Best computer news

Besides flash drives, RAID and even movie kiosks, video applications are moving fast to take advantage of ten-fold increase in bandwidth offered by USB 3.0. The first to jump onto the SuperSpeed USB bandwagon is none other than DisplayLink whose latest DL-195 network video chipset is already struggling with HD output on a heavily congested USB 2.0. If DL-195 is designed to be scalable, then the upgrade might just be as easy as swapping in new USB 3.0 peripheral bridge.

DisplayLink hasn’t made any claims about performance improvements, but rest assured Palo Alto, Calif.-based company will have something to show at upcoming CES 2010. We reckon with first of the USB 3.0 HDDs enjoying a three-fold increase in data transfer compared to that of USB 2.0, a flicker-free 1080p USB monitor running at 60fps shouldn’t be far behind. There are about 30 partners, including Lenovo, HP and Dell that rely on DisplayLink’s network video to provide USB video output on their notebook docks, video adapters and mini monitors.
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National Geographic has seen fit to bestow a gift upon the world, a digital version of ALL of their past issues. One of the most pivotal publications of the last century, Nat Geo contains stunning photography and in depth research on every imaginable topic. From deep sea monsters to outer space and beyond, the compendium contains a searchable rendition of every single monthly tome ever published. These yellow spined marvels have decorated 3 generations of bookshelves in my family, but not mine. The line may extend with us now that there’s a digital version – like the Beatles collection – which will fit in my household.

The amazing content in these high quality periodicals was plagued by an inability to search them comprehensively. We remember looking for content for school report and wrestling with hundreds of pounds of issues, reading the covers one at a time to find relevant material. Eventually, microfiche and online library systems helped but library copies were invariably ill-kept. The 160GB drive comes with 60GB of content and a bonus DVD with a photographer’s tutorial and a behind the scenes documentary of the magazine. The USB drive can be laser engraved on request. The USB drive version commands an tempting $199. DVD versions are still available, starting at $59 but you’ll be swapping amongst all 6 of the DVDs. Up to you if the convenience warrants the premium.
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As hackers continue to develop their insidious tools, committed device manufacturers have to decide how to handle the economic strain their advances induce. Several flaws have recently been discovered in one current and two discontinued models from Kingston. Flaws that could be exploited by a very sophisticated hacker with some sophisticated tools. The DataTraveler BlackBox, DataTraveler Secure and Elite Privacy USB drives are susceptible to the attack. Only the BlackBox is still for sale and Kingston has paused sales on it and has issued notice to its resellers. This flaw is likely not isolated to Kingston but due to their popularity they may have been scrutinized more closely than others.

In addition to halting sales, owners of the drives are urged to contact Kingston for possible repair or updating. We’re waiting to hear what they are actually able to offer their customers on an older drive. Unfortunately we are going to continue to see an evolution of threat/counter-threat as computer technology evolves. The government super-computers that were used to test the security of encryption just a few years ago are now outclassed by home gaming consoles. A few PS3′s linked together may be enough to crack still relevant security in a matter of minutes and who knows what the PS4 or PS5 may be capable of. If you’ve bought any of the aforementioned products check here to find out your options from Kingston.
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Here’s another nice mini keyboard arrives to compliment your HTPC or carputer project. Lenovo has a tiny remote complete with trackball and media hotkeys that they quietly launched last week. This tiny qwerty keyboard is perfect for anyone who has mastered texting to any extent. The tiny but finger-friendly keys are perfect for surfing, youtube’ing or anything else that requires a small amount of typing. Just below the keyboard on the ping pong paddle shaped controller is a trackball crowned by left and right mouse buttons.

This is basically the love child of a the logitech diNovo mini and a wireless presenter remote. Rounding out the perfect controller is a nano USB dongle about the size of this micro-SD reader and AAA batteries. These are available right now on Lenovo’s web site for a very modest $60. Smooth and comfortable these should work well on any project systems you were thinking about creating. Turn over a new leaf this year and start working on those pet projects.
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Probably one of the most anticipated uses for USB 3.0 is to be able to mesh together your mass storage at a useful speed. The Unitek adapter can be affixed to the terminus of any SATA hard drive. Once connected, data to and from the disk should be slippery to the tune of up to 5Gbps, the theoretical capacity of the bus. The system comes with a data cable and power supply cable. The power cord shouldn’t be necessary for any of today’s hard drives, even the most greedy should have ample power from the USB 3.0 bus.

The drivers should be available for all modern Windows versions including 7 and some flavors of Linux. Apple support should follow shortly thereafter but no promises. You might want to wait it out for a more convenient docking bay version but this will make a fantastic addition to a toolkit. That’s provided of course, that you have the requisite availability of USB 3.0 enabled systems. These are available now for $48 at Brando.
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It’s what Steampunk would call futuristic, a USB speaker system from Japan called the UMAZONe. This USB speaker resembles an old style vacuum tube amplifier well loved for its clarity and power. The four vacuum tubes bear a blue LED will flicker along with music in an authentic style. The UMAZONe sports 2 small down firing speakers that may be a little under powered since they don’t seem to be the specially designed for downward firing. There’s a front mounted volume knob for controlling guess what? Yep, that’s right, it controls the volume. Another plus is the 2 USB ports that you can plug other devices into.

A USB hub, speakers and audio card with pretty lights for only $25, a veritable steal. You may need to wait awhile for them to show up on a continent or at one of our handy grey market importers. A perfect late gift for hobby electronics tinkerers or sentimental audiophiles.
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C-Star Technologies is releasing a phone management system that’s long overdue and may be a little too late, the UTR-Fi3001B. The migration to digital phone systems is well underway but if you are still using any sort of analog phone system personal or professional you’ll want to check these out. This box connects to your PC via USB and has a pass-through RJ-12 phone connectors for connecting to a wall plug and a phone. The software that comes with the UTR-Fi3001B can record caller-ID, pickups, hangups and every second of audio. Record all your conversations and take notes on the call and make address book entries with ease with built-in functions.

C-Star doesn’t list a price but is ready to ship them in bulk and in multiple colors no less. A perfect complement for any salesperson, tech-support call monitoring or teleworker that needs quick recall of any detail of a any phone conversation. The UTR-Fi3001B is only for single line phones but the UTR-Fi3002B can handle 2 line phones. No hint on price or availability interested parties will need to hit them personally until retail units make it to the shelves.
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Icron apparently has been busy with their secret USB projects. At upcoming CES 2010, the Vancouver-based company, which brought us the ExtremeUSB distance extension technology, will finally show us what their hardcore engineers have been working on.

The most exciting of all is the Wireless ExtremeLink PC-on-TV which supposedly serves as a Windows extension on your HDTV. Icron has confirmed the remote unit will connect to the host PC thru a dedicated 802.11n link, and the same box will have several USB ports for expansion. It remains to be seen whether there are some other technologies (e.g. DisplayLink USB video) behind this if the remote unit is going to pull video stream from the host. The company will also demo USB over DisplayPort using a standard, well, DisplayPort cable. If this works as expected, then we should be able to get rid of one more USB cable connecting between our PCs and HD monitors with built-in USB hub & webcam.
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Digital self-serve kiosks are found all over the place for quick tasks like printing maps or pictures. You can create greeting cards and photo albums. These are well on their way to becoming the vending machines of the digital era. The next evolution of this trend is here with the vending machine dispensing data instead of physical goods like the MK3 Kiosk. Movies can be downloaded from these Redbox competitors straight to your portable hard drive. Nothing to return, nothing to rewind(how long until no one knows what that meant?). The content simply expires and won’t play in the player. This XIMD technology smacks of the original Divx expiring DVD’s that came in went in months around the dawn of DVDs.

USB 3.0 technology should be able to push a full DVD of content to your drive in under 10 seconds. Xona’s media distribution system will feed the MK3 Kiosk with current and obscure movies. Prices, peripherals and plans will have to come later as the devices roll into retail locations around the world.
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Everyone knows that the key to faster-than-light (FTL) travel is in random number generation. Advances in Bistromathics just aren’t happening fast enough so folks like Peter Allan are racing to crack the random number puzzle. It isn’t the most interesting read for those not obsessed with number theory but it is an interesting project. This garage project uses an Arduino board as the base and a small motors and an optical sensor to measure sand through a tiny hourglass.

Computers have exceptionally poor imagination. This might seem obvious but the hurdle to programmers, cryptographers and lottery officials is a very major one. Many of technologies require very truly random numbers generated often. Any patterns that start to emerge from non random systems starts to emerge over time break those systems. The amount of sand that falls at any given time creates a reading on the device. This random amount of sand specks is sent via USB to the PC system. The PC can then use or incorporate this data where it’s needed. These aren’t for sale yet but production is being considered in the near future.
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