Peripherals - Page 20

Razer is going back to the basics with their newest line of keyboards, taking away the bells and whistles that drive up the cost of their normal Blackwidow line with the new Blackwidow X. Simplicity doesn't mean cheap, just less expensive with the same (improved) manufacturing techniques.

The new keyboards are part of a whole new line that's attempting to break into all manner of price points for mechanical keyboards by stripping away the top-plate and the accessory buttons that come with it. The exposed metal plate underneath is actually quite attractive, with a similar look to Corsair's keyboards. This new line is focusing on bringing the cost of Razer's keyboards, with their own designed switch, down to more reasonable levels. This one is full-sized, with numpad, and has Razer's Green switch, with a 50g actuation force requirement and a shorter breaking point. They're durable to up to 80 million clicks and each individual key is individually programmable to show 16.8 million different colors. You can find it for $159.99.

There's always some question of quality surrounding Razer. I myself have had bad luck in regards to Razer products failing, however, they're very adamant about increasing their quality control and making sure their manufacturing processes are far better than they were in the past. They're recognizing the shortcomings from the past. At E3 last year, I was able to see some of the different mechanisms they use to test their new switches, and they certainly put them through a torture test to ensure they work far more reliably than in the past. I'm currently investigating the durability of the Razer Blackwidow Chroma Tournament (tenkeyless) edition by not holding back on my clicking.

Valve has just unleashed the CAD files for its Steam Controller, allowing games to design their own modifications to the controller, which works with specific games, and already offers custom configurations.

Valve encourages gamers who want to design unique modifications for the Steam Controller, but Valve's approval is needed in order to sell them. Erik Johnson, a designer at Valve said that the version of the Steam Controller available at retail wasn't meant to be the final form.

The company hoped that gamers around the world would customize the hardware to their unique needs, with Johnson telling Polygon back in October 2015: "We want to release the CAD files for how these controllers are put together".

Logitech announced two new gaming keyboards today that are going to use Cherry MX switches as opposed to the Romer made switches that they've been using in their top-end gaming keyboards up until now.

They have two version of their new G610 Orion keyboard coming out, one that features Cherry MX Brown switches, and another that has Cherry MX Red switches on board. The two newcomers are of a more simplistic and understated, industrial design. There's very little in the way of flair, save for perhaps the logo, which itself doesn't stand out too much. The backlighting is with white LED's and the brightness of each key can be adjusted, and other lighting patterns (of the same color) can be programmed in. There are also dedicated media keys to ease controlling sound level and playing back music.

Curiously, even though they began their independent foray into mechanical keyboards with Romer switches, they're calling Cherry MX the "industry standard," of which they are due to the widespread adoption, but they seem to be downplaying their relationship with the other switch maker. Regardless, it's good to see Logitech expand into other territory to provide more choice to gamers. Both the G610 Orion Red and Brown will be available this month for $119.

Sent to us recently in an email, TinySticky is a current crowdfunding project on Indiegogo and aims to be the next best smartphone or tool accessory.

Holding up to 3 pounds in weight on any smooth and flat surface, this little device is exactly as the name suggests - tiny and sticky. This double sided contraption has been designed mainly for smartphone use, allowing you to stick your phone on your car dash, home wall, whiteboard, kitchen bench or roof if you really want.

While 'Tiny Sticky Labs' (the manufacturer) suggests that this product will be rejuvenated of its stickiness just by a simple wash, I would be a little hesitant to use the same tab consistently for an extended period of time. What's great regarding this fact is that it's quite cheap, currently available for $1 if you share it on Facebook or $3 plus shipping at a normal price.

With more DPI than you will ever have use for and plenty of color options too, the 10,000 DPI and RGB-backlit Corsair Sabre mouse has been announced recently via press release.

These initial features are backed up by eight programmable buttons that are mappable with Corsair's Utility Engine Software, further allowing control over the four dynamic RGB lighting zones provided on this product.

Other features include a 100g lightweight design, a 1,000 Hz fresh rate, a 1.8m 'easy flex' cable and a low MSRP of $49.99 excluding taxes. Available now around the globe, this mouse is built around an optical sensor and is aimed at users looking for full gaming customization. More information on this new release can be found here.

An Australian startup has successfully Kickstarted its first product: LMcable, a 2-in-1 connector that allows you to charge an iPhone or an Android phone. Data transfer is an option, too. The idea is pretty simple: plug it in one way for a Lightning port, and turn it upside down for micro USB -- no split connectors necessary.

Features include a brass buckle for "neat closure" and portability, a leather-bound cable, and tin-plated copper wires for high durability. And for the environmentally conscious, it utilizes Halogen-free TPE instead of PVC.

$5,000 AUD / ~$3,600 USD was the funding goal, which has been shattered with $59,073 AUD / ~$42,500 USD raised as of press time, and with 29 days to go, no less. The cable is expected to start shipping in mid April (initial planning began last July).

It seems that the majority of technology companies are tackling the peripheral market these days, with GIGABYTE pushing hard on its self-named and AUROS gaming gear, Tt eSPORTS and Corsair making the leap a few years ago and further companies such as ASUS its ROG division slowly slipping into the market.

ASUS has now presented us with the announcement of its Sica White gaming mouse, including 1000Hz polling rate, a 5000DPI optical sensor, Omron switches for durability and an ambidextrous design.

Without any shelf date or price announced in the recent press release, ASUS tells us that this mouse comes attached with its Armoury software, allowing users to change macros, performance settings and lighting effects - saving in the mouse memory for later use.

You probably have a mechanical keyboard (if not, get on that), but we'll do you one better with an analog mechanical keyboard boasting what is undoubtedly the weirdest name around: Wooting One.

Currently in development and seemingly nearing launch, the main draw of the Wooting One is its pressure sensitive keys, allowing you to dictate exactly how fast a character moves in a game like The Witcher 3, or how precisely you turn in a racing game like Burnout Paradise. If you've used the Dualshock 3 controller before, it's basically that except with keys instead of sticks. Likewise, game support isn't a worry, as it comes at the hardware level. Lastly, if you dislike the feature or just want it off sometimes, you can disable it at any time.

The keys are described as "similar to CherryMX reds but not as light and not too heavy as [with] blacks", so by the sounds of it, you can expect custom keys.

Not completely set on one mechanical switch type? Epic Gear has announced its 'DEFIANT' modular mechanical keyboard, allowing users to chop and change different switch types on-the-fly. Coined by this peripheral company as 'EG MMS' technology aka Modular-matrix Structure mechanical Switches, it's something we haven't really seen before.

Paired with the optional extra EG MMS switch accessory, you can expect a 24-pack of keys within that are available in Epic Gear's own Grey, Orange or Purple key types. Back to the keyboard itself, the DEFIANT offers LED backlighting and programmable per-key lighting, a 1000Hz adjustable polling rate, anti-ghosting, fully programmable keys, a dedicated GUI software with four profiles, braided cables and more.

Weighing in at a hefty 2.4lb (1100g), this product comes packed with a 2-year manufacturer warranty, it's designed in Taiwan and TweakTown currently has one on the way to review. Want to know more? Keep checking back for our full comprehensive review on this promising new model.

If you're now diving head first into the lovely new world of USB 3.1 Type-C, SilverStone will be there at your side, recently announcing its EP05 Gigabit Ethernet and EP07 HDMI adapters for this new USB standard.

The EP05 adapter allows an adaption from USB Type-C to RJ45, enabling a Gigabit Ethernet connection, crossover detection, and Wake-on-LAN functions. Complete with an LED indication light, this product can be purchased for around $18.22 (16.50 Euro) and will be available in a few days' time. More information can be found here.

If your new monitor doesn't support a direct USB 3.1 Type-C connection, the EP07 HDMI adapter from SilverStone may interest you. Released with support for all HDMI versions up to 1.4, this product further features resolutions up to 3840x3160 @ 30Hz (when switched to the DP 1.2 alt mode) and per lane data rates of up to 5.4Gbps. Available for approximately $22.33 (20.10 Euro), this product also releases very soon and more information can be found here.

The Ascalon H7L gaming mouse joins Tesoro's fleet of gaming peripherals, and is specifically built to meet the needs of high-performance gaming.

Tesoro's new Ascalon H7L gaming mouse ticks all the right boxes, featuring a 32-bit ARM Cortex processor that enables 6400 True DPI and a nice polling rate of 1000 Hz to ensure efficient aiming and 1ms response times.

Shaped in a sleek, ergonomic design, the mouse is a perfect fit for RTS and FPS gaming thanks to its six custom-programmable buttons that can be set to trigger a variety of functions, along with an extra 2x trigger button. Thanks to its onboard Omron switches and a precision gaming sensor, the Ascalon can ensure 200 ips motion detection with 50g acceleration.

We live in a world of self-driving cars in our future, but what about self-parking chairs? Yeah, it's a thing - and of course, only in Japan.

Nissan has posted a new video to their YouTube page, teasing their new Intelligent Parking Chairs. The new self-parking chairs use an array of wireless signals, ceiling-mounted, motion-detecting cameras, and a Roomba-like circular chassis with wheels at the bottom of each chair.

The video shows the self-parking chairs being 'parked' once the owner claps their hands, with dozens of chairs moving by themselves and parking at their desks. At the end of the day, it looks like Nissan is really pushing its new Intelligent Park Assist self-parking car technology, but in a really cool way. It works, because it's awesome.

Mad Catz is in trouble. That is, they likely didn't quite meet the financial expectations for this fiscal quarter, so as a result, the CEO, Darren Richardson and the company chairman, Thomas Brown, have decided to step down from their positions.

The peripheral company has had declining profits for some time though they were waiting on the wider release and potential success of Rock Band 4 before making any large internal changes. Rock Band 4, however, wasn't quite the huge success they had hoped for despite being number 10 in the UK in October. This necessitated the change in leadership.

Karen McGinnis, the former CFO of Mad Catz, is entering the role of president and CEO while Tyson Marshall, a former attorney for the company, has been placed in the vice president of business affairs role. John Nyholt, another veteran of the company, is now the chairman. All of these changes come just days before they're expected to report their fiscal results for the first quarter of 2016.

Logitech has toned down the overt aggressive "gaming" design with their newest addition to their G-line of keyboards. The G810 Orion is a more subdued mechanical keyboard that still has the gaming accolades of the more, noticeable, Orion G910 Orion Spark.

Just like its big brother, it has the same Romer-G switches that have increased measured durability compared to CherryMX switches as well as a shorter press, with an actuation point at only 1.5mm deep. And it'll have the per-key RGB lighting as well, letting you customize to your hearts content. And just in case, you'll be able to disable individual keys, such as the Windows key or even the ALT key. This can be quite useful in frantic gaming sessions.

Of course mechanical keyboards are nearly a must-have for the modern gamer, though which type of switch is a personal preference. Some like the quick actuation that comes with these Romer-G's or even CherryMX Red's or others, while others might prefer a bit longer of a press with less force required. It's such a personalized preference that you almost have to try everything to determine what you like. It's a trial and error affair. But now Logitech has a more subdued selection for those looking for something a little less garish.

Some of Apple's AC adapters have been found "in very rare cases" to break and then cause electrical shock when touched. Consequently, they've recalled them and offered up a free exchange program.

The adapters in question are two prong devices intended to be used in Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Argentina and Brazil. They shipped with Macs, some iOS devices, and the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit. Adapters with a 4 or 5 characters or no characters on the inside slot where it attached to an Apple power adapter are affected, whereas those with a country code are not, as seen in the image below.

For further help on identifying if yours is affected, hit the source. There you can also set up a refund.

As announced in a recent press release, American company Das Keyboard has launched its all-new Alpha-Zulu mechanical switches alongside the X40 and M50 'Pro Gaming' keyboard and mouse products.

These new switches come packed with gold contacts and a 1.7mm actuation, giving a similar point to the well-known Cherry Red setup. The X40 keyboard further offers a 'space camo' color scheme, five programmable macro keys, USB 2.0 pass-through ports, a lengthy 6.5ft braided cable and red backlighting. This product provides users with two switch options - tactile and linear. These switch options mean that gamers are either able to get an extra-responsive product set up for StarCraft II and OSU in the tactile mode, or scale things back with the linear model for a quieter experience.

The M50 mouse provides users with a tailored experience that Das Keyboard claims is perfect for games requiring super fast clicks and precision. Packing a 6400 GPI 4G sensor and nine programmable buttons, this new product further provides six gaming profiles, a diecast aluminum shoe and 4D tilt scroll wheel.

Synaptics is helping to bring fingerprint readers and biometric safeguards to the masses. They're making it accessible and not just an afterthought, something easy to put on any notebook because no modifications are needed with the integration of a sensor into their trackpads.

And now they're breaking into an entirely different market with ThermalTake in this latest venture. They've gone and placed one of their IronVeil fingerprint sensors into a mouse, giving even gamers easy access to biometric. And this idea is full of untapped potential, not from a marketing standpoint, but from a security standpoint.

Biometrics represent a distinctive authentication method that can save time and potentially money. It's not perfect and spoofing, as well as other issues regarding how different types of fingerprint sensors work, do exist but as part of a multi-factor authentication scheme, it's perfect. Because it's easy. And it generally works well.

France's ministry of culture and communication says it's "nearly impossible to correctly write French" on its current keyboards, and so has teamed up with a standardization group -- AFNOR -- to create a new norm. This summer, that norm will be shown to the public, at which time feedback will be taken and considered for potential further iteration.

Where keyboards in the US and Europe use the QWERTY layout (with rare exception), French keyboards (like the one pictured here) utilize an AZERTY layout and suffer from a lack of standardization, so you'll see all kinds of variations from manufacturer to manufacturer, and what is seen will often be non-intuitive. As a result, what should be simple, nearly effortless actions like typing accented capital letters can be frustrating, obscure, and even impossible, leading to citizens taking liberties with the language and sometimes incorrectly expressing ideas as a result. Recent studies have shown more spelling errors among French students, which some blame at least partly on this keyboard issue.

Curiously, the new standard will be voluntary to manufacturers, the exception being for computers used within the field of public administration.

Intel had a massive area in the main hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center at CES this year. And they had a tremendous amount of technology to show off as well. One of the big things for Intel this year, is that of their Real Sense technology. They're very excited about it and have plenty of design wins to bring it to the masses.

They showed off Razer's new Stargazer camera, having a popular streamer sitting there actually playing live against three others. They showed how the dynamic background removal worked, and we were pleasantly surprised with it's effectiveness.

But there were other uses for Real Sense as well, such as with a gigantic interactive all where you could coax a school of fish into moving by simply using your hands. It was all quite impressive, though perhaps in the way that tech demos sometimes are. I can see the validity of the technology and where it can be useful for interacting with, well, anything. But hopefully companies, museums and even aquariums adopt Real Sense, because it could be another type of revolution that we never knew we needed. Razer is helping to show us that there are uses for the technology aside from 3D modeling your face.

Stated as the "fifth consecutive year that Logitech products have been awarded GOOD DESIGN awards" in a recently issued press release, this peripheral giant has taken home five awards this time around.

Receiving awards for its Wireless Mouse M280, ConferenceCam Connect, Keys-To-Go, Bluetooth Multi-Device Keyboard K480 and the MX Master Wireless Mouse, Logitech president and CEO Bracken Darrell stated that "these additional design award wins help underscore how design is at the core of what we do at Logitech."

The GOOD DESIGN Awards are presented each year by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and are in partnership with the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies.