Wize Blog

How to Enhance your Television Viewing Experience

This has been a really interesting topic of discussion for us here at Wize. A lot of us are into watching television series and there's so much more to the experience than just the quality of the show. Obviously everything else is a non-issue if the show content doesn't interest you, but let's assume you have a set of shows that you love (i.e. American Idol, 24, Lost, Family Guy, 30 Rock, Grey's Anatomy, etc.), there are a bunch of other thing that go into your overall viewing experience.

Over at Wize, we have a bunch of pages dedicated to helping people find the best flat panel televisions for watching television, or even the best flat panel televisions for your family rooms. These are televisions that people around the web have written about for those exact situations.

Ok, let's assume that you have the right equipment and it's setup for optimal performance, there are some unique ways that you can continue to enhance your experience by leveraging the power of the Web. A really great site that we've come across recently is Predictify, which is a prediction platform that adds an interactive dimension to the news and popular events. I'm a huge fan of American Idol and I recently came across some awesome dialogues and community questions about American Idol and had a great time adding my personal insight. It's a great way to keep the excitement of your favorite shows even after the show ends. On top of that, you can actually earn some money as well. Looks like there's a $ question about John Grisham live on the site right now.

What's N-Gage All About?

Nokia launched the N85 today, a cell phone that includes a 5 MP cam, GPS, 8GB of storage, WiFi, 28-hour battery life for music playback and N-Gage compatibility. Game-players are the prime market for phones with N-Gage compatibility. Other phones that are N-Gage compatible are Nokia N73, N81, N81 8GB, N93, N93i and N95.

N-Gage is a game playing system that lets you connect with other mobile phone users to play games. Some of the games available are: Brain Challenge, Bounce Boing Voyage, Reset Generation, Brothers in Arms, Pro-Series Golf, Midnight Pool, The Sims 2 Pets and Snakes Subsonic. If you've already got a N-Gage compatible phone, you can download the games here.

One game, Dirk Dagger, Digging Deeper, just arrived for the platform. There's an in-depth interview with the creator of the game at the N-Gage Web site. The game has you playing Dirk Dagger, a gumshoe detective. At DirkDagger.com, there's an interactive preview of the game, which explains the characters and cases. It's a lot of fun and will have you wanting a N-Gage compatible phone so you can play it.

Best Game Boy Advance Games for Kids

Summer is here and kids know what they want to do. They want to play on their Game Boy Advance. Just in case if you don't know what a Game Boy Advance is; it's a hand held video game console.

Here are the top 5 games for summer fun:

1. CLASSIC NES SERIES: SUPER MARIO BROS. FOR GAME BOY ADVANCE (pictured above)

2. SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 4: SUPER MARIO BROS. 3

3. BRAIN AGE: TRAIN YOUR BRAIN IN MINUTES A DAY

4. POKEMON RUBY

5. POKMON: SAPPHIRE

Dell XPS M1730 Gaming Laptop Video Review

The XPS M1730 is one slick machine by Dell. With a 17-inch screen, and Core II Extreme at 2.8 GHz and 2GB memory, this machine rocks.

CNET has the specs and a review. All the info you need about this gamer.

5 Best Computer Games for Kids

Got kids?

Wize.com has sorted through hundreds of computer games to find the best 5 for your kids. The games come under several genres: education, strategy, puzzles and role-playing as well as for a variety of age groups from pre-K to teens.

Here are the games:

1. (pictured) Bookworm Deluxe

2. The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-Earth

3.  Polar Bowler

4. Jewel Quest

5. Bejeweled 2

All games are for Windows.

SimFarm Addicting; SimCity Creator Will Be Too

The Web site i4u.com is reporting that SimCity Creator is coming for the Wii and Nintendo DS. The game, which lets users create and destroy cities, ships Sept. 22.

If you've never played SimCity before, you have a chance of being addicted. At least that's what one player reported on wize.com.

""I have never played Sims before but have to say you get addicted. I like this game and will probably purchase another in the future," said the player who was playing Sim Farm for Windows.

Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 X2 Video Card

For you gamers that want ATI CrossFireX Technology, 825 MHz Core Clock and 640 stream processors, each at 256 bit X 2 and more, check out the video below. It shows the games in action. Lots of stats here for those of you who know the power that you can have when playing video games. Go for those extra frames per second!

XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX Edition Graphics Card

Want fast memory, double performance when playing PC games? Check out the XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX Edition Graphics Card in the Tiger TV video below.

Grand Theft Auto 4 Video Review Gives Game 10/10

Close to 2.5 million have watched it. It's the Grand Theft Auto 4 (rated 5/5 by amazon and newegg) video review (view below).

It's narrated flawlessly and exciting to watch.

The review ranks the super-popular game a 10/10.

New Grand Theft Auto IV Reviews on Wize.com

Come take on the roll of Niko Bellic and you'll have four new boroughs to explore by controlling cars, boats and helicopters. That's the line for the Grand Theft Auto IV game for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3, the game people are talking about.

CNET reports that Grand Theft Auto IV broke an all-time computer game sales record.
On its first day out, the game sold 3.6 million copies.

Some criticize the game for being too violent. On wize.com, the game rates number one for adult games. In one of three reviews on wize.com, the game is reported to be "the darkest story so far in the Grand Theft Auto series."

But, please don't fret over the violence and/or darkness as this game is good: "What has made the Grand Theft Auto series so superb is the story telling. Excellent voice acting with intense and exciting missions make GTA IV a true winner. From the first moment on you will notice that you aren't really playing a game as much as taking part in an intense crime drama."

No wonder it's selling so fast.