Hardware & GadgetsHardware & Gadgets

Information and articles and computer hardware and gadgets

This section deals with computer hardware: computers, laptops, mice, keyboards etc.

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Remove region protection from Philips HTS3105 DVD PlayerRemove region protection from Philips HTS3105 DVD Player

Posted July 18th, 2009 in Hardware & Gadgets

I have a Philips HTS3105 DivX Ultra DVD home theatre system and when trying to diagnose another problem came across how to remove the region protection, meaning you can play DVDs from any region instead of just for the one its encoded for.

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Remove Vodafone Live from the soft keys on a Nokia 6121Remove Vodafone Live from the soft keys on a Nokia 6121

Posted September 17th, 2008 in Hardware & Gadgets

I bought a Nokia 6121 the other day and it's a good phone, although I do sometimes find the keys a little small and cramped and accidentally hit the cancel key when I don't mean to. The interface has two "soft" keys at the bottom which can be configured to just about any menu option. I was finding it annoying having Vodafone Live on the right one because if you hit cancel/back too many times you'd end up in Vodafone Live often. This post looks at how to change the options.

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My new phone - Nokia 6121My new phone - Nokia 6121

Posted September 10th, 2008 in Hardware & Gadgets

I got a new mobile phone on Monday - a Nokia 6121. This post looks at the features etc of this phone and what my criteria was for choosing it.

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iPhone 3G available in Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal on July 11iPhone 3G available in Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal on July 11

Posted July 8th, 2008 in Hardware & Gadgets

Vodafone and Apple announced yesterday that the iPhone 3G will be released on July 11th 2008 in Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal. Vodafone New Zealand confirmed yesterday the iPhone 3G would be priced from $199 on a 24-month contract in NZ.

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Vista Laptop IssuesVista Laptop Issues

Posted June 11th, 2008 in Hardware & Gadgets

I bought a new laptop two months ago pre-loaded with Windows Vista. It was all working nicely until I started working for a new customer two days a week yesterday and we had to install some additional software etc on it. Then it all went badly and the laptop has become unusable...

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New laptop - Toshiba A200New laptop - Toshiba A200

Posted April 8th, 2008 in Hardware & Gadgets

I've had a Compaq EVO N1020v laptop/notebook for just over 5 years and the monitor has completely died on me. I like to be able to do a bit of work in the evenings while watching TV on the couch, and fortunately there are some bargain laptops/notebooks around these days. I'm not really all that fussed about mobility, battery life, weight etc because I'll really only be using it at home, so decided to go for something pretty cheap. After a little bit of looking around I bought a Toshiba A200 yesterday.

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Microsoft wireless mouse stopped working on LinuxMicrosoft wireless mouse stopped working on Linux

Posted October 18th, 2007 in Hardware & Gadgets and Linux/Unix/BSD (Updated October 18th, 2007)

Yesterday while I was doing some work in Adobe Photoshop in a VMWare virtual machine on my Linux KDE desktop, my Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse just suddenly stopped working for no apparent reason. At first I thought VMWare had done something funny with mouse capture so I jumped out of the virtual machine but it still wasn't working. Plugging a regular mouse with a cord into a USB port worked just fine, but the wireless mouse refused to work.

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PS/2 Y Splitter on Single PS2 PortPS/2 Y Splitter on Single PS2 Port

Posted January 7th, 2004 in Hardware & Gadgets (Updated May 24th, 2007)

A PS/2 Y splitter is an adapter which lets you plug a PS2 keyboard and mouse into a single PS/2 socket in a computer. Sometimes it doesn't appear to work but all you might need to do is swap the keyboard and mouse plugs around.

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