Best computer news

This week we learned that Seagate had been selling Maxtor branded drives that left its Chinese manufacturing facility infected with a virus. It seems that as viruses go, this one wasn’t particularly malicious, unless you were a WoW player with a good account.

The virus was only interested in gaming related passwords, though some reports of the virus deleting MP3 files have surfaced. Seagate is offering owners of infected Maxtor basic hard drives free anti-virus software, which will detect and remove the virus from the hard drives. Seagate originally thought the virus was planted maliciously by an employee, but later discovered it was an accidental infection. Seagate says it is implementing new security measures to prevent this from happening again including metal detectors to ensure employees have no flash drives on their person.
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Yep, you heard it right. Pictures of a new concept phone from Sony Ericsson show a phone that features a type-A receptacle USB port. What does this mean for you? Well to start you can use transfer files to your phone without the use of your computer by simply plugging in your flash drive. Other than that, not much seems to be known at this time. After seeing this it makes me wonder why someone didn’t think of it sooner.

Since this is only a concept design there is no telling what will happen… it might just be scrapped all together. Speculatively speaking, this could open up a lot of different options for accessories for phones and maybe if some of the manufacturers use their head for something besides keeping their ears apart could become very useful, very quickly.
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If you run a PR firm that prepares a bunch of USB thumbdrives for your client on frequent basis, Altec’s USB CopyStation 21 Ultra maybe what you need. Technically, it’s an ordinary looking PC except it has what-looks-like to be three 7-port USB 2.0 hubs occupying all the 5.25″ frontal bays. The PC however is a dedicated USB stick copier that in Altec’s words can copy 512MB of data onto 21 thumbdrives simultaneously in 2.5 mins. This translates to approximately 75MB/s, thus making the CopyStation Ultra some 50% speedier than anything out there, which the German manufacturer claims the next fastest copier only does 50MB/s.

The USB ports are squeezed very close together, so USB sticks must meet dimension requirement (Permanent Link

Majority of Logitech webcams have received a upgrade to Carl Zeiss optics. So, it’s only logical the company puts one into its QuickCam Orbit, which is now called AF instead of MP. Here, MP denotes mega-pixel, and AF as in autofocus – another much needed feature for a motorized tracking camera as it always need to change its focus. Like other high-end USB webcams, the Orbit AF boosts ‘HD’ video streaming at up to 960 by 720 and true 2-megapixel sensor. Logitech has kept the MSRP to $129, but you are likely to find a lower street price during X’mas period. In related news, Logitech QuickCam software has been updated to 11.5, whose most notable addition is the YouTube uploader.
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Yep, you heard it right. Pictures of a new concept phone from Sony Ericsson show a phone that features a type-A receptacle USB port. What does this mean for you? Well to start you can use transfer files to your phone without the use of your computer by simply plugging in your flash drive. Other than that, not much seems to be known at this time. After seeing this it makes me wonder why someone didn’t think of it sooner.

Since this is only a concept design there is no telling what will happen… it might just be scrapped all together. Speculatively speaking, this could open up a lot of different options for accessories for phones and maybe if some of the manufacturers use their head for something besides keeping their ears apart could become very useful, very quickly.
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If you are like me, you find that Microsoft’s Safely Remove Hardware program is a royal pain in the neck. It is often slow (and causes you to lose some data due to impatience), takes too many clicks to get something done, and shows a whole lot of stuff that you just plain don’t care about and never will. Fortunately the folks over at Safely Remove have a nifty application called USB Safely Remove and have just updated it to version 3.2.

Basically, USB Safely Remove lets you do everything that can with Microsoft’s offering, only do more and do it better. They let you hide devices so that you don’t accidentally stop them (SATA hard drives anyone?), use actual device names, give you access to keyboard shortcuts instead of forcing you to use the mouse, and is very customizable. It also lets you know what applications are using your device and keeping you from stopping it when you get that dreaded “The device cannot be stopped right now” error.

Give it the once over to see if it might fit your needs. They have a free version with limited functionality and some nag screens but for only $20 bucks you can get the full version with everything unlocked and lose the nag screens.
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We wonder this might not be a case of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em:” Everglide, a California-based gaming peripherals company, announced on Thursday that they’ve partnered up with Razer (another California-based gaming peripherals company) to create the DKTBoard, a portable gaming keyboard endorsed by former professional gamer Brian “DKT” Flander. Everglide targets their products to “old skool” gamers, while Razer’s marketing focus is on their cutting edge technologies, so the DKTBoard is supposed to be a synthesis of old skool feel and new skool tech: brushed aluminum chassis, slim keys, backlighting and eight macro keys.

We don’t know whether or not the DKTBoard is the $69.99 MSRP, but from a marketing standpoint, the professionally endorsed joint venture makes a lot of sense: smaller gaming companies like Everglide and Razer need every edge they can get in a market dominated by Logitech and its highly successful gaming products, like the G15 keyboard and the G9 mouse. We’ll be curious to see how well the DKTBoard performs against its competition.
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With at least two offerings of Certified Wireless USB hubs that provide only a fragile dongle as a DWA, laptop users maybe hoping for someone to come up with a WUSB card that fits snugly into their spared CardBus slot. Their wish is granted, sorta. Ratoc’s WUSB CardBus solution is shipping only in Japan, and is tailored to satisfy local FCC for operation in between 3.6 and 3.8Ghz waveband.

The company claims ExpressCard version will come in 2009, around the same time as PC builders start to ship WUSB-integrated notebooks in mass production. The report also revealed the possibility of sending video signals wirelessly to a regular LCD thru USB. We aren’t too sure how practical it is given the early chipset implementations.
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The Samsung SyncMaster 940UX 19″ USB monitor is a great flat panel monitor for office workers that want multiple displays without the hassle of installing and configuring them. You can even daisy chain up to 5 other 940UX to immensely expand your desktop estate. On top of that, you also get DVI and VGA port for additional compatibility. If there’s one thing that Samsung wants to improve, it’s to crank up resolution. The 940UX current top res is 1280×1024 as many may say it’s unsatisfying. This time around, Samsung will equip the next USB monitor (now 22″) with a DisplayLink DL-160, bumping the native res to 1680×1050.

Dubbed as the SyncMaster 2263DX, the second Samsung USB monitor will finally exceed the specs that of LG L206WU 20″.
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Tired of your cell phone running out of juice and not remembering your charger or USB cable while you are out and about? What if you could carry a USB cable with you at all times to charge your phone off of while you are sitting at your desk at work or with your laptop at the local Starbuck’s. Well the folks over at WirelessGround have heard your cries and have a solution for you.

Queue the USB Leather Hand Strap. Not only does this leather strap look good, but it is a fully functional USB cable for your phone as well. All you need to do is slide the block off the end of the strap and your stylish accessory instantly turns into a USB cable with standard USB connector for your computer and a mini-USB connector for you phone. It looks like those with proprietary connections to charge their phones are just simply out of luck.
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