By David Ponce

It might be an Apple world out there, but Nokia’s still a behemoth in the mobile world. And their accessories often come through with an aesthetic degree of design brilliance that we wish they could display in other areas. Take for instance this Bluetooth headset they’re releasing. It’s called the Luna and is really small, really light and comes in 5 different colors. It looks interesting but more importantly has some killer features. NFC (near field communications) makes pairing with your phone as simple as tapping the two together. If you get a call, press down on it to release it and answer the call. You’re done? Hang up by putting the Luna back on its dock. Or use the button if you don’t feel like doing it that way. Also, it’s able to pair with 2 phones, through Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR. With an impressive 8 hours of talk time and up to 60 hours of standby (unplugged, obviously), getting this $69 device seems like a no-brainer.

Hit the jump for a video and links.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Xataka ]

When you’re playing video games, you want to get sucked into the experience. Total immersion is the ultimate goal when you fire up your console or PC and start up your favorite game. There are many factors that go into the experience. Everything from gameplay, graphics, frame rate and audio all play their part in providing a good gaming experience. Naturally, this means that  you want to crank your speakers up so that you can hear every bullet fire and every shell hit the ground. But what if you have to worry about disturbing neighbors, roommates or family members? Naturally, you reach for your favorite headset.

Tritton has released their AX Pro headset, which promises to deliver excellent 5.1 surround sound from not only your PC, but your Xbox 360 and PS3 as well. Unlike most other headsets that use a standard stereo jack for input, Tritton has decided to take advantage of the optical ports found on most PCs and two of the three current-gen consoles. So will their cross-compatibility and true Dolby 5.1 sound stack up to the competition? Check out the full review over at GamerFront to find out.

[ Tritton AX Pro Review @ GamerFront ]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

When you sit down for a nice gaming session, you have some choices for your audio. Specifically, do you want to have it coming out a set of speakers, or running through a headset? If you’re worried about bothering other people with the sound of gunfire and agonizing death, then a headset is an obvious choice. It also gives you the ability to talk with the other people in your party.

We try and test out a variety of hardware, catering to both the budget-conscious and those that want quality at all cost. Today we’ll be taking a look at the Sharkoon X-tatic SX, which falls into the former category. It’s not the first Sharkoon X-tatic that we’ve seen. The last one was an excellent piece of hardware, with a $160 price tag. The SX will set you back less than half of that, but does it deliver less than half of the quality?

First Look

The X-tatic SX is a somewhat smaller headset than its predecessor, though not terribly so. A nice white finish, with gray cloth and silver/green accents give it a rather sleek look. Ear cups have a nice, soft padding, and rotate up to 90-degrees, likely to make storage all the easier. You’ll find in-line volume controls for both the headphones and mic, along with a master mute switch. Speaking of the mic, there is a detachable microphone included. The mic is flexible, which always gets points in my book.

For the connections you’ll find a standard headphone and microphone jack. An attached USB cable provides power to the headset. For the Xbox 360 gamers, there is a 3.5mm to RCA adapter, which can be used to jack into the analog audio cables. Another adapter cable provides a connection to your 360 controller for the mic.

Setup

There’s not a lot of setup required for these headphones. If you’re on a PC, just simply plug in the two audio jacks and the USB cable for power. The 360 setup is only slightly more complicated. You’ll need to connect the two adapters mentioned above, and plug them into their respective ports.

If you’re like me, you run your 360 on an HDMI connection, which means you don’t even plug in the composite cables. Unfortunately you will have to do this if you want to use the X-tatic SX as a headset. Depending on which model 360 you have, you’ll just need to pop off the plastic shell of the composite cable connector to allow both it and an HDMI cable to be plugged in. (Seriously Microsoft, why would you make us do this if we wanted to use something other than HDMI for an audio signal?)

Once you’ve taken care of that, just plug in the red and white cables. You should then hear audio from both your TV and the headset. Turn down the volume on your TV, and you’re ready to roll.

Audio Quality/Comfort

The SX gets its audio from a pair of 40mm speakers and an in-line amp. This provides surprisingly good sound, better than I expected from the price. The bass was strong, with and the amount of volume that these pump out is enough to block out any other noise in the room if you choose to crank it up. You’ll also catch even the smallest of sounds that would go otherwise unnoticed with lesser headphones or regular TV speakers.

There’s not a lot to be said about the microphone. It works well, with no reported issues from other people I was talking to. As I said before, the mic is fully adjustable, which meant I could position it exactly where it should be for optimal use.

Comfort isn’t the strongest point on these, but they are by no means terrible. As I stated before, it’s not the largest headset I’ve used. The earpieces do adjust up and down, but what I found to be the worst was that the space between the two ear cups wasn’t enough. After a good bit of stretching them apart, they stopped pressing so tightly against my head. Also, the padding around the ears wasn’t as soft as I’d care for, but this is a minor complaint.

Conclusion

I was surprised at the overall quality of this headset, considering the price point. Not only are you getting something that can work with both your PC and 360, but you’re getting good sound and not paying a fortune. The Sharkoon X-tatic SX retails for around $60, which I would be happy to pay for it.

[ Sharkoon ] VIA [ GamerFront ]

By Evan Ackerman

The ZOMM is apparently the “world’s first wireless leash” for cell phones. It’s a little disky thing that you attach to your keychain, and it tethers itself to your cell phone via Bluetooth. If it gets separated from your phone by more than a preset distance, it beeps at you, which is its primary feature. It also works as a wireless speaker phone, and if you push the single button on the front, it will start shrieking and auto-dial emergency services.

In general, the ZOMM seems like a handy thing to carry around. It’s reasonably small (about the size of a poker chip) and offers a few handy features (although it really should have come with a flashlight button). The biggest problem is obvious: you have to remember to plug it in every few days (it charges via microUSB) or it won’t do you any good. This isn’t really a flaw in the device itself, unless you think it should be somehow solar powered, but when you’ve got a whole bunch of things to charge, the one that has a primarily passive function is going to inevitably get neglected. Also, the reason you’d get one of these (the anti phone loss leash bit) depends on your phone and your keys being very near each other all the time… This could be a problem unless it uses a class 3 receiver with a 100m range or something.

There are probably a bunch of details on this that aren’t apparent from the press release, but we should get a hands-on look at the ZOMM at CES which is OMG this week. The ZOMM is rumored to be priced at about $80.

[ ZOMM ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By David Ponce

Every now and then you see a product and you just assume that it’s a concept. I mean, heck, it’s just too smart for anyone to be producing it! And every now and then you’d be entirely wrong, like now. The Orb is an actual Bluetooth headset that transforms into a ring and vice-versa. Wear it like a ring and its Flexible OLED (in the Deluxe edition) will display caller info, calendar items and voice-to-text info. Feel like answering? Twist it off and hang it on your ear. Sound is transmitted through bone conduction, so there’s no need to even insert it in your ear. It’s really just brilliant.

The best part is that it’s supposed to be available for purchase in early 2010 for $129 for the regular edition, $175 for Deluxe and going up from there depending on what gemstones people might choose to have embedded into it. It is after all, also a ring.

It’s being developed in partnership between Hybra Advanced Technology and AbsolutelyNew. There’s no product page quite yet.

A close-up picture if you keep reading.

VIA [ Dvice ]