LaCie's Monami Hub-dock-drive Prototype Steps Outside the Box with Speakers and Mouse
Now we've seen more than our fair share of USB drive docks, but this one is really out there. Yanko is pretty famous for thinking outside the box and giving us a new way to look at old devices. This all-in-one docking station called Monami is built around an 2TB external hard drive for storage. There is of course the obligatory USB hub function with four available USB ports. While three of the ports are hidden from view, one of the ports is mounted on top. This top port marries to the 16GB USB flash drive they have designed to look at home atop this nouveau objet d'art. There's also a downfiring USB speaker for extending the audio range of your Mac / PC speakers.
The deceptively featureless mouse is meant to be manipulated in 3 ways. The normal X, Y motion on a desktop works as normal. Clicking is accomplished with the multi-touch surface of the mouse, similar to Apple's magic mouse. The most novel change is that the snuff can shaped mouse can be turned on its side and rolled to control volume or jog shuttle forward in videos. Très chic. There's also a magnetic leather pimple on the top that takes up about half of the top surface. Really not too sure who thought that was a good idea. At any rate, it's just an artist rendition and chance are about a million to one that it will actually get produced. Yanko always does a good job at making us look at the world in a slightly different way and for that, we thank you.
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Razer Abyssus (Mirror Edition) Gaming Mouse Really Shines
The Razer Abyssus Mirror edition puts some ... appeal into their serious gaming mouse. With a new black chrome mirror finish, this is a mouse that really longs for the light of day, even if you don't. It's packing all of the same frag-tastic features of the first Abyssus. A 3500 DPI infrared sensor and zero acoustic teflon feet make for a direct translation of thought to movement. The 1000Hz ultrapolling also makes a return to make sure that every effortless motion is sent to your computer.
The only downside of this mouse is the lack of any fancy programmable buttons, aside from the normal ones of course. You'll have to get by with this very traditionally designed mouse with a super hot paint job. The major upshot here is the lower price. The scaled back features, compared to other high tech mice, lead to a price that's pretty amazing. With an MSRP of $59.99, you can't afford not to have one. Serious gamer or not, even business users will see some benefit from having such a well oiled machine. It's available for pre-order now and set to ship May 14th.
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Seagate GoFlex Embraces Interface-independent External Storage, Still Loves USB
It could be a headache for Seagate marketing folks choosing which interface(s) to go with the all the different FreeAgent drives. While it's obvious the way to go is having all three (i.e. USB 3.0, eSATA, FireWire 800), this also drives up the cost, not to mention most people would only use one or perhaps two of the available options anyway. The current external drive line-up is dominated by USB 2.0 with the exceptions of the FreeAgent Xtreme, BlackArmor PS 110 USB 3.0, and of course the NAS-series. Now, Seagate lets you figure out what you need with the debut of the new GoFlex.
In a nut shell, the Seagate GoFlex drives have no built-in interface. You simply connect to your choice of USB 2.0, USB 3.0, eSATA or FireWire 800 by swapping adapter cables. Whether the GoFlex is portable 2.5" or desktop 3.5", all ship with the USB 2.0 cable as standard option. One caveat is that the adapter cables are different for the portable and desktop drives.
Seagate also announces two GoFlex compatible "extenders" to complete the eco system. First one is a Pogoplug-powered USB NAS add-on which accepts up to two GoFlex Portable units. The second one is a network-ready HD media player with a GoFlex drive slot. In another departure from the norm, Seagate has dumped the entire line of Mac drives, and now it bundles Apple NTFS driver with all units. Another thoughtful add-on is a dock with nifty LED capacity gauge. Pricing for all the GoFlex drives, the adapter kits, and extenders can be found on Seagate website.
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