Can Nintendo show U.S. the love, too?

My latest blog post on crave.cnet.com

Digg it, love it, comment, pimp it!

Turtle Beach Ear Force AK-R8 Headphones Review

Surprisingly enough, editors at CNET didn't totally hack my review into pieces like I had anticipated. A good 81% of my original review still exists in the final review. However, my opening paragraph (where I took a little poetic license) was completely chopped off and replaced with a paragraph of complete technical rhetoric.

Original posting: "For avid gamers, movie and music-lovers alike, sound quality is very important. Being enveloped by the subtle (and not-so-subtle) nuances of a song, a throng of car explosions, or being able to anticipate where an opponent is going to attack, adds to the excitement factor; feeling a great sense of immersion. This is where Turtle Beach’s Ear Force AK-R8 headphones come into play. Although no headphones on this planet can give you the true 5.1 channel surround sound effect that standalone speakers can give, these come pretty close."

...and CNET's edit:

"Plenty of PC headphones and audio cards offer a "headphone surround-sound" mode, but it's often little more than a sophisticated reverb mode that uses psychoacoustics to trick the mind into thinking it's hearing something beyond a stereo (2-channel) source. That's why the Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA headphones were so impressive. The full-size headset included four actual drivers in each earcup (center, front, rear, and "subwoofer"), effectively strapping a full 5.1 speaker system to your head. The result, unsurprisingly, was some of the best headphones-based surround effects we've ever heard. The catch was the HPA's design: it required minijack connections to a PC audio card, and it actually needed its own AC adapter to power its built-in amplifier. Thankfully, Turtle Beach went back to the drawing board and now offers an alternative: the Ear Force AK-R8. The new headset ($150 list) utilizes the same multidriver earcups as the HPA, but it connects to PCs with a single convenient USB plug."

Obviously, I didn't want to get into the comparisons of other headphones just yet. I felt I needed an opening paragraph that was not only welcoming, but on a level which everyone could understand and appreciate; enticing the person to want to continue reading the review as opposed to getting immediately bored and turned off. Alas, what can you do but take it with a grain of salt. On the upside, compared to my Labs partner's first review (where his got completely rewritten), I feel better of what I can do and put forth on the table.

So check out my complete review on CNET.com for the Turtle Beach Ear Force AK-R8 PC gaming headphones.

Radiohead's Name-Your-Own-Price Stint

Radiohead rocked the music world a couple of weeks ago by announcing that it would allow fans to name their own price for the band's new album. In Rainbows was made available through the band's website in DRM-free MP3 format, and downloaders were asked to pay what they thought it was worth.

Here's the problem though. Radiohead is already an established band with a following, so they can afford to test the waters by doing this. However, how it will translate with an unknown, local band? It wouldn't. So, this is not so much of a defiant, pioneer move as it's looking more like a publicity stunt. But as things happen in the entertainment business, it's starting to take off as the latest trend for other artists to follow (Madonna being one).

Despite the initial excitement and favorable reviews, the launch hasn't gone as well as anticipated. There have been a number of complaints that the MP3s made available for download were only encoded at 160kbps—a far cry from CD quality and a lower bit-rate than digital downloads available from iTunes and other online music vendors. Moreover it hasn't stopped P2P users from "sharing" the album despite the option to pay $0.00 for it from Radiohead's website. So if allowing consumers to name their own price for a digital download doesn't curb illegal file sharing, it seems unlikely that anything will.

Intel's G965 Driver Update: Testing a Claim

This is an excerpt of the story I wrote on crave.cnet.com

Back in mid-August, Intel's Nick Knupffer made a promise to casual 3D gamers by suggesting that a new driver update would give systems that use the Intel G965 integrated graphics chipset a much-needed performance boost. I was highly skeptical of this claim, so what did I do?

To test Intel's claims, I chose an Acer TravelMate 4720-6727 laptop, which uses a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU, 1GB of RAM, an integrated 965GM Express graphic chipset with 384MB memory allocated, and running Windows XP Professional SP2. While this hardware combination is not the fastest available, I feel it comes close to representing a typical configuration for a midrange laptop with integrated graphics. I tested the laptop with CNET Labs' regular suite of 3D gaming benchmarks, using the originally installed driver (14.29) as well as the updated version (14.31.1).

After Work Booze Cruise: The Dancing Fool

This is what working in Corporate does to its employees after they undo their ties, get a drink and let their hair down. They get spastic! Notice it closes with the classic (transitional) booty shake!

A Glimpse into the New World of Windows

Alright folks, so this is the other side of me --the "techie" side. My laptop is outdated and out of juice at present (it's done me good for 6 years though...gotta be a record for laptop users!) and I'm borrowing one of the testing laptops, from work, as my replacement for a week. The unit I'm using is installed with Windows Vista Home Premium.

So is it worth upgrading to the new Windows OS? Eh. Not really. At least, not right now. It takes some getting use to, as with anything. Although the interface is shiny and pretty, (almost Mac-like in some instances as far as features are concerned), that's all it is...eye candy--translating into slow and sluggish on many points. Accessibility to some options is like going on a treasure hunt and some names have been replaced in the Control Panel.

Right clicking on the desktop no longer gives you the Properties option, instead replaces it with the "Personalization" option. This is where the Display settings, Themes, Screen Saver, etc. is, however, these options are presented as individual settings that open into separate windows instead of all being accessible in one window like we're used to seeing. Here's a screen shot:

Another thing of note is that the ability to choose each option all at once (opening more than one window) has been taken away--meaning, you literally have to open one option then hit the back arrow and choose another option if you have to. As small a change as it may seem it can become cumbersome, as well as annoying.

Add/Remove Programs is now called "Programs and Features." Network Properties is now "Network and Sharing Center," where you'll find all of the management settings on the sidebar of the window.

I personally put shortcuts to everything I needed prior for my testing purposes, but I'm done with the professional aspect of it now. Having had some downtime on this, without the pressure of meeting deadlines at work, I've gotten a little more familiar with getting around. Doesn't mean I like it though nor am I switching over as soon as it starts shipping on the 27th of this month. I'm content with XP PRO. Besides, it's being shipped without a Service Pack and Lord knows it needs one. I'm not completely blasting it. There are some cool features like Aero:

I know I haven't told you everything you need/want to know about Vista nor have I scratched the surface, but I'm tired and going to bed. Besides, it's not like I'm the only one discussing this on the net.

I'll leave you with this....even with "the world's fastest processor" (this is running the Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 - 2GHz) I still have time to tap my fingers before an application opens up.