The Razer Blade laptop series brings even more raw horsepower to gamers with their second generation model.

As technology improves and the desire for battery performance increases, laptop manufacturers have taken to reducing the size and weight of laptops at the cost of weakening performance. For a gamer, this is the worst situation to find themselves in, as for decades, gamers have wanted to move away from carrying their giant towers and CRT monitors to having their entire gaming setup in a portable carry-able setup.

Internal Powerhouse

With their second generation Blade, Razer eschews the notion that battery life is king by creating a behemoth of a machine with performance that tops anything in the market.

The new Blade upgrades its internals to a 2.2Ghz Intel Core i7-3632QM, a brand new high performance quad core CPU that still manages to pull it a mere 35 watt profile. Combined with a Kepler GeForce GTX 660M, the Blade’s core systems will provide any gamer the performance they need to rank high on the leader boards while managing to fit inside a shoulder bag (despite the hefty 6.6 pound weight).

Additional features include a default 8 Gigs of RAM, a full compliment of USB 3.0 ports, a webcam, a 17.3 inch 16:9 LED screen, an HDMI port, built-in WiFi and gigabit, and most notably, a 64 Gig SSD cache combined with a 500 Gig hard drive. The hybrid drive works as a cache storing recent and often-accessed data such as frequently launched games on the speedy SSD drive.

Boot times are stellar, and game loading after the initial first time are quick.

Sleek Design

The Razer Blade follows the recent trend of sleep, minimally thick, aluminum bodies with its own black anodized shell. Though it only measures at 0.8 inches thick, the Blade is still a 17-inch laptop, and as such is fairly weighty while being very sturdy.

All the ports of the Blade are situated on the left side with the other sides of the laptop left blank or vented. Notably missing is a DVD drive, though with today’s move towards online distribution, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Trackpad/Assistant Display

The star feature of this blade though is the LCD screen based glass trackpad and buttons. This touch-based screen works with Razer’s Switchblade software (featured in their line of Razer keyboards) to assign macros, commands, and launchers to the LCD buttons.

Using the Switchblade system also allows you to run specialized companion applications, such as a Star Wars : The Old Republic combat logger, or its own specialized apps such as a Twitter and Gmail display.

While the trackpad can function as a mouse, its very sub-par in that regard, but it’s a moot point as no gamer would be caught dead using a trackpad as their pointing interface.

Sadly though, the biggest thing holding the Switchblade app system back is the seeming lack of developers and support. There are very few supported games, and I don’t really see a rush of developers working to bring additional support to it.

The End of the Day

While fancy features and sleek design appeals to the elegance lost in computer design, the real key note of the Blade is its performance.

The 2.2GHz Quad i7-3632QM (with turbo boost up to 3.2GHz) is quite handy, and combined with the Kepler GPU, easily handles top-tier games at the highest settings. Though, if you want to run games at the silkiest smooth frame rates, you’ll have to make some compromises with settings.

As a gaming device, the Blade performs admirably running games at settings that are hard to imagine even on some desktops. As a laptop though, in the strictest sense of the word, it leaves something to be desired.

As you can imagine, running high-end games that brutally draw processing power won’t give you much battery life to spare. I found the Blade only lasts about an hour running BF3 on a full charge of battery. As a gamer though, I wouldn’t expect to be fragging people while sitting at the coffee shop waiting for a latte.

Also, as physics dictates, running these calculative intensive games requires a high amount of power that also translates to a high amount of heat generated. Under a full load gaming session, the Blade’s heat management does a great job of dissipating the heat in the small form factor it has available, but this heat has to go somewhere. I would not call this machine a “laptop” by any stretch of the imagination, at least not without some heavy and thick pants to protect your lower regions.

At a price tag of $2500, the Razor Blade is defiantly not your every day device, fitting squarely in the luxury category. Fortunately, Razer also understands its audience, providing a system with a completely clean install of merely Windows and their own Synapse management software.

Despite the high sticker price, the Razor Blade fills a great and somewhat forgotten space of gaming laptops. Like any laptop, you can’t expect to easily upgrade to the latest and greatest hardware the moment it comes out as you can with a desktop machine. Rather, the Blade provides a powerful and portable machine that should fill your gaming needs for the near future.

You can find out more about the Razor Blade on their website.

If you’re like most people you own a plethora of electronic devices, from smartphones to tablets to HDTVs and a stereo. The Voco V-Zone is an integrated music player that allows you to stream from almost any device you own. Much like the Sonos Connect (which sells for $349 before Uncle Sam adds his cut), except that you can literally tell it what to play. Albeit it doesn’t work all the time, its a nice tool to have.

The box comes with everything you need to get started; power cable, RCA cable, and an Ethernet cord. The cheap stereo system I’ve got at home didn’t have an RCA input, but a 3.5mm jack, which forced me to open up the lost cable bin. After that everything worked perfectly. Installing the Android app and running the configuration wizard was a breeze. The Voco V-Zone had to do a quick update and I was up and running in 5 minutes. I figured out I can stream from different online radio services (TuneIn among others) as well as YouTube. After installing a small plugin on my Mac I was able to use my iTunes library with it. It’s a great, no-hassle product. iTunes’ library updates automatically and all you do is click play to hear your music.

The great thing about the V-Zone is that you can set them up in different rooms for different zones. One for the kitchen, one for the game room, etc. I have to say that the coolest feature is the WiFi hotspot. The V-Zone can act as a WiFi hotspot if you plug an ethernet port to it. I can safely say this is the coolest WiFi router I’ve ever seen. You can get the Voco V-Zone at myVoco.com and at Amazon for $299.

Pros

Voice recognition
iTunes music streaming
Super easy set up
WiFi hotspot

Cons

Can’t stream directly from phone.

Making an Internet for Everyone

According to the latest calculations, for every person on Earth who has access to fast, affordable internet, there are two people who don’t. Google is working on a plan to change that.

A Network of Balloons

Project Loon proposes internet service provided by a network of balloons that hang in the air over 60,000 feet up – well above commercial air traffic. The research team is currently testing the project in New Zealand

A Lot of Questions

The team hopes to answer questions about ways to keep the balloons in the correct locations, and keeping solid connections with ground stations, as well as legal issues concerning airspace over various countries.

When John disappears for a bit, it’s always a good idea to look for him. Like a kid. Just to see what he’s getting into. This time it was mixing chemicals to cause spontaneous combustion! Remember if you try to duplicate this, use safety goggles – don’t be like us!

Oh, by the way… John kept saying it was Iron, but that was a ruse! If you want to REALLY know how to cause spontaneous combustion, you only need these two items on Amazon:

• Potassium Permanganate
• Glycerine

Be careful when playing with FIRE! And don’t eat a bunch of bananas and drink glycerine. Just sayin’…

When it comes to making computer peripherals, few names are bigger than Logitech. I recently got my hands on a pair of their devices, the K811 Easy-Switch Keyboard and the T651 rechargeable trackpad for Mac. If you’re looking for a new keyboard and trackpad set for your Mac, listen up. This might be the set for you.

Common Features

Both the K811 and T651 are Bluetooth connected. You wouldn’t know it by using them though; after using them for a couple of weeks I have not had any sign of a disconnect or slow down. Integration to the Mac is via the Logitech Preference Manager control panel. It’s slightly disappointing that Apple doesn’t allow native support to the system trackpad and keyboard control panels for third party devices. The choices available to the Logitech pair pretty much exactly mirror Apple’s own control panels.

Both have a proprietary internal battery that is recharged using included Micro USB cables. You won’t be using them very often. The trackpad lasts about a week and while there isn’t an in OS X notification about being on low power, the multi-color status LED will blink red when you have a day left before you need to charge. As for the keyboard, I don’t honestly know how long it runs on a charge because in over two weeks of use it’s still showing 2/3rds of a charge. I think going with the internal batteries over the AAs Apple uses in the Apple Bluetooth keyboard has some advantages. If you’re worried about the battery life at all, there’s an easy to use on-off switch on the sides. They reconnect in just a couple seconds.

If there is a design weakness with these, it’s that they lay completely flat. There are no kick stands to raise them to a more comfortable angle. For some users, this could be a major issue. It’s a major fail when it comes to ergonomics.

K811 Easy Switch

This is the best keyboard available to Apple users, review done. Well, not quite, I should be telling you why I said that. It has a couple of features that no other Bluetooth keyboards on the Mac have. First off, like the keyboards on the MacBooks, they keys are backlit. This helps when using it in lower light. It’s also not just a Mac keyboard. The reason they call it easy switch is because it can save pairing to three different devices and switch between them using three keys. One can be set to your Mac, another for your iPad, and the last one for your iPhone or AppleTV. The last one is not officially supported by Logitech, using the latest AppleTV firmware with BT support, the AppleTV recognized, connected to, and worked with the Logitech without a hitch.

As cool as those features are, the primary job of any keyboard is to provide a platform to type. Depending on your hand size, there might be some adjustment time. From caps lock to return (for those new to the Mac, there is a difference in function between return and enter), the Logitech is a bit wider than the keyboard on my Retina MacBook Pro. I wear a men’s medium glove and it took me a week to truly get used to the keyboard. I’m also feeling a bit of soreness from my hands having to constantly stretch more than they’re used to. For small to medium sized hands or those with lower than average dexterity, this might be an issue. Those with larger hands will find no issues. In fact, this might feel a bit more comfortable than typical portable keyboards which might feel cramped. The keys are also a bit stiffer than the keyboards on the current line of MacBooks. I prefer lighter keystrokes myself, but there are a lot of users who might prefer the Logitech.

Don’t mistake personal preferences for design errors. The K811 is made of high quality aluminum and industrial trade plastics. It’s built like a tank. While this is specifically designed for Apple devices, PC and Android users aren’t left out. There’s another version of this keyboard, the K810, for those users. in fact, John P. just got one to use with the HP Z1 workstation we’re testing. Whether K810 or 811, the Logitech Easy Switch line should be your next keyboard. You can’t have it cheap though, both versions retail for a penny shy of $100. You can find it online cheaper, but even paying Logitech’s price, it’s worth every penny. The only reason to not buy is if you want a full featured keyboard with numberpad. If that’s the case, the K750 might be more your fare. You’ll lose the 3 device switching though.

T651 Rechargeable Trackpad for Mac

If you think you’re having deja vu, you’re not crazy. Gord McLeod reviewed the PC version of this trackpad, the T650 back in March. The T651 has one other change beyond a color switch to a Mac-friendly silver, the connectivity type. Like I said earlier in the article, it uses Bluetooth. The T650 uses 2.4ghz and requires a USB dongle. The Mac version is $10 cheaper than the T650 at $69.99 opposed to $79.99. That also puts at exactly the same price point as Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

I have a MacBook with Apple’s newest trackpad and I’ve used the Magic Trackpad for two years. How does the Logitech compare? Very favorably. First off, it just works. The control panel mirrors Apple’s and it works as if Apple made it. Every gesture is identical. Compared to the Magic trackpad, I prefer the Logitech. It has a glass layer on top, like the MacBook trackpad, which allows for very smooth motion. The Magic Trackpad has a bit of resistance to it, more so when it starts to get dirty. If you’re wanting a Mac trackpad, this is the one to buy.

Last Word

If you’re looking for a keyboard-trackpad set to pair with your Mac, the combo of the K811 and the T651 is hard to beat. At a combined $170, they’re not cheap, but the build quality and perfect Mac compatibility makes up for it. The K811 is also backlit and can pair to three different devices. The only real downside to either is that the K811 may better suit those with larger hands. With products like these, Logitech’s reign on the peripheral market won’t be coming to an end anytime soon.

K811

Pros

Exceptional Build Quality
Dead solid Bluetooth Connection
Switches between 3 Macs, iDevices, or AppleTVs
Backlit
Looooooong Battery Life
USB rechargeable
Comfortable for those with larger hands

Cons

Expensive
Not as comfortable for those with smaller hands

T651

Pro

Exceptional Build Quality
Dead Solid Bluetooth Connection
Smooth operating
Works like a trackpad on a Mac should
no USB dongle required
USB rechargeable

Cons

None significant

Welcome to GeekBeat.tv Live show Episode 102
The show will begin shortly but in the meantime make sure you follow Cali andJohnP on Twitter.
You can also Circle  Cali and JohnP on Google Plus