The Controller Holster Keeps The Chat Going
It’s a Friday night. You’re gaming on Xbox Live with your best buds. The trash talking has begun. You’re in the middle of a very emotional, deeply moving conversation that will forever define the characters of those involved. Then it hits you. The hunger. The thirst. Maybe even Mother Nature, herself. You need munchies. You need drinkage. It can’t be ignored, and neither can the international (or interstate) dialog that is somehow linking your supposed lack of Halo skills to the questionable legitimacy of your birthright. You clearly need both hands to open your favorite beverage (or to answer nature’s call), and that Xbox controller doesn’t exactly carry itself to the kitchen to get your needed refreshment. What to do?
Things For Stuff has provided a solution to your quandary. Enter, the Controller Holster. 
Gaming Review: PlayStation Move
The next step in immersive gaming has arrived for PlayStation 3 owners in the form of Move. Seen by some as a Nintendo Wii knockoff, the Move has entered the marketplace as anything but. With the same versatility as, and greater precision than the Wii, Move has established itself as a new benchmark for motion-controlled gaming.
While not totally hands free like Microsoft’s Kinect, Sony’s Move is equally entertaining but has the interactivity of buttons to set itself apart from it’s peers. Not to put down any competitor to the Move, but, as a kid, when you were sword fighting with your friends, did you imagine you were holding swords or find sticks to use? And wasn’t cops and robbers a lot more fun when you had toy guns to use instead of pointing your finger?
The NOX Audio Specialist: One part headphone, Two parts audio bliss
Recently, I decided I needed new headphones for listening to my iPod Touch. While there are many that you can buy that retail well under $50, they don’t quite have the BAM POW OOMPH of those over $100. Also, you can go through quite a few sub-$50 units before you find a set that are durable and satisfy the audiophile in you. That being said, my father always tells me “Only a rich man can afford to buy cheap stuff.”
My search led me to NOX Audio and their new Specialist over-the-ear headphones. Not only are these headphones fantastic, they fit the bill for anyone and everyone. Yes, it’s a bold statement. But please, read on.
Is the Angry Birds Christmas edition set to go live today?
Over the past few weeks, Rovio Mobile, maker of the iPhone’s most popular game, has hinted about the impending release of a holiday edition. Following the separate release of a Halloween-themed game a few months ago, rumors abounded about what fans could expect for the Christmas season.
According to several sources across the web, Rovio’s holiday season offering will be available free to iOS device users (iPhone/iPod Touch) who previously purchased the $0.99, full version of the game. In a surprise twist, Rovio has also confirmed that Android users will get to share in the pig-smashing holiday cheer, too. Yes, the update is slated to be pushed out to them, as well. So when exactly is it supposed to happen?
iPhone App Review: Game Dev Story
This review should have been done two weeks ago.
I lead off with that because this review isn’t going to be like past reviews I’ve done for Geek Shui Living.
Generally I give the information about the game, tell you a bit about it, go over the pluses and minuses (the good ol’ FTW and WTF, respectively), and wrap it up. I approached Justin [i.e. Mr. Geek Shui himself] with the title and thought it would be a good one to cover, since it stood out from the rest of the games that were in the Top 25. Most games in the Top 25 were either 99 cents, established franchises (such as Monopoly or Tetris), or produced by an established name like Electronic Arts. Game Dev Story was $3.99, unknown before its release on the iPhone (at least in America), and produced by Kairosoft, whose English website is a one page (mobile-formatted) ad for – you guessed it – Game Dev Story. Yet here it was, in the Top 25, with hundreds of reviews and a five star rating. Not 4.5 stars like many successful games end up having (there’s always bound to be the Armond Whites of the App Store that give a one-star rating to a game or app because its doing so well) but a legit five stars. The genre was a favorite of mine (I’ve always enjoyed simulations), so I wanted to dig in. I downloaded and started.
8 hours later, I needed to get sleep.
Let’s get this out of the way: Game Dev Story is a fun game, and you will get enough gameplay out of it to justify your $4. I recommend it. But the game itself is exactly that – fun. It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not innovative, and it doesn’t have a great deal of depth. When you’ve played it for 10 minutes, you’ve pretty much explored every aspect of the game. So why 8 hours?
Will Angry Birds be part of this Christmas season’s must-have geek gear?
Well, if you’re one of the millions of Android and iPhone users addicted to the wildly popular bird-slinging, pig-smashing app, it appears you’ll be able to let the non-connected world know about it. In addition to the previously launched line of Angry Birds t-shirts, game developer Rovio will soon be selling Angry Birds plush toys. While you may be shaking your head at the thought, the plush toys are likely to become one of those kitsch items that many a geek just can’t live without.
For now, there are five birds from which to choose, which are reasonably priced at $14.95 each. The toys won’t actually be released until early December, but preorders are being offered through both the official Angry Birds online store. Additionally, online toy vendor ToyWiz.com is also offering preordering for the items.
Reviews for Regular People – The Energizer Induction Charge System for Wii
The title basically says it all, we’re doing a regular people review of the Energizer Induction Charging Station for the Wii. It may not sound super exciting, but after spending some time with this thing I am really glad I invested in it. I am trying to be a better citizen of the world and use rechargeable batteries as much as I can. At times it gets overwhelming to try to keep up with what has rechargeable batteries and making sure I keep them charged and at-the-ready. After all, what good are a dozen rechargeable batteries if none of them are charged. I’m sure many of you gamers and gadget lovers know what I mean. Captain Kirk was definitely right. We always need more power.
iPhone App Review: Risk
Risk was always one of those board games that was off limits to me growing up. The main excuse I was given was that it was more of a “complex” game than games like Monopoly or Battleship. Indeed, Risk is a little complex for a classic board game (as evidenced by the “ages 12+” guideline instead of the usual 7 to 9 most classic board games start at), but I think in reality it was the cost (Risk, even today, lists for at least $9 more than other classic Hasbro board games) and that you needed three people to play – the kiss of death for an only child. EA’s release of Risk for iPhone eliminates many of the stumbling blocks someone looking for an introduction to Risk might have, but is it enough for long time fans of the original?
TVersity: Home multimedia sharing for the rest of us
Hi, my name is Alex, and I am a media junkie. This is a common issue for so many of us, we love our media. I love my music, movies, and pictures. I also really appreciate being able to easily access them from multiple locations. TVersity allows me to easily do that. Before, I had to take a CD and manually rip it to my Xbox or transfer movies to a USB drive so I could watch it on my Microsoft Xbox 360 or my Sony PS3.
The company describes their mission as: “…to empower individuals to organize and personalize their home and Internet multimedia collection (audio, video and images) and have universal access to it anywhere (at the home or on the go) anytime and from any device.” For my part, I can assure you this statement is very accurate. I have been using TVersity for some time and can attest that it works exactly as advertised.
Update: Angry Birds Lite for Android now available in the Android Market
We just received this update notification from the folks over at Rovio. It looks like Angry Birds action is now officially available for download, so head on over to the Android Market from your device and get in on the beta action. After you give it a go, let us know what you think, via comment. We’re interested to know if it will measure up to the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad experience to which we’ve become accustomed.
