It’s not everyday that a new product makes us stop and stare. Its even rarer still for me to go "huh? What the heck is THAT?!"; but that is exactly what happened when we first took a look at the press release for the all new La Boite Laptop Dock LD120. The LD120 is as the name suggests BOTH a desk and a speaker system. On first glance, pairing a utilitarian device that is meant to take a pounding (such as a desk), with a precision instrument that is down right FRAGILE (speakers and amp) seems an odd pairing. Upon further investigation... it still is an odd pairing! If room is so tight in your house that you don't even have room for a pair of speakers, then yes we can see the benefit of combing the two. However, as the old saying goes "build it and they will come" and there is no denying that the La Boite Laptop Dock LD120 has built what on paper sounds pretty good. The LD120 combines 120 watts of power via its own built-in amp and multiple speakers with both a laptop docking connector AND a USB DAC. Heck, they even cover the whole shebang in real leather! We must admit that this does sound like a very nice desk and even if it doesn't sound as good as the asking price of nearly $1,300 (980 Euros) infers... it will still make one heck of a conversation piece!
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A-DATA’s Leather-wrapped COB Micro Flash Drive
Let's face it, USB flash drives are extremely useful as you can plug them into a free port and basically forget all about them. Sadly, their ultra small size means that you are also likely to forget all about them when they are NOT plugged in! Most of us have probably lost more of them than we care to remember! This is why on first glance we were not overly impressed with A-DATA's announcement of their "COB" S101. The COB stands for "Chip On Board" as is basically just another way of saying its NAND flash chip and controller chip all fit inside a package not that much bigger than the USB connector! As we have said we have lost so many of these things that buying another one is pretty far down on my list of things to do... right below lion tamer and swimming with sharks with an open wound! With that being said, this little bad boy is not your typical micro USB flash drive. A-DATA has basically taken their normal COB and wrapped a, albeit small 3.35cm, case around it. It may not sound like much, but that case (which only boosts the overall weight to 4 grams) combined with a slider style protection mechanism for the USB connector combined with a black leather wrap DOES sound awfully darn tempting. Sadly, like all micro USB drives this is a USB 2.0 enabled device, so it's not going to win any speed records; however a lifetime warranty couple with a price which promises to NOT "break the bank", the S101 IS going to be darn tempting. This really does sound like a nice little status symbol for the road warrior who wants to stand out... WITHOUT breaking the bank!
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LaCie Hub4 is One Sexy-looking SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub
As more and more computers start to offer USB 3.0 as an option, more and more people are starting to realize the limitations of the USB 3.0 controllers available right now! No motherboard out there right now boasts ONLY USB 3.0 ports; with most offering at best two USB ports or maybe even only one (as the new Fresco Logic FL1000 controller starts showing up in laptops). In theory, this is no big deal for most consumer; but the reality is there are going to be times when your are going to want MORE. When USB 2.0 arrived, the answer was the good old fashioned HUB. Since USB 3.0 offers an insanely large bus at 5Gbits/s, this means you can easily split a single channel four ways and still get speed that are way above what USB 2.0 can offer. The latest USB hub to hit the market is by LaCie. Their aptly named Hub4 offers four USB 3.0 ports and connects to your USB 3.0 enabled system via one SuperSpeed USB cable. Simply plug it in to your system and plug in the power adapter and presto you now have 4 ports that can be used simultaneously with very little real world performance penalty (unless you are rich enough to own four LaCie FastKey’s that is!). Where it is a LACIE product, the styling is as unique and striking as the price tag. With a MSRP of 59.99, it is a tad on the pricey side, especially considering you can get a SIIG 4-port USB 3.0 hub for less which comes with a MUCH longer than 2 year warranty that the Hub4 comes with; but if you want a down right sexy looking USB 3.0 Hub for your sexy looking MacBook Air than maybe the small increase in cost is worth it.
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