While I am certainly not religious, there is always something about Ash Wednesday that seems devoid of colour to me. Probably because Mardi Gras is one of the few holidays I purposely celebrate rather than celebrating because it is expected of me. But this year there’s another factor: today would have been the 76th birthday of my best friend’s mom. She lost a decades-long battle with cancer 13 years ago (that anniversary is coming up next week), and the world has been a decidedly darker place without her. She was that mom you saw on TV, opening her home and heart to her children’s stray friends (I lived there one summer, and I wasn’t the first), always with a hug or a word of encouragement when you needed it. But also a real person with faults she wasn’t afraid to claim as her own, although she worked to overcome them. I love you, Mom. Happy Birthday!

TrustedReviews gets us started with the I’m Watch

TechRadar tries on an Asus RoG Orion Pro

TweakTown takes on Dead Space 3 Xbox 360

Benchmark Reviews goes inside the NZXT Phantom 820 Tower Computer Case

Hi Tech Legion counters with the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 Mid-Tower Case

Modders-Inc. comes back with the Lian Li PC-V700 Mid Tower Case

Hardware Canucks beats the heat with the NZXT Kraken X40 & X60 CPU Coolers

KitGuru spends some time with the Sapphire EDGE HD4 Mini PC

ThinkComputers checks out the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive

Bjorn3D sits down with the Cyberpower Fangbook

eTeknix chills out with the SilverStone NT01 Pro Low Profile HTPC CPU Cooler

Real World Labs weighs in on the Samsung 840 Pro 256GB RAID0 SSD

MadShrimps gets into the ConnecteDevice COOKOO Watch

Legion Hardware explores the Thecus N5550

To close out this selection, techPowerUp gives a listen to some HiFiMAN RE-400 In-ears