Since we’re now halfway through the year, I’d like to reflect on the gadgets that have entered my lair over the past 6 months and more importantly discover whether some were just novelties or worth every penny…and perhaps it’ll help others make a decision on whether they should buy.

Apple PowerBook G4 - I bought this from eBay for less than £300 in January. This was bought to take to the studio with me a few times a week, aswell as a ‘bed browsing’ machine. I have used it pretty much everyday since I bought it and it hasn’t let me down. Well worth the (low) price, runs Leopard fine and still such an attractive machine.

Fuji S5700 7MP Digital Camera - Superb camera. It’s easy to use, lots of functions and still lots to learn which is just the way I like it. I paid £104 for this and it’s been worth every penny - using just about every single day. I also bought a couple of extra lenses from eBay for it - a wide angle and a macro.

Aiptek AHD200 High Definition Digital Camcorder - I don’t use this everyday but I guess nobody would expect me to. For a high definition camera the price was amazing, at less than £110. Fantastic video quality as you can see over at my Vimeo page. I still want to create some ‘creative’ videos and now that summer is here (well, on a day like today you wouldn’t think so) I should be able to capture some more.

LOMO Fisheye Camera - I bought this (£22) with the absolute intention of it being a novelty, so it has totally lived up to that. I have taken one roll of film with it which didn’t turn out great, but since I took random shots in 3 days then I didn’t really expect them to. I have used about half a roll of the second film so I suppose I should use up the other half of the film and get it developed to see if there’s much improvement. I don’t regret buying it as I didn’t have huge expectations and film/developing is dirt cheap.

Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet - After doing some graphics work and photo-editing/touching up which was proving fiddly with my Mighty Mouse, I decided to buy the Wacom Bamboo (£59). I wasn’t sure whether this would replace my MM altogether but after a few days it felt completely natural and I used it solid in place of my mouse for 3 weeks. Then one day I just felt like giving my hand a rest so I plugged my mouse back in and have used this eversince. I haven’t had any fiddly graphics work to do in recent weeks but that doesn’t mean I won’t have in the coming ones. It’s on the other desk beside me and can easily be plugged into my USB hub when I need to use it. After the first day of using the pen on the graphics tablet my underarm and arm muscles felt quite tense and sore. That’s because my arm was getting more of a workout than it does with the mouse as my hand was moving around a lot more. After a couple of days I got used to it and had no more tense muscles.

Elgato EyeTV - I’ve had this for a couple of weeks and have found myself recording far more TV shows than I ordinarily would. It’s great to be able to watch live TV at the computer and record my favourite shows, then burn to disc. I have only burned about 5 DVD’s so far as it does take rather a long time for the export process, then burning in iDVD…and that’s just a 30 minute show. If I had Apple TV then I wouldn’t need to use DVD’s, I’d just pop them into my iTunes library and view on my TV screen. I can also stream my recordings via wi-fi to my iPod touch which is very cool.

So, what for the next 6 months? I have a back catalogue in my head, hopefully I’ll get around to buying them.

I’d like Apple TV, for the reason mentioned above but also for the upcoming iTunes Movie Rentals in the UK. Definitely keeping one eye on that.

Time Capsule. Not something I want/need immediately, but it would be nice for TC to handle all my Time Machine backups and I could then use my LaCie 320GB external hard drive exclusively for additional storage space…especially when I start stuffing up my internal HD with the things I record via EyeTV Of the people I know who have Time Capsule they absolutely swear by it.

Apple Cinema Display…as long as it’s refreshed and brought up to date with a similar look to the iMac - built-in iSight, black rim, alu and glass with the choice of Matte or Glossy screen. I’d go for the glossy to be in keeping with my iMac as I prefer glossy. Oh and it also needs to be reduced in price…significantly

Last weekend I was browsing the Apple Store looking for a way of watching/recording TV on my iMac. I found the Elgato EyeTV range which I have heard others talking about over the past 6 months. After asking around for the best model to go for, I ordered the EyeTV for DTT Stick on Monday for £38.95. The features sounded perfect for what I needed, with the extra bonus of being able to access my recordings via Wi-Fi on my iPod touch.

This morning it arrived so once unwrapped I plugged it into my iMac, stood the antenna on the desk, installed the EyeTV software and let it search for channels. After the first scan it turned up 6 channels, all of which were very flaky. I tried moving the antenna in various positions but it didn’t help with the signal at all. I read through the reviews on the Apple store and pretty much everyone said that the antenna supplied is next to useless. They had to either opt for a digital indoor aerial or attach it to their existing roof aerial. We have three Freeview boxes scattered about the house at the moment, two which are connected to the outdoor aerial but the bedroom one is connected to an indoor aerial which has always provided a pretty strong signal. I didn’t expect to have any issues with the EyeTV antenna.

So, since paying someone to clamber all over the roof would be the last restort, I headed to Argos and bought a Digital Amplified Antenna for just £12.99. I did an extensive search through the channels after attaching it and it found around 120 channels with the signal strength being very strong. It’s a great piece of software - and I’m rather liking the TV Guide provided by tvtv which gives me the schedule for the next two weeks. I like being able to plan ahead and used to be a subscriber to DigiGuide when I was a PC user. However, I cancelled my subscription when I switched to the Mac and they (rather rudely) told me that they had no plans to develop the software for Mac.

At the moment I am recording Futurama on SKY Three, courtesy of EyeTV. The recording process is extremely simple - bring up the tvtv guide, click the red dot next to the programme listing. Done. My next purchase will be Roxio Toast 9 Titanium so I can burn my ‘creations’ to DVD and watch on my TV (unless anyone knows of a cheaper alternative, haha!). Currently we don’t record any TV shows via any other hardware. We have a VCR but we never got around to tuning that in so we can record…and to be honest it seems old skool buying VHS tapes anymore. We never got into DVD recorders but I have looked at set-top boxes with built-in hard drives as an easier alternative - and of course AppleTV which is on my to-buy list for later in the year. One of the cheapest HD recorders I’ve seen is an 80GB for around £85. Since I have near 200GB left on my iMac then a £38-95 device sounded much more fun to play with.

If you’re looking for a TV recording solution then I would recommend the Elgato EyeTV, but would also suggest you look into purchasing an alternative to the supplied antenna. I just wish I’d bought this earlier as I could have recorded the new series of Family Guy on BBC Three which started airing a few weeks back.

Of the gadgets and technology that excite me so much, game consoles have never been amongst them. I do remember buying a Sega MegaDrive many years ago and spending hours playing my favourite games, Super Hang-On and Wipe Out, but it wasn’t long before I became bored and sold it on. When I got my PC the only games I’d play were things like After Dark Games which challenged the brain and London Racer - again a driving game because I’m so damn good at it…and in reality aswell

When the Nintendo Wii was released I eyed it up for a bit. The attractive thing about the Wii is the physical element of it because at the same time as having fun you’re getting a workout, which is no bad thing for someone like me who works from home!! Being able to play tennis and ten-pin bowling with Wii Sport tempted me for a bit, then I just forgot about it as I do with all other gaming consoles. I have looked, on occasion, to see whether the price has been reduced from £179…but it never has.

Then a few weeks back Mario Kart for the Wii was released in Europe and many of my Twitter friends were talking about it…and challenging eachother with a game using their friend code. Once MKW was released elsewhere last week then I’ve seen the MK tweets triple. Twitter is tempting me to buy a Nintendo Wii and Mario Kart because of the interaction with others, wherever they are in the world. That’s gotta be fun.

It’s funny because if Apple released something I was interested in tomorrow with a £200 price-tag then I’d have no hesitation in buying it. Why? Because if it was something I wanted then I know with Apple I will get so much use out of it. There isn’t a single thing I’ve bought in the past few years, by Apple, that hasn’t been used to death. I am hesitating over the Wii because like I said I’ve never been big into gaming and I’d hate to spend that much money on something that may end up collecting dust. But at the same time it may be something I use a lot. I guess I’ll never know until I bite the bullet and buy one.

I’m going to wait until WWDC08 has passed in June before making any firm decision on buying a Wii, then of course the following month is my Birthday so any money would go towards the purchase. I don’t know what Apple have planned for that and I suppose nobody else does, apart from this 3G iPhone we keep hearing so much about. I’m not in line for one of those…well, unless o2 let existing customers make the switch seamlessly to the iPhone without having to enter a new contract…and if it was £20 a month then fair enough, but, we all know that won’t happen

Anyone else out there with a Wii who previously wasn’t much into gaming but bought one anyway?

Many years ago when I was a PC user I used to have a graphics tablet that I would use for touching up photos and doing intricate graphics work. Since switching to Macs I have pretty much used the Mighty Mouse for this kind of work. Most of the time I will be using three quarters of the desk to draw around an object on the screen. If I’m using the lasso tool then there’s no way I can lift off the left click to reposition the mouse - I simply have to keep going, even having to move my pot of pens so I can scroll across! I have been doing this over the past few weeks but have realised enough is enough. Let’s make life easier.

So after much looking, today I went for the Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet. This will give me far greater control and precision than I get currently with my mouse. The first ten minutes or so using the pen was very strange - it felt quite unnatural. But, after a while it started to feel second nature and I have been using it for the past hour or so. Whether I will use the pen to replace my mouse completely is something I just can’t say right now - I’ll give myself a little while longer with it.

One of the first things I did after setting things up was to open up Pixelmator and draw around an object on a photo to see how the lasso tool felt with the pen compared to the mouse. Big thumbs up there. Drawing and painting around objects also feels natural and I’m quite able to do this on a small A6 size pad instead of using half my physical desk! Yesterday, prior to buying the graphics tablet, I drew around an object in a photo with my mouse and had to keep going over certain areas with the lasso tool to touch up the bits I missed. The look I was going for was this…

A few people have asked how I did this. It was created in Pixelmator by simply drawing around the fire engine with the lasso tool then going to Edit > Inverse, then Image > Desaturate. Done Must admit I am quite pleased with this as it’s the first time I’ve done it…and the red looks even more vibrant against the black and white background.

Apart from the Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet being very functional, it looks great aswell - even the unboxing was pleasant with quite a nice design and layout! There’s only one other company that puts as much thought into the packaging as they do the hardware itself…wonder who that could be… The tablet itself is a lovely classy black with blue lights on the express keys and a touch ring which enables you to zoom in and out of an image. I’m really looking forward to getting to grips with this in future for graphics work, touching up photos or even simply signing my name…

When I ordered my iMac late last October, I opted for the standard 1GB RAM as Apple’s prices for extra RAM are nothing short of ridiculous. A few people online recommended that I purchase more memory from a 3rd party vendor. Because I’d previously been using a Mac Mini with 512MB RAM then I wasn’t too concerned that the iMac’s 1GB was going to be insufficient.

Then I was offered a 1GB stick of RAM from Graham, that he no longer needed. The plan for me was not to install immediately as I’d been whizzing along quite happily without thinking about upgrading. But, as it sat in it’s box on my desk, it was getting harder to resist the thought of having an even zippier machine than I’ve got. I’d read the instructions for replacing RAM in my iMac manual and it seemed very straightforward. Only one screw on the whole iMac - on the RAM access door. Unscrew that, unflip the plastic tab from the empty slot and simply place it in, waiting to hear or feel the click with my thumbs.

Being that I’m quite an untechnical girl when it comes to a computers innards, then I felt watching a video or three may make me feel more confident about doing it myself. I can recommend both of these videos. After that I thought “C’mon, just get on with it” so this evening I unplugged my iMac and lay it face down on a bath towel. I grounded myself, first by taking off my purple Crocs. I wear them around the house and they are known for creating static. I touched the metal taps in the bathroom to ground myself and then slotted the RAM in. Closed it back up, plugged everything back in and headed straight to the Apple icon in the top left of the screen > About This Mac and was greeted by this…

I’ve noticed a few apps starting up much quicker. Who knows, now that I’ve done this without wrecking an £800 computer I might feel like maxing it out to 4GB later in the year