Specs

Here are some new facts I gathered from the meeting. First, the device runs a 1.6GHz Atom processor with 1GB RAM. The guys at JooJoo said they weren't ready to reveal specs yet, but I saw the bootup sequence—a standard BIOS setup that displayed what it was booting to—and saw the specs. Chandra, CEO of Fusion Garage, says that the demo hardware was basically the final hardware, so it's easy to put two and two together.

As for the graphics card + CPU combination, it's probably an Nvidia Ion chipset. They claim that it handles 1080p YouTube video fine—we only got to see a few seconds of 720p and 1080p HD YouTube video because the internet connection was acting up—so it's probably an Ion. But the HD video we tested looked just fine on its 12-inch, 1366x768 resolution screen. Again, the Ion chipset is just an educated guess, but there are few other hardware options that can handle 1080p video smoothly, and an Atom CPU by itself (which we did see) can't do it on its own.

There is a headphone jack, a microphone jack, a built-in webcam at 1.3 megapixels, a charging port and a USB slot. The external card slot present in the prototype isn't going to make it to the final version, but they are thinking of making it available to put a 3G card in there in the future. No TV out/HDMI out yet, but they are thinking about that. There are built-in speakers for playing back audio without headphones, and they're decent enough that you can actually listen to them, but you'll want to plug them in to speakers for any kind of extended video consumption.

Performance

The tablet actually handled pretty well, with browsing web pages, transitioning between tabs (windows) and opening up new web pages working fine. There's an accelerometer in there to detect between vertical and horizontal orientations.

The body is solid, sturdy and graced with a bright 12-inch screen. The back is curved and made of a plastic that feels nice in your hand, and the whole thing doesn't seem too heavy to prop up on a bed or a toilet.

In short, it's an actual web browsing tablet that you'd be perfectly fine using.

The software

The entire system is basically a gateway to your browser, which is based off WebKit, the same code that powers Safari and Google's Chrome. It's fast, and handles gestures (pinching to go back a level, swiping to move up and down) just fine. There are other gestures that will be included in the final build, like two finger swiping for going back and forth in history and a bookmark swipe, but we didn't get to see that. But, you can't zoom into text. That's partially because the pinching is already used for going in and out of your windows into the home screen, but also partially because the screen is 12 inches. You don't need to really zoom into text on a laptop-sized screen of 12 inches. And they also said they may make LARGER sized tablets as well, with 12 being their smallest size.

JooJoo's keyboard looks like this, and takes up only a portion of the screen. It's usable, but you don't want to use it to bang out a blog post; this is mainly for consuming media.

Fusion Garage's concept for the product is that the "internet is the application", which means you can't save photos or files locally and you can't access any of the 4GB of storage to do any user level stuff. The most you can dictate is how much each internet application (e.g. Gmail or Google Wave) can have for a local cache.

It does support Flash as usual, except when you play HD Flash it'll force you into fullscreen mode to render better/faster. And if you want to read PDFs, it'll force you into Google's web-based PDF doc reader. So it handles PDFs, but not "natively".

Your home screen is composed almost entirely of icons—shortcuts—to web applications. The screen is customizable with your own applications, eventually, and has a weird feature where it displays a different color background whenever you go back to it. Fusion Garage is thinking of taking this out, or swapping it with some other feature.

As for multitasking, Fusion Garage says that they will have specific APIs available to webapps to incorporate in order to pass notifications up to the user. For example, if Twitter refreshes in another window and you're watching a YouTube video, a popup will show and tell you you have something else going on. The APIs will be available at launch, but it's up to websites to support them.

How good is it?

Despite its weird birth issues this past week with all the Arrington trouble, the JooJoo is surprisingly solid. You can tell Fusion Garage spent a good deal of time polishing the hardware, by the fact that they managed to include a 12-inch screen that's decent enough to not have lousy viewing angles, plus support 1080p HD video playback.

The only trouble right now is software, which is only about 75% done. Fusion Garage plans to ship devices about 8-10 weeks after preorders, which start this friday. If FG can manage to finish the software and get it to a point where it's transparent to the user who just wants to get online, $500 isn't too outrageous a price to pay. Decent netbooks are around that price, and it's about the price you'd expect Apple to charge for their tablet, if not even more. We'd of course be very happy if it were down at $300 or $400, but it's basically a new device in a new market, and you'll have to hand over a little extra for being an early adopter.

So right now we're at a wait and see status. The JooJoo seems good, from our time with it, but it really needs to be taken home and thoroughly tested with different webapps, watching a lot of HD video and streaming music. At the very least, we'll see how much of that 5-hour battery life stands up to constant use. You can pre-order it yourself this Friday, but, since there's some legal troubles on the horizon, you probably want to wait until the whole thing clears up first before putting any money down. [JooJoo]

Its basic premise remains unchanged: select a part of a body, an angle, and then a level of power that you want to shove him down the stairs with. By varying the three, you get different types of tumbles, with the final goal being to hit as many parts of his person on the ground as hard as possible.

If you're sadistic and enjoy seeing ragdolls get hurt, this is the game for you. The injury process is made all the more fun by the added Facebook Connect feature Secret Exit put in. You can only choose your friend's default profile photo, which eliminates a lot of your friends that don't just use their faces, but still gets you fun results, as seen in the screenshots above.

Basically, you already know if you're the kind of person who would enjoy the game. Either you laugh at people getting hurt, or you don't. And Secret Exit tells me that, depending on sales of this game, they'll consider releasing Truck Dismount (the followup to Stair Dismount). That's undoubtedly just a ploy to get more sales, but this game is good enough as is to warrant a purchase.

Maximum PC got their hands on one, and liked it very much, from the capacitative screen—running Android—that can play video to the onscreen keyboard. The only thing they didn't like is that it is thicker than Kindle. Who cares about a few millimeters when you get more usability in return? I don't. And I like them curvy. [Maximum PC]

The promise of the Spawn HD-720 is twofold: You can "log in" to your console to play games when, say, your TV is otherwise engaged, or you're away from home. You can also invite remote players to play against you—as a local player, interestingly enough—over the internet, from anywhere. The whole system will set you back $200, but there's no monthly fee.

The streaming box itself is a nondescript brick with a panel full of A/V connectors in the back. It's middleman hardware, sitting between the video source—the console—and whatever display it's connected to, like some sort of VCR. And in a way, that's what it is: the HD-720 grabs, encodes and streams raw video signals without without interacting with your console at all. In fact, the only input it sends to your Xbox/PS3/PS2/whatever is through controller adapters, which let the box (and in turn, whoever is using it) act like a local player.

So, right, enough about the hardware, what about that question that you can't not immediately have about this box: How laggy is it? I tested Kung Fu Panda over a LAN connection for a few minutes on an utterly undistinguished $500 Core 2 Duo laptop, and it worked. I can't say there was no lag—there definitely was—but it wasn't enough to ruin a game like this, or even a first person shooter. To give a sense of how it felt, the delay felt like the difference between a wired optical mouse and a first-gen wireless mouse, in that is was enough to make some controls feel imprecise, but not enough to make anyone angry. This laptop was, for all intents and purposes, an Xbox 360.

Predictably, there was a catch. And it was the catch. I couldn't test Spawn remotely, even from a predetermined node with guaranteed upstream bandwidth. Not so predictably, the Spawn guys said they're sending out evaluation units in a few weeks, which we'll be able to connect to any console and stream over any connection. Spawn, meet Earthlink. I really hope you get along.

That'll be the ultimate test, and it's a test I'm really looking forward to. Even in its current state, Spawn can definitely keep up at least half of its side of the bargain—local game streaming is decidedly decent, and the client software is polished. The other half? You know, streaming a game of COD 4 over a 512Kbps upstream connection without 150ms+ latency? I can't overemphasize how big of a "we'll see" that is. [Spawn]

This weekend, I scored big time. First, I found a red Gone-with-the-Wind-ish petticoat in a vintage shop. Then, I arrived home to find the Sqweel – a brand new, pre-release, revolutionary, wow-factor sex toy – waiting for me in a stack of mail. The good news? The Sqweel is orgasmic-ly awesome. Even better? As of 12:01am today, it is officially available to the rest of you.

How Does It Work

As the name suggests, the Sqweel merges the wheel (one of humankind's greatest inventions) with sex (one of humankind's greatest pleasures). Except instead of typical wheel spokes, it turns a series of tongues – 10 tongues, actually – using 3 speeds. Let me repeat: there are TEN TONGUES. It's like group oral sex with everyone somehow fitting in between your legs. Or oral sex with an extremely talented and eager lover.

The Sqweel is a remarkable sex toy designed by an Irishman (and animator) named Trevor Murphy who won LoveHoney's Design a Sex Toy competition a few years back. This fact gives me tremendous hope that other animators, engineers and people who sit with their computers or graphics tablets all day will soon turn their talents to advance sex toy design and innovation. If not for me, then for the love of sex. Please?

Though not a vibrator, the folks at LoveHoney suggest (and I agree) that while vibrators can certainly contribute to highly pleasurable sex play, there's something to be said for non-vibrating play that promotes slow yummy build-up, much as oral sex does, and that perhaps leads to an orgasm that leaves one feeling that curious mix of satisfaction and craving more.

The Rundown

These are the key points about the Sqweel, aside from the 10-tongue 3-speed yum:

• Materials: The tongues are made of silicone (easy to clean, non-toxic awesomeness) while the black compartment is made of soft plastic.

• Hygiene: The tongue component can be removed from its holder for easy cleaning of both parts.

• Power: What does it run on, you ask? (Aside from the Grace of the Sex Gods). Three AAA batteries. I would have preferred AA batteries rather than the AAA batteries that few people keep lying around the house (whereas, if needed in a pinch, AA batteries may be scrounged from TV remotes or Flipcams).

• Cost: At £34.99 UK pounds (and yes, they ship to the US in only a few waiting-with-bated-breath days), I find the price fair even after the conversion to USD. Especially if you want to switch out your vibrator from time to time, gift your partner with a tongue that doesn't stop or give yourself a break from lockjaw.

• Endurance: No more lock jaw! Or at least you get a break. The Sqweel is not intended to replace oral sex, nor should it (after all, oral sex can be lovely, intimate and passionate). But it may offer an occasional alternative, or complement, to oral play, which is especially useful for partners whose tongues, jaws, necks or lower backs get sore from extended oral play.

• Single or doubles? Both. The Sqweel can easily be used privately or with a partner. It's comfortable to hold in one's own hand during self-pleasure of one's outside parts (please do NOT try to insert all the way in the anus, lest I recount one man's salad tongs incident). When pleasuring your partner, it's not so bulky (only 4.5 in X 4 in X 1 inch at its thickest) as to block your view.

• Education: Similar to the Sasi, which also mimics oral sex, women who would like to learn to orgasm from oral sex may find it helpful to practice with the Sqweel.

• Lube: Due to the Sqweel's silicone components, silicone lube is a no-no. Instead, try a water based lube applied directly to your or your partner's body as: (1) there are too many tongues to put lube on every single one and (2) I could easily see the globs of lube go flying as the tongue spokes go round and round and no one needs lube on their ceiling.

• Convenience: Now you can provide your partner with oral pleasure via the Sqweel while simultaneously kissing each other, sitting back and watching, talking dirty, or breathing warm air on your partner's genitals.

• Conversation: If your partner is using the Sqweel on you and you ask him or her a question, your partner can actually answer you rather than making that awkward "mwawahwah" sound that people make when they try to speak while performing oral sex.

The Experience

I found that holding the Sqweel steady and straight (aimed perpendicular at one's body) was the best strategy – leaning it to one side or the other, as one might do with a typical vibrator, sometimes caused uncomfortable feelings due to the toy's edges pressing against fairly sensitive parts. Try exploring the low, medium and high settings – for example, using the low setting to build arousal and the medium or high settings to up the intensity or as one approaches orgasm (if that's your thing). You might even try turning the tongues upside down for a modified version of Sqweel play stimulation.

In regard to positions, one can lay back and enjoy self-directed or partnered stimulation OR you can prop it like some do with the Fleshlight (e.g., between sofa cushions, between the mattress and box springs or in a sneaker). The Sqweel can be used to stimulate men's or women's genitals though I don't recommend it for internal anal stimulation lest it possibly get "lost" (and not lost in translation, which I just watched again late last night).

Please be careful how you hold it! In some hand positions, one's fingers can get caught in the compartment and stop the movement of the tongues. This happened to me once or twice. It didn't hurt, but just wanted to throw that out there in case you are used to moving your hands along with your toy of choice. Or if you have particularly long labia or hair down there that may possibly be an issue too.

The future

The folks at LoveHoney have said that they are planning to roll out different "attachments" in time – so if you decide to try to Sqweel, there should be even more to come. Personally, I would like to see a Sqweel iPhone app. It doesn't have to vibrate like the fancy MyPleasure MyVibe app, it just has to have a great visual of rotating tongues in which the user can control the speed of vibration.

As it is, however, I love it. It's yummy. The Sqweel is a very innovative sex toy. If you try it, please let me know what you think – I always enjoy hearing and learning about others' perspectives and experiences with sex and, in particular, with sex toys.

10 tongues. TEN. The only thing better would be 11. Or 10 plus chocolate.

Silicone material

Comes apart for easy cleaning

Unlikely to produce Fleshlight-furniture-ish shame spiral during use, storage or cleaning

Comfortable to hold

Easy to store in a nightstand or sock drawer

Requires three AAA batteries (a con in my household given that I mostly keep AAs on hand, but may be fine in yours)

Looks like a tape measure

Only 3 speeds. Given how women and men vary, I'd have gone with 5 or 7.

Dr. Debby Herbenick, author of Because It Feels Good: A Woman's Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction, is the Associate Director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Indiana University (IU) where she is a Research Scientist. She is also a sexual health educator at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction where she writes (and hosts audio podcasts of) the Kinsey Confidential column and coordinates educational programming. She has a PhD in Health Behavior from IU, a Master's degree in Public Health Education (also from IU) and a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. In addition, she is certified as a Sexuality Educator from the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists.

Debby writes regular sex columns for Men's Health magazine, Time Out Chicago magazine, Velocity, Cheeky Chicago, Psychology Today and she has also written for Glamour magazine.

The Archos 5 improves on some of the complaints we had about the previous Archos 5. Archos has upped the storage with loads of options—it now comes with flash (8GB or 32GB) or an HDD (160GB to 500GB). The flash version's way thinner, at .4-inches. The metal backing felt nice in my hand.

But the real changes are to the operating system: It's using Android, with Archos' customer interface built on top, like the Super Widget, a series of multimedia shortcuts on the main Android screen. Beyond that you'll find the usual Android drawer full of applications, since Archos is throwing in a few preloaded.

Multimedia is the Archos 5 Internet Tablet's bread and butter. Its Texas Instruments ARM Cortex A8 plays back 720p video smoothly and you can buy a dock to output it to a larger display. It is a sweet device for storing video, photos and music. Archos has always been able to do that really well. It also has a 3D map software program for GPS navigation.

Too bad it falls down on actually being an internet tablet: It runs on Wi-Fi using Android's built-in browser, but it won't automatically load full web pages—it defaults to mobile versions. Yes, you can go to Flash websites like NYTimes.com and others but you have to make adjustments to the browser, just like you have to on a Android phone. The tablet does not support full Flash yet (only Flash Lite), which means no streaming video. (Even though HTC managed to build Flash support into the Hero.) Archos is instead waiting until there is Flash 10 support from Adobe.

It might sound spoiled, but on a device that is meant for the internet I want to be able to get streaming video and full Flash websites. I don't want the broken internet on a standalone device. What Archos does do is throw in a bunch of Android apps (including some paid apps). Apps are great, but sometimes you want to just visit a site and not have to page around or adjust the settings. To its credit, Archos says they will be updating soon when Flash 10 is available for download. (Which they tell us will be in December, not than the predicted October). If you are buying the tablet for internet I'd wait until then or at least plan to upgrade, however as a PMP Archos is still more than solid. [Archos]

Compared to the G1 this thing is svelte, and the keyboard is aligned correctly with the screen so there's no weird jarring going on when you're typing. The addition of the D-Pad, like we noted in the liveblog, is going to be fantastic for gaming/emulation gaming, and works like a D-Pad when navigating the phone as well. Very useful.

The sliding mechanism feels solid and desirable, as in, I want to open and close the thing all day just to hear the sound. The version I saw was white, and the finish was classy without being ostentatious, and definitely not cheap feeling. There's a heft to it, but it's definitely not heavy.

No hands-on photos yet, so you'll have to take another look at the press shots:

The Details

The important bits: It still runs webOS, still has a keyboard, still only for Sprint (for now) and can pretty much do everything the bigger Pre can do. There's no Wi-Fi, but GPS and the accelerometer are still there. The Pixi is slightly lighter than the Pre, losing a lot of weight from not having to slide itself out to reveal a keyboard, but has a little bit of a lobotomized brain. Palm wouldn't get into details, but you can make out from the hints and insinuations that the CPU and the RAM were less of what you'd get with the Pre.

What you'd miss the most is the 80 pixels they had to shave off because of the smaller display. At 2.63 inches, all the Pixi can handle is a 320x400 resolution. This translates into more work for developers, who need to somehow manage two different resolution sizes as well hardware different specs if you want your app to run on both phones. Oh, and there's a 2-megapixel camera as opposed to the Pre's 3-megapixel camera.

Hands-on Impressions

The Pixi's handlers didn't give people a chance to manhandle the phone very much, despite my attempts at charming them by both showering and brushing my teeth beforehand, so the impressions are limited to some typing, some navigating and a lot of eyeballing. What I saw was good. It's the same OS, so you can do everything you could do before, but the ball is replaced by a touch "area"—the same area you'd use for the off-screen forward and back gestures before. Just tap it and you get the same effect as the Pre. And in all the apps I saw there wasn't a huge difference in speed between the two devices.

What's most surprising is that even though the keyboard is technically smaller on the Pixi than on the Pre, each key is more raised because there's no sliding lid to maintain clearance of. So even though the keys are slightly different and smaller, I was able to thumb out words faster and with fewer errors than before. High five.

Overall, it's definitely slimmer, lighter and more pocketable than the Pre. It has almost all the same features—no Wi-Fi won't affect your ability to download apps or music—so you're not missing on that much stuff if for some reason you choose the Pixi over the Pre. But when asked about whether or not you can run the same number of apps simultaneously, multitasking, as on the Pre, I was once again met with what amounted to "no comment." Think of it like a less pricey computer.

What's To Come

Palm is targeting the Pixi at the cheap man segment, the person for which $200 or $150 is too much for a phone, but something a little less is just right. (This person also wouldn't recognize that any difference would be dwarfed by the monthly phone bill anyway, but that's neither here nor there.) No concrete details on the price, but it's definitely going to be less than the $150 of the Pre.

There was no concrete launch date yet, but Palm's aiming for sometime "before the Holidays". The Pixi will come loaded with a native Facebook app as well as Synergy integration with LinkedIn and Yahoo. For those of you who like customized backplates, there will be a limited edition run of five artist-designed Touchstone-compatible backs just for you, provided you're among the people who order the limited edition backplates in time.

The 0.63-inch thin Archos 9 feels pretty sturdy, but one major complaint is that it feels heavy. Archos says it only weighs 1.2 pounds, but something about the balance is wrong, because it felt heavier than that in my hands. The hardware is pretty simple—a 9-inch resistive touchscreen (no multitouch) with a few surrounding physical buttons.

There is a Ctrl+Alt+Delete button and a keyboard trigger on the right, the latter which quickly launches Win 7's finger-friendly keyboard. (Archos will also market a USB keyboard along with a case.) If you don't like using your finger on the screen, there is a tiny optical trackpad on the right and two mouse buttons on the left side. The touchscreen is pretty responsive, and there is a stylus on the back, so I don't see the need to really reach for the bitty mouse. I've always found optical trackpad annoying as hell.

The Archos 9 comes with Windows 7 Starter (remember that means no wallpaper changing or Aero) and its 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z515 processor and 1GB of RAM run it well. Watching a 720p Windows Media clip was decent, and when I fired up Wi-Fi and launched a browser, I was able to watch some streaming Hulu videos.

It only has 60GB of storage space, which could get cramped if you plan on keeping loads of video on it but doesn't seem like a deal breaker to me. My biggest worry is battery life. It has a 4-cell battery (which is actually swappable) but I am guessing it won't get more than 3 hours of juice.

I'll withhold final judgment until the full review. I am in search of a tablet like this for sitting back on the couch and surfing. The Archos could be it—though $500 is a bit much—but I've also still got my fingers crossed for a thinner and lighter Apple one.

Anyone who's had much exposure to Bose's bulky QuietComfort 2s or smaller QuietComfort 3s knows the story: they cancel noise pretty well, and they sound pretty good, though in the last few years—QuietComforts have been around in their current incarnations for a surprisingly long time—other companies have stepped in with products that do pretty much the same thing, cheaper. So! Bose has two options: Go low, or, you know, improve the product. With the QuietComfort 15, which will replace the old old old QC2 starting tomorrow, they've gone with the latter.

From a design standpoint, this is a very familiar product—it's hard to find any external hardware changes aside from a new LED indicator and a slightly changed curvature on the headband. Likewise on the sound, which is perfectly adequate, but won't blow audiophiles away.

The noise canceling, on the other hand, is a different story: it strips out low frequencies way, way better than the QC2 or QC3, to the point that typical airline noise (simulated in my test, but definitely loud) becomes almost imperceptible. Wearing these things sounds almost like wearing two of the old models, stacked, if that makes any sense. Pending fuller tests, I'd say it feels like this is a healthy upgrade for the QuietComfort's target customers: guys in suits with belt-strapped iPod Classics, and airlines.

That said, they're still fairly bulbous, and probably deserved a redesign, since this shell's been around for nearly a decade. That, and the price: The QuietComfort 15 is going to inherit the $300 pricepoint, and since its improvements are fairly subtle, it'll be hard not to feel a little ripped-off at the register. [Bose]

The software is all very much still in development, but the home screen and surface level feature of many of the widgets were polished enough to get an idea of how this thing will work. And it's nice. The screen responds to your finger about as well as any capacitive-touch smartphone.

Google Maps is still really early in development, so panning and zooming is still unpolished, but it pretty much looks and functions like it would in your browser. You can enter addresses and locations using the spacious, on-screen keyboard. There was even a brief mention about possible multitouch functionality, though that was entirely unconfirmed.

If you're one of the stubborn ones who still likes to read the news on actual paper, USA Today lets you print news stories out direct from the TouchSmart Web UI. This works fine, but the font used on paper looks like it's straight out of the DOS era (gross). I'd like to see publications like the New Yorker create widgets to print out some of their longer stories.

The Fandango widget lets you scroll through movie poster thumbnails, or search for the title you want, then you can look up movie times, watch trailers, and purchase/print tickets—all from the printer. Having access to coupons is great I suppose (RECESSION!), but I'm not sure I've used a coupon. Ever.

As far as photos go, HP has their Snapfish app among the initial widgets, but that is it so far. This seems like a niche where this platform could really take off. Provided they get support from the Flickr/Picasa/Photobucket lot, being able to login to your account, highlight a handful of photos, and properly arrange themselves on the page would be amazing.

It's convenient to be able to walk up to your printer and order movie tickets, or print maps/coupons/photos. But if you spend alot of time in front of a computer, it's also just as easy to do it from there. So for now, at least, it seems like the HP PhotoSmart Premium with TouchSmart Web will be a neat—but not entirely essential—product.

There's some cool stuff to this toy, to be sure. It has original Tim Allen voice work, which is nice, and it's obviously of solid construction. But it seems like its uses are pretty limited. Once your kid has said the dozen voice commands and has heard the quips and seen the motions, there's not a lot to keep them coming back. Sure, there's puppeteer mode that allows them to make their own sequence of motions, but it just doesn't scream "play with me."

But you can see where these things are going. In the next couple of decades kids toys are going to be real-deal robots that actually play back. But until then, we've got pseudo-robots that only respond to limited commands and are therefore not that fun.

The only downside I can see some of you noting is that the bus-powered 2.5" drive is 5400rpm, so not as ideal as a 7200rpm drive for serious amounts of randomly accessed video content, but it's amazing when you're moving files around.

I tested it against other drives using a 1.04GB file (an MPEG-4 rip of my Burn After Reading DVD). When I copied that file to a nice SanDisk Extreme III SDHC card, via an ExpressCard SanDisk SDHC reader, it took 1 minute 48 seconds. When I moved it to an old USB 2.0 IDE drive, the same file took 38 seconds. On a PC, I moved that file to a newer USB 2.0 drive, and it took longer, 52 seconds. When I moved that file from the Mac to the eGo via FireWire 800, it took just 15 seconds.

As you might have guessed, it took about twice as long via USB 2.0, and since Apple has pretty much given up on the FireWire 400 format, I didn't test that, but it would have probably been even slower still. I have to say, there was one drive that was even faster: A 7200rpm 3.5" 2TB Seagate Free Agent XTreme that you have to plug into the wall, connected to an HP notebook via eSATA. At first, it took 23 seconds to move that file from PC to drive. But I reformatted the drive so that it didn't have its own software in the way, and boom, the thing scooted from PC to drive in 11 seconds.

But I digress. The point is, for people who have a FireWire 800 jack, but might need to connect elsewhere using USB 2.0, grabbing this totally bus-powered drive is smart. I plan to offload all of my movies to it, and just plug them in when I am on the road, or at home and in possession of Apple Remote and Mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter.

It's super light (7 oz) and has "Drop Guard" protection for falls of up to 51 inches. My only gripe is the ridiculously shiny blue LED that indicates when the drive is being read or written to. It's so bright, I decided to tape over it, so that the neighbors wouldn't think I was busy laser-welding my homemade Iron Man suit (again).

The 500GB version is $150, and comes in the red you see. There's a 320GB that comes in blue for $110, and a white one that holds 250GB for just under $100. (It doesn't take a lot of math skills to see why the red is the best bet.) [Iomega]

What's new about the DC28 is the "Airmuscle" tech, which does this:

• "Powered Cam" - Only lowers and raises the brush bar instead of the whole head for different floor types
• "Pneumatic Actuator" - Seals the cleaner head to the floor to create more suction
• "High-torque clutch" - More torque on the brush bar to jostle loose more dirt

Other new features include the fingertip controls that adjust the height of the brush bar, four separate head attachments for different areas/environments of the house and a $600 price tag. Yes, we're counting it being the most expensive of Dyson's uprights as a feature.

We haven't had enough time with the vac to do a long-term assessment of it, but we did try it enough to get a feel for what it can do—a lot. On carpets, it's strong enough to pick up small pieces of debris (as well as lots of dust) in just one pass. It's as good on tile.

What's somewhat surprising to us is that the DC28 is not all that much louder than the smaller ball vacuums. It's much heavier and powerful, for sure, but it's more like a gentle giant than a screaming behemoth.

From our quick impressions, the new head with the Airmuscle technology seems to be a at least a step in the right direction. Is it worth $600? Only if your old vacuum is horrible, or this is your first vacuum, or if you're a really, really dirty person. [Dyson Animal]

What makes this game unique from other Xbox Live experiences is that it is the first time that game developers are actively working with a TV crew on set, creating new content every week with custom-written questions that are created based on what is happening in the world that week. This means each time you play, there will be no repeated questions, with topics that actually pertain to your own world around you. Moreover, gamers can actively participate further by emailing their own unique questions to the host, along with their phone number for in-game interviews, chats and more personalization.

Touted as "appointment gaming," 1 vs 100 works as an actual real-time game show with a live host and 101+ players—including 1 as "the one," 100 in "the mob," and the rest in the audience. Players across the globe, speaking different languages, can play together because questions are translated and even localized for foreign gamers! Moreover, participants and winners are able to win actual prizes, which consist of XBL gamer points and other XBL arcade games. Apparently, it is the first game to have rewards-based entertainment with exclusive content.

"What the Snuggie did for blankets is what 1 vs 100 is doing for video games," host Chris Cashman boasted.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, 1 vs 100 pits one player—"the one"—against 100 other contestants—"the mob"—in a competition to see who answers the most multiple-choice questions correctly. As in the show, it would be nearly impossible for gamers who're playing over XBL to cheat because the countdown to answer each question is roughly 5 seconds after the last multiple choice answer is revealed. As the rounds progress, contestants in the mob who answer questions incorrectly are eliminated, meaning whoever survives by the end of the game splits the prize—that is only if the one is eliminated first.

However, because of this live interaction, 1 vs 100 can only be played on a set schedule—for two hours on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30PM throughout the length of an actual TV-show season, which includes 26 episodes (games) in 13 weeks. For those who can't wait until Friday and Saturday nights, there is an "extended play" edition that lasts for 30 minutes each game throughout the week, but unfortunately, those rounds are also set at certain times during the day. However, for each question you answer correctly in extended play, your name is thrown into a sweepstakes where winners are drawn twice a season for bigger prizes, such as a vacation to France.

A small issue I had with the interactive gameplay, however, is that because the game lasts up to two hours each night, the rounds are littered with "bathroom breaks," which are actually hiatuses in gameplay for a flurry of commercials from Sprint and Honda, flashing in your face. However, it's nothing too big to complain about since the commercials are only a few seconds long and 1 vs 100 is completely free for Xbox Live Gold members. If you don't have an XBL account though, don't panic—you can still play as a guest through a friend's account—you just can't win any prizes.

Because every show is different with diverse players, questions and outcomes every time, it creates a unique gaming experience and a sort of social activity I had never experience befored on Xbox Live. Having fun and getting free games, XBL points and other prizes is a pretty sweet deal, especially since 1 vs 100 is absolutely free. As for the future of interactive gaming, I want to see this done with The Price is Right—the prizes being all the items you correctly guess the price for on the show. If that's too much, I wouldn't mind winning those objects for XBL avatar. Ooh, looks like I've got an excellent idea on my hands—now who do I have to speak with to get things rolling? [1 vs 100]

With the success of Wii Sports, it's easy to see how swinging your arms in Mario Tennis can be more fun than playing tennis with your thumbs. And with Pikmin, using gesture controls to direct your Pikmin is better than commands via buttons. Essentially, some GameCube games would just be more successful on an active-controller supporting platform. On May 4, Nintendo will be releasing Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for the Wii, but unlike its GameCube version, this one uses Wiimotes and Nunchucks so you won't have to pay $50 for bongo drums.

On most Wii games, you have the ability to use Classic or GameCube controllers; however, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat Wii only works with Wiimotes and Nunchucks. In the GameCube version, banging on the right and left bongo drums made Donkey Kong move, slamming on them together made him jump, alternately banging both of them pounded on things, and clapping your hands triggered special moves. Worried that the Wii would have identical controls—just on Wiimotes and Nunchucks—I was pleasantly surprised with the Wiimote's more intuitive controls, using basic Nintendo commands: A makes DK jump, B produces a nice buttslam, the analog stick directs him, and shaking either wrist activates special moves, including sonic booms that will do anything from shaking bananas out of tress to slaying your enemies.

The greatest thing about the new play controls is that you won't end up breathless, with stinging palms and a sweaty body. Your arms won't get tired as your thumbs and the analog stick control directions, and the controls are sensitive enough that jiggling your wrist lightly for special moves works fine. Sometimes you'll have to quickly alternate moving your left and right hands up and down to pound enemies to death, but it's barely noticeable or tiring. You may have sweaty palms when you're done, but at least your body will be dry and ache-free. Moreover, because the Wii versions of these GameCube games are basically almost the same games, they'll cost you $30 instead of the typical $50 for a Wii game.

So, what other GameCube games we could be expecting as part of the "New Play Control!" series? Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2, Pikmin 2 and Chibi-Robo! will be available with the new control in Japan this year. Assuming that the technology, game-control conversions and gameplay have already been modified for their Wii counterparts in Japan, it seems safe to anticipate American copies of these games shortly after. [Nintendo]

The Price: $29.99

The Verdict: One of the best expandable surge protectors we've used yet. It's incredibly useful on road trips (CES) as well as at home, and beats even the Power Squid in our eyes in a general comparison.

The special thing about Socket Sense is that it can be expanded from 13 to 18 inches and has 6 angled outlets, allowing you to fit more adapters on one strip. Because of this, the Socket Sense is significantly bigger than a lot of other power protectors—fully extended, it is the length of a 5'4'' female's arm—and weighs a lot more too.

However, compared to squid outlets, the design and size of the Socket Sense gives it a heavy, flat bottom, which makes it easier to use without having to deal with bundled up cords and cables all over the place. Moreover, surge protector allows you to individually extend each outlet when needed, allowing you to adjust how much space it takes up to some extent. Also, there is enough tension on extender so that the strip doesn't flimsily slide open or close, but it doesn't give off so much resistance that a relatively weak girl can't extend it easily.

Overall, Socket Sense is a reliable piece of hardware for those who need a power strip that offers more space between each adapter. It has 2160 joules of surge protection, compared to the 540 joules of the $30 power squid (the $50 squid offers 1080 joules and the $70 squid offers 3240 joules). For $30, it's hard to find a better overall surge protector with this amount of space per socket, although the EZSpace UFO is pretty good as well. [Ideative]

Large enough to allow you to plug in six of just about anything in the strip

Slightly larger than a normal power strip

Slightly pricier than a normal strip at $30

The Price: $129.95

The Verdict: Elgato's turbo.264HD is a great encoder for those who need to basically do a lot of video encoding and want it done quickly. It's extremely intuitive, making it quick and simple to use, and is also the fastest one we've tried to date.

Using an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (which was 20.5 minutes long and a 175MB AVI file) as our guinea pig, we tested the turbo.264HD converter against older encoding programs including iSquint and the previous version of turbo.264.

Encoding times for an h.264 file

From these results, iSquint's conversion times seem to jump drastically depending on what platform it is converting for. But with turbo.264HD and it's previous version, they were both consistent in their conversions—a couple of them only differing by 3 seconds, with Elgato's upgrade being consistently faster—up to 5 times as fast as iSquint in some cases— than the others. However, one thing you have to remember with the turbo.264HD though is that you cannot use the program unless you have the USB plugged in, forcing you to use something else (iSquint) if you don't have it on you. Also, the dongle only works with its designated turbo.264HD software, rendering it useless when used with any other program and with any other application that has Quicktime export as well.

As for quality, I honestly can say that all the encoders produced pretty much the same type of video when converted for the iPod: slightly grainy and blury like a crappy, pirated video rip, but nothing to truly nitpick considering the medium it's for.

Before purchasing turbo.264HD, it would be smart to think about whether you have $130 worth of video you need encoded, or if you'd rather spend more time encoding to save some money. Basically, what is worth more to you: time or money?

The Q2 will save you a few bucks on the Nano, and will net you a little bit more screen real estate at 2.4 inches, QVGA resolution. Controls are via a touch directional pad below—no touch on the actual screen, or any widgets like the P3. They'll be $100 for 8GB and $130 for 16GB available in April.

The U5 is geared toward exercisers, and its build pretty much like an original iPod shuffle (with an end-cap USB port). A 4-line OLED screen shows you basic info, and you can also track a workout with a built-in timer. It's $40 for 2GB in five colors, with 4GB and 8GB versions forthcoming.

Both feature FM tuners and voice recorders.

Q2 Multimedia Player
The new Q2 is a flash-memory media player featuring full multimedia functionality, including
powerful sound quality unmatched by any other MP3 player. The slim Q2 delivers up to 50
hours of audio playback and seven hours of video enjoyment, lasting through road trips and
business trips on a single charge. The Q2 also boasts superior acoustical performance through
DNSe 3.0 sound enhancement technology, also available in the P3, Audio Upscaler, 3D Sound
and various Concert Hall settings, along with FM radio, FM recorder, voice recorder and text
viewer. For customizable access, the Q2 also features a "Smart Button" that allows the user to
designate a specific function for quick access.

At a mere 2.04 ounces, the Q2 is equipped with a 2.4 inch QVGA TFT screen and is designed for
the practical techie looking for a hassle-free device with smarter control of media playback.

The Q2 is available in black and white.

U5 Sporty MP3 Player
The Samsung U5 is designed for the active consumer seeking a simple-to-use portable music
device without compromising style. Its lightweight design, user-friendly touchpad and USB
connectivity makes the U5 a perfect companion for consumers always on-the-go and engaged
in sports. The U5 also features an FM tuner / FM recorder, so workouts are less monotonous
with more music options, as well as a voice recorder.

The U5 is available in a multitude of fashionable colors, including black, white, red, pink and
blue.