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Posts Tagged ‘Control’

Whether you just built or bought a new PC, it pays to optimize your setup from the start

Nothing holds more promise than a brand-new PC. The hardware is fresh and full of potential, the OS is clean and clutter-free, and you have nothing but pure, unadulterated storage space awaiting your precious data. It’s an exciting time, indeed. But before you start dumping old files onto your new rig willy-nilly, and downloading every shiny bauble of an app that catches your eye, take some time to consider a more measured approach to moving in. After all, you only have this … [Read More...]

AMD and Nvidia driver teams have been putting in some pretty serious overtime trying to keep up with the flood of new titles hitting the market just before the holidays, and a third profile update just went live for AMD’s less than one month old Catalyst 11.11. Just in-case you’d lost count, in addition to the three profile updates, AMD has also released three separate beta drivers to fix various other issues with specific titles. If you like to be on the bleeding edge, make sure you have Catalyst 11.11C, along with the just released CAP3.

CAP3 includes the following … [Read More...]

Fast, frantic, fun…forgettable?

Before Rage was released there were a lot of unanswered questions floating around. Could Id make another genre-defining shooter? Would the six-plus years of development and the much-touted Id Tech 5 engine yield a sufficiently impressive result? While these are certainly appropriate questions for both reviewers and gamers to be curious about, we found ourselves haunted by another, seemingly trivial, question: What does the title Rage mean? Only after playing completely through could we truly understand.

Rage pulls off an impressive feat: It manages to have a lot of personality despite having minimal character. While you may … [Read More...]

Cooler Master is under the assumption that not all gamers want a mouse with four hundred buttons and funky features like a built-in transmogrifier. If you find yourself shaking your head in agreement, you might be interested in Cooler Master’s new Xornet mouse. Inspiration for the Xornet came from “gamers focused on minimalistic designs,” and what CM ended up with is a lightweight rodent with a claw-grip design and affordable price tag.

Don’t mistake minimalistic and inexpensive to mean this is a barebones mouse destined for the clearance bin. Noteworthy features include anti-slip rubber side grips; a textured stealth black … [Read More...]

When I was 10, I composed an entire “freeform” dance number to Jackson 5’s “ABC” because I loved it so much. I danced it all day long and then I danced it a few more times. If you asked, I could probably still do it now. I won’t because I pretend to be a grown up but I could if pressed really hard or if someone threatened me.

That being said, when I was discussing how to share the shortcut keys that the Windows Facebook page, my head went to one place and one ever popular song. So, let me … [Read More...]

Using Prey, you’ll have the upper hand over thieves

A laptop is a lot of things—it’s a mobile entertainment center, a portal to the web, and a way to get work done away from home. More than anything, though, it’s a freakin’-expensive piece of hardware that you absolutely do not want to lose.

Of course, the best way to keep your laptop is to not get it stolen in the first place. But if you do, you can be prepared to try and track it down. Plenty of companies are more than happy to charge you a recurring fee for … [Read More...]

Smart has given the diminutive ForTwo a makeover that sends the iconic little city car two steps forward and one big step back.

The Lilliputian runabout has been a solid, if specialized, urban grocery-getter since its arrival stateside three years ago. It’s quirky and cute, with enough virtues to make you overlook drawbacks like glacial acceleration. Smart freshened it up for 2011 with an updated interior, knee bolster airbags and options like cruise control, navi and surround sound.

Too bad that work is severely undermined by the world’s worst transmission. Seriously. The gearbox in this car sucks. It’s a shame, … [Read More...]

Pop quiz: How do you find the volume of a cube?

If you said, “Multiply the length of one side by itself twice, duh!” you’re technically correct, but also wrong.

In the case of TDK’s 10″x10″x10″ Sound Cube, here’s the answer: Locate the knob that goes to 11.

This is not a joke. This boombox’s volume control maxes out at 11 (yes, that’s a reference to This Is Spinal Tap). But all kidding aside, this sleek speaker cube puts out some serious sound. It’s not just that the two 5.25-inch coaxial drivers really crank. Or that there’s crisp quality … [Read More...]

Think Volvo and you think utilitarian automobiles that shuttle you from point A to point B safely, reliably and indefinitely.

For all their virtues — pathological obsession with safety comes to mind, as does anvil-like durability – Volvos aren’t exciting. They’re cars only soccer moms, Vermonters and tweed-jacketed professors can love.

It’s a stereotype, of course. One that overlooks the company’s hot rod “R” models, among other things. But it is sufficiently pervasive that the Swedes have had enough. They’re billing the all-new S60 as “the naughty Volvo,” a technological marvel equally adept at hauling kids and hauling ass.

And … [Read More...]

One puck to control them all

Square Connect’s SQ Blaster solves a problem we’ve been grappling with for some time now: Integrating control over the devices we manage using the Z-Wave home-control protocol (especially lighting) with control over the devices we manage using infrared, all with a single universal remote. The fact that this hardware/software combo is inexpensive is icing on the cake.

Inexpensive is, however, a relative term: The SQ Blaster’s $200 price tag is pricey if all you’re looking for is a basic infrared repeater (although some kits, such as $320 Niles Audio’s RCA-HT2, are priced a lot … [Read More...]

This little box delivers a mind-blowing audio experience

Audiophiles are frequently criticized as having more money than sense. This is especially true when it comes to digital audio components. “It’s digital,” so the argument goes, “it’s perfect because it’s all or nothing.” So when we tell you this combo DAC, pre-amp, headphone amp, USB device costs twice as much as the computer and 50 percent more than the receiver we used to test it ($1,895), some of you will label us fools for bestowing our Kick Ass award on it. Well, you’re wrong.

Granted, we probably didn’t experience the best … [Read More...]

Our customers and prospective customers frequently come to us and ask that we suggest either upgrades or whole new PC’s that will solve their current non-performance nightmare with an aging PC. It’s quite amazing how sometimes as the conversation and understanding of requirements and problems experienced proceeds we discover that actually the PC they already have may just still have a few laps around the circuit left in its tired chassis.

There were a number of surprise benefits I found upon making the conversion to Windows Media Center.

They don’t hype this much in the Microsoft literature on WMC, but I find the switch from 6 remote controls to just 1 a huge benefit. No more flailing around to set the TV to the right input, and the DVR to the right mode, and Sky box to the right channel etc. etc. It’s all right there on my new remote best friend.

The “Before” and “After” shots are below.

The next logical extension of this change is that you no longer … [Read More...]