So, by now you know we are big fans of the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, as we’ve talked about them quite extensively. The over-the-ear cans are just very good, and we also appreciate the look. Up next for the line, though, are the Beats Tour edition. The difference? While the Beats Studio headphones went over the ear, the Beats Tour headphones are actually earbuds, meant to go in your ear (obviously.) We’ve got a pair of the new Beats Tour headphones here, and we are putting them to the test. We’ll hit you with a review in a bit, but for now, we’ve snapped a bunch of photos to show them off. Check them out in our Beats Tour unboxing gallery.

Read More | Beats by Dr. Dre Tour unboxing

Gallery: Beats by Dr. Dre Tour earbuds unboxing gallery

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So, our HP Magic Giveaway winner was awesome enough to give back to the community, thus invoking a second giveaway. We’ve got an HP Mini 1000 here, along with a bunch of software as well. Specifically, here’s the prize package:

• HP Mini 1000 (Windows XP)
• Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 with 3 licenses
• Microsoft WIndows Live
• Corel VideoStudio X
• Kung-Fu Panda on Blu-ray disc, and DVD

We’re going to use the same entrance criteria that we used last time, since that seemed to work so well. Here’s how to enter to win:

1. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Gear Live account
2. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Twitter account
3. Add the Gear Live Twitter account to your follow list
4. On Twitter, post a tweet about our contest and link to this page. In the tweet, include the phrase “#gearlive”.
5. Once that is done, leave a comment here in this post with a direct link back to your Tweet. Be sure you are signed in to your Gear Live account before you leave the comment.

Here’s an example of an appropriate Twitter entry:
“Entering to win an HP Mini! http://059.qlnk.net/ #gearlive”

BONUS ENTRIES: Want more chances to win? Share the link to our contests on the following sites, and leave us a comment linking to those as well:

• Facebook: Shared Link
• Del.icio.us bookmark
• FriendFeed: Use Post a Link
• Your blog: Have a site? Link to our contest on it!

Remember: The bonus entries are just that - bonus. In order to be eligible to win, you must complete the core Twitter requirements.

Now, as to the actual contest dates. The contest starts today, December 5th. You have until 11:59 PM PST on December 11th to enter your comments here on this post. We will then announce our winner, chosen randomly out of all valid entrants and bonus points, on December 12th.

Aaaaaand - we’ve got our winner!

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Our HP Magic Giveaway came to a conclusion last night, and, wow, we are calling this one a success, as we just got inundated with entries. We first need to thank everyone involved for entering and spreading the word on Twitter, Facebook, and the like. Of course, there can only be one - but if you feel a swerve coming, read on!

First, the winner was chosen randomly out of all valid entries. The person who came out on top of Ashe, with this comment. I’ve contacted him, he replied, and things are good.

Now, about that swerve. In the original contest, we mentioned that it would be awesome if the winner were to give some of those winnings away. After all, it’s the holiday season, and who really needs 3 notebooks, a desktop, and all that stuff? So, the cool thing here is that Ashe has decided to throw some items back into the pot, and he wants us to do a second giveaway! We will get it set up today, and will run it for another week. The winner will get the following:

• HP Mini 1000 (Windows XP)
• Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 with 3 licenses
• Microsoft WIndows Live
• Corel VideoStudio X
• Kung-Fu Panda on Blu-ray disc, and DVD

That is not too shabby of a prize package right there. Wanna win it? Just head on over to our Gear Live Magic Giveaway page to enter.

Again, thanks to all entrants, and a big thank you to Ashe for giving back.

Read More | Gear Live Magic Giveaway

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We’re in the midst of getting our T-Mobile G1 reviewed, but in the meantime, we wanted to show off the looks and unboxing experience of the phone. Obviously, the G1 is the first publicly available phone that is based on the Google Android platform, and if you are on T-Mobile, we think it’s the phone to have. This is obviously T-Mobile’s answer to the iPhone, and it’s good to see that other companies are trying to innovate and catch up, with the aim of putting out great phones. With Android, the G1 software is even more open than that of the iPhone OS. We’ll get into all that in our review of the phone, but for now enjoy the shots in our T-Mobile G1 unboxing gallery.

You can pick up a G1 at the T-Mobile site, we even recommended the G1 in our Holiday Gift Guide.

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Gallery: T-Mobile G1 unboxing gallery

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We just received one of the new Disney Pixar Ultimate Control Wall-E remote controlled robots, and we just had to share. If you’ve been looking for a Wall-E robot toy that mimics the actions of Wall-E from the movie, this is it. It features movie-like movement, the original character voice, and familiar sound effects. As soon as you turn him on, Wall-E comes to life, introduces himself, and then follows your commands. You can have him respond specifically to the remote control, which controls movement of his head, arms, hands, wrists, and body, as well as expressions and phrases. Or, you can have him go off and do his own thing in exploration mode. He will look around, stop and make noises, etc. Lastly, you can put him in follow mode, where he will follow in the general direction of any noises that his internal mic picks up. That can be your voice, clapping, or any other audible sound. All movie-like robotic movement and integrated character animation is controlled by a next-generation, advanced micro processor to generate variable speeds integrated with smart-check position action and movement.

Wall-E has sleep and automatic shut-off modes, so no worries on leaving him on and draining the battery. The robot stands a little over 16” tall, and includes a 7.2V rechargeable battery, along with charger. The included remote requires 3 AA batteries. We can’t say enough about the Ultimate Control Wall-E robot, look for him to appear in our 2008 Holiday Gift Guide. Meanwhile, check out our full Ultimate Control Wall-E unboxing gallery, featuring over 30 images.

Read More | Ultimate Control Wall-E unboxing gallery

Gallery: Disney Pixar’s Ultimate Control Wall-E unboxing gallery

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So, a few days ago we told you about our HP Magic Giveaway, and how we’d be giving away an absolutely ridiculous amount of prizes to the winner. Now, we are announcing the the contest has officially started, and we’ve got the details on how you can enter to win. First, though, a refresher on what we are giving away:

• HP TouchSmart IQ816
• HP HDX18 Premium Notebook PC
• HP Pavilion dv4 Entertainment Notebook PC
• HP Mini 1000 (Windows XP)
• HP MediaSmart Connect
• HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless All-in-One printer
• HP 564 Photo Value Pack
• Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 with 3 licenses
• Microsoft WIndows Live
• Corel VideoStudio X
• Kung-Fu Panda on Blu-ray disc, and two DVDs

Yes, you do see four computers listed, as well as a Media Center Extender. No, you aren’t dreaming. Yes, we (and HP) are awesome. You want the goods? Here’s how to enter to win - we are making this super-simple:

1. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Gear Live account
2. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Twitter account
3. Add the Gear Live Twitter account to your follow list
4. On Twitter, post a tweet about our contest and link to this page. In the tweet, include the phrase “#glmagic”.
5. Once that is done, leave a comment here in this post with a direct link back to your Tweet. Be sure you are signed in to your Gear Live account before you leave the comment.

Here’s an example of an appropriate Twitter entry:
“Entering to win a ton of HP gear! http://jk9.qlnk.net/ #glmagic”

BONUS ENTRIES: Want more chances to win? Share the link to our contests on the following sites, and leave us a comment linking to those as well:

• Facebook: Shared Link
• Del.icio.us bookmark
• FriendFeed: Use Post a Link
• Your blog: Have a site? Link to our contest on it!

Remember: The bonus entries are just that - bonus. In order to be eligible to win, you must complete the core Twitter requirements.

Now, as to the actual contest dates. The contest starts today, November 28th. You have until 11:59 PM PST on December 4 to enter your comments here on this post. We will then announce our winner, chosen randomly out of all valid entrants and bonus points, on December 5th. We are also going to encourage (but not require) you to think about donating a portion of the prize package to someone else. It can be a charity, a relative, friend, a fellow contest entrant - anyone. We can even handle the shipping to that third party for you. It’s all in the spirit of giving, and we will let you play Secret Santa, if you so choose.

The contest is open to anyone in the world, which is a rarity. If you are in the US, you’ll even have your tax burden taken care of. What more could you ask for? Now, good luck to all - comments are open!

Update: We’ve announced a winner - and a new contest!

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UPDATE: ENTER OUR HP MAGIC GIVEAWAY CONTEST!

Listen, it’s the holiday season, the economy is going to hell, prices are going up on everything but gas, and you know that no one is going to get you any super-fancy consumer electronics this year. Or, so you thought. You see, once again we are partnering with HP (along with 49 other sites) to bring you a mind-blowing prize package. That means that you get 50 chances to win the following:

• HP TouchSmart IQ816
• HP HDX18 Premium Notebook PC
• HP Pavilion dv4 Entertainment Notebook PC
• HP Mini 1000 (Windows XP)
• HP MediaSmart Connect

Oh, what was that? That isn’t enough? Well, our bad, we though that five computers being given away would be enough. But hey, you pulled our arm, so I guess we’ll also throw in the following:

• HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless All-in-One printer
• HP 564 Photo Value Pack
• Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 with 3 licenses
• Microsoft WIndows Live
• Corel VideoStudio X
• Kung-Fu Panda on Blu-ray disc, and two DVDs

There, now are you happy? We figured as much. Go back and look over that list again - that’s a lot of stuff. In fact, the value of all that is over $6,000 USD. There’s enough there that you could win it all, and give away some of it as gifts to your family or friends - that what the holidays are all about, right? That whole better to give than to receive thing?

We’ll be announcing the contest rules soon, but in the meantime, check out the HP Magic Giveaway page for more information on the prizes, and other participating sites.

Oh, and let us know what you think of this contest in the comments!

Read More | HP Magic Giveaway

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With Gears of War 2 getting ready to drop tomorrow, bringing Submergence Day to all fans of the franchise, Microsoft is also releasing a Gears of War 2 Limited Edition Zune. You might remember that they did something similar with the original Zune to coincide with the release of Halo 3. With the GOW2 Zune, Microsoft has pre-loaded a bunch of Gears content on the device itself. A bunch of images of art, the entire Gears of War soundtrack, along with quite a few pieces of video content related to both Gears of War and Gears of War 2.

We were able to get our hands on the Gears of War 2 Zune before its release, and have snapped a bunch of photos showing off the fantastic box art, the Zune device itself, and all the bonus content included on the device. Be sure and check it all out in our Gears of War 2 Zune unboxing gallery.

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Gallery: Gears of War 2 Limited Edition Zune unboxing gallery

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Stream this video to your iPhone

Sure, we’ve already put up a MacBook Pro 2008 unboxing gallery, but we figured there might be a few of you out there who’d want to see the unboxing action in video form - so here it is. We bring you a look at the newly redesigned MacBook Pro, which launched just a few days ago. In case you missed it, the MacBook Pro now has an aluminum unibody enclosure, a glass display (which means, glossy - not matte,) and even a glass single-button trackpad.

If you’re wondering how these stack up to the older models, be sure to check out our MacBook and MacBook Pro redesign comparison video.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4


Wanna earn up to $20 to do product reviews? Check out Gear Live on Expo TV, sign up, and submit video reviews of your products for cash!

Read More | MacBook Pro Product Page

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Stream this video to your iPhone

We’ve already hit you guys with the MacBook unboxing gallery, showcasing the brand new redesign for Apple‘s non-Pro notebook. In case you missed it, the MacBook now sports an aluminum enclosure, a glossy glass display, and even a glass trackpad. The old-school white one is still available, but really, those are now an afterthought. We unbox the new aluminum MacBook in this episode of Unboxing Live, so sit back and hit play to get a look at the goods.

We’ve also got another video in the works, comparing the new model to the older model, over on Bleeding Edge TV.

Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4


Wanna earn up to $20 to do product reviews? Check out Gear Live on Expo TV, sign up, and submit video reviews of your products for cash!

Read More | MacBook Product Page

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