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Turtle Beach keeps tweens boasting with Ear Force X41 Xbox 360 headset
Just over a year after Turtle Beach gave whining teenyboppers a decent Xbox 360 headset to annoy mature gamers with, the outfit is hitting back with the third-generation. We should caution you that these are far from a major upgrade, but those just now looking to take the plunge into cord-free bragging should find plenty to appreciate. The Ear Force X41 cans claim to handle Dolby 7.1 channel surround sound, but given that there are precisely two ear cups here, we're somewhat (read: tremendously) skeptical of said claims. At any rate, the RF-based headphones now sport a dedicated Digital Signal Processor along with a feature that will likely entice young brats and frighten those with actual jobs: Chat Boost. As you can imagine, this enables users to automatically jack the volume of the Xbox Live chat as the game gets louder, which -- in our experience -- is probably not a good thing. Those with the patience of Job can buy in anyway for a nickle under $200.[Via TG Daily]
Lenovo's X60 Tablet PC reviewed
Lenovo's ultraportable X60 has gotten plenty of love, so there are some naturally high expectations for this "X60t" tablet incarnation, and it looks like they were pretty well founded. Tablet PC Review has already been putting the brand new tablet through its paces, and it seems to definitely come out on top. In fact, most of the biggest gripes about the laptop are directly related to the Tablet PC OS: slow startup, inconsistent input options, etc.. Performance gets a big bump from that of the X41, though the size of the laptop has increased a bit to accommodate a faster HDD and the extra USB and Firewire ports available on the X60t. As for actual functionality, Lenovo really lent its polish to the proceedings: the pen input feels just right, the XGA MultiTouch (finger-based input allowed) display is bright and quite usable, the SXGA+ (non-MultiTouch) option is great as well, and the keyboard feels ThinkPad-great. Of course, road warriors need not apply. The price of entry is steep, and "features" like a mono speaker slapped underneath the computer make it obvious where Lenovo's priorities lie. Battery life just OK for the ultraportable set, the 8-cell battery hits around 5 hours at average use (quite a bit under the 7.5 hour rating), but pushes the weight over 4 pounds, while the 4-cell battery manages 2.5 to 3 hours, but maintains ultraportable status. Other little gripes like an EV-DO hump at the top of the screen and no optical drive (you'll need to spring for the $200 base station) should make you weigh your options carefully, but after the dust settles it's pretty clear that the X60t is one of the best made tablets on the market, and should please the ThinkPad and/or Tablet PC faithful quite well.
