Razer is (justifiably) known for their gaming peripherals, particularly their keyboards and mice (which you love or hate, depending on what kind of games you play). On the audio front, they're slightly less battle hardened, and, by and by, most 2.1 systems are dreck. (I'll totally vouch for Logitech's ZX-2300 setup, though.) And the Mako 2.1 Advanced Desktop Audio's' premise sounds a little gimicky: rounded satellites with 360-degree, omni-directional sound. Yet Gadget Lab says "there's nary another 2.1 system that can match the Mako's performance." The omni-directional business
actually works and you can actually hear grenades chucked your from "virtually any direction." The 300W RMS of THX-certified power probably help, pushing the audio everywhere it needs to go. Highs and mids are "especially clear and resonant," though low fidelity is the where system hits a patch of weak sauce—at 400 bucks, that's a bit troubling. The only other bit of blah is the slightly unresponsive touch controls, but they system looks hot, so we can forgive it being a little cold to the touch. Maybe that's a little too much insight into our personal life.
HD nerds and Xbox fanboys, the moment you've been waiting for: the Xbox 360 Elite we alerted you about way back when it was just called the Zephyr has finally been announced. As we previously mentioned, it will be black, it will have HDMI, and it will have a 120GB drive (it'll also come bundled with a one month Xbox Live trial) for $479. Unfortunately, also as mentioned before, it's not going to have the new 65nm CPUs, it still doesn't have integrated WiFi (Xbox said it's because a study showed the majority of their customers use Ethernet to connect -- huh?), and it won't have an integrated HD DVD drive (not that we expected otherwise). Microsoft did make some marketing decisions since our sources spilled the beans on this thing though: it's not going to be limited edition, as we previously had. Instead, the Elite will be a permanent SKU, the third and top-tier Xbox device. On the solo 120GB drive side of things, that unit will cost $179, and will come with a cable and software to migrate from your old 20GB drive. (MSFT wasn't yet sure if that kit would be sold separately for new Elite users -- sounds like it will be though, and will be priced very reasonably.) More info:
The nerve of the Chinese-via-Brazil knock-off industry -- thieving the names of consoles and not even attempting to also steal the look, operation, logos, or games. Enter the Wi Vision, a "game console" meant to evoke thoughts of Nintendo's money-maker by name, though it evokes something decidedly crappier in appearance... like a melting Genesis standing on its side. What about specs, you ask? How does a 240 x 240 resolution, 64 color capacity, NES compatibility, and included 106-game cartridge sound to you? Pretty good right? Oh, don't forget about the wireless controllers and complete lack of fun. Available now (in Brazil) for 269 BR (or around $150).
They busted out that breakout board last year, now GamePark Holdings have started selling a proper cradle for everybody's fave open source gaming handheld, the GP2X. The GP2X Commercial Interface Board Cradle is still more or less meant for developers -- it does have an RS232 port -- but it does also sport four USB ports (for connecting up a USB mouse, keyboard, or gamepad) and S-Video and audio-out ports if you feel like hooking this thing up to a TV or monitor.