Unstoppable Gorg Review – The Aliens Are Coming! @ Techgage

BMW Safety Features @ t-break

Synology DS-212 Two-Bay NAS Review @ Tweaknews

Prolimatech Genesis CPU Cooler @ TechwareLabs

Fractal Design Define XL Computer Case Review @ Benchmark Review

AMD A8-3870K Black Edition Review @ t-break

Corsair Performance Series Pro 128GB Solid State Drive Review @ TweakTown

Raidmax Viper Case @ TechwareLabs

Seagate Barracuda 3 TB Hard Drive Review @ Hardware Secrets

XFX & Sapphire HD 7950 3GB Review @ OCC

XFX Radeon R7950 Black Edition Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews

Thermaltake Dr. Power II ATX Power Supply Tester Review @ Tweaknews

Don’t discard that old computer – learn UNIX instead @ t-break

Most Anticipated PC Games of 2012 @ TechSpot

ASUS RT-N56U Dual-Band Wireless-N600 Gigabit Router Review @ Bigbruin.com

Powerbag Backpack Review @ TechwareLabs

The Pentax Optio WG-1 GPS is offered as a convenient point-and-shoot camera with the added features of an onboard GPS receiver for seamless geotagging, and a ruggedized design. With a 14 Megapixel sensor, 720p video recording, built-in macro light, and 5x zoom, the camera does not lack special features. While I am familiar with the Pentax K5, the flagship D-SLR, this is the first Pentax point-and-shoot I have used extensively.

Packaging, Included Items

The camera is packaged in a dense carboard box full of goodies. Along with the camera and requisite documentation, there is a floatation strap and carabineer. A lens hood and charger round out the contents of the box.

The included manual is very detailed, well-written, and includes details about every feature of the camera. It should not be discarded but rather reviewed before using the device.

General Use

Simply powering on the unit revealed a simple enough interface to begin taking pictures immediately on the automatic setting. The on-time is nearly instant (less than a second) and there is no noticeable shutter lag. Focusing is contrast-based, and can be slow in low-light situations. An amber light automatically illuminates to assist the camera’s focus-detection system. Zoom is limited to 5x, which is suitable for most point-and-shoot applications.

The camera is comfortable, in no small part to the ruggedized rubber coating. The screen is colorful and bright even in sunlight, although the pixel density is on par with my iPhone 3G. The screen appears to be covered in a scratch-resistant glass that has only picked up a few surface blemishes in my month of rather abusive testing. It is a small camera, and extremely thin. This understandably limits the available zoom. The lens does actuate, but is behind a front element of scratch-resistant glass build in to the body of the camera. A set of five diffuse white LEDs surrounds the lens as a macro light, and a 4mm plastic ring can be snapped on around the lens to add additional protection and prevent glare.

Rugged Construction, GPS

The camera boasts the ability to withstand drops of up to 5 feet, temperatures as low as 14 degrees F, crushproof to 100kg, and waterproof to 33 feet. All of the controls are weather-sealed, and the battery/communications ports are gasketed and lock in to place.

I have dropped the camera from shoulder height (approximately 5 feet) numerous times and, while I was nervous each time, the camera still functions perfectly. The screen sustained a blemish due to a scratch on concrete, though.

I submerged the camera in my sink, and it operated underwater. Feeling brave, I left it at the bottom of a five-gallon bucket (full) overnight – it still works.

To simulate 100kg of force, I stood on the camera while carrying enough weight to reach 100kg. I was very impressed that it held my body and additional weight sturdily.

Finally, I left it in the freezer overnight after adjusting the thermostat to be approximately 15 degrees. Bottles of water helped maintain the target temperature. Surprisingly, right out of the freezer, the camera functioned beautifully (if not frosty).

The GPS chip is an added feature that will automatically add location metadata to the jpg files produced by the camera. I found that, when activated, the GPS system “locked in” after 10-20 seconds with an unobstructed view of the sky. In lightly wooded areas, up to a minute may pass without a signal, but it always acquired a location.

Advanced Photography

The WG-1 offers a wide variety of scene settings, and a number of custom modes. From the “mode” menu, 24 different scenes and shooting modes are available. Apart from the typical night, snow, and fireworks modes that have become customary, users will spend most of their time in the Auto and Program modes. Inside the Program shooting setting, the user has the most flexibility to define shooting parameters. There is no manual mode.

I primarily used the Program mode and set the central directional pad to control flash, zoom modes, and self-timer (drive) settings.

Despite the myriad of different shooting modes, there is little confusion in the simply-structured pictographic menu.

Picture Quality and Performance

Picture quality is on par with other point-and-shoot cameras. Low-light performance is acceptable through ISO 400, but falls off sharply thereafter. The onboard flash is sufficiently bright, but very harsh and directional. The camera’s performance is typical and expected. The focus here is clearly on the rugged design and overall usability.

Conclusion

The Pentax Optio WG-1 GPS is a reliable, easy-to-use camera that offers a solid solution for simple picture-taking in environments that demand ruggedized equipment. The picture quality is not stellar, but is typical for point-and-shoot cameras. I can see this product being very useful in situations where fieldwork documentation is needed. Work crews can easily pick up the use of this camera while effectively abusing it without fear of damage. This camera would make a fine addition to a purse or other bag where it could take a beating.

Pros:

• Effective, rugged design features
• Compact size
• Features: macro light, GPS

Cons:

• Limited picture quality
• Clumsy interface elements

Find More Reviews @ TestFreaks

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler Review @ Tweaknews

Galaxy MDT GeForce GT 520 Review: Quad-Display Budget Card @ TechSpot

NuForce uDAC-2 Digital-to-Analog Converter Review @ TechwareLabs

Prolimatech Lynx CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Secrets

Q.U.B.E. Review – It’s No Portal @ Techgage

Galaxy GeForce GT 440 2GB Review @ Neoseeker

Lunch with Google @ t-break

GE Chic 13 inch On-Lap Monitor Review @ TechwareLabs

VW 2012 Touareg V8 Review @ t-break

Antec EarthWatts Platinum 650 W Power Supply Review @ Hardware Secrets

Lian Li PC-90 Case/Chassis Review @ TechwareLabs

D-Link has always been a top competitor in the consumer router market, they offer great products that range from “average Joe” models to high end power user models, the DIR-657 is another introduction to D-Link’s high end router line.  The DIR-657 offers a lot of great features however lacks in a couple of extremely important categories that I think may turn users off to the device.

The design of the router itself is a solid black, very simplistic look that people will find very appealing near the rest of their tech gadgets.  They too have followed along with Cisco and completely removed all of the lights from the device with the exception of the essentials.  Also on the front of the device you’ll see the Wireless Protected Setup button and a place to insert an SD Card (more on that later.)  On the back you’ll see your standard array of ports, 4 gigabit ports on the LAN side, 1 gigabit WAN connection, and a USB 2.0 port for media sharing.

For wireless, the router supports 802.11b/g/n but is missing the 5ghz 802.11n radio.  Something I feel is inexcusable given the high price tag of the router.  If you’re like me, and live in an apartment complex, you’ll notice that everyone has their own wireless router making 2.4ghz wireless impossibly slow for anything besides basic internet access.  This makes having a 5ghz 802.11n network extremely useful, and helpful if you’re trying to push high bandwidth over the wireless (Netflix streaming, file transferring, etc…)  Another downfall of the router is its lack of support for 3^rd party firmware.  The processor used inside the DIR-657 cannot be supported by 3^rd party firmware limiting you to the web interface and functionality that D-Link supplies you, and unfortunately while it is fairly feature rich, it doesn’t come close to what a 3^rd party firmware like DD-WRT offers you.

The router’s firmware does offer a lot of Setup Wizards for most of its functionality, enabling non-tech savvy users the ability to configure their router accordingly.  The Media Sharing enables you to share pictures, music, and other content over your router via the supplied USB port and SD Card Slot.  The USB Port called “SharePort Plus” allows for sharing of USB Printers, NAS devices, and creating UPnP servers.  The web interface, I found to be fairly cluttered and difficult to navigate.  It also comes with IPv6 support out of the box, a much-welcomed feature as the transition to IPv6 slowly begins.  Another feature that D-Link markets a lot, is the router’s QoS service titled “HD Fuel.”  Essentially this is a WAN based Quality of Service (QoS) feature allowing you to prioritize traffic to ensure that things like video streaming, Skype Calls, and gaming aren’t interrupted by Torrents or other services.  I had the opportunity to test this quite extensively, and it works very well.  It offers a similar feature for wireless traffic prioritization called WISH (Wireless Intelligent Stream Handling.)  This allows you to specify wireless traffic priority based on service and IP address that’s connected to the network.  This also worked surprisingly well.  It also offers OpenDNS support which is a very cool feature for those who don’t want to use their ISPs DNS server.

Performance on the router is pretty consistent with others in the market.  Wired gigabit file transfers saw performance consistently in the 70-75MB/s range which is considerably fast, especially for those upgrading from a router that only supports 10/100 connectivity.  The wireless, when you can get into a clear area and use 40mhz worth of spectrum can see impressive file transfers around the 6-7MB/s range.  When you’re only using 20mhz, transfer speed is obviously considerably less.

Overall the router is a very nice product, it’s feature rich, and its HD Fuel QoS service is very nice to have, especially if you’re bandwidth constrained.  However, to me personally the lack of 3^rd party firmware support and no 5ghz radio is a deal breaker for me, especially given how expensive the router is and I have a hunch the power users will probably share the same opinion.

Pros

+ Gigabit LAN and WAN ports
+ HD Fuel
+Ascetically pleasing look.

 Cons

- No 5ghz Radio
- No 3^rd Party Firmware Support
- Features don’t justify price

Find More Reviews @ TestFreaks

Seagate GoFlex Desk 4TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive Review @ Bigbruin.com

Sapphire Radeon HD6450 Flex Edition Video Card Review @ TechwareLabs

Intel X79 Motherboard Roundup @ TechSpot

The Electric Delorean @ Hardware Secrets

If you’re a college student or sometimes have weird working hours (in my case both) the WakeMate might just become your new best friend.  A startup company who seemed to be hit with setback after setback finally released their long awaited product that helps to solve the problem of waking up exhausted.

Have you ever wondered, why you can wake up feeling refreshed after only a few hours of sleep, while other times waking up absolutely exhausted after actually getting a decent amount of sleep?  Well, WakeMate offers a potential answer, and solution to the problem.  According to WakeMate (I’ll be quoting them, for a good portion of the science behind the product) when you sleep, your body goes through various stages in your sleep cycle that WakeMate classifies as Deep, Average and Light.  The idea behind their product is that if you wake up while your body is in a light stage of sleep you will feel more awake, while waking up during a deep sleep giving you that exhausted feeling no matter how long you’ve slept.  The problem is, how do you know when your body is in a light state of sleep so you can wake up?

The answer to this question lies in your body’s sleeping movements; WakeMate is a small wristband you wear that connects back to your phone via Bluetooth.  It then monitors and records your movements while you sleep, by doing this it is able to track your sleep cycle and make a determination as to when it is the optimal time to wake you up.  Since the product is Bluetooth based, it is available for the major mobile devices out there (iOS Users require a special wristband…blame Apple.)

There isn’t too much setup required with the WakeMate, it includes the device itself some simple directions and a USB cable for charging.  Pairing the WakeMate with your device is no different than pairing any other Bluetooth device, and utilizes an app that you download from WakeMate.  The Wristband is small, light, and comfortable to wear while you’re sleeping, although those with larger wrists will find the device uncomfortably tight.  I have fairly small wrists and the WakeMate is a snug fit on my wrist.  The wristband does have elastic on it so it will stretch for larger wrists, but I think WakeMate will eventually need to come up with different sizes or a more apt adjustment.  I found the battery to be decent, with an average of 7-8hrs of use (sleep); you’ll find the wristband provides you with with 2-3 nights of sleep without needing a recharge.  The wristband is also machine-washable once you remove the small circuitry package inside the wristband.  I unfortunately, forgot to do this about 2 weeks ago and the entire wristband went through the wash.  The circuitry has been sitting out drying ever since, I want to make sure it is good and dry before I attempt to charge it or turn it back on.

The iPhone software (available via the App Store) is what controls your WakeMate hardware, and uploads your sleep data to Wakelytics (more on this in a bit.)  Inside the app, you set the absolute latest time that you can wake up.  From this, the WakeMate will create a 20 minute window before that, and make a determination within that window on when it’s the best time to wake you up (For example: If you set a wakeup time of 10am, the WakeMate will wake you up between 9:40am and 10:00am.)  If the WakeMate is unable to make a determination, it will wake you up at the maximum time you set.  You’re also able to set custom alarm tones, using either those supplied by WakeMate, or any song from your iTunes library.  There are 4 different tones and a Vibrate only option, not too sure how that would be useful unless your iPhone is attached to you., given that the WakeMate itself has no vibration fuctio  (HINT: If you want to feel like you’re waking up to the movie Tron, check out the “green” tone.  But for the love of god and your sanity, make sure you either shut off or turn down the “Error Tone” in the App Settings.  If your device loses communication with the WakeMate, it will sound an alarm that could rival an Air Raid siren.)

Your movements are tracked through the wristband, and once you wake up  are uploaded to WakeMate’s servers and analyzed by Wakelytics for your viewing later.  It will only record and upload if you sleep longer than 4hrs. (Unfortunately, between school and work, 4hrs of sleep is about all I was receiving from late-May until 4^th of July Weekend.)  If you do sleep for 4 hours or less, the device will still attempt to wake you up during your light stage of sleep, but it tended to be less reliable in determining when I should wake up.  WakeMate even works if you’re sleeping in a bed with someone else, as the other person’s movements (or mainly bed vibrations) are noted in the WakeMate’s determination of when to wake you up or in your Wakelytics information.  Wakelytics is an overview of your sleeping; it provides you a way to track how your various nights of sleep are, and how they rank against others using the WakeMate.  It even provides information on how long you spent in various stages of sleep.  Wakelytics also enables you to “tag” nights so that way you can better track your nights and give yourself a better idea of why you either had a good night sleep or poor night sleep.  Wakelytics just provides a plethora of tools to give you a better understanding, such as telling you how long it took to fall asleep, comparing nights, and a Sleep Score and what your score is and how it fluctuates while sleeping.  The Sleep Score throws me for a loop though, the only metric that I’ve been able to find is “Higher is Better,” I’d like to know how it’s calculated, it just seems extremely vague.

Overall though, the device is extremely solid and I’d recommend it to anyone wishing to sleep better.  It’s not perfect, and is not the end all to your sleep and waking up problems, but it’s a very good start.  You do have to be committed to the science though, it isn’t going to be perfect or wake you up at the best time every day.  But waking up with the WakeMate and then setting yourself another snooze alarm is going to make matters worse and you’ll end up feeling miserable, I experienced this firsthand on multiple occasions.  With that in mind, the developers of the WakeMate seem to be extremely committed to improving the device through bug fixes and feature additions.  For this as, well as the overwhelming success I’ve had with it, I recommend it to anyone who wishes to improve their sleeping habits and wake up without that groggy feel.

Pros:

+Lightweight
+Features
+Accuracy
+Wakelytics

Cons:

-Wristband size
-Need a minimum 4hrs of sleep