Total Gadgets

For years we’ve been looking for a high-quality, comfortable Bluetooth headset with decent battery life and which is easy to use. Believe it or not, they’re hard to find.  What lets most headsets down is comfort - there’s no point buying a headset if you’re not going to wear it because it’s uncomfortable.  Equally, there’s little point in getting a headset that’s difficult to use (especially if you’re planning on using it while in the car).

The Jabra BT5020 Bluetooth headset fulfills all the criteria set out above.  It’s small, it’s lightweight, it’s comfortable to wear for extended periods (after a few minutes I’ll likely forget that you’re wearing it altogether), it’s easy to use and the battery life is good.

What makes the Jabra BT5020 different to most other Bluetooth headsets is that rather than hanging off you ear, the Jabra fits comfortably around your ear.  Not only does this improve comfort, it also makes the headset fit more securely so it’s unlikely to fall off.  It can also be fitted to either ear.

Oh, and before we forget, the sound quality from the Jabra BT5020 is excellent!

• Battery Type: Rechargeable lithium polymer.
• Bluetooth Compliance: Bluetooth version 2.0 specifications
• Supported Bluetooth Profiles: Bluetooth headset and hands-free profiles
• Operating Range: 33-Feet
• Talk Time: Up to 10 hours
• Stand-By Time: Up to 300 hours
• Charging Time: 2 hours (mains charger and USB charging cable)
• Materials: Primarily thermoplastic polyurethane and polycarbonate plastics
• Microphone Type: 4mm Omni-directional microphone
• Dimensions: 3.0 x 0.4 x 1.7″ inches
  
• Weight: 0.6 ozs.

Price: around $45

Wii Fit has been out in Japan since December 2007, but this latest addition to the Nintendo Wii family has just landed in Europe and will hit North America later next month.

But what is Wii Fit?  Wii Fit is a game designed for Nintendo’s Wii console.  It consists of a game and a peripheral called the Wii Balance Board.  The balance board can measure the user’s weight, calculate their center of gravity and work out their BMI (Body mass Index).

Wii Fit tracks the users Wii Fitness Age using a daily body test which also takes into account the user’s current age, weight, and athletic ability

So, what can you do on the Wii Fit?  Here are some of the activities:

• Yoga exercises, ranging from deep breathing exercises to extended poses.
• Muscle workouts, such as press-ups and sit-ups.
• Aerobic exercise:
  - Hula_Hoop
  - Boxing
  - Jogging
  - Step aerobics
• Balance games:
  - Skiing
  - Tightrope tension
  - Penguin slide
  - Heading footballs
  - Balance Bubble
  - Table tilt
  - Zazen

Sounds like a LOT of fun!

If you’re looking for the ultimate graphics card then look no further than nVIDIA’s latest offering - the dual-GPU GeForce 9800 GX2. 

The 9800 GX2 is nVIDIA’s first dual-GPU graphics card (ATI already had the 3870 X2 on the market) and this card literally blows away the competition.  Benchmark after benchmark has show the 9800 GX2 to be the leader in terms of pumping out frames per second.

• Stream Processors - 256
• Core Clock (MHz) - 600 MHz
• Shader Clock (MHz) - 1500 MHz
• Memory Clock (MHz) - 1000 MHz
• Memory Amount - 1GB
• Memory Interface - 512-bit
• Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) - 128
• Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec) - 76.8

One 9800 GX2 not enough for your gaming?  If you’ve got a 790i motherboard then you can put two of these puppies in your system!

Pros:

• Awesome power.
• Double your power by adding a second card (OK, to be precise you don’t double your power, but you increase it dramatically).

Cons:

• Expensive.  Very expensive!  This card is around the $500 mark.
• Generates a lot of heat.
• Can be noisy.

Do you slouch at your desk?  Does that give you a bad back or a still neck?  Does it harm your productivity?  What about eye-strain?  If so you need VISOMATE, USB vision and posture reminder utility!

VISOMATE is a USB-powered device that clips to your monitor and keeps an eye on the distance between your forehead and your monitor (the ideal distance is 35 to 60 cm).  If you get too close or too far away, a blue LED switches on.  If you slouch, a red LED is illuminated.  For $26, it’s money well spent if it works.

Features:

• Interactive distance detecting with program
• Works with ultrasonic sensor
• Flashing LED signal indicates correct distant away from monitor
  Blue LED: Your head is positioned within the “NOT RECOMMENDED” visual range (35 to 60cm*) from the monitor
  Red LED: Your head is positioned closer than 35cm* from the monitor and that means you are “TOO CLOSE”
• CHIME ON/OFF selection for personal setting
• Powered by USB port, no battery needed
• Support any computer with USB port
• Cable length: 180cm
• Dimension: 56×56x24mm
• Weight: 72g

Still wondering why Sony dumped the Dual Shock from the PlayStation 3 lineup and added a feature that uses six axis motion sensors instead (which feels a lot like a bolt-on since most games don’t support it)?  It’s more than likely got something to do with the ongoing patent infringement lawsuit filed against them by Immersion.

Pending Sony’s appeal, the judge has stayed the injunction, but Sony is still paying a compulsory license fee each quarter to Immersion—Immersion is hopeful that the appeal will be decided upon in their favor by the end of this year. With that in mind, many in the industry have found it quite curious that Sony’s newly announced motion-sensing PS3 controller contains no rumble functionality. According to an SCEA rep contacted by GameDaily BIZ, Sony maintains that “the new PS3 controller uses six axis motion sensors to move with the user’s body; because of this sensitivity it can’t use vibration.”

It would be a huge risk for Sony to go ahead with Dual Shock in the hope that they win the appeal because losing the appeal would mean that sales of the PS3 console could also be affected - something that Sony is bound to want to avoid.. 

It also seems that their claim to be having difficulty integrating Dual Shock with motion sensing is somewhat dubious too:

If Sony truly is having trouble successfully integrating vibration alongside motion-sensing technology, Immersion said that it would like to help. “Immersion would be happy to step in and solve their problem,” Viegas told GameDaily BIZ. “If it truly is a conflict between vibration and motion sensing, we have some of the world’s experts in the field of haptic technology or force feedback… and we already have three ways we know how to solve the problem, but we’re not willing to work with them until we’ve resolved this long, simmering legal battle. So if this is really a technical hurdle, we’re confident that we can solve this through filtering techniques, through processing techniques and through hardware modifications.”

Is it possible that Sony will, one way or another, reintroduce Dual Shock into their console lineup as soon as this legal mess is cleared up?  Only time will tell.

The one part of the PlayStation 3 that gamers are really going to get to know very well is the controller, and for the PlayStation 3, Sony have made some crucial modifications to this vital bit of kit.

So, what are the changes?  Well, before looking at the changes, let’s look at the similarities.  The PlayStation 3 controller has the same two analog sticks, the same four-button complement on the left and right side and the same four buttons at the top of the controller.

Now for the changes:

• The shape - Sony have improved the design of the controller to allow for more delicate manipulation.  Whether this is true or just a style side-effect remains to be seen.
• Increased sensitivity - the PlayStation 2 controller featured 8-bit sensitivity while the new PlayStation 3 controller will have 10-bit sensitivity.
• The new controller will feature motion-sensing technology that can detect motion in six directions - up, down, left, right, forwards and backwards.
• No force-feedback vibration - Sony believed that this would interfere with the motion sensing technology.
• Wireless technology - The PlayStation controller will make use of Bluetooth 2.0 EDS wireless technology (as opposed to 2.4GHz RF used by the Xbox 360).  The controller will have a range of about 30 feet (10 meters) and a battery life of around 24 hours (compared to about 300 hours for the Xbox 360 controller).  The controller is recharged by connecting it to the PS3 using the USB cord (this can be done mid-game).
• The Bluetooth controller also means that the PlayStation 3 might be able to support other Bluetooth devices (such as headsets, mice and so on).
• The PSP can be used as a controller for the the PS3.

These are an interesting set of improvements tot he game controller and it is good to see that Sony have put a lot of thought to this part of the new console - it will be interesting to see if this translates into greater usability.  My main concern is that the lack of force-feedback might be noticeable to those that have come to enjoy this feedback when using the PS2.

Buyers interested in Sony’s next games console, the PlayStation 3, should be aware that the extra $100 for the high-end model giver them a lot more than just an extra 40GB of hard disk space.

Some background first.  The other day Sony announced the launch data and price for the PS3 at its studios in Culver City in Los Angeles.  At the time that they announced the two models that would be available, one costing $499 and another costing $599, the only difference that was highlighted was a larger hard drive - 20GB verses 60GB. 

However, details later emerged that there were other, more crucial, differences between the consoles.  Specifically, the higher-priced model comes with:

• Memory card slot
• WiFi
• An HDMI connector

So beware.  Pretty soon stores are going to start offering the PlayStation 3 for pre-order - make sure that you get the features and functionality that you want.  You don’t want to end up with the wrong one come November!!!

Acer has released the 19-inch AL1951D -  a flat-panel display that boasts an amazing 2ms response rates, a feature which makes this a must for serious gamers and anyone who wants to be at the cutting edge of technology.  This ultra-fast screen response times (which you can think of as being equivalent to the refresh rate of a traditional CRT screen) means a better, smoother image.

It’s not going to be long until we see a flat panel that has a sub-1ms response rate, but for now this is the best you are going to get.

Spec:

• 1280 x 1024 Native Resolution
• 300 cd/m2 Typical Brightness
• 1000:1 Contrast Ratio
• 16.2 Million Display Colors
• VGA and DVI-D Video Inputs
• 2 Millisecond Response Times
• 1.5W x 2 Speakers
• 160 degrees (H) x 160 degrees (V) Viewing Angle

Pros:

• Refresh rate (the best around)
• High-brightness LCD
• Photo-like image quality
• Price: $379

Cons:

• None!

Camcorder Review have a very good review of Sony’s DCR-SR100 camcorder that replaces fragile tape with a more versatile hard disk drive.

This is an amazing device:

Pros:

• Good color balance
• Good sharpness
• Excellent resolution
• Superb lens
• 30GB hard drive
• Better than the competition (from JVC)
• Price (under $1,000)

Cons:

• Lack of manual control
• Touch screen issues

Camcorder Review

Now I can see this being the “must have” hardware for 2006 – the Matrox TripleHead2Go box allows you to hook up three 19–inch monitors to any PC to transform it into a three-screen monster system capable of 3840×1024.  In case you’re wondering, three 19–inch monitors will give you a massive 45–inch diagonal viewing area!

You don’t need a monster system to take advantage of the TripleHead2Go – it can be attached to any PC – desktop or laptop.  The TripleHead2Go is also small – palm-sized – making it a portable solution (well, apart from having to cart around three screens!).

The beauty of the TripleHead2Go is that you can upgrade existing systems without even having to open the case – not only does this mean that upgrading systems is fast but it doesn’t need to be carried out by experienced technicians.

Price is $299 and it will be available April 2006.  For more details visit the Matrox website.