Ultimate Gadgetry: Star Wars Rocks

Saturday, February 28, 2009 - John Greene

Sadly, you can’t buy either of these. They’re “art.” I have a stack of cassingles right here waiting to drop into them, too, dammit!

Tags: boom box, boomboxes, star wars

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Ultimate Gadgetry: The Lost And Damned

Saturday, February 21, 2009 - John Greene

When I get a chance, I am a fiend for my XBox. I’ve got a nearly-regular Friday night party set up with my friends scattered over three continents, the better half loves Netflix being built into it, it allows me to watch those delightfully out-of-date HD-DVDs of the original Star Trek series, but the real highlight of the system for me has been Grand Theft Auto IV.

The core game itself is a rich experience, to be sure, with a compelling story, great animation and voice acting, and an interface that lets you truly enjoy the sandbox aspect of the world you’re in. The saga of Nico Bellic ranks right up there with some of the best movies I’ve seen, and the cast of characters make it an experience more than a game. The strong multiplayer aspect makes it a regular part of our Friday evening rotation with a broad selection of missions and a “Free For All” mode that lets my gang engage in activities that would end in dismemberment and jail time in the real world. In conversations, I’ve stated that I honestly couldn’t see how they’d improve the game.

Then I downloaded The Lost And Damned, an all-new storyline featuring biker gangs in Liberty City. Rockstar has stepped their game up with this one, combining some of my favorite aspects of shows like The Wire and Sons of Anarchy with their unique blend of satire, over-the-top action, and compelling story that provides an even more immersive experience. You play as Johnny, the level-headed vice-president of The Lost, a crew of riders who have just been reunited with their leader, Billy, fresh out of a stint in Liberty City’s finest correctional facilities, and you find yourself having to deal with a man who’ll tear apart his family to take over a city that’s been peaceful in his absence.

And just in case an expansive storyline, great action, and some truly fun missions weren’t enough, they’ve thrown in awesome new additions to the multiplayer functionality that has made the game such a perennial for me. If you want a way to get some honest thrills out of taking out other people and the cards have been a bit cool for you, you can do a lot worse than this.

Tags: grand theft auto, gta4, gtaiv, xbox, xbox live

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Ultimate Gadgetry: Let’s Talk About Twitter

Friday, February 6, 2009 - John Greene

If you’re on the internet regularly, you’ve heard about Twitter, the microblogging service that lets you and your friends stay in touch.  I’m on Twitter (I lock my updates and I won’t give out my ID here – more on that in a bit,) Wil Wheaton is on Twitter, MC Hammer is on Twitter, and most importantly, UltimateBet is on Twitter.  Right now, we’re primarily using it to notify our followers of events that are coming up and blog entries, but don’t be surprised if it become more active as more people follow us.

I use Twitter in a very specific way – I use it to update my friends about what I’m doing, not just broadcast to the general public.  I don’t have the thousands of followers that the former Wesley Crusher has, nor do I want to.  I like that Twitter gives you flexibility like that, letting you have a circle of friends that keep tabs on each other, or a global network that allows your lunch updates (tomato soup, cheese sandwich, bottle of Sam Adams) to appear on anyone’s screen, anywhere.  There’s also Twitter feeds from Amazon and other outlets, letting you know of deals, concerts, showtimes, and more.  It’s a fantastic way to use the web, even if the vast majority of people limit it to using it as I do.

On my Blackberry, I use the Twitterberry application, and friends of mine swear by the  ThinCloud Twitter for iPhone interface, which resizes the site for the iPhone really nicely and lets you get access to pretty much anything with a couple of taps.  You can also (at least in the US) text updates to Twitter directly from any phone with SMS capabilities, which would be pretty much any phone out there at this point.

Of course, one day, they’re going to have to figure out how they’re going to pay for all this neat technology, but until then, start using Twitter and get the most out of the time you spend online.  It’s pretty much replaced Facebook for me on that “great ways to waste time online” list I’ve had in my head.

Tags: blackberry, iphone, Twitter

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2008: A Year That Happened In Ultimate Gadgetry.

Saturday, January 3, 2009 - John Greene

With the final days of last year now a dim echo, I think it’s time to look back at the last orbit around the sun in gadgetry, games, and whatever else falls under my purview and point out my picks and pans. More often than not, these are the items I spent my poker winnings on, having decided to do something sensible with my salary, but I did receive review equipment on several occasions.

Best Computer
I’ve discussed my very pleasurable experience with the MSI Wind, but I’m going to have to give the netbook props to Samsung’s NC10, which arrived under my Christmas tree and has since completely stolen my heart.  With more ports, a bigger hard drive, and the ability to effectively run the UB software on its pre-installed Windows XP operating system, this tiny titan has me utterly smitten.
The battery life is more than healthy; I’ve been running six hours between charges with no problems at all, even while using a USB mouse.  The larger keyboard is also another notch in its favor, as I have mammoth bear paws that can barely hit the right key on a regular keyboard.

Best Phone
It has been and may always be my beloved Blackberry Curve.  I’m on my second one (the first was lost to a tragic accident involving my nephew at an aquarium) and it does everything I need.  Maybe one day I’ll be sold on the iPhone like everyone else, but its high price tag and AT+T only service (unless you want to break your warranty and all that junk) mean I’m staying a little behind the curve, but comfortable for now.

Worst Phone
Just to prove I’m not in the pocket of Research In Motion, I’ll link to my review of the Blackberry Storm, an item I’ve actually called “a goddamn abortion” to other gadget fans over drinks.  I’m actually close to calling it the worst gadget of the decade - that’s how bad it was.

Best Use of XBox Live
If you’ve knocked a zombie off your friend’s back just before blowing its head off with a shotgun, then you’ve not had been playing the best multiplayer experience ever.  While I love the GTA free-for-alls we have (they’re conference calls punctuated with explosions), Left 4 Dead has some of the tightest gameplay I’ve experienced, with the team being more important than any other game has ever made it before.  I’m always Zoey, but that may be because I have extra fingers on my right hand.

Worst Use of XBox Live
Every idiot teenager, ever.  Seriously, if I suspected I was half as homophobic and a third as racist as these kids at that age, I’d go back in a time machine and beat myself to death with a crowbar, Jason Todd style.  There’s a reason I don’t play in any ranked games; if I wanted to consort with foul-mouthed miscreants when I was trying to relax, I’d stick to the UltimateBet tables.  (That’s a joke, but Annie makes some good points.)

Best Moment Where It All Came Together
My mom and dad actively smack-talking each other while playing Wii Sports.  I got the system for them on a whim and they’re now setting up a league with the other retirees in their Florida subdivision.

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Ultimate Gadgetry: The Blackberry Storm.

Sunday, December 28, 2008 - John Greene

A friend of mine loaned me his spare Blackberry Storm recently, knowing that I was eager to get my hands on what Research In Motion has appeared to designate its very own iPhone killer.  While I like the iPhone’s interface and software a lot, my nerdy disdain for AT&T and their involvement in the illegal wiretapping scheme means that I won’t be getting one until their exclusivity deal ends, and the Storm looked like a nice hybrid of what I love about the my current Blackberry Curve merged with an Apple-style touchy-feely experience.

After about two hours with the thing, I handed it back to him and said “that’s enough, but thanks.”  The Storm’s touchscreen feels, frankly, like a Chinese mp3 player’s interface, with slow, unresponsive buttons. I’m not exaggerating when I say it took a full two to three seconds for the Storm to acknowledge that I’d pressed one button or the other and even after twenty or so minutes of dicking around with the photo application, I still couldn’t figure out how to access the multiple pictures of the tabletop I’d accidentally taken.  My gorilla-like thumbs can send emails and more with the physical keyboard on the Curve at a fairly fast clip, but the slow response time and general mushiness of the Storm meant that I sent messages that read like “Tihs is a tset mssage” or “Teh baclkberry is teh worst phoen i haev tried.”

More vexing than the slow response time was the strange choice to go with a full-screen, physical “click” that ensures that you’re always a bit confused.  There were several moments where I honestly had no idea what I’d just clicked on or why, but I was suddenly at another screen.  When combined with the clackity-clack typing sound that I could never figure out how to turn off (I’m sure it’s on there, but the sheer button overload meant I spent more time trying to find functions than I did, you know, doing things,) it’s a strange and unsatisfying experience.

If you’ve got some Christmas cash or poker winnings to burn and the Storm looks temping, I’m going to have to tell you to wait.  RIM has proven repeatedly that they move forward and fix problems faster than almost any other company in their space.  I’d not be surprised if the middle of this year saw a more perfect Storm.

Tags: blackberry storm, iphone, Ultimate Gadgetry

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Ultimate Gadgetry: What To Do When Your Internet’s DNS Service Goes Wonky

Sunday, December 21, 2008 - John Greene

This edition of Ultimate Gadgetry is a bit late because we’ve had a spot of weather in my part of the world (meaning that I’m working from my home instead of trudging through the snow to the workplace) and my provider has decided that Christmastime is the best time to adjust their DNS servers.  So, emailing files to people, getting online to catch the action at UltimateBet’s tables,  even trying to watch a YouTube video carries a success rate that’s notably less than going all-in with 7-8 offsuit.  (My wife, typically, was more upset that she couldn’t access CSI: Miami on Netflix Watch Instantly through the XBox versus my problems, which might keep us from paying our mortgage.)

DNS, according to Wikipedia, is “a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the internet. It associates various information with domain names assigned to such participants.”  It’s basically your computer’s switchboard to the rest of the internet; every computer online has a number assigned to it and it converts your typing “Google.com” to the numbers that the internet understands for routing your connection.  If the DNS server is acting up, it makes it difficult for a lot of things to connect properly.  My provider had told me several times that they were “working on it” and while I can go to a coffee shop and do a great deal of my work, I still prefer sitting at my desk in my house with my tea and having control over my stereo, which is virtually guaranteed to not play Maroon 5 or Nickelback when I least expect it. So, I did a little research and came across OpenDNS.com.

I’m not a super-technical guy: more gadget-oriented (hence this column) than engineering-oriented, so I was really happy to see that they explain everything at the average person’s level instead of going straight for the technobabble.   I had a good connection up and running within a few seconds, and can for the first time in weeks get to my GMail and FTP accounts with no problems at all.  If you’ve ever had issues with connections taking longer than they should, or sporadic outages related only to certain websites, this could fix them without having to endure an hour-long phonecall to somebody reading Action Items off a screen.

Tags: DNS, internet, internet connections, online, openDNS, Ultimate Gadgetry

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Start Up Capital Anyone?

Saturday, December 20, 2008 - smokin_aces

I’m a gadget lover. Like most gadget lovers I sometimes get enamored with an inanimate piece of gear (or ‘kit’ as they say across the pond) before I can even figure out how I can benefit from it. A pair of sneakers that syncs with my ipod and plays music to the beat of my footsteps? I need it…..then i’ll start jogging, etc. Other times I can see even further potential in a gadget and have an idea on how to improve it. That’s the case today. Earlier this year Engadget did a piece on a ten player automated poker table.

It comes loaded with both Texas Hold Em and Blackjack and the computerized dealer takes care of everything. Great right! Well not really. I want more. Since I’m a complete online poker fanatic I want full integration to Ultimate Bet. Imagine that! Then you could have it all. I love the bimonthly poker night in the basement with a few friends, but the pace is always slow, our dealing techniques are weak, awkward and unorganized, people are always forgetting the details such as posting blinds etc. If you could hook this table into Ultimate Bet’s phenomenal poker platform via USB to your home computer, you could play live poker with your friends while being treated to the full Ultimate Bet experience. As well, playing with your Ultimate Bet bankroll would be much more convenient than having to shuffle chips around the table and then try to cash everyone out after the evenings festivities. This would bring the casino experience right into my basement, complete with professional, accurate and flawless dealing in a tournament setting. Sure this is probably a pipe dream for now, but along with Ultimate Bet on my iPhone, this table is on my gadget wish list.

Tags: Online Poker, Ultimate Gadgetry

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Ultimate Gadgetry: My Month With A Wind Netbook

Sunday, December 14, 2008 - John Greene

If you’re on the road a lot, going to tournaments, harassing family, etc, etc, lugging around a full-sized laptop can be more trouble than it’s worth, especially if you’re not going to be doing much more than getting online, checking email, and occasionally looking something up on the internet.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my MacBook, but lugging it constantly gets a little old, especially if I plan on carrying anything else in my bag.  That’s why I was excited when this whole Netbook revolution started and why I switched over to using a MSI Wind U100 last month.

This isn’t the computer you’d use to run a Powerpoint Presentation on, nor is it ideal for playing at UltimateBet (even if you can thanks to the WIndows XP upgrade option,) but if you’re looking for a nice halfway mark between your Blackberry or iPhone and your heavy-ass laptop, this is pretty close to perfect.  Since I use GMail and Google Docs for most of my work, and the transition to using Linux when I first got it was easier than expected.

Size is the real key with the Wind and its competition like the Asus EEE; this sucker is tiny, just a bit smaller than the copy of Poker For Dummies my wife keeps sticking into my bag at 10.25″ x 7″ by .75″ .  The smaller size means that you’ve got to make some adjustments.  The keyboard took a little time to get used to, but since I use my Blackberry constantly, I’ve become adept at navigating smaller keyboards; I certainly have fewer typo-related problems with this than I did with the week I spent reviewing an iPhone for a Scottish tech magazine.

For the technically-minded, my model’s got a gig of RAM (with future models being able to hold more from what I can see) and a 120GB hard drive that is pretty empty because, as I said, I use Google Docs for most of my on-the-road writing, or I type directly into Wordpress like I’m doing now for this or my personal blogging.  There’s a word processing application for Linux that writes to the Microsoft .doc format, so the little I may want to do without an internet connection can be taken care of quickly.

It’s a neat machine and I recommend looking at a Netbook if you don’t need to bring a “real” machine with you constantly, but would like to have something handy on the road.  I’m also going to tell you to wait until January of February to pick one of the Winds up.  They’re going to be making one that’s a bit more robust, without the memory limitations, designed for “professional” use, at about the same price point of just under $500.

Tags: Ultimate Gadgetry

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Ultimate Gadgetry: Gorillapod

Sunday, December 7, 2008 - John Greene

Like a lot of you, I’m on the road quite a bit, doing tournaments and business travel with friends, and I usually have a digital camera with me. Over the years, I got a bit more serious about making sure my photos didn’t look like compete ass and started to actually learn how to use the $500 Canon G9 I bought with my limping-out-in-the-black winnings from a Vegas tournament. I learned all about ISOs and F-Stops and white balance and all that jazz, but no matter what I did, my photos taken at night after my third or fourth coconut drink looked really horrible. I needed a tripod, but who really wants to haul one of those with them every time they go to party?

Enter the Gorillapod. For between $20-40 (depending on the model,) you’ve got a tripod that you can throw in your courier bag (or man purse, as my girlfriend keeps calling mine) that actually holds pretty much every camera on the market steady for the longer exposure shots you want to do without having a flash ruin them by making everyone look like a startled goth. The Gorillapod Original holds pretty much every point-and-shoot you can buy now, up to a little more than 9 ounces, with the Gorillapod SLR handling my G9 and cameras like the Nikon 40D. There’s also a Gorillapod SLR Zoom that’ll hold something with an expensive heavy lens on the front (up to 6.8 pounds,) but I can’t honestly see most people coming close to needing that. It’s also a nice thing to throw into someone’s Christmas stocking if you’ve already bought them a camera, as it’s cheap but they probably don’t know they need it until after a while.

Tags: cameras, gorillapod

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Headphones in Poker – Ultimate Gadgetry

Sunday, November 30, 2008 - John Greene

I know, I know. This week’s From The Felt talks about not wearing headphones when you’re playing poker, but there are plenty of other times where they’re perfectly appropriate: waiting in line at the bank, on a long airplane flight, jury duty, etc. Let’s face it: the kind that came free with your iPod or Zune or whatever stink. They’re tinny, they don’t fit properly, and they tend to wear out far too quickly. We’re going to review a few for you and give you an idea of how to spend some of your winnings.




UltimateEars bills themselves as makers of “personal monitors,” or those custom-fit headphones you see guys from Aerosmith and My Chemical Romance wearing on stage. A few years ago, they started making high-end personal headphones for the consumer market. They’re not cheap (starting around $250 retail,) but they sound terrific and have a selection of models designed for specific types of music. I’ve had two pairs and given away three. Everyone that received them as a gift said they were the best-sounding headphones they’ve had. Make sure you use the case that comes with them: it keeps the cable from getting worn out from being wrapped and unwrapped around your iPod. Even if the warranty is great and the cable will be replaced free, you won’t want to be without these bad boys for long. Find out more at www.ultimateears.com



The Good: Sound isolation only helps good sound, broad variety of models, warranty that’s a notch above the rest.


The Bad: People who don’t like in-ear headphones will hate these.




The German company Sennheiser’s been making audio gear since 1945, so they probably know what they’re doing at this point. They’ve got a ton of different types of headphones, going from $30 models that are designed to replace the crappy pack-in sets to $500 HD650 audiophile headphones. I personally really like the HD25s because they’re lightweight and sound good enough to replace most speakers around the house. Perfect for those online poker tournaments that stretch late into the night. You can get more information and look at all their models at www.sennheiserusa.com



The Good: Good bass, lots of highs and midranges. Comfortable to wear for long periods


The Bad: Too bulky for everyday wear.




WESC (stands for WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy) is a “fashion brand for intellectual slackers” and while I’ve got no idea what these headphones sound like, just look at them! How can you resist? Check out their headphones, photos of celebrities like Jason Lee, and more at www.wesc.com

The

Good: Shiny!


The Bad: Miles Davis may sound like he’s playing into a pillow for all I know.

Tags: Poker Poker Poker, Ultimate Gadgetry

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