3rd Space FPS Vest Review: Better Gaming Realism, Poor Compatibility

We like the 3rd Space FPS Vest.  In fact, it’s one of the most creative ideas in gaming we’ve heard of in a while.  Unfortunately, it works with such a small number of titles that it’s barely usable.

What exactly is it?  The 3rd Space FPS Vest is a wearable peripheral designed for first-person shooters, designed to mimic the feel of actually being hit during the thick of battle.   It interfaces with the game via USB, while the air is pumped inside by an attached compressor, connected to the vest with an air hose.  The compressor is small, so it doesn’t take any undue space.

The 3rd Space vest packs eight “active zones,” each of which fires compressed air whenever you get shot.  Six of the spots are in front while the other two are in the back.  It’s not exactly the most realistic simulation available, but it works well enough.

Used with the games it’s compatible with, the accessory works really good.  Shot in the chest? Bang, you’ll feel it hard.  Standing in the middle of a grenade explosion?  You’ll rattle a bit as all eight zones let you feel the hurt.

The real problem with the vest is the narrow range of compatible games.  At present, it only works with the PC, which immediately rules out a good slice of the FPS-gaming piece.  It gets worse.  Even on the PC, it only works with COD II (yes, great game, but freaking old), Quake 3 and 4 (requires patch), Doom 3 (requires patch) and 3rd Space: Incursion (the company’s own game).  That’s a very thin list to pick from and makes the peripheral less useful than it really should be.

As of now, the 3rd Space FPS Vest is a great idea with very poor implementation.  This thing could have been a serious bestseller if they only kept it in the lab while working to support more games.  As it is now, it’s largely a cool peripheral that won’t likely get used more than  a couple of times.

New Linux-Based OS, iPhone 3GS Guts And Multi-Tasking Could Make The Nokia N900 The Finnish Company’s Best Phone Yet

While the N97 is officially Nokia’s flagship phone, it’s fair to say that the high-end handset isn’t exactly their most exciting model around.  With  a souped-up hardware set and a fresh operating system at the helm, the Nokia N900 could potentially take its place.

Sporting the company’s new Maemo 5 OS, the device comes with multi-tasking capabilities and up to 768MB of virtual memory, which it uses as additional RAM.  Core hardware ticks off the same specs list as the iPhone 3GS, boasting a 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, 256MB of RAM and a PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support.

Originally rumored as a mini-tablet instead of a phone, the N900 touts a side-sliding QWERTY keypad and a 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD with 800 x 480 pixels of resolution.  Hardware specs include 5-megapixel optics with autofocus, a GPS radio (with Ovi Maps preinstalled), 32GB of built-in storage, microSDHC expansion, an FM tuner, stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a 1320 mAh battery unit.

It comes with extensive media capabilities (including DivX and XviD) with an accompanying TV out, a Mozilla-based full HTML browser with Flash 9.4. Connectivity support includes quad-band GSM and tri-band WCDMA.

The Nokia N900 is, without a doubt, the Finnish company’s best phone on paper.  However, that’s what they said about the N97 too, but look how that turned out.  If Maemo 5 proves a better smartphone OS than the Symbian S60, then that will be proven.  It’s set for release in October with an estimated 500 Euro price tag.

Emtec Movie Cube P800 Review: Versatile But Lacking

On paper, the Emtec Movie Cube P800 seems like a solid set-top box, with a good range of touted functionalities.  In actual use, however, it’s a largely half-assed implementation, salvaged only by the number of things it can do.

Small and silent, it comes with a good set of both analog and digital connectors, several USB ports, a multi-card slot, a hard disk bay and Ethernet connectivity.  As such, it serves to record more than just TV shows, doubling as a media center all on its own.  While being versatile does have its charms, it’s hardly the guarantee that the device can actually perform to decent standards.

The TV recording feature works well enough,  handling both analog and digital programs.  Hit a single button and it will immediately start recording whatever you’re watching, all of which you can set in the background.  It comes with scheduled recordings, but gives it one of the most ridiculously backward facilities available, requiring you to enter everything, including the length of time it will record – just like you used to do back in the days of the VCR.

Fitted with plenty of storage options, you can browse through the connected file systems to find things you want to watch.  Instead of the sleek MediaFlow-style UI that’s become the norm for most media boxes, the P800 lets you wade through the mess folder by painstaking folder.  It can get quite frustrating if you’ve got several levels of content on large hard disks, so it’s not the most efficient system around.

File support is decent, only refusing playback of WMV files out of my hard disk’s wide and varied collection.  You can also get it to play internet radio and HD-quality video, although resolution tops out at 1080i.  Quality is about average – nothing special nor particularly bad.

Overall, the Emtec Movie Cube P800 is a decent and affordable media box.  If you can live with the nominal UI, then it should offer a good choice.  Do note that it’s running Realtek Linux and is wide open for modding, which is something a lot of people who bought it are doing.  Could be interesting.

Nokia 6710 Navigator Review: Best GPS-Phone Package Around

While the Nokia 6710 Navigator isn’t the highest-profile phone around, it’s probably the best GPS phone package available today.  That’s right, you are more than likely better off choosing it over competitors, such as the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone and the HTC Cruise.

It can handle most any type of location-based feature you need, with its hardware trio of a GPS radio, a compass and an accelerometer.  GPS controls are great, especially with the dedicated Maps button and the zoom bar.  It comes bundled with a lifetime license of Nokia Maps 3.0, giving you guided navigation right out of the box, along with a suction stand (for the dashboard) and a car charger.  The software is pretty good, with detailed map coverage, although the license doesn’t come with the extra features (e.g. traffic updates).

What makes the 6710 a particularly great package, however, is that it’s a solid phone even without the GPS features.  Running on a 600MHz ARM 11 processor, it’s exceptionally fast for a Symbian handset.  Build is solid and the 2.6-inch display is bright and crisp (although some of you may be turned off with the relatively smaller size).

As a phone, the 6710 offers great voice reception.  Even better, they made sure the speakerphone was topnotch, allowing you to use it in-car even without using Bluetooth.  Messaging is complete – SMS, MMS, IM (Ovi Messenger is preinstalled) and email (almost every protocol and platform imaginable, except Blackberry Connect, is supported).

It’s pretty heavy on the features end.  You get a 5.0 megapixel camera module with good quality, XpressMusic-level audio quality, full HTML browsing with expansive Flash support, Wi-Fi and 3G speeds.

Overall, the Nokia 6710 Navigator is one of the Finnish company’s best releases of late. If you can live with the smaller screen, it should as the best hardware to spend that cash you’ve been saving up for a GPS-phone.

GI Joe: Rise Of Cobra Review – Another Movie Tie-In, Another Bad Game

Video games with movie tie-ins aren’t exactly the type of releases that make me giddy.  In fact, hearing about new ones make me groan.  There wasn’t any reason to expect G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra to be any different and, well, it really isn’t.

Not that the game featuring America’s highly-trained special missions force is all bad.  The action gameplay is fun (especially in two-player team mode), there are plenty of features for the franchise’s longtime fans (from the original cartoon theme to unlockable PSAs to secret characters) and excellent character diversity (Double Helix created four groups, namely Commando, Combat Soldiers, and Heavy Weapons).

While the action is fun, holding down the fire button as your character goes around in circles can get tiring after a few levels.  Occasionally, the monotony gets broken with a vehicle level (with ridiculous driving physics) and a couple of mini-games, but it’s really just a never-ending shoot-em-all that goes over and over across three (yes, just three) different environments.  To top it all off, the graphics were poor PS2-level (I played with the Xbox 360 on an HDTV) and voice acting was borderline ridiculous.

Will you have fun playing it?  For a few levels, especially with a partner, it is enjoyable.  At the price of a full game, though, there are probably a couple hundred titles you’d rather spend money on.  Hell, many downloadable games from Xbox Live even play better.

Rooting Your Android Phone Made One-Click Easy

A new application that surfaced on the Marketplace earlier this week now allows handset owners to open up their phones the same way that you jailbreak an iPhone.  Of course, it’s been taken out of the storefront by now, but dozens of mirrors are still available online.  That means you can perform custom OS upgrades, tether the phone to act as a modem and all sorts of other cool stuff without having to learn real hacking skills.

While a number of people have been rooting their phones without a commercial app for some time now, it’s an extremely dicey process.  If you don’t have the technical savvy to pull it off or just can’t afford to brick your phone, it’s always been better to keep your hands off.

With the release of Recovery Flasher, all you have to do is grab the software from the Marketplace, run it, tap the “Back up recovery image” command and then tap the “Flash Cyanogen Recovery 1.4.”  Congratulations, your phone is now rooted.

From there, you can now wipe off your dusty, old G1 interface to rock the HTC Hero’s gorgeous Sense UI.  Seriously, the work HTC put into customizing the OS is so extensive that it’s worth taking the risk of rooting your phone – especially now that an app does all the legwork for you.  If the admittedly-heavier Sense UI is not your cup of tea, you can choose from a plethora of numerous hyper-customized ROMs available from the online Android community.  From multi-touch to running app from SD cards to built-in tethering to faster builds, you can change your entire phone experience.

Do note that Recovery Flasher is only guaranteed to work for US-issued G1 and HTC Magic phones.  Those who got their phones elsewhere will need to wait a little longer or flash their phones the hard way.  Also make sure you do it soon, before the exploit gets patched.

Corel Home Office: The Perfect Office Suite For Netbooks

Is there really a market for an alternative to Microsoft Office?  Corel thinks so.  To make sure you get the message, the UI of their Corel Home Office mirrors MS Office 2007.   That should work.

What really makes Corel’s brand new productivity suite stand out, however, is its single-minded purpose of running on netbooks.  The result is a light, modestly-sized system that should handle the majority of netbook users’ office needs.

Packing less features than MS Office, Corel Home Office is probably not for everyone.  If you’re like most users, though, who use only the most basic capabilities of Word, Excel and Powerpoint, Corel’s corresponding Write, Calculate and Show should provide everything you need, plus a little more.

Whether you use it Corel Home Office on a netbook, the software resizes proportionately, resizing buttons and screens to look good on the smaller 10-inch screen.  I actually enjoyed working on this much more than other Office apps for this feature alone.

The Write application poses zero learning curve for regular Word users, making it an attractive alternative.  Basic mailing and reference tools are bundled, although none as complete as found in its full-featured counterparts.  There’s also macros, charts and illustration tools, but the goodies end there.  One glaring flaw is when you paste rich content from the web – images, formatting and spacing are often stripped into a mess.

Calculate, on the other hand, offers strong for the most used features of spreadsheets – calculations, pivot tables, charts, illustrations and macros.  Compatibility can be an issue, though, as it doesn’t import everything correctly from other spreadsheet applications (some colors, highlights and, in one instance, computations end up missing).

The presentation software Show is quite basic compared to competing tools. It does handle the usual set of capabilities you expect, like slides, layouts, shapes, pictures, charts, colors and animated transitions.  Beyond that, however, don’t expect anything more.

If all you need is a light productivity suite, the Corel Home Office will do.  Do note that some cheaper (and even free) tools will also do.  If you use a small-screen netbook as a part of your regular work, though, it may prove to be a really good software to purchase.

Olympus Stylus Tough 8000: Extremely Durable But Slow

Bar none, the Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 is one of the most durable compacts around.  Able to survive drops of over six and a half feet and crushing weights of up to 220 lbs, it’s definitely the single most destruction-proof camera I’ve ever handled.  To go with the sturdy metal build and powerful shock absorption, it can also swim in depths of up to 33 feet and operate in freezing 14-degree Fahrenheit temperature.

But, of course, it has to manage great shots too, right?

With a 12-megapixel sensor, 3.6X optical zoom, dual image stabilization and a good set of shooting options, the Stylus Tough 8000 has everything you can ask for from a camera in its class.  From Intelligent Auto to Program Auto to scene modes specifically for outdoor activities, Olympus has prepared a complete device.

Image quality is good, but isn’t the best among point-and-shoots.  Noise begins to creep in as early as ISO 200, which is pretty limiting.  On low ISO settings, however, colors are gorgeous, with even exposure throughout.  It works best with plenty of light, so make sure you employ a bright flash during nighttime use.  Video capture at 30fps VGA resolution is decent for YouTube-type use.

One notable problem is the shutter lag (0.7 seconds on well-lit scenes), making this inadvisable if you’re planning to take plenty of action shots.  For photographing nature and slow-moving activities, though, it should be fine.

If you need an extra-rugged compact shooter, I can’t imagine anything better than the Olympus Stylus Tough 8000.  The extended durability and good set of options make it an attractive choice, provided that you plan to use it in bright scenes without extremely fast action.  You will need to look elsewhere, otherwise.

Sony Announces PS3 Slim, Introduces Price Cuts, Console Wars About To Get Ugly

The Sony PS3 has been in the losing end of the console wars for a while now.  However, diehards have always maintained that it was ahead of its time and will find its place on top once people are able to catch up with its more advanced hardware.  Well, that time could be soon, as a modified price point and a new slim version just made the machine considerably more enticing.

That’s right, long-running rumors of a PS3 Slim have now been confirmed by Sony, who unveiled the new machine this week.  Measuring 33 percent smaller and 36 percent lighter than the original PS3, it turns the bulky game console into a sleek-looking beauty.

Sporting a black matte finish (with glossy sides), the PS3 Slim comes with much of the same capabilities as its “fatter” predecessor, but completely ditches compatibility with PS2 titles.  It features new physical controls on the front panel, a swappable hard disk, quieter operation, better energy savings (it uses the power-sipping 45nm Cell processors) and a BRAVIA Sync feature that lets you control the machine via the TV remote.

Sony is pricing the 120GB Sony PS3 Slim at $299, making the PS3 arguably affordable for the first time during its entire lifecycle.  They also dropped the price of the 80GB PS3 to $299, which would make it less of an attraction, unless you’re looking for compatibility with PS2 games (which, I think, is a major selling point).

If you’ve been holding out from getting a PS3 because of the prohibitive costs, it might be a good time to begin considering it.  Price drops for existing “fat” PS3s are now effective, with the Sony PS3 Slim expected to hit store shelves beginning September 1.

Lenovo IdeaPad U350: Stylish, Low-Profile And Cheap

The Lenovo Ideapad U350 is the Chinese company’s official entry into the growing market of CULV-based notebooks that feature a thin and light form factor, as made popular by the MacBook Air.  As you can expect, it’s a great-looking piece of hardware that, somehow, manages to maintain a decidedly professional edge.

Fitted with 1.3GHz Pentium U2700, it features low power consumption along with the stylish profile.  Unfortunately, it’s also a bit underpowered.  Of course, those in search of more powerful thin-and-lights can always look towards Lenovo’s professional-grade Thinkpad T400.

While capable of running Windows Vista without choking nearly as bad as a 10-inch netbook, the U350 doesn’t necessarily overwhelm on the platform.  Other default core hardware specs include 2GB of memory, Intel GM45 chipset and Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics.

At one-inch thick, Lenovo could have successfully fitted the U350 with an optical drive.  However, leaving it off the table definitely made the difference in keeping the machine extremely light.  It sports a glossy 13.3-inch screen with 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1,366×768 resolution.  Display panel is gorgeous, as well as the out-of-sight internal speakers, which facilitate very loud sounds.  This is a great machine for viewing movies, provided the guts of the machine can handle it, of course.

Input facilities are decent, with a good keyboard (similar to usual Lenovo laptops) and an average touch pad.  The touch pad is particularly tactile, bit can be difficult to use because of the lack of a click when you tap it.  The array of ports is a bit less than standard, with no DisplayPort and ExpressCard expansion, though all the basics are sufficiently covered.

Compared to similar laptops, the Lenovo IdeaPad U350′s performance is a tad less than the norm (not by much, but enough to warrant a notice).  However, it’s also priced considerably lower.  Retailing for $629 (default configuration), it’s a great value for those with modest performance needs.