PC

• Secure your data with the Aegis Bio

  June 14th, 2007 at 8:36:04 PM

   

  Portable hard drives are great for backing up all of your important data. Data that you probably wouldn’t want someone to look at. Yet, they are the easiest to just swipe and take off with. So how do you secure your portable drive? The easiest way I can think of is to get a drive with a biometric scanner like the Bio from Aegis. It has the ability to store up to 10 different fingerprints, so you can let a select few people access it. Or just scan all 10 of your fingers, though it would be pretty pointless.

   

  

   

   

• Hello Kitty Multimedia Keyboard with Wrist Pad

  May 30th, 2007 at 1:23:42 PM

   

  Not only is this multimedia keyboard very pink, it’s got your favorite white kitten covering it - Miss Hello Kitty herself. The keyboard has a detachable plaid-designed wrist pad, a slew of multimedia keys such as “Play” and “mute”, and it has color coded keys as well. The Hello Kitty keyboard retails for $49.99.

   

  

   

   

• Phidgets - a treasure trove of sensors for your PC

  May 20th, 2007 at 1:09:23 PM

   

  Here’s a cool gadget that will surely make modding enthusiasts giddy. It is actually a set of sensors that you can hook up to your PC for all kinds of fun. You get various sensors or “Phidgets” to do with what you please. They include a motion sensor, temperature, vibration, light and magnetic sensors. Some of you might be wondering why on earth anyone would want those things. Trust me, the sky’s the limit on what you can do with them, and since they connect via USB, getting it to interface with your PC will be a breeze. The price isn’t bad for what you get. It’s around $225 for the set. It may be more than some modders want to pay, but those that are looking to create something truly unique will find the price appealing.

   

   

• Smooth Creations Diablo Gaming PC with Matching Peripherals

  April 18th, 2007 at 11:26:17 AM

   

  This computer package is so bright, it practically hurts to look at it. Smooth Creations Diablo comes with a matching LCD, speakers, mouse, keyboard, PC and even a matching ipod. Not only is this package customized with a top of the line paint job, it also comes with top of the line parts. The PC comes packed with a Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Processor, 2GB of ram, two 250GB hard drives in a RAID configuration, and two GeForce 8800 GTX cards. And if the yellowish gold color in the photo is too much for your sensitive eyes, Smooth Creations will cover the package in any color that you choose. Pricing begins at $5,000 for the system only.

   

  

   

   

   

   

• Meet my Server, Bubba

  April 12th, 2007 at 6:29:28 PM

   

  Bubba is both heavier and smaller than I expected, weighing roughly 3.5 pounds and yet scarcely larger than a typical 3.5-inch IDE drive. Four models are available, differing in the size of their hard drive from 80 to 750GB. The Bubba I tested had a 320GB drive. The device comes with a short Category 5 cable, power supply, and power cord. Bubba is much more than auxiliary storage, though that it one of its many functions. It's a real server, perfect for home or small business LAN needs. Bubba serves mail, FTP, HTML, backups, streaming media, and printing. It can also handle HTTP/FTP/BitTorrent file downloads for you. If that's not enough, Bubba runs Debian Sarge and functions as a standalone computer. What makes Bubba different from other servers? First, ease of use. You can do all of these things without being a system administrator. In fact, that's the whole point of Bubba -- to provide services to ordinary home users in a way they'll be comfortable with. Second, it's cute, and it has more functionality packed into a small space than ought to be street-legal. Could such a small device really do server duty? I quickly followed the enclosed directions, connected Bubba to my OpenWRT-powered Linksys router, and powered it up. Bubba sat there and blinked at me with its single LED for about a minute. When the blinking stopped, and the light remained steady, it was time for me to see if Bubba had connected to my LAN. Still following the instructions, I entered "bubba" as the URL in my Firefox browser and pressed Enter, and there I was, on Bubba's welcome page. For those whose connection attempts are not that smooth, the Bubba documentation explains in detail how to connect to Bubba from a PC. In fact, the documentation explains it three times: once for Windows users, once for Mac users, and once for Linux users.

   

  

   

   

• Turn any monitor into a Touch Screen

  April 5th, 2007 at 7:30:27 PM

   

  If you’ve seen those fancy-pants touchscreen monitors and are getting a bit jealous, don’t fret. I’ve got a simple way to turn that plain old monitor into an exciting touchscreen. The MagicTouch USB Touchscreen kit will do just that. For about the cost of a new flat-panel monitor, you can upgrade your existing monitor to a touchscreen. Just mount it on your screen, plug it in, and you’re ready to go. You can get these in a variety of sizes and interfaces. They will work with both LCD and CRT monitors. Probably best of all, they are compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

   

  

   

   

• Low-cost UPS ideal for home

  March 15th, 2007 at 11:59:46 PM

   

  Whether you believe in global warming or not, it does seem to be the case that power brown-outs are growing more common. The easiest way to manage that is a UPS or “Uninterrupted Power Supply”, pretty much a chunky battery in a box that powers your gadgets either until the mains comes back on or to give you enough time shut the system down properly. Problem has traditionally been that they’re pretty expensive; thankfully Ultra Products have decided to roll out a budget range.

   

  

   

   

  The four-model range starts at $49.99 for a 300VA, 150W unit, rising to $89.99 for a 850VA, 425W model. Wikipedia has some guidance on picking which voltage and wattage is suitable for you.

   

   

• Shuttle PC's 1337 SDXI is a Little Guy Who Knows How to Throw Flames

  March 12th, 2007 at 9:19:57 PM

   

  Small and on fire, that is what the Shuttle 1337 SDXI is hoping you will see and feel when you use this compact computer. Internally the Shuttle works on an Intel Core 2 extreme, a 10,000 rpm western digital raptor hard drive, and a 768mb Geforce video card. That would make any computer system overheat if not cooled correctly and thankfully with a liquid cooling system, it keeps everything running like a well tuned car. And speaking of cars, just so that the lucky buyer who buys this gets the full experience - the system is painted in premium grade automotive hi-gloss paint just to make the full effect of looking hot complete. Pricing start at $3,499 and can go much higher depending on how souped up you want to make this - I’m thinking though a car in the end might be a lot cheaper…. Not that the price seems to be stopping anyone, because it looks like the I337 is currently sold out

   

   

   

   

• Buffalo HD-PL200U2/UC

  March 1st, 2007 at 12:31:44 PM

   

  Buffalo Japan has been thinking along those same lines. They have introduced an external drive that holds 200GB worth of your precious data that is made from shock absorbent material. It will go on sale this month in the Japanese market for approximately $280. The price may seem a little steep now, but the first time you drop it you’ll be glad you forked over the extra cash for it.

   

  

   

   

• Cable Management System for PC

  February 26th, 2007 at 8:48:30 AM

   

  If there's one thing I can't stand, it's untidy cables. I've been known to roundly thrash a grown man for leaving a single headphone extension lead trailing messily across the corner of my desk. And if you're going to tidy, then you may as well tidy in style; oh, and with a daft name, too.

   

  

   

  The Bird-Electron Keeperse Cable Organizer satisfies both those factors.  Made from stainless-steel in good old Japan, it's $55 of shiny, cable-taming loveliness.

  Foam fingers grip the cords, while you can bolt the whole thing to a desk or bench through pre-drilled holes.  It could also be used as a toast-rack for very thin bread.

   

   

   

• AMD Radeon X2900

  February 17th, 2007 at 9:10:46 PM

   

  Soon we will start seeing Radeon X2900 XTX in the market with AMD announcing its Final R600 specs. DailyTech reported the GPU will features a full 512-but memory interface and supporting both DDR3 and DDR4.

   

   

   

   

• Kodak EasyShare Printers That Consume Less Ink

  February 8th, 2007 at 11:17:50 AM

   

  Kodak has come out with its new lineup of consumer printers, using KODACOLOR Technology. The all-in-one printers come in 3 flavors - KODAK EASYSHARE 5100 ($149.99), KODAK EASYSHARE 5300 ($199.99), and KODAK EASYSHARE 5500 ($299.99). The printers can print up to 32 pages per minute in black and 22 pages per minute in color, also, if you have a PICTBRIDGE-enabled camera - you won’t need a PC to print with them. The 5300 has a 3-inch color LCD display and a memory card slot, and the 5500 has a faxing feature, as well as automatic document feeder. They claim that with the new technology that they’re using, consumers can print the same number of pages at half the cost of other consumer inkjet printers. We think that the printers are a potential threat to the photo-labs at Walmart and such, as a regular-sized photo will cost you a dime. The 5100 & 5300 models will be sold exclusively in Best Buy in March, and the 5500 is coming out in May.

   

  

   

   

• Vista PC with Gold Memory

  February 8th, 2007 at 11:07:11 AM

   

  f you plan on upgrading your system to run Vista anytime soon, we suggest you take a look at OCZ’s PC2-6400 Gold Edition memory kit to maintain Vista’shunger for RAM. It comes in two dual channel 2-Gb modules, and sports extra impressive performance - due to its original gold-mirrored XTC (Xtreme Thermal Convection) heatspreaders that helps it to keep its cool. The ram runs at 800MHz, 5-5-5 latency timings. Traditionally, OCZ makes one of the best memory modules aimed at gamers, video professionals, and other performance enthusiasts. The price isn’t known yet, but we can assure you it won’t be cheap.

   

  

   

   

• Vision Board Large Keyboard Great Low Vision Aid

  February 1st, 2007 at 10:15:08 AM

   

  Now finally someone got a sense to launch a keyboard which features massive keys to make typing more easier. It becomes very difficult for those with vision or dexterity issues while typing. The Vision Board's new keyboard boosts oversized keys which are nearly twice the size of normal keyboard keys, therefore allowing for better finger contact and control, making typing easier. All the keys provides large print letters and numbers and high-contrast black-on-white (or black-on-yellow) lettering, to help reduce eyestrain and improve readability.  Great for low-vision computer users.  Vision Board 2 keyboard is from Chestercreektech.com
  

   

  

   

   

• MouseTrapper Advance Attaches to Your Keyboard and Mouse to Relieve Typing Stress

  January 31st, 2007 at 6:55:18 PM

   

  The Mousetrapper Advance is designed to prevent and relieve pain caused by Repetitive Strian Injury and typing stress. It is made up of an ergonomically designed, multi-dimensional, steering pad integrated into a cushioned wrist support area which attaches to the user’s keyboard causing normal mouse functions to be performed with your hands positioned comfortably over the Home Keys. The device connects to your PC via a USB connector and can be fitted with most PC and Apple peripherals. And unlike many other ergonomic peripherals which are fitted only for right handed users, the Mousetrapper Advance can help both left and right handed computer users, because lefties are people too!

   

  

   

   

• Happy Hacking Lite 2 keyboard for Mac

  January 31st, 2007 at 6:45:41 PM

   

  The Happy Hacking Lite 2 keyboard is out in Japan. Fujitsu obviously designed this little guy with the Mini Mac in mind, it’s total width is less than twice the size of the Mac Mini, measuring in at just under a foot long. Surprisingly, with that reduction in size they still manage to get all of the essential keys on there, and still have room to get a couple of USB 1.1 ports on there.

   

  This keyboard is compatible with PC hardware but we are not sure if it will work on a Linux machine.

   

   

   

   

• Blu-ray Burner from MCE for Mac

  January 25th, 2007 at 12:28:31 PM

   

  MCE Technologies introduces it's Blu-ray internal burner for the Power Mac and Mac Pro series computers. MCE's Mac Pro and Power Mac G5-compatible drive will give you 2x reading and writing speeds on Blu-ray discs, as well as the usual less-than-speedy burning times for CDs and DVDs. The key to the Mac compatibility is, of course, Roxio's Toast 8 Titanium software, which first declared its Mac Blu-ray support last summer but so far hasn't been able to put it to much use.

   

  

   

   

• Dell Ships Open Source Computers

  January 24th, 2007 at 6:42:13 PM

   

  Dell has it figured out. You don’t need a pre-installed OS. If you are looking for a bare-bones system, Dell’s n Series is about as bare as it gets, shipping with FreeDOS instead of Windows, a first for the mail-order PC maker. This means that out of the box you can install Linux variant of choice. Or, if you have one of those Windows disks laying about, you can use that. Of course, you can opt to have Dell do the Windows work for you, but where’s the fun in that?

   

  

   

   

   

  
  

• ASUS introduces it's Vista Friendly Motherboards

  January 24th, 2007 at 6:35:03 PM

   

  With the impending release of Vista, Asus is now offering four new motherboards designed especially for use with the new OS. The cornerstone feature of the new mobos is the ScreenDUO, a secondary display that allows users to view important system information without having to start the PC. It can synchronize from the PC or websites and display RSS, meeting schedules and various other data. Also added to the lineup is the AI Remote, a small (I think IR) remote that can control system functions like ON/OFF, sleep mode and more. In addition to these two external features, Asus has added Trusted Platform Module (TPM) support, for enhanced data protection with high-level encryption/decryption. And finally, Asus’ new Accelerated Propeller (aka ASAP) provides fastered boot times and program initiation. The new features are available on the following motherboards: M2N32-SLI Premium Vista Edition, P5B Premium Vista Edition, M2N-Plus Vista Edition and P5B-Plus Vista Edition.

   

  

   

   

• USB to IDE & SATA Combo Adapter Cable

  January 22nd, 2007 at 9:39:37 PM

   

  Need to transfer off contents on an old hard drive?  Cable makes your life a lot simpler by illuminating the need to put an IDE or SATA hard drive in to an enclosure to access it’s files. Using the adapter cable, all you need is a USB connection and you can then access and transfer off all the files you want to your heart’s content. The cable costs $19.95, making it not just a more convenient but also a cheaper alternative to most hard drive enclosures.