Peripherals - Page 28

I really hate having to set my alarm clock. The thing is a huge pain to set with tiny buttons that are hard to see and push. I hate it even more if I look away for a second and pass the hour I need and have to go all the way back around to set the thing. Changing for DST really sucks too. If you have the same hatred for programming normal alarm clocks, you might like the latest offering from Moshi.

[img]2[/img]

Moshi has tech inside its cool alarm clocks that is perfect for those that can't see that well and for those that just hate programming their normal clock. The tech allows you to press one button and then tell the Moshi clock what time it is to set it. You can program alarms and just about all of the other features of the clock using your voice. You can even set snooze with your voice.

The latest clock is the Reflection and it is a Brookstone exclusive item selling for about $56. It offers dual alarms, indoor and outdoor temperatures, and a six-color night light. The sensor for outside temperature is wireless and included in the price. Power comes from three AA batteries. You can buy the clock right now.

I would say that about 99% of all the ultraportables and netbooks on the market lack an optical drive. For some people that might be ok, but if you are business type odds are at some point you will wish you had an optical drive. The lack of an optical drive also means that when you are traveling you can't watch a movie to pass the time. If you need an optical drive for a notebook or netbook that didn't come with one, Lite-On has unveiled one called the eNAU608 that might be perfect.

Gran Turismo 5 is finally out, but it has strangely been absent without a high end 'official' steering wheel to go along with it. For a very long time now Logitech has had the pleasure of building wheels that carried the Gran Turismo branding until now?

Ever felt like the need for a dual-screen laptop? Well, Engadget have had a sneak peak at some new Acer hardware - as they announced a range of new devices at a New York press conference last week, the message they were putting across? Keyboards are out, Kenny Powers is in (and by Kenny Powers, I mean touchscreen keyboards instead of the physical keys).

When it comes to gaming mice gamers tend to fall into two general categories. You have your low sensitivity gamers who like to be able to make big hand movements when they are controlling their character. You also have high-sensitivity gamers that like mice that move a long way on screen with tiny hand movements. What mouse you choose will depend on what type of gamer you are. If you are the low-sensitivity type of gamer, Tt eSports has a new optical mouse for you.

Not all keyboards are up to the rigors of gaming. If you have ever tried to play a FPS or other game with a junk keyboard that shipped with a cheap PC you have seen more ghosting than most haunted houses and know exactly what I mean. When it comes to gaming keyboards, not all of them are created equal either. Many gamers lust after a gaming keyboard with mechanical keys more than one packed with macros and other features many won't use.

It seems like it was just last week that Blu-ray burners were a thousand bucks and almost no one had them. Once HD DVD died off the price for Blu-ray players and drives for computers started to come down and today you can pick up a BDR for your PC pretty cheaply. Sony Optiarc has a bunch of Blu-ray drives that it offers for computer users and it has added a couple new offerings to its line.

[img]2[/img]

Both of the new drives share the same features and the only difference is that one of them is packaged for retail sale and the other is an OEM drive. The drives are both half-height 5.25-inch internal optical drives that use the SATA port for connectivity. The drives can burn to single layer 6x media at 12x speed.

That fast 12x burning speed means that a full 25GB disc only takes 10 minutes to burn. The drives can also write to dual layer BD-R media at 8x speed. The OEM version of the drive is the BD-5300S. The retail boxed version of the drive is the BWU-500S. The 500S comes with a copy of CyberLink Media Suite 8 software and a single 25GB Blu-ray disc. Pricing is unannounced, but both versions of the drive will ship this month.

On the short list of notable gaming peripheral makers along with Logitech is Razer. The company has been crafting weapons for gamers for years now and has offered a mouse specifically for MMO gamers in the past with lots of buttons and macro features to make play more fun. Razer has now announced a new gaming keyboard called the Anansi Expert MMO gaming keyboard that is designed specifically for the MMO gamer.

If you try to work from an iPad exclusively, it can be done but you will not want to do that with the onscreen keyboard for an extended period. Thankfully, the iPad supports Bluetooth keyboards and you can connect an external keyboard to the iPad and work all you want in comfort. The iPhone and iPod touch also support a BT keyboard in later models.

[img]2[/img]

Photography shop Adorama has been rolling out all sorts of new products into its catalog for a long time and it has a wide range of gear that has nothing to go with cameras today. The latest new item from the company is a BT keyboard called the iBoard Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard. The iBoard supports the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch and has some dedicated keys to access sites with one button press.

The keyboard is controlled by an app that gives shortcuts to the favorite apps on the device and the favorite websites of the user. The Flashpoint iBoard kit sells for $69.99 and has the same specs as the original Apple wireless Bluetooth Keyboard with the addition of the single key shortcuts. The app is on the App Store right now at no charge. The kit also includes a free iBoard waterproof skin to protect the keyboard from spills.

The iPad is a great tablet that can replace a notebook or a netbook for many users. There are many folks out there that have an iPad that probably never take it out of the house. If you are this sort of user and you want a nice mount that you can use to mount the iPad in the kitchen, bathroom, or office where it will be safe and easy to use the Griffin Cabinet mount for iPad may be perfect.

Back during the summer at E3, Razer unveiled its Starcraft II branded gaming peripherals to go along with the game. At the time, Razer only said the stuff would ship in the fall and offered little other detail on when gamers could get their hands on the stuff. Razer has now announced that the gaming gear can be pre-ordered directly from its site and all of the offerings will ship in November.

[img]3[/img]

The peripherals will include the Spectre Starcraft II mouse with blue backlighting, 5600dpi sensitivity, a 3.5G laser sensor, and adjustable click force for the buttons. The mouse will ship globally in November with the US price of $79.99. Razer will also ship the Marauder Starcraft II keyboard in November around the world with the US price pegged at $119.99. The keyboard has blue LED backlighting, the Starcraft II logo, optimized key travel, and a lot more.

The final Starcraft II peripheral is the Banshee headset. The Banshee will sell for $119.99 and ship globally in November as well. The headset has blue backlighting, integrated volume controls, a mic with detachable boom, and 50mm drivers. A special messenger bag with Starcraft II designs for carrying all the gear will be offered for $89.99.

I am not a designer of anything so it's hard for me to fathom what goes into selecting colors for projects. I have been out before and saw a car or other item that had a cool color and wondered what the color was. I would assume that designers and architects have these same revelations and the main difference is that they might find a color that would be great for a project. At the same time, people are sure to bring material or other items to the designer and ask if they can use colors from the item in a design.

If you have a bunch of HDDs or SSDs around your home or office that you don't want to throw away, but you lack the space to put them into your computer you need a HDD dock. Sharkoon is famous for its docking stations for SATA HDDs and SSDs and the company has unveiled a new docking station aimed at notebook users with small mobile hard drives they want to access on the go.

I have mentioned Quirky products a few times around there and the things are pretty cool. Quirky has unveiled its latest product and it's one that will help you keep all those tangled wires running to and from your computer nice and neat. The thing is called the Cable Collar, it is designed to wind up some of the excess cord behind your desk that runs from your computer, and it will work with all manner of other gadget chargers as well.

Notebooks of all brands and in all price ranges have featured the small little rectangular hole on the case for years now that is specifically designed for Kensington locks. These locks use cables attached to the desk or another object that is hard or impossible for a thief to make off with. Kensington has unveiled the latest generation of notebook locks that still makes use of the port that is on notebooks today.

[img]3[/img]

The new lock is called the ClickSafe and it has a separate portion that plugs into the port on a notebook whereas the older lock design had the portion that connects to the notebook built into the lock itself. Once the separate ClickSafe nub is placed into the notebooks Kensington port, the ClickSafe lock can simply be clicked onto the port for fast security when the user needs to walk away from their notebook.

There will be several version of the ClickSafe notebook lock offered. A keyed consumer version of the lock will sell for $49.99 and has the features you expect from a Kensington lock. The lock head is tamper proof and no key is needed to lock the notebook down unlike older versions of the lock. The steel cable is the strongest physical security on the market. A key is required to remove the lock from the computer.

If you are lucky, your computer may have one or two USB 3.0 ports. My desktop only has a single USB 3.0 port and then has a few USB 2.0 ports as well. It's still common for notebooks and netbooks to only offer a single USB 3.0 port and this can be a big issue for you if you have an external HDD that uses USB 3.0 and a flash drive that supports the faster interface as well.

I often work from my netbook when I travel and the worst thing about the little machine is that it lacks an optical drive. I still get handed CDs and DVDs with information on them that I can't access on the little machine. There are also many ultraportable notebooks on the market that lack optical drives as well. This is an issue for many users who want to watch movies and be able to access software and other content on discs.

When it comes to high quality, gaming mice there are really only two companies that your average gamer looks to. Those companies include Logitech and Razer. Razer has some great gaming products, but its mice aren't exactly known for lots of bling or style. A Razer mouse tends to be black with some LED lighting thrown in to spice up the design. Razer has announced a couple special editions of its Naga MMO mouse that are very colorful.