Who the hell wants boring storage devices? With all the USB storage devices running rampant through the world nowadays, they’re generally strange or they’re just plain damn unenthusiastic. Sometimes you’ll find your sleek and professional model which you’ll either uncap or they’re on sliders - and it makes you feel very Mission Impossible. However, let’s be honest with ourselves; we’re not all MI operatives and none of us act like them.

I wanted a USB storage device for backups and for transporting things like pictures, music, text files and the like - over to other computers without having to burn discs. I hated that with a passion and yet I wasn’t ready to commit to something hideous like the usual USB stick drive.

Through much searching on the Intranet, I came about “Mimobots”. Very small (2 and 3/8 inches tall.) stature but absolutely adorable to look at, the Mimobots are art inspired USB drives. With limited numbers, artists will design their blank Mimobots and then Mimoco will make and sell a limited supply. They’re not just functional drives, folks - they are ART. Some of the works are very modern, very pop-artish while some are extremely funny and come from series of graffiti artists or just people who design characters and art altogether. You can easily enter a contest to design a series of Mimobots yourself, by buying one of their vinyl bots (Sans USB function.) and coloring and designing your own with your own inks and paints. Very cool idea, isn’t it? Bringing the world back into the sanctity of creative output, not just hiring on more and more already marketed artists.

In the end, the Mimobot does what it’s supposed to: it stores your files. Yes, it could be any other storage utility - but none would be nearly this cool (I mean, come on - they made a Star Wars series. Chewie is sitting on my desk as we speak.) and as functional. Mimoco even made a very cool utility that if you have a character Mimobot (Like Chewie.), when you plug him in he makes a pleasant Wookie-grumble. It’s awesome. They made the experience even sweeter with specialized hoodies that you put on your Mimobot that add a lanyard catch to your Mimobot. Sure, it’s difficult as all hell to get them in their little hooded sweatjackets, but once you do and latch him to your bag - he ain’t going ANYWHERE. The experience and ease of use with Mimobots is a close second to the cool factor here, you might not need one but you should sure as hell buy one anyways.

Mimobots are available in 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities, produced in limited editions of 250 to 3,500 units, are hi-speed USB 2.0, compatible with both Windows and Mac, and include Windows Vista’s ReadyBoost technology.

I’m sure you’ve seen all the disgusting excuses for “skins” at your local videogame selling franchise and you were curious just as I was. Hell, I know you’ve come across those ones that are hard clear plastic ontop with a thinly and poorly executed (Just like Lindsay Lohan!) graphic glued to it. I bought one of those suckers probably about two years ago and it had this pretty lightning bolt effect on it and I was quite excited about it. I peeled the paper away from it and smooshed it down ever so expertly to the PS2 and found that it truly wasn’t meant to be there. It kept curling up on the sides because the plastic would get hot and just stick up. I’d cut myself on it whenever I went to move it because that sonofabitch was sharper than a page of Oscar Wilde witticisms and there was truly nothing to be done about it. Then, giving up on the puffy console skin, I peeled it back to find that it left the image’s stick on there - just removing the clear top part of the skin. SIGH. With some elbow grease and nail polish remover, I somehow got the glue off and just kept muttering about how difficult that entire process was and how that skin wasn’t nearly pretty enough to do that to me.

It was with much trepidation at that point that I even contemplated the skin market again. If they’re all that shoddily made, what the hell is the point? Well, I glanced over the DecalGirl website, noticing the huge variety and the fact they use vinyl and nothing else. Not stickers and glue and any G-damned plastic! I decided to give it a shot and within a couple days, I had a glorious set of Wii skins from the good people over there. They sent me the skin for the Wii in the same design as pictured here, as well as the Wiimote and Nunchuk skin and the rather fetching Classic Controller skin. Happiness washed over me in a very cool wave, for now I had these shiny and rather thin skins that didn’t make my console look like it was wrapped up in a quilt.

Putting on the Skins:

This part seemed to give me the most trouble because I’m way obsessive about making sure that every line and corner was where it was supposed to be. You clean the console off gently, then dry it and apply the skins. The good part about it though is that with this one, you can remove it and put it back as often as you need or want to. It’s not difficult and if you’re gentle, it won’t ruin the skin at all. If you’re super-pleasant about it, you might just have every piece perfectly lined up. I had an entire set of skins to apply though, as well as the very nice PSP ones they have over there at DecalGirl - you should make sure to check them all out.

Playing with the Skins:

A lot of people stay away from putting skins on their controllers because you touch those so often and more often than not, they shift around while you’re playing and make your hands ten times hotter than normal. I had applied a PSP skin to my PSP and honestly, mostly for this purpose and this purpose alone - to see if something I played with both hands and that got increasingly hot as you played longer, would heat up and annoy my sensitive hands. Not the case, I’m happy to report - since it’s a very thin vinyl, there really is no heat difference and the texture doesn’t warm up your hands anymore than the unskinned system or controller would. When playing Wii Boxing with my Dad? Not a single issue with the skin rubbing off or from my hands getting slippery from the slick vinyl.

In essence, there really isn’t a reason - if you’re interested in it - to not go to DecalGirl. They’re fifty times better than any skin you’ll get in the store and they give your consoles a case-modded appeal that doesn’t require soldering and frustration.

Last month we stated that you guys all had a month to come out to us with your Skinning Horror — and one guy had the scariest store about plastering his DS Lite with a skin and having to go through the same disturbing trials and tribulations that I had to. For this, Seth V. wins an awesome PSP skin compliments from DecalGirl! Read his story after the jump and let us know what you think!

continue reading "TEK of the Month: DecalGirl’s Console Skins"

It’s very difficult to get excited over certain things and up until the past couple years, mice and keyboards are in that category. Up until Logitech went and upped the bar on what was acceptable for mice and computer periphs in general. Then other companies started popping up all over the radar and adjusting the game to fit their own niche. Saitek literally never crossed my mind until their most recent line-up of computer mice and keyboards and man, am I glad I perused long enough.

The very moment I slid the Eclipse II out of the box, I could feel it’s heft. This wasn’t your usual piece of Dell plastic and you could feel the quality of materials that Saitek painstakingly put into this beauty of a keyboard. The keys are precision-cut with allowance for each letter to be seen with the backlights on - no problem. Three different color choices (Red, Purple and Blue - Or nothing, for you purists.) and a dimmer to either brighten or darken your experience. The keys aren’t as quiet as the Logitech DiNovo - but those are built to be a silent as your laptop keyboards nowadays, so that’s nothing to get too hurt about because the Eclipse II is still quieter than whatever you’re clacking at now. Before the Eclipse II, my delicate piggies were resting upon a rackety Dell stock keyboard. Man, what in the hell was I thinking even USING that piece of crap?

If anything, the rubber feet that grip onto the desk and the two different angles of platforms beneath it will remind you that luxury doesn’t end with your pricey desk chair and your fancy monitors. You can have something to write your scathing emails and snarky blogs and you can do it in style and comfort. Absolutely beautiful to look at, durable like the day is long and comfort that is unmatched by any other keyboard of it’s reasonable price-range — the Eclipse II could not be made any better. This and this reason alone is why it is our TEK of the Month. Take a look at the included links to get a better idea of the Saitek Eclipse II Backlit Keyboard.

The Saitek Eclipse II (Purple Lights On) Hi-Res // (Blue Lights On) Hi-Res