Sennheiser RS 160 wireless headphones

Its December that means that  the holidays are upon us and for most of us that means fun, food, and family, while the holiday cheer might be spreading as more family and friends turn up at your home the need to have a little quiet time will also present itself and that is where the RS 160 wireless headphones from Sennheiser kick in.

Design and Build


The cup design  is over the ear and the material is a soft foam with equally soft leatherette covering them, the result is a comfortable and light fit. The material offers some degree of sound blocking but the world is not exactly cut off from you if you are wearing them and not listening to anything. Due to the nature of the material wearing these headphones will cause your ears to sweat (not ideal for a workout), but I only experienced a minimal amount of said sweat . As I mentioned before the headphones are light and I soon forgot I was even wearing the, even after several hours of use I only had to take them off to talk to people so that I wouldn't end up shouting at them.  The headphones are built from plastic so you probably don’t want to be dropping them, the design however while not striking is still pretty good its in mostly matte black with just a few shiny accents. Overall the design is good but I have serious reservations regarding the durability.  

The Setup  

The setup was not complicated at all 2-5 min and I was good to go, the wireless base station can either be plugged in via AC adapter (that comes provided) or you can pop in two AA batteries and power it on. Next there is a 3.5MM cable that you plug into the base station, while the other end gets plugged into any other device that accepts a 3.5MM plug such as your phone, TV, tablet, computer, etc. Next you twist each ear cup lightly to the left which will reveal the speaker and a port in which you can place a AAA battery (rechargeable AAA batteries are included) after that press the power button and the headphones and the base station and you are good to go.

Sound

The sound quality is quite good much better than I expected out of a set of wireless cans some of the songs I used to test this Beautiful People-Chris Brown feat Benny Benassi, Gold Dust- Dj Fresh (dubstep mix), Someone Like You- Adele, One- Swedish House Mafia, Sweat- Snoop Dogg/feat David Guetta, Party Rock- LMFAO. The sound is clean and crisp not muddy at all, there is some bass but it lacks depth it starts off well but just doesn't quite reach there, but its an overall enjoyable experience on a side note you will hear absolutely nothing if someone is trying to speak to you as the sound engulfs you.

The Wrap-up

At USD$125 on Amazon they are moderately priced and with the ability to connect up to 4 additional headsets to one base station so you and a couple friends could tune into the same movie might be a selling point for some I believe these headphones sell themselves with the rock solid wireless performance, crystal clear audio, great value and freedom of movement they provide.   

Tablet Wars 2011

2011 is the year of the tablet with most of the major manufacturers coming out with tablets its easy to get confused and befuddled as to which tablet to choose so I’m here to help you sort through the clutter and fanboyism/fangirlism and get to the cold hard facts.

First thing is first there are three (3) main camps that folks are rallying around and these are IOS, Android and Windows there are more than three OSes out there such as QNX, WebOS, and the up-coming Linux OS for tablets. The reason I have left out these OSes is the lack of support and interest their respective companies seem to have in them so they will not be discussed for the rest of this article (well maybe in another article).

Lets start off with the IPad and IOS while not the first out of the gate it has the distinct privilege of being the most commercially successful and recognizable of the lot, it paved the way for the tablets we see now to be accepted by the community at large and not to be seen as an obscure piece of tech that only  the geekiest among us desire. The beauty of IOS is it’s simplicity, there is one physical button, a home screen and a menu which presents access to all your apps as well as the settings in one menu. Navigation is fluid and controls are easy enough to grasp. Its simplicity is also its weakness, the reins of the device are never truly given over to you, you are essentially being locked in a beautiful garden, its nice there and everything you need is provided but you are still very much locked in.

Android on the other hand is an amusement park with lots of different exits the only catch here is that in order to leave through one you have to have a little technical skill or at least be able to read and follow instructions very well, but even if you don’t leave you are still in an amusement park with lots of different things to do and see. Even with an unrooted device the level of customization is still staggering, to the point that no two devices can really look the same, from changing wallpapers and ring-tones to downloading icon and skin packs. If you get into the rooted side of things then the possibilities really open up with different versions of the OS that groups or individuals have created many of which are better than the stock OS or at least have features baked in that are not included ion the stock OS.  

Windows on the other hand is a relative unknown at this point since we have to wait for Windows 8 to actually show up but its Windows and everyone will pretty much be familiar with it. Right now it is a mixed bag with so many persons already on the Android and IOS and with Windows historically being such a heavy OS I have to wonder what is is gonna be like on smaller processors, I am looking at the incredibly dull performance of netbooks and I am left to wonder if their tablets will be more of the same.

Who runs the world? Apps

Apple is the king of the Apps heap for the moment with about half a Million apps and Android has well over 100000 but all numbers aside most of this is fluff, casually browsing the different app stores the number of actually useful everyday apps is shockingly low. How many calculators, tom the talking cat apps does someone really need, the fact is that any really useful apps that appear on one platform usually turn up on the others given enough time. There are only a handful of apps for the Windows platform so not much to discuss there yet.

Gaming

Mobile gaming is huge for both casual and hardcore gamers. Casual gamers have the likes for simple puzzle based games, tower defence, and platformers but nothing really to attract the hardcore crowd until now, with studios like Rockstar releasing GTA on the Android and IOS platform we are witnessing a shift in the types of games available to the masses. By far the most exciting thing to me are the emulators, I can play old and new classics on my tablet sure the touch screen is a little wonky but I that is easily remedied with a bluetooth controller (which I purchased from gamestop) So now I can play FF7 and Tenchu (I own both on disc already) on my tablet without missing a beat. Windows could be a bit more exciting in that arena with the rumoured ability to load up Xbox games, and since it is windows I foresee Steam making huge profits on this platform.

The future

Android’s future is looking bright with the coming of ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) which will unite the OS and end fragmentation, the new quad-core processors which promise even zippier speeds and more horsepower to properly deal with those power hungry apps. The IPad 3 is coming probably next year with a rumoured dual-core processor, better camera and improved display, of course this is all speculative at this point. Windows is a mystery at this point but I would imagine, tight Bing integration, xbox live integration and tiles, its really wait and see but 2012 is definitely gonna be another big year for tablets.

The choice

Which one should you pick well that is really up to you and what your preferences are there are differences between the platforms so your best bet is to try before you buy, don't rely sole on reviews and reviewers can also have their biases, also watch a lot of video reviews so you can get a better sense of the device but hands on testing is the best so if you can get in a store that has one on display or better yet tell them to take it out of the box so you can test then you should do that.

 

Cyber Snipa: Tracer

Is your game sagging? not feeling so l33t? do your opponents seem to be a ½ second faster than you? Well it may be time to upgrade a crucial component in your gaming arsenal and this is where cyber snipa comes in with the Tracer gaming mousepad.

The Tracer is different from the standard mouse pad in that it is made of acrylic glass therefore it provides a smooth lag free surface, it will take some getting used to if you are moving from a more traditional mousepad as the rapid lag free response will come as a shock.

The packaging was a simple plastic clamshell which offered no real protection to the product save from scratches. The product was lighter than I initially thought it would have been but didn’t feel cheap. After tearing through the packaging the first odd thing you will notice is an attached USB cord as well as a jog dial, and this is where the shiny difference comes in as this mousepad can be lit up.

Plug in the USB cable and spin the dimmer switch and you can turn on and adjust the brightness of the light that goes around the edge of the mousepad, while this doesn’t do anything for performance it certainly helps when you are gaming/surfing late at night and you don't want to turn on any lights and it just looks cool. The light can be quite intense and is quite visible during the day and I rarely found myself turning it up to past 50% as it can be a bit distracting if you are watching movies, but the dimmer switch helps keep everything under control.

The surface is smooth and offers virtually no resistance so it may take you a while to get used to how fast your mouse can track on it. FPS games are gonna take the biggest hit as you will often find yourself overshooting on targets, but for RTS and virtually any other application the free flowing nature of the mousepad will be more than welcome.

In conclusion its a $23 (on amazon) mousepad do you need it? No but you can justify it especially if you have bought a gaming mouse to go along with it. It has a large tracking surface and feels sturdy enough to handle even hardcore gamers the only fault I could find with it was that it was a little too smooth, a lightly textured surface would give much more precision but in all its a great product and its blue running lights can help you live out any TRON/Sci-fi fantasies that may be lingering.   

Review: Razor Ultimate BlackWidow Mechanical Keyboard

Well they say the best place to start is at the beginning so I would like to welcome you to my News and Reviews blog, to jump right into it my first review will be of the Razor Ultimate Blackwidow Mechanical Keyboard.

My first attraction to this keyboard was the fact that Razor uses mechanical switches instead of the cheaper gel based keyboards that the majority of pc users are accustomed to. As I carefully unboxed this massive (and weighty) keyboard I had to stand back and marvel at the design of it , than an immediate panic took me as I looked at the super glossy finish which was the first flaw that I immediately found, while beautiful to behold it was a fingerprint magnet. Nevertheless I pushed on and spent a few minutes (about 10) examining the braided cables which felt durable and of very high quality. The usb cable was long enough to reach to the back of the pc and still allow some room for movement at the end of the cable you will find two usb plugs and 2 audio jacks (headphone and mic), the second audio jack is used to connect the on-board usb 2.0 port which would have been a little more useful if it featured 2 ports instead of one, but still a nice little feature.

After connecting the keyboard, downloading and installing the latest drivers and software I fired up the customization utility and was pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of customizations that could be made to have this peripheral conform to your lifestyle and pc usage habits. Photoshop junkies will love this keyboard the ability to program macro keys is phenomenal, MMO gamers will also find great benefit in assigning macro keys and even in everyday usage once you get the hang of it assigning macros can put an end to many tedious tasks you perform daily.

After using this product for a few days I am getting the hang of it the layout is only slightly different from what I am used to namely because of the additional macro keys to the left key click feel super solid and the clickity clackity sound of the keys actually become pretty rhythmic while typing, the keys themselves feel great and do not require you to jam down on them to get button presses to register, there is ample resistance to the keys and also while typing you will notice that the characters on the keys are not printed on more like etched on there so there is a feeling that it will not rub off over time.

If you browse on over to the Razor website you will notice that there are two variants to the BlackWidow line the first is called the Blackwidow Mechanical Keyboard and the other is dubbed the Ultimate, now what makes these two very different is three things namely the USB hub, the headphone/mic pass through and the backlighting.

We now come to addressing the backlighting of the Ultimate, I had always thought of backlit keyboards as a gimmick, something totally unnecessary but with the state of the Jamaican economy and the heavy taxation that the Jamaica Public Service expects us to pay for electricity I have to try to conserve as much energy as possible so individually backlit keys are a great asset to have when you game in the dark whether to save a little money on your bills or not to disturb your significant other while they sleep. The BlackWidow has three levels of backlight intensity and they range from low, medium to high but most people should be able to suffice on the medium setting as it is plenty bright and coupled with the light from your monitor sound provide more than enough lighting for your typing/gaming needs, but what if you have friends over for the first time and you need to further show off your new keyboard well click on the fourth setting which will give a pulsing light to wash over their obviously now jealous eyes. The audio pass-through as I have discovered is also vital when you are living with someone as they may not appreciate the sound of explosions, bullets whizzing by or even your music at 3am (weirdo's right ). This keyboard is also excellent for the “hardworking” university student who has that final 14 page paper to pound out and hand in by 8am the next morning. The super smooth and pleasant typing experience on this keyboard coupled with the excellent back-lit keys, usb hub and audio pass-through make this an excellent keyboard for anyone who spends more than a couple of hours in front of their machine the only deterrent is the price which starts from $103 +s&h on amazon to anywhere north of $120 that is a lot to pay for just a keyboard but then again this isn’t just any old keyboard.

Pros : Excellent build quality, great typing and gaming experience, back lit keys are drool-worthy, USB 2.0/audio pass-through offer ease of accessibility

Cons : glossy finger print magnet, some awkward positioning of keys and no option to change backlit colors