I just took my gaming to the next level with the MX518 Optical Gaming Mouse by Logitech. I don’t know why but i have always been into Logitech mice since long. It’s hard to trust anyone else as i personally believe Logitech is the best in this special area. Besides, i have had my own agendas with another popular brand which i cannot name probably because of brand copyright issues.

In the past, i had never given any importance to mouse device whatsoever. I have always bought the ordinary simple Logitech Optical Mouse PS/2. That’s the simplest branded mouse available in market. Anyways, the way i use these mice, none has a lifespan of more than 6 months, whatsoever. So this time i decided to get something better. Something mean. Something more elegant…. So i checked up Logitech’s website and found some 3 or 4 great mice. My favorite one was a Logitech G5 Laser Mouse but i guess it wasn’t available. So i ended up selecting Logitech MX518 Mouse.

I have been using this mouse for a while now. And yes, it’s lot more comfortable, lot elegant and really comfortable. I can honestly feel the difference compared to any other conventional mice. I can feel it in my hand and in my game. Okay, these are wordings from the MX518 Mouse Box…but i feel the same way, so i don’t mind repeating these wordings.

The Logitech official website for some unknown weird reason says that MX518 has a 1600-dpi MX™ Optical Engine, whereas, in reality it has 1800-dpi MX™ Optical Engine. This actually helps in ultra-high resolution and pixel-precise tracking, so i don’t mind the extra 200 dpi coming in… It’s all good. It has a 8 button design which is all programmable, so this way i take full control of what all my mice can do. These 8 buttons include the two thumb buttons and the scroll wheel. You can see the following pics i just took for the rest of buttons location and integration.

As for the shape of the mouse, it looks pretty cool. It’s lightweight and dome shaped that really fits in precisely in my hand. Such shape supports the hand, helping to reduce discomfort during long gaming/work sessions. And the movement of the mouse on my table is really smooth compared to the other mice i had. It’s because of some ultra-slick polytetrafluoroethylene feet. I really have no idea what that means however i can break it up into Poly-Tetra-Fluoro-Ethylene.

I think i should mention the adjustable sensitivity of this mouse. I can shift from pixel-precise targeting to high-G maneuvers, without pausing the action. I can crank the tracking engine up as high as 1800 dpi for quick movements and fast turns. Or i can go as low as 400 dpi for more accuracy and precision aiming. All this can be done from the easily accessible dpi switching buttons that you can see just above and below the scroll wheel. So now i can adjust sensitivity on the fly!

Time for some non-professional pictures of Logitech MX518 Optical Gaming Mouse:

Alright some people wouldn’t care about the whole review that i have written. For them here is a complete Specifications list of MX518:

Tracking:

Resolution : 1800 dpi
Image Processing: 5.8 megapixels/second
Maximum Acceleration: 15G
Maximum Speed: 40 inches/second

Responsiveness:

USB Data Format : 16 bit/axis
USB Report Rate: 125/second
Sleep Mode: Disabled

Glide:

Total Weight : 106 Grams
Cord : 15 grams

Durability:

Button Life : 10 million clicks.
Feet : 250 kilometers.

In glide section there are some coefficients for friction. The dynamic coefficient is .09 and static coefficient is .14. Please note that these were measured on a wood veneer desk surface. Obviously other surface would have a little different friction coefficients. That concludes the brief specification.

If you liked this mouse, then do check out the “Logitech G5 Laser Mouse” as well. You will really love the looks of that mouse. Unfortunately, it’s double the price of what Logitech MX518 cost me.

Philips SHP2700 Headphones

I have to admit here that this is my first Philips brand device/gadget that i ever purchased. For displays, i have always trusted Samsung. For audio, Sony has been the only choice. And Apple, Nokia and Sony Ericsson do well when i have to look for a cell phone. So Philips never made to my list of favorites ever.

However this time around, i went on to shop for audio headphones. As i prefer Sony in this case, i went to the best-est Sony retailer and  asked for a full size audio PC headphones. The only available model was Sony MDR-XB300. It is supposed to be an extra bass headphone. Apparently, i could try the headphones as for demo. The sound clarity was crystal clear, bass was as good as zero, and the maximum volume was never satisfactory. It was little disappointing as i had lot of expectations from Sony’s headphones. Unfortunately there was just one model available in the full size headphones. So i had to move on…

I tried few other shops in Chandigarh as well. But it looked like Sony was shipping only the MDR-XB300 model to Chandigarh. I had almost given up on finding some good headphones until i visited Music World. There was a whole section dedicated just for the headphones and i could see Sony, Philips, Microsoft and few other brands that i do not find worth mentioning. My first impression as i laid my eyes on Philips SHP2700 was “Wow! This looks cool”. However once again, it was difficult judging the sound quality as there was no demo available. Usually at such stores, demos/trials are least expected. I had already tried Sony headphones, so the last option i had was to compare the specifications of both the branded headphones. The frequency range for Sony was 5 to 22,000 Hz whereas that of Philips was 18 to 28,000 Hz. Amplifier power for Sony was 24 Ohms whereas that of Philips was 32 Ohms. One look at these stats and i knew i found a better headphone than Sony’s MDR-XB300. The only factor remaining was the price tag on both of these. Sony MDR-XB300 was priced at INR 1090 and Philips SHP2700 came with a price tag of INR 1495. But the price equation soon was discarded as i noticed that Sony MDR-XB300 is not even a full size headphone as it’s diameter measures 30mm. On checking Philips SHP2700, i found it measured 40mm speaker drivers. Thus it would fit the ears and cover them much better than Sony’s headphone. So without further ado and any checks on more stats, i paid for Philips headphone and brought it home.

Now what? I unpacked the headphones as soon as i came home. Surprisingly, it had single cable and not the Y shaped cable which i didn’t notice while purchasing. I prefer single cables with headphones so that was good. The cable length turned out to be 3 meters which is pretty damn long. That’s not a bad thing but perhaps is not required. Now it was time to plug-in the headphones and see what it could do. With full volume on my PC and on Winamp, i wasn’t expecting too much loudness in the music, specially after the disappointment by Sony’s headphone. But believe it or not, i had to take off the headphones as soon as the music started. It was too loud and i simply couldn’t bear it. I was lot happy with the loudness. The box came with an additional adaptor for the wire. The default size is 3.5mm and that of additional adapter/converter was 6.3mm. The headphones looks damn good as well.

One thing i do need to mention is that there should have been a volume controller on the headphones. I always have to turn down the volume on winamp or youtube or other media players as on 100% volume, it really becomes very unpleasant. Fact is that you may be able to listen to music at loud volume. But i don’t think anyone can watch movies or videos on that volume. Sounds a little insane. Also, the box says that you can listen to hours on this headphone. Well it’s not cent percent true. In summers, your ears will become so hot that you won’t be able to wear it continuously for even couple of hours. Of course this is based on personal experience so you better believe it.

Anyways, i think i finally made a good buy in the end and with that i got my first Philips product in my gadget galleria.

As many of you must be knowing, twitter is THE next best thing that happened to internet social networking. Other social networking sites like MySpace and Google Orkut, etc may simply are fading out slowly and will soon go down as memories. I do not mean to say that those networking sites weren’t good. They had their days but simply can’t keep up with the growing trend of networking. Facebook is still pretty good networking site but in my opinion, i still think Twitter is far better. Anyways……

I basically wrote this post for people who have already signed up with twitter or are really thinking of the same. I made an account a week back and am really enjoying my stay in there. I have followed some 900 people so far including likes of Lance Armstrong, Britney Spears, Barack Obama, CNN, John Chow, Shoemoney, Problogger, Gul Panag and many many others. I really don’t feel ashamed to follow many others randomly as it gives me a chance to know them better. And you know what, many people think on the same lines. Out of 900, around 455 tweeple (twitter people) have followed me back and that does include John Chow and ProBlogger. It feels good to be followed by so many people. It’s basically your social network or your fan following. So basically, everything is going in the right direction. Perhaps, this much information on twittering might interest some of you to join it right away. Am really hoping to motivate my good friend Nicole Price on to twitter.

Okay, so moving ahead. Joining twitter is one part of deal. How do you go to twitter plus stage?

Well, making your twitter profile look unique is one way to go. If you are keen on making an impact with your brand name, then probably a good designed profile is the best solution. And when it comes to twitter profile designing, there is one and only Hugh Briss from Twitter Images. He has already created twitter backgrounds for some of the Internet biggest bloggers like John Chow, ProBlogger, DesignerDepot and many others in all kind of niche business. He charges $100 for the twitter background design, which considering your brand is pretty reasonable amount. Either you can have a great “branded” design from Twitter Images or you can probably have the same backgrounds that million other twitter users are using. It’s all about the brand and about being professional.

So if you think your brand really matters to you, i would recommend you to at least visit Twitter Images and see the designs yourself. I am sure you will be fully satisfied with the design from Hugh Briss.

If you however cannot afford $100 for the design, you may want to checkout the other free but good looking backgrounds from Twitter Images.

Update: I actually had an affiliate link to Twitter Images.com, but if you have been keeping up with that site, you might be knowing that Hugh Briss has discontinued the affiliate system. Now i cannot delete this article for content issues, so i have removed my affiliate link and placed a direct link to his site. Thanks

Canon IXY Digital 25 IS a.k.a Canon Powershot SD770 IS. I recently purchased this small yet powerful digital camera from a Canon Dealer in Hong Kong. This 10 megapixel devil is really very very small, seriously.

Let’s see some features that i now know about. Canon IXY Digital 25 IS, wherein IS stands for Image Stabilization is a 10megapixel camera and supports 3x optical zoom. It has a small 2.5inch LCD Display and has a slim and a stylish design. The camera comes under the category of Ultra Compact digital camera. Sounds nice

I checked the resolution today. It’s pretty big with max resolution at 3648×2736 and min at usual 640×480. What’s most amazing feature of this camera is it’s boot time. I pressed on/off button and Tadaaaaannn…. What did it take? Almost 1 second as i can recall. It’s good! Anyways…other good feature is that this camera has this Face Detection Technology – well something that shows squares on faces specially while you are taking group pics, etc. The main purpose is to focus more on face of the person rather than that much lighted area behind you! And that reminds me of the red eye correction. So no more red eyed vampires in my pics!

Also what i need is the motion detection sensor. I clicked some pics of the fast moving cars, just for the same reson and this sensor works pretty well so far! And lastly and most importantly, Canon IXY Digital 25 IS has a DIGIC III Processor. It provides lightning quick responses, superb image quality and advanced noise reduction. Humm. I don’t know how much noise it used to make, but can’t hear any on this machine! And yes!!! It does shoot movie as well. Though not a huge quality work in there but still pretty good! High Senstivity (ISO 1600) and the battery needs charging after 300+ shots. Can’t recall. Well that’s the most important features you should know about if you are looking forward to buy this camera.

This is how Canon IXY Digital 25 IS looks!

One more thing though. The camera comes with 32 MB card, as i recall. Believe me, that’s useless. Throw that away and get a 8GB card for your camera. Get Kingston 8GB SDHC Class 4 memory card and you should do fine. I can take 3000 pics without worrying about any space.

Hope you liked my “not so good” review on Canon IXY Digital 25 IS 

You heard that right. Now you can change the looks of probably all big sites by just using Firefox.

If you do not know what Firefox is or if you do not have it then first of all i pity you! Secondly, i think i should help you get one. Click on this foxie and download this wonderful browser. >>>>

Anyways, what all you need is a firefox addon named Stylish. Install it, Enable it and then restart your Firefox browser!

Once you have restarted your browser, you need to visit Userstyles.org. You will find stylesheets for many applications and websites. Browse your way through and find stylesheets of all the websites you visit to.

I have redesigned the looks of GMail, Google Images, YouTube, Wikipedia, Firefox About Blank Page, Yahoo! and many others… There is such a long list on userstyles.org, you can really find every major site in there!

Installation Instruction: Just visit the desired website’s style page and click on “Load into Stylish”. That’s it. Once you again visit that site again, all the looks will be changed!

I am adding screenshots of some sites which i stylized. Here are few of them:

Clearly, as you can see, i am a lover of dark colored themes. You can find many more themes in userstyles.org. I am not sure, perhaps there maybe other websites providing these stylesheets, will have to find out!

Anyways, there is nothing stopping you now from redesigning your favorite websites like Google, Yahoo, Orkut, Facebook etc! Go Crazy and have fun!