The Logitech G9x Laser Mouse is fully customizable; from changing the color of the LED’s and the weight of the mouse to the feel of the mouse and changing the mouse’s DPI on the fly.

Wide Load and Precision grips

The G9x comes packed with two grips and it is easy to swap between the two, as the grips just click on and off. The first grip, the “Wide Load”, which as the name suggest is a big sized grip and is very comfortable, with a thumb rest on the side keeping your thumb from dragging on the  mouse pad. The second grip, called the “Precision” grip is much more compact for finger tip control, and comes with a micro-textured surface that Logitech calls DryGrip technology.

Logitech has a well-deserved reputation for making some of the best gaming peripherals around. So over the weekend I had the opportunity to play some games on one of the hottest gaming keyboards on the market to date, the Logitech G19. My weekend started off with Warcraft 3, DOTA, and Call of Duty World at War (the zombie mod) and ended off with some fast paced Quake 3 action. Yes I know I said I was going to revive the old World of Warcraft account, but let’s be honest… That is one addiction best left not revived.

So let’s get onto why you’re here, what makes this keyboard so cool?

Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard

So we’ve just received the Logitech G19 gaming keyboard, and I must say it looks impressive. I haven’t yet put the keyboard through its paces, seeing as I’m at work right now. Rest assured, I will give it a good beating over the weekend. Revitalize the World of Warcraft account, some good old Quake 3, Call of Duty 4 and the list goes on.

The G19 Keyboard has a very sleek design, similar to its predecessor  the G15. With a full black design, 12 programmable keys, and 3 memory keys giving you a total of 36 programmable keys. You can change the color of the back light on your keys to any color you feel like which gave us a great excuse to play around in the dark.

Also a little improvement with the LCD display on the keyboard. Tiltable, color LCD screen with a display of 320×240 pixels. The LCD displays information for both in- and out-of-game stats, video playback, RSS reader, picture viewer and much more.

I’m sure, like with the G15 you will be able to download plugins for the LCD display to extend its functionality. For a list of compatible games that support displaying of stats on the LCD visit the Logitech website.

Check after the weekend for a in-depth review of this what looks to be incredible keyboard.

eyeOS new user creation

I have recently stumbled across this little gem of an application called eyeOS. This is a open source web browser based desktop following the concept of cloud computing, written mainly in PHP, XML and JavaScript. Basically this means it is “windows” in a web browser. Out the box it comes standard with 67 applications and system utilities. To name a few; an office equivalent, an email client, an internet browser, a calculator, a facility for internal messages, a calendar and many more applications you would expect on an Operation System.

Looking to get more applications for your eyeOS? No problem, head on over to the eyeOS Applications and have a browse through their vast list of applications. There are sure to be some applications that will grab your fancy.

Still not satisfied with the list of applications available to you? Why not develop your own? Have a look at eyeDesigner for making your own apps.

rAge

Yes guys, it’s almost that time of the year again. For the 7th year running, from the 2nd – 4th of October at the Coca Cola Dome in Johannesburg you can come and experience the “really AWESOME gaming expo” or rAge in short.

What is rAge you ask?

Well, if you are into the latest games, technology gadgets and lifestyle products. This event is for you. Simply put “rAge is South Africa’s leading computer, gaming and technology expo. The expo allows visitors to get some hands-on time with and a close-up look at the things they love and desire most.”

Some things you can expect to see at rAge include previews of the latest and up and coming games, product launches, press briefs, prize giveaways and loads more.

rAge LAN

rAge hosts one of the largest LAN events in South Africa by far,  with last years event pulling over 1800 gamers and the tickets were sold out in two weeks. AWESOME!!

Details

Dates

2 – 4 October 2009

Times

Friday: 10:00 – 18:00
Saturday: 09:00 – 18:00
Sunday: 10:00 – 16:00

Venue

The Coca-Cola Dome
Corner Northumberland Road & Olievenhout Avenue
Northgate
Johannesburg

Entrance tickets to the rAge Expo

Day ticket – R50.00 per person
Weekend Ticket – R80.00 per person
Family Pass Ticket (2 adults & 2 children) – R160.00 per family
Kids under 6 are free

For more information regarding this AWESOME event go to the rAge expo website.

Nokia N97 - White

So last week I received the Nokia N97 for review. I’ve had some time to play with it now. And all I can say is… “What an awesome multimedia phone”.

When I first started using the phone, I felt a bit lost and did not like it at all. My very first problem was I missed the menu button completely and had a colleague show me where the button was. Secondly I kept on comparing the phone against the HTC Dream.

As I used the phone I started liking it more and more.  It has a 3.5 inch TFT touch screen with 16 million colours. The touch capabilities are very accurate, even when not using the stylus. You also have three different “desktops”, which you can personalise according to certain aspects of your lifestyle. Example: you can have all your multimedia applications on your one desktop, and all your business like applications on another. You access your different desktops by pressing on the screen and dragging it to either the left or to the right.

One of the things I most enjoyed about the phone, I only found out by accident. While driving in my car I noticed my phone battery was about to die. So I got out the USB cable, attached it to my phone and figured let me see if it will charge if I plug it into my radio’s USB. Yes, it started charging, but wait… It also started playing the music I had on my phone. That’s 32gigs of music with you on the road. So I hear some of you saying, I still have a tape drive in my car. Not a problem, enable your FM transmitter on your phone, and tune your radio to the frequency you are transmitting. There you go, music from your phone over your radio all 32 GB’s of it.

When I was not listening to music from the phone over my radio, I used the built in music player with crisp clear sound over stereo speakers on the phone. When opening up the music player, you have the option of playing the “last played song”, thought that was a nifty feature. Your music library is broken down into Artist, Album and Playlist. Which makes it easy when looking for a song in your 32 gig library.

The Nokia comes with a built in 5 mega pixel camera AND a flash. This allows for some brilliant photo moments to be remembered with or without sufficient light. One thing I noticed while taking photo’s in not so bright times, was that the flash shows up on the photo’s giving you this white flare on the side of the picture.

Sending messages is a dream. Flip open the phone, and use your QWERTY keyboard to start typing and sending your message. One disappointing factor with the messaging of the Nokia N97 is that your messages are not threaded. It’s not a train smash, but it is nice to only have one “Patrick” in your inbox and browsing through the thread, instead of 20 messages from “Patrick” to read through.

Nokia N97 - White

Don’t know how to spell a word or what the meaning of a word is? No problem, open up your dictionary application look up the word and carry on with what you were doing. Need to know how much $20 is in South African currency? Open up your converter application, punch in the numbers and get the currency conversion. The phone has converters for currency, area, energy and length.

So you’ve got your email setup on your phone and you received a office document, no problem you can open up word documents, excel documents, power point presentations and PDF files from your phone.

The Nokia N97 is packed with tons of other applications. RealPlayer for watching videso. Feeling creative, open up the drawing application and do some finger painting. GPS navigation, Message reader, Skype. This is only part of what Nokia has to offer with the introduction of Ovi Store which is Nokia’s application portal for all Nokia devices that support it, more to come on it soon.

This is a awesome multimedia rich phone. And I absolutely love it. You can pick it up in either Black or White.

General
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network  HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 – American version
Size Dimensions
117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm, 88 cc
Weight
150 g
Display Type
TFT resistive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Handwriting recognition
Sound Alert types
Vibration; MP3 ringtones
Speakerphone
Yes, with stereo speakers
- 3.5 mm audio jack
Memory
Phonebook - Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records – Detailed, max 30 days
Internal - 32 GB storage, 128 MB RAM
Card slot – microSD (TransFlash), up to 16GB, buy memory
Data
GPRS Class 32
HSCSD Yes
EDGE Class 32
3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
USB Yes, v2.0 microUSB
Camera
Primary 5 MP, 2592×1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash, video light
Features Geo-tagging
Video Yes, VGA@30fps
Secondary Yes, VGA@15fps

Nokia N97

Ok, so on Wednesday we received the new Nokia N97. My initial impression when I first saw the phone was, its white and a it’s a bit bulky and I would have loved the black one.

The N97 is a “flip” phone equipped with a QWERTY keyboard and a huge TFT touch screen. The QWERTY keyboard, again was something to get use to. The touch screen is amazing and accurate. The phone comes with a stylus for navigating on the screen, but like I said the touch screen is very accurate for navigating with your fingers.

Do you remember a couple of years back you could add those irritating little things to your phone that lit up every time your phone rang? Well that’s what you have to do with the stylus and that is the reason why I am not using. No thanks.

5 Megapixel camera, with a built in flash = Awesome photo’s. Tried it out last night. All I can say is WOW.

Three quick things worth mentioning:

1. I completely missed the “menu” button on the phone the first time, and had to get someone to show me where its was.
2. When your phone rings, it tries it’s best to announce to you who is phoning. Eventually managed to find out where to turn that off.
3. When your phone is locked and it rings, you can’t answer it. You have to unlock it first and then answer it.

As a big fan of Hak5, I was watching some episodes last night and this nifty gadget grabbed my fancy.

SheevaPlug

It’s an embedded device (yes it runs Linux) that plugs into the wall socket of your house. It’s an open platform and uses low power consumption.

“The SheevaPlug is a development platform, targeted for use as a plug computer, and designed to run network-based software services. It features a Kirkwood Series SoC with an embedded Marvell Sheeva™ CPU core running at 1.2 GHz, and using only 5 watts of power. This device connects to the network using GbE, offers desktop class performance, and can be used to replace a PC-based home server for many applications. Peripherals connect using the included USB 2.0 port.

The development kit is enclosed in a plastic case that also contains a universal power supply. For developers a USB-based debug connection is included to enable simple debugging and reprogramming.” – Marvell Website – SheevaPlug

Some examples of what people have been doing with this nifty device:

pogoplug: In short, the pogoplug is a web accessible  storage device. What does this mean?

Easily share and access your files from anywhere over the internet, with this device by connecting your USB drive to it.

“The Pogoplug is the perfect accessory to your connected life. Imagine accessing all your files and media at home from any laptop or desktop computer, anywhere in the world, or sharing this content with friends and family without having to upload. There’s even an iPhone application so you can always “phone home” to get your files!”

ctera: Managed network attached storage device. How does this device work?

“CTERA managed storage appliances deliver Network Attached Storage (NAS) file sharing interfaces with integrated online backup and recovery services. Small office users and home users can share data locally, synchronize data between end-point devices and send data offsite for automated, secure backup.

The data on the appliances can be accessed locally, using standard file-sharing interfaces including Microsoft file sharing (CIFS) and NFS, as well as through a secure HTTPS web-based interface.”

Online Backup service: “CTERA’s online backup service increases productivity by ridding users of the tedious task of backing up files. The contents of any managed drive are automatically backed up online without the need for any user intervention or PC client software.”

Axentra: Media server. Doing what?

“Enjoy your digital media
HipServ allows you to collect all of your media and enjoy them on a variety of devices on your home network, or remotely through a web browser. You can create Albums and playlists and share them with friends and family. Or you can look at your photos and watch your videos on your favourite game station such as a PS3 or Xbox. HipServ allows you to simply and easily enjoy your photos, videos and music, anywhere and at any time.”

So there you have it, some fun things that have been done with the SheevaPlug. I’m sure there are tons of other ideas out there for this device.

I don’t know if this device is available in South Africa, yet, but here is a retailer link if you want to go have a look. globalscaletechnologies.com

Windows vs Linux

What exactly would your thoughts be if I told you that Microsoft contributed 20, 000 lines of code towards the Linux Kernel? Mine would be Microsoft are peppering Linux for a purchase.

Don’t worry Linux is not going to be a Microsoft product anytime soon, allow me to explain what has happened. The code Microsoft is releasing isn’t to help Linux compete better with Microsoft. The drivers are really geared at making Windows a better host for Linux.

“The Linux device drivers we are releasing are designed so Linux can run in enlightened mode, giving it the same optimized synthetic devices as a Windows virtual machine running on top of Hyper-V,” Tom Hanrahan, director of Microsoft’s Open Source Technology Center, said in a statement. “Without this driver code, Linux can run on top of Windows, but without the same high performance levels.”

Microsoft will be releasing three drivers for Linux licensed under the GPL that governs Linux.

Microsoft has released open-source code in the past, but licenses other than the GPL have been favoured by Microsoft. That said, the GPL is the way into the Linux kernel and Microsoft wants this code in Linux.

Ok, so it seems the reason Microsoft added code to Linux is just to make their hosting environments run Linux better. I can’t help but feel there has to be something more to this? Why add code to your oppositions OS?

Is this a foot in the door for Microsoft to try and obtain Linux?

New Yahoo Frontpage - news.cnet.com

Yahoo has decided to redesign their home page, Yahoo.com which is one of the most traveled destinations on the internet.

On this afternoon, people from the United States can start selecting a more personalized version of the Yahoo.com home page. “Visitors will be able to use basic applications from other websites not just Yahoo sites, such as eBay, Facebook and Twitter”, said Tapan Bhat, Yahoo’s senior vice president for consumer experiences. The change will arrive in the U.K., France, and India later this week, in Spain and Mexico next month, and in Asia next year.

On the left side of the new Yahoo design there will be a tab called My Favourites. When navigating there you will see all the applications available to you. Hovering over them will make each application and its accompanying advertising pop up. “There are about 60 applications available now, and more are being added daily”, Bhat said.

“Also coming in August will be the ability to select what type of news people can see, with a slider that moves on a spectrum between “fun” and “serious”,” he said.

“We’re pulling together everything about the user they care about, be it on Yahoo or off, to create a personally relevant experience,” Bhat said. “In a world like this, Yahoo needs to make the user experience come first.”

This could be Yahoo’s last grasp at staying along side the internet leaders and could actually put them ahead.