Rugged PS3 created for the military

Our men in green are there to make sure that they keep the peace – not only back in the homeland, but around the world as well. After all, if there isn’t a world police, don’t you think we would have all obliterated one another by now in a shower of nukes due to retaliatory attacks? Of course, in their tour of duty, it is safe to say that these brave men and women would have undergone plenty of stress and seen untold horrors – so how are they going to destress in the midst of the battlefield? Taking drugs and booze are definitely two of the wrong choices, but it is a good thing there are healthier alternatives out there – such as playing video games. Then again, you can say that video game consoles aren’t all that tough, and in the event of enemy fire, you might as well kiss goodbye to your saved games whenever a grenade goes off nearby. Ben Heck, modder extraordinare, has come up with a spanking new mod of the Sony PS3 – one that has been ruggedized enough to withstand the rigors of the battlefield.

Ben Heck pays tribute to our troops with a military-grade portable gaming system that was specially designed for a married couple working with the military overseas, and although we would have liked the army to commission a slew of these modded portable PS3s, we don’t think that is possible due to the amount of work required in each individual mod, and no factory is going to change their production line just to make it a reality.

Let’s get back to the lucky couple – Ben’s latest work is the result of a personal request from civilian unmanned aerial vehicle pilots in Afghanistan, Erica and Kris Kokkeby, where this ultimate portable gaming system sports a Sony PlayStation 3 stored within an iM2600 Pelican Storm Case that was specially constructed to withstand extreme gaming situations. The Kokkebys intend to take up gaming as their hobby, where this hardy console will help them pass time and boost morale in-between maneuvers. We definitely look forward to see what else Ben Heck has up his sleeves for future console mods – will a new Xbox 360 that is much more compact roll out? Only time will tell, but keep ‘em coming, Ben.

Digital Storm announces xm15 laptop

When it comes to computer system integration and engineering, the name Digital Storm will certainly crop up among those who are familiar with the industry. The company has just announced their latest, most powerful lightweight laptop that is known as the xm15, where it will feature NVIDIA’s Optimus Hybrid Technology to help it operate longer than normal. This new laptop is capable of delivering targeted extreme performance when required, letting you experience longer operation without losing the ability to enjoy the visual intensity of HD movies, multimedia applications, surfing the web, and gaming. Now that’s truly looking into the user’s needs, as it seems to be the utopian laptop for the moment.

Just what is the Digital Storm xm15 capable of? Well for starters, it delivers sumptuous graphics for a variety of multimedia content courtesy of NVIDIA’s powerful GT 425M 1GB video card. Of course, the inclusion of NVIDIA’s Optimus Hybrid technology allows owners of the xm15 to defer operation to a second separate integrated Intel graphics processor whenever you’re running less intensive applications (read: doing work). Switching between the two graphic processors is automatic and seamless, so you won’t notice that whatever program or operation you’re running at that moment will be interrupted. This increase and decrease in performance as and when required has allowed the xm15 to substantially extend battery life.

Capable of routinely scoring above 7200 on 3DMark06, it boasts built-in light speed eSATA and USB 3.0 transfer ports, not to mention integrated HDMI and VGA outputs for you to use it just about anywhere and everywhere. The base configuration of the xm15 starts from $999 which isn’t cheap at all, but considering the kind of technology crammed into it as well as the various configurations that you can always boost it up to, Digital Storm’s latest release will surely not disappoint. Of course, when you decide to cram it with the latest and greatest hardware, expect to pay far more than the one grand as originally requested. The payoff? A machine that will certainly last you a good few years.When it comes to computer system integration and engineering, the name Digital Storm will certainly crop up among those who are familiar with the industry. The company has just announced their latest, most powerful lightweight laptop that is known as the xm15, where it will feature NVIDIA’s Optimus Hybrid Technology to help it operate longer than normal. This new laptop is capable of delivering targeted extreme performance when required, letting you experience longer operation without losing the ability to enjoy the visual intensity of HD movies, multimedia applications, surfing the web, and gaming. Now that’s truly looking into the user’s needs, as it seems to be the utopian laptop for the moment.

Just what is the Digital Storm xm15 capable of? Well for starters, it delivers sumptuous graphics for a variety of multimedia content courtesy of NVIDIA’s powerful GT 425M 1GB video card. Of course, the inclusion of NVIDIA’s Optimus Hybrid technology allows owners of the xm15 to defer operation to a second separate integrated Intel graphics processor whenever you’re running less intensive applications (read: doing work). Switching between the two graphic processors is automatic and seamless, so you won’t notice that whatever program or operation you’re running at that moment will be interrupted. This increase and decrease in performance as and when required has allowed the xm15 to substantially extend battery life.

Capable of routinely scoring above 7200 on 3DMark06, it boasts built-in light speed eSATA and USB 3.0 transfer ports, not to mention integrated HDMI and VGA outputs for you to use it just about anywhere and everywhere. The base configuration of the xm15 starts from $999 which isn’t cheap at all, but considering the kind of technology crammed into it as well as the various configurations that you can always boost it up to, Digital Storm’s latest release will surely not disappoint. Of course, when you decide to cram it with the latest and greatest hardware, expect to pay far more than the one grand as originally requested. The payoff? A machine that will certainly last you a good few years.

The palm-sized Plug PC thin client computer from Chip PC

Having full-blown computers linked to a central server delivering applications to office workers is so last century. More and more businesses are choosing to deploy thin-client or virtual desktop solutions, where much of the storage and processing needs are met at the data center. Advantages often include low power draw at the user end, low maintenance, and minimal desktop footprint. Chip PC's Plug PC cross-platform thin client or virtual desktop computer solution offers maximum load power consumption of just 3W, is about the same size as a pack of cards, and benefits from a processor architecture that provides the equivalent of 1.8GHz x86 processing power.

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The Plug PC's 3 x 2 x 0.9-inch (77 x 52 x 24mm) dimensions and weight of 2 ounces (62g) make it smaller, thinner and lighter than the company's Jack PC solution. It's also better suited to an ever-changing server-based/virtualized/cloud infrastructure and comes with a flexible Linux-based Thinx OS and Windows CE 6.0 R2, cross-platform design.

There's support for the latest Citrix HDX features, including MediaStream, which Chip PC claims "leverages the processing power of the device to render the multimedia content sending the compressed multimedia information directly to the device in its native format."

Within its black and silver enclosure sits a 528 MHz RMI 1250 RISC processor (1.8GHz x86 equivalent), which is said to give the user PC-like in-session performance. The chip includes local multimedia acceleration for powerful multimedia performance at up to 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution. Like the Jack PC, most of the data generated by users would be stored at the data center, so the device itself is provided with 256MB disk-on-chip flash storage and 128MB DDR2 RAM.

Connectivity is provided courtesy of four USB 2.0 ports, 10/100 Ethernet with auto-negotiate TCP/IP with DNS and DHCP, and DVI-D digital video connection. There's also a couple of audio in/out jacks to the side.

Data center management and entire network monitoring is made possible with the company's Xcalibur Global management suite, which provides for a Microsoft Policy-based, Active Directory rules and permissions structure.

The Windows CE or Linux Plug PC draws just 0.35W of power in deep sleep and 3W power consumption at maximum load. The units come supplied with a wall-mount power supply, but there's also a power-by-monitor option available via the Chip PC USB power cable.

The solution was recently featured on Microsoft's Windows Embedded Green Solutions website, where the Windows CE Plug PC solution was deployed on campus at Lake Land College in the U.S. as part of its efforts to be carbon neutral by 2012.

Pioneer ships first BDXL ,optical drive

Pioneer has announced that it's started shipping the world's first optical personal computer drive capable of reading and writing to the new BDXL Blu-ray format. The integration of additional layers into Blu-ray discs offers a single quadruple-layer storage capacity of up to 128GB, and will likely see the new device head straight for media professionals who need to archive broadcast quality, high-definition video.

First announced on the company's Japanese site in October, the new optical drive more than doubles existing storage capacity and is compatible with BD-R XL and BD-RE XL triple-layer (100GB) and BD-R XL quadruple-layer (128GB) discs. It will also read and write to most other formats, including CD, DVD and standard Blu-ray.

Pioneer has included some proprietary recording and playback enhancement technologies with the Windows-based BDR-206MBK drive, and also bundled some CyberLink software in there. Early birds will also get one 100GB BD-R XL disc free of charge with each drive. It carries a suggested retail price of US$199 and is available direct from the company or via Fry's Electronics.

Hands on with the Kensington Pro Fit Washable Keyboard

Whenever I get a chance to try out a keyboard to review for a post, it is my tradition to write the article about it on the keyboard itself.

Most of these keyboards are all alike, and this one isn’t wireless like the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750. It is USB and PS2 compatible, and it is good to go if you want to wash it. When I say washable, I mean that you can run the keyboard under a running faucet with soap, disinfectant, or bleach, and then air dry it. It’s all good, just keep the connector out of the water.

I would imagine that this would be the perfect keyboard to have around in a medical facility, where germs and other bloodborne pathogens are a job hazard. It even has built-in antimicrobial material for “continuous microbe resistance”.

I do have one complaint about the 104-key layout. The right Shift key is quite far away from where I normally rest my pinky finger. I suppose that I could adapt to that, but I don’t know how long it would take.

The device has a PS2 adapter, so you don’t have to worry about investing in one if that is your thing. You should be able get the Kensington Pro Fit USB/PS2 Washable Keyboard for $39.95 right here.

Hitachi outs first one-disk, 7mm 500GB hard drive in the industry

Hitachi is first off the blocks with the one-disk, 7mm 500GB hard drive, adding yet another feather to their already illustrious cap. This is one piece of hardware that will definitely find a comfortable fit across many devices, as it hits the industry’s sweet spot where the 2.5-inch hard drive market is concerned. We’re talking about the spanking new thin and rugged Travelstar Z5K500 drive which enables innovative designs for ultra-portable consumer electronics devices, notebooks, netbooks and compact industrial systems. More on the Travelstar Z5K500 as we dive into the meaty part of the post after the jump.

Currently, the Travelstar Z5K500 is peerless within the industry, as it remains as the only 500GB one disk product and the only second generation 7mm product family. This is a clear push by Hitachi to move from 9.5mm 2.5-inch drives to 7mm 2.5-inch drives, and since it now comes with a 500GB capacity, it will complement the rest of its ‘family’ members of 320GB and 250GB capacities, hence satisfying over 77 percent of today’s capacity needs in the portable PC market. Meant to be direct replacements for standard 2.5-inch, 9.5mm drives in everything from external drives to notebooks, netbooks and blade servers, Hitachi looks well poised to milk this particularly lucrative and popular market segment for a long time to come.

The Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 drive family is not only slim, it also delivers the best cost per gigabyte and gigabyte per cubic millimeter (GB/mm3) when compared to solid state drives (SSD), and 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch 9.5mm HDDs. That alone ought to help you part with your money easier, but there’s more. The drives sip just 1.8 watts (W) read/write power and 0.55W low power idle, and is extremely silent at at 1.9 idle / 2.1 seek bels. Apart from that, they are also Hitachi’s second generation Advanced Format drive, where this tech will increase the physical sector size on HDDs from 512 bytes to 4,096 (4K) bytes, resulting in improved drive capacity and error correction capabilities.

Seagate goes green with latest Barracuda Green hard drive

As you can tell by its name, the latest Seagate Barracuda Green hard drive has a heart for our environment. Yes, years after the hard drive industry has added countless toxins to Mother Nature, Seagate has recently developed a conscience that delivers technology without resulting in Greenpeace activists protesting outside of their offices. OK, so we’re kidding about that part, but you do get the point, right?

The Seagate Barracuda Green hard drive is the industry’s highest performance eco-friendly 3.5-inch desktop drive that is meant for low-power personal computers, multi-drive home networking systems and external PC storage. Apart from offering environmental improvements in power consumption and material usage, these drives will also be among the first hard drives from Seagate that come with SmartAlign technology.

The Barracuda Green hard drive is also known as the Barracuda LP if you were to have a sense of continuity, where it will merge the industry’s highest spin speed (5900 RPM) with Seagate’s aforementioned SmartAlign technology, delivering best-in-class performance. Just what does SmartAlign technology offer? Well, it enables all the benefits of the new 4K sector standard while simplifying drive installation, doing away with the need for utilities that are more often than not required to ensure optimum drive performance. Not only that, being cool-running, this lower-power Barracuda Green hard drive will be pleasant on your ears by delivering whisper-quiet acoustics while reducing system costs associated with the fans and power supply devices often required for power-hungry systems.

Over 70 percent of the materials used to build the drive can be recycled – now how green is that? In addition, all Barracuda Green drives will utilize low halogen components to further reduce the negative environmental impacts related to these substances. There is no word on pricing as at press time, but if you’re interested in picking up this puppy while doing your bit for the environment, it will come in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB capacities.

Hitachi releases three more 3TB drives

Hitachi certainly knows that with the proliferation of High Definition movies, it makes perfect sense for people to run out of hard drive space faster than ever. Well, in order to make sure that doesn’t happen to you, Hitachi has decided to roll out a trio of 3TB drives that ought to capture your fancy, regardless of your needs or budget. First off, we have the new 3TB Hitachi Deskstar Internal Hard Drive Kit that breaks the 2.2TB capacity limit on 32- bit Windows XP systems without the need for additional hardware, while the 3TB Hitachi XL USB 2.0 drive offers reliable, high quality external storage and backup. Last but not least? The 3TB Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 and 5K3000 hard drive families which has begun to ship to OEMs and the Channel for System Builders and Value Added Resellers. We will look at all these hard drives in greater detail right after the jump.

The Hitachi Deskstar Internal Hard Drive Kit has been touted to be the perfect gift for that special someone who wants more storage space for their desktop computer, boasting a high-performance Deskstar 7K3000 hard drive, mounting screws, step-by-step instructions, and a software download that allows 32- and 64-bit Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X and Linux systems. Those who are running on 32- or 64-bit Apple Mac OS X or Linux systems can enjoy the drive as a data drive or a boot drive straight away without having to download any software.

As for the Hitachi XL Desktop External Hard Drives, we would have pretty much preferred to see these come in USB 3.0 connectivity, but right now, USB 2.0 will just have to do – presumably because it is still cheaper to produce them with USB 2.0. Regardless of whether you’re a Mac or PC user, this new XL Desktop range has enough capacity to store or backup your growing music libraries, digital photos and movie collections. It looks equally good when placed vertically or horizontally, coming in capacities of 3TB, 2TB and 1TB that retail for $249.99, $169.99 and $99.99, respectively.

Finally, the Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 and 5K3000 Hard Drives has already started to ship to OEMs and select distribution partners worldwide, so you can more or less expect to see these in action in due time across home or business PCs, high-performance workstations and gaming systems. With so much storage space at hand, just how many of these do you think you’ll purchase this winter to satisfy your storage needs?

IBM supercomputer to play on Jeopardy

Some of you may not have heard of Watson, but it is a supercomputer by IBM. It will also be the first machine that will appear on Jeopardy as a contestant.

As part of some very odd publicity stunt, Watson the supercomputer will go up against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two of the greatest Jeopardy players ever on February 14, 15, and 16. So far, I can see two possible outcomes of this, which I will discuss in detail after the jump.

First, Watson might have some technical difficulties and might not be up to snuff. Clearly, someone must have some confidence in Watson to put it on Jeopardy. If it gets a zero score, then we will know for sure that A.I. is not quite “there” yet.

Second, assuming that it can understand speech and answer Alex, it gets the answers instantly and Ken and Brad get zero scores. Then we all know that computers are smarter than we are, and A.I. will just get to the point where The Matrix or The Terminator becomes reality.

Either way, I can totally see Watson getting a contract for his own game show. Perhaps it will be “Are you smarter than a computer?” I wonder who would be the host?

Google Chrome OS – Stop worrying about your hard drive, you don’t need one anymore

I have a confession to make, I sometimes lay awake at night and worry about my hard drive. I write quite a bit and I am an addicted amateur photographer who has become so worried about losing all my stuff, I back things up two different ways, just so I can sleep.

Knowing I am not alone, I am excited to introduce you to Google Chrome, an operating system coming to you soon, on a laptop, with NO HARD DRIVE. That’s right, the new platform stores it all, your applications, your files and pretty much everything else you might need, on online servers rather than your PC.

Able to boot in 7 seconds or less, primarily because it doesn’t have to load all the customary background stuff, the Chrome OS will first be available on laptops from both Samsung and Acer. I wondered what kind of storage these laptops would have, because I wonder about things such as this, when I realized that thanks to cloud-based storage for my pictures, music and files… I really shouldn’t need any.

So look forward to your next computer having no hard drive and virtually no storage. How awesome is that?

Of course that cloud based storage, how does that work? It’s not a hard drive is it? Oh come on I have to stop thinking about this stuff.

Source: www.pcmag.com

Snapstick – from your phone or laptop, to your TV, with a flick of the wrist

I am an information hound. If I am not on my laptop, which is pretty rare, I am wandering around the internet on my mobile phone. The ability to use a phone to surf the internet was amazing in its day, but now even with my new reading glasses, trying to see anything on my darn phone is more of a pain than anything else.

Enter Snapstick, a developing new product that would allow you to use your laptop or mobile phone as a visual remote control that lets you pick whatever content you would like to watch, or share on the big screen, and using Snapstick’s SplitMedia™ technology, it will direct the TV to get the content you’ve selected on your phone or your laptop, directly from the Web through WiFi connected software, and when it’s done, you’ve got the web on TV and your phone is free to use as usual.

Snapstick touts itself as the easiest way to integrate the internet and television and they sure make it sound simple, “if you can surf the web and watch TV, you already know how to use Snapstick” Well, I can do both at the same time and chew gum. So count me in fellas!

Okay, so its not an actual product yet, but they’re in beta testing and the premise seems just perfect. I can see myself finally being able to share all the fun stuff I have on my phone with my friends and, I can put the reading glasses away. Now I’m going to dream about all the things I’d be able to do if I could just snap any internet content I wanted to a big screen… wow! Presentations? pictures? Internet TV episodes? Youtube? Just Awesome.

Coming soon to a living room near you…. www.snapstick.com

Source: www.readwriteweb.com

Astro Gaming MixAmp 5.8 and A*Star In-Ear Headset

Just in time for Christmas, I got a chance to review both the MixAmp 5.8 and the A*Star from Astro Gaming.

The MixAmp is a way of hooking up a PC or a gaming console wirelessly to a set of headphones, and includes a small subwoofer that you can see in the photo to the left.

The A*Star In-Ear Headset is a very intriguing set of earphones that have flat wires to insure less tangling. They also have a microphone, an answer/hang up button, as well as a volume dial on the wire itself.

As I have said before, these are definitely designed for gamers. In fact, I was hoping to get the MixAmp 5.8 to work with my laptop, but I didn’t have an optical cable port on my older model version.

The MixAmp 5.8 works really well with the PS3 and XBox 360 and supports 7.1 Surround Sound, and is able to transmit wirelessly with up to three others.

As for the A*Star, they are pretty quality headphones that are practically made for the WinAmp 5.8, and the only way to achieve 7.1 Dolby Surround is to use both of these devices together.

Together, they make an excellent combination gift for gamers. You can get the A*Star here for $79.95 and the MixAmp 5.8 here for about $99.95 (Introductory price).

Super Talent turns flash drive into portable computer

Have you ever logged onto a shared computer and wished that you had access to your own desktop, your own programs and your own files? That's precisely what's being offered by the partnering of Super Talent's Express RAM Cache drive and Ceedo's virtual Windows desktop. Plugging into the drive of a host Windows PC and launching the application is said to provide SSD-like performance for launched programs and files. As all user settings and files are saved to the flash drive, there's no trace left on the machine used.

Super Talent sees the speed at which USB 3.0 allows storage devices to operate as blurring the lines between external and internal storage. Its USB 3.0 Express RAM Cache drive solutions feature a 32MB DRAM cache and four channel architecture that's said to allow it to perform less like a flash drive and more like a solid state drive. For those who don't yet use USB 3.0 technology, the setup on the drive is also claimed to vastly improve USB 2.0 speeds, too.

The company is now offering its USB 3.0 Express RAM Cache drives with the Ceedo Personal portable Windows environment pre-loaded, potentially transforming them into virtual computers.

Ceedo works with Windows XP through 7, and allows users to carry all their most frequently used programs on the drive and then run them on any Windows machine. Many Windows programs now come in portable versions and can be loaded into the Ceedo environment in User Mode without having to worry about pesky Admin rights.

After plugging the drive into an available PC and starting the Ceedo app, a taskbar appears that shows icons for all the available programs. When you're finished surfing, creating documents, editing images or playing games, closing the app down saves all of the user created files – such as browser cookies, documents or temporary files – onto the drive, leaving no traces on the host machine. The PC is then returned to the same state it was in before you arrived.

The combination would seem to be ideal for anyone who shares a computer but wants to keep everything contained within their own private space, or for students who want to use all their favorite applications on an otherwise locked-down campus PC. Business users will be able to use hotel or conference center machines more productively with their own business tools at hand.

The Ceedo option will add US$20 to the cost of Super Talent's USB 3.0 Express RAM Cache drives. The 16GB version will cost US$79, the 32GB US$139 and the 64GB version US$229.

Toshiba outs mini NB520 notebook with pedigree speakers

Research has shown that over 80 percent of netbook owners believe that good sound is important, yet I think it's fair to say that most netbook speakers are not really very good – offering about the same audio output quality as a smartphone. Toshiba has revealed that its new mini NB520 netbook sports a pair of Harman/Kardon speakers and Dolby Advanced Audio technology, to give users the kind of rich audio experience usually reserved for much bigger devices.

Toshiba says that the mini NB520 is the world's first netbook with a pair of specially designed 2W premium stereo speakers from Harman/Kardon. Paired with Dolby Advanced Audio technology, they're said to give 720p high definition videos the kind of volume and sound quality they deserve. Users don't even need to boot up the netbook to enjoy stored MP3s with the Sleep and Music feature.

The 261.9 x 189.5 x 16.6/35.5mm at the front (10.3 x 7.46 x 0.65/1.39-inch) netbook has an Intel Atom N550 1.5GHz Dual Core processor at its heart, supported by up to 2 GB DDR3 memory, and is available with up to 250GB of HDD storage. There's a 10.1-inch TruBrite, LED backlit display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels, a VGA web camera with integrated microphone, and a multi-touch trackpad.

Connectivity and expansion are offered via three USB 2.0 ports and a 2-in-1 media card reader. One of the USB ports is available for Sleep and Charge, which allows users to keep phones and media players topped up with juice even when the NB520 is not switched on. Wireless connectivity takes the shape of 802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 2.1, with the promise of version 3.0 being becoming available via a subsequent upgrade.

Toshiba says that the N520 should be good for up to 10 hours usage before the 6-cell battery needs recharging. It'll be available throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa from January 2011 in blue, brown, lime green, turquoise, and orange and will come pre-loaded with Windows 7 32-bit Starter edition.

The Split Stick 2-in-1 USB drive

Carry more than one USB drive around? Got one storage device for business and another for personal files? Life's natural divide is work and play so here's a dongle that can facilitate that split – the Split Stick.

The Split Stick is a double-sided USB drive – simple yet effective. You can keep work files separate from your personal files, have his and her storage or kids and parents files, all in the one dongle.

The Quirky Split Stick consists of two 4GB retractable USB drives that are built into one 8GB stick made of anodized aluminum encased in a protective rubber membrane. Each drive is accessible using a plastic tab to retract the two sides of the drive.

The 8GB Split Stick costs US$25 and is available in a range of colors and comes with etching choices for the opposing ends of the stick including; love / hate, plus / minus, dots / solid dots, home / work, and look / lock.

ASUS details new ultra-portable U36JC laptop

ASUS is about to let loose a stylish new powerhouse laptop which boasts a 10 hour battery life, ditches the ultra-low-power processors in favor of 35 W varieties and features Nvidia graphics with Optimus technology. The new addition to the company's U series manages to keep its impressive internals cool with dual heatpipe technology that also keeps the palm rest area nice and chilled too.

Housed within its magnesium-aluminum alloy cover, the U36JC sports standard voltage mobile processors on a Mobile Intel HM55 Express chipset. Standard voltage is considered faster clocked, which has led to ASUS saying that its new baby is "arguably the fastest ultra-thin laptop out there." There's a choice of either an Intel Core i5-480M/460M at 2.66GHz – which can reach a clock speed of 2.93GHz when used with Turbo Boost – or an Intel Core i3-390M/380M at 2.53GHz.

The processing power is supported by up to 4GB DDR3 memory over a couple of slots and Nvidia G310M graphics with 1GB of DDR3 onboard memory and Optimus Technology, which switches between Intel's chip-based video and Nvidia's card depending on need.

The U36JC will be available in HDD storage options up 750GB and come with either a 4 or 8-cell battery, which gives it a weight of 1.44 or 1.6kg (3.17 or 3.52 pounds), depending on which battery is providing the juice.

There's a 13.3-inch glossy, LED backlit display at 16:9 aspect and with 1366 x 768 resolution and a 0.3 megapixel camera. Physical connectivity is catered for with a 5-in-1 card reader, a couple of USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0, HDMI-out and Gigabit Ethernet. Wireless-N Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR tick the cable-free boxes and data security piece of mind comes in the shape of BIOS booting/HDD user password protection, and included Intel anti-theft and LoJack software.

ASUS engineers have developed exclusive thermal technology to transfer heat away from the system while offering a more comfortable palm rest for the user. There's also a fingerprint-resistant "nanometer coating" on the palm area to make cleaning less of a chore.

The 19mm (0.75-inch) thin U36JC will be available with four Windows 7 flavors to choose from and should be released shortly, with prices starting at around US$1,000.

Via Tech in Style.

SanDisk, Nikon and Sony propose 500 MB per sec memory cards with over 2 TB capacity

Hot on the heels of the latest CompactFlash specification being released, SanDisk, Nikon and Sony have joined forces to propose a new specification to better cope with the high definition demands of today and tomorrow. The new proposal will give users more than three times the data transfer speeds of the current specification, and take storage capacity into the domain of the multi-terabyte.

Last month, the CompactFlash Association announced the release of CF6.0, the latest CompactFlash specification and one that increased data throughput performance by 25 per cent to 167MB per second. That's pretty swift, but not fast enough for SanDisk, Nikon and Sony.

Rather than be limited by the current specification's reliance on the Parallel ATA interface, the three companies have proposed utilizing the versatile PCI Express instead, which could result in transfer speeds of up to 500MB per second. This would help meet the increasingly dense data needs of today's high-end digital SLR photographers, as well as users of other professional digital imaging equipment.

It should enable burst shooting of huge RAW images and significantly speed up the transfer of massive high definition images between card and computer.

Of course, it's no good bumping up the transfer speed for huge files if such a card has a relatively poor storage capacity, so the proposal also offers the potential to extend current storage limits beyond 2TB. There's help at hand for the poor overworked batteries that power our digital devices too, in the form of a built-in power scaling system.

The announcement does give a subtle hint that there may be a slight size tweak incoming, stating that the new media card would be "similar in size to a CompactFlash card." This would likely mean the necessary procurement of yet another USB card reader (I have amassed quite a collection over the years). However, that's probably a small price to pay for the marked improvements brought by the new development.

We'll keep an eye on the new proposal's progress and keep you informed.

Add-on wireless number pad for Apple Wireless Keyboard

There’s no arguing that Apple’s Wireless Keyboard is a slim and sexy piece of kit – as far as keyboards go anyway. However, its svelte, bag friendly dimensions come at the cost of a numerical keypad. While such an omission is fine for some, it’s no good for the likes of accountants, mathematicians, numerologists and statisticians who are better served by the old USB extended keyboard. But it looks like even these users will be able to enjoy freedom from wires with the LMP Bluetooth Keypad.

There’s no mistaking the numerical keypad as an intended partner for Apple’s Wireless Keyboard with its brushed aluminum finish, white keys and ability to slot onto Apple’s keyboard by way of a special connector. The integration goes so far as to include a power button on the right hand side that, when pressed, triggers the Apple keyboard’s power button – a separate smaller button turns the keypad itself on or off.

It is powered by two AA batteries and along with the full complement of number keys in the familiar layout, the 28-key keypad also adds five extra function buttons, page up and down buttons and navigation shortcut buttons.

The LPM Keypad has just been cleared by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). There’s no word on pricing or availability as yet.

Via Wireless Goodness.

Pogoplug Pro – Share what you want, with who you want. No uploading required

It should be no surprise to anyone that I send a lot of information around. I am constantly sending things via the internet. To be honest I don’t know how I got anything done before I could do it online. As a notorious over-sharer it sure would be nice if I had access to all my stuff, all the time.

Now I actually do. Enter the Pogoplug Pro, an exciting new device that comes with a free online service that allows you to remotely access and share your files through any web browser, or even on your mobile device.

Simply plug your Pogoplug into your home network and attach it to any external hard drive. Easy… Next, from any other computer simply access the my.pogoplug.com website and enter your e-mail address and password. Voila! Everything you opted to share is available. No uploading required.

Share unlimited files and folders, create slideshows, publish files to social networking sites, stream music, movies and pictures to your mobile device, from anywhere.

Pogoplug will also display PDF, Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents, enabling you to view all your productivity files on mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone. Seriously?

It does more, but then I’m over-sharing again. For $99.99 at www.bestbuy.com Come on, you know you want one.

Source: www.pogoplug.com

Microsoft’s plan for shape-shifting touchscreens

One of the problems with touchscreens is that they are way too…flat. That, and there is often very little tactile feedback. If I want to type, I want to feel physical keys underneath me. That way, if I hit a “g” instead of an “f” key, I can feel it. I don’t want to have to look at my text to find out that I screwed up.

According to my Source, Microsoft filed a patent last year that “details a light-induced shape-memory polymer display screen. In a nutshell, that means a touch screen that has a real texture and tactile feedback to it, making people feel as if they’re touching an actual object”.

This screen would be coated with certain polymers that can change and hold their shape, provided different wavelengths of ultraviolet light hit them from below.

You will note in the image this particular ripple effect at the touch of a finger, but I am looking forward to the day when the user can take the surface of a Microsoft Surface and shape it as if it were Play-Doh.

As it is, I’m not certain how physical shapes such as a keyboard could be made in this shape-shifting touchscreen. I’m going to leave that question to the experts that clearly have the know-how to make something like this, really.