The Razer Arctosa Black Edition, a keyboard with attitude, a keyboard with a sleek design, a keyboard for pro gamers but does it live up to expectation, does it have the ability to compete with the very capable Razer Anansi? Let’s find out!

Design:

Designed with pro gamers in mind the Arctosa Keyboard is well built and looks like it’s ready for business. Razer have a history of creating beautifully designed, solid built keyboards with gamers at the heart of the design. The Arctosa is sleek, lightweight, and looks fantastic. Now, you wouldn’t be wrong for looking at the black edition and thinking “Where are the printed keys?”. Well they are there, subtley, in black to maintain the asthetic look and feel of a pro gamers keyboard. If your a gamer who knows where every key is, has every key mapped out or finds playing strategies or raiding in Azeroth with a mouse for the noobs, then your the sort of gamer to love this. If though you would rather have printed keys that you can see check out the silver edition with the same great black look, but with gorgeous black keys.

Features:

The Arctosa has less features than many of the keyboards I have reviewed, but it features the most important ones and at just £30-40 for a gaming keyboard, Razer have provided the best for a great price.

Anti Ghosting WASD Cluster

Ever had a problem where you hit a couple of keys on your keyboard and your character stutters around like hes turned into an robot in need of oiling? It might just be because your keyboard doesn’t have anti-ghosting, a feature that allows simultaneous pressing of several keys at once with full recognition. The keys around the WASD cluster all feature anti-ghosting so click away and you will have great response.

Ultra Fast Response

Gold plated USB 2.0 connection give the Razer the edge, providing 1000hz response you would be hard pressed to find any lag in this keyboard. So if your a wizard wielding spell after spell, a warrior delivering crushing blows every second or the ultimate strategy commander don’t worry about the Arctosa keyboard not keeping up. The question is, can you keep up with it?

Macro Keys

Macros give you the ability to run multiple commands from a single click of a key so if you want to apply all your “buffs” in WoW, or change equipment in Black Ops 2 you can with a simple key. Macros are great and with this keyboard you can use the software to edit each key, create profiles and much more and apply them to which ever key you wish the choice is yours.

Extras

Along with the above, you also get Media keys, Volume, Play, Pause, Next, Previous, you know the sort of thing that allows you to control your favourite metal music as you crush your enemies . Oh and don’t worry about being in the thick of the action to be thrown out by accidentally hitting the dreaded windows key, the software will stop that for you! A detachable wrist rest is great for those of you who want to put your new tool in your backpack on the way to the next LAN party too!

Video:

Overall:

Overall the Razer Arctosa – Black Edition is a great keyboard with the pro gamer in mind. If your someone who doesn’t need to look at the keys, someones whos focus is purely on the gameplay then this, my friend, is the keyboard for you! If you want the great Arctosa features but need to see those keys check out the silver edition, you wont be disappointed. For a price of £30-£40 I can highly recommend the Arctosa as a great keyboard for the gamer at heart!

Thanks to Razer for Sending this out!

Those days are over we now are lucky to get the latest and greatest for sub £500 and glass along with metals that can easily scratch (cough, iPhone 5, cough) are the norm. So maybe we should cover these devices that rule our lives up, protect them, like we would a small child from the cold weather. But all that money you have paid, surely you want to be able to see your beautiful device right? I mean all them hours Jony Ive (Cool Apple Guy) and his team spent crafting you a phone that is truly draw dropping gorgeous the last thing we want is to hide it away. Well, thats where Gear 4 come in!

Gear 4 IceBox for iPhone 5

Gear 4, a huge name in mobile accessories have created the IceBox Edge Case. A case designed to protect your precious iPhone 5 well still showing off it’s beauty in all it’s glory. On first glance you would be forgiven for thinking this was a bumper case but if you look closely you can see there is a transparant plastic backing allowing you to see the beauty of the iPhone whilst protecting it at the same time.

The Case feels great to hold too, the rubber bumper gives great drop protection whilst feeling great in the hand. It also adds a little lay on the table design to protecting the screen when you place the phone down.

The best part for me about the case is the bottom. The cut outs are great, they protect the phone really well while maintaining functionality.

Overall the Gear 4 Icebox case is fantastic. For the person who wants to protect their shiny iPhone 5 whilst admiring its design the IceBox iPhone 5 case is perfect. The only downside I foresee is the back could get scratched overtime however at a great price of under £15 you can’t go wrong.

Razer Anansi Review

Razer make some great gaming products so it was great when Razer contacted me to check out a product of theirs, the Razer Anansi MMO Gaming Keyboard. If your a gamer looking to get the edge above the rest or you want to support your team mates in a battle against the badass on your server, then this might just be the keyboard for you, so let’s find out!

Design:

The Razer Anansi is really well built. Using solid plastics to maintain great aesthetics while keeping costs down the Anansi is a beautifully designed keyboard built to last against the toughest of battles in hours and hours of gaming. The buttons feel comfortable to use and are really responsive too and the wrist rest is just the right size too.

Features:

The Anansi has many features for the MMO gamer and actually any gamer. Lets get this out of the way straight away, while Razer are targeting the MMO gamer by providing hundreds of programable gaming keys if your not an MMO gamer you can still take advantages of the features of this keyboard.

Macro Keys

Macros give you the ability to run multiple commands from a single click of a key so if you want to apply all your “buffs” in WoW, or change equipment in Minecraft you can with a simple key. Macros are great and with this keyboard you can either use the software to edit each key, create profiles and much more or you can create the Macros on the fly with built in recording.

Backlit Keys

Backlit keys are becoming more and more common on gaming keyboards. It’s well known gamers love to play in the dark and finding which key to press can be a chore. The last thing you want to do is let down your guild mates and then having the embarrssing task of explaining it was because you couldnt see your keyboard keys right? Well that’s a thing of the past now. The problem is many keyboards have limited colours to choose from. Some stay at just one colour with a couple of brightness options. Others have a few more but are usually limited to small spectrum i.e. Red and Blue meaning you can create the colours Red, Blue, Pink and Purple, hardly a huge choice. This is where the Anansi shines, it has 16 million colours. No thats not a typo, 16 million colours to choose from which is a huge spectrum. Red, Green, Blue, Pink, Purple, Yellow, Orange… you know pretty much every colour we can see! You can pick from three different brighting settings too!

Extras

Along with the above, you also get Media keys, Volume, Play, Pause, Next, Previous, you know the sort of thing. You also get a couple of other buttons, one that will let you put your computer to sleep, a key that is often missing from modern Keyboards and a key to disable the Windows Key so no more accidental switching out of a game to the Windows Desktop.

Video:

Overall:

Overall this is a great keyboard, it’s not the most feature packed we have seen but the backlit is the best one yet. The colours and the backlight brightness are great! MMO Gamers will love all the programable Keys and Normal Gamers can also take advantage too!

Thanks to Razer for Sending this out!

iPhone 5 Dock

That expensive gorgeous looking iPhone needs pride of place on your desk, bedside cabinet or hallway table and putting it in this great looking glossy finish Black or White dock is a great way to keep your iPhone safe while it charges and syncs.

Design:

Simple and elegant the iPhone 5 Dock has a great smooth glossy finish. Underneath it has a rubber bottom designed to secure it to the surface in which it lies.

Features:

Designed to charge your device while holding it upright you can also sync either via the cable or using the iPhones built in wireless sync feature. Please note the lightning cable is not included.

Video:

Overall:

What more can I say, it’s and iPhone dock that looks great and stylish. It works great securing your device firmly in place while charging and syncing. I give this a rating of 4.5 because it does all what it needs to the only downside is you need to either get another lightning cable or use the one you already have.

You can buy this dock from Mobile Fun.

If only there was a way to recharge a rechargeable battery, without having to use a charger plugged into the mains and have it recharge while we use the device. Bring on Solar Power and even better the Solar powered Logitech K750 Keyboard for Mac and PC! Unlike other wireless keyboards this has no downtime as it recharges as you use it. Using the light from the sun the Logitech Solar Keyboard can last around 3 months, yes 3 whole months before it needs to see the sun again. How much sun light does it need to charge though? Just 3 hours will fully charge the keyboard, amazing efficiency.

Review

Design / Build Quality

I was really impressed with the build quality and overall design of the keyboard. At under 10mm thick the keyboard is the slimmest I have ever used but don’t let that fool you into thinking it lacks build quality, infact it is the opposite. The keyboard has a good weight to it and feels rather premium. It looks great too and comes in many different colours.

Features

It’s no gaming keyboard so no extra macro keyboards but the keyboard does feature multimedia controls and the mac version has buttons designed to activate mission control and the dashboard quickly and instantly. On the underside of the keyboard are 2 little legs allowing you to tilt the keyboard to the ideal typing angle. Of course the best feature of this keyboard in the solar power, powering the keyboard for up to 3 months on just a 3 hour charge from direct sunlight. There is also a little key on the keyboard that will show you if the keyboard needs charge or not too, so don’t worry you wont suddenly run out of power! The keyboard features a chiclet layout, this means there are gaps between the keys for greater comfort. Each key has great feedback too but is quiet to use unlike mechanical keyboards.

Logitech K750 Mac Edition in Black

Video Review (showing Mac Version)

Overall

Overall the Logitech K750 Solar Keyboard is great for anyone after a stylish premium wireless keyboard without the hassle of having to insert new batteries or recharge batteries constantly. Save the environment, save money and have the pleasure of typing on a keyboard with great design and feel.

Pros:

• Great Style in many colours
• Lasts 3 months on just a 3 hour charge
• Recharges as you use it (providing there is sunlight)
• Works with Mac and PC

Cons:

• Not really for gamers.

Cloud Bite awards the Logitech K750 Solar Keyboard 4 clouds out of 5. The style, premium feel and solar features make this 1 fantastic keyboard.

The Logitech K750 Solar Keyboard was kindly provided by Logitech UK.

iMac

First off lets look at the new iMac. The update refreshes not only it’s internals but also it’s external design. The shell of the the iMac has a 5mm edge which smoothly tapers into a thicker style. From certain angles, which Apple was more than happy to show the iMac looked barely there while a full side on profile shows the larger width. Apple have also added the option of a Fusion Drive. It has 128GB/768GB Flash Drive space (for the OS and most used apps) and 1TB of storage.

The iMac will come in 2 main varities, a 21″ version and a 27″ version.

21″ iMac (starts at £1,099)

• 21″ IPS 1920×1080 resolution.
• 2.7GHz or 2.9Hz quad-core i5 CPU (config to 3.1ghz i7)
• 8GB Ram (configurable up to 16GB)
• 1TB HDD (configurable  1TB Fusion Drive)
• NVIDIA GT G640M or GT 650M

27″ iMac (starts at £1,499)

• 27″ IPS 2560×1440 resolution
• 2.9GHz or 3.2GHz quad-core i5 CPU (config to 3.4ghz i7)
• 8GB Ram + User upgradeable (config to 16GB or 32GB)
• 1TB HDD (config to 3TB or 1TB/3TB Fusion Drive or 768 flash storage)
• NVIDIA GTX 660M or NVIDIA GTX 675MX (config to GTX 680MX)

All iMacs will come with a Facetime HD Camera, Dual microphones and stereo speakers. Along with 4 USB 3 ports, 2 Thunderbolt ports and SDXC card Slot. Wifi 802.11n build in along with Bluetooth 4.0.

Overall this is a great update to the iMac.

13 ” Macbook Pro

Just like the previous Mac update in July the 13″ Macbook Pro has a retina display, great spec and starts at £1,449. Whether users of such a small device need this sort of power remains to be seen but lets take a look at the specs.

13″ Macbook Pro (starts at £1,499)

• 13″ LED IPS 2560×1600 resolution
• 2.5GHz dual-core i5 CPU (configurable to 2.9GHz i7)
• 8GB Ram
• 128GB or 256GB flash storage (config too 512GB or 768GB)
• Intel HD Graphics 4000

Along with this the 13″ Macbook Pro comes with a Facetime HD camera, 802.11n Wifi and Bluetooth 4.0. Audio is provided by stereo speakers, dual microphones and a headphone jack. Battery life is up to 7hours.

Another great update for those wanting power in a small device.

Mac Mini

The Mac mini is Apple’s cheapest Mac. It’s great for those who wan’t to try out a Mac without breaking the bank but the prices have always been much higher in the UK than the US. This time the Mac Mini starts at £499 and even though it is tiny, it sure packs a punch.

Mac Mini (starts at £499)

• 2.5Ghz dual-core i5 CPU or 2.3GHz Quad-core i7 (config to 2.6GHz i7)
• 500GB HDD or 1TB HDD
• Intel HD Graphics 4000
• 4GB Ram (config to 8GB or 16GB)

Mac Minis all have Thunderbolt digital video output along with DVI and VGA (using adapters) and HDMI. 4 USB 3 ports and Gigabit Ethernet along with an SDXC card slot make the Mac Mini a fantastically powerfully mini machine. Wifi 802.11n and bluetooth are housed inside along with the lowest power usage of just 11watts idle.

Overall the Mac Mini is great for those who aren’t sure if Mac is for them. At £499 or £679 it’s not cheap but you are getting alot of power in a small system. Also the low power usage makes these great for Media servers.

iPad Mini

Features

• 1024×768 7.9″ IPS Multi-touch Display (not retina)
• Apple A5 CPU (Same as iPad 2).
• Facetime HD Camera.
• 5MP iSight Camera with 1080p Video Recording.
• 10 hour battery life.
• Wifi or Wifi/Cellular.
• Lighting Connector

Design

As thin as a pencil and over 50% lighter than iPad the new iPad mini comes in 2 great colours black and white. Unlike the larger iPad the new iPad mini is coloured on the back also much like the iPhone 5 maintaining the looks and feel throughout the tablet.

iPad Mini Black Edition

The border around the screen is much thinner than that larger iPad at the sides to help the iPad Mini fit into one hand with ease.

What we think

It was obvious Apple needed to create a smaller tablet. Steve Jobs once said anything with a smaller screen than “Normal iPad” wouldn’t work, but it was clear the competition had made it work rather well. One thing very few expected though was the price. At a starting price of £269 this iPad competes on size but not price. Therefore Apple haven’t really made a tablet to compete with the lower priced smaller tablets. Of course Apple is probably just expecting people to pay the “premium” for their product over the competition, but there is a reason people buy cheaper tablets other than size!

The iPad Mini is sure to be a hit, its made by Apple. Is it groundbreaking innovation, no. It’s just a smaller iPad 2 with some iPad 3/4 features. The most shocking part of the iPad Mini, for me at least, is the lack of Retina display. I’m sure they had to do this to keep the price down but considering the iPad Mini is probably more favourable for people reading books, lacking a retina display seems rather odd.

What do you think of iPad Mini?

Features

• 9.7″ IPS Retina Display
• Apple A6X CPU
• 720p Facetime Camera
• 5MP iSight Camera
• 10 hour battery

Design

The design other than the new Lightning Connector, is the same as iPad 3 with it’s Black and White variations and smooth aluminium body.

What We Think

Well it was rather a shock. The 4th Generation iPad adds nothing new other than the lighting connector. It does feature up to 2x the performance of iPad 3 which was no slug. If you are an iPad 3 owner you probably thought “but mine only came out 7 months ago!”, we thought the same! Don’t worry though your iPad is still great and is the iPad 4 worth upgrading to? Probably not! Unless you really want the latest and greatest the iPad 4 is one of those updates much like iPad 2 was with little new additions (if any) and worth skipping. My advice? Save your cash for iPad 5! If your after buying your first iPad or your an iPad 1/2 owner now is a great time to upgrade. The jump from iPad 1/2 to 3 was huge so to go to 4 you will be more than happy!

If your thinking will there be another update in March like normal, I’m guessing no. It’s likely Apple wanted to move the release date of the iPad from March to October for several reasons and that is why we have seen a new update. Firstly October release is just in time for Christmas. Secondly, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Amazon have all released their new tablets now which means had there been no iPad update in October iPad would be considered “out dated” and miss Christmas Sales. Finally Apple can now keep all iOS Devices, iPhones, iPods and iPads close together meaning the iPad will run a rather new OS version rather than using an OS version released 6 months ago with minor updates. Previous iPads have always played catch up to iPhones meaning once July/October came around with new iPhones iPad was using the older technology.

New YouTube Home Page when logged in.

One noticeable  and very frustrating feature, is the new homepage feed. Rather like the “highlights” option did previously, this new “stream” shows everything from what people are liking, favouring, recommending and finally it shows your subscriptions. The problem with this feature is there is no way to turn it off. Therefore it can be almost impossible to see new videos from people your subscribed to at times.

New YouTube Video Page

The new Video Page shows other videos within the playlist the video you are viewing next to it. The comments section now shows avatars of the people who are commenting and as you can see, the title, subscribe button and video creator information is all located underneath the video now.

What do you think of this new layout?

Founder Zuckerberg stated ”There’s 5 billion people in the world who have phones, so we should be able to serve many more people and grow the user base there.”

The biggest question though is are these figures really 1 Billion unique individuals or are they made up of the over 83 million “fake” accounts as suggested early in the year?