Best computer news

Okay this is getting a little out of control. The Xai, the latest gaming mouse from SteelSeries, is processing more pixels than some video cameras. While having an almost retro, run of the mill mouse shape the sophisticated sensors on board are pushing 10.8 MegaPixels per second. It’s built with a several top notch special touches like a gold plated USB connector, a braided 6 ft. cord and wide glue-less sliding feet. Having all those special features you can count on this lasting you for more than a few all night game sessions.

More amazing than the construction perks is all the smarts built into the mouse. The Xai itself has a built-in 128 x 32 LCD screen that helps you navigate through all its possible settings. Just about every possible tracking aspect of the mouse is adjustable. The LCD is also used to configure the macros that can be recorded and attached to any of its 8 buttons. Each macro can be up to 200 keystrokes long. On top of that you can save up to 5 internal profiles and have a special set of macros and settings for each of your favorite games. The Xai should be available in August for $79.99.
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Quirky is promoting a concept device they are planning to manufacture, a 2 headed flash drive. The sliding button alternatively hides the connector from each end allowing you to segregate your data. This will make for a perfect His/Her flash drive or Private/Public or Music/Apps and so on. There’s tons of possibilities and they have a handful of suggestions for you. Per their website once they hit their pre-sale minimum they will start taking orders for free laser etching.

At the time of this writing they have already made their established minimum and should be sending them to production. The images on their site are concept rendering and don’t quite seem to be in the proper proportions. The idea is solid though and here’s hoping this actually materializes into a product. The price is reasonable enough for the double 2GB drives and etching at $19.99 with free shipping as well. Check the whole site out though before placing an order as there also seems to be an MLM/Co-OP aspect to this site as well. Drives should start shipping after about 2 months considering they seem to have already met their minimum order.
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Video software maven Sonic has team with Widevine to distribute movies via flash drives. The company will be providing the software to play the movies while leveraging Widevine’s video diverse device support to provide versions for non-PC devices like phones, iPods or other media players. The drive ships with a software player capable of playing the movie that’s included on the flash drive. Paired with their cloud based service buying the flash version will entitle you to download the movie on up to 4 other devices. The flash drive will register your purchase and help direct you in getting the video to your player. Sonic’s CinemaNow service already has arrangements with Archos, Dell, HP, LG, Microsoft, Nintendo, Pioneer, Samsung and TiVo.

Specifics on price and compatible devices have yet to be released but the usual suspects are easy to divine. With the pervasiveness of the iPhone it may be hard to carve out a piece of the internet delivery business from Apple but physical delivery may not be as iron clad. We would love to replace the volatility of dvd’s and perhaps purchase upgrade rights so that we don’t have to continue to buy the same disc on Laser Disc then DVD then Blu-Ray and so on. Each stepping up in quality for a movie that I’ve already purchased. We doubt this is in their game plan but one can hope. The step down in size would be a definite plus. Look for the devices to hit the stores sometime this year.
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HeartMath has finally released a version of its biofeedback based stress release system for Mac. The HeartMath emWave software uses a pulse sensing ear clamp to detect changes in heart rhythms and helps you adjust your state of mind. With stress reducing games and biofeedback control targets the software claims to help you release creativity and increase energy while reducing stress and it’s many nasty side effects. The company makes special note of stress-eating and has special programs targeting healthier alternatives. Emotion shaping images and sounds are combined to help channel stress into more productive energy.

While this may be wasted on the laid back population of Mac users they deserve the same rights as normal folks. The USB ear sensor can be replaced with a finger sensor if that’s more your pace. There’s also a portable hand held version that you can take with you while you are away from your computer. The software and sensor command a fairly hefty fee. $299 for the software and ear sensor and the other add-on software packages are similarly priced.
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Lucidport brings another step closer to the first SuperSpeed USB gear with the USB 3.0 to SATA-II bridge. The world’s first commercially USB 3.0 device links to native SATA-I/II storage whether it be a hard drive, solid state drive or Blu-ray burner and converts it into an <a href=http://www.everythingusb.com//external drive. Also unique is the support for USB Attached SCSI (UAS) driver in addition to traditional USB Mass Storage (MSC) driver compatibility. UAS is an overhaul of the current storage standard that will leverage SuperSpeed USB rate while providing some performance improvements for legacy USB 2.0 MSC devices.

To put this into perspective, LucidPort recorded 147MB/s for MSC protocol when interfacing to a PCIe x1 USB 3.0 host, which can be found on motherboard like the Asus P6X58. Switching to UAS protocol increased the speed to 173MB/s. In another test, connected to a native USB 3.0 host silicon, the MSC protocol managed 244MB/s while UAS hit 336MB/s, almost maxing out the limit of SATA-II. Other features include AES 128- and 256-bit hardware encryption and SATA native command queuing (NCQ) support.
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If you’ve gotten trade-show complementary flash drives hanging around that you aren’t using, donate them. RecycleUSB.com is taking donated drives and has partnered with the Sugar-on-a-Stick project to give kids a way to have their own personal PC (minus the PC). Sugar is an open-source project for turning a USB stick into bootable self-contained operating system. The system is based around the Fedora LiveUSB distro of Linux and can be run on almost any x86 computer laying around that supports booting from USB. It doesn’t even need to have a functioning hard drive. It’s a great learning environment for children and entire classrooms can share a single machine without worrying about stepping all over each other.

If you’d like to try Sugar for yourself you can download a copy and be up in running in no time. The program and source code are both available on their site. The minimum flash drive size you need to run Strawberry (codename for their latest release) is 1GB. Sugar and RecycleUSB.com are welcome site after all OLPC’s internal strife. This may not be One Laptop Per Child but it makes donated hardware go a LOT farther in schools. If you are thinking about trying it for yourself you might want to look into one of the larger and faster flash drives for a better experience. This is an easy cause to help out with. Give ’til it Giga-Hertz. Here’s the address.
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If you were looking for the best possible way to guarantee that your kids NEVER use their laptops for studying the solution is here. The USB Rechargeable RC Helicopter newly available at Brando may just be too much fun to be safe around a computer. This dual propeller helicopter with gyro-stabilization should be capable of precision flying indoors and out. The multi-axis controller allows you movement in all directions and control of the two LEDs for night-flying or just calling more attention to yourself. There’s probably only so much quality you can expect for a $39 flying machine but the metal construction should allow it to survive more than a few rough landings. Just don’t fly it into your expensive monitor or let the kids fight for control.

2 AA batteries power the remote which seems to be able to provide another charging option for the helicopter as well. The included USB cable should provide enough power to quick charge the tiny toy in short order. There’s no details on the run-time or the charge times by said USB cable but it is probably best not to expect too much. Another thing that might be fun and unpredictable is that the remote uses IR to communicate with the copter. This means that if you lose direct line of site to it or go out of range hilarity or calamity may ensue. Head to Brando if you must have fun at all costs.
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While this progression feels a little backwards you can’t help but be excited about this new arrival. The Samsontech Zoom Q3 is a new portable camcorder from a company that up until now has focused on high fidelity audio. Everyone has watched home movies has experienced the metallic pitch or heavy wind noise that were so distracting that you could not watch the video. Samsontech, who has release 3 highly rated audio recording devices, has added 640×480 MPEG-4 video recording into the mix. It’s not HD but not everyone is able to use HD video yet. The video is captured at 30 frames per second and can be viewed or reviewed on a 320×240 LCD screen on the back of the device. The Q3 is able to store up to 16 hours of video on a 32GB SHDC card.

While the video is a great add-on you don’t lose any of the original Samsontech audio fidelity. It still has the twin microphones in their characteristic X/Y configuration which allows for adjustable focus and great stereo imaging. The Q3 arrives in Q3 with a 2GB card and HandyShare video editing software and should retail for $249.
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One of the fastest changing sectors of the electronics industry for the past ten years has been the evolution of wireless technology. From analog to digital 3.5G mobile networks to wireless networking and the proliferation of Bluetooth, we have been spoiled by the pace of technological advances. Home theater has not been standing still either, with HDTV becoming mainstream and at price points ever lower and more accessible. IOGear’s Wireless Audio Video Kit attempts to answer the question perhaps few were asking: can an HD audio and video system be freed from the shackles of cables and eliminate more cable clutter? Follow me on a tour as we get geeky.
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Creative has released and new wireless audio system marketed toward the millions of iTunes users out there. The Creative Sound Blaster Wireless for iTunes is a USB sound card and proprietary wireless transmitter. Besides providing Creative’s well known sound quality over headphones it broadcasts the audio over their specially developed wireless system. Running in the 2.4GHz space the signal is specially designed to eliminate interference from other wireless systems like phones and 802.11x signals. Listeners should not have to deal with any pauses, tone shifts or static which have plagued other wireless systems. Once installed you’ll be able to transmit audio directly to your stereo system without the need for dangling cables or other wireless networking appliances.

The $149 kit comes with both the USB transmitter as well as the receiver base unit. The receiver will listen for signals broadcast from any of their transmitters and turn the signal back into audio for your sound system. The transmitter will also auto-detect Creative GigaWorks T20W speakers as they have a built-in receiver. Creative claims CD quality audio at 100 foot range. This is considerably more affordable than similar premium systems. There’s also an express-card version of the transmitter available for $89 if that’s more your speed.
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