My Top 10 reviews of 2010

Just for a bit of end-of-year fun, thought I would dig into my blog's stats to see which of my review links have proved the most popular (in terms of page views) during the year. It probably means very little, of course, to anyone except myself, but here are the results anyway. It also gives me a chance to say 'thanks' to everyone who has visited the site during 2010, and I hope you found the content useful in some way.

10. Funkwerk Bintec RS120wu router

9. AVM Fritz!Box WLAN 7390

8. Filemaker Pro 11

7. Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D

6. Solwise MediaXtream PL1000 Gigabit powerline networking adapter

5. Draytek Vigor 2955 VPN appliance

4. Belkin Surf Wireless Micro USB Wifi adapter

3 Billion 6200NXL / 7800GZ routers

2 Avid Vocal Studio

1. TP-Link TL-WN822N 300Mbps USB Wireless N adapter

And here's a pic of the TP-Link adapter, which is also one of the oddest-looking gadgets I've ever reviewed!

New Fritz!Box 7390 firmware released

AVM has finally released the promised new firmware for the Fritz!Box WLAN 7390 which I reviewed a few months ago. I've been using the beta version of this for some time, which still had quite a few rough edges, so I was interested to see the final version (84.04.87).

The biggest visual change is a complete revamp of the opening 'Overview' page, with much more status information clearly displayed.

The new Overview page

The other big and very welcome feature is the addition of Guest Wifi Access. This lets you setup a separate Wifi network (2.4GHz only), with its own security. It uses a separate subnet to the main Wifi network, so users can't access your home network, just the internet.

Guest Wifi Access has been added

Another welcome feature is the return of MAC cloning, something I managed to convince AVM was still something of great use to many users outside Germany.

The return of MAC address cloning

Power consumption should be improved slightly by the addition of a Green Ethernet function that turns off power to unused ports. [UPDATE 4/1/11: No, it doesn't - see this post to find out what it really does]

Green Ethernet function

There are a lot more tweaks and bug fixes, including a new USB printer control that automatically controls the print queue for multiple network users, releasing the printer when a print job finishes. FTP access for NAS devices has also been added. The Night Service for the Wifi can now be scheduled on a daily basis.

The international version of the firmware can be downloaded via the Fritz!Box's automatic update tool in the System menu. The full list of changes can be seen in this text file

Review: D-Link DES-1100-24 EasySmart switch

My review of this low-cost 24-port 10/100Mbps smart switch has been published on V3.co.uk and ZDNet UK. It's very easy to configure, although the initial setup could catch out the unwary as it ships with a fixed IP address.

Find it on Amazon:

Cold comfort

Quite chuffed to see that a photo I submitted to the Wired.com Raw File Arctic photo competition back in October managed to catch the attention of the editorial team, who chose it as one of their top 10 favourite submissions (the main competition was judged by readers). I love the pic - Runnymede is very pretty at any time, but last Christmas it became awesome when we had a very intense hoarfrost on 23rd December.

If you like the pic, the high-res version of this photo plus several others taken on the same day are included in my free Windows 7 themepack.

Review: Viewsonic Viewpad 10 dual-boot tablet

Tablets are all the rage, and Viewsonic has entered the fray with two models - an Android 2.2-based 7in device, and this one, which is a 10in tablet with both Android 1.6 and Windows 7 Home Premium (and no, it won't run Android 2.2 as that doesn't support the Viewpad's x86 Atom CPU - yet).

My review has been published on ZDnet UK, IT Reviews and Computeractive. I wasn't too impressed with Windows 7 in multi-touch mode - it works much better with a stylus.

Note that the Viewpad 10 appears to be identical to Novatech's nTablet, although Novatech's product has a larger 32GB SSD, a working 3G SIM slot and the option of Windows 7 Professional. It doesn't have Android, however. Computeractive has a full review of the nTablet.

Review: Solwise NET-3G-434T router

My review of this low-cost embedded 3G router has been published on V3.co.uk and IT Reviews. It costs around £100 and is a bit of a mixed bag, although there's little else available to match its features at this price.

Find it on Amazon:

Get 40% discount on all Roxio products

Roxio is running a special 4-day promotion in its UK and European store. To get 40% off any product, use the code ROXIO40OFF at the checkout. This code is valid from 10-13 December, 2010.

So for example, you could get Roxio Creator 2011 Standard (which I reviewed back in September) for just £29.99 instead of the normal £49.99, which sounds like a decent festive bargain to me.

Review: G-Data Total Care 2011 security suite

I've reviewed this interesting product for Computeractive, and it is now available online. What makes it different is that it uses two antivirus engines simultaneously. The interface is very easy to get to grips with, and I found it did its job with the minimum of fuss.

Feature: How to install and configure a monitor

Computeractive has published my feature on the basics of  installing and configuring a monitor in Windows. It's aimed at beginners and covers setting up the optimum resolution and DPI. There's also a bit on using dual monitors and some basic buying advice.