Best computer news

Intel has weakened the struggling arrival of USB 3.0 again. Intel announced recently that it would not be integrating USB 3.0 into its chipsets until 2011. This is a huge blow for technology as Intel adoption is virtually the only way to get new technology into the mainstream. Intel’s silicon is everywhere and piggybacking onto it is how most emerging technologies finally make it into the world en masse. USB 3.0 device manufacturers will still have a venue for their wares, but it will require 3rd party chip makers to step up production. This investment in the wake of other announcements may be slowed as well. Certified Wireless USB has been pronounced terminal by some and other connectivity systems are being developed. For those truly longing for USB 3.0 it should be as simple as buying an add-on card or having to shell out a few more dollars for an integrated motherboard. This announcement all but insures that both options will likely take a while.

One has to wonder whether to cry foul on the recent appearance of LightPeak. With Intel’s promised near-term production all but assured by the unveiling teams. This joint venture with fellow titans, Apple and Sony, may seem more lucrative than the open standard USB 3.0. Only time will tell, and it seems that as of today USB 3.0 may have a bit more time to wait.
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New owners of the tasty Porsche Panamera are being surprised by the arrival in the mail of a special package, a sweet USB flash drive shaped that bears a striking resemblance to their key fob which may have some owners chucking them out the window. The free key fob in the mail is closer to a $200 gift compared to a probably $50 USB flash drive. Nonetheless, it’s very cool to see car manufacturers hopping on the computer bandwagon and getting into some tech. Source ‘Autoblog’ also makes the suggestion to manufacturers to switch to USB ignition keys. It’s a very tempting idea indeed but we reckon the security issues would outweigh the gain. “Security through obscurity” has always been “key” for preventing high-end auto theft. Giving every script-kiddie access to USB-hack their way into a new Porsche would be far too tempting.

We would love to see more adoption of the standard in other areas though. Music and Navigation updates are trickling into dash mounted GPS systems and some car radios. Very few of the possibilities are realized until you set up your own carputer, but those are pricey and still require some serious DIY. Until then we’ll just have to settle for putting a tiny sticker on our this USB drive. “My other drive is a Porsche too!”
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If you were looking for that super finishing touch for your MAME arcade machine, it’s here. The SNEGA2USB will let you plug in your Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo cartridges into it and mount them as a regular USB 2.0 storage device, no drivers needed. The game ROMS and (SNES SRAM saved games) will show up as files on the drive, and then you can point a console emulator at them. You should also be able to backup your games and play them offline, but absolutely, positively, no sharing them with your friends or online. Once you get your rig up and running, you can play all your old favorites on any PC screen with up to 4 players by USB game pads. According to recent updates, the cartridges are even hot-swappable.

This is still a fledgling project and production isn’t exactly in full gear. You’ll have to pre-order at $90 by October 31st but shipping isn’t expected until December. There’s also a ‘group buy’ option that is trying to get some critical mass required to get enough units preordered to lower the price significantly. Video demo after the jump.
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Well, you can flash a gang sign but we can’t promise it will net you a whole lot of street cred. You can finally stake out the local computer lab as your ‘hood for you and your posse. No longer will people have to wonder to whom they owe protection money, when you label your USB port prominently with an “East Side” USB flash drive. These 2 GB flash drives will let you mime “East Side”, “West Side”, “Love” or “Change” loud and proud out of your USB pizzle. Depending on your local translations you can also flash; “Fight the Power”, “Heavy Metal Rules” or “I have advanced arthritis in my hands”.

They have thoughtlessly left out their disclaimer denying responsibility for any gang wars that might be incited by their products. So get one early and sue often. It’ll only cost you $35 to get yourself gunned down like Tupac. What’s a couple of dollars to become a posthumous rap legend?
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Geeks in America longing to try out USB 3.0 will be delighted to know Dane-Elec will start shipping their So SuperSpeed USB hard drives on December 11th alongside with add-on cards for desktops and notebooks. Their line-up includes the aptly-named SoMobile (500GB, 640GB 2.5″), SoReady (from 500GB all the way up to 2TB 3.5″) and SoPremium which houses Intel 2.5″ M-25 solid state drive. Dane-Elec’s Jon Christeson said users should expect somewhere between 80 and 90MB/s for the SoMobile. That’s approximately 3 times faster than the latest USB 2.0 drive. As for the prohibitively expensive SoPremium ($799 for 160GB), users are paying for top speed: 250MB/s.

When asked about the system and cable compatibility, Christeson told Everything USB that all their USB 3.0 drives and cards will work on Windows XP / Vista / 7 32-bit or 64-bit. For clarifications, regular USB 2.0 cables will work with the SoReady 3.5″ desktop drives, only at lower speed. However, the same cables won’t work with the SoMobile 2.5″ portable due to changes to the mini-B receptacle in the USB 3.0 specs. Keep in mind that you will need bundled USB 3.0 cables (as well as the optional upgrade card) to see the performance gain. Detailed pricing after the jump.
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No one really need any extra stuff cluttering up our already crowded office space. That’s largely the reason the Japanese has come up with some mousepads that pull double duty or even triple duty. Here’s a versatile USB mousepad from Sanwa; it comes with quite a few features including a tiltable multi-slot card reader compatible with SD and MS cards of all sorts; a storage compartment for the cards; an optical mouse-friendly precision surface; and a leatherette wrist rest.

Sanwa even throws in a 80cm retractable USB cable. Interestingly, there’s also a web-key that launches an application. Winter is closing in so something like a USB Heating Mousepad might be what people need to endure months of cold weather in front of their PCs.
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Samsung Lapfit LD220G is one of the products that were put on hold for release in America while the 21.5″ USB monitor has already been shipping out to Asia and Europe for several months. Now Samsung gives the green-light for imminent availability of this rather unique USB display. For starter, the Laptfit LD220G is touted as a perfect secondary monitor rather than a replacement monitor to begin with. Samsung replaces typical monitor stand with an integrated kickstand to match the height between the screen of Lapfit and that of notebooks, hence creating a seamless expanded desktop view.

The lack of HDMI and DVI also tells you something about the product nature and target market. Primary interfaces are analog VGA and USB 2.0, the latter of which is based on DisplayLink DL-195 video chipset. And since the DL-195 is HD capable, the Lapfit natively supports up to 1920×1080 in 16:9 ratio. The Lapfit however lags behind in response time at 5ms, but still manages 170-degree viewing angle. Expect the LD220G to hit retail shelves fairly soon for a MSRP of $249.99.
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We know what you are thinking. Why would anyone (even a geek) need a USB hub that closely resembles a utilitarian power strip? The 10-port USB hub you see here doesn’t have much of a design. It can easily trip over with all your USB cables are connected and weight leans on one side. The USB ports are also too close together so large USB dongles such as USB TV stick and a large capacity flash drive cannot be plugged next to each other.

There’s one thoughtful eco-feature – the ability to selectively turn on and off power for ports from 1 to 6 and from 7 to 10. So you can you have the first 6 ports connected to PC-centric peripherals while the last 4 ports reserved for cellphone, camera and MP3 player chargers. The purpose of this feature is to eliminate vampire power wasted when PC is off. This is another Japan-exclusive USB gadget, and it goes for 4,980 yen.
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Despite years in his new, urban environment, the cable monkey instinctively latches onto cords as if they were vines in the jungle.
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Logitech has released an update to their PC gaming keyboard series today with the G110 Gaming Keyboard. This new model brings several hot new USB enabled functions. The USB 2.0 keyboard now features on-board USB audio as well as custom-color back-lighting with its red and blue LED; on the back of the keyboard, you will find a USB 2.0 port on the back for flash drives or low-power USB devices. Additionally, it also sports has 2 audio plugs for a headset. Plug headphones and/or a microphone in and the USB audio device powers on and shows up for Windows or Mac. Unplug your headset and the audio device powers off and returns sound control back to whatever other device you have on your PC. It’s just basic USB sound, so don’t expect any Dolby Headphone effect found on the G35.

The G110 gaming keyboard comes with 15 programmable keys for a total of 36 macros. You can set these macros up with their included Profiler software. This same software is required to adjust the red and blue hues of the main keys. So any shade of purple is at your fingertips. They did remove one USB plug and the LCD screen present on previous models, like the G19 and G15. The G110 should be available in mid-November for $79.99. You can pre-order it at Logitech’s online store earlier if you just can’t wait.
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