Best computer news

I admit that I don’t exactly get the point of a wooden keyboard, but for some wood is the perfect material for typing it seems. We have talked about wooden peripherals before like the Susia External Hard Drive. For those that want a wooden keyboard, but want it cheaper and don’t mind putting in some work themselves we have your gadget.

The Hacoa keyboard is wood framed and comes with the full QWERTY keys that you expect on a keyboard save a number pad. The keys come roughed out and etched with letters or functions on them, but they are attached in a long block of wood. It appears that he keyboard includes a small saw and you cut the keys out yourself. There isn’t much in the way of specs on the keyboard, but it appears you can arrange the keys however you desire. The price for the keyboard kit is about $285 USD.
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The second wave of Wireless USB hubs is hitting the retail shelves recently, and PCWorld has put two hubs to the test from different standards: Icron’s Extreme and Certified Wireless USB. These hubs basically eliminate the single cable that connects them to the computer. All other USB peripherals still plug into the wireless hub. So depending on your need, removing just one cable may not be as appealing as having everything wireless. The conclusion of the review seems to favor the IOGear 4-port solution.

The IOGear adapter / hub – based on the Ultra-wideband CWUSB specs – offers decent performance at 250Mbps at between 10 to 15 feet, yet limits support to XP. The Gefen adapter / hub communicates using 2.4Ghz 802.11g WiFi so you get a lot better range at the expense of speed. Transferring a 59MB file took more than half an hour to complete. The Gefen also masks itself as a generic USB hub, in contrast to the IOGear which requires two rounds of driver setup. This means you can use it in virtually any platforms.
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It’s not the first time I’ve seen a 32GB thumbdrive, which is seen as a publicity stunt by the PRs to attract more attention for their company in the blogsphere. Toshiba plans to ship its TransMemory 32GB USB drive this X’mas for 80,000 yen ($700). The jaw-dropping price puts it out of reach for almost everyone.

Now, EDGE Tech is bringing yet again a 32GB thumbdrive that costs just $399.95, which they believe it’s a bargain compared to other colossal drives. The company isn’t very forth-coming with the speed though. The encryption software, CyptArchiver, can only protect up to 25MB of data per file. Full version can encrypt up to 20GB at a time. The drive itself isn’t much to look at, but EDGE makes up with a lifetime warranty. Before 32GB hits below $200, I’m happy with my Corsair GT.
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If Moxia Energy filed a patent for its USBCell batteries in all developed countries, I don’t understand why something like Super Cool USB Direct-Charge exists in the first place. Over at DealExtreme, there’s a listing of what looks like a cheap knock-off of the USBCell. An obvious difference between the two is the placement of the USB plug. The USBCell on their website claims it has a rating of 1300mAh (more NiMH now has 2500mAh) whereas the Super Cool’s NiMH USB battery capacity remains unknown. As for the prices, the USBCell at $19 per 2 cell park costs more than double than the SuperCool.
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The ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB for PC makes some nice breakthrough for a USB TV tuner. For starter, it is part of AMD’s “combo” tuner-series, which is in fact a dual TV receiver except it’s one of each: analog and digital. So, you can watch in NTSC while recording a channel on ATSC OTA or Clear QAM; likewise, you can watch a digital channel while recording an analog channel. This is certainly more flexible than the Pinnacle hybrid USB TV, which allows you to watch or record one channel at any given time. A problem with the 650 Combo USB is that you can’t record two digital channels simultaneously. A simple workaround welcomed by AMD is to buy a second 650 tuner of course.

I was just giving a quick look at the specs and found out the analog tuner also supports 3D Comb Filter, Clear QAM, FM radio and hardware MPEG-2 encoder (for MCE compatibility) – all of which are absent previously on the TV Wonder 600. Look for the 650 Combo USB to hit store in mid-October for $149.
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Converting a SATA HDD for USB 2.0 can be a chore, especially if you aren’t a geek. Now take a look at this SATA HDD Stage Rack. Instead of a plain USB enclosure design, it treats your internal drive as a old-school Sega cartridge. This approach is by far the best I’ve seen compared to the numerous SATA to USB adapter cables.

There’s a button in front for ejecting the drives, and a glowing blue ring that doubles a power switch. The $47 base will also accept 2.5″ in addition to 3.5″ internal. The designer puts some extra weight in the rack to avoid the drive from tipping over. This means you have to bear the extra shipping cost – $38.70. Ouch…
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In China, the ruler says who the search engine king is. If you recall Dalai Lama awarded with Congressional Gold Medal earlier this week by President Bush, China openly protested, and now retaliated by sending ALL Google, Yahoo & MSN search traffic to Baidu – the only largest search engine to be totally in control by the Communist government.

Analysts didn’t exactly disclose why the traffic was being redirected and why the search engines have anything to do with this. My guess is that it’s more or less like USA raising import tax on China goods after an argument between the two governments. Anyway, I bet the expats and Chinese students who rely on these US-based services on regular basis are as frustrated as Larry Page, Jerry Yang & Bill Gates.
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Mention gaming mice to anyone unfamiliar with the concept, and you might get some strange looks: why would anyone want to pay more money for a mouse, when the original does just as well? However, as any gamer who regularly plays first person shooters will tell you, gaming mice bring two advantages to the table: more sensitive sensors and more buttons, both of which designed to help you dominate your gaming opponents. Today, in the second of a series of three reviews (first one is the MS SideWinder Mouse), I’ll be looking at one of the world’s premiere gaming mice, Logitech’s G9 Laser Gaming Mouse, to see how well it brings those two gaming mouse advantages to the table.
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Universal Music is getting set to release its singles on USB memory sticks this month. The new format is an attempt to stop declining music sales by offering digital audio formats popular with the 12 to 24 year old crowd. Pricing for the USB singles works out to slightly more than $10 USD.

A CD single currently costs about $6 USD. The Times Online UK says that CD sales are down in the UK by 10% and in the U.S. by 19% attributed both to illegal and legal music downloads. An agreement between music companies and the Official charts Company allows USB singles to be included in the chart figures. What remains to be seen is if younger buyers will be willing to spend what a complete album costs to download for a single on USB format.
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5m is what we can pull from a normal USB cable. You can cascade up to several hubs, but you might get another 20m more. To really extend the distance up to 100 times more than the original USB distance, you have to go fiber optics. The Gefen USB 400FO is here to do just that. Licensing from Canada-based Extreme USB technology, Gefen’s extender is able to boost signal for any USB devices for up to 500m (1650 ft.) from the location of your PC. That doesn’t work on just one, but four USB devices, whether they are printers, keyboards, mice, hard drives or DVD burners.

The Gefen is 100% USB-IF compliant; it’s probably the only one actually that will guarantee universal compatibility. It works exactly like a USB hub, but physically it has two individually powered units: sender & receiver. Gefen recommends professional applications only, which won’t any arguments from us as the the mighty USB extender will cost 16 grand. Not that much considering if your professional life depends on it.
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