To heck with those neck pillows, I want something that will replicate that car seat belt wherever I go. Enter TravelRest. It touts itself as the ultimate travel pillow and I’ve been taking it across the world with me for the last couple months to see if that holds true. Hit the jump to find out if your hard-earned $27 is worth it.

The TravelRest pillow is pretty low-tech and kind of chintzy looking, but it works as advertised. I won’t go into telling you what I think it looks like, but I’m sure you can think of a few things. Setup is easy and quick. A small nipple like the ones you’ll find on anything that you can inflate is located at the skinny end near the snap-flap. You can attach the snap-flap to your lap belt to keep it from moving about as you rest.

A cord is located on the bulbous end so you can attach to a headrest or around chairs themselves for support. If you don’t have either of those you can actually sling it around yourself like a messenger bag and free ball it.

The fabric is faux velvet and I’m not fond of it but that’s just personal preference. I was skeptical of the seal thinking it would irritate some part of my body, but that was never the case. It’s pretty low-tech, but works surprisingly well. The reason I’d take this over a neck pillow is that there’s more surface area where your head can rest on.

For $27 (discounts if you purchase more than one) the TravelRest pillow is disposable if it’s not your cup of tea, but its versatility won me over. A handful of times I was stuck in an airport because of weather delays and I’m a big fan of naps. Sure, I looked like a goof, but I was the only one waking up from my naps without a cramped neck.

TravelRest

Last week I mentioned this Golden Tee Golf CrunchDeal and said that I’d even buy it for myself. Well you may have thought, "That Doug, he’s all talk — sitting up in his mansion atop a pile of free gadgets, he’d never stoop low enough to buy a plug-and-play TV game for ten bucks."

I’ll have you know that I did indeed purchase the game and I’m happy to report that it’s a perfect gift to give to someone that you HAVE to get a gift for but want to spend the absolute least amount of money possible while still making it look that you put some thought into it.

So, on to the review…

Price:

It’s $9.94 at Target. You’d spend more than that on a $10 gift card, which is widely thought to be the smallest socially acceptable denomination to give to someone as a gift.

Look and Feel:

It’s solid. Bigger and more substantial than I thought. It doesn’t feel cheap — well, it doesn’t feel $9.94 cheap. It feels more like it should be in the $50-$60 range. The controller is a near-exact replica of the Golden Tee board you’d find in your local bar, just shrunk down to about a fourth of the size. It’s got little hand grooves underneath it on either side and the bottom-middle of the thing is molded perfectly to sit on your leg.

The trackball is quite a bit more stiff than the big-boy bar version but, who knows, maybe it’ll loosen up if I were to replicate some real-bar scenarios like spilling beer on it and rubbing pizza grease all over it. Ewww.

Graphics:

Imagine your Gameboy Advance blown up to your TV screen. Maybe your Gameboy Color, actually. No, it’s better than that, actually. Calling it akin to PGA Tour on the Sega Genesis would be a stretch but it’s a little better than 8-bit graphics. Everything’s top-down, no in-flight ball cam or anything like that. Maybe we could agree on TurboGrafx-16 quality – not actually true 16-bit, but an 8-bit CPU with a tricked-out GPU.

I don’t know. Don’t buy it for the graphics. Buy it for the love of golf.

Gameplay:

The swing mechanics are identical to the bar versions, which is a good thing. You can hit the backspin button before your backswing and apply fades, hooks, draws, and the like by pulling back and pushing forward on the trackball in different directions. You can even pull of the no-backswing swing. Just push the trackball forward and you’ll hit the ball.

You don’t get the behind-the-golfer view like you do in the bar versions. Instead, you get a view of your golfer in a little window in the upper right hand corner of your screen superimposed over a top-down view of the course. It feels a little different, but it’s not bad.

People with no human friends and/or people who are almost 30 years old and still play plug-in TV games (me) will find that, while a table for one can be fun, there’s something missing when you can’t even play against a CPU opponent. You can play together with up to three other human players, so keep that in mind if you indeed foster face-to-face human relationships.

Course Selection:

It’s bad! There’s only one course. It’s nice and varied, but I can see it getting old quickly. My secret is that I bought the game and had it sent to my parents’ house, where I’m currently visiting for the holidays. I’ll leave the game here – brilliant! – and just play it whenever I visit, so it’ll seem new to me because I’ll forget all about it between trips.

Recommendation:

True Golden Tee addicts have so-far scoffed at Radica’s attempt, returning lukewarm customer reviews. But that was back when the thing cost around $50. For under $10, it’s hard to find too much to complain about. These little guys might not last long and, again, they make pretty good last-minute gifts for the marginally-important people in your life.

Radica PTV Golden Tee Golf [Target]

This is the Official PS3 Bluetooth headset that was released with SOCOM: Confrontation earlier this fall. It is made specifically for the PS3 but also works on any other Bluetooth device. Voice quality is great and battery life, build quality and ease of use are good, making this a formidable headset. Click on for the entire review.

In the Box: In the box, you get the headset itself, a spare earpiece ring, a dock, a short usb cable and instructions.

The Good: The unit is built well from sturdy plastic and the earpiece and ear clip are rubberized for a more grippy feel. It has dedicated power, volume up, volume down and mic mute buttons, a connector for the dock on the bottom and a covered mini-USB port on top. The dock is also solid and features rubberized feet to prevent slipping. 

This headset looks pretty good too. It sports a PlayStation logo on the front and has some glossy bits here and there that tie it in well with the PlayStation 3 console and controller.

The battery life is 8 hours in-use and 300 hours on standby, so you’ll probably have to charge this headset as much as the controllers. And while charging, the ring around the mute button blinks red and when fully charged, it glows red. 

Pairing the headset with the PS3 console is extremely easy. Just put it in the dock or plug it in using the USB cable and that’s it. You can also pair it with any other device that supports Bluetooth (including the PS3) using the usual steps of putting it into discovery mode and typing in a passcode.

The really cool thing about this headset is the desktop mic mode. When you place the headset in the dock to charge, it also acts as a powerful desk mic. It supports the high quality voice chat feature on the PS3 and the voice quality is comparable to most headsets out there today. Also, the range for the microphone when it is in the dock is amazing. That being said, it also easily picks up background noise that you don’t want.

The Bad: While the rubber ring that connects the ear clip to the headset makes switching between right and left easy, it does wiggle a little.

Like many other Bluetooth headsets, this comes as one size fits all. There isn’t an included set of earpieces and ear clips of different sizes. This means that people with ears larger or smaller than average might have issues wearing this headset.

The USB cable provided is really short and doesn’t give much flexibility for placement. 

Also, because of the gamer-esque styling, you will most likely look like a tool if you are caught using one of these with your phone in public.

Final Thoughts: If you don’t already have a headset for your PS3 and want respectable battery life and the convenience of a dock and desktop mode, this is probably the one to get.

If you want a headset for your phone, you are probably better off trying a dedicated mobile phone headset.

Check out the rest of the photos below.

Quick Version: If you’re a light to moderate sleeper and you can’t seem to wake up on the right side of the bed, the $179 (MSRP) Sleeptracker Pro might be just what you need.

Overview and Features:

• Digital watch monitors your sleep patterns to help you wake up feeling refreshed
• Monitors physical data and wakes you at an optimal almost-awake moment
• Offers vibrating alarm, ringing alarm, or both
• Back-lit, digital display includes day and date
• Includes software to help you track your sleep patterns
• MSRP of $179

How It Works:

You wear the Sleeptracker Pro before going to sleep, setting an alarm time and a window of time before the actual alarm time that’d you’d be okay with getting woken up. The company recommends a 20-minute window.

During the night, the watch monitors your sleep patterns using a built-in accelerometer to tell when you’re tossing and turning, which it characterizes as lighter sleep. If it catches you in a light sleep state within your wake-up window, the alarm will go off. The idea is that if you’re woken up when you’re already in a light sleep state, you’ll wake up more refreshed than if you were in a deep sleep and got woken up by a blaring alarm clock. If you don’t happen to experience a light sleep state during your wake-up window, the watch’s alarm will go off at the regular alarm time.

Pros and Cons:

If you, like me, get about eight hours of sleep every night but still wake up groggy, this thing will work well for you. I wouldn’t say I have any glaring sleep issues – I’m a moderate sleeper, not too light, not too heavy – and the Sleeptracker’s been great.

I don’t necessarily spring out of bed, but I’m definitely not grumpy or groggy in the morning any more. It’s more of an “Okay, it’s morning time. I guess I’ll get up now” disposition versus a “What the hell is that noise?! Oh, it’s my alarm clock. I hate morning and I’d very much like to punch morning time in the Adam’s apple if it were physically possible to do so.” The alarm can be set to chime, vibrate, or both. I have it set on vibrate and it’s easily enough to wake me up. Deep sleepers, however, would likely sleep right on through it. It’s not a jarring vibration and/or noise by any means.

The watch comes with software that allows you to upload your sleep data and enter factors like whether or not you drank or ate too much before you went to bed, how you felt when you woke up, and stuff like that. It’s pretty cool but the watch only saves one night’s worth of data, so you’ll have to be diligent about connecting the watch to your computer every morning.

The price is a tad on the high side at $179. It’ll absolutely come down to whether or not you think waking up feeling refreshed every morning is worth that kind of money to you. Keep in mind that the Sleeptracker isn’t a replacement for sleep – you still have to get a full night’s rest or you’ll risk sleeping right up to the actual alarm time.

It happened to me once on a Sunday morning after I’d gone to a holiday party where I drank too much, stayed up too late, and tried to wake up too early. I was not refreshed at all but, again, the watch isn’t a replacement for sleep (and it doesn’t cure hangovers, either). Every other “regular” night, though, it’s worked well.

Recommendation:

If you’re not a heavy sleeper but you still wake up groggy and/or agitated after a full night’s sleep, you might find the Sleeptracker Pro to be a good investment for $179.

Product Page [Sleeptracker.com]

I’m not suggesting we turn off old Rudolph here, but which holiday TV show or movie would you turn off at your next holiday get-together? The Charlie Brown special? That very special Christmas episode of Scrubs? Fox News?

Drop us a line in comments and we’ll give away one sexy TV-B-Gone to a lucky winner. I, personally, would turn off all the damn holiday Simpsons episodes they run in syndication this and next week. We’ll close voting on Wednesday at noon Eastern.

For months now, I have been trying to play .MKV and other video files on my living room front projector. At first I tried to connect a laptop directly to the TV. But this didn’t always work, the audio was crappy, and it was awkward to have a laptop connected to the projector.

I started using my XBOX 360 to play video files. At first I wanted to stream the files across my network. This worked every once in a while, but mostly it was an exercise in frustration. And I got miserable fast forward and rewind capability because of the network bottleneck.

Then I tried using my Neuros OSD for this. That was a non-starter as the OSD only has a composite video out port and I wanted to play high definition video.

Eventually I started copying video files to big fat thumb drives and plugging them directly into the XBOX. This worked very well for a lot of video files, but didn’t work at all for high definition files because they were mostly over 4GB in size (the XBOX 360 only recognizes FAT32 formatted drives, and FAT32 doesn’t allow for more than 4GB per file).

I then started investigating the black arts of video transcoding. I looked for tools that would allow me to convert the video formats I found on the internet into something that was XBOX 360 friendly. But most of the automated tools were a compromise. If it converted the video into something XBOX friendly, and under 4GB in size, the audio would be downgraded to 2 channels (from 5.1). And I would run my computer for hours converting video, and many times something would go wrong and the file wouldn’t play on the XBOX.

I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure this out.

One Fall afternoon, Western Digital announced the WD HD TV Media Player. It promised to play high definition video over HDMI and optical audio, up to 1080p, all for about $120 street price. I was skeptical at first that such a tiny and inexpensive device would solve all of my months of video headaches. But any skepticism disappeared once I hooked the gizmo up to my projector and in about 20 seconds I was watching glorious high definition 1080p with DTS sound.

Basically the WD HD TV Media Player (horrible name, by the way) will play just about any video format you throw at it. You put the videos on any USB mass storage device, like a thumb drive or an external hard drive, and plug it into the device. It recognizes the files on the drive and plays any video, audio, or photo files it finds. It comes with a handy remote control, and the software interface is very simple and easy-to-use. The box has 2 USB ports for you to plug in any combination of mass storage devices. Even better, it supports the NTFS file format so you are not limited to files that are under 4GB.

I loaded up an external hard drive with all manner of video files and plugged it into the Media Player. Using the remote control I navigated the on-screen menu and chose several different file formats to test. The little black box played each of the files beautiful. The playback was smooth, even in fast action sequences. The digital audio worked flawlessly and it even supports subtitles. I tested a variety of 720p and 1080p and 480p files. I couldn’t find a single one the device had trouble with.

I connected the Media Player via optical audio and HDMI. It also supports composite video with analog audio, but I did not test those ports.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the compact yet powerful remote control. I hid the tiny Media Player box behind my media cabinet in the back of the room where my projector is. And I didn’t think the remote control would be able to hit the device, but sure enough I just pointed it at the ceiling above my head and it worked very nicely, registering each key press.

I love this little black box. It singlehandedly solved my video playback problems and ended months of frustration. People will gripe about the lack of network support, but I personally have no desire to stream high definition video over my local network. Direct hard drive or thumb drive connections ensure fast and reliable playback and controls. Simple and fast, the WD HD TV Media Player is a powerhouse solution in a tiny and affordable package.

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Guest review: John Ha

I recently bought a Macbook to replace my aging Windows XP laptop. I figured that, like any new computer migration, I would load the applications I needed and then copy the data from my old laptop to the new one. I have a large USB thumb drive and a couple external hard drives, so no sweat – just use them to migrate everything.

So when my brother told me he would lend me his Targus File Transfer Cable for Mac, I scoffed. Who needs this unnecessary cable when I can just as easily use my external drive to copy data from one laptop to another. Plus, I was skeptical of the software. It would probably be crappy and limiting, when I just want file-level access to my data.

So when my Macbook arrived, I used my 8GB thumb drive to start transferring some files over to it. I soon learned that that would take forever, the thumb drive was just too slow at writing and reading. So, I grabbed the Targus cable and plugged the fat business end of it into my Windows machine. I heard the familiar add-device sound that Windows makes and as it recognized and installed the drivers. Hmm, I thought – I don’t have to go find special drivers? That’s a good sign. But I was still skeptical. It created a new drive in My Computer, so I clicked on it.

Then I plugged the other end into the Macbook, and a little EasySuite CD icon showed up on the desktop. I double-clicked the CD to see a folder with three icons, including one appropriately named EasyMacCopy. So I clicked on that to reveal a very nice application with an intuitive split screen layout.

The top half, it was obvious, contained all of the files on my Windows machine, and the bottom half contained all of the local files (Macbook). Nice.

I happily spent the next few minutes selecting and copying files from my Windows machine over to the Macbook. The interface was extremely user-friendly and the transfer speeds were very fast. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised that the little cable was able to copy multiple gigabytes of data without a single hiccup or complaint. The little blue light on the fat end would pulse nicely when idle, and blink when actively copying or reading data.

Satisfied that it worked, I then tried reversing the connection, by plugging the fat end into the Macbook and the skinny end into the Windows machine. Same result. Remote host is in the upper half of the screen, and the local host is below. A couple nice icons at the top indicating the USB version of the local and/or remote machines, USB 2.0 in my case. I didn’t try with an older machine, but I would assume it would say 1.1 with a connection to a USB 1.1 port.

The software in Windows is analogous to the Mac software, with the exception of one menu item called Synchronize. Under this menu, there are three options for Mail, Folder Synchronize, and EasyMover. I wasn’t able to try these features though because their submenus were greyed out. I suppose there may be some functionality (or a plan for future functionality) for two machines to synchronize certain folders or email, but I wasn’t able to test this.

Physically, the unit is compact and comes with a handy hook-and-loop enclosure to keep the long cable tidy. The grey wire itself is nice with a grippy finish.

These days, gadgets rarely meet my expectations, and I am happy to report that this little gizmo easily exceeded them both in terms of easy of use and performance. With a MSRP of $49.99 and street pricing around $39, I would highly recommend this device for people wanting to quickly and easily transfer files between two computers.

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Now, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get grandpa that dialysis machine if he really needs it and if you need to buy someone an MP3 player to fulfill this recommendation, get one that ranks high on the green scale. I don’t mean digital gift cards — we don’t need any more stuff. I’m saying we don’t need any more crap. We have too much, we bought too much on credit, and we’re destroying the environment and economy with our purchases. This year, vote with your wallet and say “We don’t need a digital disk standard. We don’t need DRM. We value your content and we will pay for it, but on our terms.”

As I see it, buying digital — ideally from non-DRM sources — fulfills the promise of the digital life cycle. Music companies, as rapacious as they are, deserve our support for supporting artists we love. Book companies, as bumbling as they are, need to be shown that they can make money on ebooks. Movie studios need to be willing to release hi-res versions of their best films to an eager and hungry public.

What does this give us? It encourages the growth of digital media, which is a plus. It proves we are not a generation of pirates and thieves. It proves that the digital business model is sound.

How should you give digitally? Head over to the Amazon MP3 store and gift an album. Buy someone with an XBox a 1-year 1 DVD/streaming only subscription to Netflix (I know it’s cheating, but tell them not to get the DVD). Buy someone some cool ebooks and some software to read it on their phone.

If we all vote with our wallets this season we’ll be putting money where it matters — into the creation of future digital content. We are a digital generation. We won’t need any more “things” in the basest sense as long as the media we consume is compatible with the things we have. By buying digital, we will point to what formats we want to use. We will not be coerced by CE manufacturers into buying the latest optical disk format or console. We’ll get what we want when we want it from the celestial jukebox and keep a few tons of cardboard and plastic packing material from hitting the landfills on December 26.

There are only a handful of gadgets in my possession that can’t be charged over USB: TV/Cable/Blu-ray player remotes and my DSLR. My Xbox 360 controller was a battery hog once upon a time, but the Nyko Charge Base took care of that. The remotes aren’t as taxing on batteries as my SLR — that puppy is constantly draining my supply of batteries. I could always cut back on the amount of photos I take, but life wouldn’t be as much fun and I’m all about fun.

Trying to be as eco-friendly as possible, I decided to embrace rechargeable batteries and went with Energizer’s 2500mAh rechargeables. Because my camera drains the juice so quickly when using the flash in my dark apartment, I also opted to pick up the 15-minute AA/AAA Battery Charger. It holds up to four batteries and glows red when depleted batteries are docked. A fan swirls for the next 15-20 minutes and subsequently shuts down when the status indicator goes green. Energizer claims to recharge batteries up to 90 percent in 15 minutes. They also suggest you keep them in for an additional 10 minutes once the intitial 15 minutes is up for maximum results.

Now the way I chose to test whether or not the batteries were charged was to plug them into my Xbox 360 controller and check the battery meter in dashboard. I played for an hour or two and checked again and it was still going strong. Obviously, I tested with my SLR under similar conditions and results were mixed. I believe this is due to the changing amount of light that seeps into my apartment, subject placement, and other circumstances. They all averaged out in an acceptable window of use, though.

Safety precautions abound in this charger, with bad battery detecion, short circuit protection, overcharge protection, and surge protection, among many others. So don’t worry about burning down your house or zapping the rechargeable batteries you do have.

The kit comes with 2 AA and 2 AAA batteries along with a car-charging adapter. It can be found for as low as $32. Picking one of these up will save you money in the long run despite the rather high intitial investment.

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What’s worse than having your Xbox 360 controller die during the middle of a game? Not being able to find replacement batteries, of course. Rechargeable batteries are a viable option, but those don’t seem to last as long as we’d like, right? They can be spendy as well.

With that in mind, Nyko has a rechargeable charging dock solution for those with at least one, but no more than two wireless 360 controllers. Nyko boasts up to 25 hours of fun for the NiHM batteries and my testing revealed that to be true. I logged roughly 23 hours in between charging cycles, but that’s not to say I couldn’t get another 30 to 60 minutes out of them. Since I only have one wireless controller, I was unable to test the recharging time for both packs, which Nyko claims takes four hours total or two hours per. Because of my ADD I always missed the two-hour mark, but packs that were recharging were lit green on the charging dock denoting that it was full.

The packs themselves match the cream color of the regular Xbox 360 controllers and take a tiny bit of muscle to plug into the back of the controller. There is a set for those with the Elite, but it’s sans charging dock. It’s a just a charging port for two battery packs. I can deal with mismatched colors. But the secondary battery pack isn’t quite hefty enough to sit in the cradle on its own. I suppose you could place something on top to get the juices flowing. Nyko should add some sort of locking mechanism so that you can recharge without a controller.

Nyko’s charging solution is priced the same as Microsoft’s Quick Charge Kit but that one only comes with one rechargeable pack. An additional pack is $12. The choice is quite clear. Nyko offers a solution equal to that of the official Microsoft kit, but at a better price. Grab one for your gamer (or yourself) this holiday season.

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Charge Station 360 (Black)

Yeah, I know, it’s a USB hub. But this little guy from Targus is pretty neat. It’s geared towards the Mac crowd with its color scheme, but that shouldn’t deter Windows or Linux folk.

The Hub is compact and has four USB 2.0 slots that are concealed behind a rubbery wraparound cable. The wraparound cable is what plugs into your USB port (duh, I know). I have nothing bad to say about this hub other than the rubber cable attracts all sorts of lint and dust from my bag. What I liked the most about this one is the length of the wraparound cable and how it just dangles about without taking up a lot of real estate around other ports on my laptop. I don’t see it being ripped from the hub itself very easily, either.

You can find other hubs on Amazon for cheaper, but it all boils down to form factor and what you’re looking for. I don’t really think $20 is too much to ask for a 2.0 hub, though. And other hubs from the likes of Belkin and Kensington are priced the same.

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Amazon

Short Version: I love wirelessness. I was using Bluetooth to connect handhelds, phones, and headsets since ~2004. While smart phones have mostly killed the PDA, their media capabilities scream for a good set of wireless headphones. Sadly the Samsung SBH-700’s are not those headphones. While the specs sound impressive, talk time up to 9 hours, play time up to 7 hours, standby time up to 140 hours and weight of only 38.3 grams, the reality was disappointing.

To be fair, my disappointment was only partially Samsung’s fault. First of all, the iPhone does not support A2DP, the Bluetooth protocol necessary to transmit stereo music. WTF, Steve? You create the uber-music phone and then don’t support transmitting that music wirelessly? The only explanation I can think of is that Apple likes to control the entire experience, most bluetooth headsets suck, and they don’t want that experience to be associated with the Jesus-phone. To test out the audio, I tried pairing it with my MacBook Pro. That didn’t work either. So while I never did get to test it with music, its performance as a phone headset was sufficient for me to pass on this product.

As a headset, it paired just as easily with my iPhone as any other headset. Hearing your conversation in both ears is great. Going back to my Samsung Uproar (the first mp3 player phone), I’ve loved having stereo headsets for my phones. It makes the person much easier to hear, especially in loud environments. However, despite Samsung’s claims of ambient noise reduction, when walking outside on a mildly windy day, people I was talking to asked me if I was using a headset and to please stop. The sound transmission and wind noise was pretty bad. The problem is that the mic is located above your ear near the play/pause button and I don’t thing this unit uses the kind of advanced noise reduction that the Jawbone does. In a quiet room, it functioned acceptably.

The unit is well designed. It is an over-the-ear, behind-the-neck form factor that is reasonably comfortable, althought will take a bit of adjusting to get it to fit snugly in your ears. The part that rests on your neck is light enough not to bother you and heavy enough that it won’t bounce if you jog. I don’t know if I would wear it for extended sessions. It’s not that comfortable. The main contol buttons are located near each ear. The phone answer/end button is on one side, play/pause on the other. On the back of your neck are two additional pairs of buttons, volume up/down and track forward/back. Since you can’t see any of the controls , it will take a few screw-ups to learn which buttons are on which side. There is an attempt at consistency by placing the track control on the same side as the play button.

The SBH700 lists for $100 but can be had for as low as $60. If it will work with your phone, you do get both a music headset and phone headset in one small package, but I would suggest that the compromise is not worth the savings with this model.

Overall, it’s a good attempt, but not quite ready for consumption.

Bottom Line: Getting better, but pass on this one.
Product via Amazon

Sven at BD is offering a special deal for CG readers: buy two watches, get one free. You can get a couple for your employees, your groundskeepers, or your massage therapy team. Do it! Do it now!

They’re honestly nice watches and you basically get a one-of-a-kind with these with a nice Swiss movement.

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Short Version: The first time you put on noise canceling headphones, you can’t believe your ears. When you flip the noise canceling circuitry on, it’s like hitting a mute button on the world (note: does not work on significant others, only constant noise. And no, your SO’s blathering does not count as a constant din.) I never realized how loud my office was until I put on these JVCs. Now it’s hard to sit at my desk without them.

These are different from the earbuds that you jam in your ear to block out the sound. These headphones listen to the ambient noise and generate sound waves that are 180 degrees out of phase with the background noise to effectively cancel it out. They can do this without effecting the sound you want to hear.

The audio quality of these headphones was very impressive. The sound was full and undistorted. The bass was prominent without being overpowering. They are also very comfortable. The foam cups are worn on your ears as opposed to completely covering them. This makes these headphones a bit smaller for travel, but also means they won’t physically block as much noise as larger headphones will. The ear cups rotate flat for storage and to enable a comfortable fit on your ears. The band holds these headphones in place without pinching my rather large head (not Sputnik sized, but close). The JVCs ship with a semi-hard case with a zip pouch for the included cable, airline plug adapter, and 1/4″ adapter. John has been using Bose for years now but these are on par and considerably cheaper.

The Bose Quiet Comfort line is probably the most well known active noise canceling headphone on the market. I was curious about how these JVCs would stand up to the Bose. My boss lent me his Quiet Comfort 3 (retails for $349) so I could compare. While there are some noticeable differences, you need to be doing a side-by-side comparison to notice them. The Bose do block out slightly more noise and has a slightly fuller mid-range. The bass is tighter in the Bose and more emphasized in the JVCs. This is more a matter of taste to me than quality. Both are very comfortable to wear.

Another smart design decision is that the cable is completely removeable from the headphones. This allows you to use the noise reduction function without connecting it to an audio source and not have the cable dangling in the way. The real benefit is that if the cable wears out or if you want a longer cord, any Radio Shack cable will do. That’s smart design.

The JVCs retail for $199 but can be had for ~$110. Given how close they are in performance, I would recommend the JVCs at a fraction of the price of the Bose.

Bottom Line: Great sound, great value.

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I know, I know. The VGA HD AV cable has been out for three years, but I was in between TVs and only had a monitor to game on. I’ll keep this review short and sweet.

My gaming setup consisted of my Xbox 360 Elite, Razer/THX Mako 2.1 speakers and a Viewsonic VX2240W monitor. The monitor itself has no built-in speakers, so I had to connect the audio to an external system. Luckily, there’s enough separation between the VGA cable and the RCA cable so the speaker system didn’t have to sit on top of the monitor. Perfection.

The kit claims to support video resolution up to 1080p and I have to say that it works as advertised. I streamed Netflix and even hooked up my HD DVD player just to make sure. Viewsonic’s monitor has a 1680X1050 resolution, so I’d say the content was as close to full high def as you can get.

On that note, I might as well give you a run down on the VX2240w. I believe the specs are relatively impressive, but I’m not much of a peripherals guy.

Overview and Features:

• 22-inch (diagonal) widescreen LCD at 1680×1050 resolution
• 300 cd/m2 brightness
• 1000:1 static contrast ratio, 4000:1 dynamic
• 170° horizontal, 160° vertical viewing angles
• up to 2ms gray-to-gray; 5ms black-to-white
• Connections: 15-pin mini D-sub/DVI-D (with HDCP)
• Only 2.4-inches thick (not counting the stand; 8.8-inch with) and 14 pounds (including stand)
• Three year warranty
• MSRP of $450, although it can be found for less than $300 in many places

There’s no visible blur/smear when viewing high frame rate video and the contrast ratio is high enough that the colors are very distinctive. You’ll have to calibrate for a bit to get it right, though. The viewing angle is weak so you’d better be sitting right in front of the monitor for optimal viewing. The round stand that comes with the VX2240w is limiting (ugly) and only offers tilt adjustment forwards and backwards.

Overall, it’s a decent monitor but considering the price and specs it falls into the ‘worth buying’ category. Other monitors with similar specs are priced about the same. You can find it on Amazon for as low as $250.

I already reviewed the Makos this year, but it was nice to get them out of the office and really crank them up in my apartment. I love these things.

Xbox 360 VGA HD Cable

Viewsonic VX2240w Product Page

Razer/THX Mako 2.1 Product Page

Casio’s G-Shock recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and for good reason, they’ve been constructing solid time pieces that are technically sound and built like tanks. Types like John won’t be giving up their fancy Omegas or whatever other watch that has a ginormous face, but they’re not meant to. Come along as I take a look at five unique pieces with varying degrees of functionality. My only problem with the G-Shocks is that I don’t know which one I want to wear when I get up in the morning.

Two of my go-to pieces are the DW5025B-7V (white) and DW5025D-8 (grey), which are the same exact watch. These are both Limited edition classics re-released for G-Shock’s 25th anniversary. They’re both very basic with an alarm, countdown timer, stopwatch, backlit electro-luminescent and water resistant up to 200 meters. Oh, and they’re shock resistant, too. Being limited edition pieces, you’re going to want to grab these ASAP assuming they’re still available. Amazon has the white version for $130 and the skeleton one for $95.

Next is the Gulfman (G-9125A), which is geared towards folks who surf, sail, fish, or have interests that are dependent on tides and moon phase. This is the one that I take when I go to surf on Long Island and it’s probably going to be the one I take to El Salvador when I go on vacation next week. It’s rust and corrosion proof with titanium screws and pretty sturdy.

There are 3-multifunction alarms, a countdown timer, stopwatch, calendar (programmed till 2099) and 29 time zones spanning 48 cities. The battery is said to last seven years. It’s not the prettiest thing and I wish the backlight stayed on longer so I could see the tiny moon phase dial. The tide display is easy to view at a glance and jumping into the tide/moon feature reveals the tide height by the hour and moon age/phase by day.

The model I have doesn’t seem to be available anymore, but you can get different colors (blue, black/red) for as low as $63 on Amazon. There’s also a bright orange search and rescue themed version for $130.

The next Gulfman is a special edition G-Shock (GW9101K-7) that supports the Dolphin & Whale Eco-Research Network, which is a project run by I.C.E.R.C. (International Cetacean Education and Research Center). A portion of sales from this $250 piece goes directly to the project. This is the fourteenth model dedicated to the project and features a translucent resin band with markings that denote the Dolphin & Whale Eco-Research Network. Titanium adorns the screws meshing around the bezel and back plate.

Aside from all the other features of the Gulfman sans moon/tide this Gulfman has built-in Multi-Band 5 Atomic Timekeeping that receives standard radio waves from five time transmitters around the world. Locations of the five stations are as follows: Fort Collins (CO, USA), Rugby (UK), Mainflingen (GE), Fukushima (JP) and Kyushu (JP). When the Gulfman picks up the radio signal the 5-pod dial fires up and rests on the pod nearest my location.

It’s also a Tough Solar watch that can last 9 months on a full charge. It charges with the faintest amount of sunlight or fluorescent light. There’s a power saving mode that turns off the display after a certain amount of time.

Definitely one of my favorites. Find it on Amazon for $247.83 (only three left!).

The MT-G (MTG1000G-9A) is a high-end chronograph for the line that also features Multi-Band Atomic Timekeeping as well as Tough Solar technology. This is the one I wear when I go out for the night. The band is a combination of stainless steel and resin and continues the look of the watch face. Chronograph watches have always confused me but that’s probably because I never take the time to actually read the manual. The MT-G is a good looking watch with plenty of features that you can wear out on the town or out and about on Mother Nature’s playground.

You can find this one on Amazon for $280, which is a $120 saving over the list price of $400.

And last but not least is the Riseman (GW9200-1). This one has all the bells and whistles you’d ever need or want. On top of the Mutli-Band 6 Atomic Timekeeping (extra station in China and receives signals up to six times a day) and Tough Solar technologies, the Riseman measures altitude, barometric pressure and temperature.

It’s way more watch than I need while living in NYC, but when I venture home to Oregon and California it comes in handy when I go hiking. Of course, it’s not like I’m climbing Mt. Hood or anything, but it’s neat to know vital stats like temperature and altitude. Another neat feature is the ability to record altimeter measurements in conjunction with the stopwatch for cumulative ascent and descent altitudes and such. It’s super technical, so probably not the right choice for the average joe. There’s also a power saving mode that shuts off the display when it’s been in a dark location for a certain amount of time.

Check out the full G-Shock lineup here.

Mophie’s Juice Pack for the iPhone 3G is without a doubt a must-have if you can swallow the high price tag of $100. But I’d gladly pay the extra $100 knowing that I can leave the office or my apartment and gallivant around town without fear of having to find a power outlet by mid-day.

Pros
It comes fully charged right out of the box.
Four blue LEDs on the back indicate battery levels.
A single charge, which takes roughly 3.5 hours from dead will sufficiently juice up your iPhone 3G from the dead twice over (almost).
Recharging your iPhone 3G with less than 20 percent juice left takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes.
The Juice Pack charges over USB, but still syncs with iTunes.

Cons
It’s a bit bulky and does nothing to really protect your iP3G.
It costs $100.
When you initially put the phone into the Juice Pack it vibrates to let you know that it’s connected. When the Juice Pack’s battery is depleted the iPhone has trouble recognizing that and starts to freak out by signaling that it’s connected and then not and so on. So, if you’re a light sleeper or one that keeps this near your bed it could give you a mild heart attack because I almost had one.

Overall
Despite the price tag, I’m going to have to recommend the Juice Pack because it flat out works and doubles your battery life. While the case itself is a bit large, it’s not so big that you wouldn’t throw it into your bag. But I wouldn’t want to put it in my pants pockets either.

Despite claims that 2.2 improves battery life you’re still not going to make it through an entire day without having to recharge. I sparingly used my iPhone 3G before getting the Juice Pack and now I use it till the cows come home and don’t sweat the fact that it’s almost dead by noon.

Product Page

By now most of you have heard of the Eye-Fi Wi-Fi SD memory card and what it’s capable of, right? Okay, good. Earlier this year, January to be exact, Lexar announced that they had teamed up with Eye-Fi to bring a Lexar branded SD card with Eye-Fi technology by year’s end. Well, the time has come — Lexar’s Shoot-n-Sync card is finally here and I’ve been testing it out for the last couple weeks. It rocks, but it does have a hangup or two.

From a casual point-and-shooter’s perspective I doubt you’d have any real qualms about performance, but it’s a slow-ass card (something we already knew) and simply can’t hang when shooting with an SLR. That’s not to say you can’t use it with an SLR, but if you’re shooting in high or lo Drive Mode (or whatever it’s called on your SLR) it will bog down after two shots. I hope Lexar bumps up the speed on these Shoot-n-Sync cards going forward.

My card speed gripe aside, the Shoot-n-Sync works well. Setup took less than five minutes. The 2GB card comes in a card reader that’s embedded with Eye-Fi software, so the first thing you’ll have to do is plug the card reader with the card straight into your Windows or OS X machine. Once the application is installed, you just need to set up your home network within the Eye-Fi Manager software. The next step is to link your Shoot-n-Sync card with the photo sharing site(s) of your choice and pick a folder on your computer where images will be uploaded. You also have the option of enabling Geotagging, but that’s an extra $15/year. On top of that, an additional $15/year can be tacked on if you want access to hotspots. All of this takes roughly 5 minutes and you’re on your way.

During my tests, I had images upload to my Flickr account within a matter of seconds but, on occasion, it would take up to a minute for photos to show up on my desktop. The Eye-Fi servers can be a bit finicky at times, but I doubt anyone is going to be anal enough to count the milliseconds in between photo uploads. I don’t believe the size of the image has a lot of bearing on upload times, but I’d be a fool to say that a 2-megapixel image uploads just as fast as a 10-megapixel image. I’m just saying that the upload times aren’t significant enough that you’d be whining about it. Manually transferring images to your computer and then on to a photo-sharing site would take significantly longer.

I typically shoot in RAW, but that does nothing for me when I’m using the Shoot-n-Sync. The RAW files won’t transfer to my computer and it certainly won’t upload to Flickr. Because of this, I’ve been shooting in RAW+, which solves the problem of uploading to my computer/Flickr. But it does cut down on the amount of images that I can take with a 2GB card. Images are uploaded to Flickr (or the photo-sharing site of your choice) even when your computer is off. As long as it can access the network with your camera turned on, the images will upload. When you do turn on your computer, the images will upload to your desired folder.

The S-n-S can be had for as low as $75 on Amazon, but should you want access to hotspots and geotagging it ends up being $105. Compare that to Eye-Fi’s Explore card, which comes with both services right out of the gate at a price of $96, you’d be saving $11. But the Explore card has unlimited geotagging and you’d only be paying $15/year for hotspot access after the first year. I personally don’t care for geotagging, but this is something you should consider if you’re looking at both cards and want that functionality. The S-n-S really goes head-to-head with the Share card and that one sells for $71.

Lexar’s Shoot-n-Sync Wi-Fi SD card works well with the Eye-Fi service and I’d suggest purchasing this one over the Eye-Fi cards for the one-year warranty over anything else. Eye-Fi only gives you 90 days and paying the extra $5 (or whatever it is) is definitely worth it.

Product Page

Amazon

Lexar is also guilty of packaging a small doodad into a ginormous waste of resources.

Short Version: It’s small, it’s inexpensive, and it pulls double duty as a three-port hub and mini-USB device charger all in one.

Overview and Features:

• 2-in-1 Hub + Mini-B USB connector design
• Tuck-away cable management for convenient storage
• Lightweight and no power supply required (total power consumption must be less than 350mA)
• Easy connection to cell phone or other USB devices with Mini-B connector
• MSRP of $12.95

It’s good for…

…frequent travelers and people who can never seem to find a USB to mini-USB cord to charge their cell phones. The integrated cable management lets the three port hub shrink down to an easily stowable size and, at $12.95, it doesn’t sting nearly as much as competing travel hubs — especially since it allows you to charge your phone at the same time (if you have a phone with a mini-USB connection, that is).

Not so good for…

People who need to power bigger devices. The output tops out at 350mA, so you probably won’t be plugging three external hard drives into this thing. Also, the cords are upside down for most USB ports, forcing you to twist them 180 degrees in order to plug the one end into your computer and the other into your cell phone. It’s not a huge issue, although it seems a bit odd from a usability perspective.

Recommendation:

This is what happens when a company takes a simple product, adds a little something to differentiate it from other comparable products, and sells it for a fair price. I can already see this little hub plugged into my computer while I’m at CES this year, my cell phone charging happily while a camcorder, thumb drive, and digital camera all toss files to and fro. And for $12.95, even a cheapskate like me can get on board.

IOGEAR 3-Port USB 2.0 Mobile Hub [IOGEAR.com]

Starting your own watch company is hard. Unlike, say, hiring a factory in Taiwan to make a bunch of MP3 players for you, creating a watch takes patience, an understanding of the history of horology, and a willingness to risk failure. Thankfully, Buscum Ducis’ Svan van Der Zande has all of these attributes.

After promising a finished watch since last March, Sven has finally delivered his first timepiece, a quartz watch with great styling and quite a bit of attention to detail. The watch comes in a handsome display box and includes a tan and a black band along with a screwdriver for swapping them out.

The watch itself is a healthy-sized 45mm with a brush steel case and a 22mm lug width. The watch is water resistant but, as Sven points out, not suited for diving. The dial consists of two parts – a cut face with numerals and pips and a Super-Luminova face that gives the watch excellent night readability.

The movement is a Swiss Ronda 1069, a workhorse quartz three hand movement. The seconds hand is set at above 6 o’clock.

At $295, the watch is on par with other quartz timepieces but I think the build quality is far superior to the standard department store watches you’ll find at this price. Because Sven designed this watch by hand, you’re essentially getting a boutique timepiece at a bargain price.

The watch keeps excellent time and is just large enough to be ostentatious without being overtly huge. The band is signed on the buckle and on the leather and the back is engraved with the BD logo.

Buscim Ducis is a small company with big ambitions. I’m all for giving the little guy a leg up and this is a great opportunity to own a unique and inexpensive watch. These guys are definitely worth another look.