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sidewinder

Microsoft announces SideWinder X4 game keyboard

We've seen higher-end gaming keyboards from both Logitech and Razer that claim to have solved the ghosting problem. Some more affordable keyboards even boast "selective anti-ghosting" on the WASD keys that many PC gamers use. Microsoft's new SideWinder X4 gaming keyboard may be the first to offer all-key anti-ghosting at an affordable price.

Ghosting, if you're unfamiliar, is the tendency for standard keyboards to lose track of key presses when you're already holding down another key. For gamers that perform lots of keyboard finger gymnastics, ghosting can be a problem. Previous solutions from Razer … Read more

Microsoft SideWinder X3 gaming mouse adds features, subtracts price

Microsoft just announced a new addition to its SideWinder line of performance peripherals, introducing the SideWinder X3 mouse, a gaming powerhouse that should give the older SideWinder X5 a run for its money. We weren't very thrilled with the X5's $60 price tag or its flimsy build, but the X3 comes with a cheaper price tag ($40) and offers new features including new button placement and a smaller, ambidextrous shape.

Like its sibling, the new X3 features a 2,000 dpi laser sensor with variable sensitivity, five programmable main buttons, and USB connectivity, but this new version is a bit smaller and adds a single button on each side of the mouse for added gameplay versatility. As an added bonus, Microsoft also made the X3 ambidextrous for all the left-handed gamers.

The Microsoft SideWinder X3 Mouse will hit stores in May for $40, but pre-sale orders are available now on Amazon.com if you can't wait. One more pic after the jump.

(Source: Microsoft via Gizmodo)… Read more

Microsoft gaming mouse also gets BlueTrack sensor

Following Tuesday's official Microsoft announcement of its first BlueTrack mice, Wednesday we get word of the unsurprising extension of the new sensor technology to Microsoft's SideWinder gaming mice. The SideWinder X8 will go for $100 when it ships in February (although Amazon.com is apparently already taking orders).

As we reported Tuesday, the new BlueTrack sensor is a Microsoft-developed optical-tracking technology that purports to give mice greater accuracy over a wider variety of surfaces than laser or IR optical mice.

Microsoft claims scalable dpi settings from 250 to 4,000 dpi for the SideWinder X8, which should please gamers. Thankfully, this new mouse also brings back the macro-record button for on-the-fly command recording, introduced by last year's SideWinder, but missing from the more recent X5 model.… Read more

Mouse to join Microsoft's growing SideWinder clan

Turns out the previously rumored SideWinder X6 gaming keyboard with detachable numeric pad is real and coming. But what caught us off-guard is that a new mouse, the SideWinder X5, will be joining Microsoft's gaming hardware lineup at the same time.

But first, let's take a close look at the upcoming keyboard. Backlit keyboards are so BTDT (been there, done that), but the SideWinder X6 uses different LED colors to differentiate modes. When used as a standard input device, the keys emit a red glow, but press the bank switch button for gaming and the keyboard glows amber. … Read more

SkiTech review: Arc'Teryx Sidewinder SV (jacket and pant)

The past three weeks The Open Road's review team has been putting Arc'Teryx's Sidewinder SV jacket and pant to the test. We've skied them in some brutally cold weather and on warmer days. In both cases, however, we were swimming through at least 18 inches of Utah powder. It was the ideal testing lab.

If you spend any time at all around ski stores (mea culpa), you will have noticed Arc'Teryx gear. It tends to be very lightweight. Arc'Teryx does make insulated jackets, but these aren't the ones that stand out to me. No, I've longed to try one of its hard shells but always assumed that they wouldn't be warm enough.

Worn over a t-shirt, that supposition might well be correct. But with proper layering (I generally wear a layer or two of Under Armour gear, depending on the conditions) both the Arc'Teryx Sidewinder SV jacket and pants came through a cold powder wash just fine. While not quite as warm as the North Face and Mountain Hardwear jackets we evaluated, the Arc'Teryx gear is also not as bulky as the apparel we reviewed from these other brands.… Read more

Digital armor to protect tanks

Depleted uranium armor may provide great protection against other tanks, but it's useless against hackers bent on penetrating the networks that tankers and other crews increasingly rely on to move and shoot.

Looking to fill the order for "digital armor," General Dynamics Canada and Secure Computing have teamed up to develop Meshnet, a hardware/software firewall designed to protect networks and digital devices inside tanks and other military vehicles from hostile computer and virus attacks.

Without adequate firewall protection, a tech-savvy enemy could infiltrate the net to eavesdrop, ambush or "blind" a crew by cutting … Read more