Matthew Temple

The other day I purchased a Sony Alpha 230 DSLR camera to help me become a better photographer. The camera was a brilliant buy I didn't read many reviews, I just asked the very friendly staff (yes, in a brick and mortar store) for a camera that would fit my needs.

The 10 Megapixel camera with the 18-55mm (SAL-1855) kit lens takes some quite impressive photos, and even better photos when you move away from the preset options.

 The simple user interface and power the camera provides make it prefect for a novice to pick up and use, now yes I knew a little about aperture, exposure etc. but even a good friend of mine could use it in a semi-auto mode after about a 2 minute demo.

As for speed I was surprised, it's quick at turning on, focusing, taking the photo and processing/storing a RAW + JPEG pair. And you might be pleased to know this camera does support SDHC cards as well as Sony's Memory Stick format.

The build quality is about right for Sony, a good weight, not to heavy, with rubber grips making the body feel sturdy and well built but the lens feels a little 'plasticee'. 

It's a very versatile camera perfect for everyday use on holidays and such. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in photography and wants to go to the next level from a point and shoot.

Available at Play.com • Jessops • Comet • Currys • Amazon

Last month I reviewed QuickOffice for iPhone and said I would like it to have support for Dropbox and Google Docs, well today version 3 of the suite came out as a free update to existing customers and they're added just that. It still has the same great editor and features just with a few extra storage options. However to use the new options it does require you to sign up for a QuickOffice.com account.

You get access to read and edit all your current documents on these new services and the documents you edit and uploaded in place of the originals and very quickly even over 3G.