Ben.geek.nz - Latest Comments

Re: Logitech SqueezeBox Boom and Duet

beng — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:51:55 -0000

Hey Anthony.

Yup it should work fine. Even though I use Squeeze Center, I can still see both of the Squeezeboxes listed on SqueezeNetwork (just showing as not connected). So I'm sure the Duet controller will be able to select between them.

I don't know if you can buy the Duet controller separately though?

Re: Google Streetview Available in New Zealand

Alistair Helm — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:33:50 -0000

This excellent service from Google will undoubtedly challenge the last bastion of the real estate industry - that issue of providing the address of properties. We have over 80,000 homes for sale from a total portfolio of 114,000 listings on our website (<a href=" http://www.realestate.co.nz">www.realestate.co....>) and gradually we are receiving more and more with addresses, but as of today just 50,000 have addresses, that means that there are 30,000 properties out there that the public may be interested in buying and which the real estate agents are not sharing valuable information and rich information.

Re: Vista Audio Device Management: Sucky?

modenotready — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:10:03 -0000

Same here. But in my case, i upgraded my system from vista business to vista ultimate. Now it wont switch automatically like it was before. During a song playback (with a headset) it stops when i pulled the headset out when it suppose to play continually with the speaker (i'm using vaio laptop anyway). And same thing vice-versa, speaker to headset. I tried installing different drivers but still nothing happens. Please advice, anyone out there.

Re: Logitech SqueezeBox Boom and Duet

Anthony — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:37:12 -0000

I dont have any interest in running squeeze center, but I would like to use squeezenetwork. (All I really want this for is to tie to my rhapsody account)

Question is (and from what I can tell you are the only one who can answer this for me, since very few people have both of these products) If I connect the boom to rhapsody (over squeeze network) and then buy a duet controller, can I use the duet to control the boom?

Re: Search

jac — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 01:46:29 -0000

Why on earth do you lot deceive people, there are two kind of this tea, one written in English while other written in some foreign language and they both have two different effects, this to my knowledge people are not aware of , thinking they are buying the right stuff, the foreign one has not a single effect at all. There seems to be two different company in operation here, on one packet is

healthy hour sliming herb, mfg by fujian tea development .co.ltd
distruted by healthy hour ltd

This is the original make and it works wonderfully effect is intant

while the fake has floaded the market which is market by German herb THAI &CO

There should be a ban on the foreign make asap while you lot take delight in raking in on your profit and leave people in confused state about sliming

Re: iPhone Google Reader/Gmail/Facebook Cookie Fix

akiss — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:30:19 -0000

Worked for me!THANXX

Re: FACT: Rock Band out-rocks Guitar Hero: World Tour

PChow — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:46:01 -0000

I should elaborate when I say "The GH4 error sounds are more annoying than informative":

- the RB's error sound plays a sharp (although not necessarily loud) mishit sound for the note(s) you missed, so you know that the note you hit was wrong. It still plays the louder drum parts you hit correctly on top as well, so you know which part you got right
- In GH4, the error sound overrides the drum sounds in volume so you may not be immediately sure which note you mishit, plus the soundbyte seems to be that of a guitar note being missed, which sounds weird when playing the drums. In addition, the timing of the error sound seems a bit off, but I think that's cause the error sound actually sustains a bit.

Re: FACT: Rock Band out-rocks Guitar Hero: World Tour

PChow — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:37:20 -0000

My flatmate purchased both games, and we both agreed that Rock Band had better gameplay than GH4. A few reasons:

- When an instrument track is failing in RB, the entire highway flashes red, making it obvious to the player. In GH4, you have to watch some easy-to-ignore thing on the side
- In RB, when an instrument fails, it can be saved by a teammate's star power (I refuse to call it "Overdrive"). In GH4, Star Power needs to be applied *before* a teammate's failure for it to save the player. This difference seems to make RB more of a fun party game, and makes GH4 seem like it's still stuck in the old paradigm.
- GH4's instruments do seem to have more features: the drum's kick pedal is less easy to break (I snapped RB's one) and it's got an extra pad, and repositioned closer to where you'd expect the hi-hat and crash cymabl to be. However, RB's drums definitely feel more responsive. I haven't played the guitar much on either game, but the extra slider option in GH4 looks cool, but I'm told it's not really used much.
- RB's sound mixing is much better. The GH4 error sounds are more annoying than informative, and the tracks are quite quiet compared to all the other sounds (menu's, or errors). In RB, the tracks are just as loud, if not louder, as the menu which makes it easier to hear.
- The drum samples in RB's drum fill ins are cooler and more rocky than the quiet inoffensive ones in GH4.

A things in favour of GH4:

- Bigger song selection, especially since my flatmate's PS2 doesn't offer downloadable content
- RB, although more fun overall, also provides less challenges. GH4 has a wider variety of difficulty which is good for players who are bored with the levels of difficulty (my flatmate can finish the expert songs without focusing too much in RB, whereas there are definitely songs in GH3 and GH4 that he could not finish).

There's this known issue in the PS2 version of Rock Band, where sometimes if you keep using the instruments while it's trying to load a song, it stays stuck in pre-song mode, in which the drum's are in free-style mode. I actually like this bug, cause it means I can play around with freestyling on the drums for as long as I want.

Re: Vista Audio Device Management: Sucky?

nobody — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:37:22 -0000

It was working fine for me when Vista was fresh installed. About a two months it is not working anymore...
I mean before when I plugget in my headphones, it becomes active automaticaly. Now I have to switch it manually.... So if it was working in the past there must be a way how to make it working again!

Re: FACT: Rock Band out-rocks Guitar Hero: World Tour

Stu — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:57:48 -0000

Dammnit, missed my chance for 15 minutes of faux fame :).

Re: Ultimate Ears super.fi 5vi Review

beng — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:17:17 -0000

As straight as you'd expect really? It's made of the same material as 90% of headphone cords. No issues from my end.

Re: BlackBerry Storm Marketing Stunt

PS3 — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:24:02 -0000

It must have been a publicity stunt. Looks amazing though!

Re: Ultimate Ears super.fi 5vi Review

John — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:44:38 -0000

Ben,

Does the cord stay straight? I am also thinking of getting these after seeing them on Engadget, but if I am going to shell out $150+ then they may as well be perfect.

Thanks,

John

Re: MobileScrobbler for iPhone is Incredible

eq2 gold — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:42:54 -0000

I am really enjoying its very thoughtful and thanks for your excellent product.

Re: iPhones for New Zealand: iPhone Unlocked

Dave — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:23:29 -0000

Hi Can anyone recommend someone to unlock my iphone, tryed to do an update last night and the phone locked

Re: Fixing iPhone Mail Crashes (2.0 Firmware)

fester99 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:32:37 -0000

you can also use the boss prefs and select more tab and then click on fix user dir permissions.

Re: Brilliant Customer Service from BankDirect

Griff — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:30:02 -0000

Kinda crazy that the concept of people looking after their customers is kinda crazy...

Re: Brilliant Customer Service from BankDirect

Miki Szikszai — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:16:32 -0000

Good call - I had the same experience with Westpac as well - kinda crazy that they are looking after customers now...

Re: Logitech Cordless Desktop MX5000 - now with Review

poker betting — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:23:12 -0000

To me, the name Logitech brings back nostalgic memories of gamepads and joysticks, and of course, keyboards and mice it is the top brand. Their product is really out of the world and extremely stylish, as it's latest venture.

Re: iPhone Google Reader/Gmail/Facebook Cookie Fix

paz — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:19:52 -0000

You are awesome!!!!!

Re: The (f)utility of Twitter

beng — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:03:24 -0000

Yeah, just like that. Ironically I just received a bunch of Glennz tees in the mail yesterday, but not that one.

Re: The (f)utility of Twitter

JC — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:50:55 -0000

You mean like this? http://www.threadless.com/product/261/What_Woul...

Re: About Gadgetophile

beng — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:40:34 -0000

You mean the W980? I think you can currently get them from Parallel
Imported:
http://www.parallelimported.co.nz/catalogsearch...

Re: About Gadgetophile

Lael — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:33:22 -0000

Hi,

I was reading your review on the above phone and would like to but one but it doesnt look like vodaphone are bringing any in, do you think this is the case? Or where would youbuy it from?

Thanks
Lael

Re: Saturn V - One Giant Gadget

Stu — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:00:31 -0000

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

Never mind watching a launch Ben, I'd love to BE in a launch before I die, which may be less of a possibility due to the current global economic fubar alas.