Oh! Gizmo

By Chris Scott Barr

Last week Logitech announced two of their latest mice, equipped with Darkfield Technology. If you’ll recall, this feature allows mice to track on any smooth surface, regardless of whether or not it is reflective. While some people might not see the benefit in using a mouse on a reflective surface, those who want to use a mouse on their glass desk, or even something with a mirrored finish will be pleased. I’ve actually been testing out the Anywhere MX mouse for about a week now, and I thought I’d share my thoughts.

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By Chris Scott Barr

Last week we showed you one of our first SSD’s that we’ve had a chance to review here at OhGizmo. It performed very well, but it was also had a small capacity and a large price tag. If you’re not looking to spend quite that much, but still want to upgrade from that old spinning drive, then you might try more of an entry-level drive. Kingston was kind enough to send over one of their V Series drives, which I’ve spent some time testing.

We were able to test out the SSDNow V Series 128GB Desktop Bundle. 128GB should be plenty of space for most users, though some may still want a secondary drive if they tend to have a lot of larger files that they need. You won’t have to be nearly as careful with space as you would on say the 64GB drive we tested last week.

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By Chris Scott Barr

iPhones aren’t known for their excellent battery life. In fact, they pretty much need recharged every night just to make it through the next day. If you’re a heavy user, then sometimes you’re lucky to make it through the day at all. This has lead to all sorts of interesting battery packs being created for Apple’s phones. One of these is the Mophie Juice Pack Air, which I’ve been testing out for the last week or so.

The Juice Pack Air is one of the latest battery packs from Mophie, who makes a host of iPhone products. It is essentially a hard case for your iPhone (3G and 3GS), which adds a small amount of bulk to your phone in exchange for roughly double the battery life. So is it worth it? Read on to find out.

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By Chris Scott Barr

When you think about upgrading your computer, the first things that usually come to mind are the processor, memory, and if you’re a gamer, the graphics card. In the days where you only had spinning hard drives to consider, you didn’t really gain much from upgrading to a new one, except more storage. Sure, a few extra MB of cache didn’t hurt, but it really didn’t make a huge difference. With solid-state drives becoming increasingly popular, we thought we’d take a look and see just how much you would benefit from upgrading to one.

OCZ was kind enough to send us one of their new Summit series drives to test out. Specifically, the 64GB version. Yes, 64GB doesn’t seem like very much storage, especially when we’re already hearing whispers of 2.5TB hard drives. Then again, I stream my music and videos from a network drive, so aside from a few games and applications, I don’t need tons of space. I might feel more comfortable with a 128GB or 256GB one, which is why they have those options available.  Hit the jump for my full review.

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By David Ponce

[ The following article is sponsored by Yamaha. The device was provided free of charge, and I am being compensated for the time I took to review the product. The opinions expressed are entirely my own. -Ed. ]

Yamaha’s pretty excited about their new Yamaha NeoHD line of media controllers, and for good reason: it works as advertised. If you’re a certain kind of consumer this device will make you smile. If you’re not, (as I am) it might make you wince but it’s not Yamaha’s fault at all. I’ll explain everything in detail in the review, but out here suffice it to say that the NeoHD media controller does a great job of getting rid of your panoply of remotes and replaces them with a simple graphic-based user interface for controlling just about any media source you decide to plug into the device… and one single back-to-basics remote.

The idea is simple: plug your DVD player, your Playstation or Xbox, your cable box and your DVD player into the machine and relinquish their individual control to NeoHD. The device will communicate with them all via IR blasters attached directly to their IR ports. It’ll also take care of your surround sound, whether it be through your own 5.1 set of speakers, or the included (in my package at least) 2.1 virtual surround set. There are enough connections at the back to accommodate just about any setup.

You might say “Hey, but I got a Harmony remote that does all that!” And I’d say sure, but you’d be missing the point. Read on for all the details, plus find out how to win one of these systems (an $800 value!).

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By Andrew Liszewski

It’s uncertain what affect file sharing and ‘piracy’ has really had on the movie industry, but it’s obvious the studios are concerned and have been trying to find ways to get people back into theaters. Thanks to technical advances 3D has finally become a popular gimmick, and now a Montreal (Longueuil) based company called D-Box is hoping theater-goers will be just as interested in a more moving film experience, quite literally.

Last night I had a chance to try out D-Box’s Motion Theater Seats at the Canadian launch in Toronto which, as their name implies, are special theater seats that can move and rumble alongside the action in the film providing an enhanced movie-going experience. While I don’t think the technology will add much to talking head flicks or anything adapted from a Jane Austen novel, it does give you a good reason to endure the sticky floors of your local cinema when it comes to Summer blockbusters. More after the jump…

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By Colin Ackerman

Now that wireless routers are cheap and ubiquitous, there’s one way that a router can separate itself from the rest of the pack: features. The D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router takes this concept to the Xtreme (okay, sorry, no more of that) by including a 3.2″ LCD, room for a hard drive, and a whole bunch more. We’ve got a full review for you, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

Ghostbusters was one of those games that I really wanted to like, but honestly didn’t expect much from it. After all, I’ve played some really bad games that were based on the franchise. Seriously, have you ever played the Atari game? Anyway, I was rather surprised that this game was far from bad. In fact, it’s the best games associated with a movie franchise that I’ve played in a long time.

From the moment the game loads up, you have the distinct feeling that this is the long-lost third Ghostbusters film. Only this time around you’re actually a part of the story. When I watched the opening scene and it transitioned into the Ghostbusters theme song, I’ll admit to getting chills. Not spooky chills, more like nostalgia. They even opened up with the Columbia Pictures splash.

I won’t dive into the story too much, mostly because I hate reading about too much of the plot in a review. That said, the game takes place in 1991, roughly 2 years after the second film. The team has hired a new guy to help out with the work, which is where you come in. Your character is never given a name, which is said to be so that the team doesn’t get too attached for fear of any “mishaps.” Throughout the game you are referred to as “Rookie”, and you never speak. I think this is done rather well, letting you immerse yourself more into the story.

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This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

When it comes to gaming hardware the first things to pop into mind are generally the CPU/RAM and video card. It wasn’t until I set aside the trusty wireless mouse that came with my old Logitech keyboard to review the OCZ Behemoth Laser Gaming Mouse that I realized just how much this device plays into the gaming experience.

Right out of the box my first impression was that it appears rather bulky, I say appears because once it was plugged in and in my hand it felt very comfortable. The extra width comes from the erganomic design which provides a comfortable rest for the ring and pinky fingers. This had a impact during a long gaming session with the new Ghostbuster’s game. One requirement in the game is to target and wear down ghosts which on harder difficulty settings can take a considerable amount of time. The lack of fatigue in my hand afterwards was noticeable.

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