Gadget Muse

The Latest PSP Games Reviewed

2008-05-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

I’m sure a lot of you are already familiar with the Sony Playstation Portable, or PSP. It was first introduced into the market back in 2005 and has changed very little since. I think that the true test of a gadget’s greatness is its staying power. And if that’s the case, then the PSP is surely a winner.

What makes the PSP a great gaming device is its massive and diverse gaming library. Whether you’re a girl or a boy, a kid or a grown-up, a stay-at-home mom or a high-school student, there’s a PSP game that will surely entertain you. After all, a portable gaming console is just a fancy brick without awesome games. So, for this issue of Gizmo, I will focus on the latest games being offered for the PSP.

God of War: Chains of Olympus

Unleash the power of the Gods and embark on a merciless quest as Kratos, an ex-Spartan warrior driven to destroy Ares, the God of War. Armed with lethal double chainblades, Kratos must carve through mythology's darkest creatures including Medusa, Cyclops, the Hydra and more, while solving intricate puzzles in breathtaking environments… This is arguably the best title for the PSP out there. Its excellent gameplay, engaging storyline, awesome graphics and great soundtrack make it a top pick for the PSP. But because of the graphic violence in the game, this is not for little children. It is appropriately rated M (mature) by the ESRB.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Set seven years prior to the events of the first Final Fantasy VII, a large number of SOLDIER members, led by 1st Class operative Genesis, go missing. The severity of the situation prompts Shinra executives to deploy more SOLDIER operatives. The ones assigned to the mission are Zack, Angeal, and the 1st Class hero who is known the world over as Sephiroth… As a prequel to the very successful Final Fantasy VII, this game stands alone on its own merits while adding considerable substance and context to the original. Despite the technical limitations of the PSP, this game still manages to push the envelope with its great graphics and animations. If you’re a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, you won’t be disappointed with this installment.

Patapon

Behind the Patapons' cute exterior, lies a fierce warrior spirit that can only be commanded by the beat of their God’s war drum. Master up to six different drumbeats to command the Patapon troops to march, attack, defend, power up, retreat, and use magic. Combine the various chains of drumbeats to address each unique level, leading the Patapons to victory over the Zigoton enemy forces… This game may sound simple and childish but it is surprisingly not. In fact it is very challenging, enjoyable and addictive. Singing the rhythm yourself and tapping it out with your foot when your minions let you down demonstrates how hard it is to be a god and how into this game you can become.

Downstream Panic!

In Downstream Panic, players save their scaly sea-friends in more than 80 different levels with five different customizable environments. It is up to the player to protect fish from land, predators and other obstacles through the use of a variety of innovative tools as they guide fish on their descent back into the ocean. Three different game modes (adventure, free play and survival) bring more of a challenge to the aquatic mix… This puzzle game is a gem. If you want games that make you think before you act, then this one’s for you. With eighty stages out of the box, you’ll surely play this one for hours and hours.

Awesome Do-It-Yourself USB Drive

2008-04-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

Modders and do-it-yourselfers would love this project. The picture above might look like a hacked USB cord but it's actually a USB drive. Awesome right? It will surely be a hit with your techie (and maybe non-techie) co-workers.

It's quite easy to make too. Check out Evil Mad Scientist for the step by step instructions.

Upgrade Your Life (by Lifehacker)

2008-03-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Lifehacker's Upgrade Your Life is the ultimate compilation of the best Lifehacker tips and tricks. It's a book version of the best Lifehacker has to offer. While you'll have to shell out dollars to get the book, the online version is absolutely free. There are lots of great tips you can use. Here are the most useful for me...

Outlook tip: Color code messages addressed only to you - This is extremely useful since I get a lot of email advisories that I don't necessarily have to read asap. This makes the most important emails (the ones addressed directly to me) stand out of the numerous unread messages in my inbox.
Generate unlimited email addresses with Gmail - I hate, hate, hate spam. Who doesn't? With this tip, you can create "disposable" email addresses for use with websites that require the submission of an email address.
Future-proof your email address - Email addresses used to be novelties. Not anymore. Now, they are a cruicial part of your social life. That's why it's important to choose an email address that will grow with you.
Create and customize your own planner with D*I*Y Planner - Electronic PDAs aren't always the best choices in organizing your life. Sometimes, the good old planner is the way to go.
Power Texting Tips - Text messaging may not just be for kids and teenagers anymore. These tips take you from novice to power texter.
Create your own virtual private network with Hamachi - If you've got multiple computers at home, creating your own VPN makes it a whole lot easier finding and accessing files from other machines.

Check out Lifehacker's Upgrade Your Life for many other useful tips.

9-inch Asus Eee PC

2008-03-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

My only gripe about the original Asus Eee PC is the ugly black bezel surrounding its LCD screen. The laptop is already so small, adding a black bezel around the LCD screen makes it even smaller and very hard to read from.

Thankfuly, they have announced an updated version of the tiny laptop which gets rid of the offensive bezel. It's got a 9 inch screen and a 1024 x 600 resolution according to Asus. Not too bad at all, if you ask me.

Engadget has a snapshot gallery of the glorious 9 inch Asus Eee PC screen. It looks so pretty, I'm almost tempted to get one even though I wouldn't have any use for it.

Here's another gallery of pics comparing the 7 incher to the 9 incher Eee. I really think the 9 inch Eee looks a whole lot better than it's 7 inch counterpart. It's a wee bit bigger but who cares? It's still a tiny laptop anyway.

Awesome iPod Nano Video Enlarger Plus Speaker

2008-03-02T04:32:00.000-08:00

Think your iPod Nano's screen is too small? Then check out this do-it-yourself iPod Nano video enlarger. It's made out of an old 35mm slide viewer, hacked to include portable speakers. Very cool.

My Gadget Wishlist

2008-02-23T23:38:00.000-08:00

Realistically speaking, I don't have enough money to buy all the gadgets I want. But if ever I did, I'll go ahead and buy these things. These are very simple and mainstream gadgets, nothing too fancy in here. And if I probably starved myself for a year I could buy these, but I just love food too much.

Apple Macbook Pro - This one's a no-brainer. This laptop's simply unbeatable.

iPod Touch 32 gb - I have the 16gb model but I want the newly released 32 gb! I'm frustrated.

Bose iPod Dock - This is the prettiest iPod dock around.

PS3 - Now that BluRay's the clear winner, I'd love to get the PS3 not only for games but for watching awesome movies as well.

PSP - I used to have a PSP but it got sat on and the screen cracked. Now I'm thinking that I want one again.

Laptop DIY

2008-02-21T10:59:00.000-08:00

If the price of your new laptop has left you all broke and laptop accessory-less, then DIY! Here are a bunch of do-it-yourself projects for all sorts of laptop accessories that will surely make you the envy of all your friends. Ok, maybe not, but they're still cool projects! :-)

Foam, foam, foam! There's no better and cheaper material to encase your laptop in than foam. This step by step tutorial shows us how to custom make a foam case for your laptop.

If foam doesn't float your boat, then cardboard and duct tape might. Check out this instructable for creating your very own cardboard and duct tape laptop case.
This PVC laptop stand is cheap, easy to construct and definitely cruicial if you use your laptop on a regular basis. Your back will definitely thank you.

PSPhone Mockup

2008-02-19T12:17:00.000-08:00

If Sony Ericsson came up with a cellphone slash PSP that looked like this, I'd definitely snap one up. It looks gorgeous! The dual-sliding keypad is suspiciously similar to that of the Nokia n95's but I think this one makes use of it in a better way. How I wish this is a mockup of an actual product to be released, but unfortunately, Engadget debunks it's existence as a mere flight of fancy.

MacBook Pro Mockups

2008-02-16T06:17:00.000-08:00

The MacBook Pro is rumored to be updated any time soon. But while that's not happening yet, the time's just right for speculation and excitement. To up the speculation, Engadget challeged it's readers to create mockups of the next MBP. The gallery of submissions is now available at the site and while there were some pretty wacky submissions, some looked great. See my faves below...

Macro Photography 101

2008-02-16T05:48:00.000-08:00

I love macro photography. For those who are unfamiliar, macro photography is "the art of taking pictures of things extremely close-up." It's a great way to see your subject in a whole new perspective. However, it's not exactly the easiest thing to do, especially if you don't have a dslr in your camera bag. Erin Manning has created a how-to for taking macro photos using just a regular point and shoot camera. Take a look and you'll be taking terrific close-up pictures in no time.

Keep Your Love of Gadgets from Making You Broke

2008-01-21T21:37:00.000-08:00

Gadget freaks, relax. When every new gadget makes you whip out your credit card, it's not a good sign for your wallet or your bank account. Your love of gadgets doesn't have to mean going broke from credit card debt. Put Things Off has a great article on how to curb your anxiety everytime a new gadget is announced.

Then again, when you've got the money to blow on gadgets, go ahead. No ones stopping you from being an early adopter. Just don't complain when the prices are lowered a few months later.

Macworld 2008 Keynote

2008-01-16T10:17:00.001-08:00

Check out Steve Jobs' keynote at Macworld 2008 here. I'm personally not blown away by any of the things he announced. However, I'm sure a number of people are or will be psyched about a certain practically-paper-thin laptop.

Anyway, I think it's better to watch any keynote without any knowledge about the content whatsoever. It makes everything sound better I guess. So I'll stop blabbing now.

Best of the Worst Ads From CES 2008

2008-01-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Engadget has compiled a collection of the best of the worst ads from CES 2008. There are some that made me go "wha???" and some that made me go "meh". Here are a few that I find really hilarious...

Bug Labs at CES 2008

2008-01-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

I'm sure all tech enthusiasts are drooling over the Bug Labs modular gadgetry. For those who can't get enough of it, here's a demo video with Jeremy Toeman c/o Mahalo Daily's Veronica Belmont taken during CES 2008.

Those little wonders will be shipping by March so those of you who can't wait to get their hands on some modules can head over to their site at Buglabs.net by January 21st when they start taking orders. Now's the best time to save up, since the modules are not exactly cheap. However, early adopters will get a discount (terrific idea on their end) so at least you won't feel like a shmuck a few months later.

CES 2008 Covered!

2008-01-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

CES 2008 is here at last! Fortunately for the unlucky people like me who can't be there, the bloggers over at Gizmodo.com are keeping themselves really busy with covering the numerous new products being featured at CES.

Although nothing so far is extremely mindblowing, there are a number of interesting products to I'm definitely going to look forward to. Among those are the Slingcatcher, SPINN PMP and the MOTO ROKR E8.

10 Great Google Search Tricks

2008-01-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

Google Search isn't just for searching websites anymore. Apparently, Google Search has got a lot of tricks up it's sleeve. Lifehacker shows us other uses for Google Search, some of which are really very useful.

For instance, need to know the time in Sydney? Just type "time sydney" in Google's search box. Aside from the obligatory search results, this appears at the top of the page...

1:33 AM Sunday (EST) - Time in Sydney, New South Wales

Not to shabby if I could say so myself. Check out Lifehacker's article for more Google Search savvy tricks.

Ever Tried Googling Yourself?

2007-12-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

Do you like what you find? Being the somewhat paranoid person that I am, I've always used an alias for all my online interactions. Add to that the fact that I've never made the news, so I have a tiny, almost non-existent online footprint.

However, some of you might be not so lucky. And chances are, someone might be Googling your name right now. It may be a prospective employer or secret admirer but one thing's for sure, you will be judged by the information that's available on Google about you.

Lifehacker has a great article on how to "have a say on what Google says about you." It basically shows you how to setup your own website and make it somewhat your online calling card so people can easily find you online. It also gives ideas on how to link up your site so it appears high on Google's search results.

It's a nice article, but it won't tell you how to remove any incriminating information about you online. I don't think it's possible to do that anyway. Tough luck.

Great Ways to Use Your Domain

2007-12-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

So you bought your own domain. What now? Building your own website from scratch and getting it hosted can be too much trouble for some people. Instead, why not take advantage of the numerous great services out there and create your own web site complete with your very own email accounts, blog, etc.? Lifehacker shows us the many great ways to set up a "complete domain name backend for free."

Here are my top 3 "domain-friendly" free services:

Blogger.com - This is a very very very popular blogging tool hosted by our very own Google. It's very easy to set a blog using your own domain here instead of the generic blogspot.com domain. I'm using this service and I'm quite happy with it so far.

Tumblr.com - Instead of the usual textey and imagey blogs littering the nets, Tumblr features blogs that are short and simple. Got a link you want to share? Post it! Got a picture? Upload it! With Tumblr, there's no need for lengthy dissertations or introductions. Just post and go.

Google Apps For Your Domain - Google has done it again. They have released an amazing service that's sure to be a hit with the tech savvy people. With this service, you can host your very own versions of Google Apps right on your own domain. You could set-up your homepage to display your Google start page, and set-up up to 50 e-mail addresses that you can access using the Gmail interface.

Tired of Your Usual Mostly Text Blogs? Scrapblog!

2007-12-08T10:45:00.000-08:00

I've just discovered a great web app. Check out Scrapblog.com and I'm sure you guys will like it too. This isn't an endorsement and I'm not being paid to say this, but I really like Scrapblog's concept.

Instead of the usual text-based blog apps, Scrapblog allows you to create scrapbook-like flash blogs that almost literally pops out of the page. You can post pictures and text like you would on a scrapbook using an very intuitive interface.

They also have loads of templates to choose from. Or if you're really creative, you can create your own designs from scratch. You can even post your creations to your flickr accounts.

The only problem I have with it is that it's a tad slow on my dsl connection. I expected the web-based app to be a bit quicker that it actually is. I really don't know if it's their server or my internet connection but it seemed like I was staring at the screen waiting for it to render more often than I would have liked.

Despite this, I would still recommend this service. Try it!

BUG Labs

2007-12-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

These are probably the most interesting things ever invented. They modular electronic devices, otherwise known as BUGs. In a nutshell, they're like lego pieces for engineers and techies. And since it's hardware and software are open source (yay!!!), the things you can build (if you are technically inclined) are virtually unlimited. I like this idea so much that I can't wait to get myself one of these. I just hope they're not too expensive.

Anyway, for more info about BUGs, check out these links:

Bug Labs Website - lots of info about BUGs here
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3 - In these three videos, Robert Scoble interviews the folks from Bug Labs. A lot of interesting stuff were discussed here, including what BUGs are and the future of BUGs.

Lifehacker's Master Your DSLR Camera Part 2

2007-12-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, but finally, Lifehacker.com has posted the second installment of the Master Your DSLR Camera series. While the first installment tackles the program mode of your camera, part two talks about the manual mode and the priority modes.

The manual mode is especially useful if you want to be completely in control of your exposure. However, the priority modes are great shortcuts for great shots if you don't want to tinker with a lot of settings. Anyway, check out the article and prepare to do some more experimenting and hopefully pretty soon, you'll be shooting (almost) like a pro.

Link: [Lifehacker]

Easiest Way To Solve A 3x3 Rubik's Cube

2007-11-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to learn how to solve a 3x3 Rubik's Cube all on my own. I tried different techniques via Rubikssolver.com. Although they were fairly easy to follow, the problem is, my poor memory limits me. My efforts were not paying off as I was having a very hard time memorizing the algorithms required for the different situations.

It would be a different story if the logic of the algorithms were explained. That way it would be easier to remember the combinations. Anyway, to make the long story short, I think I've just found the easiest to understand 3x3 Rubik's Cube tutorial. It's a 25 minute video and the host manages to explain every single step in a way that is very easy to understand. Don't just take my word for it... check out the video below and try solving a cube. Good luck!

Easiest 3x3 Rubik's Cube Tutorial You Will Find - Watch the top videos of the week here

Make Your Own Cheap 5.1 Surround Headphones

2007-11-23T09:19:00.000-08:00

This is pretty cool. As we all know, headphones can be pretty darn expensive, expecially those which are especially made for surround sound systems. Babblin5 had this great idea to create his own surround headphones out of a cheap headphone and 2 pairs of earphones.

I'll be honest, I was a bit skeptical about this at first. However, after reading the comments about it, it seems like people are pretty pleased with their do-it-yourself headphones. Not bad for a cheap hack-job. Check out the instructional video below...

5.1 Surround Headphone Hack! - The best video clips are here

Turn Your Old Highlighter Into a Flash Drive Case

2007-11-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

Check out this great idea from Instructables.com. Here's a disclaimer though: it comes with really crappy pics. However, at least the instructions are very easy to understand. So you've been warned.

The instructable shows us how to somewhat camouflage and disguise your flash drive to make it look like an ordinary highlighter. I can't count how many times I've lost a flash drive. Who knows which hands my important data will land into? At least if my flash drive is disguised into a highlighter, nobody will give it a second look if ever I leave it somewhere. Now all I have to remember is not to put it in my pencil case along with every other highlighter I have.

Link: [Instructable.com]

Lifehacker's Master Your DSLR Camera Part 1

2007-11-17T07:09:00.000-08:00

Lifehacker's doing a great article series about getting the most out of your DSLR camera. Part 1 is all about the Program mode of your camera. This guide is very useful and informative especially for budding photographers. So if your DSLR's dial is permanently set to AUTO, you'll want to check this article out.

I'll be looking out for the rest of the articles in the series and I'll be posting updates for you guys as well. In the meantime, have fun and experiment!

Link: [Lifehacker]