Intel Steals iPad Thunder, Launches First Light Peak (aka. LightSpeed USB) Mouse
Not willing to standby and let Apple have all the fun, Intel announces its first Light Peak mouse, the Hyper Mouse LiFe. Light Peak was only recently adopted into the USB governing group at the behest of Intel and their influential board members. The new mouse is said to be the most accurate gaming mouse ever. With over 100x the sensor capacity of current laser and optical mice, the Hyper Mouse LiFe is able to track on more and varied surfaces with almost no interference from dust or hair that has been know to lock up many gaming mice. The LiFe mouse's sensor is huge. At over 1" wide, the sensor is able to accurately track rotation of the mouse. This could take some getting used to as most of us take orientation of the mouse for granted. The possibility for macro programming might be worth the initial discomfort.
Other enhancements taking advantage of the Light Peak (a.k.a. LightSpeed USB) include a GPS function that can actually adjust for the ever so slight interference caused by the rotation of the Earth. Intel has partnered with Pyrite-tech to manufacture the device as well as the sensor. Pyrite-tech expects the first run of the Hyper Mouse LiFe to be ready to ship in June. MSRP is set at only $19.99; the super low price is possible due to the offloading of most of the signal processing being offloaded to the Light Peak controller card. The card is due out early 2011, but will likely compete with current USB 3.0 cards though no price has been released.
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Dual SATA Drive USB Dock can Duplicate HDDs Without a PC
The Startech Dual SATA drive SATDOCK22R is a dual hard drive dock with a little secret. On the outside it looks like a normal USB 2.0 docking station, perfect for accessing or cloning drives from a desktop. The USB 2.0 bus should be able to push or pull data at around 40MB/s. These docking stations are perfect for large organizations where you need to regularly re-image disk drives or upgrade smaller drives to larger disks.
Where the SATDOCK22R truly stands out is that having a connected PC is optional. With a simple AC adapter, the dock is able clone disk to disk using the 2 drive bays without a PC. Just place a source and destination drive in the dual bays, and press a few buttons and the SATDOCK22R starts making byte for byte copies of the hard drive. This would allow you to keep a master image drive at the ready and not tax your computer with all the IO involved in drive imaging. Even better, the SATDOCK22R is able to run these standalone sessions at double the speed of the USB connected version. Startech claims 72MB/s transfers are possible. These are well suited to forensics, where chain of custody requires that evidence is touched as little as possible. This dock makes quick copies with a very lightweight tool. Carrying around a few extra blank hard drives might be a little awkward but those weigh a lot less than a full laptop plus accessories. These are available now for $170 at Startech's site.
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AverMedia Outs "Made-for-China" Mac-friendly HDTV Stick
Mac fans in China rejoice! AverMedia is bringing the industry's first DMB-TH HDTV dongle to Leopard and Tiger. Being a DMB-TH tuner, it can pick up any OTA digital signals whether you are in China or Hong Kong. All those DVB-T and ASTC TV sticks just won't work over there. And for such a tuner to support current Mac platforms, the tuner must be USB to make it easy to install on MacBook Pro, MacBook and iMac. This is certainly a smart move on the part of AverMedia, given the the increasing popularity of Mac machines and explosive growth of mouse potatoes in China.
The AverMedia AVerTV Hybrid M itself has a rather small profile, and actually passes as a notebook-friendly USB dongle in that it's less likely to block adjacent USB ports. Upon installation, the AVerTV Hybrid M took 15 minutes to scan all available channels, at least according to the Hong Kong-based blogger who gave this a try. After 30 minutes however, the HDTV stick started getting uncomfortably hot, and CPU usage hovers around 80% during 1080i broadcast. At $90 USD, the pricing of AverMedia dongle is in line with that of Elgato ASTC / DVB-T sticks.
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A-Data is Gearing up for FIFA World Cup with Flash Drives
With roughly 70 days until the 2010 World Cup championships, A-data has a special flash drive for you to help cheer for your team. These 4GB World Cup commemorative flash drives are suited up and ready to play, in the team jersey of six of the top football (soccer) teams this year. Brazil, Germany, Italy, Korea, Mexico, and the United States are ready to score on your USB port. The six team jerseys house a small USB plug preloaded with some of the usual suspects in trial software.
Sadly, the USB drives don't contain themed content or team photos. There's also an appalling lack of connection between the cap and drive. The jersey/cap does have a lanyard which can be secured, but the drive/feet could easily run off on you. So pick one up and flash your national pride at everyone in your local area.
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USB Beverage Bag Chills Your Soda, but a Little on the Gauche Side
There's quite a few of these USB drink coolers popping up lately, but this one is a little special. Unfortunately, it's special in both the good and the bad way. This semiconductor and carbon fiber constructed cooler is able to wick away heat and rapidly drop the temperature of an enclosed liquid container. Recent reviews of similar USB beverage chillers have returned surprising results. It seems these too-good-to-be-true coolers actually do appreciably lower the temperature. The ad claims to drop your drink down to -10 C in 5 minutes. We aren't sure if this is even possible without tapping into an alternate dimension. Perhaps it was measured somewhere in Antarctica, where -10 degrees is no big deal. Initial reviews do tend to confirm the company's claims.
The other cool feature is the long cord and that this wraps around your drink which can be handled and imbibed without removing it from it's cold wrap. The only real drawback is that this isn't the most stylish PC accessory you've ever seen; it gives one the sense of a sweater on a dog. While dog clothes are accepted in some cultures, most places view them as just odd. If you can get over the eye-sore problem this could really make a nice impact on your workday drinking.
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