Aha! Smarter Folks Than I Have Figured Apple’s Tactics Out, Too…

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Hey, I’ve been saying this for a few years to anyone within earshot (and sometimes out of earshot if you’ve seen my soapbox rants live in Times Square – the closest I’m allowed to an Apple store these days), but now it’s “official” (well, sort of). Apple is really a sneaky mercenary front after all (dun dun dunnnnn!). The fine and dandy (and smarter than I ever will be) people over at Egghead Central have posted this interesting look at just how the Cupertino camp cooks up its new products and all that “innovation” they bring. Yeah, yeah, you Apple-heads out there won’t like some of their findings, but that’s “satire” for you, isn’t it?

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic X MIMOBOTS: mimoco & Hasbro Bring You Useful Eye Candy

Posted on February 28, 2013 by geelw

Well, MY own eyes are burning like toasty coals in some marshmallow fluff factory because I’m not into the whole Brony thing and all, but I don’t begrudge anyone’s interests (provided they’re not harmful to others). Anyway, if this is your big plastic cup of sugar laced saccharine… well, lookit you bouncing around the room with your wallet or purse out! Yeah, I can hear the furious clicking away from here as you poke around the mimoco online store, your eyes as big as saucers as your brain furiously fights over which of the the characters to get. Available in up to 128GB as well as USB3.0 speeds, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash are all staring back at you with their own big eyes to the point where, gosh and golly, you HAVE to get all THREE!

mimoco knows this as well and as you can see from the video above, each USB drive comes packed with super-cool bonuses that will show the world you love MLPFiMX to death and then some. So, you know what to do, right? Oh… you’ve already done it before you even finished reading this post? Well, good for you – my work here is done.

New PS4 DUALSHOCK 4 and PlayStation Eye: A Little More Peripheral Vision…

Posted on February 21, 2013 by geelw

Oops. I allllllmost forgot the new PlayStation 4 DUALSHOCK 4 Controller and PlayStation 4 Eye camera. Which means… it’s Speccy time! I hate tech specs, folks – as long as the darn things work like they should and keep me happy and playing while that box is purring away under the TV (well, above and to the left here), I’m good. Boring specs and more exciting beauty pack shots are below the jump. I have a few more controller images (update; POSTED!), a long press release here with console specs (no pics, though) and all the publishers and developers working on new games, but I’ll post those in a few hours, as I’m wiped out. Good Night!

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Toy Fair 2013: Mimoco Revives Dead Presidents As USB Drives, Ben Franklin’s Ghost Pissed Off…

Posted on February 18, 2013 by geelw

I can hear the spinning coffin from here, as ol’ Ben is mighty upset. George Washington and Abe Lincoln get love from mimoco in these two cool limited edition MIMOBOT USB drives (available NOW), but he’s the main tech guy out of all the founding fathers what with his electrical kite flying hijinx, his sense of humor (Poor Richard’s Almanack!) and other er, “modern” things about the man. That and hey – he’s on the hundred dollar bill and look where the other two ended up on US currency. Obviously, Ben’s the MAN, so maybe you Fans of Franklin should bug mimoco to get with the program and get a BF drive on the site at some point. Still, I say pick either or both of these up just so they know you’re serious about waving the flag for Ben in the future.

Update! A4Tech G11 Wireless Mouse: From Simple to Super (With a Click of a Mouse)…

Posted on January 30, 2013 by geelw

Oops. Since I was so crazy last year with suddenly having to move the site to a new host between November and December, I had a bunch of posts cooking that didn’t run in all that chaos and ended up saving about 15 completed and incomplete ones as drafts on a USB drive that I misplaced (I thought I’d left it at the library or a Starbucks nearby). Once I’d gotten word that I didn’t need to leave WordPress (whee!), I had to redo a bunch of those old posts, but with too much other new stuff flying in, I missed out on a few including this one (Oops).

As noted in my earlier mini-review, I’m pretty pleased with the A4Tech G11-570HX overall for general usage, art (yes, I draw with a mouse sometimes – so sue me) and gaming purposes (primarily RPGs, if you have to ask). While the G11 looks pretty simple when compared to more expensive mice out there, it’s comfortable to use for hours at a stretch and quite a surprisingly versatile peripheral once you download and install the Office Shuttle Software that turns what looks like a plain ol’ wireless mouse to Super Wireless Mouse, adding a wealth of functions that definitely justify the price point.

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What I Liked at CES 2013: BenQ (Very Much, Indeed)…

Posted on January 23, 2013 by geelw

Alright, I’m kind of slow at getting into new tech sometimes because if I buy something that works, I’ll stick with it until it gives up the electric ghost and will run no more. I still have a couple of “old” standard-def tube TV’s running here and my PC is still rocking Windows XP because most of the games I play are from the days discs came in boxes of assorted sizes with manuals. Anyway, I’m not THAT set in my ways when I see something that works for what I need it for and is built to last.

That said, I’ve been eyeballing a friend’s BenQ gaming monitors for a little while now, as I’ve slowly but surely been looking to upgrade my old (and I mean ancient) Dell CRT to something a bit more modern and flexible. He loves his because it’s clearly the product of a company that knows what it’s doing (and has so for years) when it comes to delivering a reliable product at an excellent value to consumers whether they’re gamers or not. That said, it looks as if we’ll both be upgrading to the RL2455HM, the company’s latest gaming monitor that offers stellar performance and features at a ridiculously affordable price. Continue reading →

VGA 101 Personals: Hardcore Game Nut Seeking Reliable PS3 Controller For Good Times…

Posted on January 8, 2013 by geelw

Seriously. For some reason, I have NO luck with PlayStation 3 controllers. I’ve gone through no fewer than ten controllers in the past five or six years and it’s not because I’m some hulking ham-fisted beast-man or mean-eating Amazon snapping spines like twigs like Tura Satana in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (whee, a Russ Meyer reference!). I’ve only gone through two Xbox 360 pads in about six years, but I do tend to gravitate to the PS3 a bit more. That said, I don’t think it’s the controller’s construction at all because that total includes a few third-party pads that have died from a broken analog stick here or a rechargeable battery that wouldn’t charge there (the most common issue). My last controller was an otherwise excellent Power A pad that looked like an Xbox 360 controller and it worked beautifully until a few days ago when it flashed a few read lights around the ring in the center before pooping out completely. Boo. Hiss. Continue reading →

CES 2013: Land of the Giants (and Some Other Big Issues)…

Posted on January 8, 2013 by geelw

Between the stupidly high-resolution TV’s that most average Joe and Jane consumers won’t care about thanks to sky-high price points and the fact that resolution means nothing if you’re just watching Honey Boo Boo’s Amish Mafia Fishin’ Moonshiner Auction Storage Hoarders all day on the couch and plenty of other useless but well-made tech goodies out of the price range of anyone but the seriously wealthy, it’s a wonder CES hasn’t sunk itself into the sands of Las Vegas this year like a truckload of Atari 2600 E.T. cartridges. Seriously, who needs a 20″ or 27″ tablet computer, a cell phone with a 6.1″ screen and some of those 100+” Super Ultra Mega Deluxe 4K screens? You want a Lamborghini with that order, mister? Yeesh. Granted, it’s great that tech companies are “innovating” every year, but the yearly emphasis on size in some things makes you wonder if the Jolly Green Giant or 50-Foot Woman is the actual customer being targeted. Well, they do make a cute couple come to think of it (and their kids are just lovely… and growing up so fast!)…

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The iPic Is Just About Perfect (Almost)…

Posted on December 16, 2012 by geelw

If you’re using any sort of capacitive touch screen device, there’s always those silly moments where you find that modern convenience less than responsive. Either you’ve got long nails, you bite your nails and have sensitive fingertips, you’re wearing gloves you can’t text with or you’re dealing with someone’s device you might not want to touch so much (where’s my hand sanitizer?). Anyway, Woodees (they make a rather cool pair of wooden ear buds I’ve yet to try, but have heard some cool things about) has a nifty little peripheral called iPic that lets you go from frustrated to Flickmaster Flex as soon as you take it out of the package. As I don’t have an iOS or Android device (shocking!), I decided to see if the iPic would work on a few game systems with different types of touch screens and it preformed quite well indeed.

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Random Art: New Mouse Means New Trees…

Posted on December 11, 2012 by geelw

So, the folks at a A4Tech sent me one of their G11-570HX-4 Wireless Mice to try out and after charging it up and doing some rather dull pointing and clicking from a few places around the room (it’s a really smooth and responsive mouse on any surface no matter how irregular) and some more exciting gaming for a bit (yes indeed, it works excellently in the games I tried it with), I decided to try it out as a drawing tool in MS Paint (see left, Sherlock!). Not bad for a quickie sketch, but I’ll see what I can do later with a few free hours to play around.

It’s definitely much better than the USB mice Ive used previously since it glides so well over the small space I usually do digital art on. I liked the no hole design on the mouse that keeps it from trapping dust and other crap on the lens (which can be cleaned with a cotton swab or soft cloth) The rechargeable G11 has a pretty long battery life per charge (I’ve had it for a week so far and it’s still going strong) and also has an optional downloadable office suite that adds a bunch of other functions to the mouse, but I haven’t actually downloaded it yet (Yep, I’m THAT busy these days). Anyway, with seven buttons to play around with, 5 DPI settings and a fair price point ($32.99 or less if you shop around), the G11 is a decently reliable mouse for everyday usage that won’t break the bank