Word in Apple that the new iPod Nano, which sports a camera, a mic for recording and speakers, announced today, will be available in India in two weeks time. It features 2.2″ screen, built in FM radio and iTunes tagging.
The new iPod nano is available today in an 8GB model for Rs.9,400 (MRP) and a 16GB model for Rs.11,200, and comes in nine colours including silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, red and pink.
iPod Touch now officially a PSP competitor
Just edge-online noted here, Apple is pushing iPod Touch as a gaming device. Evident from the way it was described in the press release.
iPod touch is a great game player with its built-in accelerometer, revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface, its amazing graphics performance and the over 20,000 game and entertainment titles available on the App Store. With support for peer-to-peer connections, the new iPod touch gives users the ability to play multi-player games with people next to them or around the world. iPod touch customers can add new game titles from the App Store over Wi-Fi anytime and anywhere.
….it says in the release. The 8GB iPod touch will now be available for Rs12,400, 32GB model for Rs18,400 and 64GB model for Rs24,400.
Considering that the up coming PSP Go is expected to be priced around Rs18,000, Apple has an advantage. But gamers will go for PSP as of now because of the huge library of games available.
iPod shuffle price update
2GB model of the iPod shuffle will be now available for Rs3,700 and 4GB model for Rs4,800. Both the models come in silver, black, pink, blue and green.
It has been a month since Dell launched it’s Alienware M17x Gaming notebook in India and I have been trying to get my hands on this product once. And I did finally, last week, when I caught an old friend of mine who had recently bought this 17-inch gaming monster. Claimed to be the dream of gamers (is it?) this gaming notebook has a striking bold red & black colour design.
First impression
Initially, I thought the price, Rs 1,39,000, was a bit too high. Mainly because I am desktop gamer. I would rather assemble a mammoth gaming desktop in this price. But this product is for the gamers on the move, though it’s slightly bulky to be considered mobile.
The available processor configurations starts with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and top out at an optional Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad with two overclocking options for the best possible HD video and audio editing, 3D animation and high-end PC gaming. Storage capacity options include up to dual 500GB 7200rpm hard drives in a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration, giving you up to a full 1TB of storage for a library of games, full-length movies or songs.
Checking out the build and design, the notebook is adorned with an aluminium casing with a black finish. This looks more industrial and aggressive than the rounded “alien head” shape other notebooks Dell had in their range.
Soft(ware) side
The Alienware Command Center provides access to programs like AlienFX lighting controls which lets you change the colour of the lights on the notebook, or the new AlienSense Facial Recognition software that will automatically log on/off the user when they step in front of the notebook’s built-in webcam…Quite cool HA!!!
The AlienFX lights in the pre-production M17x that I spent some time with had incomplete lighting features, but the production-level notebooks will ship with AlienFX lights that completely illuminate the front air vents.
And Hardcore
The M17x has FireWire, four standard Hi-speed USB 2.0 ports, and a single eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port capable of PowerShare to supply power to accessories even if the notebook is turned off. If that isn’t enough, then there are three video output ports (VGA, HDMI, and DisplayPort) as well as a standard ExpressCard/54 expansion slot and more audio ports than one can know what to do with.
Game on we say
We played Fifa 2009 & Hitman 2 on this monster. Yes, not the graphic intensive we know but we wanted to give Crysis a break!
Equipped with two NVIDIA GeForce GTX280M graphics processing units for a grand total of 2GB of graphics memory, makes the gaming experience extremely hmm… for lack of another word, beautiful! The sound quality of the speakers is also good, much higher than my expectations.
The notebook is fast, with a decent mix of price & performance.The games run with no problems at all. It is big & heavy, just like monsters are meant to be 
. This is big in performance, as well as size (& of course price). The battery performace is poor in comparison to a normal laptop, but lets not complain because not many laptops use such big-ass graphic cards. Overall, a gaming monster if you like carrying monsters with you.
Key Features and Specs
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Processor: Up to Intel Core 2 Extreme Quadcore with 12MB Cache
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Graphics: Up to Dual 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M – SLI Technology
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Memory: Up to 8GB DDR3 1333MHz
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Hard Drive: Single or Dual Drives (RAID 0) up to 1TB 7200RPM
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Optical Drive: Slot-loading Dual layer Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Dimensions & Weight:
Also read: Anand Ramachandran has a few interesting pics of the beast and of the lighting effects in his review
Got my hand on Creative Fatal1ty USB Gaming Headset HS-1000 this weekend and I have to that this headset doesn’t only look good but sounds equally good.
I have never really used a headphones while gaming, but I should say that it enhanced the game playing experience. The full black headset with a detachable microphone has two shiny red embedded circles on each side featuring fatal1ty’s logo on them. The adjustable cushioned earphones and extra cushion on the top make the headphone extremely comfortable to use even for long hours ( I used it for around 3 hours continuously). This extremely light headset comes with a USB X-Fi soundcard & a microphone as well. Endorsed by Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel it tempted me more to use this thing once. 
The games I tested this headset were -Need For Speed Carbon, Fifa 2008, all for Duty-2 & Max Payne 2. I was surprised by the headset’s performance as the sound was extremely clear. While playing Call of duty 2, I could clearly listen to the enemy troopers around me & even the smallest of movements. Those who love the sound of car engines will love this gadget. While playing NFS Carbon the car engines came alive..It sounded so realistic.
There is clarity with very good balance of bass and treble effects that too with an onboard sound card. The removable microphone is easily adjustable.
Though the headphones are Plug’n Play and do not need any drivers to be installed for use. The first thing I noticed was that it is pretty light. This not only makes it a lot easier to wear longer, but als
o makes it easier to carry it around. Its 3D positional audio will be indispensable for any gamer.
It comes with a nice leather pouch and you can take it to LAN parties, school or work. With a killer price of Rs2,500, it’s not a bad deal at all. A low budget big headphone I should call it.
What they said…