My daughter recently got a desk in her room. It’s pink. I am pretty anti-pink, which is probably why she likes it so much. When I saw this mouse pad, it had her name written all over it. Plus it matches her pink desk with the pink chair next to the pink bed frame (not that I’m bitter, mind you).

Seriously though, it’s actually really cute, much cuter than the photo here portrays. My husband and I were impressed. It’s small enough to fit on a child’s desk and big enough so that she can use it effectively. The wrist support is firm, yet has a good amount of give to it. Of course, we were most impressed that if you push on the gel, it makes the flowers look like they warp. Kinda like a bad trip from the 70s. (Hey, I’m just sayin’!)

Overall, it’s a well made mouse pad and my daughter loves it. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

Pink or not.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My first thought on seeing this netbook sleeve was “Wow! Now that looks different!” The knit look for the outside of the sleeve gives it a warm and personal feel. The added texture on the outside gives it a nice grippy yet soft feel. When you open it, the hot pink and very silky interior just shouts feminine.

The interior is very roomy. My netbook (which is purple) fits nicely inside with room to spare for my mouse (also purple). This brings me to my one complaint about netbook sleeves in general: Why don’t you give us a pocket to put stuff in? I’m always afraid that my mouse will scratch the finish of my netbook.

That one complaint aside (which is a general netbook sleeve complaint), this is an awesome netbook sleeve. It is functional and professional while at the same time being trendy and stylish. In a world of ho-hum netbook sleeves this one really stands out.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

When I first got my iPod Touch the very first thing I did was download some games for the kids. Most of these games were simple “point and click” affairs and the iPod Touch seems to be designed really well for this. My husband, however, added a few titles of his own. Namely some first-person shooters after hearing how great the graphics could be on the Touch.

The graphics did look great! There was only one problem, the games were basically unplayable due to the slimness of the iPod. After just a few minutes my husbands $10 was basically flushed down the toilet. His hands cramped rapidly while trying to use the onscreen controls.

Luckily we found the DLO GameCase Boost. Installation was a breeze and in just a minute or two my husband was giving those games another try. The GameCase Boost makes the iPod Touch feel more like a standard game controller. He was able to firmly grasp the iPod and get good control of his games at the same time.

That said, all is not rosy in the world with the GameCase. Here are a couple of problems we had:

1.) Once installed, the case covers up the charging port on the iPod Touch. You must remove the case in order to plug it in.
2.) The headphone port is very deep. If you are using anything but a straight jacked set of headphones, prepare to have problems.
3.) The unit is not rechargeable. Also, the batteries are located underneath the iPod.
4.) You sacrifice portability. This case is BIG.

Overall, I’d say this is definitely worth buying if you have trouble holding the iPod Touch while playing games. However, be ready to pop your iPod Touch back into another case when you are using it for other activities (such as listening to music).

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

A couple of years ago, I went “dual”. Oh, what a glorious day that was! I now have two 22″ monitors and I pretty much can’t work without them. I need that extra space, it truly does increase my productivity around 20% or so. I get so much more done than I ever did before.

The problem I ran into is that the monitor bases were pretty squat and I found myself looking “down” at the monitors instead of straight ahead. They also took up valuable desk real estate as I tend to have a lot of random junk on my desk.

I went in search of a solution and found several things, but this seemed to be the best bet to not only raise the monitors and give me more desk space, but to also be able to adjust them as needed. I will admit that when this came in the mail, I was hesitant that it was going to support these monitors, but it came together pretty quickly and it works great.

I love that I now have a taller clearance under the monitors, gained more space and no longer have to strain to see the monitor. The best part is that I’m able to arrange them how I like. I prefer my monitors slightly tilted in towards each other and these are highly adjustable. I will say that if you have your desk too close to a wall, this won’t work. I’ve always had mine pulled back a little bit so it’s a non issue, but if you do, note you’ll need to be willing to pull back a bit.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My wife has had a Kindle 2 since they first came out. I hemmed and hawed over getting a Kindle simply because I read a lot of magazines. I’d heard that many magazines were going to be available in Kindle format, but who really wants to read them on that small of a screen?

Well, I am still waiting for many of my favorite magazines to be available on the Kindle. However, I’ve found that the larger screen is great for PDF’s! Many books and reference materials are available in this format. Are you a student? Many textbooks can be purchased in PDF format for much less that the physical book.

I also use my Kindle DX for reading normal books as well. In low light areas you can enlarge the font and still have plenty of words on the screen. This is not something you would normally want to do on smaller screened book readers.

I love my Kindle DX and I would never go back. I do sometimes miss the feel of a paperback in my hands, but then I realize that I am holding several hundred books all at the same time (many of which were free!)

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5 years ago I bought my husband an Antech LAN Boy case. Brushed aluminum, nifty little tool case: he loved that case. But over the years it got more and more crowded. And noisy! And hot! He likes to run SLI mode on his video cards and this little case just was not made for that.
So I got him the Tempest Evo. Though he moaned a bit, he is now really happy that he got this case. Though it is still noisy (hence the 4 stars), his video card temperatures have dropped a full 10 degrees when running at max load.
He also likes the external SATA port and the way that the external jacks are located on top of the case. On his old case he had to leave the door open all the time. I’m really surprised that between 2 dogs, 2 young children, and himself that the door is still attached.
Here is what he likes about the EVO:
Black inside and out
Rugged construction
A TON of fans
Lots of room to expand

Here is what he doesn’t like:
Loud (but not as loud as some cases)
Some plastic pieces inside
Hard drive mounting system not optimal

So it was definitely a nice upgrade for him! And he can still visit his old LAN boy case, it is now housing our son’s computer (so a nice upgrade for him as well!)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Got a camera? Need to edit your pictures? Well, PhotoPlus X3 can do that for you. Of course, so can a lot of other software suites out there. The 2 usual suspects are The GIMP, and Photoshop. While PhotoPlus is not really a competitor of either, it shares a lot of the features that can be found in these two common suites.

That said, Photoshop is very expensive while GIMP is open source. PhotoPlus gives you a nice, middle of the road option at a good price point. While The GIMP and Photoshop both offer more flexibility and features, these come at the price of complexity. PhotoPlus X3 goes for simplicity. Before too long even a novice can edit their pictures to remove red eye, create stylistic versions of their pictures, or even repair old, damaged photos.

I see there are a lot of Amazon’s reviews that give 1 star ratings because of the odd requirement to register by phone. You can also register the software from their website. So if that was turning you off the software, go ahead and give it a try!

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Product Description

PhotoPlus X3 Digital Studio is Serifs professional digital image editing solution. PhotoPlus X3 brings you an unrivaled combination of easy-to-use photo enhancement Studios, on-screen automated help, and a rich collection of professional-level tools and adjustments. Whether you’re resizing holiday snaps, removing flaws from portraits, adjusting exposure and color levels, restoring old images, importing Photoshop® documents, or transforming photos with unique effects and artistic styles, PhotoPlus X3 Digital Studio has everything you need to achieve the highest quality results fast.

While I mostly use off-site storage for backups, I keep CD’s around for drivers and other miscellaneous programs. When these disks came in, it was time to update my pile of misc. software. Reviewing CD’s isn’t easy. Either the disk works, or it doesn’t. In this case the disks worked fine. I burned 10 CD’s worth of data and had not a single glitch.

Now, lets talk about this new “Frustration Free” packaging. Sometimes when you get something from Amazon it comes sealed up so tight you need a sledgehammer and crowbar (or at least a sharp knife) to get your product out. The new Frustration Free packaging was a breeze. The CD spindle was sandwiched between two fitted cardboard “shelves”. The top one slid right out of the box and lo and behold, there sat my disks.

Overall a good product at a good price. I like the new packaging. Hopefully we’ll see more things packaged this way in the near future.

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Product Description

This spindle of 50 AmazonBasics 52X CD-Rs provides a natural storage solution for music, photos, and archiving important data. Each disk offers a capacity of 700MB. These CD-Rs support fast write speeds up to 52X and provide an audio recording time of 80 minutes.

For the last few years I’ve been using some pretty pricey gaming headsets. I used the eDimensional 3D headset and also the Turtle Beach 5.1 surround sound headset. Both of these had great audio, but their microphones were always lacking. My teammates kept asking me to turn up my mic long after I already had the gain at max.

Did I mention that I wear glasses? Both of these full-ear headsets got uncomfortable after about an hour and I always found myself wearing one earphone at a time. No exactly the surround sound I paid for. Especially at over $100 each.

The Logitech G330 is not a surround sound headset. However, it doesn’t say that it is. What it is is an extremely comfortable headset with great audio quality and a wonderful mic. I wore this headset for over 3 hours and never had a single comfort problem.

The audio is excellent as well. No, it isn’t 5.1 stereo but with modern simulated surround sound these could definitely pass for it. The bass response is respectable and the highs do not sound “pinched” like in some budget headphones.

The mic is adjustable through rotation of its base on the headphones and also bendable along the microphone arm. The band across the back also adjusts to fit just about any head. Both my 6 year old daughter and myself were able to adjust the headset to fit comfortable but snugly on our heads.

The volume control and microphone mute on the cord clip is also very useful. I could adjust music to a comfortable volume while helping my son with his homework. All without having to bring up the computers audio controls.

For $50, these headphones are great. Don’t expect the rumbling bass and super crisp trebles of more expensive headsets, but if your are looking for comfort, good audio, and a great mic give this headset a shot.

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Product Features
* Adjustable, behind-the-head design provides a lightweight, personalized fit – the first of its kind in gaming headsets
* Silicone-lined headband and pivoting ear pads relieve pressure from extended wear.
* Noise-canceling microphone reduces annoying background noise; position the flexible microphone right where you want it and rotate it out of the way when you¿re not using it.
* Connect digitally to any USB port for enhanced audio or directly to your PC sound card via 3.5 mm jacks.
* In-line audio controls let you adjust the volume or mute the microphone without pausing the action

A while back I finally had to dump my old Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback joystick. Not because the stick itself was bad but because I no longer had a working game port. The current generation of Sidewinders are a pale memory of the older models so I decided to give Logitech a try.

The force feedback on this joystick is great. It really pulls you into the game and gives you a feel for the action. The buttons are well places and very responsive. The placement of the throttle is a godsend. So many companies put the throttle in an out of the way area but in sim games like MechWarrior you need instant access to the throttle.

The downside of this stick is its sensitivity. Though I have gotten used to it the way the stick reacts takes away a bit of the enjoyment in games. Many times I find myself turning off the force feedback so I have better control, but then what was the purpose of this purchase?

If you need the sensitivity, get this stick. However most people should look elsewhere.

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Technical Details

* Programmable action buttons let you customize your settings, download game profiles, assign shift-button, and more
* Rapid-fire trigger lets you fire shots in quick succession
* Fire your weapons, select targets, and perform other functions using both hands
* Keep your enemy in view with the 8-way rubberized hat switch
* Sculpted twist handle for superior comfort, precise rudder control and extended play