Best computer news

While Nexcopy had made headlines by touting its USB Duplicator as the first that can make digital copies of up to 20 flash drives at the same time, Virtual Console now beats the record by taking 60 thumbdrives simultaneously. The new record holder also claims it’s the fastest too, topping at 7MB/s write speed on each of its 60 ports. This translates into 420MB/s of transfer throughout. If you prefer some real-life benchmark data, that’s about 91.4s for duplication of 60 pieces of 512MB drives.

Virtual Console’s $7999 USB Duplicator works as a standalone device that can be managed over either USB or Fast Ethernet. You only need to plug in to a PC for monitoring. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is the duplicator encrypting data on the fly with 128-bit AES cipher as well as erasing data rendering previously deleted content unrecoverable. But at this price, Virtual Console is perhaps eyeing big companies’ IT department with big budget.
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Plustek TVCam VD100 is the the first hybrid to equip with both a USB TV tuner and a USB webcam, and it sounds logical to put the two video inputs together until you find out what it looks like. The USB gadget that is designed to sit atop of your notebook LCD resembles more like a giveaway digital camera rather than something that offers VGA video conferencing and DVB-T signal reception. The TVCam VD100 measures at 67.5 x 26 x 25.5mm and weighs 86g. There are also a microphone as well as a coax antenna input. If you’re running low on USB ports as most of us are, the £61 Plustek hybrid is worth a look. Then again, there are plenty of other discrete add-ons that likely excels in performance.
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If you’re going to go wireless with peripherals, why not do it all the way, and ditch the wire on your keyboard? Microsoft would certainly like you to do so: they’ve got a whole line of paired wireless keyboard and mouse products, including their new flagship product, the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000, designed to reduce wire clutter and - particularly in the case of the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 - increase productivity through all kinds of built in functions. How well does the ensemble work, and are the features worth the money? Today, we’ll be finding out in this review.
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At first glance, a keyboard brush with the word “brush” spelled out with Braille bristles may seem like a gimmick, but I would be willing to bet that those raised bumps do a good job of getting into hard-to-reach areas. Still, even if the brush isn’t a gimmick, it is sure as hell priced like [...]

Financially struggling college boys probably have had photocopied textbooks that might otherwise have cost upwards $100 each. However, nearly all the photocopied versions share the same problem of having distorted lines at the protruding binding edge. The problem is even worse for photocopies from hardcover books.

This is where Plustek OpticBook 4600 book scanner comes in; the company’s SEE (you don’t have to worry about the acronyms) combines a patented lamp light with a special edge design that allows scans right up to where the book spine is. The result is a perfectly scanned image with no annoying book spine shadow. They also said this saves the need for bulky overhead scanner. While the OpticBook 4600’s small footprint is definitely its strength, the scanner’s speed of 3.2 seconds at 300dpi is equally impressive. Hopefully, these couple with the ability to export scans to searchable PDF format should be able to convince a few more roommates to chip in even at $699 per unit.
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Most of us either carry an iPod or cellphone or both. There’s no reason for us to strap yet another multimedia device like this Digital Photo Watch to our wrist. Then when we are about to leave the product page, we realize the watch with its old-school styling and rather large buttons would make a nice gift for all the grandpas who take pride in showing off to everyone the pictures of their grandchildren.

The stainless-steel Digital Photo Watch has capacity for 60 pics, and since it’s hard to tell the size of the LCD, we assume it’s about 1.5″. It can also superimpose the time - analog or digital - over the pictures. Battery can last about 8 hours before the screen goes blank. The wearable album is USB rechargeable so grandpas may need a hand from their beloved grandkids to help out with the cables.
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Designer Neil Poulton is often associated with LaCie as he’s best known for the award-winning “Firewire Speakers.” He went on to design a glossy black hard drive that features a blue LED strip with an ambient glow. If utilitarians were to design the drive instead of him, the underside glow would be replaced by a capacity meter found on SimpleTech, which would at least be moderately useful for some of us.

It would seem Neil has listened and gone back to putting practical feature to drive. Starting with the Rugged Hard Drive, the mobile USB storage looks more like an inflatable raft with all four sides encased in thick orange rubber bumpers that should help absorb the shock in a drop and that keeps the 500GB Hitachi 2.5″ inside safe and sound. Each drive weighing at 8.8 oz. comes bundled with LaCie’s in-house ‘1-Click’ software for cross-platform backup. The Rugged Hard Drive backed by a 2-year warranty now retails for $339.99.
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For a little over a decade, Icron has been focusing on developing USB distance extenders; it has been successful in increasing the reach of USB over CAT5 Ethernet, fiber optics, power-line and most recently, WiFi. It however has never quite tried to lower the cost of their ExtremeUSB solutions until now. The Vancouver-based Icron has announced their Ranger 2101/2104 ExtremeUSB extenders, which can maintain Hi-Speed USB connection over CAT5e cables up to 100m, will now retail for only $349 (single node) and $389 (with 4-port USB hub). It seems a no-brainer which one to pick here.

Icron has a couple of specific markets to target, including industrial control, remote desktop, automatic telematics, access control and video surveillance. Most consumers are mostly concerned with sharing printers, scanners and storage; though most of these have been taken care of long ago via add-on or integrated solutions.
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Hauling a full-sized printer has never been a viable solution for road warriors. A portable printer like the new Canon Pixma iP100 will sure come in handy. Canon has a long history making these mobile printers, so the 4.4 lb. iP100 could only be better if the engineers do their job right. The IP100 can print up to 9600 x 2400 dot per inch (DPI) resolution with speed about 14 ppm in color and 20 ppm in black. The black ink tank has been increased by 50%, reducing the risk of running out of ink during a last-minute project.

The $249.99 iP100 comes with all the interfaces you would expect on a mobile printer, including USB 2.0 and IrDA; and Bluetooth is yours for $49.99. PictBridge is available if you want to print directly from your digital camera or DV camcorder. The printer can also operate on battery, available as yet another optional accessory for $99.99, and on a 3-hour charge, it can last for about 290 pages. Lastly, for another $89.99, a automobile power adapter allows drawing electricity from a car’s 9V socket.
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The Photo Frame Speakers had me going for a moment. At first sight, the two-piece speaker set looked promising in that you have a pair of digital photo frames that double as a stereo system. It actually turned out to be just USB speakers that disguise as two ordinary photo frames in which you put in 4″ x 6″ photos in front. The speakers themselves are actually hiding in the back. Needless to say, the product name is a bit deceiving. This may not be much of a convergence most geeks would have expected, but if there were really a 7″ LCD panel on each speaker, Brookstone wouldn’t be able to sell this for $50.
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