Apricorn Aegis NetDock Rounds out Your Netbook with Extra DVD, HDD & Hub
With the success of the netbook and their very spartan features, we're surprised we haven't seen more of these. The Apricorn Aegis NetDock - belonging to the same product line as the biometric Aegis USB drive - is an ultra slim docking station that is a perfect complement for your waif netbook. In a tiny package that looks barely big enough to be an external DVD-ROM, you get a whole more. The Ageis NetDock packs a dual layer DVD burner capable of 8x speed DVD writing. There's also four USB 2.0 ports for connecting all your peripherals, speakers, mice or keyboards. This way your netbook can be a comfortable word processing system even in very cramped quarters like a dorm room. For even more convenience, two of the four USB ports are always powered making ideal candidates for cell phone charging.
The Aegis also has a 2.5" SATA connector which allows you to add extra hard drive space to the USB docking station. This is one of the bigger cripplers for netbooks, lack of storage on the cheapest models. Many netbooks coming equipped with only 16 or 32GB drives, storing even a few MP3s or AVIs could quickly max your available space. The NetDock ships with a power adapter but there's a decent chance that the DVD reader and hard drive would work fine on USB power alone. DVD burning and larger hard drives, especially both together, might be a little too much for the USB bus. Otherwise, this docking station might function on the road without extra power. The published specs don't make mention of that possibility and will likely vary with drive configurations, so take care if you intend to use it out and about. More sedentary applications with ready access to power will benefit greatly from all the feature in the tiny package. The Apricorn Aegis NetDock is still only available for pre-order at $89 (no HDD) or $189 with a 500GB drive. The company is promising to start shipping in early March, which would be now.
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Shrunken Elgato EyeTV Hybrid Mac USB TV Wears Windows 7 Badge
It's been a year since the release of the improved 2009-model EyeTV Hybrid, and without a name change, Elgato once again revamps the Mac USB HDTV tuner, now featuring a even sleeker chassis. The 2010 model includes pretty much you would find on last year version, including top notch ATSC reception; unencrypted Clear QAM; EyeTV 3; streaming to iPhone / iPod touch; and least but not least, ability to receive NTSC broadcasts. Even though America has stopped analog TV altogether, the analog source still finds its use in archiving VCR and recording video gameplay.
If you don't have a Mac, then there's little reasons to justify dropping $150 on this HDTV dongle. Perhaps the new Windows 7 Media Center compatibility might change your mind. Boot camp users may also find this to be useful when they are staying with Windows. The lack of a hardware encoder (needed to transcode video to lower bit-rate for space saving reason) also leaves something to be desired since not everyone is interested in letting the EyeTV Hybrid consuming over 8GB per hour on some slow-paced TV show (i.e. LOST).
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