Guitar Hero 5 Review: Better Than Ever, Eclectic Song Choices

I have to admit.  Guitar Hero has long lost its place as a staple on my gaming shelf ever since Rock Band 2 came out.   However, the franchise’s latest iteration, Guitar Hero 5, offers exactly what the title needs to win itself back in my favor.

Guitar Hero 5, for all intents and purposes, seems like a title that makes the game simple again.  As such, it’s probably the most approachable release of the series, which you can enjoy fully the moment you pop it into your console.

Every single song in the game, for one, is available via Quickplay mode – no need to punch in unlock codes or accomplish numerous hurdles.  In Career mode, you can easily switch between instruments without having to restart the game.   The drop-in, drop-out Party Play Mode is simply brilliant, allowing you to jump into any song playing in the background.  Overall, it’s just a less-complicated game to manage, allowing you to do what you want without wading through levels of menus.

Multiplayer is also much improved.  The retarded Boss Battles and attack options have been shelved, in favor of more play-worthy competitive modes.  You can also have multiple players on the same instrument, which solves a problem when everyone wants to play the freaking guitar part.  Star Power meters are also individual now, which means your retarded bandmates no longer have to mess up your game.

The game comes with 85 songs, which is nice.  However, the wide variety means you’ll find a lot of songs you really don’t like.  As such, you will likely settle into a few ditties that you’d like to play over and over – a proposition that should get boring after a while.

Regardless of the song choices, I’m excited for the future of the franchise.  Guitar Hero 5 has “remastered” the game into a simpler, more accessible one, making it better than ever.

Soundcast Outcast Junior: Terrific-Sounding, Rugged Outdoor Speakers

If you have a large area in your backyard and wish to outfit it with music, the Soundcast Outcast Junior may be worth looking into.  Smaller than the full-sized Outcast model, the Junior stands 19.5 inches tall, so it should prove a bit easier to carry around, in case you want to take it along for a camping trip or a day at the beach.

The Outcast Junior’s looks aren’t the most exciting.  In fact, it looks like an awkward stool-shaped air purifier, more than anything else.  Do note that the form was borne out of the need to lend the device with rugged capabilities.  It’s made of water resistant plastic, with sealable inputs and ports, allowing it to last through all kinds of weather.  The protruding feet and hefty 8.2kg weight allows it to stand firmly on the ground.

Since the speakers are designed for outdoor use, it comes with a variety of power options, including rechargeable internal batteries, a car converter lead and a mains adapter.  The system is easy to understand and don’t foster any learning curve to use.

It’s important to note that the Outcast Junior can’t play music on its own.  Hardware setup consists of a built-in 60W amplifier, a down-firing 6.5-inch woofer, four omni-directional drivers and a wireless receiver that can take streamed music from either a UAT or an iCast transmitter, two products that are also proprietary to Soundcast Systems.  The transmitters can take audio from any music source, including iPods, PCs and home audio systems, delivering the output to multiple units of Outcast Junior.  Alternatively, you can plug in a music player to the Junior’s 3.5mm jack

Overall sound quality is very impressive.  It’s music you listen to, more than just background fodder for outdoor activities.  Audio detail is never lost even at the most extreme volumes.  It has a wireless range of 350 feet, although performance is expectedly better, the closer it is to the transmitter.

All-weather performance, great sound quality and workable portability makes the Soundcast Outcast Junior a terrific outdoor speaker.  If you can afford the $500 price tag, it should prove a better option than another one of those cheap, underpowered portable output systems.

3D PS3 Shown Off At IFA, Apparently Works

You have, no doubt, heard about Sony’s 3D plans for the Playstation 3.  Today, they have the whole thing showing off at a booth at the IFA in Berlin.  Being nowhere near Germany, all we can do is live vicariously through other’s accounts – it’s reportedly awesome.

The whole thing works, as has been Sony’s never-ending modus operandi, in a proprietary manner.  That’s no surprise.  What seems amazing is that the whole thing appears to work so seamlessly and with little set-up.

According tp the reports, the setup involves a regular unmodified Playstation 3 console (both the fat and skinny ones will do), any PS3 title you pick up at GameStop, a new 3D Bravia TV (which is set for release at the end of 2010) and a pair of 3D glasses.   The PS3 is hooked up to the TV by HDMI, the game is popped in the slot, you put on the glasses and that’s it – you’re killing enemy soldiers in 1080p-quality Call Of Duty like they were right in front of you.  Damn.

Sony claims the system will work on all existing PS3 games (only games, not movies, by the way).  It’s a lofty intention and it’s one we hope will come into fruition.  Can you imagine how madly that will change the gaming landscape?

As we noted earlier, the system (using the 3D Bravia) is being prepped for a fourth quarter 2010 release.  Sony’s long-term plans, however, involve outfitting the 3D capability on the PS3 itself, allowing it to provide the life-like quality to ordinary HDTVs.

I can’t believe it either, but Sony seems poised to reassert the Playstation’s role as the alpha console on the block.  With the price drop, the PS3 Slim and this upcoming 3D system, the console wars really is about to heat up.

Olympus FE-3010: Great Looks, Super Compact, Torturous Shutter Lag

The Olympus FE-3010 belongs in that ultra-compact class of point-and-shoot cameras.  I’ve always been a bit wary of that specific category, largely because a good camera module rarely fits in the smallest package.  Everyone who’s ever used a high-megapixel cell phone should know that.

A device like the FE-3010 makes sense if you want a low-cost, super small and very lightweight shooter.  Like that description suggests, the device doesn’t offer the best performance.  While it can manage decent photos in well-lit non-action situations, anything that offers more difficulty sees that quality deteriorate fast.

It measures 3.7 x 2.2 x 0.7 inches and weighs a trim 4.4 ounces.  Specs include 12 megapixel optics, 3x optical zoom, a 2.7-inch LCD and VGA camcorder at 30 fps.  There’s no mechanical stabilization, only digital, so the photos may not be useful for uses other than personal (e.g. social networking profiles, family photographs).

The FE-3010′s best features are all on the surface – the physical design, the controls and the UI.  It’s a camera you can slip into the front pocket of old, too-tight-around-the-waist jeans, all while looking particularly good.

You get a fair amount of options during shots (various recording modes, focus modes, white balance settings and a couple more), but it skips color effects and burst mode.  Anyone who gets this camera isn’t likely the type to want to fiddle with plenty of settings anyway, so it’s a good fit.  Stills, like we said early, are below average for point-and-shoots, but is largely expected for this class of devices.  The shutter lag is particularly troubling, though (close to one second on outdoor shots).

Considering its $130 price tag, it’s not fair to expect all that much from the Olympus FE-3010.  You get what you pay for, though – a nice-looking ultra-compact with sub-standard shooting quality.  Now, if only Olympus can completely ditch the xD card love affair and fix the ridiculous lag, then all the world will be right.

Autograph Makes The Pogo Stylus Useful

Hahaha! Did you laugh at the unfortunate Pogo Stylus accessory for the iPhone too?  Well, Ten One, the guys behind the ridiculous peripheral probably heard it.  Instead of ditching the product, though, they actually made it useful.  Wow.

If you don’t remember it, the Pogo is a small stick with conductive foam on the writing end.  You were supposed to use that end to write on your iPhone screen.  Since none of us did, they created a new use for it and this one’s pretty cool.

Basically, what you have to do is get a Mac software called Autograph.  Once that is running, you can then use your Pogo Stylus to scribble stuff on your computer via the touchpad of any unibody MacBook.  The stuff you write is accurately rendered on the screen, allowing you to scribble on the touchpad like it’s a piece of paper with the results showing directly on Autograph’s screen.

The main selling point is a newfound ability to sign documents on your PC, without having to print, scan or fax anything.  It works in tons of OS X-based applications, include Word, Pages, Mail, iChat and many more, so you can adorn documents and pages you create with as many silly, little doodles as you want.

Pogo Stylus units, by the way, now cost only $7.50 on Amazon and they come with a free download of the software.  Alternatively, you can buy just the software for $7 directly from the site.

Samsung Jet: Great Multimedia Performance, Awesome Price

The Samsung Jet is arguably one of the best feature phones around.  Yep, this high-profile handset isn’t a smartphone, yet packs a hardware suite that can put most handsets in that category to shame.

Speed was Samsung’s main battle call for the Jet, as it packs a hefty 800Mhz CPU in the guts.  Despite the processing power, the phone doesn’t appear to be any faster than most other high-end phones.  I blame Symbian for this – and probably a little on Samsung too.

Now that running like a speed monster is out of the way, we can now focus on the rest of the handset’s features, of which it packs plenty.  The 3.1-inch display, for one, is gorgeous on an 800 x 480 resolution.  Despite being resistive, touch response is well-implemented, making for an extremely usable phone, regardless of what you’re looking to do.

We loved the onboard media player, handling a wide variety of music and video formats, including almost every MPEG-4, H.263 and DivX file we threw at it.  There are plenty of options to fiddle with, making the multimedia experience a largely complete one.

The 5.0 megapixel camera is also mighty impressive, with above-average quality in both stills and videos – a combination we rarely find in modern camera phones.  There’s a good amount of shutter lag, however, but the quality more than makes up for it.

It supports a wide range of internet connectivity.  Those we tested (Wi-Fi and 3.2Mbps HSDPA) offered great performance, loading pages capably.  It’s not the fastest we’ve tried, but you won’t hear me complaining.  It comes with a new tab-enabled full HTML browser that lets you surf up to five websites at a time, a big deal since we rarely see phones with the capability.

As a phone, phone and video calls were great, although battery performance hinges on the average.  Other features of the handset include aGPS, a built-in radio, stereo Bluetooth and microSDHC expansion.

Overall, I like the Samsung Jet a lot.  It’s even priced very competitively, making it a good option for those in search of a multimedia phone.

Nokia Booklet 3G Specs Are Out, Just A Connected Netbook After All

After last week’s hype about the Nokia Booklet 3G, the “mini-laptop” finally had its specs detailed in an official way.  The verdict: it’s just a netbook, alright (and an under-powered one, at that).

Touting slim lines and a MacBook-like aluminum unibody, it’s one good-looking piece of hardware.  Regardless, hot looks getting priced to the hilt only works when your name is Apple.  Unfortunately, Nokia didn’t heed the warning.

Core specs consist of a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, Intel Poulsbo US15W chipset, 1GB of non-expandable RAM and a 120GB HDD.  Other hardware features include a 10.1-inch LCD with 1280 x 720 resolution, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, an onboard accelerometer and the usual set of ports (USB, audio, SD card).  Connectivity is largely what sets the machine apart, offering aGPS, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and a 3G modem.

Battery is of particular note here, as Nokia claims an operating life of 12 hours.  While that claim is being contended by many, it’s important to note that the device will likely be used as a work computer, instead of a multimedia machine.  As such, lasting for that long might actually make sense.

Overall, high expectations came plummeting down the ground as soon as Nokia announced pricing for the Booklet 3G.  According to the company, it will be going for  €575 ($818) before subsidies and taxes.  Even with all the extra connectivity hardware, that’s still a mighty tough sell.  Good luck next time.

LG LHB953 Blu-ray HTIB Review: Great Value For Money

Looking for an HTIB system that brings a lot of value for your money.  Take a gander at the LG LHB953, which bundles a Blu-ray player with streaming media capabilities and a 5.1-channel surround sound system.

While Blu-ray HTIBs didn’t seem to make sense at the start, it sure sounds mighty appealing now.  The LHB953 offers one of the best bundles in the bunch, throwing in unparalleled options for streaming content, along with the usual BD playback and home theater audio package.

The included speaker package consists of four identical small units, a larger center channel and a subwoofer.  While the design is decent, especially for a system with this price tag, there are some issues worth mentioning.  The speakers are generally larger than competing systems (all five channels), while the woofer is about average size.  For the front/surround channels, the jack is slotted at the bottom (right on the stand), which can create problems when you’re rearranging the system.  There’s no wireless option for the rear speakers.

Setup is extremely easy (it’s completely manual, though) with the help of the onscreen display.  You’re not likely to encounter any problems here – just follow instructions and you’ll be done in no time.  Even better, you can run this setup any time without having to dig through the settings, so changing the audio experience is always just a quick click away.

The bundled Blu-ray player is not as full-featured as LG’s standalone systems.  Regardless, it plays BD content, supports streaming media (including Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, and CinemaNow), works with a wide variety of music and video content, rocks USB storage support and even comes with a slide-out iPod dock.  It’s everything a humble home theater needs – with a few nice extras.  There are no video inputs available, so you can’t run content of a separate box through the system directly.

Overall system performance was great.  Sound was powerful and dynamic on both movies and music, while Blu-ray playback quality is almost a mirror of that on standalone BD players.  Priced as low as $430 from some retailers, the LG LHB953 is one of the best-value HTIB systems around.  If you have modest needs and want a Blu-ray player in tow, it’s possibly one of the top three choices you can find.

Asus UX50V Review: Super-Slim, Not So Light And Largely Average

While Asus is largely known for their “value-for-money” computers, the company has not been one to steer clear of stylish units either.  The latest of their fashionable efforts is a 15.6-inch laptop called the Asus UX50V, which marries ultra-slim lines with a low-voltage CPU.

The machine is as predictable as any of the recent slim-and-light notebooks we’ve recently seen.  Hardware details include a choice of low-power CPUs (choice of a 1.4GHz Intel SU3500 Core 2 Solo or an Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300), integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD chipset, discrete Nvidia Geforce G105M graphics, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD.

With specs like that, you can’t really expect much out of the machine.  It breezes through most regular applications, especially those you’ll encounter performing daily office tasks.  It can even manage 720p video playback and a few gaming talents, most of which look good on the bright and glossy LCD screen with a 1366 x 768 resolution.  Don’t try pushing it, though – the machine’s just gonna tip over.

As with other slim portable computers, the UX50V comes with a very appealing design, measuring 29mm at its thinnest point.  The majority of ports have been relegated to the back of the unit, which helps preserve the laptop’s flowing lines; only a USB port, an SD card slot and a Wi-Fi button sit on the left side; the right side rocks a full-featured DVD writer.  Of course, this makes plugging and removing accessories more difficult than it has to.  Aaah, the things we do for style.

The chiclet-style keyboard is good, but it takes some getting used to.  I’m sure many will appreciate the addition of the number pad, but it leaves things a little too tight, in my opinion.  The touch pad is excellent, as well.

Overall, the Asus UX50V is a nice-looking, moderately capable laptop.  It’s a bit heavier than most ultraportables (5.5 lbs), but comes in just a tad thinner.  Priced at $1,149, it’s an interesting purchase with some heavy competition.  While I think this machine can hold its own, it pales a little next to a few similar units, such as the Dell Studio 15.

OS X Snow Leopard Review: Amazing Changes Under The Surface

The OS X Snow Leopard doesn’t offer anything considerably substantial – at first glance.  There are no new first-party software installed and no major interface changes.

In fact, it’s almost the same exact system as the Leopard, except with all the default applications running considerably faster.  From opening files to running web apps on Safari  to carrying out a system-wide backup, the whole thing just performs better, in very, very noticeable terms.

Don’t expect the same speed reflected on any non-Apple software you run, though.  Photoshop?  Almost zero difference.  Firefox?  Still the same thing.  VLC?  No change.  Now, why the hell is that?

As it turns out, the new OS comes with a new middleware that takes full advantage of the machine’s hardware, with a multi-core processor called Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) and OpenCL API that utilize the power in the graphics card to great effect.  All the rewritten first-party programs use these middle components to foster the speed differences, which easily clock in between 30% to 50% across all first-party applications.

Since most people are not likely to be running very old computers, I doubt the speed gains are all that crucial.  I mean, did you ever complain that “this spreadsheet is so slow” while using Leopard?  Probably not.  The refinements are invisible to the naked eye and, in fact, may even be overlooked by many users, who will likely exclaim, “So what the heck did I pay that money for again?”

With that middleware in place, though, OS X now holds the potential for amazing performance for future applications.  That’s the key word, though – future.  As impressive as what Apple has done here, you can probably forego getting Snow Leopard without missing a thing.  At least for now.