News and a Freebie for Friday September 10th 2010

Kristofer Brozio | September 10, 2010 | Xbox | 2 Comments

Hello people! It’s Friday finally and it’s time for the news from around the world! Not much new going on here on my end, I need some stuff to review! I should have a couple things coming, but it won’t be until late next week when they get here. I do have something to share with you though, Stealth Guards is offering free skins for phones and other devices for a limited time, you just pay for shipping which for me came to $2.85 when I ordered mine. Not bad considering their skins sell for $15+. So hop on over to Stealth Guards and grab yours today! Linky: http://www.stealthguards.com

Storage Related:

OCZ’s RevoDrive 50Gb SSD PCI-Express Card. The performance of the card is absolutely CRAZY!! … You have to see it to believe it.

“In this review, we’ll be taking a look at the OCZ RevoDrive 50Gb SSD PCI-Express Card. It’s one of only a few solid state drives on the market that’s in the form of a PCI-Express card, and is aimed at the higher-end and enthusiast market. The card features internal RAID 0 powered by Silicon Image Sil 3124 controller, and has a total capacity of 46Gb (usuable) driven by 2 SandForce controllers. It can be used as primary boot drive or for data storage. What makes this card extremely appealing is the internal RAID 0 feature. RAID 0 is also know as data “striping” and allows a massive boost in performance.”

Read the rest of the review here … http://www.funkykit.com/reviews/3361-review-ocz-revodrive-50gb-ssd-pci-express-card.html

Kingston Hyper-X 2133MHz Dual Channel Review.
Quote: Having recently taken the World record for memory overclock speed we had to take a look at the Hyper-X Dual-Channel ourselves
Link: http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/memory/kingston_hyper-x_2133mhz_dual_channel_review/1

A-DATA S599 128GB Solid State Drive
QUOTE: “The original A-DATA S599 was the second SandForce SSD we tested, but that was all the way back in March. Quite a lot has changed since then with all of the SandForce partners; the products are now more refined and the competition of a saturated market has led to more value added accessories being included.
A-DATA took a leading role in pricing for a short time with their first SandForce drive, but stiff competition has made it difficult for anyone to stay the cost leader in this category. At the time of writing the new A-DATA S599 was the second lowest priced SandForce 120GB SSD listed at Newegg. The S599 is currently trailing behind the Mushkin Callisto by a very small margin.”
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3505/a_data_s599_128gb_solid_state_drive/index.html

Budget Sub-$150 Solid State Drive Round-up
http://www.techspot.com/review/313-budget-ssd-roundup/
Recently there has been a surging demand for solid state drives that sacrifice space for speed and more affordable price tags, and manufacturers have been racing to deliver just that. Most of the drives featured in this round-up offer 32GB – 40GB capacities, while a few others top out at 64GB. As limiting as a 32GB drive might appear, they can still be extremely useful in enhancing a PC’s performance when set to run as the boot drive. These smaller drives can also accommodate for select programs where they can greatly speed up the use of the application, for example, Adobe Photoshop.
Today’s round-up is comprised of the following contenders: OCZ Agility 2 40GB ($135), OCZ Vertex 2 40GB ($124), OCZ Onyx 64GB ($130), OCZ Onyx 32GB ($85), ADATA S596 Turbo 32GB ($83), Intel X25-V 40GB ($100), and the Kingston SNV425-S2 64GB ($125). In addition to these affordable SSD offerings we have added to the mix the Seagate Momentus XT ($135), a highly-touted hybrid drive that attempts to deliver the best of both worlds by offering huge storage capacity at a reasonable price, with the added performance boost of NAND flash memory for caching data.

Kingston SSDNowV+ Series 512GB Gen 2 SSD Review @ KitGuru

While we have often focused on small capacity Solid State Drives today we thought it would be interesting to have a look at the 512GB SSDNowV+ Kingston drive aimed at the enthusiast audience with specific demands for the highest levels of storage capacity.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/zardon/kingston-ssdnowv-series-512gb-gen-2-ssd-review/

Audio / Video:

Apple TV vs. Google TV: How do they differ?
“The surging interest set-top media boxes such as Roku, Apple TV and the Boxee Box is starting to look a lot like the sudden buzz around tablets: Microsoft was puttering around with the same concepts ages ago, but nobody really cared. Now that Apple and Google have focused their laser-like engineering teams on the problem, years of antiquated GUI design are searing off in months as both companies work their magic on the long-neglected “ten-foot interface.””
Link to the article: http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/apple-tv-vs-google-tv-how-do-they-differ/

Compro VideoMate E900F Dual Tuner PCI-Express TV Card Video Review @ eTeknix.com

Link: http://www.eteknix.com/reviews/miscellaneous/compro-videomate-e900f-dual-tuner-pci-express-tv-card-video-review/

Discussion: http://forums.eteknix.com/showthread.php?2090-Compro-VideoMate-E900F-Dual-Tuner-PCI-Express-TV-Card-Video-Review

Quote: Today we are looking at the Compro VideoMate E900F Dual Tuner PCI-Express TV Card.

Samsung BX2350 LED Monitor Review @ Tweaknews
Article Url: http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/samsung_bx2350_led_monitor/
Article Snippet:
“The Samsung SyncMaster BX2350 LED Monitor is an excellent display for the consumer who wants a stylish monitor that also brings excellent picture quality, low power consumption in addition to being an excellent gamer.”

Funky Kit Review: Zotac ZBox Blu-Ray Mini PC (HD-ID34BR)

“In this review, we’ll be taking a look at the Zotac Zbox Blu-Ray HD (Model: HD-ID34BR). It’s a mini-PC that features Intel’s new ATOM D525 dual core processor running at 1.8Ghz, supporting hyper-threading technology and 800FSB. It uses Nvidia’s ION graphics platform, which comes with built-in onboard 512Mb of DDR3 ram dedicated for graphics.”

“The unit also comes with 2Gb of DDR2-800 ram in SODIMM format, and a large 250Gb 2.5″ inch SATA hard drive, built-in WiFi, as well as a slim slot-loading x4 speed Blu-Ray drive and a 6-in1 card reader. It’s also one of the few nettops or all-in-one units that features the new USB3.0 standard. Looking at this unit … the specifications certainly sounds impressive. But what will our Funky review team think?”

http://www.funkykit.com/reviews/3290-review-zotac-zbox-blu-ray-mini-pc-hd-id34br.html

Quick Review: ViewSonic NexTV VMP75 Full HD Network Media Player
QUOTE: “It’s no longer necessary for an optical disc player to be the focal point of a home theater setup. Set-top media boxes, designed to play video and audio files either from a USB-connected hard drive or streamed across your home network are abound from such manufacturers as Western Digital, Apple, and D-Link. ViewSonic has debuted their NexTV VMP75 player, which boasts full network capability (wireless support comes via a USB dongle upgrade), Netflix streaming, loads of compatible formats, and even an eSata connector (a rarity in this USB dominated world). As sexy as that may sound, all those bullet points aren’t very compelling if it won’t play your media, so let’s power up the ViewSonic player and see what we can throw at it.
I first hooked up a 1TB USB hard drive, chock full of almost every kind of media file you can think of, and went to town. While the interface for navigating through the folders on the hard drive was clunky, the VMP75 did pretty well in this test, playing MKVs, AVIs, WMVs, MOVs and even FLAC files. It did not recognize the APE lossless audio file I threw on the hard drive for good measure, but I won’t knock it for that given that APE isn’t the de facto standard that FLAC is for compressed lossless audio.”
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3504/quick_review_viewsonic_nextv_vmp75_full_hd_network_media_player/index.html

Mobile Related:

Sony VAIO VPCZ125GX 13.1-inch Notebook
QUOTE: “When you are dealing with a name like Sony, you know that you will pay a premium for the brand. Sony offers a wide variety of notebooks and other computers that are broken into machines for the consumer and machines for the business users. Today I am going to take a look at one of the machines for the business users out there.
The notebook on my test bench today is the Sony VAIO VPCZ125GX ultraportable. This machine is small and is physically only a bit larger than some of the big 12.1-inch netbooks I have tested recently. The main difference between the Sony VAIO VPCZ125GX and the netbooks that are close to its size is under the hood.”

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3507/sony_vaio_vpcz125gx_13_1_inch_notebook/index.html

OCIA.net has posted their review of the OtterBox Commuter and Defender Cases for iPhone 4.

“Over the past few weeks I have been to a rock concert and a college football game and on both occasions, I noticed several people using OtterBox cases for their iPhones. Their popularity has skyrocketed recently thanks to a deal with AT&T who now sells OtterBox cases in many of their retail stores. Today I will be taking a look at two new OtterBox cases for the recently released iPhone 4, the Defender and Commuter series.”

Direct Link: http://www.ocia.net/reviews/obiphone4/page1.shtml

How Much Space is Enough Space?

For me personally I prefer at least 32GB of storage. At least a few of you will gawk at this. 32GB is the largest amount of built-in storage available in any consumer phone today, so I must suffer from hardware gluttony right? While this my also be true, I want to defend my stance on 32GB. A phone is not just a phone anymore, and I don’t treat my phones as such for that very reason. I expect it to provide me with apps for organization and general productivity enhancement, entertainment in the form of music, videos, and games, and a camera/video recorder. All of these additional functions requires extra space, some requiring more than others. I think the majority of you will agree with me here since the poll shows 40% wanting at least 16GB and 60% saying they need at least 32GB like me.

http://android.mobilitydigest.com/how-much-space-is-enough-space/

Cooler Master USNA 95 Ultra Slim Notebook Adapter Review @ ThinkComputers.org

Review URL: http://www.thinkcomputers.org/cooler-master-usna-95-ultra-slim-notebook-adapter-review/

Quote: “One thing that always seems to go on a laptop is the power adapter. I actually have 2 friends right now that have power adapters that are going bad. Replacing a power adapter is never fun and if you go directly through the manufacturer it can be quite costly. Today we will be taking a look at the Cooler Master USNA 95 Ultra Slim Notebook Adapter that is made for pretty much all laptops, has a USB power connector and let’s not forget but is the world’s smallest 95W adapter. Let’s take a look…”

Assorted Stuffs:

Enabling Auto-Logon and the Administrator Account in Vista & 7 @ Techgage

Link: http://techgage.com/article/enabling_auto-logon_and_the_administrator_account_in_vista_7/

Quote: Have you ever wanted to create an automatic logon for your Windows PC but couldn’t find the option to do so? Or, on the disruptive side, have you ever found yourself without administrative access? We have… far too many times, and have decided to produce an article that offers up a slew of different ways to take care of both tasks.

TRENDnet TEW-691GR 450Mbps WiFi-N Router @ Benchmark Reviews

DESCRIPTION: Wireless-N routers are quickly making its way through the industry, providing a significant speed increase over previous wireless standards given you own a proper adapter. This time around TRENDnet releases one of the first 450Mbps Wireless-N Routers. Its raw power is attractive for any setting up a network shared by many users. The TRENDnet 450Mbps WiFi-N Gigabit Router does not come cheap, so Benchmark Reviews will dive in head-first to see if it’s worth the price.

ARTICLE URL: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=594&Itemid=70

Mafia II (PC) Game Review on Technic3D.

Review: Jenga (Hasbro Family Game Night) @ Xbox360Digest

The Babes of PAX 2010 @ [OC]ModShop

PAX10 Cosplay Gallery @ [OC]ModShop

SteelSeries Siberia V2 Full-Size Headset Unboxing Video @ eTeknix.com