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Join sisters NinJaSistah and Pandalicious and the rest of the ESH Crew each day as they discuss video games, tech gadgets, anime, manga... pretty much everything within the geek chic lifestyle.

From Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PC game reviews, previews, news, and gushings to audience questions and rumor mill seeding galore you'll find it here at ESH!
First Nerdgasm of 2010: ESH@CES Las Vegas!
 

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    We less than three manga as well, so peep the manga reviews.

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    Preview: Blue Microphone Yeti

    posted @ 1/22/2010 09:50:00 PM by Ninjasistah
    If you happened to catch our podcast last week and listened to the entire hour than you know I spent some time with Blue Microphones at CES a couple of weeks ago.

    Well, I'm going to be reviewing that USB mic [called the Yeti] very soon and wanted to give you a sneak peek at what I'm playing with.

    When at CES we talked about Blue Microphone's new iPhone external microphone device "The Mikey" and a soon-to-be release USB microphone designed with podcasters and home musicians in mind. This microphone, "the Yeti," reminded me of why I love working in audio... it's just flat out sexy!

    Lightly coated brushed metal-esque finish, gorgeous steel mesh protecting it's cardioid innards and THX certification emblem is enough to make a gal buy one just to put it on display. Don't get it twisted, I plan on road-testing the hell out of this mic including recording my side of our next few podcasts with it in addition to some special little projects I have created to really push all of Yetis' buttons and see just how well it can handle what people can through in its general direction. If you are in the market for a new USB microphone for professional level recording and don't want to wait for my review, you can pick up a Yeti of your own for the Apple Store Online for $149.95.

    While I have done little more than take it out of the box at this point, I do have some of those nerdc0re photos for you on our newly created Flickr stream! Peep the show below and be on the look out for more images to hit that feed soon!


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    According to Bayonetta, Angels Enjoy Their Crotches

    posted @ 1/18/2010 08:05:00 AM by Ninjasistah
    The first full Monday after the CES recovery week brings with it a new episode of the Electric Sista Hood podcast and this one is focused on Platinum Games new title release Bayonetta.

    Both NinJaSistah and Pandalicious have played through the game and spend the bulk of the hour tripping through the awesome gameplay that is Bayonetta while spoiling the story ending, plot points and more. Did you know there was a music video at the end of the game? You do now!

    We even answer an audience question or two, touch on James Cameron's movie Avatar and start sharing some of the audio interviews Evermore and I conducted during CES 2010. Need more incentive to take a listen, check out some of the titles we came up with for this episode but didn't use:
    • Climaxes Are Different — We'll Get Back to Those
    • She's Wet — And It's Not Just Because She's Been At the Bottom of a Lake
    • and finally
    • The Last Naked Woman to Be Taken Seriously Was Eve

    Grab the beverage of your choice and enjoy Electric Sista Hood Podcast Episode 180: My Other Car Is a Pleasure Pony

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    No Entendre Title Here

    posted @ 10/26/2009 08:13:00 AM by Ninjasistah
    Sure, it would be easy to make a double entendre title for this weeks new podcast episode but we take the high road here at Electric Sista Hood.

    Ok, actually we don't, but it was a fun way to start this podcast post. This podcast episode is ALL game, no anime, no gadgets. Pandalicious kicks off the hour with her final thoughts on the PSP game Obscure: The Aftermath by Playlogic, including a recommendation to play it on something soft. She says the game is scary, and you'll through your PSP around like a rag doll. Then she goes into a spiel about her first reactions to the new 2K Games title Borderlands and explores the parallels between it's gameplay elements and the PC title Diablo. We then have a spirited conversation about how to get PC gamers over to the console gaming side of the fence.

    Then I finish out the hour talking about my experience with the social stuff on the Xbox Live Preview including Twitter and FaceBook. Closing out the hour is NinJaSistah's review of the EA title Need for Speed: Shift on the PS3. It's a busy episode, here are some of the titles for it that we didn't use:

    • This One Made Me Sing to Barney 'Til Dawn
    • Beware Games With Boys Choirs
    • Skeeziest Line of the Year: "The Flower Inside Me Has Just Bloomed!"
    • There's a Monster That Will Snatch Your Attention
    • Ninja Likes to Mounth Things — CONFIRMED!
    • and finally

    • SixAxiS Is a Palindrome — So Is Dud.

    Grab a frosty beverage and enjoy Electric Sista Hood Podcast Episode 169: First Rule of Midnight Club: Forget the Name of Midnight Club

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    Subservient What?

    posted @ 9/28/2009 08:00:00 AM by Ninjasistah
    The best way to kick off the beginning of a fresh new week is with a new episode of the Electric Sista Hood podcast. This one has an audience question, video game reviews and anime... the holy trifecta of ESH!

    We start off with a question brought to us by William Bell of TheXboxDomain which fuels the conversation for the bulk of the show about how nit-picky we have become as gamers. From growing up and having to learn to love what you get, to almost being apathetic as new titles flood the market. Pandalicious and NinJaSistah don't really come to an agreement on the subject, but it is a fun journey towards an answer nevertheless.

    Then we move on to hands-on video game reviews of Bethesda Softworks new release Wet on the PS3 and NinJaSistah's knee-jerk reaction to the DJ Hero demo. Then we chat about the Dreamcast/PS2 games available via PSN rumor and Pandalicious tops out the hour with her coverage of the anime series Black Buttler

    Here is a quick glimpse into what the episode is like:
    • Five-Year-Olds Don't Need Boom Boxes
    • My Douche-Baggery Made You Better
    • I'm Not Condoning Eating Cats
    • Videogames Are Not a Pos-Apocalyptic Guide
    • and finally
    • Spoiler Alert! Bambi's and Norman Bates' Mothers Both Dead

    Dig in and enjoy Electric Sista Hood Podcast Episode 165: Pandalicious Loves the Hired Help

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    Review: Razer Megalodon

    posted @ 7/28/2009 07:24:00 PM by Alex J. Avriette
    Razer has a new-ish set of gaming cans, called, menacingly, the Megalodon. For those of you not knowing what a Megalodon is, it's a really, really, really big shark. Like, it could eat our entire budget deficit. It's that big. But, did I buy them for gaming? Naw. I bought them for some biiiiiig pimpin'.



    Pyramid head knows his cans. You know he does.

    I did not buy them to play Crysis and hear the 7.1ch sound. Rather, I'm using them on a MacBook Air, which has at best pretty pathetic sound. It has a single 1/8din preamp output, recessed at that, making it maddening to use with any cans of decent quality.

    No, I bought them ($160, mind) because my $25 DA40 Plantronics headset had sort of failed its reliability test. I spend as much as 20-30 hours a month on phone conferences, and I do it all – yes, all of it – on Skype and Google Voice. I occasionally use iChat, but with its "special" requirements for firewalls and direct connections, that's only ever at best hit or miss. The Plantronics unit, while having exceptional sound (but no amp) broke. The part that broke was essentially the earpiece, and this made it even harder to hear (audio through a USB DSP is hard to hear without an amplifier because the signal is rather low, so placement of the earpiece of the Plantronics DA40 units is crucial.

    So I bought the Megalodon because it had the USB DSP (I couldn't tell whether the Characarodon did), and I knew that I was unhappy with Plantronics products. There was a Logitec G-35 or something as well, for a little less money, but I'm glad I got the Megalodon in terms of product quality. It came in a hard carrying case, which I had to buy separately for my Sennheisers, which cost three times as much! (the price has since come down from near $600 to under $400). It also came with what seems to be an amp, but might just be a channel muxer (look it up; if you don't know it, you probably shouldn't be reading this anyways) and DSP.

    The sound is pretty good. Part of the problem is finding a multichannel stereo sound source on the Mac that isn't gaming. When you do, however, there's no question that the design of the semi-closed cans (they're not quite open, they're not quite closed, but I don't think the gamers really care; what they aren't is sealed, and that leaves me perplexed in the land of lan parties). I found that Blu-Ray rips of movies were fantastic, and had real nice, directional sound. There were also great results from two-channel music, as simple as Mechanical Animals or The Pink Floyd Floydhead (yeah, I roll like that. Don't be a douche). If you wanted to go quadraphonic and had the material, the cans kept up. There's a so-so primer on open/closed cans at Crutchfield, but you're not going to get much better without spending thousands and thousands of dollars on cans and amps. Sorry, it's just the way it is. This review is either going to be useful to you because you know who Poinz is, or you were going to buy them anyways because of the blue LEDs, or you're going to be lost like one of those creepy little Silent Hill burn victims. Damned to an eternity of cheap cans.

    The resolution of the sound (that is, the ability of the cans to produce the sound with high fidelity, accurately, with good simulation of location, and so on) is remarkable for a set of cans that didn't cost $300. I haven't tried the new Sennheiser 850, and I'll reckon that if I could afford the amp for that monster that the Übersenn would HULKSMASH the Megalodon, but a) it would cost me over $3,000 for the pleasure and b) it still ain't got a mike boom, which is the next part of this review.

    I spent three hours, almost four, on teleconferences today, using that boom mike, and it didn't let me down once. I also spent all day listening to the cans. Once, the DSP/Amp overheated, and that pissed me off. The sound went all SQEEEEEEK and wanted to be smashed, but, unplugged from USB, plug back in, and it was worky. The mike is great. Everyone thought I was on a land line. So let there be no confusion. These are terrific for you corporate whores, like me, who gotta maintain a job for the man.

    Now, a brotha did get let down when he installed these fine cans. I am not stupid, but then I am also not one to read instructions. Upon installation, I checked that all my "preferences" were set properly (with a USB DSP and Amp you don't need drivers; this is 100% win). I checked that all the channels – front, sides, rear, bass, satellite  – were set to medium volume so as to not clobber my ears. I switched from 2 to 7.1 ch and back, and no dice.

    It wasn't until after fucking about with the machine for a good half hour I realized that it has AN ADDITIONAL master volume switch. Folks this thing has so many fucking lights on it, it could lose a heat tile on re-entry and you just wouldn't fucking know. After dialing in the master volume, setting the mike sensitivity (another bonus: on-amp mike mute button. good show, razer), and so on, everything Just Worked.

    I tested it with Skype, iChat, iTunes, X-Plane, VLC, DVD Player, and so on. You may notice there aren't any games there. Hint: I don't play a lot of games. The good news is that Razer are a bunch of pussies and basically didn't even bother to test them on the Mac other than to say they "should work." Well, folks, they do. Just like every other Razer product. They make expensive shit that works real good, and it costs a bunch of money. This is common in the market, though. Witness Alienware PC's and Saitek controls.

    • Product: Razer Megalodon
    • Price: $150 (street)
    • Rating: Great, great boom mike. Very good sound for semi-open cans, especially at the price. Electronics that will occasionally overheat and make their manufacturer look stupider than a barrel of irradiated weasels. Mac Compatible. Too many damn LED's. Comfortable, even for all-day conference calls or gaming or video sex. You know Jenna Jameson and that pink Master Chief hate an echo on the line.

    update, 3 days later after a few days of 4-6 hours of listening to music and taking calls, there's considerable static in the cans. Note that the amp/DSP brick they come with has a linear slider that goes from "blue" to "red", and as a connoisseur of nice cans, I don't listen to them loud to begin with, this is very disappointing. I'll use them for calls because of the boom mike, but for listening to music, it'll be back to the senns. So, so, so disappointed. Razer, you really shit the bed on this one.


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    Product Review: Logitech Alto Connect Hub

    posted @ 4/12/2009 05:40:00 PM by Ninjasistah
    Mobile technology has been getting pretty damned popular these days. Between mobile phones moving away from just being a phone and towards doing everything but taking you out to dinner before they shag you, to computers becoming smaller...better...faster...stronger, mobile tech is really running amuck these days.

    With that being said, I thought I share some hands on time that I had with the Alto Connect stand from Logitech.

    As you all know, I absolutely love my laptop. She has her own case, special slot in my bag, custom sticker job, and is even named after one of my "guilty pleasure" anime series. She is my road warrior. Every tradeshow, meeting, and production meeting we have, my baby comes with me. For the longest time when I have returned home from a hard days work I have hardly ever connected my companion to an external monitor. The 15-inch screen is fairly bright so I have been able to get along ok with it on my desk, over time however it became more and more difficult to focus on the screen while wearing my reading glasses. After a lot of adjustments on the computer itself I realized the problem was with my desk. It was designed to frame a desktop machine and not a laptop, so the height at which my laptop rested on the desk was my real issue, and not my eyeballs. I can't not stress how much of a relief this realization was as the last thing I wanted to do was think about laser eyeball surgery, so I turned my attention to finding first the perfect riser for my laptop then to finding a great external monitor to use.

    When it comes to laptop risers there are a lot out there on the market. Some that are simple with no bells or whistles and then others that are a PCI express port away from being a mobile workstation. With my original laptop, I use a small riser made out of titanium which was great at both dispersing heat and being lightweight enough to travel around with me. It was a wonderful little gadget, but my previous laptop was 12-inches and as I mentioned the new one is 15, so she didn't quite fit the bill. I made a list of things that I wanted to be able to do with my laptop when it was on my desk which basically wound up equalling my previous desktop setup and with my ideas in print, I set out to find a riser that would fit my need.

    I have to say of the majority of risers I looked at, I ended up getting the Alto Connect Hub by Logitech I chose the Alto Connect for a couple of reasons. First, like my previous riser it is highly portable. The riser consists two interlocking legs that meet in the middle to create the perch for the laptop to rest upon. The Alto Connect has the added benefit of a built in 4 port USB hub that is powered and discreetly placed in the back of one of it's legs. I want to point out that only three of the USB ports are on the leg, the forth port is actually in the front of the riser for quick plug and play action. Need to charge your music player or get some stuff off your flash drive, no fumbling with trying to hook it up in the back.

    I have had the Alto Connect for a month now and I have to say I'm quite happy with it. It keeps me from having to pick up the workstation components [USB hub, power supply, and riser] separately and can travel with me. Now I just need to get monitor.

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    Product Review: iPhone Defender By OtterBox

    posted @ 3/31/2008 11:37:00 PM by FreeLoader
    When it comes to listing the current sexy [and expensive] cell phone gadgets, there's no denying that the Apple iPhone is seated firmly at the top of the list. If you have an iPhone and are terrified of damaging it, then this post may be helpful for you. I'm going to review the iPhone Defender case for the iPhone by OtterBox.

    There are a lot of different cases made by a plethora of different companies that serve can project your precious device in various ways. If you carry your iPhone in your pocket then you probably are looking for a case that doesn't add a lot of bulk to your device, and that will protect it from the other items you may have in your pocket. If you carry it in a bag, you may look for a case that will keep your iPhone from being dented by the heavier items in your bag, or from liquids that you carry along with you during your daily commute. After a month with the iPhone Defender Series case by OtterBox, I can say that the Defender series can be a great protective case for your iPhone. Like many of the cases that OtterBox is known for creating, the iPhone Defender is a water resistant hard case with protection in mind. It features a silicone membrane that slips over the main hard case which aids in your gripping the phone so it doesn't slip out of your hand, or off the dashboard of your car. The hard case itself is made up of two interlocking pieces that once closed leave the headphone jack and dock connector area of the iPhone exposed for easy connection to your peripherals. It's good to note that the iPhone is not dockable when in this case. The texture of the membrane is keeps the phone comfortable in your hand if you have to hold the phone for long periods of time, which you are familiar with if you've ever used the google map feature for driving directions.

    The Defender comes with a hard plastic holster with swivel clip that complements the case, but add quite a bit to it's overall bulk and is the first negative thing I have to say about the Defender. While the holster is solid, and firmly locks in place as you swivel, it's hard to overlook how much it affects the footprint of the iPhone. The clip of the holster is broad and not easily swayed from the pocket or belt you clip it on. While in the holster, you will only have access to the sleep/wake button at the top of the phone, the headphone jack, and the volume controls on the side of the device. This is where my other major complaint about this particular case comes in. While a great amount of detail went into this case, you have no access to the silence switch at all while your phone is encased in it. The only way you can turn sound on and off is by using the settings controls on the phone which is tedious at best.

    All in all, the OtterBox iPhone Defender Case delivers everything it promises: protection against light precipitation, bumping, dropping, dirt and dust for your 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB iphone. It is not as affordable as some of the other cases that offer similar protection, but $49.95 is a small price to pay for extra protection of your $399 or $499 iPhone.

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