Gadgetoid

This may not come as a surprise to most, but the prices for RAM upgrades on the MacBook and MacBook Pro are still borderline insane. Apple’s products are not usually as over-priced as many would believe; they’re premium products along the lines of the Sony VAIO series and are priced accordingly. Alas Apple are not packing any special RAM into their products opting instead to use the same dated 667Mhz junk you’ll find in a Dell.

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Combining a wrist-rest, pressure sensitivity, lights and stickiness in the same gadget sounds completely insane… and it is. “Ur. Frog” and “Ur Super High Light Frog” (right) have set out to push the limits of just what craziness we can hook up to our free USB ports to keep out the dust.

To their credit they look cute and quirky enough to make great gifts and the ability to play a few games using the “Ur. Frog” pressure sensor adds the icing to the cake. Stress relief, anyone? Okay, I’m getting funny looks across the desk from just thinking about plonking one of these down and proceeding to thump it periodically.

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In cohorts with Xbox 360 modder Ben Heckendorn, eDimensional have produced a gaming version of the AudioFX; the AudioFX Pro 5+1 PC Gaming Headset.

It certainly looks the part, but we’ve tested “force feedback” and 5.1 headsets before and know there’s a small amount of worthy competition out there.

Full review coming soon to a Gadgetoid near you!

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I’m not even going to deny that I am a band-wagon jumper. I have bought into the iPhone, love it, and want to leverage the popularity of the device to bring iPhone accessory reviews to Gadgetoid.

So, without further ado, I present our first iPhone accessory review: the Piel Frama, Leather, Clip Cover, iPhone 3g Case with Snap Closure (or a metal popper, if you will!). Whew, that was a mouth-full and no mistake!

You may or may not have already heard of Piel Frama, they have manufactured leather goods since 1945 and began producing phone cases in 1984 (co-incidentally the year that I was born). Since then Piel Frama have built up a reasonable level of prestige as a manufacturer of luxuary leather cases for PDAs and Phones and those years of experience are reflected in their products which are hand-made to a superb level of quality.

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Review by Johnus Maximus

Released in June 2008, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is the first expansion game for the hugely popular Guitar Hero series which focuses on the career of one of America’s most successful rock and roll bands. Developed by Neversoft and published by Activision, the game is also available for the Wii, the PS3 and the PS2.

The game has a smaller range of songs than Guitar Hero 3 but thanks to a slightly better difficulty curve and the Behind The Music documentary style setting; this game is a lot of fun!

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The wait is over for those of you who survived the fierce temptation of the iPhone 3g. I didn’t and I find my excitement for the HTC Touch Pro somewhat mitigated as a result, but none-the-less it’s a fanastic example of a Windows Mobile Phone with more oomph than you’ll ever need and more features than you’ll ever find the time to use; I wouldn’t say no to a free one!

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Review by Ken Bool

Released for the Wii in May 2008, Secret Files: Tunguska is a ‘point and click’ adventure thriller developed by Keen Games and published by Deep Silver. The story centres on the disappearance of scientist at the time of the Tunguska event of 1908.

The game is also available on the PC and DS and offers a rich story with plenty of puzzle solving and is reminiscent of the style of adventures games that you don’t see so much of any more.

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Borrowing heavily from the design of Sennheisers award winning PXC350 “cloak of silence” noise canceling headphones the PC350 Gaming Headset removes the noise canceling, adds a microphone and positions itself as a high-end gaming product designed to help you keep your in-game noise to yourself.

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Review by Johnus Maximus

Released in June 2008, Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is the latest game that merges a major movie franchise with the popular plastic bricks from Denmark. Developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by LucasArts, the game is available on Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS and PC.

Adapting the core plot elements from the three original Indiana Jones movies and combining them with puzzle solving, treasure hunting and the child-friendly sense of humour that worked so well on the Lego Star Wars games, this title is great fun and will keep kids of all ages happy for many hours.

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It’s a busy time here at Gadgetoid, we’re working tirelessly to bring as many new reviews as we can and the news has suffered somewhat due to this. But you can expect some varied and interesting coverage of many products and something is bound to be right up your street. Upcoming reviews include:

• Sanyo Eneloop Rechargable Batteries… not your ordinary batteries mind!
• Wacom Bamboo Tablet; I’ve been a user of tablets (graphics tablets mind) for years now and own some very old school Wacoms that predate USB, suffice to say the Wacom Bamboo is jaw droppingly beautiful and leagues ahead of any low-end product I’ve seen from Wacom.
• Wacom Cintiq 12WX Tablet/Screen; Wow. Just wow. When I can actually get it to work I can’t put it down.
• Korg Pa2X Pro; I’ve held on to this for months and solidly believe that the piano is beyond amazing. Letting it go is painful, but alas love cannot last forever.
• Salvation 9 RC Helicopter; It arrived this week and has already collided with more walls than a drunk in a mirror-maze, it still flies though!
• SlingLink; I’m going to have to get technical with this one, you just plug it in and it works… it’s impressive but some speed tests and network tests need a-doing!

There’s more, including a handful of Xbox 360 and Wii games reviews in the work, the latter of which we’re using to trial a new writer who could bring more Wii coverage to Gadgetoid soon. John will be looking at Lego Indiana Jones and Guitar Hero Aerosmith so bear with us and there will be plenty to read soon!

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