COSMOS magazine

Get COSMOS Teacher's Notes
G Magazine
Syndicate content

For play

In for the long haul

Cannondale T800

April 2007 | Cannondale

Australia is a big country. And one perfectly suited to long-distance bike rides. Whether you're moseying along the coast, through the hinterlands or doing a lap of the whole big island, what you want is a touring bike.


Easy rider

Giant Innova

April 2007 | Giant

If screaming down a mountainside, on or off road, is not your priority, but comfort, versatility and affordability are, then the Giant Innova might be just the bike for you.


Prone position

M5 Shock Proof 406

April 2007 | M5

Sure, racing bikes and the Tour de France get all the attention, but the truth of the matter is that recumbent bikes — bikes where you recline and pedal forward — have always been faster.


Gravity is a harsh mistress

Trek Session 10

April 2007 | Trek

When you've just spent several slow-mo seconds floating through the air and you're about to re-merge with the ground on your way down a steep mountain side, what you want, more than anything in the world, is shock-absorbers.


Pump up the volume

Altec Lansing iM7

October 2006 | Altec Lansing

Sure, we can now carry our tunes with us in our iPod, but we can no longer share them with those nearby like we did back in the 1980s. Well, the boombox is back, care of the Altec Lansing iM7.


Like a fish in and out of water

Quadski

October 2006 | Gibbs Technologies

The Quadski is capable of travelling at up to 72 kilometres per hour on land or water and you can make a snappy transition between the two media via the flick of a switch.


Wii will rock you

Nintendo Wii

October 2006 | Nintendo

Nintendo, ever the cheeky underdog of the console market, has taken a different approach in the battle of the games console. Focussing its attentions on creating something small, simple and above all, fun.


Direct to DVD

Hitachi DZ-BX37E

October 2006 | Hitachi

The DZ-BX37E represents the sixth generation of its DVD technology and includes some new features to make shooting even easier.


Non-nano

Samsung YP-Z5

September 2006 | Samsung

You can more or less sum up the portable music player market with two categories: Apple and everyone else. For a non-Apple portable audio player, the YP-Z5 is impressive, but can't quite trump Apple in terms of style and panache.


Iconic sounds

Apple iPod

September 2006 | Apple

What more can be said about the iPod? It'd be considered a mere pop icon were it not for the fact that it's actually a very capable piece of technology.


Together at last

Dark Shadow MP3 Sunglasses

September 2006 | New Universe Technology

Some pairings, unlikely at first - like maple syrup and bacon - can have an uncanny synergy. Then again, others, while logical, can end up suffering the reverse Gestalt: the whole is less than the sum of the parts.


Green with envy

Creative Zen Vision:M

September 2006 | Creative

It might not be as funky as an iPod, but for features, the Vision:M is up with the best.


Little big player

SanDisk Sansa e260

September 2006 | SanDisk

The Sansa e200 series, with capacities up to 6 GB in a form factor reminiscent of the iPod nano, is a series of portable audio players from a world leader in solid-state storage technology.


Cherry of your eye

Toshiba Gigabeat X

September 2006 | Toshiba

When it comes to tackling Apple, competitors can't really hope to beat the iPod in outright style. Instead they can try for a 'unique' look and then try to best the iPod with features. This is precisely the route taken by Japanese technology behemoth Toshiba.


Silent putting

e-Solex environment-friendly moped

September 2006

The Solex 3800 moped is as characteristically French as baguettes and berets, but it's taken the famous Italian automotive design company Pininfarina to 'reimagine' the classic 3800 for the world of tomorrow. The new prototype e-Solex bears a striking family resemblance to the classic Solex 3800 of the 1960s, but has an electric motor in place of the old petrol engine.