Content and news by Brett Thomas

With the billion-dollar judgment day at hand, Brett finally pulls his editorial pen out in an examination of juries, educated decisions, and a rebuke of patent law’s current direction and its chilling effect on future innovation.

Finding a good mobile RPG that’s actually worth its weight in megabytes is tough, but finding one that’s completely free is even tougher. Enter CrazyQuest, a game inspired by old-school MUDs, MOOs, MUSHes and even D&D. It features rudimentary graphics, never takes itself seriously, but still manages to be totally gratifying.

Adobe’s Lightroom 4 has been available for a couple of months now, and our very own shoot-a-holic Brett Thomas has been using it regularly since its release. The company has been touting much with the program’s latest iteration, so join us as we explore whether it’s worth upgrading to or if it’s just more of the same.

A lot of effort goes into choosing the right parts for your newest computer, but Senior Editor Brett Thomas thinks the focus can sometimes be a bit off. In this article, he outlines where the best bang for the buck can be spent on your high-performance rig… and believe it or not, it might not be where you think!

It’s no secret that mobile devices tend to lack storage, and this is a problem Kingston has set out to tackle – at least with iDevices. Its Wi-Drive wireless storage device allows you to stream 16GB or 32GB worth of data to your iPhone, iPad and et cetera. We’ve been using one for the past few months, so read on for our thoughts.

The technology industry has just lost one of its most innovative, influential and successful people; Steve Jobs. Whether you’re a fan of Apple and its products or not, it’s almost assured that you’ve been affected by some of the accomplishments Steve has made – some of which we’d like to recap here.

Thanks both to its stellar go-your-own-way gameplay and immersive cyberpunk world, the original Deus Ex is regarded as one of the best PC games of all time. Following up to such a cult classic isn’t easy, but with Human Revolution, Eidos Montreal has proven that it didn’t want to disappoint DX’s hardcore fans at any cost.

Nintendo announced its long-awaited Wii successor at E3, called “Wii U”, and so far, its reception has been mixed. While some are calling it the best thing since sliced bread, others are underwhelmed, finding it to be a minor evolution over the original. Whatever your thoughts, one thing does remain clear: we need better games.

Wacom’s tablets have long been considered an indispensable tool for novice and professional artists alike, but can they also offer some use to those who couldn’t draw a circle? Our resident photographer, Brett Thomas, takes a look at the Intuos4 “Medium”, to see if it manages to surpass the “perfected” workflow using his desktop mouse.

With a great number of media players available on the market, picking out the right one can be tough. AC Ryan hopes to stand out with its Playon!HD, an option that does a lot more than just play media. It can also act as a NAS, and even handle your torrenting duties. Does it do all of these well enough to be worthy of a purchase?

To produce top-rate photos, more is needed than just a camera and lens. You need tailored software that’s designed for post-processing raw camera images, and no, not Photoshop. Rather, Photoshop Lightroom, software that gives you utmost control over your photos. We’re taking a look at the recently released version 3.

Heading into a summer full of blockbuster titles that seem to all end up as rubbish, Brett takes a look at some of the top games from the past that really bring him back to gaming again and again. What do they have that so many games lack?

Published on June 4, 2010

With the release of Valve’s Steam client for the Mac last week, Apple gamers all over found themselves with renewed hope that their gaming lives were about to get a lot better. We’ve been using the client since launch and have lots to say about it, so join us in figuring out if Valve’s latest release has lived up to all the hype.

From music to movies to software and games, we can’t seem to use a computer today without encountering some form of DRM. That’s not even the worst of it, as the situation continues to decline over time. Taking a look at things from a gaming perspective, what can we do as gamers to help put DRM back on the right path?

With all the changes going on here at Techgage, we’ve all been pretty busy – which means that it’s time to look for a few good writers to add to our staff. We’re seeking to add two new authors to our team, to ensure that we can continue to provide the best in cutting-edge PC hardware and software news, reviews, and industry analysis. So if…

Own a Mac, but require the use of Windows from time to time? With today’s robust virtualization solutions, there are better alternatives than rebooting with Bootcamp or using emulation. Fusion 3 is one of these, and we put it to the test to see if it’s worth its $80 price tag, and also whether or not free alternatives are the more attractive choice.

It goes without saying that data security is important, because let’s face it… it’s not unusual for a hard drive to crash. But what about taking measures to prevent a drive from dying from things other than a simple crash, such as a fire, flood, or receiving a good beating? After tackling those exact scenarios, we can say that this product is a winner.

For the Linux newbie, Ubuntu is the oft recommended distro, for a few different reasons. It’s easy to set up, works on a lot of hardware, and doesn’t require a manual to understand how to manage it. For the same reason, Ubuntu seems to get a bad rap from more experienced Linux users. I say there’s no need of it, and I’m about to explain why.

With the recent announcement of Google’s Chrome OS, open source zealots everywhere have been licking their lips raw and playing their trumpets loud. But is another big corporation going to be a good thing for OSS? We take a trip down memory lane and look for whether Google can (or wants to) buck the old trends.

Should content posted on a website be decided by its readers, or companies? Rather than have typical advertising sustain a site and support its growth, are there other avenues worth exploring? These are the questions on the table, and Senior Editor Brett Thomas has taken a hard look at both, analyzing the pros, and the far more important cons.