I am sure that there are tons of people out there that have old 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch HDDs lying around that are doing nothing other than collecting dust. Those drives are probably still good and you just don't want to trash them. Trendnet has a couple new external HDD enclosures that will let you take those old drives and make blazing fast external storage out of them. The new enclosures include the Trendnet TU3-S35 and the TU3-S25.

The two enclosures have the same features with one notable exception. The S35 supports 3.5-inch SATA I or II HDDs and the S25 supports only 2.5-inch SATA I and II HDDs. Both of the enclosures connect directly to the USB 3.0 port offering up to 5Gbps of transfer speed. The enclosures will support drives with up to 1TB or more of storage space.

The drive housings are both made from aluminum and that aluminum acts as a big heat sink for the HDD inside to keep it cool. The front of the housing has a power button to turn the drives off when not needed. The S35 enclosure will sell for $79.99 and the S25 enclosure sells for $59.99. Both of them will be offered soon online and in retail locations.

This is a bit of an added news bit to something I posted a few days ago in regards to the so close we can smell it cooking on the BBQ - GeForce GTX580 card. Some of the info was missing, and other sites are filling this gap.

We now have a "close to confirmed" TDP of 244W - slightly lower than the 480's rated 250W. Texture fillrate was flagged as one of the bottlenecks of the GTX480 - with the 580 effectively doubling the TMU to 128 - other than these fixes, it's a "fixed" release of the GTX480, something that the GTX480 was meant to be at launch, but cut down for various reasons.

This tweak to the 480 GPU seems to have given a performance increase of around 15 - 20% over the GTX480 while using less power. The source does note, that it must be noted that the GTX480's official 250W TDP (and on their website "maximum board power") was pretty controversial - as NVIDIA reflected typical gaming load for power consumption - where as stress benchmarks like Furmark showed power consumption of closer to 300W - where this is something AMD use as a reference for TDP ratings - at the moment, it is unknown if the 244W figure is referring to gaming load or absolute TDP in stress applications.

Strategy Analytics, a research firm - has said Apple has taken 95% of the 4.4 million unit worldwide tablet market, while another firm finds a very high satisfaction record amongst iPad owners.

Obviously this isn't surprising - as there's not many tablets out there yet that compete with the iPad... but there's some juicier information.

"Global tablet shipments grew 26 percent sequentially to reach 4.4 million units in Q3 2010," said Peter King, Director at Strategy Analytics. "Apple was the clear market leader during the quarter, capturing an impressive 95 percent share with the iPad and beating Android into second place."

Apple is dominating the market for tablets right now. An argument can be made that the main reason for its domination is simply that there are very few alternatives for shoppers to choose from. That lack of alternatives will soon be changing with a number of new tablet computers due to hit the market in the coming months, with several of them set to lend before Christmas.

Despite what is coming to compete with the iPad, the Apple tablet is huge right now with 95% of the tablet market according to Strategy Analytics. The research firm also states that the total market for tablets grew to 4.4 million units for the quarter running July to September. The market for tablets the previous quarter was 3.5 million units.

The new tablets coming to market will give the iPad more competition. The second largest OS on the tablet market right now is Android with only 2.3% of the entire market. A glut of new tablets are coming to market with Android as the OS and that percentage is expected to grow significantly. The research firm expects the share of Android to rise in Q4 with notable tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab running Android on the horizon.

Is it just me, or does even a sneak peak at hardware get you all red faced and jealous?

Gigabyte are about to unleash motherboards that support Intel's upcoming second-generation Intel Core processors (codenamed Sandy Bridge):

First off, we have the P67-UD3R:

InnoDisk have gone beyond our imagination (wink) by introducing their new product, the InnoDisk nanoUSB Dual, which is designed with a small footprint in mind - it is both a USB stick and a Micro SD Card reader.

It is based on a "plug and forget" method - so you can plug it in and barely even notice it sitting there doing it's thang - it has a patent of mini-sized USB connector and a special patented USB schematic taken out by InnoDisk.

And without further chatter from me, let InnoDisk tell YOU why you want one of these nifty devices.

Huntkey has a new computer chassis that is aimed at the user who lives or works in a high radiation and interference environment that wants to shield their hardware from that radiation. The case looks cool in addition to blocking radiation interference from your gear and blocking interference from inside the case for getting out as well. The new chassis is called the Shield H405.

The case has a matte black finish and the company says that it came up with the case design by looking at heavy duty trucks. The case is designed to give the user a sense of power and defense capability according to Huntkey. I don't know about any feeling of power and defense, but it looks cool enough. It also has a mesh front panel and an integrated handle on top.

The main feature of the case is the radiation protection with a single sided baked on finish that helps block electromagnetic radiation. The USB 3.0 connector on top of the computer is wrapped in metal to reduce interference via radiation. The PCI slots in the rear are shielded to protect from radiation and the metal panel on front of the case to prevent radiation is also removable. The case has a 12cm fan inside the front panel for cooling and supports radiators for water cooling. The entire case needs no tools for construction.

The thing that bothers me the most about surround sound is the wires that have to go to the rear speakers. They clutter the room and in some rooms running wires is very hard to do. In this instance, the user can opt to skip the rear channel speakers or they can just run the wires across the room and deal with the looks. Another option is a wireless rear speaker system and Aperion Audio has a new offering that needs no wires.

The system is called the Zona Wireless Surround Speaker System and it has a pair of rear speakers, the transmitter, and the wires needed for connecting it to your receiver. The speakers each have a 4.5-inch woven fiberglass woofer and a 1-inch tweeter. The enclosure is made from MDF and has a ported enclosure. The enclosure measures in at 9.8" H x 6" W x 6.3" D and weighs 15 pounds. The frequency response is 55Hz to 20kHz.

Wireless connectivity is via 2.4GHz tech and the wireless range is up to 150 feet. The transmitter for the speakers has USB connectivity as well allowing the user to plug it into a computer to stream music to the speakers wirelessly. Zona claims that the speakers are audiophile grade and it has a remote control. The speakers are shipping right now for $499 per pair.

When it comes to headphones and earphones, anything will do for some users. For some listeners they want a set of headphones with good sound and the ability to control music. If these listeners are on a music phone like the iPhone, most folks also want headphones that have a mic and the ability to take calls without having to unplug or use speakerphone. Urbanears has unveiled a new set of headphones that is specifically for the iPhone.

The headphones are called the Urbanears Plattan Plus. The headphones have a 3.5mm headphone jack and a remote integrated into the cable. They are made for iPhone certified meaning they function perfectly for controlling the music on the device and for making and receiving calls. The Plattan Plus headphones have controls for answering and ending calls and for adjusting the volume of the tracks.

Urbanears promises that the full-size over the ear headphones will give quality sound and the over the ear design should help to block some external sound and keep the sound created by the music inside. the headphones are offered in four colors incoming red, grey, white, and aubergine. They will ship this week in the US and Canada for $60.

MSI has pulled the wraps off a new notebook that uses tech to help extend the battery with dual GPUs inside. The tech is the same as what NVIDIA has been offering for a while with Optimus, but goes by MSIs own name in this iteration. MSI called the graphics switching tech GPU Boost technology. The tech allows the machine to change from a power sipping internal GPU to a discrete GPU for more power when needed.

The discrete GPU in this case is the NVIDIA GeForce 310M with 512MB of RAM. The notebook also has a special MSI exclusive anti-scratch, anti-smudge raised totem seal coating. I'm not sure what that means other than the thing has a raised embossed finish on the wrist rest and lid. The notebook also has Cinema Pro technology for the best graphics for movies and video content. The screen of the machine is a 15.6-inch LED backlit 720p resolution unit.

The CPU inside the machine can be an Intel Core i3 or a Core i5 depending on options. The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium, and the rig has up to 8GB of RAM. The video output of the machine includes HDMI out and VGA out and a DVD burner is built-in. Other features include an eSATA port, USB 2.0 ports, and a memory card reader. WiFi and Bluetooth are also integrated along with a HD resolution webcam and a 6-cell battery. Pricing and availability are unknown.

It has been a long-standing rumor - a Facebook branded phone... well, Facebook has invited press to it's Palo Alto HQ in the US on Wednesday to supposedly unveil some big mobile news. Speculation on this, is of course Facebook will finally release a Facebook-branded smartphone.

Even some previously top of the mountain mobile King's like Nokia and Sony Ericsson are struggling to keep customers, or release something that stays in the headlines like Apple, Google or Microsoft and their respective phones, or mobile OS's - Facebook is a name big enough in the world to actually do this.

Keep in mind, according to Australian telco's, in Australia alone Facebook could account for up to 80 percent of web traffic on Aussie networks. With Facebook saying they have 150 million of their users accessing their accounts through phones - this is a huge, huge deal.

For fans of a NAS server - if you haven't used one, you really should - 18 months with one myself and I'll never, ever go back, this will be something you will like to read.

Today, Thecus pulled the veil back on their new 4-bay NAS, the Thecus N4200Eco NAS Server which promises to deliver next-generation performance and functionality.

The N4200Eco delivers first-class performance at an economy-class price. The two Gigabit Ethernet ports provide high throughput, which is a perfect match for the N4200Eco's four hot-swappable SATA bays worth of storage potential. Users can install up to 8TBs of storage, and manage it all with multiple RAID modes including RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD. Changing a damaged hard disk is easy, thanks to a slew of useful capabilities including online RAID migration and expansion, hot spare and auto rebuild, and to further protect sensitive data, AES 128bit RAID volume encryption is included as well.

Google has confirmed that it's Street View program has stopped operations in Australia - in the wake of it's Wi-Fi data collection controversy earlier in the year.

Google revealed the news at a Senate inquiry into the practice of protecting the privacy of Australians online - with Google admitting it had indeed "mistakenly" collected data from home networks via it's Street View cars - noting that private emails, web addresses and even passwords were among the data collected.

Iarla Flynn, the head of Google's public policy and government affairs, told the Senate that it's Street View cars driving in Australia and overseas were primarily taking pictures for the service and collecting Wi-Fi information to help with it's location based services. Flynn added "When we discovered the mistake in collection of payload data we stopped all Street View driving and we've not resumed driving here at this time,"

Well! This is turning into quite the fight between the GPU titans, NVIDIA and AMD.

NVIDIA have had information slowly leaking out about their upcoming GF110-based GPU, the GeForce GTX580 for a few weeks now - but the specs and information are starting to get a bit more precise, instead of guesstimates.

For nearly 6 months now, the GTX480 has been the single fastest [single] GPU available - yes the Radeon 5970 is faster, but it's a dual GPU design. AMD had the market for Q4 2009 and Q1 2010, but NVIDIA have at least been able to claim that victory amongst the sour grapes of the card (power, heat, noise, delays, etc).

Bang & Olufsen makes some undeniably high-end gear for audiophiles and video fans. I have tested a few of their offerings over the years for the iPhone and iPods and the stuff looks very cool and sounds really good too. I have also had some of their headphones and speakers for computers in my hands and all around the gear has been top notch. B&O has a line of crazy expensive LED TVs for people with the loot to afford high-end hardware for the living room and the company has announced a new, smaller screen set to its line.

B&O have unveiled, the new 32-inch BeoVision 10 LED TV. The TV uses edge lit LED backlighting and the set measures in at 32" x 29.2" x 2.52" and weighs 59.4 pounds. It can be had in black or white cabinets and the frame of the TV is silver. Several fabric colors can be use do the front for accenting including black, blue, gray, silver, orange, and white. The screen can show 16.7 million colors.

The resolution of the set is 1080p and it has a 120Hz refresh rate. Inputs include a trio of HDMI ports and nothing else. The set has integrated stereo speakers and the set ships with a Beo4 remote with the option of getting a Beo5 remote. There are a number of accessories offered including a motorized floor stand, motorized table stand, and several wall brackets. The TV will ship in November for $4,707 on the low end and goes up to well over $5,000 depending on the options chosen.

I'm not sure why it is that in my area I can't seem to get a reliable 3G connection with AT&T on my iPhone. The connection drops in and out of 3G and will go from one bar to full bars depending on how I hold my head and what time of day it is. Anyone with a similar problem knows how frustrating it can be. My 3G connection might be spotty here in Texas and AT&T may drive me crazy, but folks at the top of Mount Everest can now get full 3G connectivity for voice and data.

A Swedish telecom company called TeliaSonera has wired up a nearby village called Gorakshep that is in the Everest region. The 3G base station near the city has the oomph it needs to shoot a signal to the 17,000-foot peak of Everest. The system has enough bandwidth that a video call was made from a base camp at Mount Everest.

Interestingly the same wireless carrier has the world's lowest 3G station at 4,595 feet below sea level inside a European mine. The 3G service reaches to the top of Everest so now people, can Tweet about their summit adventure or beg for help in an emergency. The new connectivity means that climbers won't have to depend on satellite phones in an emergency. The downside is sherpas will now have to deal with the constant ding of text messages during their climb.

Home theater in a box systems have been around for a long time and they tend to put all of the stuff you need in one package so you don't have to guess at what to buy for a nice home theater system. Not all home theater in a box systems are created equal though, some include cables, the Blu-ray player and speakers while others only have speakers.

Harman Kardon has announced a new home theater in a box system called the HKTS 60 that offers speakers only. The company is well known for its line of speakers and has been selling gear for a long time for computer users and audiophiles, plus it has sound systems in some cars and trucks as well. The HKTS 60 system features a powered 8-inch sub with 200W of power, four identical 2.5-inch dual-driver satellites, and matching center channel speaker.

This particular system lacks the amp and other things you will need to complete the system. The speakers are all you get for your $1199 making this high-end system for the folks with a larger budget. "We have always been committed to designing and engineering products that bring out the most immersive entertainment and music experiences for the home in the most convenient of ways," said Christopher M. Dragon, director of Consumer and Field Marketing, HARMAN Consumer, Inc. "The HKTS 60 - the newest of its kind in the HKTS family - is no different."

Earlier today we visited the BitFenix offices here in Taipei and got acquainted with some of its new case fans and accessories for its range of computer cases.

First up David introduced us to their full range of new Spectre case fans. The fluid dynamic bearing fans come in either black or white and in a range of sizes (12cm - 52 CFM and 18 dB-A, 14cm - 60 CFM and 18 dB-A, 20cm - 65 CFM and 19 dB-A and 23cm - 115 CFM and 20 dB-A) for your cooling needs. There is the standard Spectre that comes in black or white and then there is the Spectre LED that just comes in black with four LEDs if I recall correctly. LED fan colors up for grabs are green, blue, orange, white and red.

Next on the agenda and kind of linked in with the BitFenix fans is the Hydra, which is a LED fan controller. This nifty little black device allows you to hook in up to 9 Spectre LED fans and adjust the intensity of the LEDs on the fans.

Electronic paper screen are on the market in force with several different products being the same basic thing. We have ePaper and eInk for instance that are different flavors of the same tech that offers a black and white image on a screen that uses little power and lacks a backlight. These screens are very common today in devices like eReaders and you can find them on some watches even.

A company called EKING has unveiled a really cool new product called the S700 that claims to be the world's first E-notebook. The device is in a case that looks like a spiral notebook and inside that notebook is a 7-inch digital paper screen. The big difference between this digital paper screen and the ones on devices like the nook or Kindle is that the S700 has color. The screen also support two input methods with resistive touch and electromagnetic induction touch. That means the screen supports navigation with your finger and it recognizes handwriting from a stylus.

The S700 has 3G and WiFi connectivity and can surf the web and check email. Those emails can even be handwritten. When work is done, you can use the device to watch video and play games as well. Other features included a fingerprint security system and a 3MP camera. That camera can take photos of business cards and then put the contact information into the contacts list on the S700. The S700 sounds very interesting and the only issue is that we don't know the price or if the Chinese gadget will come to the US or other countries.

I have seen some strange gear for iPads and iPhones over the years. A new accessory for the iPad called the AppStation looks weird at first glance, but when you think about some of the uses for the device, it's actually pretty cool. The AppStation is aimed at pilots or other users who need to keep an iPad stable and accessible when their hands are busy in a situation where a normal holder won't do the trick.

The AppStation has a Velcro-style strap that holds the iPad holder and iPad to the user's leg near the knee. The iPad holding portion of the AppStation is black polycarbonate material and has a curved back to comfortable fit the leg. The rear of the strand is raised s the screen naturally tilts towards the user. The iPad can easily be inserted and removed from the holder as needed.

The holder also has integrated storage for small items like a Mini Mag Lite flashlight and an iPad stylus. The thing is thin enough to fit in a smallish flight bag or other briefcase. It only comes in black and will fit any version of the iPad according to the maker. The holder is aimed at the pilot who might use the iPad for navigation. However, I think if you fly a lot on commercial aircraft, it might be good for keeping your iPad close while you fly. You can order one right now for $69.95.