Gadgetoid

Starting Friday the 14th of March the Xbox 360 prices will be slashed by quite a considerable sum each, could this be indicative of a new model on the way? A Blu-ray enabled Elite would be nice now that the formats dominance is clear as crystal.

The standard Xbox 360 with 20gb hard drive and one wireless controller will now retail at an estimated £199.99, saving £50. The Elite with its 120gb hard drive will drop to £259.99 saving £40 and the hard-drive-less Arcade console will drop to a paltry £159.99 also saving £40.

Now price drops on console are all well and good, but I’d really like to see some cheaper accessories and an HD-DVD price crash. Pleeeaaasse?

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Godawful name aside, the GIGA DUKE hard-disk-drive based Hi-Fi offerings from Sony are actually quite attractive, at least as much as something rendered almost entirely obsolete by modern hard-disk based mp3 players and good quality speaker docks can be.

The GIGA DUKE systems are designed to archive and play back your music collection without the need for a PC, the NAS-SC55PKE system supports up to 16x CD ripping, copying to mp3 players, mobile phones and the PSP and streaming audio to any room in your house. The lesser NAS-E35HD will rip at 4x and also transfer tracks to mp3 players and mobile phones.

Both systems come with an iPod dock and will record audio from a variety of other sources automatically labelling it with track information where possible.

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It’s not often you find a product changing the way you work, normally you pick something you expect to fit in with your workflow and go with it. Being a journalist I end up trying products I would not normally consider for purchase and just occasionally I find them becoming irreplaceable.

The Novation Remote 61SL is one such product. As an owner of a Roland Fantom X8 I was heading down the road of live audio recording from hardware synthesizers, but this posed two problems that I did not fully recognise until getting my hands upon the Novation Remote 61SL

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Review by Johnus Maximus

Released in Europe on March 7th 2008, also available on PS3, Dynasty Warriors 6 is the latest incarnation of the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” story, developed by Omega Force and published by Koei.

Set in 3rd century China amongst a backdrop of political turmoil, the game tells the stories of the leaders and warriors of the Wei, Wu and Shu kingdoms as they fight for dominance over the land.
Although somewhat exaggerated in terms of their appearance, demeanour and weaponry, each of these characters had an important part to play in one of the most turbulent times of Chinese history.

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Still clinging to your ugly, generic, white iPod headphones? Want to set yourself apart from the crowd? Don’t want one of the bulky but excellent Sennheiser PX series? Well the MX 560 could be the earphones for you.

Boasting Sennheiser’s excellent sound quality and stylish design in 5 attractive colours the MX 560 are a more traditional earphone offering from Sennheiser at a price that wont break the bank. That’s £19.99 to be specific. What’s more; they come with a cable winder and a carrying pouch.

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For anyone concerned about noise or under/over voltage electricity supplies slowly killing the power supplies of their expensive AV hardware or power surges wiping the same out in less than a nanosecond this is the kit for you.

The IXOS XHP420 PowerStation is not your average surge protector, built to protect home audio/visual equipment that costs thousands the XHP420 puts a paltry £159.99 price tag on peace of mind.

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The Tangent Quattro Mk2 introduces FM radio in addition to streaming internet radio, an RJ45 port for those who do not have a Wi-fi network and WPA2 Wi-fi security added for those who do.

With some 9900 stations to choose from plus your normal local and national FM stations, BBC Radio On Demand, Podcasts and the ability to stream audio from your PC or Mac the only thing the Quattro Mk2 could possibly need now is an iPod dock. However, Considering the iPod is best at browsing its own music collection and that the Quattro has line inputs for mp3 players I’m not sure if it’s even lacking that.

The whole package is packed into a heavyweight wooden enclosure available in four colours that both screams “retro” and still maintains that popular modern minimalist feel.

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