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COMPARE TO: Philips Soundbar

PRICE: $349

FUN FACT: If grey is too plain, you can also get the Soundbar in Red.

WHY COMPLEX IS CO-SIGNING:
So you blew a paycheck on a sick HDTV. You then got an HD cable box and set up your Xbox to stream Netflix movies in HD. Around this time you think you’re set, right? Nah, not quite. You maybe enjoying high quality visuals with your new set up, but what about the audio? We know your pockets are hurting after dropping all that dough on a new TV, but you don’t have to drop a stack to get your movies sounding as good as they look. Yes, a 5.1 surround sound system would be awesome, but if money’s tighter Tyga’s jeans, a system like Samsung’s Soundbar is perfect. It’s small, inexpensive and will perform well enough to make you think twice about ever going to a movie theater again…

DESIGN: The design here is pretty straight forward. Nothing too fly or flashy. And that’s a good thing. You don’t want your audio system drawing attention away from the TV. It’s very minimal in design—depending on how your TV is set up, you can throw it in a stand, or throw it on the wall using the including wall mounts.

FEATURES: The Samsung Soundbar is basically a 2.1 channel system. Meaning there are two speakers and a subwoofer. That may not sound like much. But wait until you listen to it. Samsung, using virtual surround sound processing, was able to create a small system that sounds like ones double its size. That’s all done using a Dolby Digital audio processor. We wish it had more processors, and connectors: There’s no USB connection, one audio input and no radio features. But even without all that, its still a good system. Especially with its wireless subwoofer. Using a 5.8 Ghz wireless connection, you can put your subwoofer anywhere in the room and have the sound signal reach it.

SUMMARY: If you’re looking for a low-priced home theater solution, the Soundbar is perfect. Just don’t expect it to do much more than deliver good sound from your movies and TV, as there’s limited inputs and outputs and no radio.

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PRICE: $149.95

FUN FACT: Elgato’s first EyeTV product was unveiled in 2002 at the MacWorld Expo in New York.

WHY COMPLEX IS CO-SIGNING IT: Most of us watch recorded TV a lot more than we watch live television. These days, who has time to watch everything? We either DVR the shows we want to watch, or like a lot of people, we just download it off the ‘Net. With today’s Buy It Now, you’ll no longer need to scan the torrent sites or message boards looking for that episode you missed. Elgato’s EyeTV Hybrid is one of, if not the, smallest HD TV tuners available for your computer. About the size of a regular USB flash drive, EyeTV Hybrid allows you record live HD TV from a number of different sources, and then allows you to edit out the part of the shows, movies and video that you don’t want using their EyeTV 3 software. They’ve just now announced compatibility for Windows 7, but if you have Mac OS X you get a bunch more features: smart playlists, automatic export to iTunes and support for EyeTVs iPhone app. You can also capture video from a number of analog sources, too like an old camcorder, a regular set-top box or a VCR. If you’re looking for a great solution to watch and record TV on your computer, check out the EyeTV Hybrid.

CLICK here to BUY IT NOW at Elgato, $149.95

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However, after a month or so of speculating and waiting, ’Ye finally launched his new site, KanyeWest.com on February 24th with his new video for “Coldest Winter” and an awesome photo of his arm piece, Amber Rose, recreating Jean-Paul Goude’s photo of model Grace Jones (which, by the way, was an out take from a Complex shoot that ‘Ye specially requested for the new site). Not a shabby start. But is it better than the site that landed on many top blogs list and was quoted on gossip sites, TV shows and magazines? A month into its existence we put together a a comparison of how Kanye’s blogs match up so far…

VISUAL AESTHETIC

KANYEWEST.COM: All-black everything? Nah, ‘Ye’s off that. His new site sports a super-clean, all-white background that we’re guessing was put in place to show that he’s a changed man. Or something. Beyond the celestial background though, the site is a lot less cluttered, with posts appearing in a tumblr format and category buttons appearing at the top, but only when you scroll over them. The images, however, are huge and, while they look great, are a lot when trying to scroll through the page.

KANYEUNIVERSECITY: Predating the explosion of ning artist sites, the Universecity was a go-to for everything Yeezy, including tour dates, photos, links for purchase, and even a message board to discuss it all. With a black background and brightly colored links, the Universecity was a Kanye West amusement park, replete with fancy flash navigation. One of its more original functions was a calendar, allowing users to jump directly to any date’s entries.

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ORGANIZATION

KANYEWEST.COM: A Tumblr-like site, KanyeWest.com is easy to navigate and even easier to become accustomed to. There are only two or three posts per page and the categories at the top of the page make it easy to jump from interest to interest. The site also developed its own video player, which would mean Kanye (or someone) would have to the take time to upload anything he wanted to share. It does not, however, seem to have a search function.

KANYEUNIVERSECITY: Though somewhat visually cluttered when compared to kanyewest.com, the Universecity was easier for fans and readers to navigate. On top of the more manageable picture sizes, there’s a reliable search window. And as we mentioned earlier, Kanye threw in a calender widget off to the right that lets you click a date to see all the posts for that day, making it super easy to find a post.

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CONTENT

KANYEWEST.COM: As it’s phantom category links would suggest, kanyewest.com will cover pretty much the same things KanyeUniverseity did, with the notable exclusion being “Rants”, and the notable addition being the “My Camera” category which so far only has an image of a Givenchy shirt and, ironically, a rant. As yet, the majority of the posts are art, girls and fashion related. One noticeable addition to his new site is a custom video player. On his Univercity blog, Kanye was known to throw videos from a host of different sites—even if they were his videos. Now, he has a clean, streamlined video player than he (or whoever he’s paying) can upload his own videos for his fans to watch.

KANYEUNIVERSECITY: Within the Universecity, Kanye has big-upped everything from airplane designs to old R&B videos, posting music from artists he’d never met to songs he produced himself (usually after they’d already appeared on NahRight). Whether a platform to share his varied design interests with the world or a place to focus them, the universecity plays host to any and everything Kanye sees artistic merit in.

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RANTS

KANYEWEST.COM: The new site has only hosted one so far and though steeped in motivation and titled, “Creativity,”. The presentation itself, giant faded gold text embedded on what reads like an e-scroll, could be labeled pretentious, but you know what? It looks cool. Many voiced their frustration at this new style: NahRight titled a post “Kanye’s New Blog Makes It Virtually Impossible For Us To Take A Screen Shot Or Copy Paste It”. We think that’s the whole point.

KANYEUNIVERSECITY: As probably the only time we were sure it was Kanye piloting the blog, Ye’s rants (most of which have been erased) were explosive. Whether defending his decision to make concert goers wait hours for a performance or just airing out closed minded fashion bloggers, you could count on the blog for Yeezy raw, misspelled and uncut.

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COMPLEX SAYS: Though it’s slightly harder to navigate, the new site has a better url (for whatever that’s worth) and looks leaps and bounds better than the old blog. In addition, ‘Ye is actually making much of the content himself by creating GIFs and manipulating images in photoshop (in addition to adding the frames to pre-existing work) to create a blog which, in and of itself, is an organic and ever changing piece of art, rather than an aggregator of dope Swedish chairs. The photos are large and beautiful, its design is unobstructed by unneeded graphics, and now that his rants are well-designed images instead of text. Plus they spell checked!

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The ASOTH, or Asshole Hat, is a hat (or visor) that allows you to connect your iPod, iPhone or BlackBerry and watch videos hands free. We’re not sure when or where you’re supposed to wear this thing—they suggest the beach or gym. But we do know that if you really wanted to watch a movie or TV, you might as well have kept your ass at home, as no one, male or female, will come around you. Don’t think it’s that bad? Hit the jump to see a video of this thing in action. [LINK]

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