MEGATechNews :: Mega Techie Goodness For the Masses

Hey Look, It’s Friday!

Beth — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:20:40 +0000

The end of the week completely sneaked up on me…probably because I haven’t been doing anything that would make a difference what day it is. For a lot of you, though, that means it’s the weekend, and if you’re in the US, it’s a holiday weekend on top of it! Canada, too, now that I think about it. Have a great weekend and try to stay out of trouble!

Hardware Canucks kicks it off with the NZXT Panzerbox Mid Tower Case

DigitalTrends goes mobile with the Palm Pre

TrustedReviews gets into the O2 Joggler

PC World sits down with the HP HDX 18

Phoronix gets its hands on the Razer Salmosa Gaming Mouse

bit-tech chills out with the Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler

TweakTown watches the Sin City HD Movie

HotHardware checks out the EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified Motherboard

XSReviews examines the Antec CP-850w

Tech-Reviews takes a look at the Gainward GTX 295 Graphics Card with 1792MB Memory

ThinkComputers gives a listen to the Radius Atomic Bass Earphones for iPhone

Hardware Bistro takes up some bandwidth with the Jetart MP2000 Multi-Functional Pad

ITreviewed spends some time with the PC World Advent AIO-101

GamingHeaven takes on Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood Review (PC)

Finally, TestFreaks rocks out with the Eagle Arion ET-AR402IR-BK 2.1 iDock Speakers with Subwoofer

Is It Summer Again Yet?

Beth — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:34:19 +0000

According to the local weather guesser, it’s supposed to be back up near 80F again today for the first time in what feels like over a week. I hope so…last I checked it’s July. In my world that means it’s supposed to be hot and humid and I’m supposed to be going through sweet tea by the gallon. Of course, the cooler weather means my laptop hasn’t been overheating and shutting down lately, which is a bonus…

PC World kicks it off with the Lenovo Ideapad Y530

DigitalTrends checks out the Seagate Replica PC Backup System

TrustedReviews takes a look at the LG 22LU5000 22in LCD TV

Technic3D gets its hands on the Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000

CDRinfo examines the Optiarc AD7240S 24X DVDRW

PureOverclock gets into the Thermaltake Litepower 450W

LanOC sits in front of the SilverStone MFP51 Multi-Media LCD Display

Guru3D presents its Gigabyte P55 motherboard preview (P55-UD4P)

DriverHeaven spends some time with the Cooler Master HAF922 Chassis

Tech-Reviews chills out with the Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev.2 CPU Cooler

Verdis Reviews goes mobile with the Acer DX900 Dual SIM Windows Smartphone

Legit Reviews shares its MSI Wind U100 Netbook Overclocking Guide

ITreviewed plays along with eMedia Guitar Method v4

TestFreaks tries on the Vuzix iWear AV310 Widescreen

Last but not least, hardCOREware explains how to Use a PS3 controller in 64 bit Windows Vista and 7

We Are Nothing If Not Organized

Beth — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:33:53 +0000

The nap didn’t work out at all, so I started cleaning cupboards in the kitchen again. It never fails to amaze me how very many things there are hiding in places I didn’t know existed. I think the most surprising find of the day was a container of what appears to be curry powder from some time in the 1970’s. I wasn’t sure if I should throw it out or donate it to a museum.

ThinkComputers starts us off with the Cooler Master Sileo 500 Mid Tower Chassis with 500W Power Supply

DigitalTrends gets its hands on the Microsoft SideWinder X3 Gaming Mouse

TrustedReviews sits down with the Dell Studio XPS M1340 from PC World

bit-tech tests the AMD Athlon II X2 250 CPU

CDRinfo chills out with the Thermaltake ISGC-300 CPU Cooler

Hardware Secrets examines the Seventeam ST-750P-AF Power Supply

Motherboards.org spends some time with the Macbook Pro Kingston SSDNow 80 GB SSD + RAM Upgrade

VIA Arena hooks up with the VB80002 digital media server device board

LanOC takes a look at the SilverStone MFP51 Multi-Media LCD Display

MadShrimps explains Stabilizing your memory overclock on Core i7 platform

TweakTown shares its thoughts on the ASUS Radeon HD 4890 Voltage Tweak Graphics Card

PC World gets into the Brother HL-5370DWT

TestFreaks wants you to know about its Weekly Giveaway #8- NZXT Beta and Avatar

Legion Hardware goes inside the Promise Technology SmartStor NS4600

And to close out today, Bjorn3D shows you Setting Up A Split Loop Water Cooling

MEGATech Reviews: Radius Atomic Bass Earphones for iPhone

Stephen Fung — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:30:41 +0000

At a retail price of $49.99 US, the Radius Atomic Bass Earphones for the iPhone provide a very reasonably priced upgrade to the ubiquitous white buds that come with your iPhone. It’s hard to believe that anyone would spend Apple’s $29.00 US asking price to replace the rather horrible stock buds. What do you get for your $49.99 US? Let’s find out in our first of many MEGATech Mini-Reviews!

Construction

Immediately, the weight of the Radius earphones is noticeable. Made from aluminum and loaded with 10mm neodymium magnets, the uniquely angled drivers are attached to the wires with a collar that helps them resist getting separated from each other in an accident. A microphone, which doubles as a control for the iPod functions, is attached to the wire for the left driver. The 3.5mm jack is gold plated for a touch of quality. You get plenty of slack (about 120cm) which is nice for routing through a tech enabled piece of clothing like one of them fancy ScottEVests. The small diameter of the cable though can still lead to the same tangling issues you had with the stock iPhone buds.

Comfort and Fit

Compared to the vague generic feel of the ubiquitous white buds, the Radius earphones are like a fitted leather glove. Silicon ear pieces provided in three sizes allow you to customize the fit and the unique angled construction of the earpieces allows the drivers to stay put even during spirited dance sessions. They continue to feel good past the one hour mark in my testing and do a great job of limiting listener fatigue.

Sound Quality

If you are a total bass head that is into sloppy and continuous helpings of the deep stuff, then these earphones are your stairway to iPhone audio heaven. For anything pop, rap and dance, these headphones really excel in giving it to you, without the thumping chest palpitations that you may experience in front of a stack of Marshalls at a concert.

For any critical audio listening though, I found the mid range a little on the muddy side, but overall the warm and full sound was enjoyable. Highs were also decent and quite listenable. They won’t slay my pair of Futuresonics Atrios In-Ear Monitors when it comes to detail, but they also aren’t over $200.

Call Quality

The mic that is fitted to the left wire is surprisingly good quality. I used the Radius earphones for a lot of my calls and never once while wearing them did anyone ask me to repeat myself or comment on my voice quality (or lack thereof). Calls were received with a very positive click of the mic which doubles as a multi-task remote for the iPod functions (play and stop with a single click. Double click to skip a song). The headphone also worked well with my BlackBerry Bold as I was able to directly go to voice commands by simply holding down the clicker till the prompt came up.

MEGATechie Good? Or MEGATechie Awful?

At $49.99 US, the Radius Atomic Bass Earphones for the iPhone are only matched by products that start to approach $100 and totally destroy the $29.00 US crap that Apple passes off for earphones. Let’s not forget that at $49.99 US, they also provide remote functions and double as a headset for your iPhone. You simply can’t go wrong for this price!

More information on these and other Radius Products can be found on their website.

Terribly Tired Thursday

Beth — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:09:43 +0000

I have absolutely no motivation whatsoever today. A whole pot of really good, really strong coffee and I still feel like I could easily go back to bed and sleep another six hours. Actually, I may do that…it’s not like I have anything pressing to do today. Maybe if I get up and try again it’ll be like a whole new day!

Futurelooks gets us going with the ECS Black Series X58B-A “Nehalem” Motherboard

TrustedReviews takes a look at the Panasonic Viera TX-P42G15 42in plasma TV

DigitalTrends gets its hands on the Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000

Modders-Inc. chills out with the Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Cooler

TweakTown sits down with the Acer Aspire Timeline 4810T-8480 Notebook

Bjorn3D checks out the Synology DS209, Budget Alternative to DS209+

Legit Reviews examines the AMD Phenom II 42 TWKR Black Edition Processor

LanOC shares its thoughts on the Seagate Savvio and Constellation hard drives

techPowerUp brings you a World-Exclusive: Sapphire HD 4730 512 MB

Tech-Reviews pokes around inside the Vizo Saturno 2.5″ External HDD Enclosure

CDRinfo spends some time with the Patriot Memory Torqx 128GB SSD

Hardware Secrets gets into the Rocketfish 550 W Power Supply

TweakPC rocks the house with the Edifier S730 2.1 Soundsystem

Gamepyre takes on Top Spin 3 – 360

Finally, Benchmark Reviews goes inside the Antec ISK300-65 Mini-ITX HTPC Computer Case