SigSays - All Things Reviewed » General Hardware

I finally found comfy earbuds for my iPhone.

Sig — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:52:54 +0000

The apple earbuds are terrible, but they have the controller. There are plenty of aftermarket headphones, but they lack a mic and controller. I finally found a good combination of both, the V-Moda Vibes.

They look nice and came with a nice carrying pouch.

They also feature a mic and controller, just like the factory headset.

Most importantly, they actually fit my ear. They are seriously the most comfortable headphones I have ever put in my ear. Maybe I have small ears, or maybe people just like to be tortured, but every other headphone hurts like fuck, if not immediately, then very shortly after I put them in. I’ve tested these for hours and they feel great. I highly suggest them.

Sounds quality is pretty good, a little bass heavy for my taste, but still MUCH better than the factory headset.

Buy them on Amazon.com

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Microsoft Arc Laptop Mouse

Sig — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:25:34 +0000

I have an EeePC netbook and I love the hell out of it, but no touchpad can come close to a real mouse. I finally broke down and picked up a Arc Mouse from Microsoft.

I’m absolutely in love with this thing. It’s amazingly small when folded up, and about the size of a normal mouse unfolded. Windows 7 recognized it immediately. The buttons are nice, and it feels really good in my hand. The adapter is small, and stores inside the mouse when folded.

The scrollwheel is the only minor complaint I have, it’s not bad, but certainly could be better. It’s more than passable for a travel mouse though. Anyway, on to the pics. I used my iPhone as a size comparison, because I figure most people have seen one in person by now and have a pretty good idea as to it’s size.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

A-Data Sport 8GB ThumbDrive

Sig — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:35:16 +0000

I’ve always found these little things insanely useful. Much faster than buring a CD or DVD, and much more capacity. Also particularly useful if you have a netbook without an optical drive.

So here’s my favorite so far. It’s the A-Data S701.

The body is all metal, which makes me feel better about carrying it around. The retractor mechanism is very sturdy, and has so far held up for about 6 months with absolutely no increase in play, no loosening up at all.

The loop to attach it to a keychain or lanyard is also metal, and part of the body, so chances are low that you’ll lose it. It’s also tiny, as evidenced by the pic with the bottle cap. I hate having a giant keychain, so that works well for me.

Here’s a screen of the HDtach results. Pretty quick drive. Also keep in mind I’m still having the Vista file move issues, so that might be having an effect. It was, however, the fastest drive I have, among 5 tested, so it’s towards the upper range of them in terms of speed.

So, what do you do with an 8GB thumb drive? Well, you go to PortableApps.com, and download their software suite. It includes FireFox, OpenOffice, ClamWin AntiVirus, and tons of other stuff that runs from a thumbdrive, leaving no trace on the host computer.

Very good to have. You can also check out slax.org, it’s a Linux Distro that run from a thumb drive.

I couldn’t be happier with the thumbdrive, and it’s on sale for less than $20 for the 8gb right now on Amazon.com.

Sigs says: If you need a portable flash drive, or just like nerdy stuff (My reason for buying), you can’t go wrong.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars