Best computer news

With the advent of Windows Media Center, the HTPC, and the current push of them to be an necessary and integral part of any new home theater setup, new ways of controlling them are beginning to appear. One of the most neglected areas seems to be the mouse and controlling your cursor on your HTPC is often a pain. The joystick like controls on keyboards are hard to control and imprecise at best, and if you are sitting across the room a wired mouse isn’t feasible. Wireless mice require a surface to use them on and I don’t know about you but I usually don’t have a table beside me while laying on the couch and watching a movie. Even so, they have often been the choice for the HTPC crowd. That is … until now. Introducing the Logitech MX Air, cordless freedom at its finest and now excluding the desk too.
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Hardware Reviews

• Logitech MX Air Mouse / Remote
• Corsair Flash Padlock 2GB Flash Drive
• Asus Xonar U1 Dolby USB Sound Card
• Microsoft Mobile Memory Mouse 8000

Headlines

• Logitec’s Polished SATA to USB Hard Drive Rack
• USB Drive Enclosure Locks Data Down via PIN
• USB Remote Wants to Power Your Mobile Media
• USB Putt Returner - Golfers’ Office Toy
• Homer Simpson USB Hub and Lamp
• Sony Ericsson Conceptualizes Phone with Full-sized USB port
• Altec CopyStation 21 is One Dedciated USB Stick Copier
• Logitech QuickCam Orbit Gets Carl Zeiss Lens & Autofocus
• USB Safely Remove, Godsend for Gadget Junkies
• Everglide DKTBoard Brings Portable Gaming Keyboard
• USB Laptop Alarm Thwarts Theft, One Decibel at a Time
• ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB Heads to Mac
• Thanko’s USB Heatpad Brings Relief to Aching Masses
• Sentry Safe Fire-Safe / Waterproof USB Hard Drives
• Cre8txt Takes Cellphone SMS Messaging to PC, Literally
• Livescribe Pen Syncs Audio with Handwriting
• U-S-Blink Custom Made USB Port Flashing Light… But Why?
• Wi-Fire Releases Vista-Friendly 1000-ft Range WiFi Adapter
• Gigabyte Visuals USB Gauge for PSU Monitoring
• J. Lo has Her Album on Flash Drive
• Flameless Rechargeable USB Lighter is Kool
• USB Powered Infra-red Pain Relief
• Vavolo Goes the Full Monty with Weird USB Drives

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If you are one of those people that has to have the exotic everything and it be better than everyone else (i.e. the guy that bought the Ferrari because there were too many McLarens in your town), then maybe you need a flash drive more exotic than everyone’s as well. ZaNa Design seems to think you do and has a full line of handmade flash drives that are sure to make people turn their heads. The drives themselves are encased in exotic Merbau wood with some real silver to add some flair. They also use natural stones such as amber and striped flint for the flickering LED’s and some extra “Ooooh’s” and “Aaaaah’s”.

The cool thing is that they aren’t just for the exec’s sitting in the high leather back chairs either, but appeal to the geek in you too. These drives support BIOS booting as USB Zip and USB HDD and feature Ultra-Stable and U-SAFE technologies. This prevents against data loss or corruption if the drive is unplugged while transferring files. Unfortunately the drives only appear to come in 1GB and 2GB models and are going to set you back $74 and $92 respectively.
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External hard drive enclosures come in all sorts of varieties, but only if you need it to carry around often, you may want to consider the Logitec (no, not Logitech) SATA-to-USB converter that employs a cartridge slot design. An semi-transparent case folds up to cover the drive, and there’s adequate back support so the drive won’t be easily knocked over. Installation is relatively simple as you don’t even need to power down the unit before inserting the SATA drive.

Century has something similar, yet the Logitec’s version looks more polished and has a 4-port USB hub. An eSATA / USB version is available as well, but neither pricing nor availability is certain as of this writing.
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Things are getting out of hand, as USB is taking over the role of our electrical outlets. These USB ports are powering just about anything that is within 5V. Here’s a USB cup warmer (yes, yet another one) except it’s fully upgraded with a thermometer, a USB hub, a battery-powered alarm clock and some status lights.

It can maintain your drink’s temperature between 40 and 60 degrees for coffee, tea or soup in any glass, ceramic, china cup or bowl. The LCD prominently featured in front keeps you informed of the temperature and the time. There’s also a handy power switch as well. The USB cup warmer is yours for $24, and Brando has a worldwide free shipping promotion until 5th of December.
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A thing about consumer electronics is that most companies want their design to be as minimalist as possible, but not everyone can come up with something as revolutionary as iPod wheel whose creator has some problems outdoing itself.

MPIO feels that it’s not necessary to put all the controls into a single interface so they go with a double D-pads approach, which makes use 8 labels for all the directional buttons. You’ll find rewind, fast forward, volume on the top D-pad, and play/pause, back, menu and record on the another pad. As for the specs of this MG300 PMP, you certainly won’t find anything groundbreaking given it’s just a PMP, but these are some of the details.

• 2, 4, 8GB, expandable via SDHC
• 2.4″ LCD 320×240
• MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC support
• AVI video (no DivX?)
• FM tuner, voice recorder and text viewer

MPIO hasn’t expanded to USA yet, but it has some retail presence in Canada.
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If you are one of those geeks that just can’t get enough of the USB gadgets (or know that when the power is out, you WILL be at your computer), Brando has a new toy for you. The USB Rechargeable Clip Torch has all sorts of uses to shine some light on just about any subject that you come across.

Simply plug the flashlight into your USB port and it will take about 3 hours to charge. It measures 166 x 34 x 15.5 mm and weighs in at a light 7g. The torch comes with two clips: one for books, and one for anything else you want to attach the flashlight to. Both ends of it swivel a full 180 degrees meaning that you can get it to point just about any direction you need when you need it. At a measly $14, make sure to pick up a whole bunch of other gadgets for those geeky friends of yours this holiday season.
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If you do a lot of scanning at home, in the office, or on the go then you know what I mean when I say that scanners are generally bulky, loud, annoying, and just no fun at all. Well it would certainly appear that the folks over at Fujitsu have heard the complaints and done something about it and introduced the world’s smallest color Automatic Document Feed Scanner, the ScanSnap S300.

This little beauty has an ultra-compact footprint of just 11.2″ x 3.7″ x 3.0″, features one-touch scanning into PDF, can load up to 10 documents at a time, and scan up to 8 pages per minute (16 if you count double-sided scanning) in AC power mode. What is impressive about it though is that it is also designed to be a mobile scanner for you on the go and can be powered by the almighty USB. Two USB cables are needed for bus-powered operation, but only one of which handles the data transfer. However, this mode will lower scan speed to 4 ppm (simplex) and 8 ipm (duplex). At least you don’t have to lug around that hefty power brick and worry about finding somewhere to plug it in anymore. Just leave it at the desk when you need to leave and it will be there waiting for you to plug it back in when you return.
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So you’ve read our review of the Corsair Flash Padlock and decided it was exactly what you have been looking for, but you have too much data that you want to carry around with you to fit on the measly 2GB flash drive and don’t know what to do. Neither do I, but it sure looks like the folks over at IOTEK sure do, and with a little pizzazz to boot.

The ezSECU ez850 portable hard drive features an LCD touchscreen that appears to let you password protect your data with up to a seven digit PIN. The enclosure measures in at 79.5 x 129.7 x 23 mm, looks beautiful, and seems to be compatible with at least Win2k and newer and Mac OS 9.2 and newer. It even comes with a plastic case to put it in and protect it and even appears to be able to attach itself to your belt. Nothing is mentioned as to whether any encryption is utilized to keep someone from just taking the hard drive out of your enclosure and read the data by connecting it to another enclosure.
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Some companies put more sensitive laser sensors into their mice, or change the grip from the standard smooth plastic to something that wicks away sweat, then market the whole thing to gamers for about fifty dollars more than you’d pay for a five-button unit you’d use for web browsing or writing documents. But GTECH, they don’t want to follow the herd, because they’re innovators - or they had a lot of cooling fans lying around the warehouse - and so they introduce the USB OptiWind Mouse! $22.00 at Brando gets you an 800 DPI optical mouse with an LED-lit switch-activated fan that blows air into your sweaty palm, turning a loose grip into one that stays cool and dry while you work.

Cool hands are all well and good, but if you’re sweating enough to need a fan blowing on your palms, we have to wonder whether or not that sweat will start dripping into the mouse’s vents, and fry the electronics inside.
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