The game features a set of pre-built levels for players to explore, but game’s customizable nature is where it really shines: from altering the player’s character and personal space, to building entirely new objects and levels, and then sharing and playing them online as part of the Little Big Planet community.

The LBP experience begins with players learning about their character’s powers to interact physically with the environment. The players learn by exploring places, collecting creative resources and solving puzzles.

This game has no real creativity constraints. If you see something, you can enhance it. If you can’t see it, you can invent it. And you can also make your world as revealing or as private to outsiders as you’d like.

Positives: Developing creativity from a non-competitive setting is a great plus.

Negatives: It’s not available on all platforms.

The Bottom line: This PlayStation exclusive app is unbearably cute and loaded with fun. If you want your kids to develop a positive constructive foundation of creativity, Little Big Planet is the tool that will guide them along. It is pure unadulterated fun for the family.

Rating: 4.9 out of 5 Stars

The Mario Kart game is very easy to learn for beginners and is fun for the more experienced gamer. Some of the racing courses that you can play are from the following games: Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart, Super Circuit, Mario Kart and Double Dash. If you have your heart set on your favorite Nintendo character, you can choose to race as him or her, or even as yourself.

If competition is in your DNA, you can compete with up to three friends in your playroom or challenge up to eleven opponents via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in the biggest Mario Kart race yet. All tracks and modes of play are available via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. You can visit the Mario Kart Channel to compete in tournaments, check rankings, see when your friends are playing and download ghost data.
The Bottom Line: If you like racing, Mario Kart Wii with the Wii Wheel is your game.

First plug the device into the iPod’s bottom 30-pin connector, push the button and your music problem is solved.

iWOW for iPod will work with all iPods including the iPod classic and iPod nano 3G. It will be available in November for $100.

The Bottom Line: The iWoW will put the “wow” in your iPod.

When you talk to it, it will reply. Ask for assistance and it will deliver the correct function.

The one activation button provides you with total control of the V1’s entire function menu system via an easy-to-use voice interface. You will no longer have to deal with lengthy or confusing button pressing to access functionality on your cell phone. It eliminates the combination of button pushes, button holds and flashing lights synonymous with advanced Bluetooth devices.

The V1 features Bluetooth 2.1, Multi-function car and desk charger, USB Charger, up to 6 hrs talk-time or 200 hrs standby, and a two-year replacement warrant.

The V1 can be controlled with simple phrases like “pair headset,” “call home,” “volume up” and “accept call.” The BlueGenie’s voice synthesis lets the V1 talk back to you, letting you know the device’s settings including successful pairing of the headset, battery power level, and more. With voice dial and call answering capabilities, drivers can keep their hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road.

The Blue Ant V1 is a good gift for road warriors who have the gift of the gab.

What is so great about it? This app makes it possible for you to do a Google web search using only your voice. Just hold the phone to your ear. Wait for the beep. Articulate your search. That’s all. Once the App is running, you don’t have to push any buttons to search.

It can also decipher a full sentence and then transcribe it in the search bar so you can see what it thought it heard. It works for longer sentences such as: “Where are the Chinese restaurants in San Francisco” or “What is the price of gold in dollars?

While Google’s Mobile App is far from perfect, it returned some queries as gibberish but mostly it’s answers were good.

To get the latest version of Google’s Mobile App for iPhone or iPod touch, go to the App Store and look for “Google Mobile App.” Note that the voice search feature is currently available only in U.S. English and for the iPhone.

Technologically, Google Mobile team did a good job in the integration of iPhone’s best attributes (motion-sensing accelerometer, voice and Web) and Google search.While there is room for improvement, it’s an impressive product. If you want to look for an excellent voice recognition technology through Windows desktop PCs, check out Dragon Naturally Speaking. It’s a speech recognition software package developed by Dragon Systems, and sold by Nuance Communications for Windows PC system.

In their line of new, free cross-platform games, they use the motion-sensing accelerometer in the iPhone or iPod Touch along with its broadband connection - either Wi-Fi or 3G - to turn it into a Wii-like controller for a PC-based Web game.

The game uses the motion-sensing accelerometer in the iPhone or iPod Touch along with its broadband connection - either Wi-Fi or 3G - to turn it into a Wii-like controller for a PC-based Web game.

The company’s first game iFun’s iGolf is available for free download in the Apple iPhone App Store now. iTennis will be release later this year. SGN has plans to take the concept to other accelerometer-equipped phones such as the G1 from T-Mobile and Google.

It’s similar in style to the popular Bejeweled game. Instead of shifting pieces up and down, you use the iPhone’s six-axis accelerometer to shift them more at an angle to incorporate the triangles. The objective is to match the sides of 3 pieces of the same color. When those pieces disappear the rows above slide down, no matter which way you have the iPhone or iPod Touch turned.

Whenever you rotate the phone, the triangles rearrange themselves depending on the direction of the rotation. Does it sound simple? This app has many game modes that will challenge you.

Trism is available at the iPhone App Store for $4.99. It is developed by Demiforce and was introduced as one of the applications released on the initial launch of the Apple App Store.

Demiforce currently has five games in development and will be launching two by Christmas. This includes a spin off to “Trism” called “Trismology.”

The Positives: Clear graphics, fun sounds, and challenging and engaging gameplay.

The Negatives: Like Tetris, it’s perhaps too addictive.

The Bottom Line: As one of the best puzzle games available on the Apple App store today. Trism does a great job in using the built-in accelerometer. Overall, it took three minutes to learn, but requires hundreds of hours to master. And at a price of $4.99, the game is a bargain.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 Stars.

<!–[if supportFields]>ADVANCE \d 4<![endif]–><!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>This game is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision for MS Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and 3, Wii, and Nintendo DS.

<!–[if supportFields]>ADVANCE \d 4<![endif]–><!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>The story focuses on the final battles of World War II in the Pacific and Eastern Europe involving the United States, the Empire of Japan, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany. It is told from the perspectives of a Marine Raider and a Red Army soldier, and is based on several historical battles, including the Makin Island raid, the Battle of Peleliu, and the Battle of Berlin.

The multi-player portion of the game contains various game modes, as well as a leveling system that allows the player to unlock additional weapons and rewards as they progress, which was originally implemented in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. A new feature to the Call of Duty series is the co-op mode, which can support up to four players online and two offline.

<!–[if supportFields]>ADVANCE \d 4<![endif]–><!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>The game also includes traditional multi-player components such as challenges, rankings and online stats into the co-op campaign for deeper re-playability and advanced gameplay

<!–[if supportFields]>ADVANCE \d 4<![endif]–><!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>What is truly notable about CoD is its Coordinated Assault and Support. It features multi-player online (four players the maximum), or two-player local split-screen, allowing gamers to experience the traumatic team missions together for greater camaraderie and tactical execution.

<!–[if supportFields]>ADVANCE \d 4<![endif]–><!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>While the game’s graphics and sounds create an impressive cinematic intensity, it’s the leveling system — that lets player(s)  unlock additional weapons and rewards as they progress along — that really drives the game .

Call of Duty: World at War was released for the PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 consoles and the Nintendo DS handheld in North America early November.

Creating new topics and subtopics is as simple as hitting the Enter or Insert key.

Following are the new features in MindManager 8:
* Transforms Mind Manger’s mindmaps into fully interactive Adobe PDFs or Flash .SWF files;
* Enables the user to view Web pages and PDF documents without leaving MindManager;
* Enables the user to view and edit attached Microsoft Word, Excel, Project and PowerPoint files from within MindManager’s embedded browser, eliminating the need to exit the map and launch a separate application;
* Enables the user to execute Google and Yahoo! searches from inside the Mind Manger’s mindmaps;
* Enables the user to search for contents within MindManager-created maps by using many popular desktop search applications;
* Enables the user to create automated task management scripts for project management tasks; and
* Enables the user to access real-time information from spreadsheets and popular databases into a Mind Manager mind map.

While the Mind Manger 8 is immediately available in English and German, the French and Japanese versions will be available in early 2009.

I have used Mind Manager as an visual implement for brainstorming, creating presentations, managing projects, developing plans and other task/objectives.

If you need a visual tool for brainstorming new ideas and managing your projects, I recommend Mind Manager 8.

In the future, we explore the MindManager Web. This is Mindjet’s first attempt in the Software as a Service (Saas) arena. It is immediately available in English, German, French and Japanese.

Expert reviews tell me that the D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router is at or near the top on most performance tests and it excels in mixed networks. The tests point out that this router delivers up to 14x faster speeds* and 6x farther range* than 802.11g

This router is also backward compatible with the 802.11g standard. What I like about this router is that it can be used for streaming HD video or streaming multiple applications simultaneously and doesn’t conflict with other wireless devices.

This device also has dual active firewall protection (SPI & NAT) that prevents malicious attacks on networks from the Internet.

The only negative point about this router is that the USB ports don’t support storage or print sharing.

Overall, it is slightly expensive compared to other routers. But you want the best overall wireless router. You need to pay for it.