TP-Link Archer VR900

A fast Wi-Fi router for ADSL lines

A couple of years ago, the prevailing Wi-Fi standard moved on from 802.11n to 802.11ac. It’s theoretically faster, uses the less crowded 5GHz band, and has better range, so you should get decent reception over a wider area. Meanwhile, the ADSL broadband connections available over the phone lines to our homes moved up to VDSL, allowing internet service providers (ISPs) to run fast fibre-optic cables to the cabinet in the street and just use the copper wires for the last few yards.

Remembering… Sierra On-Line games

We recall a ground-breaking, but often risqué developer from the early PC

Hands up those of you old enough to remember King’s Quest? What about Space Quest? Or the Leisure Suit Larry games? These three game series for the early PC are some of the most iconic. Show a screenshot to anyone who’s 40 years old or more, and they’ll be able to tell you the difference between Police Quest and Space Quest, and how rubbing berries on yourself is a good thing to avoid being eaten by a swamp monster.

Eva – The real video social network

Social networking is everywhere these days, and here’s one to look into

Social media is big. Mind bogglingly big. In fact it’s estimated that over two billion people currently use some form of social media. That’s at least one in every four of us worldwide. And it’s growing too, at a rate of around two to three hundred million users per year.

We now have the ability to share virtually every aspect of our lives as an image, video or just a string of text. Whether sharing all of it is a good thing or not is up to you to decide, but you can’t knock the potential for bringing friends and family together and sharing life’s experiences at the instant they happen.

It’s little wonder that UK developer Forbidden Technologies has released the latest in social media networks.

Synology DiskStation DS116

Synology follows up the excellent DS115 with something even better

Looking through the specs of the DS116 was a curiously déjà vu moment for this reviewer. Having just covered Synology's DS216j, lots of components in it are remarkably similar. It uses the same processor, a Marvell ARMADA 385 88F6820 dual-core ARM chip, except it runs at 1.8GHz on the DS116, and not the 1GHz of the DS216j. That’s potentially 80% more performance, and because this is a single-drive solution, that power should be more focused.

Corsair M65 Pro RGB FPS Gaming Mouse

Corsair enhances its M65 mouse with even greater precision

My current mouse is the Corsair Katar, a design I’ve come to truly appreciate for its unerring simplicity. By definition, the Corsair M65 Pro RGB FPS gaming mouse is a decidedly more complicated solution. There is a price implication to that, so is it worth the extra cost?

The headline feature of this mouse is its sensor. Most gamers like a mouse sensor with 2000dpi, but the M65 Pro’s is capable of a staggering 12,000dpi.

Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4-2400 32GB Kit

Crucial unleashes a memory monster of mythic proportions

As a seasoned technology reviewer I’m rarely shocked these days, but the arrival of this memory kit from Crucial truly blew my mind on numerous levels. I’ve covered Ballistic Sport products before, and as before, these are turned out marvellously.

My review modules came in with heat spreaders in a rich red colour, with silver highlights and a digital camo motif. You can also get these in white or grey, if that better suits your system.

Zyxel Personal Cloud

Zyxel enters the NAS market with personal cloud aspirations

Zyxel is one of those companies that effectively takes a known concept, rendering it into an affordable and accessible solution. And that sums up the Zyxel Personal Cloud (NAS326), for those in the market for a small, cheap, yet powerful dual-drive NAS.

As neither Western Digital nor Seagate made this, it’s sold without pre-installed hard drives, making it perfect for anyone who owns a spare 3.5” SATA drive and needs centrally stored media or backups.

Seagate Mobile HDD 2TB

Seagate play devil’s advocate for those comparing speed and capacity

Seagate has something of a battle on its hands with laptop users, because once you’ve used one with an SSD, it's difficult to go back to using a mechanical hard drive. But as its latest laptop storage designs show, it still has one card up its sleeve and that’s capacity.

The ST2000LM007, to give its full title, is available in either 1TB or 2TB capacities and also as a straight drive (reviewed here) or in encrypted or encrypted/FIPS flavours.