iPhone 4 App of the Week – Night Stand HD

Who doesn’t like looking at the time? Ok, who doesn’t like looking at beautiful time? The iPhone has a plethora of features and uses that open up once you start using apps for it, so why not a nightstand clock?

Night Stand HD is the new iOS 4 app that basically turns your iPhone 4 into a beside clock. The core features of Night Stand HD are that you can change the clock to show up in 7 different types (see below) of formats as well as customize the colour of the LCD to whatever shade you like. The clocks obviously change in orientation as you switch the iPhone 4 from vertical to horizontal.

Besides looking incredibly beautiful on the Retina Display, Night Stand HD also shows the weather (by choosing your current location wherever you go) with different icons representing the current weather.  Of course, you can also add alarms just like you can through the regular Clock widget in iOS4, but with the ability to select any song from your iPod library in addition to some themes that already come as part of the app. It would have been really nice to have the ability to keep the songs on shuffle so that you wake up (or are notified) by a different tune every time; perhaps a feature for a future update.

One final thing that makes Night Stand HD so great is that you can have an option of it never going to sleep (or set it after a few predefined minutes). This basically means that the clock will never go into a lockscreen and will always be on display. Of course, the light dims after a little while so as not to use the display at full power.

And finally Night Stand HD is a universal app, so one purchase will work on both the iPhone 4 and the iPad. There are many other apps on the App Store that do something similar, but none that have so many different types of clocks and looking this elegant along with all the included features. For $1.99, Night Stand HD is well worth the money, and is our App of the Week.

Seagate FreeAgent Go 500GB Review

Everybody needs a lot more digital storage these days, even your grandma. Most people have tons of music, videos, photos, and documents all in digital format. An average person’s digital collection of media would easily fill several rooms if they were in a “physical” format. It’s always handy to have several portable hard drives on you; some people use it for backup, others for transferring files between places, and some use them just because they’ve run out of room elsewhere. I usually find myself in the last scenario, even though I have multiple terabytes on a home network.

One of the better-known hard drive manufacturers is Seagate, who have been making hard drives for over since 1979. Now Seagate is offering small 2.5″ hard drives in an attractive case called the Seagate FreeAgent Go, and they’re available in capacities of 250GB up to 1TB.

G.Skill Phoenix Pro 120GB SandForce SF-1222 SSD Review

“I can’t say that I am at all surprised by the performance of the G.Skill Phoenix Pro drive. As mentioned during some of the benchmark assessments, the configuration of the drive is nearly identical to a number of other drives on the market from its competitors. As such, the expectation of its performance to be on par with its peers was there from the start and we weren’t let down. In fact, many of the benchmark numbers were almost exactly what we have seen from the other SandForce drives in the same configuration. Really, these are all pushing the limits of what the SATA II interface is capable of so you can’t reasonably expect to see one really outshine the others…”

Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 SATA3 SSD Review

With the 256GB RealSSD C300 Crucial developed an enormously fast SATA3 SSD, which can clearly eclipse usual SATA2 Solid State Drives.
In this test report, the Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB SATA3 SSD was practically tested and benchmarked on a SATA3 interface and on a SATA2 controller.
The Redaktion ocinside.de review will show, if the at present largest and fastest 256GB RealSSD from Crucial is a great choice.
Link:
http://www.ocinside.de/html/results/crucial_realssd_c300_256gb.html

Toysoft animClock BlackBerry Application

Ever looked at your BlackBerry’s lock screen with that, by default, Analog clock and wonder why RIM hasn’t added some additional themes or functionality into it? For example, it would be nice to see a count of unread emails or tweets. Yes, I know that some of the flip based BlackBerry Smartphones offer this but the bulk of BB users have a non-flip device. While Toysoft’s latest app, the animClock doesn’t offer an unread count of your messages, it does show the temperature and battery level on the lock screen which is a good start.

You can add skins to it as well allowing you to change the clock and there are some nifty ones available for download. The only issue I have is that animClock does not spring up as the default app when you connect your charger. Instead, they make you pay an additional $3 for their MegaAlarms application to get that functionality.

Available for $1 here.

ASUS Rampage III Formula ROG

The ASUS Rampage III Formula supports a stunning 3-way SLI and CrossFireX, making it a dream for any hardcore gamer. The USB 3.0 and SATA 3 is yet another feature that puts this motherboard at the top of the list. What truly makes this motherboard perfect for gaming is ASUS’ excellent Gigabit ethernet with ROG GameFirst and SupremeFX audio solution. The Rampage III Formula comes with the newest SupremeFX X-Fi 2 audio solution, something even GIGABYTE failed to incorporate on their high end UD7 and UD9 motherboards. Though the ASUS Rampage III Formula still uses a Realtek chip on their board, ASUS has a close relationship with Creative, and is trying to validate and include the codecs from Creative to get the best possible audio experience for the buyer.

Arctic Cooling Arctic M551 Gaming Mouse Review

Link: http://www.bigbruin.com/content/arcticcoolingm551_1

Image (150×70): http://www.bigbruin.info/images/articles/728/icon.jpg

Quote: The Arctic Cooling Arctic M551 gaming mouse glided over my desk like it was on ice, and I really enjoyed the feeling and shape of the mouse as it fit in my hand. The buttons were all very easily accessible, and at no time did I feel like they were out of place. After I played with the DPI settings and got used to how fast and accurate it made the pointer, I really enjoyed using it.

2011 Volkswagan Jetta review

“First off, the new Jetta measures just over 15 feet long, which is actually just a touch longer than the 2010 model (by about 3 inches). The previous model is just a hair wider. Really, VW positions the Jetta as a fine driving experience without the fine driving price, but it’s also the company’s entry-level sedan. The car costs $15,995 for the base S model, which is about $1700 cheaper than the similarly equipped 2010 model. We drove the SE, which is basically the same but uses a 5-speed transmission. VW offers a handy online comparison guide to see how the Jetta stacks up, warts and all, beside the competition.”

Link to the article:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/2011-volkswagan-jetta-review/

Axiom Epic Grand Master 500 Review

“If you’ve done any internet research on high-end loudspeakers, then you are no doubt already familiar with Axiom audio. For those not yet in the know, Axiom Audio is an Ontario, Canada based speaker manufacturer that just happens to be celebrating its 30-year anniversary. Axiom began in a garage one day when chief designer Ian Colquhoun crafted his first pair of speakers, then grew over time as a new-found company developed one award winning product after another. Roughly ten years ago, Axiom launched its website, began selling products directly to customers all over the world and changed the game for speaker makers everywhere. One of the pioneers of the Internet-direct selling model, Axiom bypasses costly distribution and sales channels and is able to offer a high-quality product at prices that defy convention.”

Link to the review:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/speaker-and-subwoofer-reviews/axiom-epic-grand-master-500-review/

AMD Phenom II X2 560

Quote: Today we will have a look at the AMD:s newest dualcore processor called Phenom II X2 560. Will the extra 100MHz in clock frequency benefit you at all, let’s have a look.

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