Game on
We take a look at the latest in interactive gaming
Rock out
It’s all about the sound. Compatible with any console or TV, twin 8-watt speakers in the Pyramat Rocker’s headrest and a 30-watt subwoofer located directly underneath your rear ensure that you feel every bullet and ride every crash.
Pyramat Rocker Dhs295 Amazon
Wii Not
We simply couldn’t ignore the Wii Fit – surely the current king (or queen) of the interactive gaming world. But we’re looking forward to EA Sports Active (out soon), which promises to give real time feedback on your workout – presumably things like ‘hurry up, stop complaining, no, don’t turn me off… (silence)’.
Wii Fit Dhs649 Plug Ins Electronix
Virtual sur-reality
Wow, it’s kind of like the holodeck on Star Trek, or being trapped inside a large hamster ball. Either way, the Virtusphere rotates 360 degrees, allowing the user inside to make movements which translate to the virtual world that you view through the head-mounted display. Alas at $30,000 it’s more for military training and science museums than home use.
Dhs109,310 www.virtusphere.com
Wheel World
The Logitech G25 racing wheel is as close to having a car crash in your living room as you will ever want to come. The steering wheel even simulates oversteer, while the pedals are super responsive and require a feathered touch, and whilst the six-gated gear stick doesn’t work fully with all games, it’s one heck of a ride.
Logitech G25 racing wheel Dhs920 Amazon
Serious Business
Check out the VRX Mach4 for something a bit more extreme. Including four(!) Xbox360s, three Sharp Aquos LCD screens, a steering wheel, and even a virtual wind system, it’s not cheap, but it was never going to be.
Dhs91,795 www.vrx.ca
Aye Eye
Compatible with everything from iPods to consoles, iwear has always had a reputation for causing insufferable headaches in the user, but if you can bear TVs practically sitting on your retina they’re something else.
Dhs770 www.firebox.com
On a budget Upgrade anything
Low: Roberts Robi
The only flaw in the erstwhile unassailable iPod Classic and Nano was the lack of a DAB radio. So, the clever boys at Roberts put their minds together and came up with this diddy little DAB adaptor. Bless them.
Dhs270 Amazon
Medium: AKG’s C411 Acoustic Pickup
Do a Dylan! Go electric with AKG’s C411 Acoustic Pickup. Electrify any instrument from a banjo to a mandolin. Just attach it to (or near to) the instrument’s bridge and turn your amp up to 11.
Dhs420 Amazon
Future tech
Once a humble repository for National Geographic magazines, oversized books on art and China plates full of Viennese whirls, the humble coffee table has moved on a bit. The Microsoft Surface is a fully functioning touchscreen computer, complete with 30-inch tabletop display. Sadly, it is currently only available for commercial purchase – the hospitality industry, retail, hospitals etc – but surely the future is home application. So get used to rubbing away fingerprints every hour of the day.
News
If you’ve still not had your gadget fix, then check out TecWorld this month at ADNEC. The Capital’s first gadget show brings not only a host of shiny new tech to the region, but a series of workshops offering the inside skinny on everything from digital photography and music downloads to home security.
ADNEC, March 26-28
