Now I understand the marketing hate that Steve Jobs has against Bill Gates. They need each other.

One of the biggest surprises from CES 2010 came from the Lenovo Booth. We had some time to sit down and chat with Lenovo and go over their new product line. The ThinkPads are receiving a bit of a redesign while still staying true to the original. It was very interesting to see a ThinkPad in a color other then it’s classic matte black. During this we were all unprepared for the Notebook that awaited us. There sitting in the corner of the booth surrounded by a bunch of people rested the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook. So what sets the Notebook apart from the rest. The Concept of the Notebook is that you can remove the screen from the Notebook and it become a Tablet. Though the Tablet does have limited computing power it’s still an amazing concept.

Check out the Video Above of the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook

At first glance these Psyko headsets look a bit odd, but upon closer inspection you realize that they are … well, REALLY odd. That is a good thing, and we have been waiting too long for someone to break the mold and innovate damnit! The surround provided by the headset we tested on the show floor was, barring the low volume compared to the ambient hall, really cool. Five speakers mounted in the cross piece of the headset pump the sounds into tubes that carry the sound to the front and back of your ears. This natural flow allows sounds to be correctly processed by your brain and you get really pinpoint directionality. During our demo the sources of the gunfire in the game were relatively easy to locate. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that the ear covers are vented, so no sweaty-head during those marathon game sessions.

The headset’s inventor, and Psyko’s “Head Psyko”, James Hildebrandt told us that he spent a long time disassembling traditional speakers in an attempt to learn how sound works in our heads. By moving them around and contemplating how the sound reached his ears, he made the breakthroughs present in Psyko’s psychoacoustic masterpiece.

All of this auditory bliss is handled by the headset; your computer will not know the difference between this headset and any other 5.1 surround device. Yes, this is currently only available to the PC market, and demand has been steep. There is a bit of a backlog of orders as peoples’ orders are outpacing Psyko’s manufacturing. XBOX360 models, also with mics, are currently being tested and should be out around midyear.  Once the PC ordering blitz calms down I would personally love to pick up a pair.

PC vs MAC parody videos are a dime a dozen.  But every once in a while one catches me off guard. I don’t know what it is about people instructing little kids to say “adult words”, but it’s damn funny.

What is LEGO Universe really about?

In the universe of LEGO, something is causing a maelstrom to rid the universe of its imagination.  It is up to every LEGO good spirit to rid these evil LEGO spirits by using more imagination.  Launching this year for PC only, LEGO will launch an MMO like no other.  I know that sounds cliched but it is a type of MMO that I have never seen before. Reason being is that the only MMO I have ever played was World of Warcraft.

But the idea of a MMO game where there is no leveling caught me off guard.  I didn’t know what to expect from LEGO before the exclusive presentation I was invited to.  The whole point of the MMO is not to “level up” your character but to “level up” your imagination by completing quests and collecting different LEGO bricks, mini-fig parts, and special LEGO accessories.

Create your own universe

With all these collected LEGO bricks you can build custom in game items or you can bring it into your own private property and build your own LEGO land.  Just like what you would do in real life. This was one of the main features of the game that really caught my attention. You buy bricks, build a model and play in it in your home.  With this private property you can build anything you can imagine and invite your friends to play in it.  Build a house, build race cars and a race track, or even build puzzles for your friends to figure out.  Again, the only limit is your imagination which is what the LEGO brand is all about.

More from my meeting with LEGO Universe at CES, screen shots, and a trailer after the break.

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MW2 players may already be aware of this issue in which a player can turn themselves into a suicide bomber in-game. Upon death the player detonates whatever ordinance they are carrying and takes out a good number of people in the blast radius. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about:

Now, Infinity Ward is developing a patch as fast as possible, and it appears Microsoft is helping deal with the gap in between. As reported over on 1up.com: “…players caught using the glitch will be suspended, according to Xbox Live’s director of policy and enforcement, Stephen Toulouse.”  On the PS3 however, it appears that the opposite is true, noting that that a Sony representative said “I don’t believe we are banning people for using the glitch.”

[via 1up]

It’s that time again, time to review some of my cherry picked smaller stories of the week for those that might have missed them. This time round we’ve got an Adobe Flash update that doesn’t suck. OK, sucks a little less. Flash 10.1 beta was unleashed to the willing public with GPU video acceleration for certain Nvidia cards on Windows, but perhaps more importantly reduced CPU usage across all platforms. What does this mean? YouTube that doesn’t make your Mac or PC red-line that’s what. A step in the right direction Adobe, maybe Flash isn’t a lost cause after all. I’ve certainly seen some improvements on my netbook and Mac. (more…)

In recent years, few graphic cards have managed to capture the imagination of the PC building community. The recent release of the ATI 5800 series has turned the market on its end and people are lining up to get their grubby little paws on the latest iteration, the 5870 series. Its the first card on the market with native DirectX 11 graphics technology, the card boasts 2.15 billion 40 nanometer transistors, pumping out 2.75 teraflops of power,  1600 stream processors, a memory bandwidth of 153.6GB/sec and a clockspeed of 850mhz. The graphics powerhouse supports up to 3 displays simultaneously with independent refresh rates and resolutions or they can be combined into one large display using the new ATI Eyefinity system. Dual-Link DVI and displayport with a resolution of 2560×1600 is included as is HDMI 1.3 with a native resolution of 1920×1200.

The 5870 can support up to four cards in CrossfireX mode for an incredible boost in power. This beauty definitely has the hunger of a beast, requiring at least 500 watts (600 is recommended for crossfire) to run a complete system. It also requires two six pin PCI-E connections. This baby is fantastically powerful, vastly outperforming its brethren, but this greatness comes at a terrible cost. Finding one of these beauties for sale has proven difficult. Retailers like Microcenter and Newegg have had a hard time keeping the cards in stock and with good reason; ATI has had major supply issues trying to churn this thing out. With demand well outpacing production, we may not see another large shipment of the 5870 till very close to the holidays. While this powerhouse does exist (and exist very well it does!) it certainly doesn’t feel like it does. Overall ATI’s new top dog very much lives up to its own hype and is king of the pack when it comes to graphics processors. Nvidia, the ball is in your court.

So patch 3.3 approaches. Icecrown awaits. It is more than likely the final content patch of Wrath of the Lich King, if history holds true.  While this expansion was the best content Blizzard has released to date and probably the best expansion any MMORPG has ever seen, I can’t help but get the same, predictable end-of-expansion blues I’ve not yet managed to dodge in all of my years in this genre.  EverQuest, DAoC, WoW… When each of these games approaches an expansion, I am at once thrilled by the promise of new, amazing content and yet standing in one spot, sporting my now outdated Tier 8.5 set going “So wait, WTF am I doing this for, now?”  I have an answer, I think.

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I’m not the type to try to advocate products or companies, normally.  I’m not sure why, I just don’t do it.  I’ll make an exception this time.  Anyone who is in the market for a new gaming rig has only ONE place they need to visit.

www.doghousesystems.com

I just received my new desktop machine from them last week.  I got the Armor VS model.  Tossed 8 Gigs of RAM in that baby and she was still under $1,200.  Having just had a baby recently, I drooled over getting an awesome gaming PC for that price.  But I figured hey, its entry level price, the PC will probably be middle of the line at best.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  This thing flies.  I mean flies.  In WoW at peak times, in Dalaran, maxed settings, I get over 60 FPS.  Over 60 in 25 man raids, as well, again with everything maxed out.  I get almost 75 in maxed settings Left 4 Dead.  I is a happy panda!  I don’t have any of the super high end games like Crysis to test it with, but I can only assume I would find similarly pleasing results there, as well.

Again, I can not describe with how happy I am with the performance of this machine.  No “Optional” trial software, no crap running in the backround I don’t need, these guys at DogHouse ARE gamers.  They know how we want our PCs to arrive.  It came with WoW Pre-installed and Pre-Patched.

If my pleasure level with the machine itself was a 10/10, then my review of DogHouse’s customer service would be about a 12/10.  It started early, too.  When I ordered the machine, I had to call their sales department to ask if 8G of RAM was possible in an Armor VS, since the choices on the order form were 2G and 4G.  After a moment, they came back and not only told me 8G was possible, but to reload my browser.  I reloaded my browser, and lo and behold, in that moment, they ADDED a choice for 8G.  If that isn’t prompt shit, I don’t know what would be.

The excellent service continued throughout the next 2 weeks.  They emailed me, letting me know the PC’s status, asking a few setup questions so that upon arrival, I could simply uncrate my glorious machine and get to pwning n00bz.  So it is roughly 2 weeks after I placed me order that FedEx arrives with my big box of joy.  Now, if I love DogHouse Systems, I fucking hate FedEx.  I watched the dude carry it from his truck to my door, dropping it once and hitting the door I opened for him with it.  Twice.

I get it to my little Nerd Lair, set it up – Which by the way, if you’re computer retarded, DogHouse sends a full color, lamens terms, very well labeled instruction binder on how to set it up – to find out that the bumbling idiot from FedEx managed to bend the housing on the top case exhaust fan.  What the fuck, FedEx?  So I call DogHouse, let them know my problem, and while I am far from computer illiterate, I’m not confident enough to go digging around in my new PC trying to fix this, so a gentleman named Sina walked me through getting the fan unhooked until they could ship me a new one.  Thats right.  FedEx fucked up, and DHS is fixing the problem.

These guys have my future business for all PC purchases and I can not stress enough how pleased people will be ordering from them.  If you need a new gaming rig, whether you’re looking to spend $1,000 or get the absolute top end shit, this is the place to go, geeks.  Keep up the good work DHS.  You guys rock.