Best computer news

With a variety of gaming keyboards on the market and the move to gaming consoles, can Microsoft re-capture the hearts of gamers with their latest gaming specific keyboard? A past business history with Razer taught Microsoft a few lessons on how to build a gamer keyboard with the Reclusa, but how can Microsoft possibly improve on designs that companies like Razer and Logitech spend hundreds of thousands dollars to perfect, these are only two of the many questions we are going to answer today in our MS’ SideWinder X6 gaming keyboard review.
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Kick it, drop it, dunk it the Panasonic DMC-TS1 can take it and your pictures too. Submersible up to 3m or 10 ft. and drop-proof for about 1.5m or 4 ft. This 12MP tough guy wants to go everywhere with you and snap everything in your path. It comes with face detection and memorization for personalized face exposure adjustments, but the latter of which may sound a little hokey until there’s more details on how it actually works. Also behind its bulletproof facade packs a 28-129mm equivalent lens and a 2.7″ LCD with Lumix’s well-reviewed image stabilization technology. Hardcore camera fanatics will love the ultra low shutter lag times and up to 10fps continuous shooting.

But that’s not even the best part, the DMC-TS1 is adding in HD movie mode in one of our most favorite video standards: AVCHD. This is the second Lumix that can capture HD videos at up to 720p at 60fps in AVCHD Lite. DMC-TS1’s ability to record at such high frame rate compares favorably to Sony DSC-T500. Though, there’s a few downsides of this newer HQ format which may put you off grabbing one. First, AVCHD is a great digital format for computer viewing and great digital archiving due to its high compression rate compared to some other formats, but it’s not native to any traditional players except for PS3. You’ll need to go through the process of converting it before burning it to a DVD or BD disc for Blu-ray players. Secondly, you’ll need to shell out a little extra for SD cards that can handle 10MB/s writing. At only $399 and boasting more features than many models at this price point should be good choice if you’ve got that much cabbage to spare.
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Well, we guess you could use this to set a danger-zone while you are jacking cars in GTA. Setting up a little zone of death around your vicious gaming keyboard and mouse as you dispatch noobs with your sniper rifle. This little lego-meets-christmas-lights USB construction set (warning: PDF) is on sale in Japan soon for about $20. While scoring a 10 out of 10 on both Cute and Useless scales these little guys are likely launch on clearance.

Although this looks like a really useless toy, this could catch on as IRL status avatar (Either that or directing Japanese traffic around a Japanese construction site has to become REALLY popular). Many of us don’t have the benefit of a door to close when we need to be left alone some type of “Busy” status for your desk could be really helpful. “Don’t talk me into lunch”, “Don’t distract me while i’m coding”, “Don’t ruin my game of Sudoku” all of these messages could be politely expressed with a set of these without hurting feelings. Start your own caption contest but you’ll need some of your own imagination to find any kind of use for this unless your 5 year old has a laptop.
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Today is Chinese New Year, the year of the ox and year 4706 according to the Chinese calendar. Kung Hei Fat Choy! (explanation: Chinese blessing for prosperity and future success) For Kingston, it’s their tradition to ship special edition Data Traveler for this seasonal event, and this year is exception. The company has come up with a cap-less slider flash drive bearing an artistic design that symbolizes Ox – the second animal of the zodiac.

Kingston has previously released versions for year of Pig and Rat, the former of which also resembles Chinese firecrackers. Obviously, Kingston didn’t invest a whole lot into a unique design for the Ox USB key, so this might not be as worthy as these Lenovo 2008 Olympics drives.
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Each bald head and each combover on this mousepad is like a work of art. A depressing work of art.
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TapeLink USB deck is here to give you a comfortable and familiar way to start moving your 80’s workout jam tapes to your mp3 player. The deck supports both standard and metal tapes if you still remember the difference and will port them to your computer in digital format at up to CD quality audio. The front of the unit contains an LED level-meter for visual-level reference. Its full auto-stop features saves your irreplaceable older tapes from breaking. The converter is bundled with 3 software packages designed to help you clean up, convert and transfer your music.

The software included is shareware and freeware quality but is relatively popular among its peers and should do your bootleg collection of The Grateful Dead or Phish justice. The open source Audacity can be augmented with a fair collection of plug-ins to add functionality. This setup should in combination with a good LP converter and a VHS tape converter and few weekends and you should be able to finally get rid of all your format locked hard storage and finally free up that space in your garage for your solar powered car.
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A new controller from Hong Kong-based startup Cywee is looking to give you some of that motion tracking Wii experience on your PC. The Cywee remote is a convertible controller that allows you to interact with games and applications free from your desk. It’s not IR based like the actual Wii-mote but is controlled via an RF wireless connection through its USB adapter. The controller can be used as a stick or rotated around it’s middle access to form a gun shape. The gun shape has dual function as a V-shaped steering controller for driving games. They’ve already got working support for a few games and more are on the way. These games are ready or almost ready now; Virtual Tennis 3,Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08,Crash Day,Devil May Cry,House of Dead 3,Gun Metal,Rebel Raiders: Operation Nighthawk and Bowling. More are promised to follow.

It’s hard to tell if the Cywee uses the typical gyro sensor interaction like the Logitech MX Air or an accelerometer type system like the iPhone. Hopefully we’ll get a hold of one of these soon to find out how well they work and how difficult it is to sync controller movement to screen action. It’s at least a good sign that the PC is starting to get some new controller options instead of just those silly consoles.
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It appears that Apple is going to finally shill out some dough to deal with those few of us who dared to be unhappy with an iPod. The first few iPod Nano’s that left the production lines did so without a certain scratch resistance coating. This made the clear front of the player very soft, not quite waxy but anything more dense than a fingernail left a permanent scar across the very pricey tiny player.

Those scars, as many found out, rapidly added up and you were left with a very ugly toy that you may have mainly bought for its cool factor. Those many people with many scars decided to hold Apple responsible and started a class action lawsuit. Well payday is here. Those of you who bought them are now entitled to a very tiny bit of return. $25 is due you after the long process is over UNLESS you’d called Apple back then and talked them into sending you a slip case for it. If that’s the case then you’ll only get $15. Go to this site to get in on the action(pun intended). Then get yourself a deck of cards because these things usually take a while to finally get disbursed.
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Like the classic USB missile launcher, this version allows you to control the turret and fire three foam projectiles up to 15 feet from the comfort of your PC. The difference is that this one is decked out in a super-nerdy Spiderman theme.
Product Page (Price Available Upon Request)

Frustrated at work? Release your gamma rage by smashing this Hulk-themed USB button. It can interact with one of three Hulk screen effects or quickly hide anything you might not want your co-workers to see.
Product Page (Price Available Upon Request)