Gadgets and Video Games

As you know you can never have too many USB ports, either your USB ports are really hard to get to, or they are already full, in my case they are full. So I decided to purchase the Belkin USB 2.0 Plus Hub (7 Port), this is a stackable powered hub that has two ports on top for easy access and five ports along the back side, and features a built in cable management system for the things that you frequently need to charge, such as an MP3 player or a cell phone. Belkin also has built weights into the hub so that it does not slide around on your workstation, which is a nice added feature.

Design:
The Belkin USB 2.0 Plus Hub (7 Port) has a very nice design. It measures 6″ x 3.5″ x 3/4″ and measures 1″ at the tallest point where the two ports are on top. Six inches in length is a bit long, but that is because you have five USB ports that line up horizontally, along with the power inlet and the data cable that attaches to your computer. As I stated earlier this hub has weights built into it, so as it will stay where you put it. Under the unit, it has four rubber feet for added stay-put protection. (continue reading…)

Starting Feb. 17, 2009 the U.S. Analog TV broadcasting will be gone for good. Meaning that if you don’t have a digital TV, or a DTV Converter Box your current TV will be pretty much useless. For those of you that are or will be signed up with cable or satellite service, the current set top box should accommodate the DTV Transition. For the few that don’t subscribe to cable or satellite service and are happy watching only the local channels, TV will come to a screeching halt.

(The FCC has mandated that cable carriers must support analog TV sets until at least 2012) (continue reading…)

In this season of giving, Blockbuster is giving themselves a 40 percent raise. For those of us that are signed up for Blockbuster’s mail order DVD service, they send you 3 then you can exchange them for movies at your local Blockbuster; we are in for a big rate hike.

The 40 percent rate increase is quite unbelievable, but this rate hike was inevitable being that Blockbuster lost $37.8 million in the third quarter of 2007. (continue reading…)

I decided to make a tutorial for those of us that need to set-up Google’s IMAP mail service in Outlook 2003. I hope this helps some of you guys out.

• Make sure POP access is turned on for your Gmail account.
• Select Tools/E-mail accounts from the menu in Outlook.
• Make sure add a new e-mail account is selected.
• Click Next.
• Choose POP3 as the Server Type.
• Click Next.
• Enter your Gmail account details in the Internet E-mail Settings (POP3) dialog. (continue reading…)

Google recently gave the OK for Blackberry users to download and try out there new application that syncs calendar data between Google Calendar and your Blackberry Calendar, but you might be better off waiting for them to work out the kinks before giving the new application a full on workout.

The new Google Sync application is a small download, currently only available for Blackberry. I downloaded the app and gave it a go, but here are a few issues that I ran into, and the Google support groups don’t seem to have a clear answer for any of them. (continue reading…)

Wouldn’t it be nice if our gadgets would last say ten to twenty years? Man that would save us a lot of cash! In my opinion, todays electronics are built in mass quantities, and the quality of these electronics have went by the way side opposed to years ago. Well lets face it this will never happen, but we can take a few small steps to prolong the life of our gadgets. This is just a small list of tips, as we here at GVG get more, we will post them. (continue reading…)

Okay it is Friday night and you plan on sitting down to watch The DVD that you just paid $29.99 for. You are subjected to the countless number of previews at the beginning of the disk, no problem, you simply skip forward to the movie. You get a quarter of the way through the movie and a commercial pops up pushing some useless product that you could care less about. At first you say what the heck is going on? This is a DVD, there isn’t suppose to be any commercials! You try to skip forward and your player does not respond. So what is really going on? (continue reading…)

If you are anything like myself, you have about fifty passwords that you try to remember, and countless sticky notes plastered all over your workstation. Well, thanks to a little program called RoboForm you can finally toss those post-it notes out and put your mind at ease. RoboForm is an award-winning automated password manager and web form filler. Here at GVG we are always looking for cool things to simplify our lives, and RoboForm does exactly that. (continue reading…)

Headsets for Xbox Live are a dime a dozen these days, so is it worth it to spend the extra cash on a third party headset? We recently took a closer look at Plantronics’ Gamecom headset lineup (the Gamecom X10, X20, and X30) and found that it boils down to personal preference, style, and sound quality. Here is what we determined about the three headsets within this lineup: (continue reading…)

OK, so I’m just about done with my XM Radio trial that came with the car I recently leased. So do I go ahead and shell out the cash to keep the service, or do I pass on it?

I’m leaning towards signing up for the service, since it also includes XM Radio Online, which means that in addition to while in the car, I can listen to XM while at the PC.

The problem, it’s about 13 bucks a month if you pay monthly, of course there are lower rates for ordering a longer subscription period. Honestly, I think I’m gonna go ahead and subscribe, I’ve been much happier listening to XM in the car than I thought I would be.

How about you, what do you think of these pay for play radio services such as XM and Sirius?