CES 2010: Final Thoughts

The Consumer Electronics show, the behemoth of tech, the Valhalla of gadgetry, has come and gone for yet another year. But this time, rather than arriving with a bang, it slinked into sight with something more like a whimper. CES…

CES 2010: Day 3 Round-Up

Another day, another Tech Digest CES 2010 round-up. Fancy Tweeting hands-free in your car or controlling your PC by breathing? Check today's top stories below and find out how. Twitter coming to Ford cars The digital equivalent of drink-driving? Motorola…

SHINY VIDEO REVIEW: Logitech G13 Gameboard

Gaming peripherals usually fall into one of two categories – useless or ridiculous. Sometimes both, but there isn’t often something that’s both sensible and useful. That’s why I was mildly startled by the G13, which does what it does very well, and doesn’t look like it was designed by a moron on acid.

Unfortunately, you pay through the nose for that kind of quality. £75’s worth of nose, to be prescise. Competing products, despite not being quite as good, are less than half that price. Perhaps in a few months it’ll cheapen down a bit. I’ll be waiting patiently until then before I make a purchase.

DJ Hero coming this year

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Not really into guitars? More a fan of the humble DJ? Well, don’t worry – Activision’s got a videogame for you too. The games publisher’s CEO, Bobby Kotick, has confirmed that DJ Hero is in production. He told CNBC:

“We have this product called DJ Hero coming out later this year which is a turntable that you can actually play competitively, spin discs and mix on”

He also talked up the benefits of online play and tacky plastic peripherals. I’m with him on the former, but I’m not sure about the latter. I’m hoping that DJ hero will cater for Indie DJs, too.

(via Gamesindustry.biz)

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Logitech G13 "Advanced Gameboard" is a gamer's dream add-on

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I really want to try this. It’s a “Gameboard” (i.e. mini-keyboard for gamers) that’s designed to complement an existing keyboard and mouse setup, rather than replace it, like other gaming keyboards.

It’s got 25 programmable keys, as well as a programmable analogue stick and three different ‘game modes’. Logitech claims this gives you “87 ways to control their game”, though that seems like they’ve just picked a random figure out of the air. 25 x 3, plus 1, then bump it up a bit more to make it sound good?

Features-wise, it’s got backlit keys, it’s got onboard memory, so you can store your configs and port them to other PCs, it’s got a 160 x 42 LCD panel, for displaying stats and other random info, and it comes pre-configured for WoW, CoD4, and “many other popular games”. It costs £70 and appears to be available now.