Best computer news

That’s right, since everything on the planet seems to be on twitter, we can’t beat ‘em so we’re joining ‘em. twitter.com/everythingusb will hold our real time updates on the exciting world of USB news. You can follow twits about surgery progress or have your plants talk to you but wouldn’t you rather keep up on the hottest newly released products and in-depth reviews of the most talked about new releases.

Now we can’t promise you pictures of Demi Moore’s posterior a la Ashton Kutcher but SuperSpeed USB releases are almost as tantalizing and twice as relevant. We can always promise that our reviews will never fit in a single tweet but we’ll use it to keep you up to date on the world at large at least as far as it concerns new technology in the areas of USB and WUSB. So tune in and prepare to be twittalized by twitastic information from around the tworld (in 140 characters or less of course).
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We’re not quite sure what the dot is for in the .Audio 995 headset but despite the marketing puzzle this new VoIP focused headset has a lot to offer. The wireless .headset uses a USB adapter to wirelessly send stereo audio to the headset. The pivoting boom microphone sports noise canceling abilities and automatically .mutes when it is flipped up into a standby position. The 40mm drivers offer a wide dynamic range suitable for music and multimedia listening as well as less needy VoIP calls and Counterstike ghosting.

The headset also has media control buttons mounted on the side of the ear cups. The control buttons are the standard; play, fast-forward, rewind, stop, etc… Nothing new but nice to have them with you as you are roaming. Roaming .range max’s out at about 40 feet. The over-sized, easy to use buttons aren’t unsightly and actually fit into the frame very well. The only sorely missing detail that’s missing from it’s specification sheet is the charge information. There’s no word on how long it takes to charge or how long a .charge lasts before needing to be replenished. You also can’t .tell how it recharges. Power cord, USB cord, batteries? If you can live with that uncertainty, it’s available .now for $109.
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In a move that has the Open Source movement cheering, DisplayLink has released the source code for the Linux port of its software. DisplayLink makes the hardware that supports the majority of peripheral video devices in the personal computer world. Responsible for USB video adapters, USB monitors and USB docking stations with video support, DisplayLink has also been responsible for developing the device driver s for their hardware. Their disclosure will allow the Linux community to pick up the development of the drivers at whatever pace public interest warrants.

Currently the Linux community has to wait, and usually comes last if at all when it comes to hardware driver support. Having a very small, but constantly growing user base, Linux usually represents too small of a revenue share for companies to invest too much time and money developing drivers to support them. The frustrating part is that the Linux community, rife with developers of their own is perfectly capable of supporting themselves. This release will give them what they need to support themselves. While open source market share is very low, innovation is very high and many popular software packages started as Open Source projects which were commercialized after they gained enough popularity. Hopefully this move will yield exciting new uses of an already useful product space.
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What’s YuuWaa? Despite an awkward name, YuuWaa from Gemalto is an all-in-one USB flash drive complete with cloud storage offering online data backup service. As soon as you bring home the YuuWaa (either 4GB drive with 8GB online storage or 8GB drive with 16GB cloud space) and plug it in, you will be prompted to register, and new files will automatically be backed up to Gemalto’s servers via a secure link. You can select which files to share with your friends. This comes in handy if they are video or anything larger than what most email providers can handle.

If you lose the YuuWaa, you can still access the content from a PC, but Gemalto didn’t mention if you can wipe out the flash drive’s content remotely. So, this is very obvious the company is more interested in generating recurring income from the cloud storage subscription (£1.79 for 8GB or £3.99 for 16GB per month after 6 months of free trial) than making money from the drives. Sandisk Cruzer Titanium Plus earlier has offered Beinsync data sync with Amazon servers, but it wasn’t particularly successful partly due to the pricing.
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In a move to streamline business, Avid Technology has sold Pinnacle long standing PCTV line to Hauppauge. The decision was made late last year, but the sales has just been completed recently, and Avid apparently made $1.9 million from the deal according to a filing. Now, PCTV Systems was founded under the control of Hauppauge, and it has become a separate entity.

Rest assured the new company will continue to support your tuners and to sell existing models (e.g. HD mini Stick and Ultimate HD Tuner) under the name of the product line series. We suppose Hauppauge or PCTV Systems will continue to license Pinnacle’s Media Center as the TVCenter Pro TV software, and looks like everything from retail packaging to the actual product has to be reprinted with the new logo.
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To the unenlightened it is still a fashion faux pas to have an ugly drive constantly slung around your neck. But to those of us who can’t be without our portableapps suite it’s a necessary evil. Today Brando’s giving us a more fashionable way to wear our flash drives around. It’s a little on the glitzy side but it’s a big step towards social acceptance. The drive sports 8GB of flash memory encased in a bejeweled cockroach (or beetle). The crystal encrusted coleopteran conceals the drive and it’s retractable USB plug. Accept my apologies for all the alliteration but the cockroach’s shiny shell has me a horribly hypnotized.

This is the flash drive that Liberace would endorse followed shortly thereafter by Mr. Elton John even by itself it may have you looking a little out of place. It’s up to you to decide on your own dress code best practices. While this may help you get your prized files in and out of security checkpoints but you may end up with a fashion citation as opposed to a pat down. The flash memory isn’t particularly fast though and won’t be winning any speed competitions but it is affordable at paltry $33. Come on, you’ve had plenty of bugs in you code. Now you can put your code in a bug.
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Throngs of gamers are waiting for E3 expo in June 2009. That in itself is no surprise to anyone. E3 Demos tons of new game technologies but one of the new releases has more than a few non-gamers upright and interested. 3DV is rumored to be showcasing its new 3D camera system, the ZCam, as an add-on for the XBox 360. Their system uses an infrared sensor integrated into the camera’s regular sensor that. This sensor system is capable of measuring distances between 1 and 3 meters and should compete with the Playstation EYE but be much more, well, 3 dimensional. The EYE can only track motion in 2 dimensions but the Zcam will be able to use all 3 for a much more immersive experience.

Now while this first hopeful release is only for the Xbox their original concept model was a USB 2.0 and PC based. This brings hope for business applications and assistive technologies as well. The only major drawback is that this is still very speculative. The Xbox release will likely not happen until mid-2010 and the PC version would likely trail that release depending on its success. The best news however is the projected price. 3DV says that they are able to manufacture these units for the same price as regular web cams. The ability to stay under that all important $100 price-point is a major advantage for any new product.
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Resistance is futile. Until USB 3.0 arrives, eSATA will continue to take over USB 2.0 ports. MSI now seems to take one step further by marrying USB 2.0’s bus power and eSATA port to form what it calls Power eSATA. The mobo maker decides to go ahead with this because eSATA cannot supply power whereas USB can feed 500mA current needed to feed an external drive.

The main advantage of this is that users won’t have to look for a power-only USB cable to leech power from a nearby USB port. The obvious downside is that there are hardly any peripherals supporting this other than OCZ Throttle eSATA SSD. MSI has started shipping AM3 motherboards as well as eight notebooks with this proprietary connector. Let’s see if others will follow suit, but this is as a temporary fix as it gets.
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Marking a rising tide of distributed peripherals, DisplayLink announced it had reached its one millionth USB graphics chip sale. Having been incorporated into more than 30 consumer and business devices DisplayLink is the leading embedded USB graphics chip maker in the world. Expected to grow to 12 million in 2 more years. USB monitors first started showing up in limited fashion in docking stations and eventually into specialty projectors. Docking station applications are currently the most favored use of the graphics chips. The mini type USB monitors are currently picking up steam alongside the application specific versions like digital picture frames.

Up to 58 million more chip sales are projected as USB 3.0 devices are released in the next 3-4 years. These are expected to really expand the functionality of higher bandwidth peripheral applications like attached monitors and remote video devices. USB to DVI adapters should be able to continue to flourish as a fast and economical way to add multi-monitor function to desktops and laptops. USB 3.0 bandwidth should allow for add on video solutions to approach the quality and responsiveness of PCI and AGP video cards. Congratulations guys, here’s to the next million.
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Pricing for the much anticipated NWZ-X1000 has surfaced on Sony Hong Kong website, and it’s not pretty. The 32GB will retail for $3680 ($471 USD), and the 16GB for $2780 ($356 USD). Local Sony has started to accept pre-orders, and both PMP models will begin shipping in late May. Considering how competitive the PMP market is in area, we believe the X1000 to be priced similarly in the US. To put the prices into perspective, the X1060 (32GB) and X1050 (16GB) cost about $70 and $57 USD more than the iPod touch 2G of the same capacity.

You could argue Sony has a gorgeous 3″ OLED, superb battery life (33 hrs. music, 9 hrs. video), and a decent pair of nose canceling headphones as well as a host of audio fidelity enhancements, but the X1000-series may have a harder time winning back some iPod touch fanboys when their beloved PMP can run Need for Speed at full 3D and make long distance call with Skype. What we are most concerned about is the video playback compatibility (max. 2GB file size – 768kbps bit-rate at QVGA for H.264… sigh) and the Netfront browser rendering speed. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
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