Entries Tagged 'gear' ↓

While we've already seen older iterations Netgear's powerline-based networking products, it's just today that the new Powerline HD Plus Ethernet Adapter Kit ($170) and Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit ($150) have become widely available. Both systems transfer data at 200 Mbps over your home's electrical wiring, but the big difference is that the Powerline HD Plus system includes a socket so you don't miss out on the plug space. Now if only my apartment's electrical were as reliable as its airspace, I might consider the purchase. [Netgear]

In case you're looking for a stylish and sturdy third-party keyboard option for your Mac, try out Logitech's new diNovo Keyboard Mac Edition. The peripheral features a full-size layout, nineteen shortcut keys for direct access to Mac programs, an integrated number pad, no cords (using 2.4GHz wireless) and a 3-year battery life. We reviewed the diNovo Edge keyboard in August and loved it. This one, at $99, is about $60 cheaper without sacrificing too many of the features of its more expensive bigger brother.

Logitech Unveils Elegant diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition

Cordless Keyboard Provides Exceptional Comfort of PerfectStroke
Key System, Convenience of 3-Year Battery Life, Integrated Number Pad

FREMONT, Calif. — Nov. 11, 2008 — Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) today unveiled the newest addition to its line of award-winning diNovo keyboards – the Logitech® diNovo Keyboard, Mac® Edition. In addition to offering the exceptionally comfortable typing experience of the Logitech PerfectStroke™ key system, the cordless diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition provides the convenience of a 3-year battery life and an integrated number pad.

"With the recently released diNovo Edge™, Mac Edition, and now this diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition, Logitech is giving people more options when it comes to choosing a keyboard that perfectly complements the Mac design," said Denis Pavillard, vice president of product marketing for Logitech's keyboards and desktops. "While the diNovo Edge keyboard is rechargeable and includes a TouchDisc™ and touch-sensitive volume control, our newest diNovo keyboard has a full-size layout and nineteen shortcut keys that provide quick access to Safari®, iTunes®, Expose®, iChat® and much more."

Featuring the classic diNovo design language, the sleek diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition – with its high-gloss, semi-translucent Plexiglas® frame, sharp angles and thin profile (.87 inches or 22.10 mm from base to key caps) – is an elegant, modern accompaniment to any Mac computer. Plus, when it's time to rest between typing sessions, the built-in, brushed-aluminum palm rest provides a stable, satin-touch base.

For a typing experience that's comfortable and fluid, the diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition features the Logitech PerfectStroke™ key system. PerfectStroke is designed to create longer key travel – 3.2 mm compared to 2.2 mm – than that of typical notebook keyboards, which means that the distance your fingers have to travel to activate a key is optimized for your comfort. And because micro-scissors distribute force evenly across key surfaces, even if you strike the edge of a key, the key stroke still feels the same.

Getting to your favorite applications is as easy as pressing the appropriate F-key. The diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition delivers one-touch access to Mail, Safari, iTunes, Exposé, Cover Flow®, Dashboard, QuickLook and Spaces. In addition, Play, Pause, Mute and Volume buttons simplify media control. (Logitech Control Center software installation is required for some features.)

Because you often use your Mac computer in busy wireless environments, the diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition employs Logitech's advanced 2.4 GHz wireless technology, which dramatically reduces interference, effectively eliminating delays and dropouts. And by optimizing the power management system, Logitech's improved wireless technology enables an impressive 3-year battery life – Logitech's longest.

The diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition can be used with any Mac computer, including the MacBook Air™, iMac®, MacBook® or MacBook® Pro.

Pricing and Availability
The Logitech diNovo Keyboard, Mac Edition cordless keyboard is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe beginning this month for a suggested retail price of $99.99 (U.S.).

About Logitech

Logitech is a world leader in personal peripherals, driving innovation in PC navigation, Internet communications, digital music, home-entertainment control, gaming and wireless devices. Founded in 1981, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (LOGI).

# # #

Logitech, the Logitech logo, and other Logitech marks are registered in Switzerland and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information about Logitech and its products, visit the company's Web site at www.logitech.com.

USB hubs, schmUSB hubs: jam this 5-in-1 charger cable into the back of your machine and you'll be able to charge-up/sync five different gizmos at once (well, probably not all once, but you get what I'm saying). That's if you have an iPod, a PSP, a Nintendo DS, aGBA and a device that connects via mini-USB. Not rocket science by any means, but a handy way of simplifying your desktop wiring clutter, and good for computers with few USB sockets (I'm looking at you, Mr. MacBook Air). Out now for $14. [Gadget4All via BoingBoingGadgets]

Eye-Fi just made a series of announcements that will please existing users. By October 5, their cards, new and old, will receive a firmware update to double photo upload speeds on all models. Also, MobileMe was added to the list of supported services and those interested in advanced functions like geotagging will be able to buy the options in an ala cart subscription menu. Good stuff—read on for the full release.

EYE-FI MAKES PHOTO UPLOADS TWICE AS FAST;

LAUNCHES CUSTOMIZED SERVICE UPGRADES

Also Adds New Photo Destinations; Cards Now Available at Best Buy Stores Nationwide

PHOTOKINA, COLOGNE, Germany, Sept. 23, 2008 – Eye-Fi Inc. (www.eye.fi), makers of the world’s first wireless memory card for digital cameras, today announced enhancements to its family of Eye-Fi cards that will make the upload of digital photos from camera to computer twice as fast. The faster wireless speeds will also be made available to existing Eye-Fi users at no extra cost. In addition, users will be able to upgrade their Eye-Fi cards to add the individual services they want, including Web sharing, geotagging and hotspot access.

“Faster wireless uploads and the ability to add new services to your Eye-Fi card are significant advancements in making it more convenient and rewarding to save and share digital memories,” said Jef Holove, CEO of Eye-Fi. “Even better, we’re able to offer this new convenience and flexibility to current users as well as new customers.”

Beginning October 5, new and existing Eye-Fi card owners can easily add features that are not already included on their cards and renew annual services. By using the updated Eye-Fi Manager Web application, users can add the following services to their cards:

o Web Sharing – Users who have an Eye-Fi Home card can add Eye-Fi’s popular Web sharing service to send photos directly from their camera to one of more than 20 online photo sharing, printing, social networking or blogging sites using a wireless network, saving the time and hassle of manually uploading from the computer. Annual service fee: $9.99.
o Geotagging – Users who have an Eye-Fi Home or Share card can add geotagging to their card. Geotagging invisibly adds geographic information indicating where the photo was taken, allowing users to map where their memories were captured. Annual service fee: $14.99.
o Hotspot Access – Users who have an Eye-Fi Share card can upgrade their card to automatically upload photos away from home at more than 10,000 Wayport hotspots and through open hotspots. Annual service fee: $14.99.

Also announced today, Eye-Fi users will be able to upload photos directly to one of two new online photo destinations: Apple’s MobileMe and AdoramaPix. MobileMe members can wirelessly send photos from their camera directly to their MobileMe Gallery which can then be viewed by friends and family on the Web, iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV. Available now, users will also be able to upload photos directly from their camera to their AdoramaPix account, where they can edit, share and make prints.

As a significant nationwide expansion, Eye-Fi cards will be available for purchase at more than 900 Best Buy stores throughout the United States, as well as at Circuit City, Ritz Camera Centers and major online retail sites.

By October 5, users will be able to enjoy Eye-Fi's faster upload speeds and service upgrades, and purchase cards from Best Buy stores nationwide.

At the Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany, Sept. 23-28, Eye-Fi will demonstrate its family of products in booth # B19b in the USA/Canada Pavilion, Hall 4.1.

Like the Buffalo hard drive I bought in Japan to replace one that died, Buffalo's generically named Portable HD is actually Samsung inside, but in this case, the same kind used in the MacBook Air, so it's incredibly slim and totally pocketable, about the size of a biz card holder. The convenience makes for a low bytes to dollars ratio, though, at $120 for 30GB and $170 for 60GB. Still, I love the design.

Buffalo has come up a new network accessible storage system which not only hangs onto up to 4TB of your files but is also Time Machine and iPhone compatible. OK, so this last bit is over a dedicated web access system and the phone can't save the files, but it can view the contents of music, photo and video files. The LS-QL/R5's 5.1 x 7.1 x 8.7-inch box can fit in up to four 3.5-inch drives, has a RAID-5 option, Gigabit Ethernet, a DLNA server and is due in late September for $560 for a 1TB version, around $710 for 2TB and $1,300 for 4TB. [PCWatch]

Sprint's plans for the next 16 months or so hit the web today, and they pack news of a new BlackBerry, the 8350i. The stout new BB looks to be based on the Curve, with Wi-Fi and GPS along with Direct Connect push-to-talk support without a massive external antenna, which explains the portliness. Looks like a nice offering if your work requires you to be chirpin' at all times, but sadly it doesn't hit until Q4 2009. The rest is a mish-mash of low-end and workgrade gear, which is for your perusal below.

[BGR]

The Gadget: The ViDock Gfx, a box with an ATI 2600XT inside that allows you to add two DVI displays to your ExpressCard Laptop (e.g. MacBook Pro). It doesn't affect your current display setup, which might already have an external monitor being driven by the on-board DVI port, which means you can have a total of three external displays plus your MacBook Pro's going at the same time. Mac and Windows versions are available in both 128MB and 256MB flavors, running at up to 2560x1600 resolution.

The Price: Still TBD

The Verdict: Multitasking bliss. We were able to add two 19-inch, 1280x1024 monitors to our 15-inch MacBook Pro without breaking a sweat. The two extra monitors (we were already running a 30-inch Dell off the internal DVI port) had very little slowdown while being powered through our ExpressCard port, and handled HD video like the Watchmen trailer without any signs of tears or imminent exploding.

What we did notice was that the unit was LOUD. In our pre-production unit, the fan ran started quietly on boot, but ramped up to 100% after a minute or two. It was loud enough to give us AND our unborn children a migraine. The people at Villagetronic said their release units would be softer, but note that the ATI 2600XT throws out a lot of heat. To us this means that you probably shouldn't expect this to be too much softer. Just something to watch out for if you need to use this in a quiet production environment. The other annoyance we've found is that the ExpressCard connection can't be hot-plugged on OS X, so you have to shut down your machine every time you want to swap in or out of the multi-monitor setup or else you'll get that curtain of death. Villagetronic tells us that it's a bug that Apple will fix in the future.

Is this great for multitasking? Oh sweet jeebus yes. You can have all your applications open at the same time, spread eagled across your four displays like Stalin planning to push the Nazis back into Germany (apologies for that undoubtedly historically inaccurate statement). Is it worth the as-of-yet-undetermined cost? Hard to say. Something like this won't be cheap, but if you're like us and value every pixel of your screen as if it's the last chopper out of Saigon (sorry again!), you'll look long and hard at the ViDock Gfx. [Villagetronic]

You know how it is: you're camping in the wild, and your iPhone suddenly runs out of juice, just as you get bored stiff with the music selection you've got aboard it. Previously you'd've had to carry a bunch of stuff around to sort this out, but Macally's PowerLink has come to the rescue. With USB plug on one end and 30-pin iPod connector on the other, it acts as a sync cable, but also has a battery inside to give you a squirt of extra power if you're in a pinch. It also packs a 2GB flash drive, but you'll need to get mp3's off that via iTunes, sadly. No info on how long the battery lasts, but as a 3-in-1 gizmo it's pretty useful. Out "soon" for $49.99. [OhGizmo]

The YSP line is my favorite soundbar because of the sonar-inspired tech it borrows from cold war subs. The YSP-3050 is a new 23-driver model, second best compared to the 42 driver YSP-4000. The upgrade from the 3000 now has a front mounted minijack in, and HDMI upscaling. Like the higher end models, these will provide glorious surround, but unless you wall mount, the speaker blocks a few inches of your TV. [Yamaha]

YAMAHA INTRODUCES THE YSP-3050 DIGITAL SOUND PROJECTOR,

ITS LATEST SINGLE COMPONENT SURROUND SOUND SOLUTION

—New model to its market-leading line offers HDMI, video upconversion, iPod and XM Satellite Radio compatibility, FM tuner and advanced listening settings —

BUENA PARK, Calif.—Yamaha, the innovator in home theater and digital audio and video reproduction, today unveiled the YSP-3050, the latest in its award-winning line of Digital Sound Projectors which focus audio signals into precisely controlled and directed "beams" that provide true multi-channel surround sound from a single component. The YPS-3050 fits neatly underneath a flat-panel television and gives consumers a space-efficient option to installing multiple speakers throughout a room for immersive audio for watching movies, television and sports programming.

The new YSP-3050 features 21 beam drivers, and two woofers, 23 corresponding digital amplifiers, three Cinema DSP programs (movie, music and sports), analog to HDMI video upconversion, high definition video upscaling to 1080i/720p and a 1080p (24Hz and 60Hz) compatible HDMI interface with two inputs and one output to facilitate pure digital connections with the latest home theater components.

The YSP-3050 is XM Satellite Radio ready with XM HD surround sound powered by Neural Surround. The YSP-3050 also offers iPod compatibility via the new optional YDS-11 dock (more information on the YDS-11 below). Once docked, the iPod can be operated (song selection, play, etc.) via the YSP's remote control and on-screen display. Yamaha's proprietary Compressed Music Enhancer technology compensates for the lost detail of audio that is compressed during the "ripping" process, recapturing the essence of the original recording. An integrated FM tuner further broadens the user's entertainment choices.

The YSP-3050 creates a wide soundstage designed to fill the whole room with convincing surround sound regardless of where listeners are seated. Sound settings include 5-Beam, 3-Beam, 3-Beam + Stereo, 2- channel Stereo, My Beam, 5-Channel Stereo and My Surround modes. My Surround mode delivers surround sound to even the most difficult installation environments where walls may not be present or are covered with unsuitable materials. My Beam mode focuses the sound at a specific listening position, so the listener can hear all program audio clearly, including dialog, without disturbing others in the room.

Yamaha's proprietary IntelliBeam™ automated system calibration enables users to quickly and easily set up each system for the optimal listening experience and intuitive, multi-language on-screen displays.

The YSP-3050 offers full support for surround sound standards, including Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS Neo:6, as well as CINEMA DSP technology, to create realistic soundscapes in any room. For late night movie and music enjoyment, a Night Listening Enhancer mode allows dialog and quiet passages to be heard clearly, even at low volumes. The TV Equal Volume mode prevents sudden startling bursts of sound from TV programs and commercials. The model also features SRS TruBass technology to provide exceptionally deep and rich bass response.

The YSP-3050 is currently available for a suggested retail price of $1,399.95.