Bose Quiet Comfort 3 Review

Bose is known for its sterling audio products that are not only at the pinnacle of sound quality, but also at the pinnacle of wallet-hole-burning. I was handed one pair of super-expensive Bose QC3 Noise Canceling Headphones to test and I immediately plonked a GPS enabled security chip on them.

The headphones come in a large box which contain, apart from said headphones, a nifty carry case, adapter plugs for every conceivable electricity socket and a charger for the battery that rests as part of the speaker casing. The first thing that strikes you as you cautiously put them on to your ears is how insanely comfortable they are. The ear pads are like marshmallows that put absolutely no pressure on your ears. Surprisingly the headphones aren’t that heavy, and the adjustable band fits snug on your head. To listen to music you have to turn on the noise cancellation switch placed on the right ear driver. Immediately, you can feel the difference in noise reduction. However, if you were wondering whether these babies would block out ALL external sounds, then you would be disappointed. The noise cancellation manages to remove only about 60% of external noise.

Sound wise too, the headphones aren’t that brilliant. Sure, they’ll easily kick the butt of those cheap bundled ones you get with MP3 players, but they lack depth and punch. Its all about clarity when we are talking Bose. Overall I’d have to say that though these babies are above average, for the price you have to shell out (21K+) you’d expect more.

SatishSays dot com rating 6/10

This review was written by JAM’s online editor Arjun S Ravi. I owe you a weeks supply of Aarey Lassi for this.

Tags: bose, headphones, noise cancelling

Pro-blogger interview : Jim Karter

Today, we chat up with Jim Karter a.k.a Karamveer from JimKarter.com, a six-figure blogger from Pune. Today he shall tell us more about himself, his online activities and also dole out some tips to budding bloggers as well.

How did blogging happen for you?

Blogging happened rather by chance. I was paragliding in Pune and one fine day, I had a not so fine fall from the air. I broke some 30 bones and was holed up in the hospital for 4 months. It was then that I decided to start blogging and tell the world my ways to make money online. Since I was already into online businesses since 3 years, this topic was natural.

You have over 200 websites. How many of these are blogs?

Only 20% of these are blogs which range from a wide variety of topics like health, auto etc. I manage only 2 out of these and the rest are managed by bloggers from various parts of the country.

Why do you call your money making blog JimKarter.com?

Ah, good question. Some years ago, while registering on a forum, I couldn’t get my name, Karamveer, as the username. So I registered as Jim Karter. Then the saga continued and I registered at a lot of forums using my nick name. After a while, when I became popular as Jim Karter, I registered the domain name.

Your website states that you earned nearly $61000 in the month of March. How much time did it take to get to this figure?

JimKarter.com went online in June last year and since then the income has been steadily rising. Initially I used to work about 13-14 hrs a day, but now its just a few hours daily, doing some optimization and writing the odd blog post. It has now become a form of residual income for me. Even if I don’t do much work on it, it will steadily bring home the cash.

What are the ways in which you monetize your websites?

Google AdSense accounts for a major chunk of my earnings. Apart from that I use Kontera, Text Link Ads and affiliate networks such as Commission Junction, ClickBank and Casale Media to name a few. I also have website directories, for which there is a small fee for registration.

What methods do you use to drive traffic to your blog?

It is a mixture of SEO and getting backlinks to the blog. We try to have as many people linking to us as possible, so that we rank high on search engines. Search engines account for 80% of our traffic.

So, is it possible to quit the 9 to 5 rut and take a plunge into full time blogging?

If you have a passion for writing and can churn out useful content,regularly, you should be having no difficulty in touching revenues of up to $1000 in a year’s time, which could easily enable you to quit your day job.

Tips for budding bloggers who want to strike some cash on the net?

See, there are 2 types of bloggers, one who thinks making money online is easy and the other who thinks that it’s very difficult. It’s not really difficult, but then it’s not easy either. You should constantly optimize your website for the search engines and have the ability to produce good and useful content.

One more thing, On JimKarter.com, I see a Porsche 911. When are you going to get it? And when you do, you HAVE to give me a ride in it. I love Porsche!

Ha, ha. Even I am a big lover of the Porsche 911. I shall be filing my income tax in October and then think about it. Yes, I’ll most certainly give you a ride in it.

Game Review Burnout Paradise

There are 2 types of arcade car racing. One in which you wag your tail and take your car cleanly to the finish line and the other in which Satan himself is your navigator. The world is nothing but a blur and all you are worried about is kicking the butt out of your opponents. Quite literally.

The Burnout Series has been at the pinnacle of such wreck to win madness and today we shall take a look at the latest installment.

Graphics 10/10

They are an absolute delight and look equally marvelous in HD or on normal displays. The car designs are as good as they get and Paradise city, the epicenter of all metal pounding action, itself is simply stunning. You just want to drive around the city for a good half hour when you start the game up initially, just to get a hang of the place. Its just so effing huge.

As is the case with all Burnout installments, the car crashes are a delight to watch. You can play the role of a sadist and watch the opponent cars mash into pulp and feel very, very happy about it.

Sound: 9/10

The sound, too, is nothing short of brilliant and it just complements the brilliant graphics. The crashes, the revving engines, the squealing tires sound real enough to make you feel you are out there on Paradise City, clinging to on to all the metal for dear life.

The soundtrack though is something that might not be to everyone’s taste. The in-game announcer, DJ Atomica is a repetitive bore and it will be best to ignore him.

Gameplay

There’s not much to do, really, you just race around the city with various modes, which range from burning routes to normal 1st over the line races. There are the ‘Takedown’ races (which depend on how many cars on you ‘takedown’, of course) and some gravity defying stunt challenges. That’s pretty much it but then, that is what Burnout is all about. Single minded madness.

There are 40 cars in the game and you’ll be able to unlock the 40 modified versions by participating in ‘Burning Route’ events which are basically timed sprints to a finish line. Other cars are unlocked periodically by completing events. However, once a car is unlocked you still don’t get to use it. Unlocking it simply means that it will show up in the city. You just have to find it and wreck it, like your life depended on it.

Luckily, these cars have a tendency to seek you out, so you don’t have to go hunting for them. Once it has blazed past, you’ll have to give chase. These chases are probably the craziest part of the game and they very often turn into intricate dances of death that lead all across a city.

Online the game well and truly kicks butt. Even in India the game is absolutely lag free. The controls are slick, the cars are insane and well, taking down other players from the world is always fun (so what if that’s the only thing you can do). You have to complete some challenges to prove that your veins are really filled with high octane petrol.

You can also make online rivals, ooh I love this. Making 50 rivals will also unlock a sweet ‘Firestarter’ achievement. I never loved my enemies so much. You can also simply “Freeroam” in the city in which up to 8 gamers can join you. Then you can start your own challenges, races or you can simply have fun by taking other gamers down in the game.

Game play (Offline): 6/10

Online 9/10

MAJOR DRAWBACKS : 

This installment of Burnout does have its share of problems, though. For instance, I hate the fact that there is no offline multi-player, which could have been a lot of fun. For online gaming, an XBox 360 hard disk is a pre-requisite. God knows why, when everyone else is happy with memory cards. Also the map navigation is a bit irritating.

Conclusion 

Even with its share of niggles, if you are an arcade racing game fan, not having this game in your collection would be as bad as sacrilege.

SatishSays dot Com Rating 9/10

Tags: burnout paradise, gaming, xbox