Archive for May, 2010
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Even if you don’t play guitar, you can still put the legendary Boss DS-1 distortion pedal to good use surfing the web with this brilliant USB mouse by Roland UK. This version lacks the obligatory input and output jacks for instrument cables and also has a thinner shape than the standard DS-1. The “Tone” and [...]
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The lack of native chipset support for USB 3.0 has created a large demand for discrete host controllers. This upsurge in demand has compelled a number of fab manufacturers, including NEC, ASMedia, Texas Instrument, VIA and etc., to enter the market to fill the void left by Intel. Now, even smaller companies want a piece of the pie.
Fresco Logic’s latest two-port USB 3.0 controller, dubbed FL1009, makes full use of PCI Express 2.0 x1. While this chip aims at notebooks, motherboards and add-on cards, it is also optimized for low-power consumption without compromising performance. Fresco Logic claims this is possible due to its GoXtream xHCI Accelerator Engine. The same architecture additionally allows each USB port to sustain full bandwidth of USB 3.0 throughput. This is quite an ambitious goal. So, how good is the FL1009 exactly? At Taipei Computex, the company has successfully demoed FL1009 capable to delivering over 350MB/s. This means you could easily run a SSD in RAID-0 mode and possibly streams uncompressed 1080p HD video simultaneously. Permanent Link
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Philips hasn’t exactly been an innovator in the area of style in our opinion. No disrespect intended, they are a bastion of quality and durability. Every Philips product we’ve ever owned is still running, boring but running. These “Dancing Twin” USB PC speakers, out today, are form and function that you might only expect from Apple or LaCie. The portable speakers have a very modern look and are solely powered by USB. They provide their own digital audio through the same USB cable, driverless of course, for both PC and Mac, and they are indeed a pair of really nice, modern looking speakers perfect for the dorm room or Pompidou.
Once you are done with them, they can be pressed together in an oblong egg shape about the size of a soda can. The USB cord tucks away for a perfectly portable pair of picturesque players. No cord mess, well protected and able to dole out decent volume on the go. It’s hard to put a price on fuss-free peripherals, harder still, because Philips hasn’t disclosed their MSRP. Best guess, expect to pay $50 to $80 for these upon release. Permanent Link
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We’ve seen Steampunk mice but this might be just plain Punk. This Compact Mouse from BOSS is modeled after the DS-1 distortion pedal used by many guitarists. While this may make for a fun novelty mouse, the cool factor doesn’t quite make up for the discomfort. Just looking at this mouse makes my hand hurt. When are people going to realize that USB drives are the way to express yourselves, mice should be ergonomic and functional. Mice should fill the palm in a natural position. There’s just no excuse for a square mouse, even to the greatest of guitar heroes.
About the only place this would be acceptable is the cash register at a guitar store. The hard edges and rickety buttons just won’t cut it in a high use role. This unwieldy cramp machine is available from the BOSS website for just over $43. Only serious fans should inquire. Permanent Link
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PQI releases a pair of ruby USB external drives today. Clicking theses sparkling red slippers together may not get you back to Kansas but it also won’t ruin your drive. These babies are SSDs, and it will take more than flying monkeys to shock these drives. The larger of the pair is also the faster sporting USB 3.0 interface and faster SSD memory. The MLC flash within the PQI S533-E can read at 236MB/s and write at 86 MB/s. In contrast, the S532-E has both mini-USB 2.0 and SATA-II for both internal and external use. The Turbo HDD USB software also helps both USB SSD drives boosting greater speeds and is likely similar in function to Buffalo’s TurboUSB drivers.
The PQI S533-E is USB 3.0 capable but is still USB 2.0 compatible. You can get the S533-E in either 80 or 160 GB capacities while the S532-E is only available in 40GB. If you are in need of some portable shock resistant storage that is a real piece of eye candy this is definitely an option. Details on release date and price aren’t clear yet. You’ll likely have to wait at least a few months for these to hit shelves. There are other readily available USB 3.0 SSDs on the market, including the Enyo from OCZ and SHD-PEHU3 from Buffalo. Permanent Link
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Warning heavy use of puns ahead, heavy. Another unusual flash drive design from the stylish dreamers at Yanko. Today, they beat down our doors with a flash drive that could be a very nice doorstop. Fashioned out of everyday concrete, the drive’s weight in grams matches its capacity in gigabytes. The brick shaped drive doesn’t need any drivers, it will show up on modern OSs as a mass storage drive. Even though it is designed to be bulky, the drive looks like it might be a little large to be comfortable to plug and unplug. This concrete flash drive might look and actually ACT like a parking stop for your other peripherals. The heft of this drive might also act as a security feature, if someone tries to steal your laptop, throw this at them.
If they scaled down these drives in size instead of just concentrating on tipping the scales. They could keep the proportional weight and turn this into a really useful tactile sorting feature. You would be able to find the right drive just by its heft without having to see it. They seem to be planning to prototype drives of 64, 128 and 256 GB which would be pretty expensive as 64 GB drives are at the top end of the consumer price point. We wonder how rugged a drive made of concrete is? Could it withstand all that we put the Corsair Flash Voyager GTR through? As with many of their designs, very few actually make it to market. We’ll have to wait patiently to see if they get picked up by a manufacturer. Let’s hope they remember to lift with their knees and not their backs. Permanent Link
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This simple “iPoop” concept starts with a common wastebasket, and transforms it into a laptop/tablet stand. It’s convenient, although it looks like it would be uncomfortable to hunch over and use. Still, the creator has started a facebook page in an attempt to draw the attention of a manufacturer that can turn this into an [...]
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iRecord has brought a wonderful little Swiss-Army music gizmo to the public eye today. The iRecord Music is a audio recorder, player, shuttle, capture device and USB flash drive. It is able to capture any audio played into its audio in port. Additionally, iRecord captures the analog audio into one of 4 formats: MP3, AAC, WAV, and FLAC. The capture function works either while connected to a PC, storing the files to the PC, or with its internal battery and storing files on it’s 2GB internal memory. You can use a 5V power adapter to power the iRecord for extended recording sessions.
Once the files are stored on the iRecord Music you can upload them to your PC, plug and play just as if it were a simple flash drive. The iPhone generation uses iTunes, the next generation may just use 3G or 4G based services abandoning the PC as a music source altogether. The iRecord Music can bypass the PC step as well, many MP3, PMP, iPhones can plug into the iRecord’s USB host port and within a few seconds recognize the device and start pushing files to it. This function will also require external power, but no PC. Check their site for a list of compatible devices. The iRecord should ship in the first week of June for the wee sum of $80. Permanent Link
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The Toshiba Camileo should be hitting shelves soon, hopefully their marketing team will get to work and change the name. The Camileo is a waterproof pocket camcorder that can take stills and motion pictures in up to 6 feet of water. It can of course also take pictures on dry land; that would make the obvious label the Amphibio. A Chameleon is a lizard which most famously changes color to match its environment. Sorry Toshiba, you lost us on that one. Less widely known is the Chameleon’s ability to move each of its eyes independently. We’ve seen a few video cameras that have come out the ability to take pictures frontwards and backwards, but the Camileo BW10 has no such feature.
Ah, what’s in a name? Did the makers of the Chevy Nova teach us nothing when they tried to market it in Spanish speaking countries? Nova, translates very roughly to “won’t run” and Playsport was already taken. The Camileo BW10 shoots 1080p high definition video in striking color MP4 format. The Camileo shoots in color, not Black and White (B&W, a.k.a. monochrome), for both 1080p video and 5MP stills. The camera supports the up and coming SDXC format for storage up to 64GB, but has no on board storage to speak of. Triumphantly, we find that the Camileo BW10 will be released in 2010 and it is a digital (01) camcorder, which would only be funny to dyslexic nerds. At the end of June, expect to find the Camileo, or hopefully a more appropriately named version of the same, for roughly $187. Permanent Link
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