Monster Tron Lightdisk iPod Dock Review

Jul 242011
 

So, Tron Legacy has come and gone, featuring Daft Punk and a lot of computer generated graphics, to create a mostly forgettable movie, save for… the computer generated graphics, and that sick aesthetically feel of the grid. As a result, Monster has decided to create an iPod dock, based on the iconic weapon in Tron, the light disk.

As you can tell, the two defining features about the dock, are its circular body, and its blue centered design. Featuring over 80 independent LEDs in the dock, it’s perfect for dark environments, or as a bedside light. But with the Advanced Light Drive System, these LEDs can transform this dock into a disco ball, for a cooler, more disaffected generation. Something like that anyway. This Advanced Light Drive System can create effects with the disk, or change the color of the dock to reflect your iDevice’s charge status.

The Lightdisk dock also comes with a few free apps to improve it’s functionality, with a iDevice mounted equalizer, a game which can be played with the Dock, and the cool Alarm Clock app. While the other two apps are mediocre at best, the Alarm Clock app, will play your selected track of choice when you’re supposed to wake up, and provide you with a beautiful lightshow, forcing you to actually press that snooze button.

Underneath the hood of the dock, there are five speakers, plus a downfiring subwoofer. Monster assures that four high performance drivers provide ‘ultra-crisp highs, a clear midrange, and extended low-end effects’. Incidentally, if you’re worried that this device is only aimed at the rich iDevice owners (considering the devices RRP of $300) there’s nothing to worry about. The dock also features a 3.5mm jack, in case you have other devices that happen to not have an Apple on it.

If you’re quick, the device is on sale for $200 at Amazon, if you’re interested, move quickly before the deal is Derezed…

CM Storm ‘Sirius’ Review

Jul 212011
 

The well known PSU and case supplier, Cooler-Master has had a subsidiary gaming company quietly operating for the better part of three years. CM Storm has made beautiful looking cases, with a liberal  splashing of red LED’s, and polished black metal. The CM Storm’s ‘Scout’ case looks extremely similar to an Antec 900, perhaps it’s evil twin, considering that the Antec case features a more peaceful lighting scheme, of blue LEDs. Anyway, I digress. Gaming Audio has become  quite a competitive market, with the growth of E-Sports promoting the heavy usage of headsets.

A little later to the game than gaming peripheral specialists, Razer and Steelseries, CM Storm has decided to release it’s own headset, titled the ‘Sirius’. From initial testing, the plastic frame is quite stubborn, those with abnormally large heads should take caution. The plastic outer layer for the earmuffs do provide a relatively noise insulated environment, while adding excess weight to the headset. This could be an issue in longer play sessions, but generally, the headset is quite comfortable to wear.

The Sirius ships with a simple analog/USB attachment system, a minimal fuss, no frills way to use your headset, as well as a dual USB powered ‘Tactical Mixing Console”, a device designed to provide absolute control over the Sirius’ 5.1 surround sound capabilities. The disc-shaped object features a volume knob, backlit setting labels, microphone, and navigation buttons. They allow you to control the eight drivers located within the headset, allowing you to fully harness the awesome power of this beastly headset.

Two methods of connecting the Sirius

While the audio seems fine, sounding like a mid-range pair of PC headphones, possibly on par with a mid level pair of Audio Technica cans, the 5.1 surround sound is good enough to overcome the shortcoming of most other 5.1 or 7.1 cousins- the sound is actually clear enough to hear the direction of gunfire, or footsteps. Perhaps the lower mids are a bit lacking, but after fiddling with the headphones for a while, it seemed to correct the issue. In all, the Sirius looks like a very respectable first entry into the world of audio by CM Storm.

Fake Apple Stores?

Jul 212011
 
IMG_6527-625x468

Wait what? Okay, get this, see this picture above? That’s not a real Apple Store- it’s fake. How do we know? The store is located in a small village in China which Apple doesn’t have any official presence in. Except, it looks like a real Apple store, no?

 

They say that imitation is the best form of flattery, but for China, it’s an industry. This entire Apple Store has been lovingly recreated, from the Apple store geniuses in blue t-shirts, to the shillouettes of people wearing the iconic white earphones. The standard wooden tables, the white surfaces, all here. And of course, liberal splashings of the Apple logo, to ensure that you know which company you’re buying from. Quite impressive, but that’s nothing compared to the deception of the employees themselves. Supposedly, they believe that they work for Apple, even though they are paid in cash… Hmm…

 

The most disturbing thing, is after you’ve seen these photos, and had your share of double and triple takes… this store is one of three in the town itself. Apple’s legal team have not yet commented, but considering the fact that an unofficial Blizzard themed ‘Starcraft/Warcraft’ themepark is actually up and running, perhaps they have realized that this is a hopeless cause.

HTC Status Quick Review with Specs and Info

Jul 192011
 

Facebook Phone called HTC Status

Facebook, twice the juggernaut that Myspace once was, creator of fortunes, invader of privacy. The Social Networking website has continued to grow from its humble origins, a pissed off college kid’s method of taking revenge. Today, even smart phones have been outright designed for the ever addictive social networking site, with Android producer, HTC tapping into this lucrative market.

Platform Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread) + HTC Sense™
Display HVGA 2.6-inch touch screen
with 480 x 320 resolution
Network Quad-band GSM/GPRS/
EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900
Memory 512 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
Processor MSM7227, 800 MHz
Battery Rechargeable lithium-ion battery, 1250 mAh
Camera 5 MP main camera with autofocus, VGA
front-facing camera

The HTC Status uses the Android 2.3 OS, Gingerbread. The relatively fast operating system is aided with excess proccessing power and memory to boot for a smartphone. A 2.6″ screen is a bit lacking however, with the smaller statuses and updates on sites such as Twitter and Facebook becoming near unreadable. On the plus side however, there are quite a few features which will advantage the typical Social Networking addict. Firstly, the QWERTY keyboard, while a slight curve in the device ensures that it can be held for longer periods, without causing hand or eyestrain.

While still being a solid phone, the limitations of the 2.6″ touchscreen really begin to show when playing touch dependent games, such as Fruit Slice, among others. This problem is exasperated with some applications being required to be used in portrait mode. Considering that the phone is permanently locked into a landscape orientation, it is likely that frustration will when trying to use certain applications that require a portrait orientation to be used. The phone features a tiny ‘F’ button, representing Facebook (obviously), and allows easy access to the application. Due to the convenient location of the button, generally users are more inclined to use this button, rather than actually tapping on the application, saving a few seconds here and there.

Two cameras, being front and back facing are slightly handy, when you need a new profile picture for example. However, unlike the iPhone 4, and not being an Apple product, the use of a front facing camera can’t be used to emulate Facetime yet. The last criticism is of the phone’s inability to play Facebook videos, something which hopefully should be rectified by Facebook themselves, or by HTC soon.

Being tiny, while featuring a maxi-keyboard favoring thumb-typers, and an ergonomic body that your artsy friends will appreciate, perhaps after the Facebook Video issue is fixed, the HTC Status might become a good secondary phone, or replacement for your aging iPhone.

 

Team Fortress 2: Free

Jun 242011
 

 

Somewhere in the future, construction is overseen by two superpowers; the Reliable Excavation, Demolition incorporated, and the Builders League United. After United Nations legislation passed a bill where reconstruction contracts abandoned areas would only be awarded to the company that achieved its mandate, from capturing the opposing company’s flag, or taking ‘control points’ scattered around the map. In what began as a gentlemanly affair, with Engineers trying to go about their business, escalated into an all out war between Snipers, Scouts, Soldiers, Pyromaniacs, Demolitions Specialists, and ‘Heavies’.

Team Fortress 2 is one of Valve’s most renowned First Person Shooters, often praised for its humor, art style, and gameplay. In fact, it is likely even if Valve didn’t update Team Fortress 2, it would still be played by tens of thousands of gamers, all gunning for the next control point, domination, or revenge kill. But Valve is a clever company, suckering gamers into spending more and more time on Team Fortress, through innocuous additions such as hats that each character can equip, to new weapons, abilities, and other ‘items’ to turn the tide on the battlefield. On top of this, Valve introduced RPG elements into the game, allowing players to craft items, and even name them. Humorous weapons include ‘The Benedict Arnold’ for the Spies knife, to the ‘Malpractice’ Medic’s bone-saw.

From its original incarnation, these updates have swelled Team Fortress 2 into a 12 GB package, nearly more than double its original size when it was first released. But the game is still Team Fortress 2, in all of it’s rocket-jumping, minigun spooling, ubercharging glory. And with the release of Valve’s Uber update of Team Fortress 2, the long awaited ‘Meet the Medic’ trailer has been released by Valve. If you haven’t seen the other class videos released by Valve, I highly recommend watching them, they set the tone for Team Fortress 2.

But of course, the long awaited ‘Meet the Medic’ trailer seems almost insignificant to Valve’s announcement after its release. Yes, as you’ve guessed from the title, Team Fortress 2 is free, forever. Backed by a micro transaction system now, Valve’s Team Fortress 2 still lives on, half a decade from the Orange Box’s original release.

To download Team Fortress 2, make a Steam account, and… download the game. Considering 12 Gigabytes will take a while to get from the now overcrowded Steam servers, watch the Meet the Medic trailer while you wait.

 

 

Free Skype Credit & Lots of iOS & Mac App Discounts!

May 272011
 

Free Skype Credit (Source: Minimalog)

Ifeelgoods is currently offering € 1,17 of free Skype credit via Facebook. All you need to do is to ‘like’ their Facebook App and grant it access. After, you’ll be presented with a coupon code which you can use to redeem at Skype’s website.

Update: Free Skype Credit promotion ended.

 

iPhone/iPod Touch Apps

  • Fast Five the Movie: Official Game (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • Let’s Golf! 2 (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • Need for Speed Shift (link): $2.99 -> $.99
  • Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12 (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (link): $2.99 -> $.99
  • The Sims 3 World Adventures (link): $2.99 -> $.99
  • Need for Speed Undercover (link): $2.99 -> $.99
  • The Sims Ambitions (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • Dead Space (link): $6.99 -> $2.99
  • NBA Jam (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • Tetris (link): $2.99 -> $.99
  • Dungeon Hunter 2 (link): $6.99 -> $.99
  • GeoDefense (link): ($1.99) -> Free

iPad Apps

  • CaptureNotes (link): $4.99 -> $1.99
  • Fishing Kings HD (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • MADDEN NFL 11 by EA SPORTS for iPad (link): $6.99 -> $.99
  • FIFA 11 for iPad (link): $9.99 -> $4.99
  • Need for Speed Hot Pursuit for iPad (link): $9.99 -> $4.99
  • Fast Five the Movie: Official Game HD (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • NBA Jam for iPad (link): $9.99 -> $4.99
  • SNOOD for iPad (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • Reckless Racing HD (link): $4.99 -> $.99
  • Dead Space for iPad (link): $9.99 -> $4.99
  • Plants vs. Zombies HD (link): $6.99 -> $1.99
  • GeoDefense (link): ($1.99) -> Free

Mac Apps from the Mac App Store

  • The Secret of Monkey Island : Special Edition (link): $9.99 -> $4.99
  • BioShock (link): $39.99 -> $27.99
  • Gitbox (link): $39.99 -> $19.99
  • Disk Drill Media Recovery (link): $49.99 -> $9.99
  • Call of Duty (link): $19.99 -> $9.99
  • Call of Duty 2 (link): $29.99 -> $19.99
  • Call of Duty 4 (link): Modern Warfare™: $49.99 -> $39.99

Mac Apps

  • Mercury App Bundle (link): $227.89 -> $67.99
  • Productive Macs Bundle (link): $221 -> $29
  • BundleHunt (link): $785 -> $49.99

iOS and Mac App Deals – 05/19/11

May 202011
 

Here are the latest iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Mac App Deals. Offers last for a limited time so grab them while they last!

iPhone/iPod Touch Apps

Supermarket Mania: $2.99 -> Free

Infinity Blade: -> $5.99 -> $2.99

 

iPad Apps

Music Hunter: $0.99 -> Free

Supermarket Mania HD: $4.99 -> Free

Infinity Blade: -> $5.99 -> $2.99

 

Mac App Store

Fantastical: $19.99 -> $14.99

Parallels Transporter: $39.99 -> $0.99

Otto Matic: $4.99 -> $0.99

Bugdom 2: $9.99 -> $0.99

Pangea Arcade: $6.99 -> $0.99

Nanosaur 2: $9.99 -> $0.99

Enigmo 2: $4.99 -> $0.99

Enigmo: $4.99 -> $0.99

The Idapt i2+ – what can’t it charge?!

Feb 212011
 

At the MWC 2011 in Barcelona, Idapt, a leading mobile technology firm, revealed its latest universal charger, the Idapt i2+. This charger will feature 3 output ports that will allow the user to charge up to 3 mobile devices at the same time, eliminating cord clutter.

Meeting all mobile electronic needs

The Idapt i2+ has 2 charging ports and an additional USB port, thus making it the most complete (and perfect) charger available in the market. Another interesting feature is the unique interchangeable tips system, which makes it compatible with over 3,000 devices, including all Apple devices, BlackBerry, Nintendo, PSP, Bluetooth products and many others. Moreover, the “quick release” button allows the user to safely eject their device from the charger without damaging their device.

The Idapt i2+ is currently listed for sale at the Idapt official website and can be yours for a fair price of $39.99. Major retailers like Walmart, Crutchfield or Frontgate will soon start selling Idapt branded products as well. The Idapt i2+ comes with 6 tips, which include: miniUSB, microUSB, iPod/iPhone, Samsung 4, Nokia 2 and Sony Ericsson 2. Nevertheless, if you require any additional tips, head to Idaptweb.com and make your pick from the many tips they have available on sale.

iPhone 4 Verizon Reviews

Feb 022011
 

Some of our friends at Engadget, TechCrunch, Wallstreet etc got hands on iPhone 4 Verizon and did reviews. These iPhone 4 Reviews all sound great and you bet we are getting some units our self here shortly.

iPhone 4 Verizon Reviews

All ThingsD (Wall Street) iPhone 4 Review:

In my tests, the new Verizon version of the iPhone did much better at voice calling than the AT&T version, and offers some attractive benefits, like unlimited data and a wireless hot-spot capability. But if you really care about data speed, or travel overseas, and AT&T service is tolerable in your area, you may want to stick with AT&T.

Engadget iPhone 4 Verizon Review:

this is very much the iPhone 4 that people have come to know and love. It’s not the next generation Apple device, it’s not a wowee-zowee LTE experiment, and it isn’t a revolution in mobile computing. What it is, however, is a big chance to give a large portion of America’s smartphone users a crack at a phone they’ve likely been lusting after for some time. It’s also an opportunity to give relief to long-suffering AT&T customers in the form of a usable, reliable phone (not to mention a good way to kill many of the jokes the current phone’s calls have created)

TechCrunch iPhone 4 Verizon Review:

There’s long been a slogan that goes along with many Apple products — “it just works”. It’s also the best way to sum up this review. The iPhone 4 on Verizon: it just works.

Well hope you like the excerpts because some of these reviews are way too long to write about. But one thing to remember its“pretty much”  just a carrier change so whether you like ATT or Verizon, iPhone 4 is same.

Egypt cuts off Internet Connectivity

Jan 292011
 

The Egyptian government has blacked out the Internet on their country, an unprecedented action in the history of the Internet. Although The Critical Asian- European optical fiber line is still unaffected, all the Egyptian users who relied on the four Egyptian ISPs  are now off-line. At  00.34 the Renesys observed that all the routes to Egypt were withdrawn. About three thousand individual routes were severed at a time so there is no way to exchange Internet traffic with the rest of the world. All  Egyptian website and Internet addresses are now unavailable.

This Internet blackout has taken place after a turmoil  situation. The situation is not something like the modest Internet manipulation  in Tunisia where some specific routes were taken off. In the case of Iran the internet was intentionally made painfully slow for a particular span of time. But this measure by the Egyptian government has truly blacked out their country.

The world’s economy is largely dependent on the sources of Internet and surely it will be seriously affected by the removal of 80.000.000 users from it. The address eypt.gov.eg is unavailable now and was withdrawn on the 27th January 22.28 UTC. Similarly, an Egyptian newspaper site ahram.org.eg has also become unreachable simultaneously on the  27 January 22.28 UTC. This is hardly a coincidence, so it was surely intentional rather than any technical difficulty.

For some unknown reason Noor group still has 83 routes of their 85 routes alive on the internet. The Egyptian stock exchange is still appearing up and running at its addresses. Among the four IP addresses of Egypt the Noor group owns only one of them. They are still online probably because of transit path diversity of the stock exchange. Anyway this is a sign that the Egyptian share market might reopen next week.

Apple Arranges Service Which Lets iPhone Subscribers Pay Via Handsets

Jan 272011
 

Apple Inc. wants to bring in services which would allow customers to utilize their iPhone as well as iPad computers for making purchases, said Richard Doherty, administrator of consulting company Envisioneering Group.

This services are based upon “Near-Field Communication,” a technology which can beam as well as receive information from up to 4 inches, owning to be embedded within the subsequent iteration of iPhone on behalf of AT&T Inc. as well as the iPad 2, according to Doherty. The two products are probable to be brought this time around, he said, mentioning engineers who are working on hardware on behalf of the Apple plan.

Apple’s service might be capable to tap into consumer information by now on file, counting credit-card information, iTunes gift-card sense of balance as well as bank information,says Richard Crone, who leads financial industry consultant Crone Consulting LLC, in San Carlos, California.

The major challenge for Apple will be to acquire a slice of the 6.2 trillion USD Americans spend every year on goods as well as services, Crone said.

Nowadays, the corporation pays credit-card transaction fees on each purchase in iTunes. By heartening consumers to make use of cheaper techniques such as charging their bank accounts directly (which is how most purchases are completed via PayPal), Apple can reduce its own costs as well as those of retailers advertising Apple products.

“NFC is absolutely one of the facts that’s receiving a lot of atention, however ultimately the user is going to make a choice,” said Charlotte Hill, the representative for Ebay owned PayPal. Spokeswoman Elvira Swanson, on behalf of the Visa San Francisco-based, said the company is “eager to watch NFC cell phone devices coming into the market.”

Google Needs to Rethink their Android Apps

Jan 262011
 

Google’s platform manager Eric Chu agreed that even though the number of Android device user is rising quickly, the number of purchases of the applications at the Android market has not been doing that good.

In fact they are pretty worried about this drought. In a question-answer session with the application developers Eric Chu, he talked about the road map for Android apps.

Chu says that soon Google will be introducing an in-app payment system. He said that they will be launching it by this quarter of the year.  Apple has already issued this payment system about a year ago. This has largely helped their app developers to take advantage of virtual goods at the mobile market.

Last month Google made a deal with AT&T to provide carrier billing. This is something new for users, now they will be able to bill apps directly with their phone bills. Chu promised that Google will be making such deals with other carriers too. Chu added that working with carriers was time consuming and expensive but a valuable feature for Android users.

Google will be Introducing a ranking system for the applications available at the Android market. This will help the buyers to sort out the best application at the store. They have a team to organize it and will continue to invest on them.

Chu says that they understand the necessity to make the applications social and they will be utilizing the best social graph; Android address book for this purpose. Other than that Google is looking for new standards like HTML5 to build apps.

Chu said that founder Larry Page, chief executive Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin all will be keeping an eye on this part of the company. Hopefully these steps will have an effect on the app purchase charts.

NVIDIA brings Tegra 2 for next Mobile World Congress

Jan 242011
 

Sources confirmed that NVIDIA will be bringing Tegra 2 3Dprocessor intended to mobile gadgets in the upcoming Mobile World Congress. It is based on Dual cortex A9 and is clocked up to 1.2GHZ with 5520 MIPS. NVIDIA is more likely to market them within the early quarter of this year. Mobile handsets will be offering 3D display using cell parallax instead of parallax barrier. Thanks to shutter glasses which make the 3D tellies function properly. Without them our brain could not cope with all the real surroundings.

They call NVIDIA Tegra 2 a real deal as 3D function becomes more realistic on it. This will provide a new for the manufacturer to earn some more money where consumers will look to have 3D experience at a cheap rate than ever before. Of course other phones and tablets will be opposing difficulties to Nintendo’s 3D console.

Nintendo’s 3D screen will hurt your eye which allows kids and other grownups to play 3D games or to watch 3D movie safely. Orthopedists will also like this display as more and more patients will be coming to them with neck and shoulder pain as users has to hold the device at correct angle for perfect 3D effect. Perhaps some will get annoyed with it and will turn it off.

Now about the battle between various manufacturers, Apple is going to suffer a bit as some users will find it rubbish to buy a device with one thousand euro and yet has problems with antenna and they would prefer much these 3D devices at lower price.

NVIDIA’s Tgera 2 3D devices promise to become a changing platform in mobile arena. This will certainly cause headache to Intel and ATM, looks like expelling NVIDIA from notebook market has back fired and made them chose a vulnerable one.

Countdown to 10 Billion Apps Started, You Could Win $10,000 iTunes Gift Card!

Jan 182011
 

No kidding, but iTunes is going to give away $10,000 iTunes gift card to one lucky user who downloads its ten billionth app from iTunes. Now this is amazing, and here is what Apple has to say about it,

“As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet.”

If you’ve got a chance to visit the announcement page these days, you would have seen that it is showing an animated countdown counter which reveals how fast the apps are being downloaded every second.

App Store Just Going to Hit Ten Billion Downloads, Your Chance to Win A $10,000 iTunes Gift Card!

App Store Just Going to Hit Ten Billion Downloads, Your Chance to Win A $10,000 iTunes Gift Card!

Let’s see who is the lucky winner who not only wins the $10,000 iTunes gift card but also becomes the historic person to download the ten billionth app! See the complete official rules to enter the sweepstakes here.

Intel and NVIDIA Agrees on a Deal

Jan 112011
 

Both Intel and NVIDIA have agreed on a six year technology cross-licensing deal which will end the long patent rivalry between these two giant chip makers. The deal was worth of one and a half billion dollar and will allow these two companies to access into each other technology.

According to the deal Intel will pay NVIDIA 1.5 billion dollar over the next 6 consecutive years for an access into NVIDIA’s GPU and supercomputing technology. NVIDIA will get the access to Intel’s patent portfolios like microprocessors and chipsets. But the deal excludes x86 designs by Intel.

Jen Hsuan confirmed the new of this deal and said that the deal will allow Intel to integrate their technologies which are covered by their patents into Intel’s CPU, like Sandy Bridge. NVIDIA will also get the opportunity to use Intel’s technology for their future products like Denver, Tegra etc.

He added that NVIDIA has no intention to build X86 processors rather they are more focused on the ARM processors. NVIDIA does not feel the necessity of building another X 86 products because the market is already saturated by these processors. They are looking to capitalize the growing popularity of ARM processors as they sense it is the processor of the future.

Jen Hsuan referred to the 2004 cross licensing deal with Sony for developing PS3 technology as a precedent. Although he thinks the Sony deal was a tiny one when compared to this new deal with Intel. He thinks NVIDIA will do a good business with Intel for the next six years.

But despite all these agreement NVIDIA has refused to build any more chipset devices that are compatible with Intel product. Jen Hsuan repeatedly said that the company has no intention to build those chipsets. It Seems like NVIDIA is sticking with its guns.

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