Review

When it comes to guitar effects pedals, or “stomp boxes” as they are often referred, the Boss brand pedals are certainly among the most ubiquitous on a guitarist’s pedal board. The BOSS OD-1X—BOSS’ newest Overdrive offering—The BOSS BD-2w Blues driver, and the BOSS TE-2 Tera Echo are among the newest effect pedal offering from the revered company. The 3 pedals on review here all have their own little nuances and tones to offer and it ultimately will depend on what you are looking for in your pedal that will determine which you will want to purchase and add to your pedal board.

  I can’t remember when I last watched a 32” TV. I think it was my old CRT Display TV, which was a big screen in its day and weighed a ton making it impossible to move. But the new 32” flat screens, which now seem small, have come a long way and there are a lots of reasons to get one. The size is perfect for a kitchen, wall mounted in the kids room, or in the guest room or den. The Sony R500C 32” Bravia that I recently tested out is ideal for those rooms. It is a smart TV with an extremely good picture and is at a very reasonable price.

For the first time, Samsung has split its flagship Galaxy S line into two distinct models. There is the regular flat version following in the footsteps of its predecessors, and the Edge, which curves on both sides for unique functionality. Under the hood, there is little that sets these two apart, so your choice is going to be mostly about which look you prefer.

Did you know you can add a fitness tracker to your pet's collar? Your dog can rack up the Bark Points by being active when he or she has the FitBark.

It’s time to upgrade from my old router to something new, but is the unique and spider-like D-Link AC3200 Ultra going to meet the needs of a harcore gamer in a household where everyone is connecting to the Internet and hogging the bandwidth?   

The Roland CUBE GX20 is a compact 20 watt guitar amplifier with an 8” speaker and an attitude that aggressively snarls in your face metal. It features independent Clean, Lead, and Solo channels as well as modelling for 6 different amp types. This ensures that whether you’re sitting in your room shredding or running a line out from your GX20 to do some home recording, your needs are met with this lightweight, solidly constructed, and versatile bad boy.

If you’re a Sony speaker enthusiast, you may look to the left and think that design looks familiar.  That’s the Sony SRS-X55, which looks exactly similar to last year’s SRS-X5. However, just like a new car, looks can be deceiving.  The extra year has given Sony the chance to re-evaluate last year’s successful design and make it even better.  The results include better sound quality and a longer battery life.  Keep reading on to find out more!

One of the most used features on any smartphone is its camera. Photo sharing site Flickr published stats showing the three most frequently used cameras among its members for 2014 were Apple iPhones. And if you own a smartphone, you are no doubt aware of the cloud-based photo storage and sharing your platform offers for free. You’ve also likely heard about related security concerns. Enter the Lyve Home, an innovative device/app combo that automatically backs up all your digital photos (and videos) to a secure hard drive, organizes them into a single library, displays them (think digital photo frame) and lets you share them as well.

One of the more popular Windows Ultrabook options in recent years has been the ASUS Zenbook series. Thin and lightweight, with instant visual appeal, Zenbooks offer a premium portable computing experience at a reasonable price. ASUS sent me their latest, the Zenbook UX303LN—with its ultra high resolution 3200 x 1800 pixel display—and a powerful Core i7 CPU. This is one handsome Ultrabook with features and performance that ensure it stands out for more than just looks.

    At CES earlier this year, quantum dot technology was touted a big thing in TV technology for 2015. Although quantum dot TV technology has been around for a few years, it hasn’t really been produced in TVs yet. LG is about to release a couple of new 4K UHD models, one of which is a quantum dot TV. What was great is that I got to test them out side-by-side and see the difference this makes. Both models were excellent sets with extremely clear pictures as you would expect with 4K sets, but the UF9500 with quantum dot technology did have better colour.