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About TrustedReviews
Riyad Emeran » Editor in Chief
Riyad started his journalistic career at PC Pro magazine, where he ran the Labs and produced all the comparative hardware reviews. After a while as Labs Editor of PC Pro, Riyad moved to Personal Computer World magazine where he became Editor and ultimately Editor-in-Chief of the title.
During his time working at the top UK computer magazines Riyad tested and evaluated just about every type of IT product from hard disks to LCD monitors. He also hired and trained many of the IT journalists that populate the industry today.
Before, during and after his full time appointments Riyad also worked in a freelance capacity for many technology magazines such as Computer Buyer, Computer Active, What PC?, PC Direct, Advanced Computer Entertainment and Stuff.
Prior to his career as an IT journalist Riyad spent many years working in the field of high performance computing. During this time he was able to watch the IT arena evolve from massive supercomputer and mainframe environments to the more localised infrastructure we see today. As the need for massive centralised computer centres diminished, Riyad decided to take his knowledge and apply it to the field of technology journalism.
After returning from a year long journey of discovery around the globe Riyad chose to leave paper publishing behind and bring high-end IT journalism onto the Internet where it belongs. After a great deal of hard work and very little sleep he hatched the plan for trustedreviews.com and set out to create what you see before you now.
Gordon Kelly » News Editor
Gordon has loved computers for as long as he can remember. Aged just seven a delighted Gordon was given a Toshiba MSX for Christmas before moving on to an Amiga and a 486 PC, although it wasn't until university that his knowledge really started to take off. There to study his other passion, literature, he became friends with an IT student who changed his life in exchange for an introduction to the bar staff.
With a First Class honours degree under one arm, Gordon then completed a Masters at the University of Nottingham. During this time he built his own computers and this solidified his desire to get into the IT arena.
He began as a journalist with respected industry title Computer Reseller News (CRN) during which time he rose through the ranks to become Senior Reporter. His investigations into the industry saw him featured in the Press Gazette (the industry paper for journalists nationwide) and ranked amongst the top three most influential IT journalists in the country.
Gordon left CRN to work as a freelancer and spend time writing a novel which, though unfinished, has already garnered interest from a number of publishing heavyweights and the BBC.
Despite this, Gordon's passion for technology has seen him return to the fold as News Editor with TrustedReviews after he couldn't resist the lure of partnering old industry friends. Readers may have already recognised Gordon as he had been contributing to the site for over a year.
Trivia facts about Gordon: he likes dogs even though they make him sneeze, is originally from Newcastle and hates it when people say to him "but you don't have a Geordie accent?"
Cliff Smith » Digital Photography Editor
Cliff Smith was born in Nottingham a surprisingly long time ago. He has been a keen photographer for over 25 years - he has worked as a professional photographer, although he absolutely refuses to do weddings ever again. These days he shoots mainly for stock photo libraries, and uses digital cameras exclusively. He hasn't used a film camera for over five years.
He studied photojournalism at the University of East London. Prior to joining TrustedReviews.com he worked for eight years for numerous magazines on a range of subjects including computer games, DVDs and digital photography. He is the former reviews editor of Digital Photography Made Easy at Highbury Entertainment, and helped launch both Digital Camera Buyer and Digital Photographer magazines, before moving to IPC Media to be Deputy Editor of Better Digital Photography.
Andy Vandervell » Senior Staff Writer
A graduate of the University of Kent, Andy began freelancing during the final year of his degree writing game reviews for a variety of online publications including Pro-G and TrustedReviews' sister site, Bit-Tech.
As a long time gamer, this came naturally to him, but it soon became apparent that gaming in itself was a very restrictive field. So, he looked to branch out into other arenas and, being a dedicated geek with an eye for detail, technology journalism seemed to be the way to go.
After many months working independently he was approached by TrustedReviews and offered the job of Staff Writer - an offer he accepted with no hesitation. When not writing for a living, Andy can be found on the cricket field enjoying what is undoubtedly the finest sport known to man.
Edward Chester » Senior Staff Writer
Edward was a relatively late developer when it came to computers. Though he'd always dabbled as a child, it was only during studying for A-Levels that a bit of casual tinkering turned into a fully fledged interest. The catalyst for this change was two-fold; the discovery by him and his friends of Counter-Strike, and a realisation that maybe there was a career to be had in knowing your way round these dull grey boxes.
While studying Mathematics and Computer Science at Leeds University his passion for all things technological grew and eventually it was decided that IT was indeed the way forward.
After spending a few years in a variety of technical support and development roles, primarily for the NHS, the lack of creative output was beginning to way heavy on his shoulders and, when TrustedReviews advertised for a position in their editorial team, journalism seemed the perfect opportunity to release this burden.
Throughout the years Edward's experiences have included everything from studying quantum mechanics and functional programming to designing websites and writing Access databases for friends, family and businesses alike.
When not writing about, playing on, tinkering with, breaking, fixing, and, generally getting frustrated with computers, Edward likes to get out into the countryside to blast the cobwebs away. He also has a long background in music and spends as much time as possible playing and writing with his band.
Sandra Vogel » Contributor
Sandra's interest in computing started way back in the last Century when a Sinclair Spectrum was bought for her as a gift pretty much on a whim.
That early computer and its descendents captured a fair bit of Sandra's leisure-time attention for some years. Meanwhile her career progressed through training in Information Management, an interlude as an academic, and then work as an information manager for several charities. During this time she kept the writer inside her satisfied by contributing to publications related to her career interests.
Then her inner writer and her inner geek joined forces to fight the information manager persona in a long and bloody conflict. Well, OK. it wasn't that long. Or bloody. But when the battle was over what was left was an amicable melding of the three traits in the shape of a freelance IT journalist who also does some serious consultancy work for the charity and community sectors.
These days Sandra is known most widely as a writer with an interest in mobile and portable computing and a special affection (if that's the right word) for PDAs. She turns her hand to other areas as, her interests drive her, and has a cuttings file of past work and a wish list of future projects characterised by both breadth and depth.
Dave Mitchell » Contributor
Dave has been working with computers for far longer than he cares to remember. Arriving fresh-faced straight from school he started his very first job operating ICL mainframe computers way back in the mid-70's and spent the following 21 years making the acquaintance of some truly monstrous systems from the likes of Burroughs and Unisys.
During this time he has worked in IT within the pharmaceutical, services and corporate financial sectors and his last 'proper' job was as an operations shift leader with a prominent building society which had one of the largest Unisys mainframe installations in the world. Alas, the legendary reliability of mainframes also made them very boring to work with. Dave had already been dabbling with PC networks for a few years and found them far more interesting so in 1994 he waved goodbye to mainframes, set sail on the stormy seas of IT journalism and cut his teeth reviewing the latest technology and products for PCLan magazine.
Over the past twelve years he has gradually expanded his freelance operations and now runs an independent network testing laboratory at the University of Sussex. This specialises in providing hands-on reviews and group tests on all network related products to a wide range of publications including PC Pro, PC Plus, Techworld, Network Computing, StorAge, Network IT Week, SC Magazine and, of course, TrustedReviews.
Simon Williams » Contributor
Simon Williams trained as a production engineer, but even then spent many geeky hours in front of a punch card reader. He has been programming or writing about computers since the early 1980s, when he used his first paid writing to buy a BBC Micro.
A full time IT writer since 1985, he has edited and launched several newsstand titles while working for Future Publishing. Going freelance in 1990, he has continued to write group reviews and features for PC Plus, PCW, PC Advisor, PC Pro and many other familiar titles.
Still spending much of his time examining new equipment and trying to come to terms with a continuing stream of innovations from the industry, Simon also tutors courses in IT, desktop publishing and creative writing. Particular areas of expertise are PCs, printers, scanners and add-on gadgets of all kinds and he likes to think he has a nose for sniffing out new and interesting technologies.
Stuart Andrews » Contributor
Stuart Andrews started playing games in the days of cheap handheld Pac-Man clones, and hasn't really stopped ever since. In the meantime, he has managed to hold down some more serious jobs, joining the staff of PC Pro in 1995 and working across a range of PC and technology magazines in the decade since. Stuart is now a freelance writer and editor, tackling games for The Sunday Times, producing reviews and features for a number of PC monthlies, and editing books on digital imaging, 3D graphics and game design.
Apart from playing more games than would normally be sensible, Stuart enjoys a healthy interest in world cinema and modern fiction and a slightly less healthy interest in theme parks and multiple-inversion roller-coasters. He can also be found taking too many photos of the South-West English coastline. These get pretty samey once you"ve seen the first 400.
Jonathan Bray » Contributor
It was way back in the computing dark ages that Jon first cut his computing teeth. Several bad experiences with colour clash, a completely rubbish VIC20 and an unscrupulous PC vendor later, he fought his way onto the staff of UK magazine PC Pro and never looked back.
There he steadily worked his way up through the ranks, working as Deputy Reviews Editor, Labs Editor and eventually Deputy Editor, all the while making freelance contributions to titles from Computer Buyer to the 'Doors' section of the Sunday Times, games reviews for AOL's online games channel and features for the now defunct PC Direct.
Jon is now freelancing full-time and has a penchant for reviewing projectors, cameras and scanners. Nothing, he assures us, quite beats the satisfaction of producing complicated resolution-based calculations using industry standard scanning targets.
Leo Waldock » Contributor
Despite his boyish good looks, Leo Waldock is fast approaching his 40th birthday and has been using PCs for a large part of his time on God's green earth. In 1980 Leo won a brand new Sinclair ZX80 in a competition and was rapidly bewitched by the 3.25MHz processor and 1KB of RAM.
Leo has a background in mechanical engineering and spent many years involved in motorcycle racing on the short circuits of England. You may think that Half Life gives you a rush but it doesn't begin to compare to the left hand turn at Donington Park's Craner Curves.
These days Leo works from home in the depths of Gloucestershire and uses graphics card group tests, 64bit processors and Beta versions of Windows to keep old age at bay. He remembers the dark days when a 1MB memory upgrade for a Matrox graphics card cost a month's salary and is well aware that PC users have never had it so good.
In years to come he will take to a pipe and tartan slippers and sit in a comfy chair with a blanket over his knees. For now he demands anisotropic filtering and high resolution graphics for all men as a fundamental human right.
Andrew 'Spode' Miller » Contributor
Andrew Miller, or Spode as he prefers to be called, started his journalistic life running the hardware review site Spode's Abode. Before long he started freelancing for Computer Shopper, which led to him contributing to many other technology publications such as PC Pro, The Inquirer, PC Format and Custom PC.
Spode is computer enthusiast at heart, with a strong PHP/MySQL programming background to complement his years of fiddling with computer hardware.
In his free time, when he's not squealing in to a microphone, he's trying to kill himself riding mountain bike trials.
