The smartphone market is as competitive as ever and the enthusiasts representing each camp are at each other’s throats. But you know what? We’re not so different since we all love our gadgets, smartphones, and apps. But all too often, we find ourselves focusing on our differences rather than our similarities. As it turns out, many mobile apps are available across most of the popular smartphone platforms. Whether you’re rocking a Droid, BlackBerry or an iPhone, we can find some common ground.

Futurelooks News Flash - Can't We All Just Get Along? A Guide to Mobile Apps for All Smartphone Platforms

We are giving away World of Warcraft related accessories from Steelseries, all you have to do is answer two questions.

Contest Time! Rbmods teams up with Warcraftmovies.com @ Rbmods

"Today’s digital on the go society has left us with a menagerie of battery operated devices that need recharging. We are left hunting in airports or school classrooms like zombies for outlets to satisfy our hunger for more power. Now with the Choiix Power Fort 10Whrs Rechargeable Power Backup Battery Pack from Cooler Master, we finally have instant access to a quick boost to keep those precious Apple iPhones and MP3 players fully charged while traveling."

Choiix Power Fort Power Backup Review @ BayReviews.com

"NZXT has just announced the Phantom, a full-tower case with tons of exciting features that will reach the market in September with a suggested price of USD 140 in the USA. Let's see whether you should consider buying it or not."

NZXT Phantom Case Review @ Hardware Secrets

Now through August 1, NewEgg is offering Sceptre’s state-of-the-art 27-inch high-def LCD monitors for just $249.99 (regularly $399 MSRP) – that’s $150 savings.

 

This world class PC gaming monitor delivers superior performance without compromising sleek aesthetic appeal and eco-conscious design. It features industry-impressive 60,000:1 contrast ratios and ultra-fast 2 ms response times for a more realistic and advanced PC gaming experience. Perfect for the PC game enthusiast, these widescreen ultra high-resolution monitors keep action crisp and clear to maximize visual stimulation and offer users a top-of-the-line gaming experience. Plus it’s Energy Star 5.0 complied, which reduce unnecessary energy usage to increase environmental sustainability and prolong monitor life.

Sceptre: 27-inch HD LCD PC Gaming Monitor

World class PC gaming monitors deliver superior performance, aesthetic appeal and eco-conscious design

• Widescreen 1080p HD LCD widescreen PC monitor
• Features ultra-fast 2 ms response time and 60,000:1 contrast ratio
• Connections port includes VGA, DVI, HDMI
• Energy Star 5.0 complied monitors reduce energy usage to increase environmental sustainability and prolong monitor life

Available at: NewEgg.com
Price: $399 MSRP (Limited time $249.99)
Website: www.sceptre.com

In years past, a Ninja would give a party attendee a sticker or a paper invite that would get them in to the party. Last year the Ninjas took the party invite to the next level when they created their own custom badge for their party attendees. This year, badge designers Amanda Wozniak and Brandon Creighton decided to take the badge to the next level, and then some. What started as a sketch on a napkin ended up as an amazing hacker gaming and development platform.

Exclusive Sneak Peek: DefCon Ninja Party Badge @ TechwareLabs

DEF CON 18, the barely legal edition is in full swing and promises to be busier and crazier than ever. The event is cash only at the door with no reservations making the event very inviting to individuals that enjoy privacy and not having their credit card hijacked. Be sure to check back with us for updates all weekend long. included in our coverage are photo's of the now World Famous and highly sought after BlackHat Badge.

BlackHat 2010 and the Famous Badge @ TechwareLabs

"As a general rule of thumb wireless gaming mice are far inferior to their wired rodent cousins; simply due to sod's law which makes it run out batteries just as you're going for that important kill. Roccat are well versed in the wired sector of the market with designs such as the Kone and Kova warranting significant praise from reviewers and consumers alike.  

With the Pyra, Roccat has decided to throw its hat into the mobile gaming market ring but can the PC peripheral manufacturer succeed where numerous others have failed? Let’s get started. "

Roccat Pyra Review - XSReviews

Calgary, AB – July 22, 2010 - CoolIT Systems, leaders in advanced liquid cooling technology, announced today the launch of a large-scale contest that will encourage consumers to get involved in the company and their products. The contest is open to anyone with a video camera and an air cooler.

“We are often asked by our customers what they should do with their old air coolers now that they have switched over to CoolIT Advanced Liquid Cooling units. We wanted to come up with a fun way to deal with this question, and this contest is perfect for it”. Says Geoff Lyon, President & CEO of CoolIT Systems.

Anyone with a video camera and an air cooler are invited to join the fun on CoolIT Systems’ YouTube channel for their chance to win one of 50 ECO A.L.C.’s. All they have to do is create a video of what they are doing with their old air cooler that they are no longer using. CoolIT came up with a demonstration of some of the things CoolIT has been doing with their old heatsinks, to get ideas rolling.

“At CoolIT Systems we are always focusing on engineering exceptional products and adjusting our designs based on customer feedback. A contest like this is a fun way for us to thank our customers for their valuable input by getting involved in what they are doing.” Says Susan LeBlanc, Global Marketing and Communications Manager at CoolIT Systems.

The contest is scheduled to begin on August 4^th, 2010, and will take place on CoolIT’s YouTube channel. The first round will run for a period of 14 days and the winners will win one of 100 ECO Advanced Liquid Cooling solutions. Consumers are invited to rate posted videos to vote for the winner.

Solid state drives not only offer an enormous reliability advantage over traditional hard disk drives, they offer great performance increases as well. Most people operate under the assumption it takes great money to get great performance. The Agility 2 claims to be the exception. Let's see if the Agility 2 has the moves to keep up with its boasts.

OCZ Agility 2 SSD @ TechwareLabs

"Patriot's Bolt series of flash drives prove that file security doesn't have to come at a premium price. $25 for the 8GB model is easy on the wallet, and it performs just as well as any other flash drive out there and has a sleek look to boot. The AES 256-bit hardware encryption will keep your files safe in the event the drive gets lost or stolen, and the built-in software is straightforward and works great right out of the box."

Patriot Bolt 8GB Hardware Encrypted USB Flash Drive Review @ Tweaknews

Mini-ITX motherboards are typically designed for low power consumption and cherished for their compact form factor. So what happens when you replace a low powered system with an Intel H55?

Gigabyte H55N Mini-ITX Motherboard Review @ Ninjalane

Today, Puget Systems in announcing a new revision to our wildly popular aquarium PC.  Our new Aquarium Computer V3 Kit represents a number of exciting improvements.  The system is larger, allowing for full eATX motherboards. It allows the power supply to be mounted on the motherboard tray, making it much easier to maintain the PC. It also has more than twice the cooling power!  We built a test system with the most extreme hardware available, with impressive results.


New Aquarium Computer V3 Announcement

OCZ Technology has once again brought cutting-edge high-speed SSDs into the value storage segment with their Agility 2 series. Based on the SandForce SF1200 controller, the OCZ Agility 2 SSD delivers up to 20,000 IOPS with incredible bandwidth speed. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the 120GB OCZ Agility 2 Extended OCZSSD2-2AGTE120G against some of the fastest storage solutions on the market. Just when PCs were starting to seem irrelevant in this fast-paced world of mobile gadgets and smart phones, along comes a new product that changes the entire landscape. SSDs, or more formally Solid State Drives, have finally lifted computers beyond the age of spinning metal magnetic platters. Delivering a boost in speed that no memory upgrade or new processor could ever dream of, solid state drive technology has sent hard disk drives packing.

OCZ Agility-2 SandForce-Driven SSD @ Benchmark Reviews

Are your readers looking to make the jump to SSD for their next storage solution?  Neoseeker looks to deliver the hard dirt on Corsair's solid state hard drive, the Force 120GB.  Can this beefy drive match its beefy price?

Corsair Force 120GB SSD Review @ Neoseeker

"ASUS  Crosshair IV Formula is undoubtedly an original and interesting product. Its features, like GameFirst and ROG Connect, are actually useful and may come in handy. The bundle includes everything you need, and then a bit more."

iXBT Labs Review: ASUS Crosshair IV Formula Motherboard

A major area of concern for any software vendor is maintaining a platform that is secure and safe from vulnerabilities. Time spent analyzing patch code and implementing updates is frustrating. Jeongwook Oh presents his latest attempt to reduce the workload with his tool DarunGrim v3.

TechwareLabs BlackHat 2010 Event Coverage

We all trying to acheive faster speeds with pretty much
everything we do. Just last week I have timed myself depositing some cash in
to my bank account from ATM. The whole process took nearly 3 minutes and
even that puzzled me as what can be done to speed up the process. The same
applies to the hard drive speeds. We are at the point where the bottle neck
in the average PC is the hard drive and its speed but everything comes with
a price. Buying a SSD could be an expensive task. Depending on the capacity
you easily can throw down 300$ for 128 Gig SSD hard drive. Sure the
performance is unmatched to the mechanical hard drives but the capacity sure
doesn't sound so appealing. Thankfully our friends at Seagate have came up
with a hybrid solution, Momentus XT.


UMLan Article Release: Seagate Momentus XT - Review

Razer is mostly known for their expensive gaming mice, however, this new mouse changes all. Dubbed the Abyssus Razer is offering a gaming grade mouse at only $49 MSRP. We test the mouse and see if it stands a chance against some fierce competition.



Razer Abyssus @ techPowerUp