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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