Best computer news

It didn’t take long for HK-based Smartone-Vodafone to max out the current HSDPA’s top speed. There’s an ads on a local newspaper promoting the carrier’s latest deployment upgrade to 14.4Mbit/s, which in other words, is HSDPA’s theoretical maximum throughput. HSUPA - the up-link - remains the same at 2Mbps.

The device that can achieve this top speed is Vodafone’s USB Stick, which is an upgrade to the pebble-like USB Modem in both performance and form factor. In addition to the new 14.4Mbps mode, the thumbdrive-sized WAN modem can fall back to 7.2Mbps, 3.6Mbps and even 1.8Mbps, whose services were introduced during 2007 and 2008. The stick alone in HKD costs $1888 if opt for the Flexi plan. You get $200 discount if you feel like signing a $488 plan on a 18-month contract. The modem can even be yours for free if you tie yourself to a 30-month contract.
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The creator of the Floppy Office brings you a new office productivity suite that fits on even a 8MB USB stick - lowest capacity there is if you can find it. The software collection offers 16 unique standalone USB apps that allow you to create rich-text word docs; share files across multiple PCs; upload files to FTP server; create Excel spreadsheets; email your colleagues; chat with friends on MSN; and export docs to PDFs. On top of these are a file compressor; secure file shredder; encryption program; and even a password revealer (X-pass). The Tiny USB Office expands to only 3MB compared to 77MB that of OpenOffice.
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While Lenovo ThinkPad X300’s 1″ chassis can fit a DVD burner, a 64GB SSD and a 1.2Ghz Core 2 Duo, it also has an unexpectedly new wireless module. And as you may have figured out already, it’s Wireless USB. The relatively new connectivity option is available to all X300 except for the one with integrated wireless WAN. WUSB is priced at $63, at which price is very reasonable compared to what Dell offers together with the Belkin hub, but there’s a 3-4 week wait time.

As the module is to be PCIe, we presume you can swap it with one that is faster than its current top speed. ExpressCard should be ideal for adding stuff like WUSB, but since the X300 is already running out of spaces, a rarely used slot doesn’t seem fit on the said laptop. We figure this could be another thing ThinkPad X300 fans like to brag about in front of MacBook Air advocates.
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If you’ve needed to do some mass copying of flash drives in the past, then you’ve either been forced to sit at a PC all day and copy them individually or use something like the Kanguru USB Duplicator. This is all fine and dandy if you just have a handful or you’ve just finished when you suddenly receive an email saying that there has been a change to what goes on the flash drives and now you need to reflash all of them.

Well not anymore. Nexcopy has finished the USB200PC USB Duplicator. Just like the Kanguru, it will let you copy data to a bunch of drives at the same time but with some added features. The Nexcopy duplicator will also let you add new content without overwriting the old and will also perform version updates, which should help save quite a bit of time if you already have your flash drives ready to go. Speaking of saving time, the USB200PC is quit speedy too. Since it can copy at 30MB/s, you can copy 250MB of data to all 20 devices in about three and a half minutes. Unfortunately you aren’t going to see very many of these around unless your company gives out a lot of flash drives as it costs about $1300. At least it has a stylish brushed metal finish.
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With all the random USB gadgets out there, sometimes you have to wonder why they simply can’t be more useful. What if you could extend some of your sidebar gadgets to your desk or show some of your pictures on a small LCD so your desktop just didn’t stay the same day after day. If so then maybe the Gadget Display is right up your alley.

We weren’t given much information on the device, but it looks like it has a 2″ color LCD display and it connects to your PC via USB. It is XP SP2 and Vista compatible. It comes with dozens of options to display clocks, CPU and RAM usage, and you might even be able to display your Sidebar gadgets on it. It might not be as useful as the 7″ display on the Samsung 2263DX, but if it were to gain some SideShow support, it might just come in very handy.
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Some webcams try to stand out with their innovative design; others introduce secondary features intended to grab your attention. Logitech went for a different approach with their pro-series webcams: as sharp as possible, as often as possible. To achieve their goal, they contracted well-known optics maker Carl Zeiss to engineer the lenses, and built a new autofocus system designed to sharpen out-of-focus images as quickly and smoothly as possible. Is the result worth choosing Logitech over competing products like the Creative Live! Cam Optia AF and the MS LifeCam VX-7000? Let’s find out in our Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks review.
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• Google has no fear for recession; their CEO Eric Schmidt told the press that the company’s extensive international presence as well as “highly measured” advertising has helped diversify revenue as dollar declines.
• I4U scores some cool pics of a Cortana-wannabe model who is in real life a wrestler, real estate agent, actress and model. We also have no idea where they acquired the alien gun… perhaps photoshopped?
• Even though HD DVD is now a dead format, Toshiba is betting big time on SSD. Its new DynaBook SS RX1 is the world’s first lappy equipped with a 128GB solid-state drive. Talking about the right time to launch a novelty product, amid recession concerns.
• MacWorld has one of the first looks at the AirPort Express that has recently been refreshed with 802.11n Wi-Fi. Besides the 802.11n, the Express also features the older 802.11a standard.
• NET-2000 CatchingNet - straight from China - allows you to live out your dream as a retiarius, giving you the ability to shoot a 15 sq ft. net onto a target.
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Wow… this is like some engagement rings that avid readers of Everything USB would use for proposal of marriage. Even if it’s just concept, the size of the crystal is just out of this world. The ring is tethered to the flash drive component, which we reckon might be an ideal location to store the love poems or whatever. Oddly, the two rings can be joined, allowing content to be exchanged. How this works without battery power is beyond us. Nonetheless, if your loved one is also a USB geek, this might be you need. There are obviously other choices of Swaroski flash drives if you are quite ready for this crystal USB ring insanity.
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The new Miglia TVMini HD Express should have been a dongle to begin with. The bus-powered USB TV tuner encased in an aluminum chassis can’t receive analog signal nor encode content into H.264 onboard so it’s difficult to imagine why the designer couldn’t manage to make this a thumbdrive-sized TV stick. Comparing with EyeTV external tuners, the $99 TVMini HD Express ships with home-grown PVR software called The Tube. The most notable features are the ability to upload the recorded shows to a .Mac or FTP server for viewing on the go; and to join a chat with other watchers of the same show, provided that you have an Equinux ID. Last but not least is iTunes integration that basically prepares the shows ready for iPod transfer.
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Sometimes when sitting at the disk, you just need to shine a little light on the subject. If that is all you are looking for, then something like the USB LED Desk Lamp works just great, but what are you to do if you want to add a little bling to your desk? Well how does a bus-powered USB neon sign sound?

Gadgets.dk has a trio of these signs available to adorn your desk. They are available in a smiley face, “Bar”, or geeky @ symbol. It doesn’t get any easier to use than this as all you have to do is plug it into an available USB port for some power. At the very least, these are sure to make for a great conversation piece.
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