Altec Lansing has been manufacturing computer and home audio speakers for quite a long time now.  As a previous owner of Altec Lansing’s ACS54 4.1 multimedia speaker system, I can safely say from experience that Altec Lansing manufactures high quality speakers that produce great sound at very affordable prices. Today, we will be taking a glimpse at Altec Lansing’s latest speaker series, the VS series.  The speakers I will be taking a look at is a 5.1 speaker setup.  A 5.1 setup includes two front channel speakers, two rear channel speakers, a center channel, and a subwoofer.  As these speakers provide surround sound, it makes it ideal for music, movies, and especially games. 

Logitech has been the leader when in comes to mice and keyboards.  When Logitech recently launched their new keyboard, I was a bit confused as to where these would fall relative to the MX series. Today, I will be looking at two products: the Logitech LX 501 Cordless Desktop and the Media Keyboard. In Logitech’s press release, they announced the LX 501, LX 500, LX 300 Desktop series as well as the Media Keyboard.  The LX 300 desktop isn’t released until mid-September, but we can only imagine it will be very similar to the LX500 and LX501.  The only difference between the LX 501 and LX 500 is the color.  The LX 501 is white and the LX 500 is black.  Both of these desktop sets use the Media Keyboard which is the focus of this review. 

USB flash drives are incredibly small devices which contain flash memory to allow you store information such as pictures, music, documents, and even videos.  These tiny flash drives have even reached the capacity of 1GB so it can be easy to forget to bring it with you or even lose one. Today, I will be reviewing a product that attempts to integrate the capabilities of USB flash drive with a watch.  Although there is also another version, this watch is specifically meant for more formal occasions hence called the steel dress style.  Although the watch provided for review is only 32MB, we can still have a look at the performance of the flash drive integrated in the watch. 

As an avid gamer, I have played many types of computer games ranging from first person shooters (FPS) to real-time strategy games (RTS).  Unfortunately, I have to admit that I never really had the time to look into the online multiplayer role-playing genre.   These types of games can immediately be traced to popular game names such as Everquest or Ultima Online. Today, I will be reviewing an online multiplayer game published by NCSoft called City of Heroes.  Based on the name, you can immediately guess that this game involves super heroes of some kind. Just like other online multiplayer role-playing games (RPG’s), City of Heroes is a bit different than your usual PC game.  Most people are used to buying a game off the shelf and being able to play online for free with just a CD key of some sort.  City of Heroes is different in that it requires a monthly subscription to play. “Why would you want to pay a monthly fee for a game?” is the question that came up in my mind.  Let’s find out if this game is worth the cost.

The concept of being able to watch TV on your computer has been around for quite some time now.  In fact, there are already quite a few TV cards available in the market today.  Some of the more well known brands include Hauppauge as well as ATI.  ATI’s TV tuners can be found separately in the ATI TV Wonder series or integrated in video cards in ATI’s All-In-Wonder series. Unfortunately, the idea has not been as appealing to consumers due to several reasons.   First of all, if you were to compare the picture quality on the same standard TV signal, you would immediately notice that picture quality looks better on a regular TV as opposed to a computer screen.  This is because the TV signal is not quite appropriate with the resolution on a computer monitor.  In addition, there isn’t much visibility of these kinds of products in a retail store because you rarely see a computer demonstrating TV capabilities on a computer. Companies have taken a slightly different route with the introduction of LCD screens with built-in TV tuners.  This is great in bringing awareness of being able to watch TV on your computer, but it still has the same poor picture quality. Today, I will be reviewing a revolutionary product that attempts to change the TV-viewing experience on your computer.  It is called the ATI HDTV Wonder.  HDTV technology is starting to become standard in the latest types of digital televisions costing upwards of thousands of dollars.  Now ATI is bringing the same experience of HDTV to the computer user with their HDTV Wonder package which retails for $200. 

Hard disk drives are getting larger and larger every year and they’re also getting cheaper. I know that I require a lot of hard drive space on my computer, but have you ever thought about how much space is too much? Today, I will be reviewing the Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 hard drive.  Hitachi is proud to crown this drive their king of hard drives.  That’s because this hard drive is capable of holding a whopping 400GB of data.  As the box states, this drive is intended for gaming, home office, digital photography, and video editing.  In addition, this drive was also intended for digital video recording so you can store large amounts of high quality digital video. This drive uses the Serial ATA which will be main focus of the review.  You are probably aware of the current ATA standards such as ATA100/133.  The next standard trying to be pushed into the consumer market is Serial ATA since we are seeing more of those drives available on retail shelves.  This review will inform you on the basics of Serial ATA technology.  You will learn the main differences between regular ATA and how Serial ATA might benefit you on the purchase of your next hard drive. 

If you are a mobile user who likes to carry a lot of peripherals or accessories around your laptop, finding the right bag can sometimes be a bit annoying.  There are plenty of those one-shoulder type of bags that are typically rectangular.  The problem with those is that they have limited space for your extra accessories and they do become bulky easily considering that you are carrying a lot of weight on a single shoulder.  Spire, a laptop bag manufacturer, has taken a different route with laptop bags.  They have combined the typical two-shouldered backpack that is capable of securely carrying a laptop as well as all the extra accessories.  As a more standard two-shouldered backpack, there are several things that come to mind.  First, it makes it less obvious that you're carrying a laptop since it looks like a normal backpack.  Second, already mentioned, is that a two-shouldered backpack can easily hold much more items while still at ease to use. Today, I will be reviewing a two-shouldered laptop backpack from a company called Spire.  It is called the Fuse backpack.  This backpack, according to Spire's website, retails for $140.  This is quite expensive for a normal backpack, but the price is a bit more expensive than the average laptop bag.  Let's find out if Spire has created a product that is worthy for your laptop.

USB flash drives have been around for quite a while now.  Many companies now manufacture their own USB flash drives in common sizes such as 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, or even 1GB.  The difficulty in making a USB flash drive is trying to differentiate it from the many competitors that exist in the market.  It is difficult because there is only so much that you can do to make your own flash drive different.  The main factors involve the size, style, and the speed of the drive. Today, we will be reviewing Sandisk’s flagship USB flash drive that attempts to be different from the others.  From the name of the product, you immediately know it has Titanium of some sort, a very strong metal that you can predict will make the product much more durable.  Although Sandisk makes other flash drives such as the Cruzer mini and micro, this product is supposedly faster than both. In this review, we’ll find out if it has what it takes to stand above the rest of the flash drives. 

Canon is known worldwide for their excellence in digital imaging. This can easily be seen in the quality of their digital cameras and printers. They have been able to bring their technologies into the realm of consumer scanners. Today, I will be reviewing the Canon LiDE 50 Color Image Scanner. At the retail price of $99.99 (according to Canon’s website), this product is aimed toward individuals looking for a non-bulky scanner without the compromise in performance.

With the popularity and success of Apple’s iPod, other companies have come to join in the fun with their own hard drive based MP3 players.  One of the main attractions in owning a hard drive based MP3 player is that you can store tons of music of files on the device.  There are currently iPods capable of carrying up to 40GB of data! Today, I will be taking a look at the 20GB version of JetAudio’s iAUDIO M3.  Although this is the company’s first hard drive based MP3 player, they have had enormous success with their flash based players such as the CW200 and CW300. If you haven’t heard of JetAudio, don’t be surprised.  Based on the Korean company Cowon Systems, JetAudio was established in the US in September of 2000.  The company primarily focuses on MP3 hardware devices such as the one I will be reviewing today as well as their JetAudio multimedia software.