In general, there hasn't been any headphone innovations for many years now.  You have your typical headphones which have the usual 2 speakers, one on the left and one on the right with a band usually on top of your head.  Companies have produced alternative headphones.  For instance, I have seen more portable solutions where the band wraps behind your head instead of the top of your head.  Also, there have been improvements in sound quality while still keeping headphones very affordable.  Today, I will be reviewing the LTB 5.1 channel USB headphones.  Yes, that's right, headphones which incorporate 5.1 channel sound technology.  What is also interesting about these headphones is that it connects with a USB port rather than the typical microphone jack on the back of your sound card. When dealing with 5.1 channel sound technology, we immediately associate it with surround sound. In this review, we will examine these headphones in terms of sound quality, directional sound, and how well these headphones work with a USB port. 

Being able to watch TV on your computer has not been a new concept.  It's been around for quite a while now.  T'he main reasons it has not been adopted by many people is because of the poor picture quality as well as software usability.  One of the reasons behind the poor picture quality has to do with the idea that a computer monitor has a much higher resolution than a TV.  In addition, there are other notable problems regarding picture quality.  The picture quality looks a bit noisy sometimes, the colors bleed, etc., which makes it a poor experience.  With the release of the Theatre 550 Pro chip from ATI, the goal is to bring the same home theatre experience to your computer.  These include features like stereo TV sound and radio and most important of all, a 3D comb filter and noise reduction to improve the picture quality. 

One relatively unsaid topic regarding TV's is the quality of the sound that comes from the speakers built in your television.  The same can be said for LCD monitors that have built in speakers as well.  When buying a TV, people mainly place a priority on the picture quality rather than the sound.  If the picture quality on the TV is good or excellent, there is no doubt the TV will be purchased as long as it is affordable and sounds decent to the consumer.  Compared with dedicated stereo or home-theatre speakers, the sound that comes from a TV is no comparison. Today, we will be having a look at a unique solution that attempts to provide a better sound solution for your TV.  It is called the Zvox 315.  In general, it is a speaker that you place on top of your television to replace or go with the built in speakers of your TV.  One might ask how it can offer better sound.  For one thing, a dedicated speaker can offer a much fuller range of sound making things sound richer and clearer.  In this review, we will answer several questions that include whether it sounds good and whether it is easy to connect to your TV, or even your computer! 

An external hard drive is simply an internal hard drive with an enclosure.  What makes them useful is that they are simply portable. Rather than having to constantly open up the case of your computer, you can just simply lift and carry it with you.  This makes it ideal for those who would like a portable drive which can hold their large files. Although the functionality of external hard drives are the same, companies still have several ways to differentiate their drive from others.  One factor is the design of the enclosure.  Several questions we might ask is whether it looks good or whether it dissipates heat well.  Another important factor is the interface.  For example, some external drives offer USB 2.0, while some are more flexible providing both USB 2.0 and Firewire.  Lastly, is the performance of the drive.  The typical consumer can only predict or have some expectation about the performance.  What we really want to know is how well this drive performs in comparison to other devices. Today, I will be reviewing the Ximeta Netdisk.  This is essentially an external hard drive, but what makes this uniquely different from others is that this can be plugged into a local area network and be able to share the drive with others on the network.  By sharing the drive on a network, it can allow one user to "dump" files onto the drive and allow another person on the network to retrieve it.  We will explore its networking capabilities as well as examining the performance of the drive. 

There is a huge market for conversion of “legacy” formats to the current digital way of putting information down. I’m not talking about software on diskettes but particularly personal documentation in the form of video, film and other means. I‘ve got hundreds of VHS videos and a large number of spools of Super 8 film that I want to digitize and make accessible for my kids by putting them on DVDs. There wasn’t an easy way of converting analogue info until I came across Directors Cut 2 from Miglia. To see what this magic box can do in the area of analogue to digital conversion, read on. 

When referring to laptops, most people think of common brands such as Dell, Gateway, or Toshiba.  Have you heard of the company Portable One?  Probably not.  Most people have probably not heard of the company Portable One when talking about laptops because you generally don't see other consumers have them.  This is related to the idea of why you don't see that many consumers have IBM laptops as well.  That's because the customers who buy these laptops are generally corporate or even military users.  In general, these laptops are much more expensive than your typical consumer laptop. Today, I will be reviewing the Portable One MX.  When I first went to Portable One's website to look at pictures and specifications of the product, I immediately knew that this was no ordinary laptop.  Its sleek design while having high end performance features definitely make this a unique laptop on its own.

An external hard drive is simply an internal hard drive with an enclosure.  What makes them useful is that they are simply portable. Rather than having to constantly open up the case of your computer, you can just simply lift and carry it with you.  This makes it ideal for those who would like a portable drive which can hold their large files. Although the functionality of external hard drives are the same, companies still have several ways to differentiate their drive from others.  One factor is the design of the enclosure.  Several questions we might ask is whether it looks good or whether it dissipates heat well.  Another important factor is the interface.  For example, some external drives offer USB 2.0, while some are more flexible providing both USB 2.0 and Firewire.  Lastly, is the performance of the drive.  The typical consumer can only predict or have some expectation about the performance.  What we really want to know is how well this drive performs in comparison to other devices. Today, I will be reviewing the Apricorn EZ Bust DT.  This is essentially an external hard drive.  Unlike Ximeta's Netdisk which I have reviewed recently, this is a standalone external desktop drive which is meant to be used as storage or for backup. 

Ever wanted to have an extra pair of eyes when flying? Someone who alerts you to conflicting traffic even when an overtaking aircraft is outside your normal line of vision? You need a TCAS system for that, just like the airlines have. Or, if you budget doesn’t stretch past the 300 dollar mark you can opt for the very capable TS Micro from SureCheck.

About 10 months ago we reviewed version 7.3 of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. We were quite impressed with the package even though it struggled with my curious mix of Dutch, American and Australian accents. When ScanSoft announced that the new version would have a much improved accuracy rate I was keen to try this one out. We reviewed the Preferred Edition which includes all the features that the Standard Edition has but also works with Microsoft Excel, has voice playback, correction and proofing. DNS8 will insert your signature, logo or boilerplate text in a file with a simple voice command and includes ScanSoft RealSpeak for turning text into human sounding synthesised speech. And of course, it can import and convert recordings from Palm handhelds as well as Pocket PCs and other digital recorders. 

With the beautiful and elegant design of the iPod, it can be difficult finding the perfect case.  A leather case can easily make it much bulkier and might not retain the 'cool' appearance of the iPod.  Today, I will be reviewing the iSkin eVo2 case for the iPod.  Unlike the materials you'd might expect in typical cases, the iSkin eVo2 is entirely made out of silicone.  As a flexible material, let's find out if this case has what it takes to maintain the elegance and functionality of the iPod.