Short Version: Samsung’s SyncMaster XL2370 is a 23-inch LED backlit monitor that retails for around $300. At under eight pounds and less than two inches thick, there’s a lot to like here.

With traditional 23-inch LCD monitors starting at around $200, is it worth an extra $100 for an LED backlit screen? Samsung’s offering consists of a bewilderingly thin and light frame, nice rich colors, and quick 2-millisecond response time for gaming. You’ll give up VESA mounts, built-in speakers, and tactile adjustment buttons, but if those things aren’t important to you, the $300 Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 makes for a very compelling purchase – especially if you’re looking for something that won’t take up much space and is easy to move around.

Product Page: Samsung SyncMaster XL2370

Review:

The Yeti from Blue Microphones is a $150 USB microphone with four recording settings, zero-latency audio monitoring via a built-in headphone jack, and a 48 kHz sampling rate at 16 bits.

The mic itself is solidly built – and by “solid” I mean that the combined weight of the microphone and stand is almost 3.5 pounds and the entire getup stands about 12 inches high.

One of the more intriguing features of the Yeti is the selectable pattern settings: stereo, cardioid, omnidirectional, and bidirectional. You can hear in the above video how the sound is affected when I switch between the various modes.

I found the microphone’s recording quality to be good, although I’m absolutely positive that I wasn’t able to get as much out of this thing as a true audio nerd would have. In my hands, it was pretty much on par with a high-quality headset from the likes of Plantronics. And, like most desktop microphones, get too close and it’s going to crackle a bit, get too far away and it’s going to sound too quiet.

And the real-time audio monitoring, while a great feature, suffers a bit thanks to the Yeti being powered completely via USB. It just doesn’t get loud enough to drown out ambient noises like you’d expect. It’s a cool feature to use for recording in quiet spaces, though.

A qualified audio engineer could probably make this thing sound angelic, though, given Blue’s fervent following and reputation for high-quality recording products. I’m admittedly just a regular guy at a gadget blog. If you’re a regular guy (or gal! Gals need mics too!) looking for a decent microphone, you probably don’t need to spend $150. If you look at all the Yeti’s features, though – THX certification, selectable recording patterns, etc. – and lick your chops, you’re not likely to be disappointed.

All in all, the Yeti is a handsome, sturdy USB microphone with a unique array of features. The recording quality is good and you’re getting solid build quality, real-time audio monitoring, THX certification, and selectable pattern settings to boot. For $150, you get a lot of microphone – just make sure you’ll be able to take advantage of it.

Product Page: Blue Microphones – Yeti – The Ultimate Professional USB Microphone

Short Version: It’s got an Atom CPU and it starts at $1300. That being said, Sony’s X Series is one of the coolest computers I’ve ever used.

Features:

• Intel Atom Z550 CPU at 2GHz
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• 11.1-inch LED-backlit LCD at 1366×768 resolution
• 64GB or 128GB solid state drive
• 2GB of RAM
• GPS, Verizon Broadband, Bluetooth, b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Standard and extended batteries included
• Weighs 1.6 pounds with standard battery
• MSRP starting at $1299.99

Pros:

• Unbelievably light, yet feels sturdy
• 12+ hour battery life with extended battery
• 2GHz Atom CPU feels snappy, not at all like other netbooks

Cons:

• Cramped keyboard and trackpad
• Standard battery life is short
• Too much multitasking causes slowdown

Review:

In all my years of reviewing, buying, and admiring computers, this is one of the most impressive. And lest you think Sony and I are all buddy-buddy, I rarely ever speak to anyone there. John checked this thing out at a press event and they were supposed to send it to him to review but he was out of the country, so it got rerouted to me. And I’m glad it did.

I’m more forgiving to netbooks than most of my coworkers, which is a good thing because this machine is basically a $1300 netbook on steroids. Sony calls it a notebook, which is a smart idea because people associate the word “netbook” with something that costs under $500. If you were to give this machine to someone without telling them what kind of CPU was inside, though, you’d probably not hear a peep out of them. It doesn’t “feel” like a netbook at all.

What’s Good:

If you have something around you that weighs a pound and a half, pick it up. Now imagine you’re holding an almost-full-size laptop. Does not compute. The VAIO X Series is bewilderingly, astonishingly, how-the-hell-did-they-do-that light. That’s thanks to carbon fiber, which Sony uses liberally in many of its ultraportables.

You give up battery life with a 1.6-pound notebook. The standard battery lasts around 2.5 hours under normal use but Sony’s thoughtfully included an extended battery that bumps the life up over 12 hours without adding much weight at all. It adds a bit of thickness to the computer, yes, but it’ll still be one of the lightest computers you’ve ever carried around.

The extended battery, pictured above. Pictured below, you’ll notice that at 39% capacity there’s still 3.5 hours of battery life left. You’ll go a couple days between charges.

So the portability and battery life are outstanding without too much sacrifice. You still have a pretty sizeable screen to work with at 11.1-inches and 1366×768 resolution and the 2GHz Atom N550 CPU, based on Intel’s new Pine Trail design, doesn’t feel lethargic unless you get a lot of programs open and running at once or you try to render video. Most everyday stuff hums along very nicely. The main takeaway is that the compromise between portability and power seems less gaping with this machine. It’s very, very tiny, yet still pretty nimble.

What’s Bad:

I’m sure there’s some reasoning behind the keyboard, but it’d be nice if it used all the available space on the chassis. The island layout works okay after you get used to it but I can’t help but think the space would have been better used by making bigger keys – even if they touched – and stretching them all the way across. And Sony seems to love putting that tiny right Shift key on all its ultraportable keyboards. I can’t stand that thing.

The trackpad, too, is pretty rough. As you can see, there’s not much surface area to work with. Multitouch comes turned on by default, which makes a hard-to-use trackpad almost impossible to use since moving your finger often results in some flavor of zooming, scrolling, or whatever else they’ve baked into it. I turned off all that stuff within a few minutes – even vertical scrolling. After that, it worked well enough to not have to carry a Bluetooth mouse.

I have rather large hands but even normal or small hands will seem big when typing or using the trackpad. You do get used to things after a while, though.

Other Considerations:

If you travel frequently for work, consider that the X Series comes with a 3G chipset from Verizon as well as a GPS chip. It’s conceivably small enough to use in the car as a navigation device, so with the 3G and the GPS fired up you’ve got quite an in-car computer.

Conclusion:

If you’re at all intrigued by this machine and the relatively high price tag hasn’t scared you off yet, I urge you to swing by a Sony store to see if you can try it out in person. The photos and videos here really don’t do it justice. If you’ve got the money to spend and you like to travel as light as possible, the size, weight, battery life, and myriad of connectivity options make the Sony X Series a very compelling purchase.

Sony X Series [SonyStyle.com]

Video: Goodbye, Sony X Series. I’ll miss you.

Here’s a recent TechVi segment from CES wherein yours truly and John Falcone from CNet talk about strange and wonderful technology products. Enjoy.

CES 2010: Interview with Doug Aamoth and John Falcone [TechVi.com]

The 1.5-pound, half-inch thick Sony VAIO X Series notebook is easily one of the most impressive portable computers I’ve seen in quite some time. I can’t convey how light it is. It seems to defy logic. My brain doesn’t understand that it’s seeing my hand hold up an 11.1-inch notebook that weighs less than half of what most other notebooks its size weigh.

It’s not a super powerful computer. No sir. But Sony’s managed to stuff a nimble 2GHz Atom CPU (Z550) under the carbon fiber hood. It’s not cheap either, starting at $1299. If you can mentally get past the whole $1300 netbook thing, you get a nice array of features – solid state drive, GPS, Bluetooth, Verizon 3G, Wi-Fi, 2GB of RAM, standard 3-hour battery and an unbelievably lengthy 12+ hour battery that doesn’t seem to add much weight at all. Perhaps best of all is that unless you’re doing some relatively aggressive multitasking, using this computer doesn’t feel much like using a netbook at all.

The screen is an 11.1-inch LED backlit affair at 1366×768, there’s a tiny but relatively functional island keyboard, multitouch trackpad (it’s too small to effectively use the multitouch features), webcam, Windows 7 Home Premium, Ethernet, memory card reader, VGA out, and two USB ports. And again, it’s unbelievably light.

I’ll be putting the machine through its paces and will have a full review up shortly.

X Series [SonyStyle.com]

This is an iron that promises to increase your ironing speed by up to 25% thanks to a symmetrical titanium soleplate, which allows you to iron forwards, backwards, left, and right with ease. It doesn’t make ironing any more exciting but with a street price of around $40, it’s a solidly-built and attractive iron if you’re in the market for one.

There are three versions currently available – I took the mid-range $50 (MSRP) NI-W750TS for a spin. The main feature of the iron is the titanium soleplate, which is shaped in such a way so as to allow for ironing in any direction with minimal friction.

I found it to work well going straight forwards and backwards, and left and right, although changing directions tended to cause a little bit of bunching on the clothes I ironed. Overall, though, it’s a much smoother ride than you’d get with a regular iron.

There’s also a vertical steaming function, which lets you steam a shirt or dress while it’s on a hanger – a nice touch if you just need to quickly de-wrinkle your outfit before work without pulling out the ironing board.

The iron itself looks dapper and feels solid. The outer casing and handle is made of a tough plastic and the titanium soleplate gives everything some nice heft. The plate juts out a little bit from the rest of the body, which makes it easy to see where you’re ironing.

Panasonic promises up to 25% faster ironing, which assumes that you’ll be able to efficiently iron a garment quickly using back and forth lines. If you iron a lot, you’ll probably find that you can iron more quickly with this thing, sure. If you’re like me and you avoid wearing pressed shirts, you’ll still fumble around with the iron until you remember what you’re doing.

All in all, it’s a solid iron with nice features for the price. Available from Panasonic for $50, or you can find it for around $40 elsewhere.

Product Page: NI-W750TS Iron

I’m toying with the idea of doing ten-minute episodic reviews videos where I can showcase several gadgets in one fell swoop and throw in some nonsense for good measure. So here it is, the first episode of Time For Gadgets!

That exclamation point is part of the title since gadgets should be exciting and whimsical.

Here’s a list of the items featured in this episode…

Trip Glasses: $40 at ThinkGeek

Trip Glasses feature two red LED lights and a sound generator that pulsate patterns of rapidly blinking light and binaural-type audio tones with the promise that “they allow you to safely meditate, hallucinate, trip out and generally relax with your eyes gently closed.”

And guess what? They actually work. You probably won’t full-on hallucinate, but you’ll definitely see weird shapes and all in all, it’s a pretty relaxing experience. The sequence runs for 14 minutes and then the glasses automatically shut off.

Big Buck Hunter Pro TV Video Game: $40 at Jakks Pacific

If you like the arcade version of Big Buck Hunter, you will absolutely love this $40 home version. It plugs directly into your TV and appears to be an almost exact replica of the arcade machine. The gun is a little on the disappointing side – it doesn’t feel too sturdy and the pump action doesn’t have nearly as much travel as the full-size game, but everything else is there.

The TV version adds a red on-screen aiming cursor, which I found to be a tad distracting. If you train yourself to ignore the cursor, though, things get a bit easier.

RoadHome: $35 at Speck

A simple mini-USB car charger that also features flip-out prongs for use in a standard wall jack – nice for traveling, though $35 seems a bit expensive.

HardCase Plus: $30 at Mophie

The best all-around iPhone case I’ve found to date, the HardCase Plus completely envelops your iPhone in protection without adding too much extra bulk. I’m petrified of damaging the screen on my iPhone, so the fact that this case actually covers the screen without hindering any of the touch-centric features is amazing.

MoGo Talk for iPhone: $130 at MogoStore

The MoGo Talk is quite a feat of engineering. It’s a slim, hard-backed iPhone case with a built-in Bluetooth headset that folds down to 5mm thin. When you want to use the headset, just pop it out of the case and flip out the earpiece. There’s a tiny microUSB port built into the case, too, so you can recharge the headset easily.

Sound quality is good and you’ll get around four hours of talk time. The flexible earbud blocks out ambient noise pretty well, too.

Seat Buddy: $20 at Seat Pods

Seat Buddy is a hands-free rubber housing for your iPhone that allows you to hang the device from a seat-back tray table on an airplane. It’s a dead-simple solution to the nagging problem of having to hold your iPhone or iPod touch upright for an entire movie.

HMX-R10 Camcorder: $500 at Samsung

A full HD camcorder stuffed in a compact, attractive package. The HMX-R10 does up to 1080i at 60 frames per second, or 1080p at 30 frames per second. Video quality is really sharp for such a small and relatively inexpensive camcorder, although footage has a tendency to pixelate and tear if you whip the camera from side to side too quickly. Standard handheld and tripod footage looks great, though.

The camcorder really needs a built-in hand strap that spans the entire side of the device. Instead, you get a little leather wrist strap that attaches to the back right corner of the camera. The lack of a full hand strap makes the camera really hard to use one-handed.

Quick look at the Archos 5 Internet Tablet: $380 at Archos

Just a quick hands-on showcasing some of the features of the Archos 5 Internet Tablet. I’ll be doing a full review later. For now, you can also read some first impressions of the device.

The 7-inch 800×480 Mimo monitor is a portable USB-powered display that’s easy to set up and use and ought to fit neatly in most laptop bags. At $130, it’s not outrageously priced, either, considering you’re getting a pretty capable second monitor that weighs just 1.3 pounds and requires only a single cable in order to operate.

Specs (from ThinkGeek’s product page):

• Small monitor runs completely off of USB, giving you an extra mini display whenever and wherever you need it.
• No extra power needed. The Mimo monitor is powered by USB.
• No extra video card. The Mimo has a built in video card that runs over any USB 2.0 connection.
• Rotating Portrait or Landscape view. Go vertical for notes and spreadsheets, horizontal to watch a movie.
• Great for laptop use. The Mimo stores easily in your bag and is ready to go simply by plugging it in
• Mac and Windows driver support (intel Mac only)
• Display size – 7″
• Display resolution – 800 x 480
• Brightness – 350 cd/m2
• Contrast ratio – 400:1
• Connections – USB 2.0

Pros: I came away impressed, overall. The Mimo is a DisplayPort monitor, and I’ve run into some wonkiness with DisplayPort devices in the past. This time, though, setup was a breeze and the little monitor was easily able to play back video files from Hulu Desktop, which I didn’t think it would have been able to do cleanly.

The fact that there’s just a single USB connector makes the Mimo a truly special device. Notebook and netbook owners who find themselves wishing for a little extra desktop real estate for e-mail or Twitter or whatever it is you kids are into these days will find that the Mimo travels well and offers just enough additional space to help you remain productive without weighing your bag down too much.

The stand and monitor are both built solidly without being too heavy and the ability to position the screen horizontally and vertically is a huge plus.

Cons: Not too many here, folks. Some might be put off by the $130 price tag — you could get an actual big boy monitor for less — but the Mimo’s not meant to compete with traditional displays. The DisplayPort software sometimes doesn’t play nicely with 64-bit operating systems, especially the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Release Candidate (I couldn’t get it to work), but that’s hardly the fault of the product itself, as it doesn’t claim such support.

Overall: In a word: Impressive. I thought the thing would be more gimmicky than anything, but it works well and that extra 800×480 to play around with is perfect for loading up widgets, e-mail, video, music, and anything else that normally takes up space on your regular desktop.

Mimo Mini USB Monitor [ThinkGeek.com]

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EurekaFest is a yearly event held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that showcases the prototype inventions of high school students from around the country. The inventions consist of various gadgets and devices aimed at helping solve real-world problems.

One of the more impressive ideas I saw during the two days I spent covering the event was a prototype “sensing” cane for blind people. The cane features sensors that can detect objects up to eight feet away, at which point the cane’s handle begins buzzing once per second and increases in intensity as objects get closer.

There were actually two separate teams working on sensing canes – one from Harvard, MA and one from Norfolk, VA. I spoke with the team from Norfolk, which you watch in the above video. Their prototype cane cost only about $140 to put together and consists of PVC piping and an Arduino-like logic board that handles all the information from the sensors. Apparently an earlier prototype was made from carbon fiber, but it turned out to be too expensive and not as easy to work with as PVC.

Other interesting concepts included the following:

Pressure-sensitive illuminated computer cable: USB cable that lights up when you squeeze it, allowing you to easily identify a particular cable among other cables plugged into your computer.

Biofilm membrane for oil remediation: A $40 apparatus that attaches to a well in a rural village and filters out oil from water affected by an oil spill. The actual oil is eaten by microorganisms present in one of the filtering sections of the piping.

Alternative energy refrigerator for northern climates: This is basically a $300 attachment that can be easily installed on just about any refrigerator. It hooks up to an outside vent and uses cold winter air to decrease the refrigerator’s energy consumption by up to 50% during the winter.

Assistive mechanics creeper for car repair: An apparatus that allows people with bad backs, bad knees, and the handicapped to easily work underneath cars. “This invention will allow a person to slide from a wheelchair onto the device, lower, and recline backwards to the position of a traditional creeper. This can be done without the person ever having to get up and adjust it. The device will be able to hold a maximum weight of 300 pounds.”

Cooperative cruise control for hybrid commuter cars: A series of sensors attached to multiple cars in the same caravan that allow one lead car to be followed automatically by up to four other cars.

I also got a chance to check out a hybrid electric car developed by a high school in New Hampshire. The vehicle was made out of a motorcycle frame and featured a gasoline generator attachment for extending the mileage. That, plus all of the other inventions can be found in the video at the top of this post. And here’s a list of all the other inventions as well.

Lemelson-MIT Program’s EurekaFest [MIT.edu]

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Got an old sack o’ crap laptop or desktop gathering dust? Sugar Labs has just made its OLPC-friendly “Sugar” operating system into a USB-bootable version called Sugar on a Stick. You’ll need a one-gigabyte thumb drive and about twenty minutes of spare time.

The full instructions can be found here. You’ll basically need to download Sugar on a Stick in ISO form, then use Fedora LiveUSB Creator to “burn” the ISO to the USB thumb drive. Once that process is complete, stick the thumb drive in the old computer’s USB port and boot the machine up (make sure your BIOS is set to boot from USB).

Here’s a little demo video:

Sugar Labs Announces Immediate Availability of Sugar on a Stick; Learning Platform Runs on Any PC or Netbook In The Classroom [SugarLabs.org via Slashdot]

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Short Version: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 with the Wii MotionPlus accessory is the closest you can get to a true golf simulation for $60. The already-great series gets a nice boost this year with true one-to-one motion sensing, addictive online play, and a bevy of other new features that easily justify the purchase.

Long Version: There’s nothing worse than shelling out for a new title in a sports series year after year, only to find that the “new” game you’re playing hasn’t changed much at all from the previous year. It’s my opinion that last year’s Tiger Woods game actually took a step backwards from the year before, due in large part to its cumbersome putting system and duller-than-dull audio commentary. We finally got online multiplayer in Tiger Woods ’09 for the Wii, but I felt that it didn’t bring much else to the table.

Well another year has passed (actually, not even a whole year — Tiger Woods ’09 came out last fall) and I’m happy to report that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 has really turned into a phenomenal golf game. There’s still room for improvement, but this year’s version has few, if any, glaring faults. Certainly none big enough to keep you from buying the game.

Let’s run down a big list of features, shall we?

Graphics

In-game graphics haven’t changed all that much from last year or the year before, at least not noticeably. There’s still a somewhat cartoony look to all the players and you’re not going to get advanced shading and high-definition textures like you’d see on the PS3 or Xbox 360, but this year does finally add gallery crowds. It’s a nice addition even though the people in the crowd are mostly static onlookers with a little movement here and there.

The 27 included real-life golf courses are rendered well and should be easily recognizable to any golf fan, and weather conditions play a bigger role in this year’s offering with especially nice-looking rain effects. All in all, the in-game graphics look pretty good but nothing really appears to have been overhauled.

Menu graphics, on the other hand, have taken a step forward, with big icons and animated backgrounds making up an intuitive interface. It seems simple and uncluttered, even though there are plenty of menus and submenus.

Sound

Again, not a whole lot has changed. In-game sound effects are familiar, although some whispering and shushing from the new gallery spectators has been added.

The broadcast commentary has made a fair-to-middling improvement, with Kelly Tilghmann back in the booth alongside ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, who replaces the almost-depressing Sam Torrance from last year’s game.

Van Pelt offers up some mildly funny to downright mediocre one-liners that seem as though they didn’t make the cut for an episode of Sports Center. I can’t really describe the experience other than at first being like “Oh wow, Scott Van Pelt does the voice work on this game — nice!” and then once you hear it, you’re like “Oh wow, Scott Van Pelt is much, much, much more entertaining on TV.”

To make matters worse, some of the audio is just plain off. Van Pelt will say “Looks like this putt’s gonna break right, Kelly” even though the green grid and putt preview show it breaking left. There’s also been a few instances where I’ve left a twenty foot putt a good five feet short and Tilghmann has said something along the lines of “Now that is a wonderful putt.”

At least this year, though, you don’t need to turn the commentary off. If I could offer some advice to EA for next year, take a note from MLB 2K9. It’s got some nice, natural commentary that makes it seem like you’re watching an actual baseball game. With this year’s Tiger, I still don’t feel like I’m watching golf on TV quite yet.

Wii MotionPlus

Hands down, the best thing about this year’s game. There’s no reason you shouldn’t purchase the $60 bundle with the MotionPlus add-on over the standalone version of the game. Wii MotionPlus and Tiger Woods golf go together like peanut butter and bananas. Or chocolate. Or jelly.

Want to take a 50% swing? Pull the club back halfway. Three-quarter shot? Take it back to just above your shoulder. Fades and draws finally work reliably, approach shots are easy to execute, and putting — my God, the putting. It’s finally phenomenal.

The new “Precision Putting” feature works just like your real putter. I find myself visualizing a ten-foot putt in my living room, swinging as though I’m putting a golf ball from my feet to my TV, and watching the ball in the game go ten feet. EA has done a wonderful job — total redemption from last year’s putting interface.

The one shortcoming of the in-game swing mechanic is that, compared to hitting a good golf shot in real-life, everything in the game still has to be exagerrated somewhat. You’re still going to have to swing a bit harder to hit a shot at 100% in the game, whereas on a real-life tee box you’d want to take a nice, easy backswing followed by a nice, smooth followthrough. When you swing nice and controlled in the game, you’ll often find that it’ll result in around 80 to 90 percent worth of shot power. Not a deal-breaker by any means, but it’s there.

Chipping, flop shots, and pitching are all way, way, way improved this year. It’s much easier to hit partial swings accurately. It’s quite a difference.

Online Play, Dynamic Weather

There are two classes of gamers: those who like online multiplayer and those who like to play alone. I fall squarely into the second camp, except that I’m addicted to online play in Tiger Woods 10. Why? Because you can play online, alone.

Aside from playing true multiplayer matches just like last year, you can now participate in daily and weekly tournaments where you find yourself playing an 18-hole round against everybody else. Lowest score for that daily or four-day weekly tournament wins.

Even better, you can play against all the pros in real-time as they play in major tournaments. As long as the course is in the game, you can play along and see your score on the in-game leaderboard against all the pros in the field.

Wait, it gets better.

There are also real-time weather conditions pulled down from the Wii Forecast Channel. So for instance, yesterday (June 18th, 2009) it was raining like hell on the US Open, which was being played on the Bethpage Black Course in the New York area (play actually got suspended in real life).

So I fire up Tiger Woods 10 yesterday, hop online, and it’s raining like hell in the game. The greens are slow, the leaders are only one under par, and I’m fighting for my life to avoid double-bogeying holes since the conditions are so awful.

Dynamic weather extends to the offline version of the game, too. I put in a little time on my career golfer today and while playing TPC Sawgrass, it started raining — just like it actually did in Ponte Vedra, Florida yesterday. Really cool stuff.

Career Mode

Career Mode is similar to years’ past. You start out trying to make it on the tour, adding skill points and upgrading to better equipment, winning sponsorships, and that kind of stuff. You can also jump right into the FedEx Cup, which is a four tournament elimination-style playoff.

The career mini-games also make an appearence this year, although they’re much more straightforward and subdued from years’ past. Instead of challenging golfers head on, you try to repeat great moments in real-life tournaments. So you’ll have a scenario like “Tiger Woods birdied all the par three’s on this course back in 2003, see if you can do the same.” Stuff like that. The scenarios involving Tiger begin with a video of him talking about what happened along with some clips from the tournament.

I think it works pretty well — better than previous years where it’d be like “Let’s have a chipping contest against Natalie Gulbis” or “Play against John Daly on all the par four’s on this course.” It’s more realistic now and doesn’t take as long to advance since you don’t have to wait for CPU golfers to take their shots.

Other Features and Mini-games

Most of the multiplayer mini-games and “Golf Party” stuff has returned this year. It’s fun and adds a nice social element to the game. Disc Golf, in particular, is super fun and makes really good use of the MotionPlus controller. I find it to be almost as addictive as the online tournament features. You can play all of the 17 courses with nothing more than long-, medium-, and short-range Frisbees. I thought it’d be gimmicky, but it’s actually quite enjoyable.

Conclusion

All in all, there’s plenty of “stuff” in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10.  The game can appeal to just about anyone, whether you’re a serious golfer, a serious disc golfer, you have a few friends over, or you want to play online.

For longtime fans of the Tiger Woods golf games, PGA Tour 10 will remind you why you fell in love with the series in the first place. Wii MotionPlus makes an excellent debut and adds an entirely new level of depth to the game, the real-time weather and online tournaments are amazing, and the core gameplay itself is realistic and wildly enjoyable at the same time. This year’s edition is a must-buy for any true fan.

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New to Tiger Woods PGA Tour on the Wii this year is the “Disc Golf” feature, which allows you to play all of the in-game courses as a disc golfer. I figured it’d be gimmicky at best.

Well, I was wrong. It’s fun, and it’s a great use of the MotionPlus add-on. If you’ve ever played disc golf before, you’ll probably enjoy playing it in the game. If you’ve never played, it’s not rocket science: throw Frisbee at target, repeat.

Check out the above video for a gameplay demo. I get a triple bogey on the 1st hole at St. Andrews, then follow up with a birdie on the famous 17th hole island green at TPC Sawgrass.

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As a longtime fan of the Tiger Woods series of golf games from EA Sports, I was quite disappointed with last year’s effort. You can read the review and yell at me if you’re so inclined, but I stand by the review. I took issue with what I called an “atrocious” putting system, the lack of realistic motion sensing for half and three-quarter approach shots, and really bad voice commentary from Kelly Tilghman and Sam Torrance.

Thankfully, this year’s version of Tiger is already lightyears beyond last year’s.

For starters, the putting system is outstanding. You get one putt preview (on the middle skill level, no putt preview on the advanced level) and then you make a putting motion just like you would in real life. It works… it really, really works. Approach shots work well now too — pull the club back half way, and you hit a 50% shot. Pull it back 3/4 and you hit the ball 75% — the MotionPlus add-on really takes everything to the next level this time.

Graphics and sound are about the same. There are actual people in the crowd this year, which is nice, but player models and course renderings look only slightly improved. It’s nothing jawdropping, though. We’ve also hit a nice compromise with the commentary: it’s now Kelly Tilghman and ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt. I’ll take it, it’s not bad at all.

Check out the above video for a look at some of the gameplay. I’ll have a full review up once I dig into everything a bit more. So far so good, though.

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Jeff Victor of STARFLEET, the International Star Trek Fan Association, recently showed me around the 12,500-foot Star Trek exhibit at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute. We laughed, we cried, we played a little Dabo. Good times indeed.

Star Trek at the Franklin Institute [FI.edu]

STARFLEET International Star Trek Fan Association [SFI.org]

More geeky Philadelphia stuff…

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The Ford GT40 Series Car Mouse from RoadMice.com is a $50 wireless mouse stuffed in a replica Ford GT. This is definitely a mouse for car lovers and there’s apparently quite a market for car mice, as RoadMice.com offers about a skillion different models of wired and wireless mice that look just like real-life cars.

The version I tested out is an 800-dpi resolution wireless mouse that uses two AAA batteries and a USB RF receiver. The mouse could easily be mistaken for a scale-model toy Ford GT until you get up close and notice the scroll wheel sunk into the middle of the hood. Other than that, though, there’s little evidence of this being a mouse, so go ahead and take it to work with you.

The left and right sides of the car’s hood serve as the left and right mouse buttons. When you click either button, the corresponding headlight lights up as a blue LED. This feature can be turned off in order to save power. The scroll wheel is sunk far enough down into the hood that it’s a bit tricky to operate, especially clicking the wheel. I had a tendency to accidentally wiggle the mouse while trying to hit the scroll wheel, which often caused me to shift the on-screen cursor off of it’s intended target.

Based on my highly-scientific measurements (putting a ruler between the mouse and the receiver) the wireless range of the mouse is a mere 12 inches, so make sure you’re sitting close enough to your computer. I had no problems on a laptop and a little server cube that sit atop my desk but my desktop computer sits almost on the floor to the left of me and the mouse wouldn’t work up near my right hand.

All in all, the Ford GT Series Car Mouse is an attractive device for people who love cars. As an actual mouse, though, it’s a bit cumbersome to use and at $50, it’ll likely remain a niche product. Still, if you’ll take form over function when it comes to cars and mice, you’ll likely not be disappointed with this one.

Ford GT (Red) with White Stripe [RoadMice.com]

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Short Version: If you’re a Metallica fan, this may quickly become your new favorite game. Drummers, too, will find the new Expert+ mode with double-bass pedal compatibility a welcome addition to the Guitar Hero series.

Long Version:

In less than a minute of playing Guitar Hero: Metallica, I was thirteen again — sitting behind my beloved drumset in the basement of my childhood home, cursing my Sony Discman for skipping while I was trying to play along to Sad But True on Metallica’s Black album, the first compact disc I ever purchased with my own money.

Perhaps I’m not the right person to review a game like Guitar Hero: Metallica. The band was with me through my formative years, I’ve been to three of their concerts, and, whether he knew it or not, Lars Ulrich basically taught me to play the drums. I am truly a child of the Metallica era. Few bands had been as influential on me as I was learning to play instruments, so to have most of their songs in a single video game is phenomenal. Perhaps if and when Guitar Hero: Nirvana and Guitar Hero: Green Day come out, I’ll have a couple  new games to gush about.

So if you’re into Metallica (or were into Metallica growing up), then you can stop reading right here and go pick up the game. You’ll love it. And if you’re a drummer you may also really like the game, as you can hook up a second bass pedal and rip through classics like One, Dyers Eve, and plenty of other tracks that’ll have you feeling like you’re running in place at breakneck speed. The new Expert+ difficulty level for the drums is amazingly challenging and ought to keep even the best drummers occupied for quite some time. If you’re a drummer who likes playing Metallica songs, I can tell you that this game justifies the purchase of an entire console and Rock Band drumset. Seriously.

Most of the games “features” won’t really appeal to anyone but true Metallica fans, so if you’re not into Metallica you’ll probably want to skip this one. It almost plays like an expansion disc or a big track pack that costs $60.

For fans, there are some nice motion-captured graphics of each of the band’s four members. Lars stands up and pounds on the toms during Creeping Death, James pumps his first into the air to get the crowd all riled up, and bassist Rob Trujillo does his signature whirlibird thing during Seek and Destroy. Kirk… well, Kirk never really did anything outrageous on stage anyway and most of his subdued mannerisms make it into the game just fine.

There are also some unlockable videos of “bootlegged” tour footage, some behind the scenes stuff from the game’s development, and a couple other fan videos, along with guest appearances by Lemmy of Motorhead and King Diamond.

The game is loosely held together by a cartoonish storyline about a Metallica cover band trying to make it big, and progression and unlocking songs is as simple as getting a certain number of stars on available songs to unlock new ones. So this is not really a new Guitar Hero game by any means, it’s basically a bunch of Metallica’s songs with a few outside songs from bands like Alice and Chains, Queen, System of a Down, and even Bob Seger sprinkled in for good measure. I’d gladly trade all the non-Metallica songs for more Metallica songs, though.

Aside from the cartoonish characters that make up your Career Mode band, the actual renderings of the members of Metallica are pretty cartoonish as well. The motion capture makes up for it somewhat by bringing each member’s mannerisms into the game, but it would have been cool if everyone looked more human-like. The music’s there, though, which is the most important thing.

The overall gameplay is impressive, especially if you’re familiar with Metallica’s music. I’m not an awesome guitarist by any means, but playing Hammet’s parts on the medium skill level felt natural and smooth. The drumming interface is outstanding and singing like James Hetfield is actually more challenging than you’d think. All in all, everything’s really well done from a pure note-to-note standpoint. The development team did a great job with this one.

Conclusion:

If you’re a Metallica fan, buy it. You’ll love it. Everyone else might think twice before shelling out $60, as the storyline is pretty weak and there aren’t a ton of new and varied tracks compared to what you’d get with a full blown version of, say, Guitar Hero World Tour. Drummers looking for a challenging drumming experience might find what they’re looking for in this game, and drummers who grew up on Metallica should have already left for the store by now.

Guitar Hero: Metallica [Activision]

The Vestalife Butterfly is an $80 iPod dock with no remote control and so-so sound quality. The build quality is okay, but the whole getup looks like it should be hanging over a baby’s crib. If it cost $30 or $40 it’d be a whole different story, but at $80 this one’s truly for butterfly enthusiasts and family members of Vestalife employees only.

Pros:

• Built-in USB port lets you synch your iPod while it’s docked
• Input/output jacks let you use non-iPod players and headphones
• Can run on four AA batteries or AC power

Cons:

• Costs about twice what it should ($80), no remote control
• Sound quality is so-so, unit doesn’t get very loud at all
• Looks and feels like a baby toy

Check out the above video for the full review.

The Butterfly [Vestalife]

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I took a deep personal interest in Batter Blaster when I first covered it way back in October of 2007. At that time it was only available in the San Francisco area and, after what seemed like eons, I finally saw Batter Blaster in a grocery store here in Boston last night.

What is it?

• Pancake/waffle batter in a pressurized Cheez Whiz-type can.

What does it promise?

• Quick pancakes with even faster cleanup.

Does it deliver?

• Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.

Recommendation

If you like pancakes and can get past the idea of pancake batter in a can, then $4.99 for Batter Blaster should be a no-brainer. They taste just like regular pancakes, and prep and cleanup time are pretty much eliminated altogether. I went from no pancakes to pancakes in about three minutes.

Organic Batter Blaster – Original Pancake and Waffle Batter [BatterBlaster.com]

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I’ve been playing golf off and on for about 20 years now and as a mid-handicapper, I’m prone to shooting in the low nineties thanks, in large part, to inconsistent tee shots. It’s no surprise that hitting your second shot from the middle of the fairway is a lot easier than hitting it from underneath a tree that’s located behind several other trees. And so we dance.

I took the train from Boston to New York in early February to test out Callaway’s new Diablo driver – a golf club based on the simple idea that a LOT of golfers tend to slice the ball off the tee, and that a simple way to correct that would be to slant the club’s face ever so slightly to the left – one degree, to be exact — in order to compensate. So does it work?

Yes. And almost eerily well. Here’s video if you’re interested:

While learning golf as a kid, I was taught to swing easy. Then as a teenager, I found swinging the club as hard as I possibly could to be much more enjoyable, even if it meant shanking most of my tee shots three fairways to the right. As an adult, I’ve realigned my constitution with the “swing easy” mantra, as I no longer enjoy losing money to friends and spending 15 minutes in the woods on each hole.

The problem with the Diablo – the wonderful, magical problem – is that you can basically go back to your swing-as-hard-as-you-can days and the ball still goes straight. With my regular driver, I swing easy and, if it goes straight, it’ll go about 250 yards. With the Diablo, I was swinging as hard as I could, it went straight every time, and once I got warmed up I was hitting the ball 275 yards in the air, plus however far it would have rolled after it landed.

Granted, this was all done at an indoor range with no weather or wind but the results were still encouraging. I’ll have to take the club out on a real course once the weather starts warming up, but if you’re a mid-handicapper and you have a tendency to slice your drives you may want to at least test out the Diablo at your local course or sporting goods store to see if it straightens out your swing.

The driver has an MSRP of $299 and comes in “neutral” or “draw” setups – I hit the 9-degree draw version. If you hit the ball straight off the tee, you could go with the neutral but you’d probably be better off hitting whichever club you’re using now. Correcting the slice is the big idea here, so the extra one degree that the draw version turns the clubhead inward allows you to swing the Diablo naturally without resorting to turning your wrists, locking your front knee, or any of the other hundreds of tricks people have tried over the years.

The club itself features an all-titanium head and is pretty standard-sized – not one of those gigantic, oversized drivers that most people are playing nowadays. The way the Diablo’s clubhead fits together allows it to be super thin while at the same time making pretty much the entire face the sweet spot, which also helps for hitting the ball straight.

All in all, I’m impressed with the Diablo (if you couldn’t tell). I’ll have to try it out on an actual course, but things are looking good so far.

Big Bertha Diablo Driver [Callaway.com]

Short Version: Promising to stay in better, sound better, and feel better than the earpieces on your standard inexpensive headphones, Acoustibuds do indeed work as advertised.

Video Review:

What They Do:

You use Acoustibuds in the place of the little foam doodads that normally cover the earpieces on cheap headphones. The company’s claim is that your headphones will stay in your ear better, your music will sound better, and your headphones will feel better thanks to small rubber fins that adjust to the inside of your ears, holding your headphones in place while blocking out ambient noise better than standard foam covers can.

What You Get:

Two sizes, small and large, for $13. The small adapters have five little fins on them, while the large ones have six.

Do They Work?

Yes, and surprisingly well given how inexpensive they are. I can definitely attest to them staying in better and feeling better. Whether or not they sound better is subjective, but I thought they did. They give your music a better lower end – the bass feels richer. They block out sound better, too, so your ears absorb more of your music.

They’re not $100+ noise canceling headphones, though. They simply make your crappy, cheapie earbuds a little less crappy and $13 less cheapie.

I used them primarily with a pair of Sennheiser MX300s and they improved the already-decent headphones’ sound enough that I’ll keep using them indefinitely. They really shine with cell phone headsets which are, by nature, uncomfortable. I’ve been using them with my standard HTC headset and it’s now much more bearable to use.

Should You Buy Them?

Sure, go ahead. They’re $13. If you want them for even one of the three claims (stays in better, sounds better, feels better), then they’ll already be worth it.

Product Page [Amazon.com]

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