PogoPlug has gotten a fair bit of coverage here at CrunchGear, including a full review of the original PogoPlug device. A new version was recently released, with quite a bit more to offer, so an updated review is in order. The second generation PogoPlug supports up to four USB drives, offers gigabit Ethernet, has mobile clients for the major smartphones, and has a burgeoning independent developer… → Read More
The Short Version: The Siberia v2 is SteelSeries’ entry into the virtual-surround headset market, and it holds its own against the excellent Logitech G35s and Razer’s Megalodon headset — at least, in sound quality. However, it doesn’t offer much to distinguish itself, and some minor but troublesome issues may have you springing for the Siberia’s competitors. Plus… → Read More
There’s usually a lot of unnecessary foreplay that goes along with accessing an old hard drive just to pull a few files off of it. You have to find your external drive enclosure, you might have to make sure you have a screwdriver to open it up, and… well that’s pretty much it but that can take the better part of a morning if you’re not organized. → Read More
Man, am I sleepy! I almost didn’t post a giveaway for you all today! Maybe I won’t post the giveaway and maybe I’ll just go take a nap… what do you guys think? Nap? Or Pulse Smartpen. You’ll recall that the Pulse Smartpen is one of the coolest toys we’ve played with this year and we’re giving a kit away to one lucky commenter. How do we keep our prices so… → Read More
Everyone needs more storage. But why spend the cash an external drive when we’re giving away a sexy 500GB G-Drive mini? It’s small, has both USB and Firewire interfaces, and sexy like it’s big brother I just reviewed. → Read More
The Short Version: These headphones fit a sort of questionable niche; who really games and travels so much that they need compact gaming headphones? But that aside, the G330s are still a mixed bag. Sound quality is good for a traditional headphone style, but they don’t seem to fit as intended. If you find yourself needing a portable gaming headset, try these on before you buy. Also… → Read More
Short Version: The GBoard costs $19.99. It’s a USB keypad that has nineteen specially labeled keys for specific GMail actions: search, reply, reply all, star, archive, etc. The back of the unit has an adjustable lever so you can change the angle of the keypad. I’m left wondering what problem this accessory solves. → Read More
Good evening and welcome to the laptop bag adoption program from your friends at CrunchGear. Today we have this charming Booq Nerve laptop bag, your choice of sizes. It needs a good home. Won’t you open your heart to this bag? → Read More
Costco has a pretty stellar deal on a big 28-inch monitor at just $249.99 with free shipping. That price is good until January 4, 2010 too, so start saving up if you haven’t already. → Read More
The G-Drive external hard drive line has been out for a bit now. But the latest model is loaded with the Hitachi 2TB 7200RPM 3.5-inch hard drive, which means I had to check it out. Let’s just say, this boy is big, bad, and fast. → Read More
This little controller is butt-ugly and crude, but I still want one really bad. Maybe Santa will bring me one. → Read More
If you ever sit next to me on a plane you will notice that I have a small ritual that I prepare every time I reach cruising altitude. I begin by pulling out my iPod touch and then my Movie Wedge. The Movie Wedge is a little bean bag with a lip for holding up MP3 and video players. That’s it. It’s amazingly great. We talked about the Movie Wedge a while back and we’re happy to… → Read More
Good afternoon, readers! What does Santa have in his bag for you today? Interestingly enough, he was unable to bring his bag because this printer is far too big for it. We present, for your inspection, the Kodak 5250 all-in-one: a scanning, printing, faxing, photofinishing machine that can best the big boys in the printer race. Best of all, the 5250 has built-in WiFi so you can stick the printer… → Read More
[tab:Intro][flagallery gid=9 name="CrunchGear Gift Guide 2009"] Peripherals, they say, are the spice of life. Well, maybe they don’t say that, but they do say it about variety, and peripherals add variety to your computing life. If you’re reading this on a stock HP desktop, clicking on links with the mouse that came with it, and trusting your data to that 512MB USB stick they gave you… → Read More
If you thought that the whole point of the common digital photo frame was to make old-school photos a thing of the past, it looks like you were wrong. I was wrong too, so let’s take comfort together in our wrongness. If the folks at iMo have their way, we’ll look at a digital photo on their digital frame and say to ourselves “I want that photo on some sort of card stock and I’ll stop at… → Read More
In the end, everything will have an app store. Take the Pulse smartpen from Livescribe, for example. The company, whose pen is quite cool (it records what you write and can “remember” things on page, allowing for paper-based calculators and control panels), has just launched an app store for its 2- and 4GB Pulse pens. The store offers multiple games, tools, and study aids for prices… → Read More
Imation today officially starts shipping “the world’s first Wireless USB external hard drive,” the Imation Pro WX. → Read More
Short version: A comfortable mouse whose main gimmick will take hours upon hours of dedication on your part to fully exploit. → Read More
Short Version: As ergonomic mice go, Microsoft’s wireless offering provides plenty of relief from repetitive stress injuries without deviating too far from the familiar form factor found in standard mice. And with an MSRP of $80 (and available for even cheaper online), it’s priced competitively with other specialty mice. → Read More
Short version: The Magic Mouse is everything that anti-Macists hate about Apple: It’s twee, too smart for its own good, and initially unusable to the uninitiated. Sadly, even Mac fanbois will feel the same way. → Read More
Short version: Western Digital’s refreshed My Book Essential external hard drive provides a simple, unobtrusive, and relatively inexpensive home backup solution. With an enormous 2TB capacity, built-in WD SmartWare software, 256-bit built-in encryption with password protection, an “illuminated capacity gauge,” and a MSRP of $249.99, there is very little not to like here. → Read More
Short version: A nearly faultless wired mouse, more than suitable for everyday tasks or gaming. Fans of the distinctive MX series shape won’t be disappointed. Although I’ve been taking my time getting used to this mouse, this is a pretty straightforward review. Reason being that Logitech is an established and reliable brand for mice so we can skip the foreplay. You know as well as I do… → Read More
The Seagate FreeAgent Go is a 1TB, USB-powered hard drive that works. What more do you wanna know? → Read More
There is a code to which a cowboy cleaves. He never shoots first, he’s always kind to ladies, and he never buys more printer than he can handle. While I can’t speak for those out on the lone prairie, I can report that the 52-pound ImageClass MF8050Cn by Canon may be the heaviest printer I’ve had in my office to date.
This isn’t a printer for scrap-booking or creating beautiful photomontages of… → Read More
Storage is cheap, and just keeps getting cheaper. I remember buying my first 250 megabyte hard drive, and paying just under a dollar per meg. Now we’re approaching multi-terabyte drives at retail stores for extremely reasonable prices. The age old problem, though, is how to protect all that precious data. RAID solutions have been around for a long time, but the consumer-grade products haven’t been… → Read More
The last Epson printer I reviewed, the Artisan 800, was a work of art. The Workforce 600 is the art of work. See what I did there? To be clear, there is little to say about besides the speeds and feeds. A printer is a printer is a printer, no matter how printer manufacturers like to spice things up with claims of ink price or pages per second. That said, I’m fairly impressed by the Workforce… → Read More
One of LaCie’s most recognizable products, the Rugged line of external HDDs has been around for ages, but only recently expanded into the 3.5″ HDD realm with this 1TB unit. The design is much the same, but obviously it’s significantly larger — and more spacious. But is it worth the premium over other 1TB drives? → Read More
With a name like the T.16000M, you kind of expect this joystick to sync with your cerebellum and control eight games at once. But no, it’s just Thrustmaster’s latest, which uses a magnetic sensor to provide extra precision in your controls — 16,000 analog states per axis, to be precise (many analog sticks use 256 or even 16). I’ve always thought of joysticks as being precise, even if I was… → Read More
Back at CES, I got to check out the Mamba in its near-final form. I was impressed, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it to review. Now, after living with it for a good while, and after some serious initial problems, I can say it’s everything they wanted it to be, though I still think Razer’s true megamouse will be the Mamba’s successor. Watch and read for optimum review… → Read More
The D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router has a lot of features stuffed into a small, attractive package. It’s the first router I’ve ever made space for on the top of my desk and, expensive though it is at $299, it’s part router, part Chumby, part print server, part network hard drive, and more. → Read More
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