Predicting what gadgets the British public will buy is often a risky business. However over recent weeks we have been testing a series of devices that have got our gadget buds salivating enough to stick our collective necks on the line and say that the Freeview PVR is coming, big time.

What is a Freeview PVR? Put simply it's the Sky+ equivalent for Freeview viewers. These gadgets typically record onto a hard drive and have at least one DTT receiver like a standard Freeview box. Unlike your common or garden Freeview receiver the PVR or personal video recorder uses the EPG (electronic programme guide) to mark programmes you'd like to record and then sits there quietly encoding your choices 24/7 so that you can watch the files back later.

For anyone with Sky+ this will all be very familiar but for us Freeview viewers it's simply revolutionary, time to ditch that old VHS recorder and move into the current century!  Extra features include some units with twin tuners, allowing you to record 2 programmes at once, the ability to connect via USB and copy the recorded files or images onto your PC and even image capture from live video.

As we said we've been working our way through the current crop finding some corkers and stinkers too! As always we'll give you an honest opinion on what is likely to be a hot seller this Christmas. Sorry for mentioning the "C" word but that are only 127 days left.....and so many gadgets to test.

Freeview PVR Reviews

Take Care

LP

Recent Highlights

	Creative Zen V Plus Creative are just weeks away from the UK launch of their iPod Nano rival. Lordpercy.com got a sneak peek at the chubby challenger that boasts a 4gb memory, FM tuner, direct encode and 18 hour battery life.
	Slingbox Review Sounds like some sort of SKY+ marketing line, except it's not it is in fact the spec sheet for the Slingbox. Now available in the UK this little bit of uber gadgetry can control your Sky Plus box and server it up to you over a broadband connection where ever you are.
	Sony Ericsson W810i Review Try listeingn to the embedded Walkman with the new Sony Ericsson W810i mobile. Surprisingly we think this would make a great change to the traditional dowdy corporate mobile and at a much lower cost than a smartphone.
	Quickcam Pro 5000 Review A webcam is just a webcam right? Well maybe not given that the quality of so many of them plain suck!  We've been putting the Quickcam Pro 5000 through it's paces and playing with the face tracking technology too.
	Logic3 iStation 8 The latest MP3 speaker system from Logic3 looks like the MTV Pimp my crew have been let loose on it. With 8 (yes 8) Tweeters bristling on its ice white plastic front can it justify the rise in price over the outgoing model. We lower the lights and crank up the tunes to find out.

Zune Soon

You may just have missed the news that Microsoft is to try and take on the iPod!

Yes another company lining up for a bit of hari-kari consumer electronics style, but surely Mr Gates can't have lost his mind? Perhaps not when you read the spec of the device due for launch in the run up the Xmas 2006. There isn't a huge amount in the public domain except a few tantalising titbits, for example Zune will be a hard drive based player which will become a range of players in 2007, expect a wheel style user interface and a few extras the iPod is missing. For a start expect WiFi and also an FM transmitter making every Zune able to work with your cars radio out of the box, good job the UK government is about to legalise them (spooky eh?).

Microsoft will launch Zune in a mass of publicity and also with supporting integration with Microsoft media player and a Zune audio and video download store plus some pre loaded AV content. There is much speculation as you would expect but general consensus is that Zune will bring something unusual to the party and it's likely to be the ability to share media between Zune devices via WiFi.

All sound pretty good and while Lordpercy.com won't chase every snippet of news (there are plenty of sites to re print press releases) we will bring you a Zune review as soon as we can lay our paws on one.

Buyers Guides

A new initiative on Lordpercy is the introduction of buyers guides. Our aim is to provide a checklist of things to consider when hunting for the right gadget for you. We've already started with MP3 players, GPS systems and now Smartphones and we have a few more in the pipeline.

Keep In Touch

A little insight into a day in the life of the Lordpercy contact form.

It wakes from a short rest at about 6am when the usual "buy some Viagra" snippet comes through, hmmm thanks just what we need to perk us up! By the time we've had tea and toast you can bet we've been introduced to a Chinese company who "are excellent manufacture of Bluetooth headset". Sit down at the desk and ignore a few government initiatives, the occasional flame and hunt through to see what genuine messages lie within the last few hours.

By midday we've been invited to use our bank account to help some Nigerian friends move some cash to pay to get old uncle Oomigoolie out of jail and heard all about the new WiFi toilet from Japan?

After a liquid business meeting we get back to the office to discover the same message sent 13 times and a message from our mate Nick who can't seem to grasp that he can just email us direct...doh!

The evening brings the daily Apple press release torrent and as it's a Monday Sony Ericsson and Nokia do battle with each one trying to outdo the other with mundane news about joint ventures to bring ringtones to cave dwelling limpets in Norway.

However buried amongst all this stuff are genuine messages from our readers and to these we reply, offering gadgets tips, advice and saying thank you when you say nice things or point out the odd cock up!

So keep our contact page happy and keep in touch.

Featured Section - Smartphones

A phones so smart you could pin a tail on it and call is a weasel!  or perhaps just honest reviews of the latest mobiles that have that bit extra, including WiFi, push email and music players.