Looking at this mouse while it’s sat on the desk, it doesn’t look like anything special. It has no fancy thumb rests, it doesn’t morph into some crazy contraption that’ll let you win whichever game you’re playing, and it doesn’t require assembly before use.

However, it is very simple to use and you can check out the design on the next page.

Specifications

• Buttons: 7
• Connectivity: USB Wired
• Laser Dpi: 5700 to 11400 DCPI
• OS Support: OS X, Windows 2000 and above
• Scroll Wheel: 1
• Weight: 0.22 pounds
• Sensitivity Adjustment: yes

Arriving in a clear plastic casing, the Smart Control is featured on the right, with information regarding the features surrounding it.

After opening up the package, you’re greeted with a range of different booklets including two setup and installation guides as well as a book containing TV, STB, DVD, AMP, MP3 and Media codes, for connecting the remote to different brands.

The remote is a dark grey/black colour, with a silver bezel around the edges. We found that, for the amount of technology you’re holding in your hand, the remote is very compact and lightweight.

The rear of the Smart Control has an almost rubber-like texture to it, and the device, as a whole, is very comfortable when in use.

As you can see in the images below, there are quite a few buttons on the Smart Control. This is because remote can control six different devices including TVs, set-top-boxes, DVD players, MP3 players and media devices such as Freeview, media centres and satellite receivers.

The Smart Control needs four AAA batteries to work, which aren’t included normally.

Retailing at £35, the Blue Snowflake is at the cheaper end of the scale unlike the £70 Blue Snowball microphone we reviewed a few months ago.

The Snowflake arrives in a blue and white box with a snowflake design covering almost the whole box.

You can open the box in the middle, revealing the Snowflake and the included instructions manual.

The microphone itself is situated in its own plastic casing, which also hides the USB cable to hook the microphone up to your PC or Mac.

You can then remove the Snowflake from the casing and begin to hook up the microphone.

If we take a closer look at the Snowflake design, it’s almost a scaled down version of the Snowball microphone.

The rear of the microphone features the USB port to connect everything up to your computer.

The front is where the microphone itself is situated, with a mesh grill in front to protect the microphone.

Now, on to the testing and overall performance…

The Equinux Tizi arrives in a relatively compact box with a white and blue colour scheme. The front shows the Tizi in action and the product name is written in black bold writing in the top left.

The reverse lists the features in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French; nothing too exciting there.

Once we get inside the box, you’ll see that there isn’t actually too much to the product as a whole, all you receive inside is the microUSB charging cable, some information on an application for German, Austrian and Swiss users and the Tizi itself.

The Tizi is very compact and slim. It sports a design similar to the iPhone 4 with its silver border in between the glossy black front and back. Seen on the front is the Equinux logo as well as the product name, Tizi, at the bottom.

If we take a look at the back of the Tizi, you’ll see that it’s home to the rechargeable battery compartment, various copyright logos, as well as the Tizi website address.

On the right and bottom sides, we have the power button and the microUSB charging port, respectively. And on the top left corner we can see the antenna, which can be extended.

The box for the USB Station is fairly simple and straight to the point with “USB Station 2″ written boldly in the centre of the box. Below this, there are three icons; print, multimedia and download.

The back of the box shows what ways you could use the Synology USB Station 2 if you were looking to connect a whole array of devices to it.

Included with the USB Station is the wall charger, Ethernet cable, instructions and software CD, as well as two Synology pens that were bundled in for some reason.

The Synology USB Station 2 sports a grey and white design, nothing too flashy, but it looks fairly sleek and easy to use.

On the top we can see the Synology logo in the centre. On the front, three LED indicators sit in a row telling us whether the USB Station is powered on, connected to the LAN and whether there is a USB disk connected.

The underside of the Synology USB Station 2 features four rubber feet to stop the station from slipping. The USB Station also has two holes in the centre to attach the station to the wall if you so wish (just don’t move your PC to the other side of the room, otherwise you’ll have two random screws in your wall).

The rear of the USB station is where everything is plugged in. We have the power adapter port, Ethernet port and two USB ports. You’ll also notice a “Disconnect USB Disk” button on the left and the reset button next to the USB ports.

Features

• Watch and record DVB-T on laptop or desktop PC with USB 2.0 interface
• Listen and record to DAB/DAB+ digital audio broadcasting and analog FM stereo
• Built-in LED on TV stick for signal strength indicates
• Bundles Microsoft certified Windows Media Center remote
• Windows 7/Vista Gadget tool for 32 bit operation system
• Support H.264 1080i HDTV and MPEG-2/TS recording
• Advanced PIP/POP and Video Desktop features
• Support EPG, Subtitle, Teletext (no support for MHEG-5 UK Digital Teletext Service)
• Certified for Windows 7 32/64 bit

The Compro VideoMate U680F arrives in its bright orange box that shows off all of its features and included contents. The box contains the VideoMate U680F, a remote control, USB cable, FM antenna, batteries, installation CD, guide and a digital TV antenna.

The actual USB tuner is fairly sleek and simple in design. You’ll notice a logo on the top of the U680F, this logo actually houses an LED to indicate the signal strength.

As with most USB TV Tuners, we have the USB connector on one end to plug into a USB port, and we plug the antenna in on the other end. A very simple process.

The included telescoping aerial features two antennas which open and pull out to receive the best possible signal. The aerial is designed to pickup all of the digital channels available, but we’ll get onto that a bit later on in the review…

Also included with the Compro VideoMate U680F is a remote control. The remote control is compatible with Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 7 x86 /x64.

The remote features all the buttons you’d expect to find on a WMC remote. You have the WMC button located near the top, which will both open WMC and take you back to the start page whilst you’re inside WMC and also the power button in the top right corner.

You also have the play button, record, stop, step back/forward and rewind/fast forward, as well as the volume buttons, channel buttons and a number pad.

The remote requires 2x AAA batteries (included).

MadCatz are known for creating high quality gaming equipment for casual and professional gamers on all gaming platforms. Today we are reviewing the F.P.S Pro Xbox 360 Controller from  MadCatz, the products itself looks like a complete war machine, it has your standard xbox controller layout just with a few more tweaks.

The packaging had that modern look to it, the box was surprisingly small but it compacted everything inside nice and snug not wasting any space. It has a flap on the front of the box to show buyers what they are actually purchasing.

The A,B,X and Y buttons have a different sharper design which makes it easier to press, it has two immersive backlit analog sticks that you can customise into three different colours which you can change individually. On the sides of the controller it has ergonomic non-slip grips and on the back it has two XL ‘Combat Buttons’ for on the fly custom remapping.

When i first placed the controller in my hand it had this more ‘chunky’ feeling to it than the normal xbox controllers, the analog sticks was more ‘in your face’ and everything seemed to sit higher out of the controller for more of a intense look to it. The grips felt good in the hand and the analog sticks was very sensitive.

I plugged it into my Xbox and all of a sudden these super backlit analog sticks light up and i just thought ‘that is awesome’ it gives it more of that ‘Pro’ look to it, i was surprised at how bright the lights were as its very visible even in the day but even better when playing in the dark.

The right and left triggers felt good they have this bouncy feel to them which i felt was better for performance, the bumpers on the other  hand are very clicky and may get annoying to some, but they have this ‘quick-fire’ system which improves speed when pressed. It also has a 10ft (3m) cable.

The main reasons people will purchase this controller is the backlit analog sticks and the XL Combat Buttons on the back of the controller which you can customise. These came in very handy, i use one for reload and one for switching my weapons, i was going to switch one to knife attack but my instincts have been trained to press B every time i crap my pants when someone is in my face.

You can switch each button to three different buttons, the left button can be changed to A, B or LSB (left shoulder bumper) and the right can be changed to X,Y or RSB. Personally the buttons are to high up the back of the controller and i really have to strain my fingers when attempting to press the buttons, if they were lowered by a few millimetres they would be perfectly placed for my hands, but i have big chunky hands so for people with smaller hands it may be in the correct position for you. The buttons are very sensitive which sometimes you will switch weapons without even knowing what you pressed, this can happen when entering a fight and accidentally pulling out your RPG.

The build of this controller is very bulky and personally i like it, my fingers can rest comfortably and i can have lighting reactions with the combat buttons. I have a problem with the D-Pad; for some reason it feels and looks out of place with the whole controller as its not really changed its just made a little bit bigger, and many times i have problems where i think i’ve pressed it but the d-pad is so light that you need to give it a good smack for the controller to notice you have pressed it.

Overall a really good product from MadCatz, you have a major advantage over your enemies, its a strong build, very spacious but if only the combat buttons was a little bit lower this would be fantastic, and to round it off, maybe wireless in the future for true freedom.

4/5

MadCatz are known for making very unique looking products but its not until you have a blast on the Cyborg R.A.T 7 Gaming Mouse, that you feel like their products are unique. The R.A.T 7 is one of the most customisable mouses out there, it has three interchangeable palm rests, and three pinkie rests, personally I find having the grip palm rest gives me best results when pwning noobs. Underneath the mouse it has five 6-gram weights which you can change and make the weight of the mouse different for different gaming styles.

This mouse features a new generation ‘twin eye’ laser sensor which pretty much means its got pinpoint accuracy, it tracks up to 6 meter per second with its 6400 DPI sensor which you can set up to four different custom DPI settings or set it manually to be even more precise! It has five programmable buttons that you can set to whatever you feel necessary. What I really like about the R.A.T 7′s buttons is that they are placed perfectly so it doesn’t feel like you have to stretch to press the buttons, they are located exactly where you want them.

Once you have your buttons and settings configured, you can put them in ‘Modes’. There are three different modes which you can change straight from the mouse. I have one of the modes to ‘Entertainment Mode’, which is where I set some buttons to play the next song, or pause/play. My second mode is ‘FPS Mode’ this is super high sensitivity and precision aim accuracy. My third mode is ‘MMORPG Mode’ this is lower sensitivity so i can press my skills and also skim through them with ease.

This mouse works on both Windows and Mac, it has a DPI Range of 25-6400, acceleration of 50G a tracking speed of 6M/sec, it has PTFE ‘slick’ Feet which make the mouse glide with no effort and it has a braided gold plated usb connector.

Overall this mouse is outstanding, MadCatz have researched what gamers want and learnt from it. Gamers want a mouse they can change themselves and make it comfortable to their own hand, customise its speed, agility and power all while at the same time looking incredibly unique. This is a must have piece of kit for gamers out there requiring a high performance mouse which you can adapt to your liking.

10 / 10

We are giving away one of these fantastic mouses in our very simple competition.

Introduction

The ability to remove the entire keyset of a keyboard is something SteelSeries have played around with in the past and it seems to have stuck: the Shift is equipped with a similarly engineered removable keyset to the ZBoard. With specialist key sets available for specific games to slot in to the Shift base, this gaming keyboard appears to offer something extra besides retaining many of the keyboard gizmos we’ve come to expect as standard: macro programmable keys, a USB hub and specialist software to name a few.  Let’s see if the aptly named Keyboard chameleon can deliver.

Specifications

• Dimensions: 40x490x190 (mm)
• Input: 2x USB2.0
• Output: 2x USB2.0, Audio, Microphone
• Operating System: Windows Vista/7/Mac OSX

The Package

The box design is clearly laid out with a large image of the Medal of Honor edition of the keyboard adorning the front.

N.B. The Shift keyboard can be purchased in its regular edition or as a special edition model (such as the one we’re taking a look at which includes an interchangeable keyset designed for a specific game alongside the regular keyset). To date, specialised key layouts exist for World of Warcraft, Medal of Honor and StarCraft II.

Inside, there’s a manual, sticker and additional piece of literature directing the user to the SteelSeries website to obtain the relevant software.

Product Overview

Jabra have been known to do high quality bluetooth accessories in the past and now that I have my hands on another one of their products I was glad to review it. The packaging was very professional and the outside of the box looked good. The product itself didn’t have much weight to it which was surprising, it has 3 speakers in the front with several command buttons around the device. On the back it has a metal clip which you can use as a stand or simply clipping onto anything you want. It does have small grips on the bottom if your placing it down but these dont work very well when driving around a sharp corner so its best to clip it onto something.

The speakers were nice and very clear, and you can simply pump up the volume by using the buttons. It has built in voice commands so when you press the “Voice” button you can say a few commands such as “Answer” to answer calls or “Play” to play your music library i found this extremely useful and it really felt like you can interact with the product without even touching it.

The call quality was fine, I had no problems with the sound of incoming calls and the callers on the other end said the quality was fine, one problem I had is when your mobile phone is ringing the mic in the Jabra Freeway finds it hard to hear you so you do need to put your phone on silent when communicating with the Freeway.

Overall Verdict

Overall this product is perfect for people not wanting a bluetooth headset, and something they can just clip on in their car. Sound quality is good and the voice commands are just perfect but could do with a few more.

4/5