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TomTom Rider V5 Hardwiring to BMW Can Bus Port (Aux Port / Sat Nav Port)

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BMW very kindly supply you with a Can Bus Supported Auxiliary Port on a range of their bikes that means you can easily wire your Sat Nav into the bike, meaning it will be powered from the battery of the motorcycle, however when you turn the bike off the Can Bus System then shuts down the power to the sat nav a short time later resulting no power going to the sat nav cradle and no battery drain.

Well that is the theory anyway, however some users have experienced battery drain and blame this set up, claiming that the Can Bus System isn’t compatible with their Sat Nav. That may be and BMW won’t say officially if that may be the case, stating only that their ‘Sat Nav’ port is for use solely with their Navigator System, and why not if you want to be 100% sure that everything is going to work beautifully together then you need to hand over £700 for the privilege.

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Turtle Beach Ear Force Shadow UnBoxing

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I have never been one for earphones whilst gaming, however the guys that are say that there is simply no comparison to gaming with a decent set of ‘cans’ as opposed to a television speaker set up or a basic 2.1 system. Then when you start to move into good 5.1 systems you may be unfortunate enough then that your house, or worse your neighbours’ house starts to shake when stuff starts exploding on screen. It is this point that a good gaming head set starts to come into its own.

For me I have taken the plunge with a mid range set of headphones, namely ‘Turtle Beach Ear Force Shawdow.’ I have been on the lookout for such a set of headphones for a while but was always put off by the price tag. When these came up in a recent flash sale that was effectively saying, ‘Here you go chum, take these and male a small donation to our store,’ it was simply impossible to say no! (Oh and they are PS4 compatible!)

Here is what Turtle Beach have to say about this set. At the time of writing the price is £79.99 GBP.

Turtle Beach Ear Force Shadow

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10 Second Game Review : Infamous 2

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What the hell you may be asking!  And rightly so Infamous 2 was released in 2011 after all!

However I purchased it on release and it sat in its cellophane wrapper until a couple of days ago.  I thought with the now imminent release of Infamous : Second Son I needed to catch up before I dove into the newest Next Gen instalment of this huge City Platformer / Action / Shooter / RP (I think it is officially classed as a Third Person Action Game.

The basic plot is WITHOUT SPOILERS is that you take on the role of Cole McGrath, Empire City has been destroyed in a huge blast, you and Zeke have moved to New Marais, however the Beast is coming and he is ripping up the entire Eastern Seaboard.  You must stop him!

This game is huge, there is a good 12 hours in playing through the story and much much more in playing the side missions.  You make decisions whether Cole becomes a hero to humanity or a Villian to rival the worst of them is entirely in your hands.  People will worship or fear you, and it is your actions or even lack of actions that will determine which way the crowd sways.

Visually New Marais is stunning, all the visuals are, the textures in the electricity and buildings will leave you wondering what we are going to get in the PS4 game.  The story is compelling and interesting, made even more so as it is you who is steering the action in a particular direction.

The only question that now remains is are you good or evil?

Play it, enjoy it and salivate at the thought of the impending Infamous : Second Son!

Plugable USB 3.0 Powered Hub : The Good News is it Seems to like an iMac

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I recently posted up a thread in which I explained how my previous USB 2.0 Powered hub didn’t seem to like my new 2013 iMac and it was subsequently returned, and that I was on the look out for a replacement…

https://tbni.blog/2013/10/18/d-link-usb-2-0-7-port-hub-unboxing-important-mac-related-notes/

Well after a little searching I felt I may have found that replacement, and at this early stage it does indeed seem that I have.

So if you are a late 2012 or late 2013 iMac owner who has had issues with USB hubs not being able to cope then one worth trying for you is the ‘Plugable’ Powered USB 3.0 HUB. I picked it up on Amazon.co.uk for about £30.

For reference I currently have a 500Gb Portable USB 3.0 drive, a 1TB Portable USB 3.0 drive, and a powered 3TB USB 3.0 plugged into the rear of my iMac along with this 7 Port Powered Hub. In the HUB I have had running without any issues whatsoever a 320Gb Powered Drive and a further 1TB Powered drive (These are both USB 2.0). I have also had at the same time my iPhone 5s and iPad (3rd Generation) syncing and iPhoto pulling photos off my Panasonic TZ30 digital camera as well as my GoPro HD Hero 3 Black Edition.

Now admittedly there is a lot going on here on here and much more than I usually would be doing at one one time, but it was a good way to test the hub. The results were ‘two thumbs up’ everything worked away doing its thing, without any drive drop outs or apparently power problems. (My previous HUB failed on simply having the 2 external drives plugged into it).

So all in all after over a weeks use the HUB is yet to experience any issues or give me any problems. A firmware update is available however it must be done from a Windows machine. I have not at this stage completed this firmware upgrade as things are working well, and as the man says, ‘If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it.’

One little superstition I did carry out was before I plugged in any USB 2.0 devices into the HUB was I allowed each port to mount a USB 3.0 drive. I don’t know if this is a requirement, and to be honest I doubt very much it is, however it is something I and my colleagues always do with USB 3.0 ports – mount a USB 3.0 device first. The legend goes it lets the port know it is a 3.0 rather than getting locked in at 2.0 speeds.

So there you have it, if you are experiencing iMac related USB HUB issues this may well be the HUB worth trying, (one final thought is that the blue LEDs can be rather bright at night, so make sure you have some black electrical tape to cover them up).

Plugable USB 3.0 Powered HUB Unboxing Gallery :

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The Last of Us – This Gaming Generation’s Perfection?

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This isn’t so much a review,there are loads of them out there, from professional review sites which all describe this game in great detail. Also it isn’t a preview, the Last of Us has been out far too long for that!

Instead it is just some thoughts I felt I had to share after spending close to 17 hours in this beautiful but devastated Naughty Dog view of the Zombie Apocalypse.

I started this game when it came out a couple of months ago, but due to other commitments only got about an hour into the story, after a (unintentional) long break I got to sit down in front of my ps3 again and decided it would be rude to try and start from where I left off, so I started again. Believe me that’s no big deal as now that I have finished it I will easily sit down again and start it from the beginning.

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GoPro HD Hero 3 Wasabi Battery Pack – UnBoxing

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With a little trip quickly approaching and the potential for some great footage to be captured I decided that an addition battery for my GoPro HD Hero 3 was a requirement.

It is no secret that the battery on the GoPro isn’t going to last anyone all day, in fact I reckon that the original battery will last for approximately an hour of filming. (Set at 1080p at 60fps at WIDE with PROTUNE turned OFF).

I also have a battery bacpac (from a Hero 2) that gives me another hour or so at the same settings.

Even still I wanted more, and after a little research and I noted that a battery by a company called ‘Wasabi’ was getting great reviews. So this is the option I have went for.

For £29.99 from Amazon.co.uk (which is the same price as an official GoPro Battery) you get the following :

2 x 3.7V, 1200mAh, 4.4Wh ‘Wasabi’ GoPro HD Hero 3 compatible batteries.

(The Official battery is rated at 3.7V, 1035mAh, 3.885Wh – so on paper the ‘Wasabi’ contains more juice, so should keep you going a little longer – in theory at least).

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New PS3 firmware version 4.40 out now

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21 Mar, 2013

Sony has released Playstation 3 firmware version 4.40.

The firmware doesn’t come with any specific details, although it does seem to fix the stability problems with connecting online which seem to have been occurring over the last few days.

You can download the firmware via your PS3 using the system update option.

GoPro HD Hero 3 Black Edition Arrival

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Today my GoPro HD Hero 3 Black Edition arrived. Awesome.

UK stock has been hard to come by but it is here. Now it is on the charge and I’m doing a bit of reading.

So coming soon is my I boxing photoshoot, which will hopefully be quickly followed by my initial review.

Awesome looking bit of kit though!

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