Best computer news

An uncertain economic outlook has already forced IT department to consider affordable upgrade options for HD video conferencing even if the virtual meeting tool is made to slash travel cost in the first place. Dedicated devices may cost upwards of $10,000, but USB cameras that rely on today’s duo core processing power to possess H.264 encoding can help lower cost. TANDBERG’s PrecisionHD USB Camera is such a device with a low price entry point yet streams HD video at 720p with 30fps. One of the more practical reasons for going hi-def is so you can see more people in the same screen as the aspect ratio is 16:9 widescreen. That way, the other party doesn’t have to rotate the camera during the session.

The PrecisionHD also includes built-in noise canceling mic and auto focus, the latter of which is found on even some $70 webcams nowadays. The USB camera additionally allows you to allocate the amount of bandwidth for the video, ranging from 600kbps to 1.5Mbps to unlimited. You’ll need 1.5Mbps for 720p. The PrecisionHD is designed from ground up to work with Office Communications Server 2007 so it should technically work out of the box.
Permanent Link

Fans of classic rock and hard core addicts of Guitar Hero can now show their pride at the office with the Fender Stratocaster USB Lamp made by Rabbit Tanaka out of Hong Kong. Part of a set of funky lumières, this 11″ tall desk lamp can really help you Rock N Roll all night with 6 ultra bright LEDs. While it’s not the weirdest USB light we’ve seen nor the dumbest it’s definitely in a league of its own.

Imported by The Knife Store, you can pick up the 11″ Fender or the Tony Montana Special the Scarface commemorative M-16 “Say hello to my little friend!” table lamp. Rabbit Tanaka also has a few other Kiss and Scarface themed decorative items but only the Fender has the ability to run off of raw PC power. So now you can revel over your Guitar Hero domination of your best friends while you are slaving away for the man. $19.99 at Amazon and available now.
Permanent Link

Targus, maker of useful computer and laptop accessories has never before been accused of being overly stylish. That all ends today. The Targus Chill Mat is a sleek aluminium grill notebook cooler mat designed to look at right at home cooling your unibody Mac laptop. It’ll do the job without looking like a UFO. A USB connection drives two quiet, high powered fans, which are positioned to line up with the heat centers of most Macs driving cooling winds up and onto your lovely machine.

The mat is slightly angled to make typing easier on your wrists reducing RSI complications. The bottom of the mat is covered with a breathable mesh to protect your desk surface from heat damage and your lap from sweating, and we all know how embarrassing that can be. The other big plus of this pad that it has been super-sized over other models to handle up to 17″ notebooks. You can get one now for $49.99 from the targus store to complete your chic coffee shop ensemble.
Permanent Link

Buffalo is a launching new series of SATA II SSD hard drive with an added bonus of mini USB interface for data transfer outside of computer in addition to its internal SATA interface. Buffalo’s SHD-NSUM series is about the 3rd to hit the retail market with a SATA+USB SSD but they are only the 2nd to actually enable the USB port to actually read the drive. The first, released by OCZ only allows for drive firmware updates. Buffalo currently produces quite a few nice flash memory based devices and this new model is likely to be of the same high quality. Unfortunately, their press release which is only available in Japanese seems to promise some new high speed technology but upon inspection of the fine print the “30% speed increase” promised is only for windows boot up times. Faster boot speeds is fairly standard across the board for SSD drives and 30% may actually fall a bit below par. The true difference that sets the Buffalo SHD-NSUM series apart is the inclusion of software that actually complements the use of this drive for migrating off of a HDD onto their SSD.

The new drive can be prepared and partitioned by Acronis Disk Director. Acronis True Image LE can then create restoration points onto external media for emergency restores to/from a USB drive. Acronis Migrate Easy will help migrate FAT16/32, NTFS, Linux Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, and Linux SWAP based installations from one machine to another. Acronis’ Drive Cleanser finishes the job by wiping and clearing data off of the original drive to international, government and military standards. The drives will be release in 3 sizes 32GB, 64GB and 128GB and will retail at $124, $217, $392 respectively. Watch for them in March 2009.
Permanent Link