Best computer news

Back in February of 2008 Mimoco announced its line of Star Wars Mimobot flash drives. This was the second Mimobot series and featured Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo. Mimoco has announced that it will soon be releasing its Star Wars Series 3 Mimobot’s and is running a contest to see if customers can guess what four characters will make up the new series.

To participate in the contest you have to register for the site forums and post your guess for one character per week. You can’t edit or post multiple guesses without being disqualified. The first round of guesses will go from Jun 25 to July 1, the second round will go July 2 to 8, round 3 will be July 9 to July 15 and the final round will be July 16 to 22. Each person who correctly guesses the Star Wars character for the week will be entered in a drawing to win the Mimobot for that week. Anyone who guesses all four characters in the order they are released wins a complete set. It has to be Obi Wan, the Emperor, a Ewok, and Lando.
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I will admit up front that I am a house plant killer. If the plant world had a top 10 most notorious plant killers list, I would be right there beside the guy that invented that spray weed killer. If like me, you have a black thumb PlantSense GardenGro may have the product to help you repent from your wicked plant killing ways. PlantSense GardenGro sensors are little USB powered stakes that you push into the soil of your houseplants and connect to your PC (or Mac). The sensor then transmits data to the PlantSense web site and will make you aware of what is causing the untimely demise of your plants.

Is your plant getting to much sun, not enough sun? Are you not watering it enough or perhaps watering it too much. Is your dog watering your plant for you, possibly explaining the odd aroma coming from your fern? The drawback is the cost of the system; each stake will run you $59.95 when they will be finally available in Q4 2008. I’m not so sure I have met a house plant worth sixty bucks to monitor, then again the system may prove very popular with the hippie crowd. The price also includes a year’s access to the PlantSense website where you can chronicle your plants statistics, and track your crimes against the plant kingdom.
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I am a big fan of the original Star Wars trilogy, as many geeky types are. I both like and at times loath the fact that so many different gadgets are turning up with my childhood icons from the Star Wars films on them. I thought the R2D2 webcam was cool looking, but it was subpar specs wise and those little Star Wars Mimobots just weren’t that cool to me.

With all the USB gear I have sitting on my desk I always seem to be needing more USB ports and now I can indulge my Star Wars fetish and get USB ports at the same time with Darth Vader and R2D2. The Vader hub has four ports and when plugged in his red eyes glow and he breathes. The R2D2 version offers four USB ports as well and moves its head and lights up when plugged in. Plus it makes those cool R2D2 sounds we all know. The downside is the things cost nearly $70 each! Ouch…
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At some point every PC gamer needs a set of headphones. Whether it’s to keep your roommates or your significant other from griping that you have the sound too loud or just because you don’t want the booms of your sniper rifle to scare the old lady next door, headphones definitely have their place.

We have checked out USB 5.1 surround headphones before from Tritton and found them to be pretty nice despite of its spotty OpenAL support. eDimensional has now announced it is shipping worldwide its own USB headset with the addition of force feedback support. This pair of USB cans promise to let you feel an enemy coming before you can see them. The force feedback appears to be simply vibration that also increases the bass effects according to the company. We have used force feedback headphones before and found the vibration to be a bit gimmicky. Hopefully, eDimensional AudioFX Pro 5+1 gaming headset will impress us. The price for the AudioFX Pro 5+1 headphones is $79.95.
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Modder Ben Heck originally designed a device called the Access Controller to allow handicapped gamers to get into the action with the ability to control a game one handed. The controller has since been picked up by eDimensional who is now offering it for sale to gamers of all ability levels. The controller is sort of like a gamepad like the Belkin N52te, but whereas the Belkin still needs a mouse the Access Controller doesn’t.

The Access Controller is available for pre-order at $129.95 and uses a modular design to allow users to move round modules with buttons and analog control sticks around to best suit the user. It could still be used by gamers with a PS3, PS2 or the PC who only have the use of one hand. Gamers with the use of both hands can use the controller to allow one handed play of video games, leaving their other hand available for that common task that occupies one hand of many gamers, stuffing chips into their gaping pie hole while playing. What did you think I meant?
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For a long time if you wanted to use an internal SATA drive outside of your computer you had to get a full USB enclosure to do so. Now we have several SATA dock stations that connect to USB ports that allow you to plug your SATA drive in like an old school video game cartridge to chose from. We have seen some docks like the SATA USB Dock Bay that only serve one purpose and we have seen other’s like the Logitec offering that gives a docking bay and adds USB ports for convenience.

Brando has announced a new SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock with One Touch Backup that is able to do much more than the two other docks I mention. Not only can it dock a SATA drive, it offers a pair of USB ports and a four slot media card reader. It can work with 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA drives and supports both Mac and Windows. Software allows you to back up your computer to the drive in the dock with one button press as well. It’s a pretty slick device even if it’s a bit costly at $53.
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If you have a big home theater system with lots of components and like your digital music to be streamed to different rooms of your home you probably have gobs of remote controls lying around. For some users a standard style universal remote like the Philips SRM7500 will do the trick. However, for some users a normal universal remote just doesn’t cut it. For these users the ROSIE Multimedia AV control platform may be just the ticket.

The makers of the ROSIE system, Savant Systems, and Icron Technologies announced today that ROSIE systems would be using Icron’s ExtremeUSB technology. ExtremeUSB Core modules will be integrated into the latest ROSIE solutions to provide native USB connections that reach up to 100 meters. This allows a very flexible design that can control USB devices from a long distance. ExtremeUSB allows the ROSIE touch screen panels to have easy to use plug and play connectivity to servers in the home.
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Logitech hasn’t released a USB webcam for the Mac crowd in years ever since Apple was shipping FireWire iSight in 2003. Now that the external iSight is no longer for sale for over a year, Logitech finally offers the QuickCam Vision Pro as its best Mac webcam solution.

The Hi-Speed USB tethered camera is reminiscent of the Pro 9000 and Pro Notebooks in many aspects, including from an auto-focus Carl Zeiss five-element glass lens; CCD pixel sensor; so-called 720p (960 x 720) video recording at 30fps; RightLight 2 sensitive low-lighting compensation; and a universal clip that mounts on any Apple Cinema display or iMacs. The built-in iSight - found only all Macs with integrated display - comparatively has a plastic lens, is fixed-focus, and uses a CMOS pixel sensor.

The Mac QuickCam requires 10.4.11 or higher and at least a G4 800Mhz. One thing that may disappoint a lot of us is the lack of software that traditionally handles the video overlay effects and YouTube clip upload on Windows, yet the Mac version without the software costs $30 more. Granted, iChat does a good job of the video backdrops; so perhaps the only omission is the avatar effect which may not be that big of a deal depending on your usage. But still…
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It’s safe to say that deep down many guys want to be like James Bond. License to kill, hot women, cool cars and all the gadgets Q can throw at you, what’s not to like? If you want to live your James Bond dream one gadget that is a given is a video recorded that you can hide and record stuff. You could record that idiot at your local drive through that seems incapable of remembering something as necessary as the bacon on a bacon cheeseburger for instance.

We have seen some cool Bond-like video recorders before including the particularly ugly camera sunglasses and the small cam that fits into a pack of gum. We happen to think the DVR Camcorder Pen is a more attractive solution. The pen actually writes like a pan and has a hidden camera that can record color video and sound. Enough storage space is included to record 30 hours of video but battery life is only 2 hours. You can get 2GB or 4GB of storage and the pen connects directly to your PC via USB to view the video. The 2GB version is $199.95 and the 4GB unit costs $50 more.
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That odd purveyor of USB gear, Thanko, is back with its latest strange device of questionable usefulness. This time it’s a rehash of that exceptionally ugly USB powered necktie fan from last year. Last year’s tie was made from a plastic material and the fan intake was very obvious to anyone walking by (it’s not like they wouldn’t notice the USB cable running from your tie anyhow).

This year’s USB Necktie 2 is very similar but made from fabric rather than plastic. It’s ever so much more attractive, but I still stop short of saying it’s nice looking. At least the fan is camouflaged behind the blue/gray fabric so you can’t see it. The fan is still USB powered as well. What I don’t get is why they don’t simply make a USB fan small enough to fit into your normal neck tie.
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