Hasta La Gadget!

There are a lot of choices in terms of keyboards out there for gamers. They always tout having the least amount of latency, extra keys, backlighting, and more features than you have fingers for. Each seems to be more dazzling than the next, but how many of us actually use all of these fancy additions to their fullest?

The Apex Keyboard comes to us from SteelSeries, a company known for its production of quality gaming gear. Judging from the title, this piece of hardware is meant to be the top of the top, with no competition being able to match its greatness. Of course, there will always be one better, but this is a pretty snazzy keyboard. Instead of having regular backlit keys, it has 5 different zones which can all be lit in a huge variety of colors so you know which section controls what.

There are 22 macro keys, with 4 different layers (each layer has its own button on the keyboard), and a SteelSeries button will allow you additional functionality like disabling the Windows key so you don’t have any unfortunate mishaps. These keys are very low profile, and the ‘w’ has two bumps on it so your fingers will be able to quickly realize where they should be so you can get back to the action. For all of those music lovers, there are independent media buttons that will give you all the normal volume controls, skip, back, and more. This will cost you $99, but good luck on actually using this to its fullest potential. For those of you who are wondering, this is not mechanical. While this might not be the first pick of professional gamers, it seems that those of us who play casually (or more than we should) would get plenty of enjoyment out of this piece of hardware.

Available for purchase at SteelSeries
[ Steel Series Apex Keyboard – Just try to stop me copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

This is a big week for Apple with the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C officially going on sale. That means hoards of new iPhone owners will be going online to activate their new smartphone over the weekend. With some analysts predicting Apple will sell as many as 6 million new iPhones this weekend, that means […]

One of the main differences between the Sony PlayStation 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One would be its price. The Xbox One is priced at $499 while the Sony PlayStation 4 will be priced at $100 less at $399. One of the reasons Sony can afford to make their console cheaper was because it did not come with the PlayStation Eye, unlike the Xbox One which comes bundled with the Kinect. However it seems that despite not coming bundled with the PlayStation Eye, Sony is still making a loss on the console. According to a report by Eurogamerwho has been told by their sources, Sony is making a loss of about $60 for every PlayStation 4 console sold.

Naturally Sony declined to comment on the figures and actually denied them, but it was only because the company believes that they will be able to make back the loss through the sales of PlayStation Plus memberships. Sony will not be the first company to make a loss on a product just to sell it at a cheaper price point. Amazon was reported to have made a loss on Kindle Fire tablets which they expected to recoup through the sales on apps and books purchased via their store. In any case loss or no loss, the difference of $100 will definitely make a difference to gamers who might not have the budget.

Sony Losing $60 For Every PS4 Unit Sold original content from Ubergizmo.

Old iPhone docks are a depressing sight in this world of Lightning cables and connectors, sitting with their 30-pin connector exposed and lonely. There are a number of Bluetooth accessories that you can use with those devices, including one from accessory-maker Auris called the freeDa. But their latest project is a similar attachment that brings AirPlay and DLNA streaming to those docks.

The Auris Skye is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, and connects via Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth. It lets you stream music from your iPhone, iPad touch, Android or Windows Phone and Mac or PC on your local Wi-Fi network, using either Apple’s proprietary AirPlay streaming protocol or DLNA on Android and Windows. It’s also Wi-Fi Direct enabled, so that you don’t even need to have a Wi-Fi router or network available to use it.

Their are a few advantages to using AirPlay over Bluetooth. For one, if you have other AirPlay speakers and stereo equipment in your home, you can stream to the Skye and those simultaneously from a Mac or PC. Apple also has done its best to optimize the AirPlay streaming protocol for maximum quality, so you’ll get much better sound using it vs. Bluetooth, so long as the Skye works as advertised. Plus, there’s no need to pair; the Skye should just show up in your list of available streaming devices once set up on your network. Finally, Wi-Fi range is far greater than that of Bluetooth.

Skye also doesn’t need a separate power source, as it uses the power from the dock itself, which would normally be used to charge the iOS device sitting in the cradle. The Auris team says they’ve tested it with a range of speakers already, and so far haven’t found one that doesn’t work, and they offer a control app to get you set up.

Santa Clara-based Auris already makes and ships two audio accessories, so it knows how to build product. The company previously kickstarted its Bluetooth receiver, and raised $131,911 (exceeding its $40,000) goal. It’s worth noting that some backers complained about the quality of that device in the comments for that project, but Auris has redesigned the original product, and has already exceeded its $56,000 goal for the Skye, raising $72,197.

AirPlay can be tricky to get right, though the recent incarnations of the tech in consumer products have all performed reliably, so Auris has a lot to deliver with this project and a shipping timeline of December, 2013. Hopefully the company learned some lessons from its first go-around, however, because this is a very useful accessory to have.

Imagine if all the world’s data was still stored on punch cards: we’d be drowning in cardboard. But just how much exactly?

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