A subsidiary website of cnet dubbed 'crave' has posted up some very brief details of a USB keyboard with a difference, it sports a built-in touch screen and stylus on the right-hand side for handwriting recognition.

Unfortunately very little about this unique keyboard has been revealed just yet, particularly in terms of what purpose the handwriting area is primarily designed for. However we do know that the overall dimensions of the keyboard are 16.22-inches x 6.3-inches x 0.51-inches, weighing 28.32 ounces. Pricing is also confirmed to be quite low at around $25 from DealExtreme.

Imation has launched a new internal USB 2.0 dock for its Odyssey removable hard disk storage system as well as a new 250GB drive. This might not seem like a big deal, but the Odyssey system is targeting business users that need a solid and reliable removable storage solution. The hard drives can be encrypted using 256-bit AES encryption and Imation supplies EMC's Retrospect software which is known to be one of the best backup solutions on the market.

The hard drives are SATA based and the cartridge they're in is shock-protected and has been designed to withstand a drop from up to one meters height. There's an external USB 2.0 docking station already available and the new internal 3.5-inch USB 2.0 docking station means that you don't need to clutter your desk with an external dock.

Belkin has launched what it simply calls a Network USB Hub which allows you to share and access printers and USB storage devices over your wireless network. Rather ingenious, although being able to share printers on a network is hardly something new and there are already routers that can share USB storage devices. The trick here is that Network USB Hub can connect to any and all routers or even a switch or a hub.

The neat thing here is that the Network USB Hub can share some devices that traditional print servers or network sharing routers weren't too fond of, such as multifunction printers, digital cameras and scanners. It can also be used for backing up data from a USB storage device or even a digital camera to a NAS.

Sony has announced a new range of Memory Stick PRO Duo cards in 2 and 4GB sizes that ships with a DVD loaded with four movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment. The movies are Click, Ghost Rider, RV and Stomp the Yard. You do need a computer to take advantage of the free movies though and you can only "unlock" one with each purchase of a Memory Stick.

The movies are formatted at 720 x 480 resolution and they will play on the PSP as well as on the PS3. The 2GB card will set you back US$55 and the 4GB version is priced at $90. In related news, Sony will be releasing a 2GB and 4GB version of its Memory Stick Micro card in November. The Memory Stick Micro format is commonly used in Sony Ericsson mobile phones and some Sony Cyber-shot digital cameras. The pricing is the same as for the Memory Stick PRO Duo cards.

LaCie, the somewhat famous external drive manufacturer has got a new designer onboard, Sam Hecht. We can't say that he's familiar to us, but apparently he's into practical design, that's a first. In all fairness, the new drives look quite usable, if a bit bland for something from LaCie.

Rather than using some kind of metallic finish the new Little Disk family as it's know as uses a "oh so in fashion" shiny piano black finish. LaCie's product manager Nolwenn Rozen had the following to say about the new drives

"Designed for simplicity, the 1.8- and 2.5-inch drives are extremely portable and are bus powered, eliminating the need for A/C power. So whether you are on a bus, taking the train, or relaxing at the park, your data is always accessible."

Trendnet has joined a growing group of manufacturers that are starting to integrate Gigabit Ethernet into their routers and the TEW-633GR doesn't stop there as it also features 802.11n Wi-Fi. This should be a great choice for anyone looking for a performance router at home, even more so for those that are able to get faster than 100Mbit internet connections, as this is one of only a few routers to incorporate a Gigabit WAN port.

It might not be the coolest looking router around, but it has everything you could wish for in terms of features. It works with Cable and xDSL modems and supports all standard protocols. The wireless access point can also be set up in bridge mode and Trendnet claims a coverage range of up to 150m indoors and up to 400m outdoors.

Intel, HP, Microsoft, Nec, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments have announced that they're developing a new USB standard simply called USB 3.0. The new standard is claimed to be ten times faster than USB 2.0 and it will target fast sync-and-go applications on PC's, mobile devices and consumer electronics.

USB 3.0 will remain backwards compatible with current USB standards, but it will be more power efficient and better optimized for low power drain. An optical version is also meant to be developed, but how this is meant to interface with various devices wasn't made clear.

The first draft specifications should be ready in the first half of next year and the first implementations we'll see will be in the form of discrete chipsets. Apparently over 6.2 billion USB devices have been shipped since 2001 and 2.1 billion of those last year alone. Goes to show how many of the peripherals we use are connected via USB.

Creative has officially launched its Aurvana X-Fi noise canceling headphones today and these premium headphones will go up against products like the Bose Quiet Comfort 2. They're priced at the same costly US$299.99, well, the Aurvana's are actually 99 cents more expensive than the Bose Quiet Comfort 2's. Creative better prove that they're worth the money if they intend to sell them, but the features are quite impressive.

To Creative's defense, the Aurvana X-Fi's features Creative's X-Fi Crystalizer and CMSS-3D technology which should help improve the quality of most sound sources, something no other noise canceling headphones does. All features are easily enabled via three buttons on the side of the headphones, although we're not sure how you're supposed to see the blue LED's when you're wearing them. There's also a built in volume control, again located on one of the headphones rather than on the cord.

VIA has announced it's latest EPIA motherboard, the EPIA SN and it features a 1.8GHz VIA C7 CPU. This is the fastest C7 processor to date from VIA and the company claims up to 30 percent performance boost compared to older EPIA boards. This is also the first board from VIA to have a PCI Express x16 slot and this means that you can add a decent graphics card for those interested in building a home theatre PC based on a VIA board.

The chipset is the VIA CN896 which is paired with the VT8251 southbridge. It has integrated VIA Chrome9 HC graphics and support for HD audio, although the EPIA SN is limited to 5.1-channel audio rather than 7.1-channel. It has dual Ethernet controllers, one 10/100Mbit and one PCI Express Gigabit controller. The board also has two memory slots for DDR2 memory and up to 4GB of DDR2 667 is supported.

Lenovo has announced its ThinkVision L220x Wide display which is a 22-inch display with 1,920x1,200 resolution and this is as far as we know the first and only 22-inch widescreen display with this resolution. Two inches might not seem like a lot, but it's a matter of getting the right kind of LCD glass and most manufacturers only makes what's economically viable. However, there's always a way if a company is willing to pay enough for a certain panel size.

The ThinkVision L220x features a built in USB hub with four ports and it has a D-sub and DVI with HDCP support for video input. It's also got autorotation, which means that some clever software on your computer will automatically rotate your desktop to fit the screen correctly if you pivot the screen.