When you hear a title like Dead or Alive, you naturally think about scantily clad women in bikinis prancing around an island giggling and … WHAT?!?! OK, so perhaps you would think of the famed fighting game franchise … but that isn’t what you get here. But let’s get to the real question: is the game any good? No it isn’t, in fact it is downright abysmal … but you can read on for more details.
Photos courtesy of Toyota The State Fair of Texas hosted the world debut of the fifth-generation 4Runner midsize SUV this past fall. The event marked the 25th anniversary for 4Runner, and celebrating more than 1.5 million units sold since launch. “Backed by a quarter-century of heritage combined with the integration of the latest comfort, convenience and performance technologies, the all-new 4Runner has evolved into one of the most advanced mid-sized truck-based SUV’s on the market while at the same time staying true to its roots as a rugged and durable off-roader,” said Bob Carter, group vice president and general manager…
The saga that is the Keyport key fob has finally come to a conclusion; and yes, it’s a successful conclusion at that. After months — years, actually — of waiting, several revisions, updated philosophy and updated direction, Keyport launched its brand new web site today, and most importantly is ready to begin accepting orders for their key fob. If you need some back story on what Keyport’s gone through over the last 3 years to get to where they are today, head here. I’ve been lucky enough to be part of a select group of individuals who were included in…
We all love buying new gear. That’s why we’re here right? But when is the last time you bought an amazing gadget and made a donation to a worthy charity at the same time? The Beats By Dr. Dre Solo HD Red headphones not only look and sound great (we’ll get to that in the review), but a portion of the profits from every pair of headphones sold goes directly to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa. These headphones are made from a proprietary titanium coated driver technology ensures they preserve every “bit of the lush bass and…
You are headed out for the day, and you want to bring your iPad with you. What you really want to do more than anything is throw it into your bag and not have to worry too much about it. The problem is the device is relatively delicate. Yeah, it is well-built and solid, but it is delicate nonetheless thanks to the large touch screen. That’s where Hard Candy’s Bubble Case comes in. Let’s take a look… From The Company- Bubbles on the Outside, Rubber on the Inside Hard Candy’s signature bubble design tangoed with the Hard Sleeve, and the…
Camangi sent the updated Webstation back today, and there are some good improvements. It also looks like some things haven’t changed at all. Nevertheless, the Camangi Webstation is one of the only Android tablets that has managed to appear in the USA, so the question is: If you didn’t buy an iPad, and you’re holding out for something Android-based, is the updated Camangi worth it? Let’s start with what didn’t happen. It didn’t get upgraded to a new version of Android, so it’s still stuck on 1.5. However, Camangi now claims that any future changes are user-upgradable. Hope the Webstation…
This week and next week are the craziest weeks of the spring for us as coaches. I have four games and will work at two track meets and this year I add my son’s four t-ball games. While I was on my weekly search for an app for the Blue Plate Special, I decided I wanted something fun and different. The craziness of work made me not want to do something productive or the usual games. I stumbled upon Flip It! Lite and my interest was piqued. Remember the days of youth when you spent a boring class period in…
Ford’s new engine technology – dubbed EcoBoost – might be a bit misleading to some underestimating driving enthusiasts. “The power of a V-8 with the fuel economy of a six” may not have motoring maniacs lining up at Ford and Lincoln dealerships, but it should. My first experience with EcoBoost was in the new Taurus SHO, and more recently I received both a Ford Flex and Lincoln MKS sporting the twin-turbocharged V-6 powerplant, and in all of them I was most pleasantly surprised. The driving experiences brought to mind a term I had not used in years – “street sleeper.”…
As Dan so eloquently pointed out to the entire Internet earlier today, I cracked. Yes, I ordered a iPad 3G, and yes I made fun of Dan who ordered both a WiFi version and a 3G version because he could not wait the 3-4 weeks for the release of the 3G. Well I lasted all of about 48 hours waiting, and today I went out and picked myself a WiFi version of the iPad. I simply could not sit idly by while Judie and Dan had all the fun. The first place I went after picking up the device was…
When I head out for a run, a long walk, or a bike ride, I try to bring my phone with me. It’s less so I can take calls as I’m huffing and puffing, and more for safety reasons. It seems logical that as a smartphone with GPS, my phone should be pulling double duty tracking my workout. I tried a few different ones on Android, but hands down my favorite is My Tracks by Google. My Tracks is very simple to use. When you’re gearing up to run, hike, walk or bike, turn on the GPS in your device…
Any time I go out to eat, the first order of business after being seated is finding a safe place to stow my purse. If I’m lucky, I can set my bag on an empty seat next to me; if the seats are large enough, my bag goes right next to me. If there is no better spot to place it, then my bag goes on my lap … and if that’s impractical, my bag goes on the floor. Quelle horreur! Placing my bag on the floor is always accompanied by much anxiety on my part, as restaurant floors can…
When the Apple iPad case arrived a little while ago, I was not initially impressed. It is rather thin, gets in the way of docking the device, and the edges are a bit on the sharp side. Moreover, I am not in love with the overall “feel” of the material they used. That noted, I didn’t immediately box it up for return because it is nice to finally have a way to protect the device a bit. Then I tried the case propped up in landscape mode. I was impressed. The case holds it at a perfect angle for typing….
Strategy games have become entrenched as a core genre for PC gamers in recent years, which has caused the genre to adapt to the expanding audience. For some this has allowed entry to the massive world of RTS games for the first time, but veterans of the genre sometimes feel that their hardcore grognard needs are being ignored – particularly those who choose to play games on a Mac. Don’t worry, guys, Paradox has your back – Hearts of Iron III is a game with a steep learning curve that will reward the investment of tons of hours learning the…
With the plethora of netbooks on the market today sporting 9, 10 and 11” screens, is easy to forget notebooks weren’t always so small. Meet the Dell Vostro 3700, a huge 17.3” desktop replacement powered by Intel’s new Core i3, i5 and i7 range of processors. The 3700 is part of Dell’s Vostro refresh which includes the 3300 (13”), 3400 (14”) and the 3500 (15”). Out of the box there is no getting around the fact this is a very large laptop. While it is not overly thick, it makes its presence known with that big screen. It feels heavier…
Over the last week I have written a few times about the upcoming Zinio app for the iPad. The reason for my enthusiasm was two-fold. First I had been using Zinio as long as I have been using Tablet PCs. Since moving to the Mac I had used it less — not because it doesn’t work well on the Mac, but because it really lends itself to the tablet format. When the iPhone app came out my enthusiasm was once again peaked; on the larger iPad the promise of eMags was hopefully going to be fulfilled. In addition, my attempt…
Vertu, the high-end Nokia luxury handset company, released a flip version of their phone towards the end of 2009 and I finally got my hands on one! So this is the unboxing view, and I’ll come back in a few weeks and do a proper review of the phone whilst in use. I purchased the unit from one of the jewellery stores here in Sydney after much haggling, and carried my plain brown box through the city back to the train stop. I found it a bit odd to carry a large shopping bag from a fine jewellery store through…
I adamantly refuse to call Korg DS-10 Plus a ‘game’, despite it being a cartridge for the Nintendo DS. Read on to find out why! The Hype: KORG DS-10 Plus is an enhanced version of the revolutionary KORG DS-10 synthesizer software that was released to critical and retail acclaim for Nintendo DS in late 2008. In this new release the original KORG DS-10 music-creation software, which combined the superior interface of the Nintendo DS with the functionality of the famous MS-10 synthesizer, has been optimized to essentially double the power of the original when used with the Nintendo DSi. *…
(check out Snaptic at SXSW) Talk cloud-based notes on a smartphone, and everyone thinks Evernote. But there’s another competitor in that space, Snaptic, and they are quickly becoming a strong presence. Snaptic recently passed 2 million+ downloads of their 3Banana Android application! Their goal is to help your brain along, connecting all the pieces so you don’t have to. Specifically, they work to bridge your notes with context-aware items, using hash tags (#), pictures, even bar code scanners. The concept is that your notes should be available everywhere, in the cloud, on your device, and interconnected with apps you use…
It will come as no surprise that the more I use the iPad the more I like it. It is powerful, gorgeous, and just a lot of fun to use. I do see it replacing a notebook for much of my day-to-day needs. At the same time, however, a few imitations have emerged. Well, to be accurate, a number of limitations that I knew to expect have clearly shown themselves to be limitations that hopefully will change sometime in the near future. First and foremost on that list — the ability to run multiple applications at the same time. Not…
Backing your data up to the cloud and living out of the cloud is all the rage. SpiderOak cloud backup has a lot of features that I have been looking for in an online backup solution. First, to get started with SpiderOak, you need to download the software for Windows, Mac or Linux and install it. The version delivered for Ubuntu works on pretty much any version of Ubuntu. You can install it with standard dpkg commands or double-click on it and us the graphical package manager, GDebi package installer. Click on install, enter your system password and it installs….
The default music widget for Android is, well, not so great. It’s actually downright terrible. Luckily, there’s a far better alternative: Pure Music Widget. Like the Pure Calendar Widget, Pure Music offers a huge number of sizes, so you can cram music controls onto your screen no matter how much room you have (or don’t have). What’s really nice is that you also get album art, so you can admire your taste in music right on your homescreen. Most importantly, you also get rewind AND fast forward buttons, a woeful omission on the stock widget. Setup is a snap; there’s…