The VooDoo Omen - That Is A Serious Piece Of Gaming PC

The VooDoo Omen is the dream machine of gaming desktops. While managing to actually not look that much like a standard PC it also offers liquid cooling, a built in LCD display, and an almost baffling selection of build materials that make it pretty much incomparable in the PC and hardcore gaming market.

The water cooling system is a feat of engineering genius, and is more complex than the cooling system in most cars. The quad radiators, hard bent copper pipes, and a reservoir that is built into the PC make it truly astronishing.

Leather, wood, carbon fibre, and glass are all possible materials that you will be able to choose from in the near future. But even if you opt for the standard Omen finish it will again be likened to a car’s finish with proper paint jobs and everything.

Another positive feature is the almost complete lack of tool requirements. Open the door, slot in the new hard drive, close the door, and turn the PC on. The little VooDoo dolls that live inside the Omen then take the drive and install it for you, or something.

And finally, for now, the built in LCD monitor – it’s the bit on the picture that, thanks to the limitations of 2D imaging, doesn’t really look like a monitor but looks more like a VooDoo sticker. It works as a true monitor and actually hands control of its display to the user – instead of having to display useless and pointless information on it, you can essentially drag and drop whatever you want on there. For example, it can display when new email has arrived or you could slap an RSS feed on there.

VooDoo are in a happy position – at least for them, anyway – demand is going to far outstrip their capability to supply. Much like a hand built TVR this means that price isn’t going to be cheap and there will be a waiting list. Initially, in fact, it’s invitation only for those that have previously bought a VooDoo machine. Price for the basic model (we’re struggling to see what exactly you could call basic to be honest) would be around £3,500.

Electronic Help Finding The Sweet Spot

The fabled sweet spot is something that we men (and a select few women) have been trying to find for countless generations, and on the rare occasion we do the result is a thing of true and exquisite beauty. Finding the sweet spot means you’ll drive harder and further and you’ll find the hole more often.

The (ahem) Golf Sweet Spot Finder locates the optimal spin axis of a ball enabling you to felt tip pen a line onto the ball so that you know where to hit next shot. The ball is rotated in a mechanized chamber and a small hole enables you to insert your felt tip nib and draw the line.

We’re not entirely sure of course restriction on the use of this kind of thing, and you may look a bit daft lining up your Sweet Spot Finder before every tee shot but perhaps you could carry a stock of readied balls with felt lines already drawn.

The Golf Sweet Spot Finder runs on battery power, though, so you could always nip behind the bushes to gain that extra edge. Imagine the look of envy when you’re hitting straight and hard, and putting more accurately.

Oh, and it includes a pen!

Fill Yer Boots With These RC Boots

Combining desktop radio controlled devices with football seems like a no brainer to me and yet its not something you see everyday. Miniature football boots zip around the pitch (or your desk, depending on the extent of your imagination) and the set includes two sets of goals, two boots, two controllers shaped like stadium, and a couple of clips to make sure you can dribble like Ronaldo (it’s like the ball’s glued to his feet).

Each controller requires a 9v battery and the little boots need 2 AAA batteries. The only other thing you need is somebody to play against and a clear area of desk. Of course, if your desk is against the wall then you can even play wallie too. Alternatively, get all of your work mates together and start a work tournament (although, obviously only during lunch and other allotted free time in the working day – after all, you need to save actual working hours for YouTube and pointless Googling right?)

Next season’s still some way off, so you’ve got to get your football fill from somewhere once Euro 08 is finished with. So, fill yer boots with these miniature radio controlled boots.

The Evolution Of Civilization

Civilization was one of the first strategy games developed and it remains, in my eyes at least, one of the greatest. For a game of its age it still offers incredible playability and a huge amount of game to play through. Released towards the end of last month on the PS3, the PC version already has a stack of expansion packs available to further prolong your gameplay.

Because of the limitations of games consoles, and some might say game console players, Civilization IV on the PS3 is a dumbed down version of the PC title. In fairness, this is largely to counteract the control issues that would make the game completely unplayable using a console controller. However, even despite its slimline look, it still has everything the strategist gamer could want.

The purpose of all the games in the Civilization games is to advance a race of people through various stages in their evolutionary development by developing various sciences, skills, and techniques. The skill tree is one of the most appealing elements to many a strategy game and it could be argued that it was brought to the mainstream by Sid Meier – the man responsible for the creation of the series.

If you’re looking for a game that will keep you up until the early hours and prevents you from partaking in typical daily activities like eating, communicating, and toileting, then Civilization IV, like its predecessors is the game for you.

The Digital Switch Over – Who Knew?

According to a study into the transition from analogue to digital, a surprisingly small number of consumers and even sales staff, fully understand the digital switch over. Despite this, the scheduled switch is still on target to take place in 2012. Many consumers are expected to require additional hardware in order to make TVs they’ve purchased this year work after the switch.

The digital tick campaign ensures that all new digital television sets are accompanied by the purple tick. Confusion still seems to remain, however, with sales staff as well as consumers fully unaware of what it actually means. As a result, many of the TVs sold this year were analogue – although 87% of all household TVs are now believed to be digital.

Analogue TVs can be converted to digital relatively inexpensively. A £25 digital set top box will connect to an analogue set and convert it so that it can be used after the switchover. Without this conversion, though, analogue televisions will become completely obsolete. That’s currently 26 million televisions.

It is believed that some of these analogue televisions have been purchased solely for use with DVD players and games consoles but it’s difficult to imagine so many used for such a limited purpose.

The Digital Ant Farm

Have you ever wondered about the typical colonial tendencies of ants, or perhaps mused as to their social interactions? No, me neither, and yet I find the Bandai digital ant farm to be oddly appealing and I really don’t know why. I’m guessing the AI that it uses would be difficult to argue with – at least, I certainly couldn’t point out if that’s really how ants react.

Of course, a digital ant farm has several advantages over a real one. First off, the cost – I don’t have the foggiest idea how much a real ant farm would cost, if I wanted one, but the digital one is available at what I suspect is a faction of the price (roughly equal to £40).

Plus, the ants aren’t real. Drop the ant farm and you won’t have to deal with a serious infestation of insects that are seeking revenge on the one that stored them in that plastic tank for the last however many months. You’d think, that vengeful ants would be fairly safe, after all it’s not like they could cause much in the way of physical damage but you’d be surprised… maybe.

However, it’s electronic, it’s pointless, and it’s kind of cool. And did we mention it’s Japanese? This is the surest formula that gives us gadget perfection.

“Revolutionary” Motion Sensor Game Controller

It’s difficult to fathom how In2Games can claim that their new motion sensing controller is revolutionary, bearing in mind that it does pretty much exactly the same as the Wiimote does. However, it’s not for the Nintendo Wii and apparently it tracks movements in 3D space. Erm, yes, in real 3d space.

British company, In2Games is calling it the Gametrak Freedom (the controller formerly known as Gametrak Fusion), presumably because it tracks gamers movements and allows for complete freedom in game worlds. Of course, whether it actually works quite as intended is a matter that remains to be seen.

On a positive note, though, In2Games has described it as being “the most advanced motion gaming system ever created”. It’s funny that they never say things like “it’s just like all the other products out there” or “it’s a copy of the one on that other system that made somebody millions”.

As yet, we’ve no idea of whether it will be for the Xbox 360, the PS3, or perhaps versions for both but the first games it will work with are miniature games called Squeezeballs. Hmm, that doesn’t particularly interesting as yet, so hopefully it’s one of those technologies that will improve over time.

[T3}

When Paintballing Goes Hardcore

Paintballing has enjoyed something of a rough ride, in terms of kudos. In general terms it offers you the chance to legally run around a forest dressed in combat gear shooting the hell out of your colleagues, friends, family, and people you’ve never met before. Yet, despite the engaging sounding description it’s usually considered a pastime reserved for corporate geeks (no offense to any corporate geeks that might happen to be reading this).

Perhaps the Patriot Paintball Shotgun might go some way to improving its image. After all, there’s no messing around with shotguns is there? We heartily recommend paintballing as a fun way to spend a weekend in controlled environment and between consenting adults. However, the Patriot paintball shotgun comes with the rather sensible that it should really only be used by players over the age of 18. Rather worryingly, that’s only to be taken under advisement.

The gun includes a paintball cartridge, including water soluble non-toxic paintballs. Apparently, the pump action is realistic, and having been paintballing (does that qualify me as a corporate geek? I don’t think so) I’ll tell you that small balls fired from a pistol can leave a rather nasty welt so you would be best advised avoiding getting shot point blank range with a shotgun (a good rule in life, too, I feel).

Take The Physical Exercise Out Of Golf Practise

You try telling a golfer that their preferred Sunday afternoon pastime isn’t a sport and requires no effort, and most will try and tell you it’s more than just a walk through the woods. After all, you have to bend over every now and again to put the ball on the tee and there’s the seemingly endless walk between shots. We haven’t even mentioned the strenuous lifting of golf clubs.

Well, fortunately, there’s a gadget that makes picking up and re-teeing the ball after practising your swing that little bit easier. The Hammacher Scheimer Automatic Golf Tee automatically puts a ball on the tee, without fail, so you can keep your stance and perfect your swing without all of that back breaking effort, leaning over.

What makes it an even better item for the golf lover is that it doesn’t need plugging into the mains, and indeed doesn’t require a power source of any type. Lower the lever with your club and the Automatic Golf Tee neatly and even proudly places the next ball onto the tee. It holds up to 35 balls and can be purchased for about £30 online so is much cheaper than a virtual swing machine.

Mitsubishi 3D Screens

Screaming kids with Jurassic eyes is enough to give anybody a nightmare, but the slightly bizarre photo is being used to promote Mitsubishi 3D plasma televisions. OK, so they aren’t actually out yet, but details were first released at CES 2008 and the concept is a mouth wateringly, pant wettingly great one.

The new 3D concept is quite innovative and completely disposes of the lame blurry images usually associated with 3D imaging used in this way. Granted, it’s not quite the technical wizardry promised by Indian technology company Infosys but rather than being reserved for mobile crash scene devices Mitsubishi will be offering screens ranging from 60” to 73” in size – not exactly for the faint hearted then.

One of the huge drawbacks, and we mean HUGE, is that you still have to look a complete fool wearing special 3D glasses. Fortunately, gone are the days of red and green perspex lenses but nevertheless you aren’t going to want to be actually be seen wearing them by anybody but your most trusted 3D movie viewing friends.

The other major drawback is one that is always associated with emerging technologies and new gadgets – a more than slightly hefty price tag. While prices haven’t yet been leaked, I mean released, we can guarantee that they won’t be particularly affordable from the off.

[Gizmodo]

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