If you’ve been to an electronics store in recent years, you know that there are tons of gaming peripherals that are up there in the high hundreds of dollars when it comes to price tags – the Logitech G19 gaming keyboard shown above runs a smooth $200 US retail, and the Razr Megalodon gaming headset can run you close to $130 US. Even Logitech’s shiny G9x gaming mouse is close to $100 US.

That being said though, the question remains – will they actually up your game? Will all the promises of more precise shots, tons more frags, better raids, and higher scores that come on all of the packages actually come true if you open your wallet? I, on behalf of Tom’s Hardware, set out to find out. I went from premium peripheral to premium peripheral from some of the top manufacturers, and then eventually wound up back to plain old OEM peripherals to see if I missed them, or if it really mattered to have them at all.

I tried each peripheral for close to a week, and went from premium keyboards to mice, to headsets to gamepads, and played some of my favorite and most familiar titles, like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2, and more – my conclusions? Well – you’ll just have to head over and read my debut article at Tom’s Hardware to find out!

That’s right! This article is my first byline at Tom’s Hardware and was the result of several months’ work over some pretty hard times, so I’m proud of it. Check it out!

[ Tom's Hardware :: Are Premium Gaming Peripherals Worth Your Money? ]

Another year has come, and it’s about time for PC Mag to assemble their list of their 50 favorite blogs, all nominated by PC Mag staff and writers – people like myself! Don’t get me wrong: there are plenty of annual blog awards that tally up public votes, where the bloggers resort to begging their readers for votes so they get enough nominations to break into the finals or win them outright – there’s a place for those but they tend to wind up with the same top blogs year over year.

The beauty of the way PC Mag does it is that you’ll learn about some incredible new sites and blogs thanks to their 50 faves, sites that may not already be in your favorites list happily listed alongside old favorites and well-known names.

For example, you’ll find Engadget and Gizmodo and blogs of their size and calibur, without a doubt. At the same time, you’ll find really good blogs like my friend Stephanie’s food blog Foodival (shown above) in the 50 faves as well! You’ll find sites like Fancy Fast Food, if you haven’t seen it yet, and you’ll find blogs like One Sentence in the mix. The list is pretty comprehensive and really well put together.

If you’re looking for something new to read, head over and browse the list, I guarantee you’ll find some new faves.

[ PC Mag :: Our Favorite Blogs 2009 ]

MotionBox is well known as one of the leading video sharing sites that already has support for true HD streaming video, downloadable media, and the ability to control who sees your video. Whether you want to share your videos with the world or you want to keep some of them private to friends and family, MotionBox has plans and tools to help you do that. Additionally, if you’re looking for a way to add some flare and spice to your blog or business, MotionBox can host your video somewhere that isn’t YouTube, for example, or one of the other popular video hosting services, and you can re-post and embed your content anywhere you choose.

The beauty of MotionBox is that even though other video hosting services have their hooks into mobile devices and camcorders, they still manage to make it easy for you to upload, edit, and share your video with the world whenever you choose.

MotionBox previously had both free and premium accounts: the free accounts give you the option to give the service a whirl, store and upload a limited number of videos, edit them online, and create DVDs and eCards using your own video for an added cost. Premium accounts allow you to upload virtually as many videos as you choose, securely share the ones you want to keep private with only the people you want to see them, upload and stream movies in HD, and even allow certain people to download the videos you allow them to.

Last week, MotionBox announced a new account type: MotionBox Pro, which allows commercial and business users to sign up for the service, and offers them unique streaming and editing tools to make video sharing work for their organization. Pro users also get priority video encoding, so you don’t have to wait as long to upload your video and have it be available for people to see, and you get all of the benefits that the premium accounts provide as well!

To celebrate the announcement, MotionBox is giving away a few Roku digital set-top boxes to select users who sign up for MotionBox this month – all you have to do to enter the contest is sign up for an account and e-mail their contest address with the subject line “Roku Giveaway!” Yes, before you ask, the contest includes the free accounts – so whether you’re a business user or a personal user looking to post your videos to the Web without dealing with YouTube commenters, you can get in on the action as well!

For more information, head over to MotionBox to learn more, see how much the premium and new pro accounts cost, and sign up today!

[ MotionBox ]

I admit, Apple’s latest store in New York City certainly looks regal and amazing, what with being made of so much glass and concrete, but a “temple?” Well, they’re not my words, but reading Gizmodo’s entire quote, they may be appropriate:

I call it a temple because the architecture conveys a nearly religious aesthetic, a place to worship Apple, beyond any other Apple store you’ve ever been to. The top floor’s a vast open space, enclosed by spartan stone walls which support a massive glass ceiling. The rows of tables in the main room feel like pews.

I can’t tell you – and the pictures can’t show you – how utterly open and expansive the room feels. Apple says it has more demo units than any other store in the world. To give you an idea of the space, the walls are 45 feet tall, and could fit 11 Apple 5th Avenue Cubes inside. It’s the spareness that’s breathtaking. It’s cold. Not literally, but the stone walls, the glass, the sheer space rob it of any sense of warmth or feeling. The only sense of life in room is the products. It’s a temple to them, really.

The Cult of Mac blog picked up the story from Gizmodo, and I’m picking it up from them, mostly because it’s incredibly interesting and I like how Leander honed in on that specific set of words that I think show through in some of the photos that are up at the Cult of Mac post about it.

The store looks truly remarkable from the inside out – almost too remarkable to be a simple place of retail sales. Every design aspect echoes Apple’s commitment to form AND function – the stores operate well, function well, and perform well and in addition to all of that, they look amazing – newsworthy, even. I think that’s Apple’s design philosophy with its products as well – when design and function come into play, only the best will do. Even if it costs more.

[ Cult of Mac (via Gizmodo): Apple’s Latest Store on New York’s Upper West Side Is a “Temple” ]

This fall’s XBox Dashboard update is finally here, and a number of highly anticipated services have made their way onto the dash, including Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, and Zune Video. You’ll get the update automatically the next time you sign in to XBox Live.

At the same time as a number of pundits are heralding this as a remarkable addition to XBox Live, and as much as people are cheering for the ability to read and see your friends updates on Twitter and Facebook from the comfort of your couch, and the ability to stream tunes via Last.fm, and the ability to check out video content from Zune Video, I’m a little more focused on Microsoft’s strategy here.

Back in the late 90s and the early 2000s, everyone was talking about “convergence computing,” where single devices in your home would be responsible for the bulk of your home entertainment experience. Those boxes started off by looking like WebTV and other similar products, boxes that put internet access first and other services second, but they never caught on.

Microsoft realized they had a seller with the XBox gaming platform, and since it was connected to the Internet to download games and such, it was natural to make the XBox 360 especially – even more-so than the original XBox – that convergence device. Now, with just one gadget attached to your TV, you can surf the Web, keep up with your friends, chat with them or talk to them online, play games with them, and now, watch videos via Zune Video, stream movies from Netflix, and stream music from Last.fm. We’re seeing Microsoft’s goal of convergence computing come to life, it just took a different – and less direct – road.

[ Lifehacker :: Xbox Dashboard Update Brings Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter, and Zune Video to Your TV ]

Any good geek should be well versed in the art and science of our favorite hot caffeinated drink: coffee!

Over at The Oatmeal there’s an excellent graphic wrap-up of important things to know about coffee, and a primer at the end on how caffeine works. I especially like that – that and George Washington’s cameo. Both of those make me happy.

I won’t spoil it for you, it’s a hilarious and educational read from top to bottom!

[ The Oatmeal :: 15 Things to Know About Coffee ]

From the absolutely stunning Samsung LCD television above to Apple’s new 13-inch Macbook Pro to Verizon Wireless’s MiFi portable hotspot, Wired has a rundown of the season’s hottest gadgets and gear that you absolutely must have, or, if you’re on a budget like most of us, must drool after.

That Samsung up there doesn’t come cheap – it’ll run you a cool $2800 retail, but the picture will be absolutely stunning. If you’re looking for some computer peripherals, the gang at Wired really enjoys the Logitech Professional Mouse MX (which I also like), which will run you about $100. Oddly enough, they’re probably the only people I’ve read who really like the HTC MyTouch 3G, but that’s another issue.

The whole guide is fun to browse through, and while you may not desperately need any of the items, you’ll certainly come away wanting some of them.

[ Wired :: Fall Gear 2009 ]

Okay, so you ran out on launch weekend to pick up a Motorola Droid. Or, if you’re like me, you picked one up right after the madness of the launch weekend. Yup – I have one too now because frankly, it’s Verizon’s strongest smartphone and built on an open platform for which there are tons of apps and services already available. I was all ready to jump ship for an iPhone, but I simply didn’t want to deal with AT&T – either the company or their horrible service.

So that being said, the Droid it is. Mobile device guru Sascha Segan of PCMag loved the Droid as well, and he’s released a handful of tips that will help you really make the Droid your own now that you (and I) have one – and speaking from experience they’re solid tips. From making sure you find a way into Google Voice to dropping some media on it to enjoy, they’re all solid. Head over and check em out!

[ 5 Ways To Improve Your Motorola Droid's Features ]
Source: PCMag

I’ve been mulling over this column for a long long time, and it’s pretty difficult to write, but some recent developments have really thrust the topic forward. Let me give you the breakdown first: there’s a problem with Linux: it’s just not ready for prime time. As much as Ubuntu users will cry the opposite, and while admittedly they have the most robust and close to prime time version of Linux for the desktop available, it’s just not there yet – it’s not an OS that anyone would seriously install on a system for the average user. The fact is that virtually every distribution of Linux is still too bulky, too difficult to administer and manage, too quirky, and too poorly supported.

This isn’t news in and of itself; the Linux community has been struggling under its own weight for years now, with half of it complaining that if you can’t figure out how to manage and administer Linux distros on your own then you have no right using it (the elitists), and the other half begging and pleading with the rest of the community to build a version of Linux for the desktop that can actually get some traction with everyday people and some support from software developers other than ones who want to port Windows apps to it (the populists). This schism is at the heart of the problem, and it always has been.

But lately, there’s been a dramatic shift in the Linux landscape, and it hasn’t had to do with this schism – it’s been in the way that other companies have gotten behind customized distributions of Linux for selected platforms and really put their weight behind advancing them, each in their own specific way. The big news? They’re (almost) skipping entirely over desktop Linux in favor of mobile platforms.

Let’s dive into this a bit more behind the jump.

Continue reading Spinning Gears: The Linux “Problem,” and How Apple and Google Are Solving It…

Amelia Earhart is one of my favorite people. Seriously, when people ask that hokey question of “if you could go back in time and meet any person in history who would you meet,” she’s up there on my list. She’s an amazing person, an incredible character, and a woman whose very nature was made of bravery, courage, guts, and brilliance. She was a dominating combination of power, brains, and willpower – one that I think only comes along once every several generations. I could only wish to be half the person she was.

That being said, he final resting place, and what happened to her on that round-the-world flight has been shrouded in mystery for decades, and I admit that part of that mystery is what enthralls me about her. What happened to her exactly – whether she went down in the pacific or wound up on some island or managed to survive somewhere somehow for the rest of her days – is one of the greatest mysteries of our time.

And now some researchers believe they’ve found where her final resting place may have been found, and the theory is that she managed to crash land on an uninhabited island off of a reef in the pacific, and she and her navigator likely survived and died on that island from any number of reasons that would bring down a castaway – hunger, dehydration, injury, infection, and so on.

Personally, it’s not as glamorous as I would have liked Amelia to go, but she was more than aware of the risks with every action she took. That and the fact that this is still a theory, and the mystery still lives on. But if you want to read the going theory, head over to Discovery below to read more about it; it’s really really compelling.

[ Discovery News :: Earhart's Final Resting Place Believed Found ]