Gee W!z Blog | PC News, Tech Trends, Deals, and More from NewBiiz.com

$10 off any order over $100 - One Day Only

2009-03-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

Enter Promo Code morebacon for $10 off any order over $100 at SuperBiiz.com
Expires 3/18/09

Here's a St. Patrick's Day combo: MSI X58 Pro Motherboard + Super Talent DDR3 6GB Memory
$215.99 after $20 MIR from MSI and the $10 off code.

$10 off Any Order Over $29 for First 300 Orders!

2009-01-29T10:25:00.000-08:00

SuperBiiz is giving $10 off any order over $29 before tax and ship. Enter coupon code: 10off29 at checkout.

This promotion code is only good for the first 300 orders or until Jan. 31st, whichever comes first.

Enjoy!

FREE Assembly Service at SuperBiiz.com

2009-01-26T15:58:00.000-08:00

SuperBiiz is offering to assemble your computer parts for FREE when you order at least a motherboard + two more components. You subtotal before tax and ship has to also be $300 and above.

Just enter promo code IHEARTEWIZ when you check out. So take advantage of this and save yourself some time by letting our certified technicians assemble and test your parts for you!

Get Memory for $1

2009-01-21T14:56:00.000-08:00

SuperBiiz is having a very cool promotion. They are selling some notebook memory for $1 when you purchase a qualifying notebook.

Check out this deal now. Hey, what's better than almost memory for a buck?

New Section on SuperBiiz: Super Steals

2009-01-20T11:16:00.000-08:00

You can now find amazing deals daily at SuperBiiz.com. Check out Super Steals, which are discounted and limited of time deals. They are first come, first serve. Once the items disappear from the Super Steals section, their original price will apply.

So be sure to check SuperBiiz's Super Steals daily because these are deals you will be happy being caught with!

2009-01-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

In celebration of AMD's new platform: Dragon, SuperBiiz is giving the necessities for screaming computing power and The Ultimate Visual Experience to one lucky winner:

(1) Gigabyte AMD 790x Motherboard
(1) Sapphire HD4870 1GB DDR5 PCI-E Video Card
(1) AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor, OEM

Sweepstakes ends January 30th, so make sure you enter before then. Good luck.

Enjoy New Year Savings on Antec Products

2009-01-05T16:01:00.001-08:00

Pop that bottle, get your glasses ready and pour on that free shipping! To help celebrate the new year, SuperBiiz is offering free shipping on select Antec products for the New Year, New Savings Sale!

Among the items is the unbeatable Twelve Hundred case and the Signature 850 watt power supply!

Go on...there are tons of other items that qualify for free shipping so go get your glass ready before there is no more left in the bottle!

New Year? How About a New System at SuperBiiz?

2009-01-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

2008 was so last year! So to help ring in the '09, SuperBiiz is putting together systems for every level of user! We have systems for those on a tight budget, those who want plain performance and those who just want a straight up, power house system!

Easily pick single components if you need to upgrade or save by buying a complete system combo!

Check it out and take a look to see which system is you!

SuperBiiz's Holiday Gift Guide

2008-12-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

Need the perfect holiday gift for your favorite people? Look no further than SuperBiiz! We've got a handy holiday gift guide for you! Find affordable tech deals for the Gamer, Traveler, Family member, or Student in your life. We've also posted a handy Holiday Shipping Guide to help make sure your gift arrives on time! Hurry, there's only a week and a half left until Christmas!

New Custom Shaped Rubber USB Drives

2008-12-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

SuperBiiz is excited to announce the new custom shaped rubber USB drives are now available! Perfect for trade shows, promotional goodies, industry fairs, or giveaways, these nigty little custom shaped rubber USB drives are sure to capture the attention of everyone! Design your own USB drive or choose one of our existing molds.

iMicro 7" to 12" Digital Photo Frame

2008-12-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

We have some new iMicro digital photo frames on promotion, 7"-12". They are best qualified to show you lifelike. iMicro DPF-IM702B 7 inch Digital Frame is selling at $46.35 only. Also we have DPF-IM1.5K 1.5 inch Digital Frame Key Chain selling at $8.5. Come to get what you need!

SuperBiiz Giving Away a Seagate 1TB External Hard Drive

2008-12-01T14:32:00.000-08:00

Do you find yourself in need of some extra storage space? Maybe a hard drive? An external hard drive? Well, we got some great news for you! SuperBiiz/Ewiz is giving away a FREE Seagate 1TB External hard drive on NotebookReview.com. All you have to do to be eligible to win is reply to the thread and answer a question about Sony Notebooks. It ends December 17th at 5:00pm PST so don't miss your chance and reply now. Also any computer components you are interested in, please visit SuperBiiz and you will find more.

BLACK FRIDAY DEALS

2008-11-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Here SuperBiiz has many great deals ready for the Black Friday. MSI G45M-FD Core 2 Intel G45 MATX MB has up to $50 MIR live on Friday. Many new arrivals, MIRs, instant rebate, free shipping, special prices, come to see all Black Friday Deals.

5% Cash Back at SuperBiiz on Live Search

2008-11-25T12:05:00.000-08:00

SuperBiiz/Ewiz is now offering up to 5% cashback through Microsoft's Live Search Cashback program starting today. This should definitely come in handy when shopping for the holidays for your friends, family and even for you! So shop now and $ave!

Call In to Get Your Free 1.5" Digital Photo Key Chain

2008-11-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

We are doing a free 1.5" digital photo frame promotion to reseller customers. Also our daily special is petty attractive, free ground shipping. For more items on sale at best price , just come to Superbiiz.

Fantastic Intel Core i7 Combos

2008-11-18T18:17:00.000-08:00

Intel core I7 products are selling fast at Superbiiz. This new design can accelerate the processor to match any workload, no matter what your computing needs are. There are lots of I7 CPU+MB combos running now, so save while you upgrade!

Catch the Last 2 days of Antec Products Promo Storm!

2008-11-14T23:39:00.000-08:00

Antec products are the leading actor of this week's promotion storm! $40 off---Antec Sonata III Super Mini Tower Case! More unbeatable prices, instant rebates and free shipping are ready for you within the last two days of this week.

Expect the Intel i7 at SuperBiiz on Nov. 17th!

2008-11-13T09:14:00.001-08:00

As we all know, Intel will be launching their new core processor, i7 on Monday, November 17th. You can go enter at SuperBiiz now to be notified when the new CPUs will be available. Also when you enter, you will automatically be entered for a chance to win the award winning Gold Pico, the world's smallest flash drive!

Also on 11/17, we are expecting to see the release of some new socket 1366 motherboards from Asus, MSI and Gigabyte to go hand in hand with the i7 CPUs. So stay tuned for those too!

Sign up NOW so you are not left wondering where to go on Monday when the hot i7 CPU is released!

Early Black Friday Deals

2008-11-11T21:30:00.000-08:00

There are over 80 items in Early Black Friday Deals at SuperBiiz. There a ton of items with extreme savings. They include video cards, powersupplies, memory, printers, CPUs, mouse, keyboards, motherboards and cases! Almost more than you can handle. Check out the Asus Rampage Formula on sale for $292.99! These are all limited time offers so check them out now before they’re gone!

Like that’s not enough, there’s more…We’ll have even more jaw-dropping deals unveiled on Black Friday, Nov. 28th, so be sure to check back then!

$15 Mail in Rebate on Sapphire HD3850

2008-11-10T16:10:00.001-08:00

SuperBiiz is now offering the Sapphire HD3850 512mb video card for only $114.99 after a mail in rebate of $15 that can be found no where else. So hurry and get yours now! Offer ends November 30th.

Logitech Holiday Gaming Pack Sweepstakes

2008-11-06T16:17:00.000-08:00

We all know the economy is a mess and we need all the money we can get. Maybe you've been dying to replace that old dirty keyboard of yours and also that mouse that quite never moves as fast as you want it to. Worry no more...

SuperBiiz is here to save you! They are currently having a sweepstakes called the Logitech Holiday Gaming pack. They are giving away a grand prize that consists of the G15 keyboard and the G5 laser mouse, both which are a steal! Now you'll be ready to attack when you are playing games with this nifty duo. This offer ends November 19th so hurry and enter now!

SuperBiiz Giving Away a Western Digital VelociRaptor Hard Drive!

2008-09-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

SuperBiiz is having a sweepstakes and is giving away a Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB hard drive! The sweepstakes begins today and runs until the end of the month so go and enter for your chance to win! Good Luck!

Hot Gaming Deals from NewBiiz

2008-09-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Right now, NewBiiz has some HOT GAMI NG DEA LS going on right now. There's a bunch of stuff good to get you prepared for your next battle.

This includes the Antec Nine Hundred Gamer Cas e, Thermaltake Toughpower 650W Power Supply, Logitech G5 Laser Mouse and G15 Gaming Keyboard, Asus G50V-A2 15.4 notebook,
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU fan and much more!

So go to NewBiiz and check out some of these products! Game On!

MSI Wind Notebook $459 after MIR at NewBiiz

2008-09-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

NewBiiz is offering the MSI Wind with FREE Shipping for $459 after a mail-in rebate! The rebate is only good through September 15th so hurry if you want this deal!

The MSI Wind has the Intel Atom Processor N270, 1GB of DDR2-667 memory, a 10" widescreen LCD with an LED backlight and 80GB of hard drive space. It runs on a genuine version of Windows XP Home Edition, so anyone can use it!

NewBiiz Offering Custom Rubber-Shaped USB Drives

2008-09-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

How would you like to have YOUR OWN custom rubber USB drive? Any design or shape important to you can be created into a rubber USB! Now how cool is that? Imagine: a rubber USB of your car, a remote control, your favorite computer component, your phone...ANYTHING you want! They are perfect for company gifts, trade shows, company promotional items or giveaways. These nifty lil' guys will be sure to capture the attention of whoever gets their hands on them.

Customize it even further by putting your name, address or any text you want. They can even come pre-loaded with content of your choice to ensure everyone sees your content! This is the latest and ultimate promotional product! So you decide because it's YOUR drive!

The standard following USB drive sizes are all available:

512MB
1GB
2BG
4GB
8GB

The whole process including design, production and delivery takes approximately three (3) weeks.

NewBiiz is now taking orders for these drives. To place your order or simply get a quote, email us! Please be sure to include your name or company, email, the quantity desired and a description of your Custom Shaped Rubber USB Drive idea.

For more details on these custom rubber USB drives, visit NewBiiz.

NewBiiz Hosting Girl Geek Auction on Ebay for Charity

2008-09-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

NewBiiz has officially kicked off the Girl Geek Auction for Charity on eBay! 100% of the proceeds from these items will go directly to Starlight Children's Foundation. Items up for grabs include:

Thermaltake Armor+ VH600LBWS w/ Liquid Cooling System Full Tower Case
Antec CA-900 Gamer Case
Biostar TA790GXA2+ Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-EP45T-DS3R Core 2 Quad Motherboard
Palit nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512 MB PCI-Express Video Card
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution Keyboard & Mouse Combo
And our featured item of this event, a custom Guitar Hero X-plorer controller for xBox 360 donated by our very own Girl Geek, Ciji Thornton aka Starslay3r! This piece of art has both the NewBiiz and Starlight logo on a purple-flamed skin!

So go and start bidding now on eBay!

To find out more about the Girl Geek Auction, visit our press room.

Also, help spread the word! If you need custom banner sizes, please drop us a comment or email us!

Crazy Networking Deals at NewBiiz!

2008-09-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

For a limited of time, NewBiiz is offering special deals on select networking items from all your favorite brands like Linksys, Netgear, Zonet, Intel, Encore, Belkin and Trendnet. So go check them out now as this offer won't stand tall too long!

Remember to click on the more pages since there are three pages worth of networking specials. We just couldn't fit all the deals on one page! Enjoy!

NewBiiz Kicks Off Long Weekend with Labor Day Sale

2008-08-29T15:45:00.001-07:00

To celebrate the upcoming long weekend, NewBiiz is having a Labor Day Sale. You can find low prices and free shipping on select items from three categories: Notebooks, ATI graphics cards and Nvidia graphics cards.

In the notebooks section, you will find the Asus Eee PC 901 20GB 8.9 inch notebook in Linux or XP Home for $513 w/ free shipping after a $50 MIR!

In the ATI section, you will find the Sapphire HD 4870 512MB for $271 w/ free ship and the MSI HD3450 256MB for $22 with free ship after $15 MIR.

In the Nvidia section, you find the Palit GeForce 8500GT Super 512MB on sale for $49 w/ free shipping! Now that's a deal. Others include lots of cards from Asus such as the Asus GTX260 for $270 w/ free shipping after a $30 MIR.

So kick off your shoes, sit back and check out the NewBiiz Labor Day Sale for some relaxation!

Dorm Blow-Out Sale at NewBiiz

2008-08-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

Are you at school now and wondering how come you didn't get some things that you now realize you need? No worries...check out the Dorm Blow-Out Sale at NewBiiz.

Easily find all the basic back to school necessities and more! Don't ever go to class without your homework again with the help of the 8GB Super Talent Pico-C in limited edition gold. Throw out that pen and notebook, bring a laptop to class and take notes with the Asus M50Vm-B1 15.4 inch Notebook computer. If you are on your break and need to kill some time, why not make time fly by faster by keeping busy with Super Talent's MP4 Touch Screen Player? And we all know how busy school can be, but school is once in a lifetime experience so capture all your precious memories with Samsung's S860 8.1MP digital camera.

Aside from cramming sessions and the all-nighters, there's always time for fun and play! Enjoy your favorite tunes with Logitech's S220 2.1 Stereo Speaker and keep in touch with your family and friends with Zonet's ZVC7100 USB Web Camera. Make sure you are on top of your games by having the hottest graphics card out right now: Sapphire's ATI Radeo HD 4850 512MB PCI-Express video card. And make sure you have a nice comfortable monitor to look at such as CHIMEI CMV-222H 22 inch widescreen LCD monitor.

So if your're not ready for school yet, check out all these fantastic deals and much more at NewBiiz.com!

NewBiiz Offering FREE SHIPPING on Sapphire 4870 X2

2008-08-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

For a limited of time, NewBiiz is offering FREE SHIPPING on select 4870 video cards including one from Sapphire. The Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4870 X2 2GB is only $534 with free ship. Other free shipping 4870 cards include the HIS HD4870 X2 for $555 with free ship and the Powercolor HD4870 X2 for $544 with free ship.

Also, pick these up now because these three graphics cards come with FREE benchmark software!

NewBiiz Back to School Sweepstakes: AMD Style!

2008-08-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Summer is winding down and we are all dreading what is coming next. No one wants to think about school or anything about school. No more fun in the sun and no more lazy days. This means that it's time to hit the books and prepare for back to school. The good part is that you get to shop for all kinds of new clothes and school supplies! Bad part is that this can all cause a dent in your pocket. Well don't fret too much because NewBiiz.com is celebrating back to school with two new giveaways.

Introducing the Back to School Sweepstakes: AMD Style! The first prize winner will get one AMD Pheom 9750 Quad Core Processor and the second prize winner will leave with a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4850 512MB PCI-Express Video Card! Sweepstakes end August 18, 2008.

So go back to school smart this year by entering the NewBiiz Back to School Sweepstakes: AMD Style to win your chance to go back to school in style, AMD style that is!

Smart Savings for Back to School at NewBiiz

2008-07-30T17:01:00.001-07:00

Don't miss Back to School savings at NewBiiz.com this fall. Find incredible deals on mobile notebooks, combo deals, latest must-have items and much more!

You can't go back to school without one of the most wanted mini ultra mobile laptops from all your favorite brands such HP and Asus. Don't miss a beat with our Super Talent MP4 player and pico flash drive combos. Never forget your paper again with the Pico flash drives. Don't be fooled by their tiny-sized appearance. They can save all your important assignments all year long since they come in 8GB.

So what are you waiting for? Don't only use your smarts on school grounds, shop smart and save at NewBiiz now!

Incredible Combo Deals at NewBiiz

2008-07-29T09:56:00.001-07:00

NewBiiz has just launched a combo deals section on their website. Here you can find special discounts on a variety of your favorite products: motherboards, video cards, CPUs, power supplies, music players and much more! If you're going to by the products anyways, why not buy the combo and pocket your cash for other much needed things like gas?

Check out the featured Back-to-School Savings Combo featuring an AMD athlon + a Biostar motherboard. Buy as a combo and save....simple as that! Sometimes you can even get away with a freebie item when buying a combo. For example, buy a MP4 player + sd card and get a FREE Super Talent Pico flash drive...now that's a deal!

For all you PC builders out there, don't miss out on a chance to get your hands on some Builder's Delight Combos made especially for you guys. If you're not much of a builder, check out other great combos including MP3 Combo Deals, Networking & Software, Enterprise Server Combos and Hard drives & Memory Combos.

So start the school year off right and look for the combo deal that's right for you to save when you can. And remember to check back often for more new combo deal!

NewBiiz Extends Product Lines with Hand-Picked Selections

2008-07-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

NewBiiz has just launched a new section in an effort to provide customers with more selection of quality products. With the help of carefully selected affiliates, NewBiiz proudly launches "Hand-Picked Selections." NewBiiz has kicked this off with feature products for all the gamers out there. From a variety of gaming consoles to accessories to games and even vacuum robots! You can find some cool gadgets that will keep your place spotless clean in no time!

Keep checking back at "Hand-Picked Selections" as they will hand-pick more quality products so you can finish all your shopping conveniently with ease.

Check out "Hand-Picked Selections" now to get started!

NewBiiz, a Member of ResellerRatings' Elite Program

2008-07-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

ResellerRatings has just recognized NewBiiz for its excellence in customer satisfaction. NewBiiz is now a proud member of ResellerRatings’ Elite Program. This means that NewBiiz does actively participate at ResellerRatings to resolve customer issues.

In order to display the badge, NewBiiz had to meet stringent ratings standards, and they had to subscribe to the ResellerRatings Merchant program.

So what does this mean? This means that you can always count on NewBiiz for the best services. They will strive to keep you happy and satisfied to the best of their abilities. Take this new Elite Badge as proof.

To learn more about NewBiiz becoming an elite member of ResellerRatings’ Elite program, read the company's official press release.

New Limited Edition Gold Pico C at NewBiiz, July 15th

2008-07-09T15:57:00.000-07:00

Check out Super Talent's new limited edition Pico C in gold! They are just like the very popular and highly demanded original picos, but these guys are gold plated. Yes, gold plated!

These gold plated Pico C will available to buy on Tuesday, July 15th at NewBiiz.com. Here is some more information about these nifty little guys:

- 4GB Pico C Gold Color STU4GPCG $28
- 8GB Pico C Gold Color STU8GPCG $46

Don't miss out on this limited edition flash drive. Add it to your collection or give it as an elegant necklace gift to a special someone! This gift will be sure to make it one to remember.

The fun doesn't stop here, enter the Golden Pico C Sweepstakes at NewBiiz now for your chance to win one for yourself! Sweepstakes will end July 18th so go and enter! Good Luck!

Product Review Giveaway: Linksys Internet Video Camera!

2008-07-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Let NewBiiz help keep tabs on your world with this week's product review giveaway: Linksys WVC54GC Wireless-G Internet Video Camera. It can send live video through the internet to a web browser anywhere in the world! This neat little gadget will let you keep track of your home, your kids or your workplace--whatever is important to you.

And get this, it's not just any other web cam, this guy doesn't require an attached PC! The Internet Video camera contains its own web server so it can connect directly to a network, either over Wireless-G (802.11g) networking or 10/100 Ethernet cable.

So continue to write those product reviews on NewBiiz for your chance to win!

New Girl Geek Section on NewBiiz: SMART, SASSY, STYLISH!

2008-07-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

We have just revamped the female section to Girl Geek at NewBiiz. It now has more content such as upcoming tech events, interested girl geek articles and the hottest tech products to look out for. In addition, every month, we are featuring a "Girl Geek" of the month. This person or persons that are featured are girls who are changing the world of gaming and technology. If you have any candidates you want to nominate for a future girl geek, please email us at pr@newbiiz.com. Please be sure to include some information about your nominee such as a short bio and why you feel they should be featured as NewBiiz's next "Girl Geek."

This month, our feature Girl Geek is Christina "Faith" Winterburn, a girl gamer who has written about her love of gaming for sites like Destructoid.com, Bits, Bytes, Pixels, & Sprites, and Attack This! Read more about how she got into gaming in our Girl Geek Section.

And the best part of this site is that you can find all the products for you or the girl in your life all in once convenient place. So whether you need to get a gift or something special, go check out the new female section at NewBiiz. Enter at your own risk and remember to stay Smart, Sassy and Stylish!

Product Giveaway: Pinnacle HD Pro Stick!

2008-06-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

Here's yet another FREE giveaway for those who write product reviews this week on any product found on NewBiiz.com. This week's giveaway is Pinnacle's HD Pro Stick. With this, you can instantly turn your PC into a personal digital video recorder. You can also record all your favorite TV shows directly onto your hard drive or direct to your DVD. So don't miss out on any more shows or movies with this neat gadget. So write those reviews and this could be yours!

ATI Radeon 4000 Series: Now Available at NewBiiz!

2008-06-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

The all new ATI Radeon 4000 Series is now available at NewBiiz!

Redefine HD Gaming and go beyond HD Video with break-through energy efficiency with ATI's 4000 Series! These cards' performance benchmarks blow nVidia out of the water at only half the price!

Better yet, when you purchase a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4850 512MB PCI-Express Video Card (Part #AT-485_512) at NewBiiz, enter Promo Code "ILOVENEWBIIZ" at checkout for $10 OFF AND FREE SHIPPING! That's right, you'll get the all-new Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4850 for only $189 SHIPPED! Don't miss your chance on this amazing deal!

NewBiiz Product Review Giveaway: Netgear Router!

2008-06-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

This week, NewBiiz is giving away a Netgear wireless router. Simply enter to win by writing a review for any one of the thousands of products they carry including pc components, software and consumer electronics. But you have to post a review between June 23 - June 30 to be qualified. So visit NewBiiz and get typing! Good luck!

Bluetooths Under $18 at NewBiiz, Don't Drive Without One or Pay Up!

2008-06-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

That's right! Don't get caught in California without a bluetooth while driving or be prepared to cough up some cash. This new law takes into effect on July 1, 2008. And even if you are not in California, it is still safer to get your hands on one of these bluetooths to keep you, your passengers and other drivers safe.

NewBiiz carries a variety of bluetooths at all prices from different brands. Plantronics offers advanced bluetooth headsets for all the cool phone-savvy users, while iMicro offers a serious affordable alternatives for those just looking to obey the law. You can even find cheap bluetooths from as low as $18! All of a sudden, obeying the law is not as bad as we all thought.

NewBiiz Kicks Off Summer with Big Savings!

2008-06-20T15:04:00.001-07:00

Summer officially starts tomorrow and NewBiiz is celebrating the start of summer with BIG SAVINGS! There are a bunch of deals on pc components and consumer electronics. Some items include Super Talent's popular MP4 player, notebook memory and their smallest but stylish water proof gadget: the PICO-C flash drives. The Asus MyPal GPS/PDA, a Hitachi 200GB notebook hard drive and an Acer notebook under $760 are also among the items on sale.

Read our official NewBiiz press release for more information about our summer kick off savings! So keep cool this summer and keep saving!

NewBiiz Product Review Giveaway: Microsoft Vista!

2008-06-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

Every week, NewBiiz is giving away one fantastic prize. This week's prize is a copy of Microsoft Vista. So what do you have to do to enter? Hold on to your seats...simply write a product review for ANY item on the site. That's it! It's as easy as 1, 2, 3. No...it's easier! So write as often as you want as there will be a new prize every Monday! Be sure to check the Weekly Product Review Giveaway at NewBiiz every week. Good Luck!

NewBiiz Launches New Section for Female Audience

2008-06-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

No Boys Allowed? Yup, you read that right the first time! NewBiiz recently launched a new female section that is solely dedicated to the female audience. Here, you will find all the pc components that your guy friends or brothers have, except that these have more of a woman flare. Some products include baby blue or pink iPod cases, red digital frames and pink notebook cases. So say goodbye to searching through thousands of rough manly components and say hello to No Boys Allowed. The next time you are looking for that tough, sleek and stylish product for yourself, your sister, your mom, your friend or your girlfriend, the search starts here for female products!

July 4th Sale w/ FREE Headset at NewBiiz!

2008-06-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a chance to get what you really wanted that you didn't get at this year's Graduation or Father's Day...NewBiiz.com is celebrating July 4th with explosive deals on video cards, motherboards, cases and more! It only gets better. Get this: If you enter promo code: REDWBLUE4 at checkout when you purchase ANYTHING from NewBiiz, you get a FREE Zonet headset. Now that's what I call a deal! You better hurry though, this offer is only good through next Friday, June 27th.

Free ABIT Motherboard from NewBiiz!

2008-06-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

NewBiiz currently has an Abit sweepstakes going on right now through June 18. They are giving away one IP35P motherboard as the grand prize.

Let's peep out the specs:

Intel® P35/ICH9 Chipset
LGA 77
45nm CPU with 1333FSB
Dual DDR2 1066 OC
SATA 3G
On board Gigabit LAN
7.1 CH HD Audio
abit SoftMenu Technology
EZ CCMOS Switch
12x USB 2.0
RoHS Compliant
Vista Premium HW ready

All they need is your name and email. So what are you waiting for? Enter the sweepstakes now!

New Puma Platform from AMD

2008-06-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

In a time when notebooks and mobility are all the rage, AMD's new Turion X2 Ultra processor is their first ever designed for mobile processor. The new platform which is scheduled to launch this week at Computex consists of the Turion X2, a mobile chipset and wireless chips from AMD's partners.

Unlike the Barcelona, the Turion X2 is different in a few ways including the way it supplies power to the processor so that the cores run at variable speeds. The memory controller also is able to handle more mobility. In addition, AMD is focusing on hybrid graphics technology which would allow PC users to easily conserver power according to their needs.

So if AMD experiences no speed bumps rolling out the products to their partners, they may be on the road to a very smooth ride this year.

New Chips & PCs on the Block

2008-06-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

That's right. All eyes on the new wave of PCs at Computex 2008. Don't forget the baby chips like Intel's Atom and Nvidia's Tegra that make it all possible.

All the fuss is about those fast rising low-budget notebooks and the very tiny but high performance chips that run them. Lately, there has been a wave of these notebooks that started to appear everywhere. Some worth mentioning include: Asus Eee 901, MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, HP mini-notebook and Dell's XPS M1210.

As popularity of these notebooks rise, also comes the shortage of the chips. So be prepared if you want to get your hands on one of these this summer!

First Look: Asus Eee Box

2008-06-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

The Eee Box is the all new super small form factor desktop from Asus. It's 8.5-inches high, 1-inch wide, and 7-inches deep. It's included with a stand or it can lay flat. To see all the official dimensions in detail, click here.

There will be three configurations available in the U.S.

$269 - 1 GB of RAM, 80GB hard drive, linux
$299 - 2 GB of RAM, 160 GB hard drive, linux
$299 - 1 GB or RAM and an 80 GB hard drive, Windows XP

This Wii-looking PC will complement the new Eee PCs and will directly compete with Shuttle's KPC K-4500 Linux desktop. The Eee Box is scheduled to be released at U.S. retailers later this year.

Nvidia Going Green and Going Mobile

2008-06-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

Nvidia will be showing off their new Tegra brand for mobile application processors at this week's Computex. Their first processor for smartphones, the APX 2500, will be joined by two other processors showing that they are serious about targeting the fast and growing Mobile Internet Device category.

Like Nvidia, Intel already has huge plans for its Atom line of processors, but Nvidia is focusing their strategy on power consumption and the ever so popular green trend we see almost everywhere. Green also being their company color simply represents a coincidence that falls in their favor.

Another interesting point to note is that their products are also designed to work exclusively with Microsoft's Windows Mobile Software.

Tegra processors are expected to arrive by the end of this year just in time for the holiday season. To read more about this Cnet article, click here.

Hackers Take Over Comcast Front Page

2008-06-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

The Comcast.net front page was hacked for several hours overnight on Wednesday, leaving the company's 14.1 million subscribers unable to access their email. The front page was replaced with a message from the hackers saying they had "RoXed" Comcast.

The hackers apparently seized control of the Comcast.net domain name by changing Comcast's registrar account at Network Solutions and redirected traffic to other bogus servers. Comcast was able to stop traffic to the bogus servers by the following morning.

There has been no reports that personal or private information was stolen, but this just serves as a reminder that passwords should be changed frequently. Security experts recommend changing passwords as frequently as every week, if not at least every month since this shows how vulnerable email servers can be. They also say to use a mix of letters and numbers and stay away from using family member's names, birthdays, etc...

So the next time you log in and surprisingly see a hacker-like note, let's hope you changed your password.

Children Addicted to Cell Phones in Japan

2008-05-30T14:07:00.000-07:00

Japanese children love their cell phones. These sixth graders are addicted to using the Internet and exchanging emails all day to all wee hours of the night. And get this: the ones that don't reply to their email within the first 30 minutes will get ridiculed by other classmates. About one-third of sixth graders and more than half of ninth graders have them. Wow, I didn't even get my first cell phone until I entered college and I thought I was lucky, but I guess these kids hit the jackpot!

The Japanese government is now concerned about child safety and is starting a program to inform parents to limit their children's cell phone usage. In addition, they are asking Japanese developers to make cell phones with only the talking function along with a GPS device for child safety reasons.

There's the good and the bad about young children having cell phones. You can definitely keep in touch and reach your children at all times, that is if they don't ignore your calls. On the other hand, children can easily become victims of Internet crimes, not to mention phones can be a great distraction in school and out.

So what's next? Will 7th-graders all have credit cards soon too? I wouldn't be surprised.

Introducing...Super-ink from Xerox!

2008-05-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

Xerox unveiled their new cured gel ink for digital printers that can print on almost anything! Imagine printing on foil, smooth plastic or even cardboard. The ability to print on nearly any surface, smooth or rough opens up many door and replaces any old fashion presses that are currently used for other surfaces today.

Too bad there is no release date yet on when this will hit the market. But at least we know people are experimenting out there. To learn more about the ingredients and the process of this super-ink, click here.

The Space Between: the Virtual & the Physical

2008-05-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

Social networking sites have always walked a difficult line between the realms of the public and private sphere. Users want to be public and private at the same time. They want to show off to the public that they have thousands of friends, yet also want to hide pictures of last night’s party from the girl who didn’t get invited. What is private and what is public? Students at Mount Holyoke College found this line unsettling when Holyoke senior Martha Martinez unveiled her controversial art installation “The Panopticon: A Facebook Installation” last month.

Martinez’s installation is a collection of printed photographs taken from Mount Holyoke students’ public albums posted on Facebook. These albums are accessible to anyone with a connection to the internet, whether they are Facebook members or not. However, upon seeing printed photos of themselves, some students were upset by the display.

As we are moving more towards interacting within the communal virtual space, we need something to pull us back to the physical space which our very bodies occupy. This art piece challenges us on what happens when something moves from a virtual communal space into a physical communal space with similar parameters.

What makes this physical space different from our virtual space? While students may have been angered by use of their picture without permission in this installment, who’s to say that some creepy old man in Arkansas didn’t print out his own copy of these public pictures to hang on his wall?

By posting a public picture on a network such as Facebook, a user is making it possibly accessible to millions of strangers, with little control on what is actually done with the picture. This does not upset students, who are used to this type of virtual public display. However, making the picture into a tactile document, something that can be touched, sniffed, or folded, displayed to only a few hundred students who happen to walk into the Mount Holyoke art gallery, causes uproar among the Mount Holyoke students. Why?

A physical object conveys a greater sense of documentation and permanence not achievable from a virtual file. Virtual files are easily amended: I can Photoshop an ice cream cone into someone’s hand, or put them in the middle of the African desert with a few clicks of the mouse. But once made physical, that sense of impermanence is lost. Now it is forever known that you once stood in the middle of the African desert with an ice cream cone in your hand. Similarly, I can delete a picture from my Facebook profile quite easily, but I cannot take a picture away from Martinez's hand as easily.

For a generation that needs to document their every move, event, thought, and feeling through virtual artifacts available to the virtual public, it seems odd that they would be so unsettled by something that offers to physically document their existence for them. True, it is for viewing in a different type of public space (the physical), but isn’t that what our generation wants? By posting their every move on the internet, they want the world to know that at one point in time, they took this picture at this precise moment. They want the world to know that they knew this person; they were friends with them, and they liked them so much they had dinner together. They want a public acknowledgement of their existence through comments, wall posts, and page views. By turning virtual memories into physical ones, by crossing the space between, their existence is made just a little bit more permanent. However, crossing this space still seems to violate an unspoken code between the virtual and physical world.

iWindows 7?

2008-05-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

Microsoft unveiled an iPhone-like touch screen feature for its new operating system, Windows 7, yesterday at the "D: All Things Digital" conference and announced that the expected release date to be in late 2009.

Chairman Bill Gates calls this an evolution away from the mouse claiming that some tasks could be done much faster than using a traditional mouse. The multi touch technology would allow users to shrink and enlarge photos, much like the near one-year-old iPhone. But at a surprise to most, the new technology will be able to work with existing touch screens. So does this mean that our screens will also have the messy fingerprints that always magically appear on our iPhones?

So why so late in '09? At the pace Apple is releasing new products, they may even have something similar, or even newer and better before Microsoft will be able to ship their new toy. It's interesting to see how this will all pan out...

Let Your Gadgets Enjoy a Care-free Summer too!

2008-05-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost here, so you know what that means...lots of fun in the sun! This automatically means lots of fresh lemonade, pool parties, flip-flops and sunburns, at least for the few unlucky ones that burn no matter how much sunblock we apply. This also means free time to listen to your favorite jam on your iPod nano everywhere and anywhere to you choose to. And in the summer time, this almost always involve H2O.

An MSNBC article goes over some tips and suggestions that will protect your favorite gadgets so you can possibly use them next summer, that is if you don't toss them purposely for an upgrade.

Great Gift Ideas For Mother's Day

2008-05-09T15:30:00.002-07:00

Mother's Day is rolling around again this Sunday and I'm here to help you out with a couple great gift ideas to prove to your mother that giving birth to you was a good idea. You can go with the same old card, candies, and flowers. Or you can go with something that's more than just paper, is not edible, and will last for more than a week. Here are a couple clues that may help you find that special gift that'll make you her favorite kid this Mother's Day.
1) Digital Cameras or Webcams Moms are all about capturing the moment and cherishing the memories. A camera is a perfect gift for Mom. Careful not to go for the most technologically advanced digital camera. Mom would probably appreciate a camera that looks really cool, something with a huge LCD screen and is super thing. I doubt she'll care much about how many different kinds of lighting options a camera has. If you go for a middle of the road camera that looks cool, she'll be sure to appreciate it.

If you can't make it to visit Mom on Mother's Day, a nice gesture is to send her a webcam along with whatever other presents you get her. A simple plug and play webcam is best, especially one with a good amount of megapixels. Being able to see you on her day would be priceless. And it won't cost too much for you either.
2) Digital Photo Frames This is a new gadget that was hot last holiday season. Digital photo frames would be perfect for the mom who already has a digital camera. You can upload photos onto the frame, create a slideshow so that the photos automatically change themselves, and play music on them. This is always a great gift choice, just make sure that you pick one that's simple and looks nice.
3) Apple iPod or Touch For the mothers who are more digitally in-tune, and iPod or a Touch would be an amazing gift, though these gifts would be expensive. Still, everyone loves an iPod.
4) Gift Certificates These are the safest and most reliable gifts. I listed this as last because, if you're like me, you've given your mother loads of gift certificates already. Gift certificates to the movies or to a health spa are some of the most popular gift certificate choices. You can always get her gift certificates to her favorite stores too.

And if all else fails this year, get the flowers. Always get some flowers.

Get Smart in Your Car: Tips on Saving Gas & Avoiding Tickets

2008-05-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

Gas prices are through the roof, traffic is getting worse everywhere, and inflation is about ready to pop. Good thing I'm here with tips on how to make the most of today's dreary condition.

There are plenty of ways we can make that tank of gas last longer, get out of traffic and avoid the occasional speeding ticket. All of this translates into extra time and money for you. Here are 4 tips that'll definitely keep your wallet green.
1) Get a GPS
Whenever you hit a traffic jam, you can use your GPS to redirect you around the jam to your final destination. There are also GPS's that offer up real time in-car traffic services. It'll alert you of any traffic ahead and automatically redirect you. In the past you had to buy the traffic receiver separately and pay a monthly fee to use in-car traffic services. A couple of new GPS's have been released that have it built into the device itself and I expect that trend to continue in the future.

It will definitely be worth the investment to get a GPS with traffic alerts in the future, as gas prices and traffic both are expected to rise with no end in sight. Even if you got a cheap GPS without real time traffic features, you could still use it to navigate around traffic saving you time and money. Stop and go traffic makes you use MUCH more gas. A GPS would mean a lot more saved time and money and a lot less stress.

2)Gasbuddy.com
Visit Gasbuddy.com. It lets you search for the cheapest gas stations in your area. It's updated pretty frequently and it's pretty reliable. The site is sure to save you lots of cash in the long run.
3) Take Care of Your Ride
Make sure that your tires are pumped up to recommended levels. If your tires are even slightly flat or in less than optimum shape, you are using more gas to push that sucker along. You can increase your MPG by 10% or more just by making sure that your properly pumped up.

Oh, and you know that load of crap you've been carrying in the back of your car for months now? That can also decrease your miles per gallon. Any added weight to your car drops your MPG and that means you'll be making visits to the gas station more often. Clean out your car and pump your tires up. Not only will you have more cash to spend, you'll also enjoy the good vibes that come with riding around in a nice, clean car. So stop procrastinating and clean that car up. You'll be doing yourself, your car, and the environment a huge favor.

4) Avoid speed traps...or keep the speed limit.
There are a variety of speed trap alert websites online right now. One of the most popular is Trapster.com. The site allows you find speed traps in your own area and the information is available for most big cities. The best way to avoid speeding tickets is to keep the good old speed limit. Boring, I know but true. Keeping the speed limit will definitely keep speeding tickets at bay, and it also makes for an increase in miles per gallon. Yup, 65 miles per hour gets you a high rate of MPG. If you go over 65 MPH, you end up dropping your MPG.

Memorial Day Sale @ NewBiiz

2008-05-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

NewBiiz is holding a Memorial Day sale throughout the month of May. If you need PC Components, software, networking equipment, laptops, digital cameras and more, check out the site for some awesome deals.

12 Tips to Improve Brain Power

2008-05-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

Wired Magazine posted up 12 tips in improve brain power and effectively hack your brain, from taking small shots of caffeine to reducing the amount of stress you have to embracing chaos to enhance your memory. All really interesting stuff about how your brain works. So here's your chance to fill your brain with useful information about..well, your brain.

Xobni: it's Inbox Spelled Backwards

2008-05-05T16:16:00.000-07:00

Everyone who uses Outlook will be happy to know that Xobni has just gone public. Xobni is a new program that works with Outlook to make getting emails much more fun and interactive. It pops up in outlook as a window on the left side. This is what it looks like:
It offers up stats and information on just about everything you could ever want or need to know about the email you send and receive. In the example above, it has the info of the person who's sent the email to you, based on information that xobni has extracted from previous emails. It automatically pulls out numbers, names, and addresses so that you have a profile for everyone you interact with. It also lists pasts emails and downloaded from the person, statistically represents how often you communicate and when, and other people who are connected to that person. It can also pull information relevant to your emails from the web for you. Pretty much a TON of information that you didn't even know you wanted to know.

In addition, Xobni let's you search through your emails in a flash. If you use Outlook, you know that using it for years stacks up thousands of emails and searching through them can take years. Xobni apparently makes it so that searching through emails is much faster. Searching, organizing, and navigating through your inbox has been revolutionized for Outlook users. You can check out videos and more on the company site. Another invention that makes work easier and faster. Cool invention with an equally cool tagline.

Real-life Iron Man?

2008-05-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

The new Iron Man movie hit theaters today in a big way. The movie is getting great reviews so far - Rotten Tomatoes even gave it a 94% and it's currently listed as the best movie of the year so far.

The movie pushes an interesting plot, based on the comic, of a man who engineers a combat suit, complete with weapons and armor, and effectively becomes a one man army. An interesting idea and one that makes me wonder if such a thing is possible in this day and age.

MSNBC posted an article that tries to see how close we really are to such a reality.

Right now, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV - know you know what it means you on COD4) and robots are currently all the rage in terms of ground-breaking military technology. I expect that that trend will continue in the future. I'm thinking Terminator got it right, not so much Tony Stark.

eWiz is now NewBiiz

2008-05-01T16:33:00.000-07:00

eWiz has officially become NewBiiz!!! A brand new NewBiiz.com should be up within a couple of months but until then you can still find us at eWiz.com. Visits to NewBiiz.com will be transferred back to ewiz.com for the time being.

Until then, we're offering lower prices, a wider selection of products, and much better service.

Best Cell Phone Plans: Which carrier is best?

2008-04-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

With all the different phone carriers and plans out there, it's ridiculously hard to determine whether or not you're getting the best bang for your buck. There are hundreds of different factors, fees, and options that different phone carriers can throw at you. To be able to find a plan and a carrier that fits your needs while saving your cash is no small feat. Reading and comparing the fine print can be arduous and painstakingly time consuming. Lucky for you, I've gone ahead and done the research for you. Here are a couple tips and tricks when choosing a plan and a carrier.

I've compared AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. Before deciding on what plan to take on, it's very important that you first decide on how you plan to use your phone. How frequently will you be using the phone? Will you be roaming? Will you be calling people who are roaming domestically or internationally? Will you need text messaging? What time in the day do you expect to use the phone? Who will you be calling and what service do they have? Should you get a family plan? This website goes through all the questions you should ask yourself prior to picking out a plan.

What type of plan to choose?

Figuring out whether or not you should get an individual, prepaid plan, or family plans can be a doozy. An individual plan is simple enough--you pay one bill for your one phone on a monthly basis. You sign a phone contract for 1-2 years depending on the carrier and if you decide to leave the carrier, they typically charge you an early termination fee of $175 (AT&T, Verizon). Every plan with a contract has an early termination fee.

Prepaid plans are best for people who only use cell phones for emergencies (i.e. mom & dad). Some companies, like AT&T, offer 2 kinds of pre-paid plans: one, where you're only charged for the minutes you use and one where you buy a fixed amount of minutes per month (it's essentially a monthly contract as opposed to 2-year contracts). Prepaid plans are renewed whenever you want more minutes, and the best part of the deal is that you're not tied down by any contracts and you're never surprised by any surprise charges, hidden fees, or super huge phone bills. The downside is that you have to buy the cell phone full price, so typically people with prepaid plans have super cheap phones. But if you don't use it much anyway, it really doesn't matter. You'd also have to go through the trouble buying minutes every month.

Family plans are best for people who want to share minutes and have everything charged on one single bill. These also have 1-2 year contracts. The benefit in this is that you can have a fixed set of minutes to share between 2 phones which can save you money depending on your needs and how many minutes you use. Check this article out if you're interested in family plans. 2 people with 2 separate individual plans can typically get 450 minutes for $40/month each or $80 total. If they signed up for a family plan, they can get 550 minutes for $60. They'd be saving $20 and gaining 100 more minutes. The downside to a family plan is that everyone in the plan has to make sure not to go over their allocated minutes. If you have a chatterbox in your family, you'll find your bill doubling by the end of the month. Sprint & AT&T have the cheapest family plans.

Things to look for when choosing a carrier...

After you figure yourself out, you're set to choose your carrier. One of the most important things to check is coverage. Find out which carriers have great coverage in your area by visiting their site. Usually they offer up a map that displays how good their service is in their area. Or you can check out SignalMap.com. Verizon has the best overall coverage, but it's worth it to check how well all these carriers do in your area.

Roaming charges, activation charges, early termination fees, hidden fees and charges in general. Keep long distance and roaming charges in mind when choosing a plan and carrier. Lot's of carriers offer plans with no roaming fees and that's definitely something to make sure you have. Emergencies pop up and you may have to use the phone outside of your local area. Or you may have to call someone who is roaming. Either way, footing the bill once you've roamed is definitely not a pleasant ordeal. Of the three carriers I've compared, AT&T has the most expensive activation fee of $36 for individual plans. Sprint & Verizon charge $35 for activation. Hey, a dollar is a dollar. And in terms of early termination fees, both AT&T and Verizon charge $175. Sprint by far has the highest ETF of upwards of $200.

Unlimited Mobile to Mobile and unlimited nights & weekends. You always want these perks. Who do you talk to the most over the phone? Check what carrier they have. If you talk to the same person or persons on your cell phone, chances are the best thing to do is to switch to their carrier or vice versa. Having the same carrier lets you talk to those people for free, whenever you want. You can then choose the cheapest plan with the least amount of minutes and that can save you hundreds. Another thing to look for when choosing a carrier and plan is if they offer unlimited nights & weekends. Sprint offers the best unlimited nights & weekends plan because nights start at 7PM (with certain plans). Verizon and AT&T both have nights starting at 9pm. With Sprint you can chitter chatter for free much earlier than the other two.

Contract length. You don't want to be stuck in a rut for 2 years. Unfortunately, with any kind of phone plan (save prepaid phone plans), you'll be stuck with a contract of up to 1-2 years. You wanna hope for just a 1-year commitment if you can fudge it. Carriers can up charges while you're under a contract and you will have to pay. This elaborates on why you don't won't to be locked in for too long.

This article has a list of the biggest complaints people usually have. Don't end up like one of the people surveyed by checking the article out...

AT&T vs. Verizon vs. Sprint

So I decided to check out what all 3 of these phone giants offered at the very basic level of individual plans. I chose these 3 because they have the biggest networks. T-Mobile comes close too, but unfortunately doesn't as good coverage as these 3. I heard they have awesome customer service though :). I compared their cheapest individual phone plans, the only criteria being that the plan had to include unlimited mobile to mobile minutes. They all offer free domestic long distance and have the same basic features and the same typical fees (early termination & activation fees). Here's how they stacked up.

AT&T: Nation 450 w/rollover minutes ($39.99/month, 45 cents for each additional minute)

PROS: Rollover minutes. You can rollover any unused minutes to next month. After 12 months though, all the minutes accrued will be wiped out.
CONS: Highest activation fee ($36. The others charge $35. Not too big a deal.) No unlimited nights & weekends. Huuuge con, because the other two offer unlimited nights & weekends. AT&T offers 5000 minutes for nights & weekends instead. Lame. Plus, nights start at 9:00pm for AT&T. No texts.

Verizon: Nationwide Basic 450 minutes ($39.99/month, 45 cents for each additional minute)

PROS: By far, the best coverage (at least where I live in San Jose, CA and most likely where you live too.) You can text but it costs you 20 cents to receive & send a text. Activation is $35. Unlimited nights & weekends.
CONS: Nights start at 9:01pm for Verizon.

Sprint: Basic Plan 200 minutes ($34.99/month, 45 cents for each additional minute)

PROS: Activation is $35. Unlimited nights & weekends. Cheapest.
CONS: Least amount of minutes. For 4 more dollars a month, you can get more than double the minutes. Nights start at 9:00. I couldn't explicitly find how much the early termination fee was on their website, other than a statement under their terms & conditions saying that it's $200 or more. If it is $200, it's well above AT&T and Verizons ETF of $175.

Before you choose a plan, VISIT THIS SITE: http://www.myrateplan.com/wireless_plans/
It let's you do a side by side comparison of all phone carriers and their plans. Extremely useful.

At any rate, I hope you find all this info helpful to you. A simple search will also yield plenty of results where people review the services they have. The bottom line, mist important thing is to pick a service that fits your needs. Write your needs out and determine what's best based on that criteria. The best tip I can give is to write out who you speak to the most and share the same carrier as that person. Unlimited mobile to mobile is one of the best perks a plan can offer.

Grand Theft Auto 4 Cheats

2008-04-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

GTA4 is out and everyone wants to know how know: how can I spawn a jet pack and be invincible, effectively becoming like superman, except in place of x-ray vision, laser eye-sight, and speeding bullet speed, I'd have a baseball bat, Molotov cocktails, and an M-rating?

Well the answer is right here. Codes and cheats galore for everyone who wants to experience this game in its maximum glory. And the great thing about this site is that its not loaded with additional ads and pop ups that most cheat sites love to spam you with.

The Bourne Conspiracy

2008-04-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

A new game based on the Bourne Trilogy movies is set to come out June 3rd on Playstation 3 and Xbox360. The Bourne Conspiracy is being developed by High Moon Studios, a branch of Sierra Entertainment, who is a subsidiary of Vivendi games.

Though there were rumors swirling around about the possibility of it being a multiplayer game, High Moon Studios has comfimed that it will only have a single player mode. Check the website, the in game previews look great. I personally love the Bourne movies and I'm super psyched to check this one out.

High Moon Studios boasts that there's a system that allows you to switch between hand to hand combat and guns instantly, something that's not all too impressive or unique. The best third-person espionage game ever is the Metal Gear series (Metal Gear Solid being my all time favorite third-person espionage game), hands down. I doubt this game will top that, but I'm definitely still going to give this one a try. If anything, at least I'll get to see pieces of the movie played out in a video game.

Keep your eyes open for the demo set to launch on May 5th on XBox live and the Playstation Network.

The World's First DDR3-1800 4GB Kit

2008-04-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

Up until now, the biggest, baddest memory kit you could for a top end rig was 4GB of DDR3-1600 memory technology. Super Talent Technology has just launched a 4GB kit of DDR3-1800 technology last Wednesday and so far, it's been in extremely high demand. As the world's first and only memory kit of its kind, I'd bet on it.

Gamers should be thrilled to hear about this, except for the fact that you can only run this RAM on an equally high-end and compatible motherboard. Motherboards like that can run you up round $300, and the 4GB kit itself is just under $460. There is, however, a 2GB kit as well for under $260. Right now, the only place that sells this product is eWiz.com.

"Additional features include an extreme cooling system with 106% more aluminum mass than standard heat spreaders and double the surface area. The extreme cooling system also includes Super Talent’s thermal adhesive which provides superior heat dissipation for the memory device."

The kit is also backed by a lifetime warranty from Super Talent.

Demand has been so high for this product that it's currently sold out and expected to return on May 2nd. And that's enough time for you to earn another paycheck to blow.

Apple Enjoys 36% Increase in Profit

2008-04-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

Good news for all you Apple shareholders: Apple has reported a 36% increase in Q2. That's more than a half a billion dollars. Apple shares are now $1.06 per share. Amazing numbers, given that practically everyone else, in almost any industry (except probably the oil industry) is experiencing slow downs because of rising oil prices.

Apple's amazing profits this quarter has been attributed to the Apple Mac. The all-in-one has been especially hot this quarter and is yet another reminder of growing demand for all-in-ones.

Earth Day Sale: Motherboards & Power Supplies

2008-04-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

For all you rig builders out there, eWiz has launched an Earth Day sale on all our extremely popular, eco-friendly products. So today, make yourself and the earth happy with these special, one-day deals. It'll be up until 6:00 a.m. EST. Yeah, Earth Day may technically be over by then, but it's ok. I think the earth would appreciate it.

We're featuring motherboards from Asus and Gigabyte that feature energy saving technologies. Asus has an EPU that ensures up to 96% power efficiency and saves up to 80.23% CPU power. Likewise, Gigabyte also has DES (Dynamic Energy Saver) software installed into its motherboards promising up to 70% CPU power savings and an improvement of up to 20% in power efficiency. So we've got a couple skus with super low prices and I've linked them below for anyone who's interested.

Additionally, we're also dropping the price of earth friendly power supply units, namely Antec's EarthWatt's Series PSU's which are all 80 PLUS certified. And, lastly, in an effort to offer some variety, there's also an Antec case with special low pricing, the Antec Sonata III. It's a looker, and it's also nice to mother earth as it comes with an Antec EarthWatts 500Watt PSU. Take a look, show some friends, make the earth greener today.

Motherboards:
Asus P5K/EPU
Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6
Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R

Power Supplies:
Antec EarthWatts 380
Antec EarthWatts 430
Antec EarthWatts 500

Case:
Antec Sonata III

All-in-One PC's

2008-04-21T17:09:00.001-07:00

So I walked into Best Buy this weekend and saw their Featured System - a fully integrated computer/monitor. The idea is like Apple's Mac in that the system is all in one. The monitor is the desktop. Looks amazing, and the graphics on the rig were absolutely amazing but it got me asking...is this the wave of the future?

In technology, it's all about rolling everything into one. The XBOX 360 is more than just a gaming console. It can also play HD DVDs. And the same goes for the Playstation 3 except with a Blu-Ray. GPS's also plays MP3's and MP3 players also plays video. The All-in-One concept is a popular one, and it may now be over taking the traditional concept of the Desktop PC.

They are space and energy saving. But then again, they aren't as portable as a notebook or as upgradeable as a desktop. Still, the All-in-One PC I saw at Best Buy was a stunner. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up a hit. The All-in-One's are perfect for people looking to save space. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a staple of the typical office workplace. But as of yet it's a very niche product. If pricing for these products becomes comparable to desktops using the same technology, we could be seeing a definite increase in profitability in this industry.

Net Neutrality: This Week's Hot Debate

2008-04-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Many companies, like Comcast, want to manage traffic into sites. Net Firms and Broadband companies like Comcast can control traffic into websites, so that they can allow high-speed access to some sites, while other sites would suffer slower access speed. Website owners would have to pay Comcast for faster speeds, while the rest of us would just have to suffer with slower speeds.

Net Neutrality, for all of you who don't already know, is the concept that all sites should be allowed to have high-speeds and that companies should not have the right to control that.

In the future, I think that this is going to be a huuuuge issue. The internet is popular for being a completely ungovernable media, with the exception of censorship (like in China, though there are way of getting around that). Now that companies and governments have the technology to monitor and manage internet traffic, the internet is entering a new era of laws and restrictions. And because the internet is global and laws are domestic, countries and the companies within them are going to have a very interesting future figuring out how to deal with all these internet issues.

The Federal Communications Committee held a meeting yesterday to discuss Net Neutrality and the fact that Comcast has "been exposed as managing traffic by stopping some of its 13m customers uploading files to BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks."

A formal investigation is underway to decide whether or not Comcast should be punished for this. The debate is as to whether or not it's wrong. Some people think that allowing net firms to manage traffic is fine, but they must keep their customers fully informed about their practices. However this turns out, this debate sure is an interesting one and it definitely applies to you and me.

Scientist in Japan Creates the First Invisibility Cloak

2008-04-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

A professor in Japan alleges that he has invented an "invisibility" cloak, with plans to develop "invisible walls" as well.

Susumu Tachi was in San Francisco earlier this month at an exhibition where he showed off his new invention. Supposedly, it's made up of thousands of tiny beads made of a new material called retro-reflectum.

Sounds like something out of Harry Potter, doesn't it? Ridiculous!

Retro-reflectum is a technology that basically allows the thousands of tiny beads to project an image onto itself. You can check all the details here. It projects the image of what is behind the person wearing the cloak. "This material allows you to see a three-dimensional image," said Prof. Tachi.

Review of Super Talent's PICO-C

2008-04-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

Check it out, the World’s Smallest USB Drive. And yes, this really is 8GB of storage packed into a shiny little drive about the size of a quarter. I got the chance to play around with one of them, and this is what I found..

+Design & Build: This thing gives new meaning to the fifth pocket. It’s extremely tiny and portable, and could definitely fit in anything, even the useless fifth pocket. The drive doesn’t feel cheap either. It feels pretty sturdy. I wouldn’t be too worried if I accidentally dropped or sat on it which would all be likely because of its size. The drive is shock resistant and waterproof and I definitely put it to the test. Check out the video below. I dropped it in water several times, dried it off, and it worked perfectly. An added benefit is that the USB’s case is reflective, so it’s like having a tiny little mirror in your pocket. Overall, I’m highly impressed by the sturdiness of this super tiny drive.

+Price: It’s around $35. For an 8GB drive, that’s a pretty good deal considering that a cheap 1GB drive can cost about $8 online. It also comes in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB for $8.94, $12.47, and $17.52, respectively. Add in the fact that this is the smallest drive around, highly portable, shock resistant and waterproof, and you’ve got the deal of your life when it comes to USB drives.

+User-Friendliness: It basically works just like your typical USB drive—plug and play. Super fast when it comes to accessing and transferring files, but other than that, nothing too remarkable here. No hardware to install, no frills, no problems.

From top to bottom: Super Talent's PICO-A, PICO-B, and PICO-C

PROS: Pretty cheap for 8GB, super small, highly portable, shock resistant, waterproof, accesses/transfers files relatively quickly, feels sturdy, reflective surface looks nice. Not to mention, acts as a tiny mirror in your pocket.

CONS: The size is mentioned as a pro, but depending on who you are, it can also be a con. The small size makes it easy to lose this drive. Another pro that can also be a con is its reflective surface. It’s nice but it can also be dull. It really depends on your preference at this point. To be honest, the drive delivers in all the areas it claims. It you want the most GBs for your buck when it comes to USB drives, this is probably your best bet.

A typical sized USB vs. the PICO-C

Conclusion: For people who need a USB drive with a lot of storage space, this is a great solution. I have a 2GB USB and that pretty much takes care of my needs. But if you want the newest, coolest, smallest USB out there, the PICO-C is probably what you want. An added benefit is that this thing is not only extremely portable, but it’s also really durable so that, if you’re accident prone like I am, you don’t have to worry about accidentally leaving this in your pocket and throwing this into the washing machine.

Psystar Offers "OpenMac"

2008-04-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

Psystar has reportedly cloned the Mac. Yup, they're offering customers an "OpenMac" for only $399, compared to Apple's iMac starting at $1199. The OpenMac is basically just a PC with "2.2GHz Core 2 Duo E4500, @GB of memory, integrated GMA 950 graphics, 250GB disk and 20x DVD burner. " With an additional $155, they'll install Leopard on it. You'd get the whole system, plus Leopard, for $554. You'd end up saving upwards of $600 going with the OpenMac.

The OpenMac apparently has an EFI V8 emulator--a bunch of mumbo meaning that you can install Apple programs, essentially having a Mac, without the Mac look and price. This thing will probably be discontinued in the blink of an eye, so if you're interested, don't procrastinate.

Steve Jobs is probably dropping bricks right now.

If I was into multimedia and stuff, I'd be all over this. Multimedia fanatics will probably be the first to jump on this thing because Apple offers unmatchable multimedia programs like Final Cut Studio and others, all staples in the media industry. It'll be cool to see how Apple reacts to all this.

Myspace TV Goes Global

2008-04-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

Myspace is going to distribute its original internet content internationally in conjunction with ShineReveille. Apparently, it will be Myspace's way of testing out new content and then eventually, they're going to sell their entertainment.

It's going to be a way for the Internet giant to test out ideas and see if their content will sink or float. If you've seen their original content, like "Quarterlife," "Prom Queen," and "Roommates," you'll understand why I think this is the dumbest business idea I've heard in 2008...that I can remember.

Tom made one big mistake this time.

I gotta hand it to Myspace, they're still super huge, inspite of the fact that Facebook is slowly but surely gaining on them. If you have either a myspace or a facebook, you'll appreciate that myspace is definitely stealing a bunch of ideas from facebook. You can have your own status now, you can view the status of your friend's recently updated pages, you can see who's changed what on their pages--all ideas that Facebook had up first. But I digress...

I understand the idea behind shipping entertainment overseas to see whether it will sink or swim. The music industry has been doing that for decades -- they ship unsuccessful artists overseas, mainly Europe or Asia, gain exposure and experience and re-release them here in the States, often times with incredible success. So I'm guessing, that based on that idea, Myspace went for this low-cost way of testing their entertainment.

I'm no fan of the Myspace original series'. I watched half of one and felt like shooting myself. This may or may not work, and I'd say the scales are tipped more towards may not. It's worked with the music industry but music is much more universal. You don't need to understand the words to appreciate a song. Shipping movies internationally is also a bit different. To the best of my knowledge, the most successful movies shipped overseas are the big action flicks...again, not hard to understand. Things blow up. People get shot. Simple.

US TV shows have been enjoying a resurgence in Germany. Apparently, on one station, there's an all American TV night every Tuesday. But American TV shows in other places haven't been exceptionally popular since the 80's. And the shows that do get big across the pond are ones that are INSANELY popular here already, and again, they have a good amount of action and gore, like CSI, Lost, 24. Friends is the only comedy that I know of that's been popular abroad. In the end, the trend is that awesome TV shows here sometimes make it moderately big abroad. Also, buying rights to American shows is much cheaper than producing a show yourself abroad.

Still, this article says that American shows are having a resurgence abroad. True or not, the trend is that successful American shows come from the US and then go abroad. They haven't yet been made abroad, and then been launched at home. It sounds backwards to me. Plus, those Myspace shows are ABSOLUTE crap. I'm predicting this to be a huge flop on the part of myspace...

I'd be happily surprised if I'm proved wrong...

Remember Strongbad?

2008-04-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Telltale Games is set to come out with a video game based on Strongbad. The game, aptly named, "Strongbad's Cool Game for Attractive People," is set to come out in June on the Wii. I love Strongbad, but I'm not too sure how this game will do...I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Anyway, there are 3 trailers out for the game. Check them out.

Zoombak: GPS Trackers

2008-04-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

Zoombak has released a new GPS tracking device so that we can always know where our cars, prized possessions, and pets are. The tracking devices are small, pretty much the size of a Zippo, and Zoombak is offering them in two packages--one for your car and one for pets. The only difference is that the Pet Package comes with a collar attachment.

This is pretty cool gadget. Car nabbing will be a little bit more trickier because the tracker is small enough hide practically anywhere. You use Zoombak's website to locate where the GPS tracking device is. All you stalkers must be drooling at this point. There is a hitch though.

Tracking people is a bit more difficult because the GPS receiver does not work well indoors. Apparently, they did a test and if you put the receiver in a pocket, it loses signal. That's pretty weak. I guess if you want to stalk a person, the best way is to stick with the cell phones with the GPS tracking feature. So you know where you at.

The car tracker is $249 and the animal tracker is $199.

The World's Smallest USB Drive: PICO-C

2008-04-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Super Talent just launched the PICO-C, the world's smallest USB Drive and my company, eWiz, is the only company in the world with the rights to sell them for now. I got to hold one a couple months ago and it is tiny.

You shouldn't be afraid of sitting on it and crushing it though--it's ultra durable and shock resistant. It uses chip-on-board (COP) technology which allows it to carry so much storage capacity on such a small amount of space. It measures in at 31.3mm x 12.4mm x 3.4mm and weighs less than a nickel. I'd get one myself but I don't have much use for a USB drive right now.

It's $36.99 with free shipping right now and it has a lifetime warranty. 8GB and it's pretty cool looking too. Probably the coolest USB around at the moment. You can check it out here. And it's an extremely hot product, in just 2 days we sold nearly 200 of these things.

Smartphones are the Wave of the Future

2008-04-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, you need one device to call people, send messages, calculate things, listen to music, take down notes, take pictures and video, wake you up in the morning, read the news, and get directions.

Less than 10 years ago, to do all of those things, you needed a a phone, a computer, a calculator, a music player, a notebook, a camera, a video camera, an alarm clock, a newspaper, and someone who knows how to get places.

Today's 'all-in-one' trend is a fascinating one in that it will eventually signal the end of many industries and the beginning of new ones. What's equally amazing is the speed at which technology does away with entire work forces, industries, and older technologies (and by older, I mean a couple months older). It's just amazing.

The BBC News posted a story about "Why the World is in Your Hands," and is definitely worth a look. It talks about how smartphones are set to take over laptops in the next 12 to 18 months.

It's all about converging everything to the point where we'll have everything we need in our pockets. And there's nothing wrong with that.

German Robot Restaurant Replaces Waiters

2008-04-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

A restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany has been the first to automate restaurant service. And by that, I mean that a customer orders from a touch screen TVs and their food is teleported to them via metal rails and tracks extending from the roof (where the kitchen is) to the customers table. Gravity provides the power.

The touch screen TVs can also be used to send texts and emails while you wait for your food. Apparently it's a real sight to see, because food whizzes down roller-coaster like rails all the way down to the customers down below. Apparently, the customers order a meal via touch screen TV's, the order gets sent to the cooks' monitors up on the top floor of the building, the cooks (which are human..no robot chefs just yet) cook up the meal, put it in a bucket, tag it with the customers respective table color, and send it down its respective chute. The food then goes flying down spirals and tubes to the customers table. People order bottles of wine, bratwurst, pancakes, you name it. Sounds pretty fun.

The place is called " 'S Baggers " and no, that's not a typo.

It cuts down on labor costs for the owner, and those savings translates into cut costs for the customer as well. What does this mean? Obviously, waiters aren't all going to be done away with which is the big story that the media (and I...I admit it) is pitching to get everyone's attention, though I'm sure we'll find a copycat restaurant soon in a city near you. Everything, sans the touch screen monitors, is powered by humans (the cooks) and gravity. So it's not as robotic as it sounds. What it does show us, however, is that anything that can be automated will, and as a result, there will be an increase in machines doing menial work and a decrease in humans doing menial work. I think that everything that makes us human- our ability to create, innovate, reflect- all those abilities will be the only things that robots won't be able to do for us. Artists, entrepreneurs, composers, even salesmen I think, jobs that require creativity on a daily basis will be the ones safe from our own self-inflicted techno takeover.

Another sad reality is that human interaction and technological progress have an inverse relationship. The more we progress technologically, the more we miss out on human interactions. And we can all wax philosophical about what that means.

And you can catch a video of this restaurant in action here.

The Grid: Will the Internet Soon Be Obsolete?

2008-04-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

The Internet may soon be a thing of the past. The scientists who created the internet have now come up with something even better, called "The Grid." Apparently, it's 10,000 times faster than your typical internet broadband connection. As a result, you'd be able to download movies in seconds. And that's not all.

The Grid could also be used to "allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players...offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call." and transmit holographic images. Badass.

This summer, scientists are going to test it out. You can read all the geeky mumbo jumbo about how they'll do that here.

Unlike the internet which needs cables and routing equipment to operate, the Grid would use fibre optic cables and routing centers. There are 12 routing centres all over the world with 55,000 servers in total. It is estimated that the number of servers will increase to 200,000 servers in the next 2 years. The 12 routing centres are scattered throughout the world and are connected via fibre optic cables running from Cern (in Switzerland), to the US, Canada, Asia, and Europe.

The reason the Grid was created however, is not just so we can download whole seasons of our favorite TV show in seconds. The real goal that scientists had in mind when creating the Grid was to have it work with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a "new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe." yup..

Anyway, by working together, scientists are hoping to track down the Higgs boson--the particle that "is supposed to be what gives matter mass."

The Grid isn't going to be released to domestic users as of yet, but there are plenty of companies and telecom providers that are introducing technologies based on the Grid. The biggest technology to take from the Grid that everyday users will probably get their hands on soon is something called "dynamic switching" which allows internet users to switch into a dedicated "channel" that would allow then to download large files. So we'd be able to download a movie in about 5 seconds.

The only people who are allowed access to the Grid are scientists, researchers, and academia for now. But can you imagine sending and receiving holographic messages? Last Star Wars reference...I promise

Literature has tried to predict the future in books like 1984 and the Brave New World. I find it ironic that, instead, the future is starting to sound more and more like a sci-fi movie.

Product Review: Super Talent Vidego28 MP4 Player

2008-04-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

I recently got my hands on the Vidego28—a 4GB touch screen MP4 player. It’s priced at just about $70, and 4GB at that price with touch screen technology makes this product practically fly off the shelves at eWiz. Demand for this thing has been so high in the past couple months and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So I snuck into inventory and pilfered one to review. Here’s what I found:

+Design & Build: It feels like a good strong product and it’s much smaller than I thought it would be. It’s about 3.5” tall, 2” wide, and about 0.5” thick. It’s a really good size actually, perfect for pockets and stuff and much smaller and more portable than the Apple Touch. The build is really sturdy—it feels like if I dropped it, it would be fine so that’s nice. There’s three dedicated buttons on the bottom, 2 to control volume, and one to go back to the Menu screen. The touch screen is a tiny bit less than 2.5” by 1.8”. And it’s pretty light. Not too light to the point where it feels cheap, but light enough not to weigh your pants down. I was really impressed with this build as it feels much more expensive than it really is.

-User-Friendliness: This thing is only slightly user friendly. It’s easy to start up, and the menu screen is easy enough to navigate through, but figuring out where to find your files, manage your files, and delete your files are all slightly difficult tasks to figure out. I read through the instruction manual, but it isn’t helpful at all, quite frankly. It takes time to figure out where the device is storing all your recordings—it takes time to understand the logic to this thing. When the menu first pops up, it looks extremely similar to the iPhone’s Menu screen. Apart from the menu screen, all other screens are incredibly poorly constructed and cheap looking. Deleting things took forever to figure out. When you figure out how to select an item to delete, a “Delete?” screen pops up, you have to touch the up and down arrows to highlight Yes or No, instead of just being able to touch Yes or No. And the instruction booklet does not tell you this, among other things. I made a bookmark in my e-book, and I never figured out how to delete it. So, this thing takes some getting used to. Definitely not as intuitive as I wanted it to be.

+Price: Slightly above $70. This has got the be the biggest plus about this device. Even if it didn’t have touch screen technology, a 4GB MP4 player, with music, video, radio, ebook, radio & voice recorder, can store photos, and has Tetris is an amazing deal. You’d be hard pressed to find a regular MP4 player, without those features and without touch screen technology for the same price.

-Touch Screen: Not as cool as you were expecting. It’s semi-responsive, meaning it felt me about 80% of the time. I found myself poking at it over and over, however, because loading time on this player is incredibly slow sometimes. It takes up to a good 2 seconds AFTER touching the screen before the player responds. When deleting items, it can take up to 5-7 seconds to actually get this thing to delete a file. And 4 seconds to load a photo. I must admit, I found myself incredibly frustrated after playing with this thing for awhile because sometimes the touch screen wouldn’t feel me, or it would take a long time to respond, or both. It is a touch screen and they do equip you with a Stylus, but it doesn’t help much. It’s responsive to your finger just as much as the Stylus. The slow response and the fact that it tends to lock up when you delete things kinda got on my nerves though. Once you get the hang of it, however, the player becomes a lot more fun. It just takes awhile to adjust to the time it takes to process your commands.

+Speakers: The speakers on this thing are actually quite good. You have the option of using earphones, included with the player, or playing music out loud with the built in speakers. I really liked this part about the MP4 player, because it’s a portable player that can play music pretty loudly. The speakers sounded really great, I give this thing 5 stars in terms of sound quality. The only downside I see in terms of sound quality and speaker quality is that it has FM/AM radio on it, but you can’t get very good reception on it unless you have the earphones in. Then reception is acceptable. So don’t expect to be able to play the radio loud and clear on this thing. It plays MP3’s exceptionally though.

+Video: The screen has 320x240 pixels. In my opinion, the screen quality is great for the price. It runs videos smoothly. The only con is that the sample video already on the player is not synced with the music it plays. The sample video on the player is a Jessica Simpson/Nick Lachey music video, and the music slightly lags behind the video. That’s just the sample video though. The frame rates are good and the video is clear.

-Performance & Operating System: When you maneuver your way through the system, you become starkly aware that this thing is made in China. First of all, the default radio settings are in China, the welcome and goodbye screen feel pretty…uncool, there are grammer/spelling errors here and there, the sample songs and videos are all from the 70s, 80s, and 90s (nothing before 1998, LoL). Many things endemic of a bad localization program. It’ll tell you that it’s, “Deleteing” your file, when you want to trash something. What is super cool about it is that it comes with 2 songs already on the player, “Yesterday Once More” by Joni Mitchell and “Hotel California” by the Eagles. Jams, to be sure, albeit extremely dated jams. My parents would love this thing. Anyway, when you play those two songs, the song lyrics pop up, as the song plays. It’s like a mini-kareoke machine. The lyrics have also been pre-loaded onto the player, in the e-book section where you can upload text. The lyrics run along with the song, but apparently they didn’t put any breaks in the line of text, so when the lyrics are too long and it breaks into 2 lines, the letters just completely drop to the 2^nd line. For example:

You also can't skip around in a song. You can only skip the entire song, or replay the entire song. All in all, the operating system shows some pretty FOB signs, but it works. Another thing is that when you play any media, music or video, you press the Pause button. And then the media starts to play, the Pause button becomes the Play button, so if you want to pause the media, you have to press Play. Confused? I was too. Basically, they just got the buttons backwards, normally, you’d press the play button and while the media plays, the play button becomes a pause button. Again, all endemic of some pretty bad localization skills on the part of Super Talent.

+Features: Music, video, displays photos, fm/am radio, built-in speakers, e-book (basically you can upload txt files onto the player as well), Tetris, voice recording & radio recording. The radio recoding is pretty interesting. Reminds me of my middle school days when I used to record music off the radio. All what you pretty much expect.

+Battery Life: Battery life actually pretty good. I played with it for a total of 4 hours and only half of the battery was gone. A+ in terms of battery life

+Input/Output Ports: It’s got an input port for headphones, a slot for a mini SD card, which isn’t included (you can put a max of 4GB on this thing), and a USB slot. It connects to your computer via USB.

-Accessories: The box comes with a charger, USB cable, earphones, stylus, cleathing cloth, a velvet pouch that looks like it should belong to a fairy or wizard, installation CD, and a user manual, which you might as well throw away. A big con is that there isn’t anywhere to put your stylus. Unless of course you carry this thing around in your fairy velvet pouch. Seriously. It doesn’t attach to the player at all. You’d just have to carry it around separately.

PROS: The Price. A little over $70 for a 4GB media player. The build. It looks cool, it’s sturdy, the design looks like a dumbed-down version of the Apple touch. It’s highly portable because of that. Menu screen also looks awesome. I love the speakers and the fact that it can play music pretty loud without the earphones. The video quality was also pretty good, relative to the price, battery life was outstanding, and it comes with plenty of features.

CONS: All the things that make this feel really cheap: Bad localization (grammer issues, typos). I’m a stickler for those kind of things. The touch screen is not too responsive. It has a pretty slow response time, and sometimes it doesn’t feel me. I felt super frustrated a couple of times. Another con is the fact that it’s only kind of user-friendly. You can get around, but figuring out how to manage your files is a pain, and the user manual is not helpful at all. Lastly, it sucks that I can’t put the stylus anywhere except my velvet wizard pouch.

Conclusion: If you want a cheap 4GB MP4 player, this is it. It’s definitely no iTouch, though it does have a pretty good build and the menu screen looks like something from Apple. I wouldn’t get this thing if you’re thinking you’re going to get an awesomely responsive touch screen, because it’s not. Still, for the price, this is a pretty good deal. It would make an amazing present for someone looking for an MP4 player. It feels like a child’s version of the Apple Touch, actually. For me, personally, I think I’d stick with a 4GB MP4 player that isn’t touch screen, if I can find one, just because I’m too impatient and the response time on this would make me lose it. But if you want an entry level mp4 with touch screen capabilities, I don’t think there’s another one out there like this with a price as low as this one’s.

Call of Duty 4 Map Pack

2008-04-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I'm unhealthily excited about the new Call of Duty 4 map pack expected to be released this week. The release was supposedly postponed to April 10th, but Infinity Ward just contradicted that claim and promised to have it released April 3rd or 4th. Here's to hoping it really does come out today or tomorrow.

It's about time...I'm pretty much bored with all the other maps.

Some people hate the fact that game developers release updates or upgrades to their games because it's a way to keep making money off of one game. I guess I see their point, but when a game is as good as this, I'm happy to pay for upgrades, rather than get bored with the game itself and opt to buy another one that could potentially be a complete waste of cash. New maps, like new song additions to Guitar Hero or Rock Band, is a welcome reason for me to drop more dough.

There's going to be 4 new maps: Creek, Chinatown, Broadcast, and Killhouse. That's right. Killhouse.

Price? $10.

See you there.

Samsung Instinct: Sprinting Ahead of the iPhone?

2008-04-01T11:30:00.002-07:00

Last Tuesday, Sprint announced the release of their version of the iPhone: the Samsung Instinct.
Which is better?

The Instinct brings a couple things to the table that the iPhone doesn’t. It features a 3.1” touch screen and has 3 buttons on the bottom—phone, back, and home. It is reported to be faster and also have more preloaded content than the iPhone. Let’s look at how it does in comparison to the iPhone.

Price: the Instinct is likely to be priced at around $200-$250 with a 2-year Sprint contract. You can bump up the storage to a maximum of 8 GB. The iPhone is still uncomfortably priced at $399 for the 8GB model.

Phone Service: the iPhone runs on an older, slower AT&T network. Fortunately, a faster iPhone is in the works, one that supports AT&T’s fastest data network. The Instinct uses Sprint’s fastest network and provides “faster online access than the iPhone.” Sprint has also reportedly been trying to persuade cable companies to deploy Sprint’s WiMax network which would offer faster wireless speeds than its competitors for a long period of time with a greater range than Wi-Fi.

Touch-Screen Technology: If you’ve ever tried the iPhone, you know its touch-screen technology is amazingly responsive. The iPhone allows for multi-touch abilities, where you can use multiple fingers to zoom in and out of things. The Instinct does not offer the same advantage, however the Instinct also offers a new touch-screen technology that the iPhone doesn’t: it uses “tactile feedback.” For instance, if you’re dialing a number or typing using the touch screen, the screen will vibrate in the areas where you press, making it feel as though you’re actually pressing a button. This is a pretty cool innovation—one which addresses many people’s complaints about touch-screen technology. The complaint against the resistive touch screen, however, is that it lacks the iPhone’s smooth response. It’s all up to preference, but to that good chunk of people who abhor touch technology because of its lack of feedback, the Instinct offers a solution.

GPS: The Instinct offers true GPS technology on it. The iPhone has a similar thing—you can use Google maps to get where you need to go but it doesn’t offer a real GPS.

Customizability: The Instinct is super customizable. You can create a list of favorites for your start-up screen and you can customize the main screen by swapping out icons. Third-part apps are also supported by the phone, so all BREW/Java apps for other phones should be easily ported onto the Instinct.

So back to my original question, which is better? I’d have to go out and play with a Samsung Instinct before I make a final decision, but based on the cold hard features, the Instinct seems to be a better choice in terms of value for the price. Of course, if you’re a huge iPhone fan, the Instinct will look like nothing more than a knock-off. And I think I prefer the iPhone’s looks over the Instincts’. But the Instinct is cheaper, has a better network, and offers a wide range of features and content like the GPS and 3rd party apps that the iPhone does not. And I want to play around with the new tactile feedback the touch screen offers. Whether or not the Instinct is a hit, it is, to date, the closest thing to the iPhone that anyone has to offer.

Best April Fool's Pranks for Nerds

2008-04-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

In honor of April Fool's Day, I've once again lifted an article from Wired.com. It's pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie.

Here are the top April Fool's pranks that'll really put the nerd in your life on edge. Enjoy!!

Why I'm Becoming More of a Spiderman: AMD's New Phenom Quad Core CPUs

2008-03-28T12:07:00.001-07:00

AMD has announced that it’s launching four new Phenom Quad-core CPU’s. In an effort to increase scalability, the CPU giant has offered up more AMD Phenom x4 9000 Quad-Core Processors: the 9550 (2.2GHz), 9650 (2.3GHz), 9750 (2.4)GHz, and finally the 9850 (2.5GHz).

So now you can get the Spider platform—a Phenom CPU + 790 series chipset + an ATI HD 3800 series graphics card—in a rainbow of different flavors. For all you AMD/ATI enthusiasts, this should be good news. Increased scalability = an increase in price range. And with the Spider platform, you can add up to four 3800 series graphics cards. That means that your system is highly upgradeable over a long period of time. Quad-core technology matched with quad cards—I don’t think our brain is even able to process the graphics that kind of rig can offer.

Yeah, it might be overkill but there’s still a market for PC extremists like that. The genius in AMD’s new release is that the increased scalability of their product line allows for a wider price range. Which then attracts a wide range of consumers—from PC extremists to hardcore gamers to multimedia enthusiasts to middle of the road consumers. And the idea of an “Enthusiast Platform” AKA the Spider Platform, is an extremely unique twist in how to market to consumers. AMD isn’t offering parts. It’s offering it’s consumers an entire system. And that’s how the company is trying to differentiate itself from Intel. Not to mention the fact that AMD is the first to create a triple-core processor.

Of course, Intel is still resolutely killing AMD. Still, these new innovations from AMD impresses me..I thought they were down for the count. But they still keep turning out new tricks.

And in even happier news for AMD/ATI fans, ATI is cutting the price of their 3850 and 3870 graphics cards. The 3850/512 is going to crash to $145 and less, and the 3870/512 will hit markets at $159 and less. At those prices the Spider platform is looking more and more enticing to me.

The Worlds Hardest Game. And Zero Punctuation

2008-03-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

The hardest games were the old Nintendo games where you only had 3 lives and 'Game Over seriously meant that the game was over. According to engamed.com, this is the hardest game in the world. Hard as hell, but I've had better.

With a slew of amazing games being released this year, I've become uncomfortably aware that if I'm not careful choosing which games are worth my $$$ and time, I'll easily end up broke and single. Again.

So from one desperate gamer to all you other gamers with the same problem, check out ZeroPunctuation. He's by far the most honest, on-point, and entertaining game critic ever. And he's reviewed most of the games out there.

World of Warcraft: PWNing the War on Terror

2008-03-26T09:30:00.003-07:00

Counterterrorists, epidemiologists, sociologists and economists love WoW. Because they love to watch you get PWN’d.

Wired magazine reported that scientists and researchers in the fields of counterterrorism, epidemiology, and sociology have all noted how terrorism and the spread of diseases in WoW bears a striking resemblance to the way real life suicide bombers and bioterrorists would do things.

WoW’s network of 10 million players gives scientists a ready made virtual model of the world, complete with participants capable of making their own decisions-as rational or irrational as they may be. Even the Deputy Director of the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies says that WoW offers a revolutionary new way to study how terrorist cells form and operate.

It’s no wonder terrorism is still an ongoing problem. All the people who should be solving the problem are busy PWNing people online. And although Wired magazine does come up with some cool stuff on occasion, this is one of the stupidest articles ever. Namely because it’s….well, complete BS.

In real life, there is no respawning in 10 seconds. And the motivations of a bored 15 year old aren’t even remotely comparable to a brainwashed suicide bomber on every level. Counterterrorists, epidemiologists, sociologists, and economists are coming up with really cool reasons as to why they should be playing WoW at work…

And that’s the lesson I’ll be taking from this article—if you’re good enough at BSing people, you can do anything. Even get to play WoW at work.

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/wow_terror

Who Doesn’t Want a Transparent Toaster

2008-03-26T09:30:00.002-07:00

TechEBlog posted up their list of the top 10 strangest gadgets of the future complete with a Self Cooling Beer Can, an “On-Target” Video Game Urinal, a foldable DVD player, an intelligent spoon, and a transparent toaster. Yeah, that’s right. An “On-Target” Video Game Urinal.