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CES 2010 - On the 2nd day of CES 2010 we stopped by Netgear to see some of their new toys. The tag line for this year is "anywhere, anytime, any media, any screen" To this end Netgear was showing off a few new and very interesting products. The most interesting was the Stora.

This is a highly available and powerful NAS device. We were shown that regardless of the screen we could play media. At one point we were all invited to connect to Netgear's wireless network and to access the "mystora" web page. From there we could view all of the photos, and videos that were stored there, it was pretty cool and something that beats out traditional NAS devices in terms of functionality. The connectivity was not limited to the internal network either. Stora can be accessed over the internet as well.

Some of the features of the Stora are

Details have surfaced regarding a new CPU cooler on the horizon from Xigmatek which it calls the Carbonado (S1284V).

As you can see from the image above, this is another tower-style cooler which of course includes Xigmatek's HDT (heat-pipe direct touch) technology with the use of four 8mm heatpipes.

Dimensions come in at 120 (W) x 60 (H) x 159 (D) mm with a weight of 660g. The included 120mm fan uses a transparent housing and blades and white LEDs, spinning at between 1000 and 2200rpm.

CES 2010 - In prep for CES, Zalman has unveiled three new products this week and the folks at Hardware Canucks are the first to get the scoop on them prior to the commencement of the show.

First up is Zalman's new CNPS10X Performa CPU cooler, a tweaked derivative of the other two CNPS10X coolers in this lineup. Zalman does away with unnecessary cosmetic attributes whilst retaining the features that make it a highly competitive cooler in a lower price bracket.

Next is the new VF3000 series VGA cooler which is suited to both current and older high performance graphics cards with its dual 92mm fans and a quartet of large-diameter copper heatpipes.

CES 2010 - While many know CES as a time when the big companies launch all of their new hardware and projects for the year there are quite a few other companies there. These are the little and not so little guys that are pushing their products on the market in an attempt to get some press time.

While at CES Unveiled we got the chance to walk around and talk to a few companies that you might not have ever heard of, but that had some impressive products nonetheless. One of the first ones that we saw was a company called ZOMM ( which stands for Zachry, Olivia and Madison's Mom). The device they were pushing was also called ZOMM and was pretty impressive. When I first saw it I thought it was nothing more than a new form of Life Alert. However after a quick talk I found that I was way off the mark. ZOMM is a wireless leash, speaker phone, caller id and much more for your Bluetooth enabled cellphone. ZOMM was created by Laurie Penix, as a way to help people keep track of their Cell Phones. But the idea did not stop there.

The ZOMM is a small round device that can fit easily onto your keychain. From there you connect it to your phone Via Bluetooth. Once it is connected it can alert you if you are too far from the phone. This acts as an invisible leash and can help you if you are prone to forgetting to pick up your phone. But as we mentioned there is more to it. It is also a fully functional speaker phone and can also be used to as a caller ID device. The last feature was is the one that had me thinking of life alert. This was the personal alarm feature. According to ZOMM as this is a Bluetooth device and works through your cell phone it will work in any country without issue.

CES 2010 - CES Unveiled a preview event before the big show begins is still underway here in Las Vegas, but it was extremely crowded and there wasn't a whole bunch of stuff there that impressed.

One thing that did draw the crowds was Parrot's AR.Drone quadricopter. It's a toy that is said to allow video games to become reality. It comes with wireless networking support and two cameras - one on the bottom to track speed and one at the front to provide a cockpit view.

You can control the copter from your iPhone or iPod touch at this stage after linking up to it over wireless. Parrot also has launched the toy based on a open platform and has an SDK for registered developers who wish to built games and apps based around it for folks who like this kind of thing, and seeing it in person - I'm sure I could mess around with it for hours without getting bored.

I have often wanted to put a computer in the living room so I could play games on my big screen. I never did it because I don't want my massive gaming desktop sitting in the living room. A company called iGugu has unveiled a new device called Gamecore that can solve this problem.

The Gamecore device consists of a wireless remote, a transmitter, and a receiver that can send the game to your TV from your PC. The transmitter and receiver have to be connected with network cable, which is an issue.

The main component of the system is the Gamecore wireless remote that features a trackball, joystick, QWERTY keyboard, and six accelerometers allowing the device to support motion control of games. Pricing and availability are unknown at this time.

I am a big fan of wireless computer gear; I have more cables running across my desk than I want. It would be great to shed all those cables and go wireless. Iomega has announced a new external storage interface device called the iConnect that will cut some of those wires.

The device has built-in wireless connectivity and a pair of USB ports that allow the iConnect to be used as a wireless print server and a wireless network storage device, assuming you plug an external hard drive into one of the USB ports. The device supports 802.11b/g/n networks and has a wired gigabit Ethernet port as well.

The iConnect is compatible with Apple Time Machine backups and works with Windows computers as well. It supports CIFS/SMB/Rally (Microsoft), AFP/Bonjour (Apple), HTTP, HTTPS network protocols and can be configured for remote access from anywhere in the world. The device will ship in February for $99.99.

I'm not sure what to make of the smartbooks starting to hit the market. The first time I saw a netbook I thought the devices would never make it and today I own one and love it. I'm not going to say that the smartbook is not going to make it right now, but the things are costly enough to put them head to head with many netbooks.

Lenovo has announced its first smartbook called the Skylight that is set to ship this spring. The machine runs a 1GHz Qualcomm snapdragon processor. This is the same processor found in some smartphones. The device has a 10-inch screen with HD resolution.

Lenovo claims that the battery life is long enough for ten hours of straight use. The device appears to have a proprietary operating system and is designed for surfing the web. The device will sell for $499 when it ships and Lenovo says that AT&T will be offering a subsidized version. I'd rather have a netbook with Windows at that price.

WirelessHD will be given an update in the near future and the companies backing it up have already outlined the goals for this 2.0 revision.

The WirelessHD Consortium says the next-gen WirelessHD specs bring :-

- Data transfer speeds in the range of 10 to 28 Gbps so as to provide enough bandwidth for higher resolution content

A pretty outrageous motherboard has been spotted online from eVGA which they will quite likely show off during CES which kicks off in a few days.

This thing is an absolute monster; a dual socket LGA-1366 offering which looks to be Intel 5500 "Tylersberg" or X58 powered with ICH10-class Southbridge. It is neither XL-ATX or EATX in exact dimensions with a said length of 13.58 inches (344.93mm) and possibly a little wider than EATX as well.

Each LGA-1366 socket gets six DDR3 DIMM slots with independant 3-phase digital PWM circuit, whilst the CPU sockets themselves get 8-phases each. The CPU VRM requires input from an 8-pin ATX and also what looks to be an additional 6-pin +12V (PCI-E) connector. Further to that is a spot for additional 6-pin PCI-E power along with the usual 24-pin ATX connector to feed the beast, albeit some of these extra power inputs may only be needed for extreme overclocking.

With CES coming up there are hoards of new flash drives and other gear hitting the market that support USB 3.0. Most of the new products I have been seeing lately are USB 3.0. Today a new flash drive turned up form Team Group called the X092 that is not USB 3.0.

The drive is USB 2.0 and eSATA certified and offers fast read and write speeds. When connected via eSATA the drive is good for read speed of 110MB/sec and 40MB/sec write speed. The drive has enough performance to transfer a 4.5GB movie file in 42 seconds.

The X092 will be offered in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities and is RoHS compliant. The thing is covered by a two year warranty and weighs 24 grams. Availability and pricing info is unknown at this time.

Nintendo ruled the roost for the first couple years of the Wii's availability in the gaming console market. Recently the demand for the console has slipped greatly leading to some rough quarters for Nintendo.

Rumors are circulating that Nintendo and Intel are in talks for a Larrabee CPU with graphics built-in to power a new Nintendo console. Exactly what console it could be is unknown. We do know that Nintendo trademarked the Zii moniker and many expect a Wii HD to hit this year.

It seems that Intel could possibly be powering the graphics and CPU for the new console. Some expect that the next Nintendo console may not hit until 2011. With profits falling I expect to see new Nintendo hardware sooner rather than later.

In what seems to be a flashback to the Lynnfield/P55 launch we now hear that H57 boards from at least one manufacturer are showing up for sale in the Taipei computer market. The culprit this time is the Asus P7H57D-V EVO, the problem? Well the launch for this and the CPUs that support it are not until sometime in January.

What does this mean for Clarkdale and the new H5x chipsets? Well it can go one of two ways really. The first is the worse of the two scenarios as we start seeing Clarkdale Core i5 CPUs hitting the shelves in the same stores in Taipei. At the time of this writing that is not the case. The other is one where the boards hang out and are picked up by those wanting to get an early start on Clarkdale Core i5 and i3 CPUs.

But no matter which way it goes the Asus H57 board is a little higher priced that it should be. It runs for about $240. This is more than many P55 boards will run, but I suppose they are banking on the IGP on the CPU to make the cost seem more logical. The issue still remains that we do not yet know if the IGP on Clarkdale is worth the extra money or not.

This past week rumors have been circulating around the good ole Internet that DFI is quitting the enthuaist and retail motherboard business.

We have heard plenty of rumors on the story that both claim that DFI is quitting and ones saying that DFI isn't quitting the business. I'll put it out in the open that we had it from a reliable source last night over an IM chat that DFI is indeed quitting from January 2010, but is trying to kills the rumors as it still wants to sell the rest of its stock and use the parts its ordered from the likes of Intel and Foxconn.

To be honest, I don't know what to believe. However, we just received an email from Alex Cheng at DFI reiterating that no such decision has been made for DFI to quit the business. Here is what we got from Alex:

Cooler Master is at it again, as they are gearing up to launch another wide bodied case. This time they are going to throw in a PSU for your enjoyment. The case will be named USP 100, this stands for Universal System P100. While not the most inspired name, it does not reduce what looks like an excellent case.

The USP 100 is a little over 8.4-inches; this give plenty of room for larger air cooling gear. It also allows for extra space to make cable management easier. In fact CM has left about a half inch between the motherboard tray and the case cover. The USP (as we mentioned above) comes with a PSU, this is going to be Extreme Power Plus 550. The rest of the specs are nice and include four-5.25 inch drive bays, and seven-3.25 inch bays. All of these are the typical tool less design. The USP comes with a single 120mm fan that is lit with a RED LED, but has room for three additional 80mm fans.

The USP 100 should retail at around $100, which is a great price for a case and a PSU. We will see the USP 100 hit the stores sometime in Q1 2010.

The folks over at Netbooknews.de have managed to get hold of a bunch of snaps of ASUS' highly anticipated upcoming 1005P series Eee PCs which recently appeared on etailers websites in the UK and Europe.

Whilst we see black and white versions here, there's also supposedly a blue variant coming to market under this new family as well.

The most exciting aspect of the 1005P Eee PCs is that they run Intel's next-gen Atom N450 (Pineview) processor. There will be two slightly differing models in the new family, as per the following (translated) specs :-

In its final set for 2009, AMD has just released the Catalyst 9.12 drivers for XP, Vista and W7 in both 32 and 64-bit flavours.

Catalyst 9.12 brings support for DirectCompute 10.1 using Radeon 4700/4800 series cards in both single and Crossfire configurations as well as OpenGL 3.2 extension support across the full range of cards going back to the HD 2000 series.

Only a couple applications are mentioned as far as performance improvements go. These include :-

Looks like the ION2 chipset for Intel's Atom may be delayed. Originally it was supposed to hit the streets before the end of 2009, but now we hear rumors that it will not hit until sometime late in Q1 2010. Why the delay? Well, due to the delayed acceptance of the original ION, OEMs are reluctant to see ION 2 come out as it would cut into sales of the devices they are currently selling. This if true is sort of underhanded but not unexpected. Still I hope this is not the real reason as it would not look good for NV. After all holding back improved products to make a few more dollars on existing ones is sort of anti-consumer now isn't it?

So this means that we wont see ION 2 until after CES just so a OEMs can sell a few more original ION systems. As far as seeing ION 2 at CES, I doubt it unless it is a mock up that says it will have ION 2 inside on the label. On the good side the new ION 2 will be significantly more powerful than te current one as it will pack upwards of twice the shaders in the first ION. Battery life is also being extended as well.

The winter Olympics are coming up soon and we will be able to see all the crazy downhill skiing and snowboards that we want. A big undertaking like the Olympics requires lots of computing hardware and Acer has issued some special edition notebooks to celebrate its involvement.

Acer is offering special Aspire 1810T, 4810T, and 1410 notebooks and a special G245H LCD. The special edition products have the Acer Olympic logo on them. The notebooks have the logo on the lid and the wrist rest area and the LCD has the logo on the rear.

Acer has also announced that it will be proving 6,500 different pieces of equipment to the Olympic games. Acer will also send 100 engineers and technicians to manage the hardware it is providing for the games.

eBook readers are huge right now with an unprecedented demand for them this holiday season meaning that many of the new devices are unavailable. As eBook adoption grows, the demand for more content is growing as well.

Borders has announced that it is investing in Kobo, an eBook store, and will be investing in a new eReader. The eBook service will be built into the Borders.com website starting in 2010.

So far, Kobo plans to offer about 1.8 million books from the Internet that are available free. It will also have 200,000 other books starting at $9.99 each. What the eReader itself will look like is unknown, but Borders said that it hopes to reach the reader who only buys a few books each year. The device would have to be cheap to do that.