Best computer news

Trying to keep people away from your cubicle is now fully automated with Yoda USB Desk Protector. Modeled after the Yoda character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, this miniatured Jedi master holding the illuminated lightsaber is able to detect anything between 2 and 3m away and warns the intruders (or anyone just walking by) in one of the following phrases:

• ‘In the end, cowards are those who follow the dark side’
• ‘A disturbance in the Force there is’
  ‘Retreat! Cover you I will’
• ‘Still much to learn you have’
• ‘So certain of defeat are you, hmmm?’
• ‘Rush not into fight, long is the war – Only by surviving it will you prevail’

Available for pre-order at a measly $26.99, the Jedi Yoda USB guard is a keeper for fans of the new animated series.
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A billboard-sized lifelike 2D image is perhaps how far the megapixel race can get us. Yet if you want real breakthrough, look no further than the world’s first 3D digicam based on Fujifilm’s Real 3D System. The 10-megapixel shooter utilizes two lenses, located about the same distance apart as human eyes, for capturing an array of shots from various angles simultaneously. This is the heart of 3D, just like how the 3D USB webcam works. The major difference for the Fujifilm is that you can see the stereoscopic effect for your pictures without the need to wear a pair of lame 3D glasses.

So, to enjoy the stereoscopic illusion at home, first you need the camera which will retail for $600 this summer, and a 8″ 3D photo frame with over 920k pixels that will cost you another several hundred bucks. To impress your friends and colleagues without lugging the photo frame around, you may want to show them the 3D photos, which are made with plastic overlay that function as a kind of 3D lens. FujiFilm admitted that anything over $5 per stereoscopic photo isn’t going to sell, so we suspect the price should be around $3 during launch. It will depending on the camera reception whether or not the online printing service will see the light of day.
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Here’s the keyboard designed specifically for accountants, writers and engineers. Matias Optimizer Keyboard’s motto is “save those precious seconds” as they could all add up to one whole week per year if you make full use of it. For number crunching folks, if you hold the Optimize key, combine that with Shift and you select multiple cells in Excel. You can also use the dedicated Tab key to speed through forms and spreadsheets so your other hand is free to flip through receipts and documents alike. Writers will find three rows, each dedicated to cut, copy and paste when they hold down the “Optimize” key. Likewise, the same magic button will give you fingertip access to selecting single words and an entire line as well as erasing words without reaching for the mouse.

Matias attributes the time-saving secret to key relocation, meaning commands are much closer at where your hands are so you don’t waste time moving them. The company claims you can work 22% faster during spreadsheet navigations, 35% in document navigation, 40% more efficient when erasing words, and an impressive 45% faster when pasting words. While most keyboards, ergonomic or fancy backlit ones, have similar features, the Optimizer Keyboard has taken another step further.
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Samsung S2 recently becomes the first native USB hard drive. The decision to drop SATA or PATA altogether from the drive is about cutting cost associated with a USB bridge controller, improving speed by eliminating interrupt service time, and reducing physical size, which also has to do with that same component. By taking out the USB-to-SATA board, Samsung can easily win contest for having the smallest mobile drive.

As another breakthrough, Samsung now debuts Spinpoint N3U 250GB 1.8″ drive that comprises of two 125GB platters. The native USB controller stays, resulting in less power usage, smaller footprint and optimized speed. The disk’s rotation speed is clocked at 3,600 rpm, compared to 120GB/160GB’s 4,200 rpm. Though, it’s uncertain whether how this will impact performance and how the 8MB cache can make up for the slower spinning rate. Expect the N3U 250GB to ship to OEMs in July with a MSRP of $199. We may initially see Samsung offering the new N3U in its S1 mini series as well.
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UK’s Digital Vision is going after a particular market with their new flash drive-based DVR. The GiGo DV-DTR1 DVB-T recorder has plentiful USB ports (three to be exact), which are all located in front of the chassis for easy access.

When all jacks are occupied, different family members can choose where to record the content into. Scheduled recordings from EPG can go into three separate USB storage, whether it be an external hard drive or a regular thumbdrive. This should come in handy since you can eject flash drive and take away the Freeview content without interrupting what other people are watching. At the same time, this can save you precious time of copying the show from the internal DVR’s hard drive, which in this case is ditched by the company to reduce cost. Digital Vision is likely targeting at the less-tech savvy who would rather go back to putting sticky labels on their flash drives than managing long list of files in a terabyte hard drive.
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Our chief complaint with LaCie LaCinema Rugged is the lack of H.264 codec and especially MKV container compatibility. When you are targeting a portable media center market, skipping those features will almost guarantee failure. Other than that, the Rugged by Neil Poulton is pretty slick overall. This is why we should give it a second chance with the release of LaCinema Rugged HD.

The updated version sports the same scratch-resistant aluminum design as its “SD” sibling except with the addition of popular HD video codec and audio format support. The LaCinema Rugged HD, like its unsuccessful predecessor, can now playback H.264, VC-1 and WMV9. Container support has been expanded to MKV, TRP and M2TS. Audio support now includes OGG, PCM and AC3. Feature-wise, it’s fair to say that WDTV media player has finally met its match. Then again, after checking LaCie product page on the Rugged, the $349.99 price tag for the 500GB model may deter buyers.
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Should you and your LAN party buddies need to travel light, this mobile Ethernet hub from Buffalo is undoubtedly the most effortless way to connect notebooks or desktops together in a hotel room or at a camp site. This 2280-yen ($24) accessory is powered by none other than USB which makes the network device very traveler-friendly as there’s no need bulky AC adapter to lug around.

The only caveat is that the max. speed you get is 100Mbps, so it isn’t the optimal connection for sharing multi-gigabyte HD content. And of course, if there are more people joining, the Buffalo USB Ethernet hub is inherently limited by the three RJ45 jacks on-board.
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What’s Yoostar? In a nutshell, it lets you live your hollywood dream, in front of your PC. Yoostar is a kit comprising of a special USB webcam, a portable greenscreen and software that can insert your image into your favorite movies. From the video demo, we could see the host replacing Glover from Sesame Street, and then he tried follow the original conversations with Elmo.

You’ll get 14 classic scenes each of which is between 1 and 2 minutes long when Yoostar hits retail next month. The company has already secured rights to content from Paramount, Universal, MGM, Liongate and Warner Brothers. Don’t expect user-contributed scenes as they are a copyright no-no. Before Yoostar can upload new movie scenes, this could get old fast, but in the long run, social community will be created where other users can upload their clips, comment on them, share tips, and possibly compete in talent contests. Due to copyright restrictions, Yoostart ($169) will only be available in the States initially although plans to roll out this internationally is well underway. Video demo after the jump.
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We never saw this coming. If this isn’t some 2010 April Fool’s joke leaked too early, the i.Saw Chainsaw possibly opens a whole new category of USB weaponry tools. The i.Saw is reportedly no larger than the size of a regular keyboard, and it is built with touch plastic and lightweight alloy to reduce the weight for the chainsaw for office use(?).

The company almost has everything listed on their website from dimensions to weight, guide bar length and different safety features. The only and most important thing left to answer is how they figured out feeding enough juice from a 5W USB 2.0 port to move those sharp chains at a speed that can cut through different woods. Unfortunately, the folks behind i.Saw hid their website’s WHOIS record so we couldn’t check if the same group of people has previously tried to pull hoax on the blog community. The device is listed for merely $59.95. You could sign up for pre-order, and wait to see if the i.Saw USB chainsaw will actually materialize in September – the estimated shipping month.
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Recently, Everything USB had a chance to sit down with Greg Morris, President & CEO of Nexcopy to chat about their latest flash memory duplicators. Nexcopy is readying their new 40- and 60-port USB duplicators, and we thought it a good idea to get some additional information. In the Skype interview, Greg discussed with us the scalability and strength of their thumbdrive duplicators, and he also offered insights into this mass niche market. Full transcript after the jump.
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