Best computer news

Good news for the life and utility of your USB hard drives, Pogoplug is here to breathe new life into world. The Pogoplug turns any USB storage whether it be a bus-powered portable or a 1.5TB mega drive into a internet available storage device. With a quick and free account setup via the intarwebs you are able to access your connected storage device (or devices… multiple drives can be attached to one Pogoplug with a hub).

Years back, Mirra (acquired by Seagate) had a similar service but with very different hardware which worked well enough. They aren’t talking up the access speed so don’t expect to be streaming movies but (what do you expect for free) moving documents and such should be fine. They made a point to mention that iPhone users will be able to access the site as well. The only real concern for this device is the health of the Pogoplug as a company. The website seems to be the only way to get to your Pogoplug files but at $79 with NO service charge or monthly fees the rewards really outweigh the risks. Pre-order now on their light-hearted website.
Permanent Link

Tapping into a very unexplored but powerful aspect of USB technology ClickFree has release another of its USB “pass-thru” devices. Their solutions have typically come with their own storage media whether it be a flash drive or hard drive, but this new model leaves that entirely up to you. SanDisk’s recently announced Ultra Backup is similar in a sense except the backup function is integrated onto a flash drive.

The $59.99 ClickFree Transformer USB cable, upon insertion, provides push-button access to their custom backup software. Installing itself and eventually prompting you to connect ANY USB hard drive as a backup receptacle (backups to the same disk are incremental). The backup software seems simple and easy to use, backing up photos, documents and other files quickly. ClickFree’s restore is also pleasantly intuitive sorting files by type, date and/or name. They also have a wonderfully enlightened EULA that allows you to install on up to 10 PCs per receptacle drives. Thanks for leading the way, here’s hoping others follow suit.
Permanent Link

Readers who have extensive experience with USB storage probably know the early Hi-Speed USB hard drives weren’t meeting user expectations (operating at 18-20MB/s in most cases) when they first debuted. In fact, it took nearly four years of chipset and controller tweaking for real-life benchmark to reach upwards of 30MB/s, which is still 50% shy of theoretical top speed, but at least data transfers can be completed in timely manner. Now the same thing is happening to USB 3.0 (aka. SuperSpeed USB); consumer joe shouldn’t expect performance to jump tenfold, initially.

One of the first public demo of SuperSpeed USB hard drive prototype built by Seagate and Symwave showed read operations topping out at 165MB/s and write at 125MB/s. That’s not shabby at all, considering the record for the fastest USB hard drive manages an impressive 39MB/s. The work-in-progress USB 3.0 drive is already 4 times the speed of a highly-optimized USB 2.0 product. A USB-IF representative emphasized that bandwidth is likely to improve for the first retail drive, but it remains to be seen whether the industry will need another four years to double the actual USB 3.0 rate to 300MB/s.
Permanent Link

When IOGear shipped the first Wireless USB VGA kit back in August, we praised it as a decent option for an in-room cordless display adapter despite of its price tag. The kit works together so you can send 720p (1280×800) video stream to a LCD within a 30-foot range. It however doesn’t streamline audio connectivity, so you’ve shell out for a 30 ft. RCA cable or opt for another solution. IOGear now comes up with a new stereo sound adapter, bundles it with the essentially same video adapter combo, and renames it to Wireless USB AV Kit.

There are in total three units in the box (video, audio, WUSB HWA dongle). In IOGear’s own words, the Wireless USB AV Kit “creates a wire-free entertainment system by streaming audio and video content to an in-room TV up to 30 feet away.” What surprises us is the additional charge on the audio adapter; with the AV kit retailing for $349 and the few months old VGA kit going for $229, the extra wireless audio capability must have cost $120. Expect the WUSB AV to arrive in March.
Permanent Link

We wish there’s USB charging zone at every Starbucks like this one here shown in the picture. At CES 2009, this is the place where bloggers, reporters, exhibitors can chill out and juice up their gadgets – mostly phones for this kind of occasion. We wonder if there’s also a regular charging zone for cameras and camcorders as they are equally important tools in a trade show event coverage like CES. You can find your way to this rest area in the South Hall.
Permanent Link

Tiny projectors powered by Texas DLP Pico chipset hits big time with huge line-up from Acer, BenQ, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba and WowWee. Among them, BenQ’s GP1 palm-top projector is the only one that supports USB media playback on the go. Its integrated USB reader allows the projector to load photo slideshow, video playback (format compatibility is uncertain), or PowerPoint presentations. Hopefully, someone can figure out how to squeeze a Displaylink core into a tiny projector so we can use it as a true USB projector.

Connectivity wise, the GP1 also boasts other inputs like composite video, D-sub as well as a detachable iPod dock station and built-in speakers. The $599 BenQ projector weighs at 1.4lb. twice that of the $499 Dell model, but it offers 100 lumens, also double that of Dell’s 50 lumens. This explains why the GP1 can project up to 80″ diagonal image compared to Dell’s 40″. Lastly, BenQ claims the USB projector’s LCD engine has a lamp lifespan of 20,000 hours.
Permanent Link

Kensington SlimBlade Trackball sure looks like a relic from the 90s, but it is designed to work with today’s applications, and allows you to easily navigate docs, music library, and pictures through the ball itself. Essentially, media controls, navigation and photo browsing are controlled by rotating the multi-function trackball after you select the appropriate interface via an on-screen menu.

The ball pretty much takes care of everything from cursor control, scrolling, volume adjustments, media controls, zoom in/out as well as panning. This might sound a bit vague, but it should be crystal clear to diehard fans who are willing to drop $130 on a trackball. (For the rest of us, a $40 MS Arc Mouse or Logitech VX Nano will suffice.) Sporting a minimalist design, the multi-talented SlimBlade is compatible with Leopard, Vista and XP, and a long list of apps.

• Web Browsers – MS Internet Explorer, Firefox, Apple Safari
• Graphics – Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, Apple iPhoto, Apple Aperture
• Viewers – Adobe Reader, Apple Preview
• Productivity – Microsoft Excel, Word, Numbers, Pages

Permanent Link

Kodak has raised the bar on the pocket video camera with its latest Zx1. The made-for-YouTube budget camcorder boasts 720p recording resolution similar to other top picks in the name game including Flip Mino HD ($230), Kodak Zi6 ($179), Creative Vado HD ($199), and RCA EZ300HD ($159), but same as the Zi6, the Zx1 kicks it up a notch by increasing frame rate to 60fps, allowing slow motion playback. The new slimmer Zx1 adds “Rugged” and “Weather Resistant” to Kodak’s photo “street cred”. This is finally a camera you take the places that are worth remembering. Why didn’t someone think of this sooner? Stamped with a seal of approval from the Postal Service(not really), Kodak claims it will withstand rain, snow, sand, dirt and more (really!). The body is reminiscent of the Motorola SLVR with its brushed metal control pad with 2″ LCD.

The Zx1 pocket camera is fueled by the two always handy AA size batteries, which they include, rechargeable and pre-charged and a charger for instant fun. Not sporting much internal memory (a mere 128MB), there’s an SDHC card slot for taking up to 10 hours of video, but only if you buy your own 32GB SDHC card. The bundled software is only for XP and Vista PCs but the files are recorded in a standard H.264 MOV format that should suit Apple video editing software quite well. With MSRP of $149 hitting below the belt of all the other offerings, expect this to be a popular choice for those looking to get into the action movie biz.
Permanent Link

We’ve to give Sony some credit for persistence in staying in the MP3 player market after taking some beating from American and Korean rivals. Its latest Walkman NWZ-X1000 however seems to be a year too late, especially when iPod touch is heavily armed with gaming capability, WiFi music purchase, and a proven mobile browser. That’s not to say the innovations stop here. Sony Walkman X-series has a few edges over the multi-talented iPod and the new Samsung P3.

The widescreen Walkman features a 3″ OLED with multi-touch capability, so the display should technically be brighter and exhibit better color contrast than iPod touch’s LED. Sony also likes to emphasize on the Clear Audio, S-Master Digital Amplifier, built-in noise canceling (no need to shell out for $300 Bose headphones), and dedicated music player controls; after all, the new Walkman is touted as a ‘Certified for Windows Vista’ MP3 player. Wi-Fi connectivity found on the NWZ-X1000 is intended for YouTube, PC-less Podcast downloads, and Internet browsing. Don’t expect to find 10,000-strong ocean of apps, and you should be fine. The X-series will hit retail store during Spring 2009 with pricing for 32GB and 16GB to be announced. Video demo after jump.
Permanent Link

Our long-time hard drive making friend, Seagate, is rolling out its entrant into the media player appliance market with the FreeAgent Theater HD Media Player this March. This slender little fella paired with dock-able FreeAgent Go external hard drives outputs up to 1080i high definition video from MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats, and DivX files and audio from the usual suspects MP3, WMA, WAV and OGG. Seagate’s hoping you’ll start serving up your home movies, and digital photos in the living room without having to endure the tedium of authoring and burning DVDs.

Catering to the lazy in order to shamelessly promote their hard drives into this media appliance market could actually be a winner even if they are being a little stingy with their dock. While any USB hard drive should work, but not all of them will fit in the cozy dock that is made just for Seagate’s own offspring. Expect it to come bearing component outputs and possibly fiber optic audio along with the standard composite and s-video offerings; no HDMI is available, unlike the WD TV HD Player. The FreeAgent Theater HD will retail for $129.99 as standalone, $229.99 with 250GB Go USB HDD, and $299.99 with 500GB. Video after the jump.
Permanent Link