Andy TaylorLeave a commentHardware, , , , , , ,

SteelSeries helps gain the advantage in Gaming

Bruce Hawver talked with Andy Taylor of TechtalkRadio
Brcue talks with Andy Taylor of TechtalkRadio

I talked yesterday with SteelSeries CEO Bruce Hawver about some of the products we will be seeing this holiday season from SteelSeries. It’s not the first time Bruce has been on our show and certainly won’t be the last. Since the previous discussion with Bruce, the company has expanded it’s product line to include more branded gaming items, eyewear to combat eye strain and fatigue and a new way to pay for the products you would like to get.

With the upcoming season, it is expected that peripherals will make up a huge portion of the gift buying. While many look to add USB Web cams and storage, SteelSeries knows that gamers want the products they make. Over the years we have looked at many of these products including Headsets, Gaming Mice and the very cool Merc Stealth keyboard produced by Ideazon which SteelSeries acquired. Some of the new product from SteelSeries include headsets with removable ear cups, connector cords which can be disconnected and put away and even a few with USB connections. For the gamer that likes to be part of the conversation, a variety of the headsets include microphones that collapse inside the ear cups. This is valuable considering the few different headsets we’ve looked at from other vendors with microphones that detach could be at risk of losing the microphone piece. Even the Console game can benefit with the SteelSeries latest Spectrum 5XB for the Xbox360.

The gaming mice products from SteelSeries are a must have for fans of World of Warcraft. The latest product branded with Blizzards MMO title, is the World of Warcraft Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse. This peripheral features the ability to bind all 14 buttons to the in game selections for WoW as well as advanced illumination and drag and drop setup with over 130 preset game commands. The Mouse is beefier and almost looks as though it would come from the World of Warcraft! If you’re not the big WoW fan, you could also get into intense combat with the Medal of Honor branded products or Starcraft II to name a few.

SteelSeries has also partnered with the folks at PaynearMe which allows shoppers to select a product for purchase on the SteelSeries website and visit a local participating 7-Eleven to have the payment processed. This can come in handy when a credit card is not available or the buyer wants to pay with cash.

Check out our Interview with SteelSeries CEO Bruce Hawver and be sure to take a look at the SteelSeries Website for a full look at the products the company offers. Our interview can be found at http://www.techtalkradio.com/hardware/steelseries.html You can also get some great information and updates on the Unofficial Official Blog for SteelSeries at http://fragyou.net

Andy Taylor2 CommentsEntertainment, TechtalkRadio, TTR Website, video games, , , , ,

Call to Service – Call of Duty Black Ops

It would appear that the long awaited title Call of Duty Black Ops is exceeding sales figures of the last year sequel release to Call Of Duty Modern Warfare. COD Black Ops, I will call it that because something seem wrong about calling it COD BO. It’s far from Stinky and the sales of the game released this week have exceeded about 5.6 million copies. With a little under a couple of months left for the holidays to wrap up, Call Of Duty Black Ops will no doubt be a continued Best Seller of both Concole and PC titles. Even with strong competition from Fable III and Fallout New Vegas as well as a variety of Bond titles, the first week indications have been tremendous.

At the launch party for Call of Duty Black Ops, the CEO of Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick announced the donation of One Million dollars, a portion of the sales from the new title, to go to the Call of Duty Endowment which provides job training and placement for returning veterans of any branch of military service. While the estimates of joblessness for the Veterans is bleak, this endowment continues to educate and inform the American people on efforts within thier own communities and globaly to help our servicement.

The Star studded launch party included Scrubs star Zack Braff and Basketball legend Kobe Bryant who was featured in one of the most creative commercials for a Video Game title to ever air. The Call of Duty Black Ops TV Spot also features an appearance by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. Activision Blizzard has shared some of the footage from the Launch party which was help November 4th in Santa Monica California, although we didn’t get to see any of the concert footage from Metallica! Check the video out and find how you can help spread the word about the Endowment and learn of ways you can help out from your very home!

–Andy

Andy Taylor2 CommentsBroadband, TTR Website, , , ,

Sprint brings Broadband to your iPod Touch

Photo of the ZTE Peel
Connect your iPod Touch Device

For those of us that love our iPod Touch but dislike the task of not having a Wi-Fi hotspot always available or wanting to use the features while traveling, Sprint has unveiled today a solution for your tethering woes. The new ZTE Peel gives users the ability to put the iPod Touch in a cradle and connect with the Sprint 3G service over Wireless Broadband.

The idea is really a nice one as we may already have Cell service with Sprint but also enjoy our iPod Touch. Now, with the Peel, we can have it all. The device specs state that the cradle will work with second or third generation iPod Touch devices and will also be able to connect to another device while cradling the Apple iPod Touch to provide another Wi-Fi Connection. Have a laptop that needs your own hotspot? You’ll be able to provide you own. This is extremely handy for businesses that don’t have Wi-Fi Hotspots. If the user is in a Hotspot area, Wi-Fi Compatibility can also be handled with the 802.11B and 802.11G Standard without having to uncradle the iPod Touch.

The Peel features a 900 mAH Li-Ion Battery which will give the user about 3 hours of active use time. The product is not officially endorsed by Apple but is compatible with Wi-Fi services for Windows 7, Vista, XP and Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6. The service plan for the broadband which is up to 1GB transfer on the 3G network with no contract, $29 bucks and the ZTE Peel itself will be available for around $79 dollars. Sprint stores should be carrying the Peel starting the 14th of November.

A Photo of the Peel from Behind
Sprints solution for Broadband over the iPod Touch

We also like the fact that owners of iPod Touch device may also be able to utilize third party apps from just about anywhere a broadband connection is available which could include voice type apps!

More info on the ZTE Peel can be found on the Sprint website at http://www.sprint.com We’re hoping to get our hands on a Peel in the next couple of weeks to give you a look at how they work., Check back at our main site http://www.techtalkradio.com for video and follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/techtalkradio

Andy TaylorLeave a commentTTR Website, video games, , , ,

Bond is Back

We just recieved the latest in the Console Bond series title with a Reworking of the popular “Goldeneye.”  The Original James Bond title received an abundance of game time when it was unleased on the Nintendo 64 platform in 1997. The original game title featured the  likeness of Brosnan who starred as Bond in the 1995 film however this new title Goldeneye 007 changes the playing field for Multiplayer and Single player on the Nintendo Wii.

The latest Film Bond, Daniel Craig is featured as the British Agent in the title which allows up to 8 players in a multiplayer environment which also brings in the ability to play classic characters such as OddJob and Jaws along with some other noteable baddies. We’ll be unwrapping the title and a full review posting this week.

Andy TaylorLeave a commentsoftware, , , , ,

Where is Adobe Audition 4

I was sitting here tonight working on an Audio feature for TechtalkRadio thinking about the Adobe Audition program. It seems like a couple of years have gone by since the program I have recommended to several Radio Stations for Production Work was released. It would be great if some of the companies that put out these full featured programs released the new versions similar to the way Hollywood puts out movies! It seems that now when a feature film is on the way, we get to hear about it, see previews and of course talk about it with other fans of films. I remember seeing the trailer for the first Iron Man film in theaters almost a full 6 months before the release date. Even games are using this technique to really wet our appetites for a new title. With Call of Duty Black Ops which arrives next week, we also heard about it months ago with a release date and a preview.

In the Marketing sence, this can be good or bad. The most recent addition of Medal of Honor features warfare similar to what we would find in the new Call of Duty. Did they get the jump in putting out the title and taking the 50-60 bucks out of the pocket of a consumer that may have been saving up for COD? Apple seems to never talk about a product officially until it is actually available. This works for them in the sense of excitement about a product and speculation of an announcement but we really are never quite sure. I remember some years ago waiting for another version of Adobe Pagemaker  but at the same time, Adobe had this new program that worked similar to Pagemaker called InDesign. User to Pagemaker forums and chats were sounding the death knell for the program which seemed to have a huge user base but really couldn’t do more than it already was doing. That’s not good for the software industry isi it? A Product with a huge life cycle, one that does all it needs to do in a simple basic easy layout?

Generating sales is how even these large companies can continue to develop and produce solutions for a variety of products. For those that use Adobe Audition, it should be hard to argue that there is more that they could really do with it without making clutter of the program itself? The boards are beginning to talk and similar to the chatter heard during the “Pagemaker Crisis” we are hearing comparisons to Adobe Soundbooth. After careful digging I did find a light at the end of the tunnel with a Blog from Adobe Evangelist Terry White which last June he focused on the Adobe Audition package available for the Mac and gave a preview of a version he says should be avialable for both platforms. It looks like there still could be life to the Adobe Audition program and with more users taking the plunge to 64bit programs, this might be a welcome new version. 

Take a look at Terry’s blog post on Adobe Audition and visit often, he always provides some great information without the rumors. His blog for me was like seeing a trailer to Star Trek 2, Can’t wait!

http://terrywhite.com/techblog/archives/5618