Motorola WiMAX USB Adapter Gets Serious Signal Booster
Motorola has a new add-on for their WiMAX USBw 200 adapter. It's effectively a docking station for the mobile adapter with it's own power supply and larger antenna. The larger docking station sits upright and accepts the USB WiMAX adapter into its center. The elevation and angle should provide a modest improvement in signal by itself. Using the docking station's dual internal antennas the sensitivity of the unit is roughly doubled from 3db up to 6db.
The USBw 200 adapter doesn't need any other drivers to support the docking station. The USB dongle has all the drivers you need within its on-board flash memory. Unfortunately, the USBw 200 only has drivers for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. WiMAX service is only available in a few select cities but continues to roll out. Service may not be available for you yet, but the USBw 200 has been out for a few months and the new docking station should arrive later this year. We expect more pricing details as the shipping date (Q2 2010) gets closer.
Permanent Link
Read More ...
Droid Hack Adds USB Host Capability to Moto's Android Handset
Members of the device tinkering community have managed successfully get a Droid device to connect to USB peripherals. The Linux-based Android OS should be readily extensible, but the hardware that is wrapped around the OS isn't always conducive to all the possibilities. The trick isn't quite polished, it involves making your own USB cord and some cable swapping during a hard boot. It's still a little buggy, but it's a great step forward.
Once the hack gets a few more people working on it, there should be more stability. Currently, it's not even really useful, devices are detected and powered up but not quite accessible. With the door open the Linux community should hop on board and knock the kinks out of it. Being able to access flash drives, MP3 players, TV tuners or digital cameras through USB On-The-Go should help extend high power cell phones like Droid into mobile Internet devices. Any thing that can run on Linux should be able to work on Droid. Look here for more news, hopefully wiring diagrams for the cable will show up so you can get in on the phone too. Video demo after the jump.
Permanent Link
Read More ...
Concept Combination Lock Flash Drive Looks Like a Pacifier, Also for Suckers
While we are really big fans of security, Yanko, you're doin it wrong. They have a new concept in flash drives they are shopping around. It looks like a lollipop or pacifier with a hollow ring dial. The USB connector is secured inside the device similar to flip-out style flash drives but it's locked inside. Spinning the dial, you enter your combination which allows you to flip the connector out and it functions as normal. Remove the drive and retract the connector and it's locked again.
Currently, the drive only sports the physical security of the lock. Snap the drive open and your secrets are compromised. That's if you actually struggle with the 2 digit combination. It would only take 99 tries to figure out the combination and free drive and free data. The only thing this device is really good for is slightly increasing the effort it would take to get your goods, only slightly. It is a good idea, at least it's headed in the right direction but we are gonna have to recommend the beefier entrants over this cupcake.
Permanent Link
Read More ...
Power-sipping & Secure, Logitech MK710 Desktop Set Sets New Standard
Not much to look at really, the new Logitech MK710 is a decent wireless desktop set including what looks like to be an ordinary cordless keyboard and a sculpted laser mouse. Logitech found a way to jazz it up a little bit with some very important features. The edges of the keys have been contoured and sculpted for comfort. There's an LCD screen instead of annoying LEDs to indicate CAPS LOCK, mute and battery status. Not sure if they even needed to include battery status because the keyboard is reported to be able to for THREE years. That's longer than most of our hard drives. The mouse is rated at the same 3 year marathon stamina level. You can throw out the mouse, and replace it with another Logitech Unifying mouse such as the Anywhere MX or Performance MX. We're still scrounging for details, but most Logitech mice take 1 AA and their keyboards take either 2 AA or 4 AAA. Either way, it's not something you'll really need to worry about once you set it up.
The other major aspect of this keyboard, which is way overdue from manufacturers of wireless devices, is encryption. War-typing is an uncommon but very real threat to personal security. Wireless keyboards send their keystrokes over the airwaves and anyone with an antenna and some know-how can snoop your typing for passwords and important information. The MK710 keyboard uses 128-bit AES encryption to keep your strokes from prying eyes. With at least some expectation of privacy, it's a keyboard that you should use for a long time. The MK710 desktop set will hit the shores around April of this year for $99.
Permanent Link
Read More ...
No comments:
Post a Comment