In this episode, we take a visit to the Tom Bihn labs, where we get a first hand look into exactly what it takes to design and manufacture their awesome line of bags. We take a tour of their facility, and talk with Tom about concept, design, manufacturing, as well as a few stories about how they stress test their stuff. I mean, when a bag gets blown up in war over in Iraq, but your computer that was in the bag is protected perfectly, you know these things are good.

Here’s how to get the show:
Subscribe: iTunes iPod / H.264 | iTunes MPEG-4 | RSS iPod Feed | RSS MPEG-4 Feed

|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264 (Mirror)
|Download| - DivX (Mirror)
|Download| - MPEG-4 (Mirror)
|Download| - PSP (Mirror)

IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - MPEG-4

Gallery: The Bleeding Edge 019: A Visit To Tom Bihn

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

Alright guys, a couple months back we asked you all to put your thinking caps on and design us a simple video game. Of course, we wouldn’t ask you to do something so daunting if there wasn’t something good in it for you - so we figured we would give someone an Xbox 360 for their troubles.

We had eleven entries into the contest (yup - just eleven!) and we gave each game a spin before determining the winner. If you want to check out the entries, you can download the following games, done exclusively in Visual Studio Express:

• RPGFight
• Spacealaga
• ActionSquare
• Crazy Maze
• Fifty
• Julie Tennis
• Memory
• Space Attack
• Ping Pong
• TicTacToe

We want to thank everyone for their submissions - but we chose one game to walk away with the Xbox 360. Congrats to Forum member Dbone - we liked the work you put into the contest, and enjoyed the frustratingly fun Action Square game. We will be contacting your for your info, and you can expect one of those new Xbox 360s to hit your doorstep in the near future. See? Dreams really do come true.

If you didn’t win (or participate for that matter), you still have an opportunity to win our iRiver clix giveaway contest, which runs through August!

Gallery: Announcing Our Game Design Contest Xbox 360 Winner!

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (3)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

Ever wonder what goes on behind closed doors at a major tech company? We hung out with the higher ups at iRiver America and got a tour of the place. We also sat down with iRiver America CEO Jonathan Sasse, and talked a bit about the company, the evolution of the iRiver clix, working with Microsoft and MTV, DRM, and a few other topics. Oh, and we got a look at the iRiver hummer.

Here’s how to get the show:
Subscribe: iTunes iPod / H.264 | iTunes MPEG-4 | RSS iPod Feed | RSS MPEG-4 Feed

|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264 (Mirror)
|Download| - DivX (Mirror)
|Download| - MPEG-4 (Mirror)
|Download| - PSP (Mirror)

IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - MPEG-4

Gallery: The Bleeding Edge 018: A Visit To iRiver, Jonathan Sasse Interview

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

About 6 months ago, with great anticipation, we picked up the Motorola RAZR V3c for Verizon.  Boy, were we ever excited!  Unfortunately, our high expectations led us to great disappointments.

Our biggest complaint half-a-year ago was the phones battery life.  That annoyance has grown into a huge problem.  Six months ago, twelve hours of marginal use cost us half of our battery life.  These days it is more like ten hours of minimal use sends the phone into the annoying Motorola “can’t turn off the stupid low-battery alert even though the phone is on silent and helps run down the remaining battery life even faster” chime.

Click to continue reading Motorola RAZR V3c: Six Months Later

Gallery: Motorola RAZR V3c: Six Months Later

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (1)
• Email this story

If you are looking to speed up your network, 802.11n is the future. The question is, has the future already arrived, or should we wait until it is officially accepted and announced? We talk with Linksys about their new pre-N router, as well as a few of their other new networking prodcuts, and get their take on the whole 802.11n debacle in this episode.

Here’s how to get the show:
Subscribe: iTunes iPod / H.264 | iTunes MPEG-4 | RSS iPod Feed | RSS MPEG-4 Feed

|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264 (Mirror)
|Download| - DivX (Mirror)
|Download| - MPEG-4 (Mirror)
|Download| - PSP (Mirror)

IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - MPEG-4

Gallery: Bleeding Edge Byte 023: Linksys 802.11n Router, Other Linksys Products

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Email this story

We catch up with Greg Canessa, General Manager for Xbox Casual Games, and chat about the much anticipated Lumines Live for Xbox Live Arcade. Greg shows us around the game, going through the interface, and touching on music video integration. He also fills us in on details about matchmaking and competitive play over Xbox Live.

Here’s how to get the show:
Subscribe: iTunes iPod / H.264 | iTunes MPEG-4 | RSS iPod Feed | RSS MPEG-4 Feed

|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264 (Mirror)
|Download| - DivX (Mirror)
|Download| - MPEG-4 (Mirror)
|Download| - PSP (Mirror)

IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - MPEG-4

Gallery: Bleeding Edge Byte 022: Lumines Live, Greg Canessa Interview

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

We are glad to see that there are finally PlaysForSure MP3 players being released that can match up to the iPod not only in features (easy to do), but in form factor and ease of use as well (hard to do). At first glance, the iRiver clix looks like such a device. The clix is a redesigned iRiver U10, remixed with input from both the Windows Media Player 11 team and MTV, and is currently one of the only three PlaysForSure devices that is compatible with WMP 11 and the MTV URGE service. Does that make it good? We give you our full iRiver clix review after the jump.

Click to continue reading Gear Live Review: iRiver clix Review

Gallery: Gear Live Review: iRiver clix Review

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

In this episode, Andru and Jake go head to head in Big Brain Academy, we review the Nintendo DS Lite, and we ask you to name our new movie review show (with a prize for the winner!) Here’s the format:

HEAD TO HEAD
Nintendo DS Lite vs. Nintendo DS

UNWIRED
Motorola Q Review

HIGH SCORE
Big Brain Academy Review

THE WIRE
Seattle International Film Festival Review

Contest

: Name our new movie show, and win a 6-month Netflix subscription!

Here’s how to get the show:
Subscribe: iTunes iPod / H.264 | iTunes MPEG-4 | RSS iPod Feed | RSS MPEG-4 Feed

|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264 (Mirror)
|Download| - DivX (Mirror)
|Download| - MPEG-4 (Mirror)
|Download| - PSP (Mirror)

IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - MPEG-4

Gallery: The Bleeding Edge 017: Big Brain Academy, Motorola Q, Nintendo DS Lite

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

So we finally got our hands on iRiver’s drool-worthy portable media device, the clix. This 2GB beauty has a great screen, and was built from the ground-up for use with MTV URGE and Windows Media Player 11. We will be bringing you a full review of the device here on Gear Live, as well as in video form on The Bleeding Edge, but for now, join us in the gallery as we unbox the iRiver clix.

Read More | iRiver clix Unboxing Gallery

Gallery: Unboxing the iRiver clix

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story

Alright, time to show off Nintendo’s latest baby. In this Byte we put the Nintendo DS Lite up against the original Nintendo DS to look at the similarities and differences between the two models. If you have been debating the upgrade, check out the video. We give you a review of the Nintendo DS Lite, go over the pros and cons, and distract Jake from his Mario Kart session.

Here’s how to get the show:
Subscribe: iTunes iPod / H.264 | iTunes MPEG-4 | RSS iPod Feed | RSS MPEG-4 Feed

|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264 (Mirror)
|Download| - DivX (Mirror)
|Download| - MPEG-4 (Mirror)
|Download| - PSP (Mirror)

IMPORTANT: We are surveying the viewers of our show to see what it is that people like, and more importantly, what they don’t like. It is anonymous, and just takes a couple of minutes. If you have the time, we would appreciate it! As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - MPEG-4

Gallery: Bleeding Edge Byte 021: Nintendo DS Lite Review

• Tools:
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Comments (0)
• Forum Discussion
• Email this story