Best computer news

Disney earlier this year has found a new way to milk Mickey fans with flash drives shaped like the ironic cartoon character’s head (even though only the ear is the actual drive). It would seem Disney is quite satisfied with the sales results of the novelty item. The company is now ordering a new batch of flash drives resembling Mickey’s white glove. The drive itself is tucked inside the rubberized glove, which doubles as a cap, and it is accessorized with a hanging some cute little ornaments of all sorts. If the Mickey Glove Drive is as fast as the head-version, we would be the first in line to get one.
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Thanko during the summer has released a Cooler USB Keyboard for those with sweaty palms. As winter is faster approaching, they are now upgrading the keyboard with a heating function. The keyboard’s aluminium chassis helps to distribute the heat evenly across the palm rest. If that isn’t enough, there’re three fans available that can be activated by a switch on the back of the keyboard to blow the hot air on your wrists. The Thanko “USB Hot Cooler keyboard” has now evolved into an all-season peripheral that keeps your hands cozy during the winter and cool during the height of the summer. Thanko wants 4980 yen ($51) for the keyboard, which occupies two full-powered USB ports.
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Available in glossy red or black, the Microsoft Arc Mouse is a rather unique blend of style, portability and functionality. Possessing an artful hinged semicircular shape that allows the mouse to fold to nearly half-size for travel, the 2.4 GHz wireless Arc Mouse boldly claims to be portable while offering the comfort of a full-size mouse. Many manufacturers have tried to make the ubiquitous mouse more travel-friendly, but all to date significantly sacrifice either comfort or features. How does the Arc Mouse succeed at stylishly trying to provide the best of both worlds? Read on.
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To get digital media from your PC to living room, either you are streaming the content wirelessly to a TV over a network, or you must be moving the content physically – likely on a mobile drive. LaCie’s LaCinema Rugged portable media extender makes it easier if you opt for the latter choice of lugging your video around the old fashion way.

The 8.8 oz. Rugged – designed by Neil Poulton – is essentially the mobile version of the 37 oz. Premier released earlier the year with a few improvements of its own. The tougher LaCinema however adds HDMI support for upscaling up to 1080i; sports a shock-resistant rubber bumper surrounding a scratch-protected aluminum chassis; and comes with a smaller remote. Unfortunately, LaCie has taken out VOB and component video support, and the LaCinema Rugged still lacks H.264 decoding, meaning no playback compatibility for all our iPod-friendly content. You can get the LaCinema for as large as 500GB and as small as 250GB.
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The same guys that brought us the OS X Icon pillow collection have a new collection of “Finder” icon-themed pillows for Halloween. Pick your favorite from “Count Macula”, “Spooker”, Mac-o-Lantern and “Finderstein.” They also have a new series of “Chat It Up” pillows that should be available soon. Images and details are available after the [...]

Ten months after Displaylink announced it would enter Mac market with USB video technology, the company has now shipped out the first stable driver for all Intel-based Apple desktops and laptops. The 5.64MB driver brings Tiger & Leopard compatibility to Displaylink-compatible products such as the Kensington sd200v notebook dock, IOGear USB video card and Samsung 940UX USB monitor, allowing up to 4 additional displays over a single USB 2.0 connection.

The production-ready software also enables display rotation and 2D acceleration. Though support for OpenGL didn’t make it to the first release so numerous features (eg. Keynote presentations & iPhoto slideshows) that rely on hardware acceleration will not function properly. The driver should be huge among Mac mini owners who struggle to find a decent solution for a second display, but the rest of the Apple desktop and laptop users should find their DVI or DisplayPort more than enough unless they need a third monitor.
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We’re as puzzled as you are why one would need to install an external volume control that is tethered to a LCD monitor. After all, a wired controller like this is pretty pointless when keyboards and even some mice have dedicated volume control. If you run a bunch of kiosks which some of them lack any HIDs, then this USB touch sensitive control bar may come in handy. Just put your finger on the bar and slide it up and down, and you will have your volume adjusted accordingly. Hold your finger in the same spot for 2 seconds to mute the master audio under Windows 2000, XP & Vista. For rest of us however, you can add $7 more and get yourself a Logitech 2.1 AudioHub USB speakers.
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Perhaps only the god knows when Mimobot can stop milking on the current flash drive design that has made C-3PO, Darth Sidious, Master Chief and a bunch of others look like weirdos. This time, Mimobot comes up with rayD8gig – an inversely-colored skeletal figure combing black paint and a glow-in the-dark base. The 2.5″ by 1″ designer USB drive like all the other Mimobots will let you customize sound effects played during drive mount and removal. As the name implies, rayD8gig will ship only in 8GB capacity, but not so obvious is that only 200 will be made going for $99.95 each.
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IOGear has quietly debuted what appears to be the next generation Wireless USB hub. It’s hard to tell the differences from the original unless you download the PDF manual. For starter, the WiQuest-powered WUSB hub finally supports USB audio streaming and webcams, meaning out-of-the-box compatibility with USB speakers like the Logitech Z Cinema and webcams such as the QuickCam. USB video monitors like the Samsung 940UX reportedly work better with this hub as well. Also, the IOGear HWA dongle receives a better omni-directional antenna to boost reception.

Perhaps the most notable addition to the IOGear is the new 8-way PC sharing, given every computer (XP or Vista) has a Certified Wireless USB HWA dongle. Basically, you rely on the hub’s cable association method to pair with each computer. Afterwards, if you need to switch the peripherals to another host, you simply hit the Hub Selection button to cycle through up to 8 choices for which WUSB-enabled PC to connect to. One caveat is that you still need a clear line of sight between the IOGear WUSB hub and all the hosts within 30 ft. to make the best of your investment.
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Certainly, we haven’t seen a lot of innovations going on in the webcam world besides the upgrade to half-baked HD and Carl Zeiss auto-focus lens. For business video conferencing alone, the 1.3MP integrated video camera on your laptop should serve you just fine. That might suffice if you want a 2D video representation of yourself, but to add another dimension to what often regraded as a boring video chat, Minoru 3D is moving forward with its dual-lens webcam.

Right now, the Minoru 3D is still a proof of concept in that it can create a stereoscopic effect for your videos (eg. Windows Live Messneger, Skype & YouTube) and photos, which can only be fully appreciated with an old-school blue and red 3D glasses. The London-based company will reveal more pricing and availability details when it finally ships the first 3D webcam in December.
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