Tasted pretty decent. Sparks claims it’s berry and cherry blended, but before I read that little piece of information, I thought it was supposed to be cranberry flavored, in the same mold as Mike’s Harder Cranberry Lemonade. Regardless, the first sip was harsh as always, and after that I was good. I do recommend getting them as cold as you possibly can, and keeping them that way, because once these get a touch warm they can be kind of skanky.

Still love the feeling these give me; one can gives a nice buzz, and the energy drink elements keep you from getting that groggy feeling if you happen to be a ‘sleepy’ drinker (which I am). Of course if you attack the 4-pack with reckless abandon, you’re going to be crawling to your cab, so be careful.

Verdict? Sparks Red gets a ‘Win.’ I’d use them to pregame if I were you, or maintain a good buzz. It is a beer, after all. I’ve seen them priced between $1-$2, and at that price, they’re worth it. Enjoy!

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

In general I stick to very budget friendly products that you can pick up at just about any store with some spare dough, so a cell phone review is a bit out of character. But this phone is designed for use as a pre-paid GoPhone by AT&T, and usually people using pre-paid services are generally on a budget. So here goes my opinion of the LG Prime, a new touch screen phone.

First impression was ‘Wow!’ A penny less than $80 bucks for an all touch device, from a decent manufacturer? Too good to be true. But my phone was going out anyway, I’m nowhere near the end of my contract (this phone will work for contract customers… more on that later), so I gambled. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I hit the jackpot.

Is it an iPhone? Absolutely not. But for the price, it’s amazing. I’ll get the one major draw back out of the way first, it is a 2G (Edge) only device, so your web browsing will be a bit sluggish, but not unbearably so. Also, this will largely depend on the signal strength in your area; if you’ve had crappy service with AT&T before, don’t expect miracles. Second, and this is minor, the battery door isn’t incredibly stable, so don’t be tossing it around. It will pop off on you. I’m hoping to eliminate this issue by buying a snap on case. One issue I’ve seen in other reviews is complaints about the auto-lock; they don’t understand why it locks so fast, and why you can’t turn it off. Quick answer is this; it was a cost cutting measure so LG wouldn’t have to install a proximity sensor. Simple as that, it locks to keep you from cheek dialing. Why people are complaining, I don’t know. I’ve had no issues with it.

The phone is a very lightweight plastic. It doesn’t feel cheap, but it doesn’t feel high end either. Again, I’m hoping the hard case I purchased will sure it up just a bit. The screen is a plastic resistive touch screen, and is more accurate and responsive that any other resistive touch screen I’ve used. Brightness is decent except in direct sun, colors are vivid, and it doesn’t appear to be collecting any scratches. I’m incredibly satisfied with it.

Sound is loud and crisp; I actually wish I could turn the speaker phone volume down just a touch. But one of the cool features to make use of said speaker is a built in FM radio that doesn’t require the use of any adapters for an antenna. You can listen through the built in 3.5mm headphone jack, or share the joy wish those around you. Same with the mp3 player. The mp3 player is full featured, syncs to Windows Media Player very easily though the stand micro USB jack (cable not included, but you probably have 5 already).

The Prime can be used as a mass storage drive as well, holding up to a 16GB micro USB card. This will hold your music as well as and pictures or video you may take. Camera quality suffers a bit, but I’ve seen worse. But seriously, a standardized USB drive AND a standard headphone port are rare; and the music sounds good enough to make this a decent deal as just an mp3 player. The value (phone, mass storage, camera, simple apps) easily beats out devices like the iPod Nano.

Accessories are scarce at this point, but if the LG Prime gains some popularity, I’m sure China will be happy to pump out all kinds of crap for it that you can buy at you favorite mall’s cell phone stand, or better yet, eBay.

It arrived with $50 air time making the deal even better, and get this; since I was using it on contract, it applied 150 roll over minutes to my account instead! The LG Prime is a total ‘Win!’ and cannot be beat. If you’re in the market for a nonsmart phone, you’d be doing yourself a disservice in passing it up.

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

From past experience, I know the colder you can get these potent mixes, the better. Stuck it in the freeze for an hour and a half or so, and it was frigid. First sip; physical pain. It burnt so bad. I’m no professional drinker, but I’ve done my fair share of straight shots, and a great many of them went down smoother than Joose. I kept sipping, because I wasn’t going back out, and it was just as harsh from start to finish.

‘Gasoline’ was all I could think of. It’s orange based, but the aftertaste reminded me of petrol fumes, just nowhere near as pleasant. Carbonation was fairly intense, and the flavoring kept the malt taste down, but nothing I put in my body should spark images of combustible fluids in my mind.

For the second half of the can (yeah, I finished it… a dare became involved) I iced it, and that helped. Like a bandaid helps an amputated limb. Joose is a product I will never, ever purchase again, and I know of much tastier options to get my cheap drink on. Epic fail.

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

The folks at ‘Relaxzen‘ still have hope for the segment though, and they shipped me over a few samples to try out. One, a day time formula, and the other, for bed time. Tried the night time version first, as I was most confident it would work, and it didn’t disappoint. Never made me drowsy so to speak, that’s not it’s job, but it slowed my mind down enough that I could just chill out, and nod off without my mind running at full speed. If you’ve never used a product like this, the sensation is like that ‘where’s the couch’ feeling after Thanksgiving dinner. You can go ahead and nod off if you want to, but it’s not going to force you to sleep.

‘Relaxzen‘ Day I was a bit more skeptical of. The main idea is to calm you, and improve focus. I found it helpful, but not extremely so. Granted, I consume a lot of things during the day that would offset many of the benefits of this product, so I’m not holding that against it. In fact, I’m sure that people who consumed a more sane amount of caffeine and other stimulants than I do would great benefit from the day time formula.

Both tasted quite medicinal, but they’re shots. We should expect that by now. Not great, but certainly not so unpleasant as to deter you from wanting to use one. Overall, I give them a ‘Win!’ and look forward to seeing them in more stores. The night time version worked better than Mini Chill, and will be what I reach for when searching for a non-pill sleep aid.

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

Had just enough change on my to try one can, and I picked the ‘0‘ flavor, which I can safely assume is the diet version of the ‘Original Blue’ flavor. Anyone who’s read this blog enough knows I love blue stuff, and berry flavored stuff, so Power Trip 0 had a head start out of the gate. I poured the beverage in a glass, an odd thing I do not normally do, to discover it was opaque. Nothing wrong with that, just a bit different for the category. You can see through most products.

The flavor was wonderful. Light, not over powering, the sweetening blend was spot on, and it didn’t reek of vitamins. I could seriously drink Power Trip 0 as a soda, rather than an energy beverage. Assuming I never wanted to sleep again.

So far as an energy buzz, it wasn’t super intense, but I did feel it, and best of all it didn’t crash me when it was through doing it’s thing. A 16-ounce can, which is actually two servings, provides you with a negligible 10 calories, 0 carbs, 210 mg of protein, 2,000 mg of taurine, 46 mg of guarana, 72 mg of inositol, 200% of vitamins C, B3, B5, B12, and 400% of B6.

I really want to try the other flavors of Power Trip, and I’ll definitely be bugging the manager to bring them in. Power Trip 0 scores an easy ‘Win!’

Official Site

-Jeremy Hobbs

The MICROforce shaver. It’s a compact wet/dry electric microfoil shaving system, designed for mowing down that 5 o’clock shadow. It’s advertised as being able to be your only shaver, but I’m not even that gullable. I was just hoping for something to knock off some of my stubble in between real shaves.

What I got in the MICROforce was a product that would cut every three or four hairs, leaving the rest far behind. Length of hair didn’t matter much at all, it cut longer hair every bit as poorly as the short stuff, and left my face irritated to no end. Also, this is the very first electric shaver that I’ve used that left a blood trail; that just should not happen.

Final grade? Miserable failure. Wasn’t worth the two triple-A batteries I used to power it. Waste of money ($10)

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

‘Distortion’ adds a significant lime kick to the base Mountain Dew, and provides a bit or tartness. The balance is great, and really improves on the base in my opinion (I’ve always found non diet Dew a little sweet for my tastes). The lime flavor also intensifies as your beverage loses it’s chill and carbonation.

If you’re looking for a comparison, and have a long memory, 7-Up produced a green, caffeinated beverage called dnL (7up upside down) a few years ago, and the flavors strongly resemble one another. That’s great for me, because dnL was one of my favorite beverages before it was pulled off the shelves.

I have no trouble recommending ‘Distortion’ to any citrus soda fan, it’s a great product and a major ‘Win!’ for Pepsi. Even if this doesn’t win the Dewmocracy contest, I hope they’ll find a way to keep it in the portfolio.

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

My gut feeling is Pretzel M&M’s will be hanging around awhile, as I didn’t see any limited edition notices on the packaging. Also, they will be available in all major sizes, even the really big resealable bags. Good thing, as I can see a family going through these rather quickly.

Only negative I could find was a higher concentration of ‘cracked’ candies, which really isn’t that big a deal. Very possible that it was just my two bags, but whatever. Chipped Pretzel M&M’S taste just as yummy as the whole ones.

For the foreseeable future, I’ll be purchasing these over peanut M&M’s. Though I didn’t check the label for allergy information, I think these may be a suitable substitute for peanut allergy suffers who would like a sweet/salty snack. Overall, Pretzel M&M’s are a total WIN!

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs

‘Solstice’ is described as ‘…a warm and cool winter.’ I translate that as wintergreen, and the shoe fits, so that’s what I’m going with. Regardless, it’s quite tasty. Not so over-powering as to hurt your teeth, but intense enough to achieve that ‘chill’ in your nose and throat as you breathe.

Like 5 Flare, the flavor of 5 Solstice just seems to go on forever. If anyone ever asks me to recommend a gum to them, I always recommend the ’5′ series for that reason; I haven’t yet found anything else that can compete. The texture stays nice as well, sticking together without getting too firm.

5 Solstice can be purchased in single, 15 stick packs, or in multi-packs of 3 – 15 stick packs. Prices will vary by store, but don’t expect to break the bank. It’s gum. 5 Solstice gets a solid ‘Win!’ all the way around.

Official Site

–Jeremy Hobbs