Kensington has announced the world’s first Certified Wireless USB docking station. It is the first real test for ultrawideband and WUSB as the dock combines USB display, audio and a 5-port USB hub. The USB display is handled by DisplayLink which enables the dock to output a max res of 1600 x 1200 or 1680 x 1050 widescreen. The WUSB is powered by WiQuest’s Mini Card reference design that enables wireless USB audio as well. It’s a million dollar question how WUSB manages the bandwidth so all these would function properly. It’s already hard enough for USB 2.0 to run a 19″ monitor, let alone letting WUSB with a knowingly low effective bandwidth takes over.
Wireless range is also a concern; Kensington says the
Docking Station will work within 15 feet – presumably with no walls in between. It’s important to note that Kensington will initially work with Windows XP and 32-bit Vista only. Dell will also be the exclusive retail channel. You might get a discount off the $229.99 price tag if you put the dock in the shopping cart with your brand new Dell WUSB-embedded laptop. If cutting the wire isn’t your top priority,
Kensington sd200v dock is essentially the same thing for the most parts.
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Why have 5.1 surround strapped to your ears (like the Creative HS-1200 or Tritton Audio Xtreme we’ve tested here) when you can have 7.1 instead? Razer would certainly prefer you to think that way: they’ve just announced the Megalodon, a 7.1 surround USB headset with microphone that the company plans to release in Q4 of this year for $149.99 (ouch!). There area few things about the Megalodon (named, if you’re curious, after a giant prehistoric shark) that have our juices going.
First, there’s the Megalodon’s Maelstrom audio processor, which has a military parentage and a new take on HRTF (head-related transfer function, i.e. the way we process sound location) in an effort to make surround more real. Razer may be pulling out the fancy marketing stops, but they also include a demo on the Mastodon’s product page that’s made us a believer. Second, there’s the remote control, which combines the Megalodon’s on-audio processor with volume controls, a noise gate, and a mute button. The same pod also allows switching between 2.0 stereo and 7.1 surround mode for applications that don’t need the extra directional sound. Convenience means never having to open a software panel to adjust your settings. Finally, there’s the plug and play USB installation – meaning not having to install more crap on your hard drive. We’ll be looking forward to the Megalodon’s release in a few months.
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USB solar chargers are nothing new; we have seen several including the Brando Solar USB charger before. One of the things each of the solar chargers has in common is a rather blocky and utilitarian design. A new solar charger concept makes for a cool looking charger that looks like a bonsai tree.
Each of the trees leaves is a small solar cell for collecting power. The concept uses little limb sections that connect with what appear to be headphone style plugs. This allows you to build any shape tree in different sizes to suit your needs. In all the concept uses 54 solar cells. The cables for docks and chargers hide under the cover of the planter-like base for a clean look. We have no idea how much power the
tree charger would actually produce nor whether this will ever make it to retail.
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One of the most common threads between many notebook and desktop computers using on-board sound is that the sound quality is typically not good. Creative has announced a new product that should fix the problem with poor sound quality on most computers. The product is called the Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! and the dongle uses X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity technology.
The sound card plugs into the USB port of a computer and has 1GB of built-in flash memory. The software needed to install and run the X-Fi Go! is stored on the internal storage, which incorporates read/write switch protecting important gaming profiles from being accidentally deleted. Other features include 360-degree X-Fi Headphone surround, EAX Advanced HD 4.0 (host-based), OpenAL and CMSS-3D. VoiceFX Technology is built-in to morph the user’s voice during voice chat sessions. Other software includes the Creative Karaoke Player and Creative WaveStudio. The X-Fi USB dongle will go on sale this month at $79. Creative also has extended the X-Fi brand to other USB audio, including the
HS-1200 headset and
USB X-Fi Surround 5.1.
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One of the most common threads between many notebook and desktop computers using on-board sound is that the sound quality is typically not good. Creative has announced a new product that should fix the problem with poor sound quality on most computers. The product is called the Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! and the dongle uses X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity technology.
The sound card plugs into the USB port of a computer and has 1GB of built-in flash memory. The software needed to install and run the X-Fi Go! is stored on the internal storage, which incorporates read/write switch protecting important gaming profiles from being accidentally deleted. Other features include 360-degree X-Fi Headphone surround, EAX Advanced HD 4.0 (host-based), OpenAL and CMSS-3D. VoiceFX Technology is built-in to morph the user’s voice during voice chat sessions. Other software includes the Creative Karaoke Player and Creative WaveStudio. The X-Fi USB dongle will go on sale this month at $79. Creative also has extended the X-Fi brand to other USB audio, including the
HS-1200 headset and
USB X-Fi Surround 5.1.
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Samsung maybe hard at work bringing out the next best cellphone, but that doesn’t mean the Koreans have stopped thinking about MP3 player. Planning to be unveiled at IFA, Samsung YP-Q1 has received a little design overhaul. It appears to be a mid-range DAP, and will use physical controls unlike the P2. The vertically-oriented Q1 accompanied by a 2.4″ screen has a diamond-shaped control that is reportedly touch-sensitive. The GUI is reminiscent of that of the P2 also.
The YP-Q1 will come in 4, 8 and 16GB with some excellent audio codec support, including the usual ones plus OGG and FLAC. We decide not to comment on the video playback capability as Samsung past DAPs are quite stubborn when it comes to bit-rate, resolution and supported wrapper. Battery life is rated at 30 hours for music and 4 hours for video. If the YP-Q1 skips with Bluetooth, it will go head to head with
Sony E430-series Walkman, which has a better color variety.
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Samsung maybe hard at work bringing out the next best cellphone, but that doesn’t mean the Koreans have stopped thinking about MP3 player. Planning to be unveiled at IFA, Samsung YP-Q1 has received a little design overhaul. It appears to be a mid-range DAP, and will use physical controls unlike the P2. The vertically-oriented Q1 accompanied by a 2.4″ screen has a diamond-shaped control that is reportedly touch-sensitive. The GUI is reminiscent of that of the P2 also.
The YP-Q1 will come in 4, 8 and 16GB with some excellent audio codec support, including the usual ones plus OGG and FLAC. We decide not to comment on the video playback capability as Samsung past DAPs are quite stubborn when it comes to bit-rate, resolution and supported wrapper. Battery life is rated at 30 hours for music and 4 hours for video. If the YP-Q1 skips with Bluetooth, it will go head to head with
Sony E430-series Walkman, which has a better color variety.
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Displaylink and Intel must be working towards on a long term goal to persuade more people to adopt multi-monitor setup. A joint press release said the duo has been working on optimizing Displaylink’s USB video technology for Intel 4 Series Express chipset family. This should be interesting as corporate PCs and low-end home PCs aren’t as expandable and are limited to an on-board graphics card providing a single DVI or VGA interface. A USB monitor like the Samsung 940UX provides the extra desktop estate with ease. Of course, laptops inherently have a second display port, but Displaylink argues you’ll need a third or a fourth monitor down the road. You may as well jump on the multi-monitor bandwagon sooner than later.
Displaylink’s USB video is a self-contained solution that works on all modern computers, so we reckon the optimization is reportedly on the driver level, and the benefits are lower CPU utilization (unbelievably high even on a duo core machine) and less screen lag (smoother video playback presumably). Intel Series 4 chipset-based users will enjoy a 20% performance improvement after the driver upgrade that is to be distributed via Windows Update.
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While Beijing Olympics was over, Lenovo – gold sponsor of the multi-sport event – still has a boatload of commemorative gadgets left over. Among those are of course all the different Olympics USB thumbdrives and now a quintet of wired USB mice that are named after each of the Fuwa mascots: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and NiNi. The mouse asymmetrical design reportedly took six months to complete, after no less than two hundred modifications. The 1000 dpi optical mice are elevated, providing sufficient palm support for prolonged use. Last but not least, the Fuwas are also UV painted for protection against scratches. Still want it? Each Fuwa mascot mouse retails for 138 RMB ($20), and they are apparently available in China (and Hong Kong) only as far as we can tell. Close-up pics after the jump.
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