Cordless Headset for Xbox, anybody?

We don't normally write about third party peripherals. Which begs the question: why don't we normally write about third party peripherals? Is it because we're peripherophobic? Is it because we don't have the time what with all the gamingness? Or is it because we only use first party stuff because the build quality is generally much better and we don't want to be that kid down the road who had the Turbo button who cheated at the mashing bits at the Millennial Fair in Chrono Trigger? Or is it because we waste our mornings writing useless paragraphs like this which serve no purpose other than to hold up the rest of the news item - news in general, in fact - and in the process rob ourselves of the opportunity to go out and seek new, brighter peripherals with better futures and functionality, which come from a land where all is pure and costs £12.99 or comes free when you buy two games for £19.99?

Anyway, we don't normally write about third party peripherals, but, what with Rob being away, today it's a straight choice between "wireless Xbox Live headset" on the one hand and "financial results for gi.biz" on the other. Join us, then, in heralding the arrival of the Logitech Cordless Headset for Xbox, which allows you to talk to people on Live without having a wire snaking from your oh-so-fashionable telesales-style headset to the memory card port on top of the Xbox pad. In fact, you get walk up to ten metres from the receiver and it still works, and it uses that radio tech stuff so it doesn't rely on your being within line of sight, or in this case ear. Indeed, Logitech is quick to point out that when used in conjunction with its "Cordless Precision Controller" (why not "wireless"?) you can in fact be in a totally different room to your Xbox and still play the likes of Halo 2 online. Whilst shouting. Which, given our Warthog skills, will undoubtedly benefit the rest of the team.

In fact, when we first read about it, the very idea of not being in the same room as Halo 2 made the Cordless Headset all the more attractive. Just kidding. Still, we did want one - until we discovered that the headset will be "available in December for a suggested retail price of £79.99". Ho hum. Still, not to worry; you can always import one from the US, where the SRP is a mere $79.99. We'd make a snide joke about how "plastic is presumably a lot harder to come by in Europe", but we suspect the pricing might be something to do with using radio frequencies, so we'll just be quiet. At last.