theme, making it the perfect choice for working in low light conditions.
The Start Page also hosts a promo banner where you can download a free trial of the above mentioned Able2Extract Professional.
PDF Viewing & Navigation
Slim PDF Reader provides you with different ways to view your PDF content using various options from the main toolbar, side panels, and viewing options nested in the footer toolbar.
You can use the footer viewing options to:
Switch between pages, or go to a specific page in the document
Rotate the pages by 90 degrees in the chosen direction
Zoom in and out or use one of preset viewing options
Set a single page or a two page viewing mode
Search through the document for specific keywords
Switch between the light and dark UI theme
The left side panel enables easy access to thumbnails, bookmarks, and attachments.
Also, note that you can open more than one PDF, and easily jump back and forth between the documents in the navigation bar.
Content Extraction Tools
As a rule, PDF content cannot be easily changed. For instance, you can’t edit PDF text or convert it to another file format without using advanced PDF tools.
However, Slim PDF Reader offers some basic, yet useful content extraction functionalities with the Copy and Snapshot tools.
If you need to extract a specific portion of text from your PDF and import it into MS Word for editing, you can select the text using the Selection tool, click on the Copy button, and finally paste the text in MS Word.
Likewise, if you want to create an image of a specific graphic or other content, use the Selection and Snapshot tools to get the job done.
Advanced Review Tools
Besides the basic functionalities like printing, filling out forms, and editing document information, Slim PDF Reader offers some advanced tools not found in regular PDF viewing programs.
In order to markup and review your PDF content, you can use one of 10 distinct annotation options:
Sticky Notes
Underline
Highlighter
Stamp
Caret
Squiggly Line
Strikethrough
Attachment
Link
Watermark
Adding annotations to PDF is quick and easy. You simply select one of the annotation tools from the right side panel and place it where you want it on the page. From there, you can customize the appearance of the markup and leave comments that are visible in the sidebar.
That isn’t where the advanced features end, though. Slim PDF Reader is also equipped with digital signature verification capabilities. If you receive a PDF that has a digital signature attached to it, you can validate the signature and display its ownership info in the Digital Signatures tab.
The Verdict
Slim PDF Reader is a fast and resource-saving tool that opens and displays PDF documents in no time. The free PDF reader offers diverse viewing options and impressive productivity tools packed inside a modern UI.
The new UI, cross-platform support, powerful toolbox, and small size make Slim PDF Reader a natural alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader and other well-known PDF readers.
You can get it completely free from the developers website here.
What can you do when you receive a neatly formatted PDF table that you need to edit or reuse in Microsoft Excel? You can always retype it manually in Excel, of course, but that’s so time consuming. Especially if we are talking about a complex data table with multiple rows and columns.
The right way to tackle this problem is to use a PDF to Excel converter: an application that will help you to export your PDF tables to spreadsheets. If you want to perform your conversions without much hassle and without installing anything on your computer, your go-to solution would be an online PDF to Excel conversion service.
Online PDF converters, even free ones, are easily found on the Internet, but the trouble is that most require that you create an account with your email address and, in some cases, provide other personal and identifiable information. If you’d like to keep your email address to yourself, head to PDFtoExcel.com and get your PDF table converted to formatted Excel spreadsheets without registration and hassle.
The whole process takes virtually a few clicks:
Upload your PDF file for conversion to Excel. You can choose one of three available ways to upload your file.
Click the grey “Upload” button on the homepage and browse for the PDF stored on your hard drive.
Simply drag and drop the selected files into the conversion interface.
Import files from your Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive.
2) The moment your files are uploaded to the website, the conversion starts automatically.
The conversion process is generally fast – your file can be converted in a matter of seconds. However, note that the conversion speed depends on the size and complexity of the file being converted and on how busy the servers are at the moment.
As soon as your file has been converted, you will notice the red Free Download button. Click on that button and save your Excel spreadsheet on your computer. Open the spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel and start editing it immediately.
Voila! You have converted PDF to Excel online for free, without any prompt to sign up with your email or leave any other personal information. One more important thing is that all files uploaded to the PDFtoExcel’s website are accessed only by software agents and will be removed from the servers without trace in up to 6 hours.
In addition to being free, anonymous and secure, PDFtoExcel.com offers further benefits to their users:
Unlimited conversions: Convert any number of PDF files to Excel for free anonymously.
OCR: Extract content and data from scanned PDFs to Excel as well.
No size limits: the app will convert the entire document, regardless of its size or complexity.
Not bad for an online freebie, right? Go ahead and give it a try!
Phone cases are a must in my book and rightly so especially when you have an expensive device and there is plenty to pick from in all shapes and sizes however having a case with additional functionality is another matter and this product from CLCKR is one to look out for, Given there is similar ideas out there like attachments you can add to your phone which CLCKR also does this idea incorporates both making it an all in one kit to not only make using your device more safe but it ads more to it than that by protecting it and being able to use it in portrait or landscape mode without having the remove the case itself and is a neat idea.
As you can see this gives you more functionality than you would get from your typical mobile phone case and makes life that bit easier and will still fully protect your device, check out the video below for more and you can see the full range over at https://www.clckr.com/eu/
Gaming headphones as I have said are in a league of their own and they are getting better and the cost to performance ratio is coming down too and this pair fits into this bracket nicely and they also look cool. Mostly white and plastic with silver accents likes screws and joints they blend well together and have a real techie look to them.
These are really comfortable tooand can be worn for long periods of time as they are really light. There is two controls on the headset one for the volume in the form of a wheel and a mute switch. Given these are cabled in this instants this is fine as they can be moved across devices simply as they are not USB A they are 3.5mm with extra cables for audio inputs in the box. The mic is removable which is something you do not see too often and in most cases they fold and look silly being used for headphones outside gaming so this is a bonus here and they sound great across all devices that I have tested on including mobile phones which is good. Whats more you even get some ear muffs that are so soft and comfortable in the box should you need them.
Testing on PS4,XBox PC and mobile they have a good sound and a nice tone of bass to and users will not be let down by the quality here at all,there is sound leakage however but the likes of this headset would be used indoors mostly in a gaming environment and others will more than likely have a headset on anyway, If you are gaming online they work a treat too and great quality is to be heard on the mic.
The build quality is good and robust and comfort level is great and the only issue I would have is the cable that is hanging out but this is down to the user on how they treat their headphones and if you have a spare case at home you could perhaps use that to store them when not in use, Overall for the price you get a great looking headset that is robust and can be used on more than one device which I find annoying and some manufacturers still insist on making gaming headsets for console use only being the PS4 or Xbox alone. The multiplatform approach is the way to go and this company have delivered a great product overall. I would like to see more colours but this Snow White has dawned on me and also a move away from the standard Black colours we tend to see too much of.
Edifier recently announced their all new true wireless earbuds the TWS NB with ANC and they have just landed here in house, Also recently announced was their new range of colours in their TWS1 which we also have and stay tuned for a review on both soon.
The latest TWS NB are offering their latest technology including ANC which will be interesting to check out too alongside aptx and ambient mode so I look forward to checking these out of the next few weeks, if you have any questions in the interim feel free to ask.
Main Features:
Advanced ANC Technology. Industry-leading Feed-Forward Active Noise Cancellation technology from AMS that offers you true freedom from background noise with enhanced audio quality.
Superior Sound Quality. Φ13mm large graphene diaphragm delivers a much deeper and punchy bass with the rich details of sound reserved, which makes TWS NB be distinguished from others.
Up to 33-Hour of Playback. Enjoy up to 5-hour ANC playback and 15 hours with the charging case, thanks to Qualcomm’s ultra-low-power architecture. With ANC off, you can enjoy 33-hour playtime.
Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm CVC and aptX Technology: Enjoy fast transmission and clear calls within 10m(33ft), thanks to Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm aptX audio and Laser Direct Structuring antenna.
Ambient Sound Mode: ANC technology gets you fully immersed in the music, while ambient sound mode keeps you informed from the outside world. (Note: Control it by the button or “Edifier Connect” app)
