Revolutionary products are hard to come by, and the Logitech MX Air is one we’ve been eying since its release. The MX Air works something like the Nintendo Wii’s innovative Wiimote. The MX Air is unlike any other mouse. It’s a handheld controller that you can wave about to move the pointer on the screen. It’s definitely attractive with its sleek streamlined shape. It’s also very light and sports a glossy black finish with a chrome metallic surface on the back. The shape of the mouse has been designed with comfort in mind-but it dose get slippery after long hours of use with sweaty palms.
There are two mouse buttons, but no middle click button, though you can assign the function to one of the other buttons using the bundled SetPoint software. There’s a touch panel between the main mouse buttons, and you can run your fingers on the panel to scroll. It has to be said the mouse is really difficult to get started with, but over time it becomes more usable. For those who can’t us it, there’s also a laser sensor under the mouse so you can use the same device on your desk like a regular wireless mouse. The drivers allow you to set separate sensitivity settings for the mouse when on the desk and when off it. The mouse is vary accurate, and any inaccuracy you might experience is more likely because of the human hand not being steady enough.
Playing Fps games on it is very difficult and close to impossible in air (We just thought we’d try), but it’s a decent mouse on the desk. It makes a lot of sense as a controller for a Media Center PC and it also makes a good presentation tool. It’s a good product that does its job well, but Rs 8,995 seems like a lot to pay for the novelty.

Cyberlink’s new PowerDVD 7.3 ultra is a software disc player with all the controls and features that you may fiend in any hardware player, and much more. The interface is very clean and easy to understand. The controls are at the bottom of the window and balloon help is alwayes there, so you will never be left confused. You can even control the speed of playback, and it dosen’t cause the “Chip’n'Dale” effect on voice even at high playback speeds. There are many hotkeys available during playback, as you can exercise total control with a flick of a button.
PowerDVD is not resource hungry-on our modest computer, it starts up in a second and plays HD clips with complete ease. It supports native hardware acceleration provided by most modern graphics chipsets and takes advantage of it to take the load off the CPU while rendering HD video. playback is stutterless and audio was crisp and clear thanks to the smart de-interlacing support. CLEV-2 is a proprietary video enhancement technology from Cyberlink that detects vidio content and dynamically adjusts brightness/contrast/ saturation ratios for a better viewing experience.
Cyberlink Pano Vision is a non-linear video stretching technology that is used to stretch the video to your desktop resolution with minimal distorion. All speaker configurations are supported, and there are a host of different audio modes, such as Dolby Headphone that creates a virtual surround sound experience while using headphones, Dolby Virtual Speaker that creates virtual surround sound through two speakers, etc. Some of the newer sound technologies supported are Dolby Pro Logic Iix, Neo:6, and SRS TruSurroundXT. DivX, DVD (MPEG-2), DVD+VR, DVD-VR, DVD-Audio, VCD (MPEG-1), SVCD, MiniDVD formats and DVD files on hard drive are all supported. For HD aficionados, PowerDVD also supports blu-ray as well as HD DVD with support for the H.264 format. There is also a See-It-All OPtion THat will adjust the playback speed of your movie so that you can watch an entire movie before your laptop battery runs out . This software is a worthy buy.

With Apple launching a whole new range of iPods recently, including the iPod Touch, can Creative afford to be far behind? Not one to be caught shuffling around (pun intended), Creative has launched the Zen Stone Plus series. With a player so tiny, we’d expected the Zen Stone to felt flimsy, but surprisingly it didn’t. There’s a small circular blue OLED screen- nothing special- and a play button surrounded by a circular button that houses four controls-track shuffle and volume up / down. There’s a tiny button on the top of the player that has controls for the Menu and play / pause functions.
Available in 2GB only, the Zen Stone features FM radio and supports up to 32 presets, inbuilt audio recording, and stopwatch function-not bad for such a small device. Unlike iPods, there are no drivers required to connect it to your PC-just drag and drop, which is a huge relief. Music quality is a mixed bag with the Stone. Firstly, if you’re even remotely interested in good sound, throw away the bundled earplugs. Once we replaced them with our Creative EP630 headphones, everything was so much clearer. Then we tried the Bose Intra Ear-our reference for PMPs-and things seemed even better. Punchy, tight bass, superb vocal tones, and a decent extended high-end makes the Zen Stone very suitable for rock, pop, jazz and reggae. If you listen to lot of classical music, you’ll need much better headphones to bring out the recessed highs. Bottom-line: the Zen Stone is only limited by its default earplugs-and most PMPs are.
Don’t let this stop you buying it-if you want something tiny, sturdy, and easy to use, the Zen Stone will suit you. If you want good sound, invest in a pair of decent in-ear earplugs.