One of the things I’ve spent the past couple of weeks working on has been a comprehensive roundup of some of the summer’s hottest new keyboards, including models from Logitech, Microsoft, Eclipse, and Matias. Logitech’s new Fantasy Collection is affordable, attractive, and aimed at people who want to personalize their workspaces without shelling out a ton of money. Microsoft’s new Arc Special Edition is a media center keyboard with sharp looks, a nice curved design (perfect for lap and couch use) and a tiny receiver, the Matias USB Keyboard + Smartphone Stand comes with a space to rest your phone and a powered USB hub, and the high tech Eclipse Litetouch Keyboard offers sharp looks and a high tech LCD keypad on the right side of the keyboard with customizable function buttons!

I tested each one of the keyboards over the course of several months, and when all was said and done, I had some pretty strong opinions about them all – some of the more than others. Head over to check out the review and leave me a comment either here or there: I’m curious to hear what you think!

[ Tom's Guide :: Keyboards of Summer - 4 New Keyboards, Tested ]

I caught wind of this amazing review over at Gizmodo from my CIO at my day job – he highlighted the fact that it’s a hilarious gadget, not just because it’s trying to be everything to everyone who might buy it, but because it’s a perfect example of what happens when you get someone who wants to cram as much stuff into the same device as possible and then sell it as probably the one feature it’s not the best at.

Personally, looking over Giz’s review, the D-Link DIR-685 – Wireless Storage Photo Frame isn’t a bad product, it’s just a little over the top. The powerhouse comes with a 4-port switch in it, a wireless router that sports 802.11 N, serves as network storage, an iTunes server, an FTP server, a media server of all types, and that’s just some of its highlight features.

It’s pricey, but not as much as some other products like it that do less (although they may do fewer things better) and it’s definitely less expensive than buying a bunch of different devices to do everything that this one does. It’s not the kind of “wireless photo frame” you’ll sit on your coffee table, unless you really like super-tiny photos; it’s probably the kind you’ll set on your desk in a home office and have it cycle through photos of your family or pets or something.

Still, I’m with Giz on this one – it’s one of those products that reminds you that sometimes engineers are still out there designing products, and while it may look at first glance like a case of classic over-engineering (okay, maybe at second or third glance too), it’s not a bad product for what it does. Maybe it’s trouble is that D-Link’s marketing department simply doesn’t have a catchphrase or a buzzword that describes what it is as a product yet.

[ Gizmodo :: D-Link DIR-685 Wireless Storage Photo Frame Router Review ]

So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, the Apple iPad was released last week, and it’s been the talk of not just the tech world, but actually of many major news outlets. Because I adore the crew at PC Mag, I’ll give props to their full review of the Apple iPad, which is critical but overall finds good things about the product and that – as I figured – it’s an excellent launching point for an industry.

Admittedly, I was skeptical of the product when it was announced, but like with many Apple products, once it’s out and available and people are using it, it becomes more attractive just as you see the possibilities when others use it and third-party developers start building applications and useful tools, utilities, and games for it. So far, the iPad has been a ridiculous success, selling over 700,000 on launch weekend, and so far almost all of the reviews have been positive.

But it’s not the launch of the iPad I really wanted to cover – it’s really the story of one analyst at PC Mag who I know and trust personally, Zach Honig. He made a point to be mindful during his first 24 hours with the iPad, and jot down his thoughts and feelings about the device and using it as almost a laptop replacement. His results? Mixed, of course – the iPad really isn’t a full-on laptop or desktop replacement, but for most things it really can keep you more mobile than your desktop computer and less hassle than your laptop.

Head on over to read all of his thoughts:

[ PC Mag :: Apple iPad and Me: The First 24 Hours ]

GelaSkins had an exciting announcement today: they unveiled a new line of iPod, iPhone, and laptop skins based on Marvel Comics superheroes, including Iron Man, Spider Man, and the X-Men! All of the designs are available now in their store in the various shapes and forms they come in, but they were kind enough to provide me some review samples prior to the release for an exclusive over at Gearlog on behalf of PCMag.com.

The snapshot above is one of the images I took of the new iPod Skins, but wait until you see what I did with my iPod, and then what I did to my Macbook Pro using the new designs! Head over to Gearlog to see!

[ Gearlog :: Hands On: GelaSkins Marvel Comics Collection ]

If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of products that do more than one thing; solve more than one problem. If you know me you also know I’m dead set against bulky belt-clips for mobile phones that do nothing but make your precious phone easier to steal and let the world know what kind of device you have. Seriously, I even wrote an article over at our sister blog The Classy Geek about the fact that if CES 2010 taught me anything, there’s no excuse to walk around with a belt clip for your phone.

To that end, the fine folks at Malcolm Fontier were kind enough to send me one of their newest products, the iMojito, a combination wallet and mobile phone holster, that’s designed to not only be stylish, but also keep all of your important items like your phone, your ID, your credit cards, and a little bit of cash even, securely tucked away in your pocket without looking like you’re carrying a massive weight in your pants pocket. I really liked the iMojito, and I’d reccomend it not just for people who have iPhones, but anyone who’s tired of carrying a mobile phone case and a bulky wallet and wants to lighten their load. Read more of my impressions behind the jump.

Continue reading Hands On with the iMojito from Malcolm Fontier!…

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? ]

So one of the few mobile analysts I actually trust managed to get their hands on the newly announced Motorola Droid: Sascha Segan, writing for PCMag. Not only has he had the opportunity to test and fiddle with the Droid for the past several days, but he managed to get one of the first preview videos and hands-on first impressions that didn’t amount to little more than a photo fest (I’m looking at you Engadget and Gizmodo, but if you want that he has that too.) and so far it looks good. Really good.

Now Segan points out something very important – people are debating whether this device is an “iPhone Killer,” and frankly, the iPhone doesn’t need to be “killed” at all – there’s more than enough room for multiple strong smartphones on multiple carriers. Goodness knows that prior to the Droid, Verizon suffered from a complete and utter lack of them. If you wanted a smartphone that wasn’t a Blackberry, you were pretty much out of luck.

That being said, the Droid has some serious strong suits – a beautiful display that’s among one of the best ever put on the front of a phone, a 5MP camera that takes beautiful photos and DVD-quality video, all in an attractive and small package. Check out his video:

I have to admit, it looks really good, and Google’s turn-by-turn GPS navigation is definitely a strong suit that we’ll see in future devices from other manufacturers. Theres’ also a photo slideshow if you want more pretty pictures. In the meantime though, the Droid apparently is more than just good, it’s Editor’s Choice quality good.

Check out the full review at PCMag:

[ PC Mag :: Droid by Motorola (Verizon Wireless) ]

This hands-on test with Dell’s new Latitude Z wouldn’t really be notable if it weren’t for the fact that the Latitude Z is one of the first completely wireless laptops. That is, the Z has support for wireless USB, UWB, wireless internet, and even takes a page out of the Palm Pre’s book and doesn’t need a charging cable plugged directly into the laptop in order to recharge the battery: you can rest it on top of its docking station and it charges. When you’re ready to go, just lift it back off and you’re ready to go.

Naturally, the docking station will likely have a cable that runs to the wall so it gets power, and any other connected cables for peripherals that still require a physical connection to the docking station, but aside from that, the Z is completely and utterly wireless.

The “Z” stands for the z-height of the laptop, implying that the Latitude Z is incredibly thin and very portable. The Latitude line has always been directed at business users who need portability, but the wealth of features and wireless goodies under the hood of this model are impressive.

Best of all, the Z600 model is available now, so if you need that kind of portability, you can get it! Check out PC Mag’s full hands-on review under the jump.

[ PC Mag :: Hands On with the Dell Latitude Z ]

Netbooks. All the rage, I think we can all agree – but if you’re planning to buy one, you could spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out which one is best for you. My advice is the same that I would give to anyone planning to buy a notebook computer – try to touch one before you buy it. That way you get a feel (pun completely intended) for what the device feels like under your fingers, how it behaves during regular use, and how you feel when you use it. You can read as many reviews as you like, but there’s no real replacement for actual use.

That being said, one other good thing to have is personal experience from others who have used the same models that you have – you could search out customer reviews, but over at Lifehacker one of the regular features is called the Hive Five, where the editors poll the community for their favorite app, product, device, or other item in a given category. In this case, Netbooks.

The community weighed in, and there are a number of unsurprising entries, but a few that I wouldn’t have predicted. For example, I would be surprised if the Dell Mini 10 didn’t make a list of top netbooks, but I was definitely surprised to see the Samsung NC10. For the rest of the list, head on over to Lifehacker to read all about it, and some pros and cons of each product.

[ Lifehacker :: Five Best Netbooks ]

Netbooks are all the rage these days, and while they’re usually cheap, you find some that are on the other end of the spectrum like Dell’s Adamo and Apple’s MacBook Air – portables that are in many ways more like netbooks than notebooks, but cost a lot more money. In the middle of the road though is the lineup of traditional notebooks and laptops that we all know and love, and all of the features we’ve come to expect from them.

But if you’re looking to buy a netbook, does that mean you have to compromise on all of the features you want? Does that mean you have to give up all of your horespower in exchange for an overblown Web browser? Not necessarily: Cisco Cheng, writing or PC Mag, has an excellent roundup of notebook performance versus netbook performance, and a great lineup of what features you can expect to get in a netbook for the price.

For example, you don’t be doing any high-end gaming on any netbook –or most notebooks for that matter– but there are some surprising results. Cisco tested ripping audio, transcoding video, and resizing high resolution images – all pretty system intensive tasks. He tested an array of netbooks, including the Acer Aspire One, the Dell Studio 15, the Lenovo Ideapad Y650, and more. Head over to see the results!

[ PC Mag :: Comparing Netbook and Notebook Performance ]