Best computer news

D-link, Belkin and IOGear are busy shipping the first batch of WUSB hubs this month. When everyone’s happy about cutting the cords, Intel brought us bad news that Wireless USB 1.1 is in the works. This supposedly fine tunes the protocol to make it more efficient and will support band groups at 6Ghz and above in addition to 3-4Ghz bands of WUSB 1.0. The new specs also targets for speed from 480Mbps to 1Gbps as well as simplifying device bonding by means of contacting each other.

Despite the optimism, manufacturers need to deliver at 500Mbps from their MAC to achieve the goal, which is overly difficult at the moment. First-gen devices are crawling at rates of 40Mbps or less, so we really could use the extra speed. Don’t hold your breathe even though; the first patch to WUSB won’t come until late 2008.
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Toshiba’s kinda late to the HD camcorder battle, so it’s dispatching not one but four heavyweight contenders today. Of these four, two higher end Gigashot A models will shoot HD video at 1080p resolution with 60 fps; both will be equipped with 1/3″ 2.36MP CMOS sensor and HDMI. Their only difference is the storage capacity at 100GB (188,000 yen) and 40GB (158,000 yen). The main body measures at 78.1 x 79 x 135.4 mm, and will be shipping at around mid-Nov 2007.

The other two belongs to Gigashot K-series, and will sport a lower res 1/3″ 1.35MP CMOS sensor. It can record at 720p max. Their retail prices are lowered to 128,000 yen for the 80GB and 108,000 yen for the 40GB. In addition to recording directly to hard drive, the Gigashot K-series can take SHDC as well. Other details are sketchy as of this writing, but it’s certain that Toshiba camcorders will only adopt MPEG-4 AVC rather than AVCHD - a H.264 implementation advocated by Sony, Panasonic, Samsung and others. So I guess this is more iPod & Apple TV friendly than Sony’s AVCHD HandCams.
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Never thought there’s a DVD burner that MPAA would endorse. The DataPlay today has debuted the world’s first external burner that is capable of writing Content Scramble System (CSS) encrypted content for playback on standard DVD players. Basically, this allows us to download DRM-protected movies from service like MovieLink and burn it onto a DVD, but the catch is we’ll need a special CSS-MR pre-keyed recordable disc available from Verbatim, and maybe others too if this ever takes off.

The USB 2.0 burner aptly named MovieWriter is just part of Qflix’s bigger program whose company also issue component certifications for set-top boxes, software and burners that provide DVD-on-demand solutions. The CSS-MR media speed seems to have improved from the previous 2x to 8x write, and the MovieWriter is able to take advantage of that.
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If your desk is like mine, you have all sorts of power sucking gadgets sitting around that draw power whether your computer is on or off. A new surge protector called the USB Ecostrip will soon to be available in America and is now available in Europe.

This strip has a USB connector that plugs into your computer. When you turn your computer off, the power strip turns itself off as well. This allows you to turn your display, printer, desk lamp or other AC powered devices near your desk on and off at the same time, when you turn your computer off. The Ecostrip helps you to conserve electricity by turning power-drawing devices off when you aren’t at your computer. The device is set to arrive on the U.S. market soon at an undisclosed price.
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If the Star Wars Mimobot USB drives were a bit too cutesy for you or you just aren’t that big of a Star Wars fan, character flash drive is available that could compete against the Mimobot’s that might be more your style. Transformers drives that come in the form of the Autobot and Decepticon shields are available via Amazon UK.

The storage capacity of the Autobot drive is 1GB and the evil Decepticon has 2Gb of storage. the flash drive itself stows in the top of the shield. Crave says that the Transformers Drives are only available in the U.K., so fans of Transformers in America are out of luck. The Autobot flash drive sells for about $40 and the Decepticon sells for around $60.
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Whether you’ve got a few boxes of records collecting dust in your basement or you’re an aficionado with a valuable vinyl collection that you’d prefer to keep in as pristine a condition possible, you’ve no doubt wondered whether or not it might be possible to digitize your albums to make them as easy to play, sort and arrange as any of the other music you’ve collected on your computer in the past few years. Fortunately, science has heard your silent pleas, and there are now a few different USB-based turntables out on the market that not only play your records, but let you record them into your computer so you can turn them into whatever type of sound file suits your fancy. The Stanton T.90, the subject of today’s review, makes the same claims to quality as any other USB turntable, and brings a few other interesting features to the table, but we’re interested in the truth, not marketing. Let’s see how the Stanton T.90 stacks up.
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When you touts a product as iPod- or iPhone-friendly, it instantly becomes the attention of a third of Americans. Here’s a USB video capture that could sell a whole bunch to iPod folks. The Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac has an onboard MPEG-4 compressor that basically converts anything from its composite or S-video analog source, be it a ancient camcorder, PS2 or VCR.

See this as a speedy archiver for your decade-old tapes especially if you don’t have an ideal machine config, like a duo core Intel. MPEG-4 does store three times more video than MPEG-2 with the same amount of space at about the same quality. Pinnacle didn’t say whether the plug-in will work with iMovie ‘08 or not. In case the plug-in won’t work, PInnacle has its own software to complete the job.
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UPEK announced today that their Eikon Digital Privacy Manager now supports Mac systems. The USB powered fingerprint reader allows Mac users to swipe their fingerprint to access password-protected applications. UPEK says that Mac users can now logon at startup and when returning from sleep, unlock keychain, unlock secure preferences at admin-level settings, unlock file vault to decrypt home folders and unlock the screen saver all with the swipe of a finger.

The Eikon Digital Privacy manager started shipping last May for PC users for $39.99. Now the device supports MacOS 10.4 Tiger as well. The Mac version is available now for download from the UPEK website as a preview version. You will need to buy the Windows version of the device, then download the Mac Preview to use the device on your Mac. No support is currently provided for the preview (beta) Mac Protector Suite.
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Christmas is upon us, and every CE manufacturer is gearing up for the big retail fight. Creative makes a preemptive strike with a $20 price cut on its latest Zen 4GB from the previous $149 to $129, and a $50 slash for the 16GB from $299 to $249. The 8GB Zen remains at $199. Comparatively, the 3G iPod nano 4GB is now $20 more than the Zen of the same capacity, and the 8GB of both competing players will carry the same price.

Apple hasn’t released a 16GB nano yet, so this gives Zen plenty of advantage of being the first flash-based PMP to offer at this native capacity - not to mention it can expand via SDHC cards. Then again, Zen is stuck in its glossy black whereas nano appeals to women with Product (RED).
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Toshiba launched its new Gigabeat T400 PMP today at a MSRP of $119.99. The device has the ability to play MP3, WMA, WAV, and WMA Lossless music formats along with WMV video and JPEG photos. Power for the device is via an internal Li-ion battery.

Toshiba says battery life is good for 16 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of video playback. Storage capacity is 4GB of flash and the device comes in three colors including pink, orange, and blue trim on black bodies. The LCD is a 2.4-inch screen and charge and sync is done via USB. The T400 weighs 2.05 ounces and measures in at 3.37” x 2.13” x 0.4”. InfoSync has a hands on preview posted and in the end they don’t feel the device is exceptionally good or bad. If you want a standout PMP, go for the new iPod nano.

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