Posts by: CNET Crave
Razer Lachesis gaming mouse brings 4,000dpi laser, new buttons
Rich Brown, CNET Crave | Aug 27, 2007
Razer's forthcoming Lachesis gaming mouse finally addresses our chief complaint with its DeathAdder and other gaming mice: No easy-access buttons for switching dpi settings on the fly. Logitech's G5 Laser mouse has them, Microsoft's new SideWinder will have them, and now the Lachesis gets them when it hits in October.
Otherwise, the Lachesis seems to be simply a revamped DeathAdder. The only other major change is its higher-end laser sensor, which gives you a 4,000dpi ceiling, and thus a greater range of sensitivity settings. No other mouse on the market goes that high, although we'll admit we find even 2,000dpi more than fast enough. What the new Razer mouse doesn't have is a weight kit. If you have a soft enough touch to get excited about the 4,000dpi sensor, you might miss the weights. Unless the Lachesis is unusually light, we probably won't.
Via CNET Crave
Let's get PhysX-al
Dan Ackerman, CNET Crave | Aug 27, 2007
Unless you're a hardcore gamer type, you've probably never heard of Ageia and its PhysX processor. This addon card for your desktop PC works with certain supported games to provide additional processing power for in-game physics, leading to bigger explosions, more interactive environments, etc.
Of course, there are only a handful of games that support PhysX (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, and Unreal Tournament 3 are the only notable ones that come to mind), and game developers aren't exactly lining up to create extra content for a proprietary physics system that very few consumers will ever be able to experience, but they at least get points for trying.
Now Ageia has announced the PhysX 100M, the company's first physics chip for laptops. The new part is specially designed for mobile computers and, according to Ageia, "features incredibly low power and thermal design with power dissipation of nearly 10W under gameplay conditions. It also includes active power management to throttle down the clock in high heat system conditions and reduce the clock when not active".
We know of at least one big-name gaming laptop hitting the US market soon that will offer this as an option, but so far adoption on the desktop side has been slow, so don't expect this to be a must-have addon for your next laptop.
Via CNET Crave
PSP redesign: Fact or fiction?
John Falcone, CNET Crave | Jul 11, 2007
Google PSP redesign or PSP2, and you'll get tens of thousands of results (and even a few interesting homemade Photoshop jobs, such as the "PSP Mini" shown above)--a testament to the fact that many gamers, it seems, were never quite comfortable with the design of Sony's first handheld gaming system.
To be sure, the PSP has its share of issues, not the least of which is the UMD format--the proprietary optical disc format is hobbled with slow load times, and the moving parts sap the PSP's battery life. Controls have always been suspect, too, with most gamers lusting for a second analog stick to better mimic the home PlayStation DualShock controller. And the dearth of onboard storage limits the device's media functions to the comparatively paltry storage of removable Memory Stick Duo flash memory cards.
At the same time, rumors of the PSP's demise have been greatly exaggerated--while it hasn't dethroned Nintendo from handheld gaming's top spot, the PSP has sold well by any other measure, with a worldwide install base estimated at more than 24 million and a growing library of great games.
But hardware refreshes are par for the course in the gaming world, and the PSP--which originally hit Japan in the fall of 2004--is due for a makeover. Citing anonymous "highly placed" sources, Kotaku provided a laundry list of improvements in an alleged PSP redesign--all the way back in March 2007. And rumors of a PSP phone continue to persist as well. Whether or not Sony will unveil a PSP redesign at this week's E3 conference in Santa Monica is anybody's guess--we'll know by mid-afternoon (US time) on Wednesday.
Photo credit: Kotaku
iStockphoto images for your cell phone
Stephen Shankland, CNET Crave | Apr 12, 2007
iStockphoto, an online subsidiary of stock-art seller Getty Images, is taking its business to consumers.
The company typically sells images to newspapers, ad agencies and others with a large appetite for photos and illustrations, but on Wednesday it announced a partnership with Amuse Entertainment Group to let ordinary folks download images to use as mobile phone wallpaper.
The companies began a pilot phase of the project in the United Kingdom. Subscribers using the Orange, O2, T-Mobile, 3, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone networks will be able to download images beginning in April.
The pilot could be expanded to the United States and Canada. A second phase will make the image library available worldwide.
Picture credit: Wikipedia
This article was first published on Crave.
Convert any laptop into a tablet
CNET Crave | Mar 30, 2007
It's an enticing idea: Replace your keyboard with a stylus and tap your screen--or write all over it--to get things done.
That's the basic premise behind tablet PCs, and while they haven't fully caught on yet, the NAVIsis Laptop Tablet lets you give the tablet user interface a go without having to splurge on a brand-new tablet PC.
The NAVIsis Laptop Tablet is a US$130 (S$197.16) USB device that clips onto the side of your laptop screen and lets you tap, write, and draw on the display to your heart's content.
Sure, US$130 (S$197.16) is far from free, but it's an intriguing alternative to current laptop input devices: The jumpy laptop touchpad, the bulky travel mouse, or the effective but underused keyboard nub.
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