There are currently three great reasons to consider getting the Kindle Touch, which are:

If you already want an eReader: If you are already on the hunt for an eReading device, you can’t go too far wrong with the Kindle Touch. It’s only £109, which is less than average in the market, and is a big step up from Amazon’s £89 Kindle (4th Gen).

If you are looking for a present: The Kindle Touch will make an ideal present for anyone. It doesn’t even have to be those that love reading – it’s an exciting device which will get more and more people into reading with its ease of use, you can get books instantly and the technology involved is innovative and interesting.

If you are looking for holiday accessories: The Kindle Touch will make an excellent item to take on holiday with you. Reading on the beach or by the pool can be great, and made even better with the Kindle Touch. However, make sure you have a cover for Kindle Touch if you do decide to do this – you don’t want to damage your new device! The e-ink screen is perfect for reading even in direct sunlight, and you’ll always be able to get comfortable compared to holding a bulky, heavy book.

So, what makes the Kindle Fire so popular?

The main reason the Kindle Fire is so popular is that it is pretty much the cheapest tablet you can get. For under $200 you can get your hands on a fully functioning, Android operating, 7″ tablet – something which has other manufacturers – including Apple – more than a little nervous (hence Samsung’s launch of the Tab 2 entry-level range).

The fact that it only has a 7″ screen makes it small, lightweight and extremely easy to carry around each day. Rumours of the Kindle Fire officially being released in the UK have started to drop off now, and there is even talk of a Kindle Fire 2 hitting the US (and the rest of the world) without the Kindle Fire even being released elsewhere.

Whilst the Kindle Fire was the biggest selling product in the US last year, and is Amazon’s best selling product in its history, the iPad is still very much at the forefront of the UK and European tablet market.

For those that are fortunate enough to own the device, GearZap.com are offering an excellent Kindle Fire case range on their website, and give the same ‘same day despatch’ offer as ourselves if you order before 6pm.

Also on their website is a great range of other Kindle Fire accessories, including one of the best Kindle Fire screen protector ranges on the Internet.

The Kindle Touch is expected to whip up a storm when it hits Amazon’s shelves, with pre-orders already being ramped up before its release. The device has also already seen excellent success in the US – slightly outselling the Kindle 4 on the Amazon website consistently from its release. And we all know how popular the Kindle 4 has been in the UK, don’t we? (In case you didn’t notice, it was by far the most popular Christmas present for Christmas 2011).

GearZap are keen to be the number one place to go to for a Kindle Touch case – they always pride themselves on being the first to offer such ranges, and also have the biggest and best ranges anywhere on the Internet.

As well as their range of cases, they will also offer an excellent Kindle Touch cover range, among a whole host of other Kindle Touch accessories.

The Kindle Touch is the first eReader from Amazon that operates completely from (yeah, you guessed it) a touch screen. It has no buttons or physical keyboard buttons, and you can access the Amazon store and other menus all through the screen. You are also able to turn pages by tapping one side of the screen, or tapping the other side to turn back if needed.

Although GearZap have been receiving a lot of attention over the past week for their range of iPad 3 cases and iPad 3 covers – they’ve actually been working hard to expand other areas within their iPad 3 range.

Whilst still technically a case, their iPad 3 sleeve range has been becoming increasingly popular over the past few weeks, with top products from Orbyx, ColcaSac and G-Form drawing lots of attention. The sleeve range varies between different styles and have many different features and benefits, including environmentally friendly cases from ColcaSac that give an eco-yet-stylish look and feel, and also the G-Form range which offer incredibly tough and robust protection to the iPad 3. Also in the range are professional business sleeves from Cool Bananas and PDair which give leather style and genuine leather protection respectively, which suit the iPad better in work environments.

Another range that has been increasing well over the past few weeks is GearZap’s iPad 3 stylus range, with many new styluses in including the popular iDuo. The iDuo offers a unique combination of an iPad 3 pen and a ballpoint pen in one compact but stylish unit. As well as the iDuo, and the slightly ‘blingier’ iDuo Glamour stylus, there are also more professional looking styluses such as the Adonit Jot Pro and also the Ten1 Pogo Sketch Pro, which are both popular for offering high quality on-screen interaction capabilities.

Also seeing a lot of attention over the past week or so has been their iPad 3 dock range, which includes a range of varying devices which are all equally as popular as one another. There are simple and plain desk docks in both black and white, which will stand and charge your new iPad whilst plugged into a USB port on your laptop or computer, and there are also more luxury docks such as the Luna Voyager II from XtremeMac, which offers docking capabilities as well as an alarm clock and FM radio.

Finally, the iPad 3 stand range on GearZap has been seeing small successes for the website with customers particularly happy with the range of stands in different sizes, styles and at different price points. Products such as the PadStand 2 which stands the iPad 3 and also has a cut-out for the iPad charger has been popular, and also the Spider Podium stand (which was actually featured on a series of The Apprentice a few years ago) is still seeing particularly strong sales.

The Extreme Sleeve is an iPad 3 case as well as a case for all other versions of the iPad, and is the toughest case on the market. You may recognise it from a viral video that did the rounds on the Internet a couple of weeks ago – where the case was dropped from 100,000ft (in space) and hurtled to the ground with an iPad inside it. Testament to the G-Form case – the iPad survived unscathed.

Available on GearZap, the Extreme Sleeve for iPad is one of the toughest iPad 3 cases that you are ever likely to see.

Another great iPad 3 hard case is also made by G-Form and is being stocked on our sister site GearZap.com – the G-Form Extreme Portfolio case.

This Extreme Portfolio case, available in both yellow and black, is the folio version of the extreme sleeve. It allows you to use your iPad whilst it remains inside the case which is one of its key benefits over the Extreme Sleeve.

Both Extreme products are made from patented PORON® XRD™ material which absorbs shocks caused by knocks and drops better than any other material found in iPad cases.

To find this iPad 3 cover, or a range of other iPad 3 covers – head to GearZap.com now!

GearZap offer the same ‘same day despatch’ offer as us, whereby if you order before 6pm –  they will dispatch your order the very same day. They also have a great range of other iPad 3 accessories, perfect for finding an iPad 3 screen protector or an iPad 3 sleeve.

Popular models include the Crumpler quick escape sling which allows easy and convenient access to your camera and it has room for spare lenses, a flash unit and other accessories. The entire backpack / sling has been designed with comfort in mind even down to the Dr. Bodenschatz Backhugger system which is a full padded system, for comfort of your back. A mesh system which has full contact with your back when you are carrying your bag, offering full support and comfort.

Another popular line from their latest camera bags range is this neat and compact holster bag from Case Logic

It is designed to fit an SLR camera with a standard or medium sized zoom lens attached. The top of the case is lined with memory foam to ensure your cameras LCD screen is protected from damage. The base is made from solid EVA plastic so the case always stands up and is fully waterproof at the base. There are several carrying options including the fixed top handle and fully adjustable and removable shoulder strap.

If you’re looking for a unique way of carrying your DSLR camera when it’s not in one of your camera cases then why not try one of these carrying straps from Crumpler.

The Crumpler Singapore Sling is designed to make carrying your camera as comfortable as possible. The top of the strap is padded with 1000d Chicken Tex Supreme hyper performance accessory fabric and neoprene, that will not cause discomfort or strain on your neck/shoulder. The Singapore Sling Camera Strap boasts great functionality. The easy-to-use thumb buckles shift smoothly between 3 carry modes for your carrying convenience, these include stand-by and shooting modes. It’s the perfect accessory for any DSLR, bridge or compact systems camera owner.

GearZap’s first move into the smart phone market is with Samsung Galaxy Note accessories.

This Samsung Galaxy Note case is made by Zenus, a top brand for all Samsung devices. The leather case looks extremely sleek and stylish, featuring a predominantly brown design – standing out from the majority of cases in the market that are typically all black. There is then also a unique white, grey and black stripe on the case which adds some character and personality.

The case is also finished with cut-outs for all of the ports and features on your Galaxy Note, meaning that you are easily able to access every aspect of it at all times! The most unique thing about this case however, is that inside there is room for credit cards and cash; meaning you won’t need to carry a phone and a wallet around with you – just use this Masstige Stripe Diary Series case from Zenus.

As well as the great news regarding the Note, there has also been exciting news that involves GearZap (again) and Samsung, with the huge electronic manufacturer announcing their new Galaxy Note 10.1. This is expected to be a really popular tablet, and does not offer the phone features that the original Galaxy Note offered. GearZap have already announced that they will be stocking a range of Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 accessories on their site too! So to get a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 case, you know where to go.

One final piece of news from GearZap is that they will be offering a range of other smart phone cases, including a HTC One X case and a Sony Xperia S case when they are released in April. Order from them before 6pm for same day dispatch of your item – it will most likely turn up in the same week if the item is in stock when you order it!

Skylanders figures have created quite a storm amongst retailers over the past few weeks. And with all of the different toys to choose from do you really know which Skylanders characters are the best? Here we take a quick look at 5 of the most popular Skylanders toys currently available at GamingZap.

1.) Dark Spyro Skylanders Figure

Dark Spyro is the only ‘dark’ variant Skylanders Character available and is exclusively sold with the Skylanders 3DS Starter Pack. Due to hugely popular demand we are now selling the rare dragon singularly. He features a unique colour scheme and individual powers and abilities. Being more adept at magical thunder and slash attacks makes this rare skylanders figure is a worthy addition to any collection.

2.) Ignitor Skylanders Figure

Ignitor was once brave knight before being tricked by a cunning witch into wearing a magical suit of armor that he was told would resist fire from a dragon. But as it turned out, it was made of cursed steel bonding him to a ghostly suit of armour, with a soul of fire!

Utilising his superior strength, Ignitor joined the Skylanders to fight evil and and find the witch responsible. Again, only available with the 3DS starter pack, the Ignitor Skylanders Character is available individually from GamingZap.

3.) Stump Smash Skylanders Figure

The Stump Smash Skylanders Character was once a magical tree that spent most of his time sleeping peacefully in the forests of Skylands. Then one day he awoke to discover his entire forest had been chopped down and logged by trolls – himself included. His long branches were gone, leaving him with only powerful mallets for hands, which he used to smash the troll tree-cutting machines.

4.) Voodood Skylanders Figure

Voodood is a might warrior from the Skylanders Series. The orc has his trusty Axe Reaver to destroy his enemies, which contains magical energy! This Voodood Skylanders figure uses his grappling hook at the end of his staff to draw his foes close so he can electrocute them and win the battle!

5.) Drobot Skylanders Figure

Drobot is a curious dragon Skylander who assembled himself a robotic suit to shoot lasers from his eyes, give him a deep booming voice, and the ability to shoot spinning gears. With such power – more than most other dragons – Drobot joined the Skylanders to help protect the residents of Skylands.

“For generations, the Skylanders have used their magical powers and weapons to protect Skylands. But now, an evil tyrant has frozen and banished them to Earth. Only you can bring them back to life in their world to save Skylands forever.”

The latest childhood craze to hit the high street stores this Christmas is Activision’s ‘Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure’ video game for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii. Much more than a video game, the franchise bridges the gap between virtual and real world play by bringing the Skylanders figures to life!

Included with in the starter pack is the video game, ‘Portal of Power’ and three unique Skylanders action figures. By placing the figure on the ‘Portal of Power’ and like magic your Skylander will come to life in the video game, allowing you to explore, battle and discover countless adventures with friends.

The great thing about the Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure Toys is that once they’ve been transported into the game through the ‘Portal of Power’ all of their upgrades and character information is memorised; so the next time you play that character all their previous in-game experience are already there, and you can use them across all platform so you can play with all your friends.

You don’t just have to use your Skylanders in the main game either; you can place two Skylanders on the ‘Portal of Power’ and explore new areas together with your friends or battle it out. Choose a Battle Arena, go head-to head and it’s a fight to the finish.  Which Skylander comes out on top will depend on how often you play with and upgrade them.

There’s over 30 different Skylanders belonging to one of eight different elements (Air, Life, Undead, Earth, Fire, Water, Magic, Tech) to collect allowing for countless hours of adventures and battles.

The Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures Triple Assortment Pack A as well as pack B and C are available for pre-order now from GamingZap!

There are many affordable gaming headsets available on each platform, boasting exciting features like wireless connections, surround sound and real-time equalisers. Indeed, if you’re willing to spend approximately £50 you’ll be able to find an excellent system that includes many if not all of these features, with excellent sound quality to boot.

Where these systems fall down, however, is their compatibility. They are typically tailor-made for each platform and occasionally two; the norm is that they’ll be compatible with either the Xbox 360 or the PS3, with token PC compatibility thrown in to sweeten the deal.

It is the realm of the highest end headsets to offer universal compatibility; that is to say a gaming headset that genuinely works with each of the three platforms. These are usually quite expensive affairs, but some can offer advanced features or above-average sound quality to partially negate the universal compatibility premium.

The Tritton Ax Pro is one such headset, combining many of the top features you’d look for in any good gaming headset with universal compatibility. Today we’ll be looking at this headset to see how it compares, both to headsets in the same price range and cheaper headsets tailored to a specific console. Let’s get right into it.

Physical Design & Packaging

The first place we’ll start is the packaging. As you’d expect for a headset that offers universal compatibility, there are quite a few bibs and bobs included, which makes for a rather hefty package. Let’s go through it.

First, we have the look of the box itself. The box features an eye-catching if not elegant design and colour scheme, showing the headset itself and hiding the multiple of wires that surely lurk within. It’s not quite the beauty of an Apple or SteelSeries case, but hey! We’re not buying this headset for the box, are we?

Instead we’re buying it for these reasons, the features listed on the front of the box:

• Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
• 3D Directional Precision Gaming Headset
• Digital Optical Input
• 8 Precision Speakers With Individual Sound Field Controls
• Optimized Two Way Communcation XBOX Live, Playstation Network and PC
• Adjust Game Volume Separately From Communication Volume
• Break-Away Inline Controller

It’s a fair introduction of the headset that includes most of the relevant information, so that’s all well and good. Here’s the back of the box now, which has more information along the same lines:

• Optimized for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Hifi Audio
• True 5.1 Surround Sound Via 8 Precision Speakers
• Digital and Analog Inputs
• Digital Analog Converter (DAC)

Now, let’s have a look at what’s inside. Of course, we’ll have the headset itself, which includes a rather industrial design, mostly silver with some orange accents.

The 5.1 sound is achieved through a quartet of dedicated driver channels, including a pair of 30mm drivers for the front and surround speakers, a 23mm driver for the centre channel and a 40mm driver for the .1 LFE.

The Tritton logo on the side of the headphones lights up, but does so without being overly ostentatious.

The headset system also includes a great many attachments to ensure universal compatibilty. Indeed, as you open the box you’ll marvel at how many separate pieces reside within.

As you can see the attachments of the headset are quite substancial, including a control box that requires its own power supply. Even more cables than shown here are required; you could potentially need two 3x stereo 3.5mm lines, an optical audio cable, a USB cable, a power cable and an Xbox 360 2.5mm headset cable.

Here’s a closeup of that control box, through which most of the stuff routes.

The control box includes two connections to the headset itself (so if you buy two Tritton headsets, you can have both plugged in at once to a single source). It also includes an optical audio out, USB out and two sets of three 3.5 mm jacks for 6 channel analog sound in and out.

Generally speaking, you’ll want to connect with a combination of the optical audio for game sounds and USB for voice chat. However, this is how it actually works:

• PC: Connect using analog six channel sound for game sounds and analog microphone for voice chat, bypassing the control box. Analog is used because the optical out option on built-in sound cards doesn’t support 5.1, a fault of motherboard manufacturers rather than the headset itself.
• Xbox 360: Connect using optical out for game sound and 2.5mm jack to the Xbox 360 controller. The best possible solution, but damn that 2.5mm jack!
• PS3: Everything works as expected: optical out for game sound and USB for voice chat. Excellent!

The headset also includes an inline remote, which extends the reach of the headset to a viable length, approximately 3 metres. The inline remote has a great many controls on it, including individual buttons for adjusting the volume levels of the subwoofer and each channel. There are also separate controls for adjusting the volume level of the voice chat. Finally, there’s a 2.5mm jack for connecting to those damnable Xbox 360 controllers.

There’s also an additional set of ear pads and head rail pads, if you wear out the original set, as well as all of the cables necessary to connect to a PC, PS3 or Xbox 360 and power the unit. I think that’s about it. Let’s move onto the crux of the review, the testing.

Testing Methodology

In order to test the headset in varied conditions, I’ll use it in the following circumstances:

• PC Gaming, using the 6 channel analog connection and USB voice chat
• PC Gaming, using the optical connection and USB voice chat
• Xbox 360 gaming, using the optical connection and 2.5 mm voice chat
• PS3 gaming, using the optical connection and USB voice chat

In all of the tests above, I’ll also be trying out the voice communication abilities. I don’t have a second Tritton headset, so I won’t test the two-headsets-one-control-box. To save space, I will list the overall results, noting wherever differences were found between different connection methods, instead of providing a different section for each of the tests.

Testing Results

Sound Quality

Sound quality and sound clarity is quite important in a gaming headset, particularly in first person shooters like Battlefield or Call of Duty. This is because it makes it much easier to operate in quiet areas by ear, as you can listen for footsteps and other tell-tale signs that an enemy is near. With the surround sound that the Tritton offers, it should be possible to do this with pinpoint accuracy, potentially giving you a great advantage in these titles.

On the whole, I was impressed with the sound quality of the Tritton headset. While on the higher and lowest ends of the spectrums the sound was a bit muddy, the mid to low levels were extremely crisp, making locating the enemy short work.

The sound of the battlefield was amply reproduced, with excellent results in Battlefield 3 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 particularly, games which are well known for their stellar sound design. The surround sound was ably done as well, at times besting my 5.1 speaker system.

The sound balance also worked well, with the in-line controls making it quite easy to balance voice comms and the game volume. Incoming voice chat was clear and crisp, with the headset making the most of the sometimes subpar microphone quality of my compatriots.

Voice Quality

In all instances, voice quality was from good to excellent. This isn’t a headset that you’d want to record a professional podcast on or sing into, but for general gaming use it’s one of the best I’ve ever used. The microphone is malleable enough to be positioned precisely, and the resultant audio quaility was reported to be pleasant and crisp on all ends.

There seemed to be marginally worse quality audio on the XBox 360, but this is largely due to the 2.5 mm analog connection rather than any fault of the headset.

Overall, I can’t find any points of contention with the microphone quality of the headset, and would definitely recommend the Tritton for keen team players, particularly those playing with an organised clan or team.

Comfort

The Tritton was quite a comfortable headset to wear, particularly given its size and weight, which is quite substancial given that it is a discrete 5.1 system (instead of a virtual 5.1 system, which doesn’t require any more speakers). Only after long periods, in excess of eight hours or so, did the Tritton become a pain to wear. I generally tend to find headsets uncomfortable, particularly when wearing glasses, so this was a strong result for the system.

Ease of Use

Once the system is installed and plugged into your given console, it’s very easy to use and there are few ways in which it could be improved. That’s once it’s plugged in, though. The actual connection itself; this is the area in which the Tritton falls down.

During your first setup (and indeed, during subsequent setups) it takes quite a long time to work out which cables need to go where. Changing between systems also involves a lot of plugging and unplugging, even changing the structure of the connections or bypassing the control box in many instances.

I have never wished for a wireless headset more than I have when using the Tritton. Indeed, at some stages I wished for a dedicated PC or PS3 headset, just so I wouldn’t have deal with the mess of wires. There is definitely room for improvement here, but overall it is a manageable issue.

Conclusion

Once the Tritton headset is set up, it is one of the best headsets I’ve ever used. The sound quality is top notch, the surround sound works excellently and really promotes stealthy, tactical play in games that support it (e.g. Call of Duty and Battlefield 3).

The universal compatibility works as advertised, although some PC connections that I expected to work didn’t for unknown reasons, e.g allowing a surround sound system to be passed through over 5.1 analog whilst connected using the other 5.1 analog port.

The biggest problem with the Tritton headset is that setup is such a pain. It constantly requires re-jigging and re-thinking your connections, adding and removing sections of cable, and at times bypassing the control box altogether.
I’d much prefer being able to have a system where there are a few ports for each of the supported systems, and just have a knob on the control box that allows me to switch between them, keeping everything plugged in. Although the control box would have to be bigger, as some of the systems share common connections, this would reduce the complexity of the system dramatically, as re-wiring wouldn’t be needed for switching between systems.

If you’re looking for something that you can easily move from system to another, then another headset might be a better choice. Logitech are due to release a universal headset fairly shortly, you might look into that. If you can stand the re-wiring, particularly if you tend to game on one system for an extended stretch, the Tritton is an excellent choice.