Recently in Computer Hardware Category

Kaleidescape has announced two new DVD players that integrate with their video/music servers and offer 1080p upconverting DVD playback as well as importing DVD to a networked Kaleidescape server.

The Kaleidescape 1080p Player is a 1U rack-mountable solution that matches the look and feel of the rest of the Kaleidescape product line, and the Kaleidescape 1080p mini Player is a smaller product designed for more visible use.

The Kaleidescape system isn;t for the average home user, but is very popular for distributed storage and playback of video and music in large houses and high-end boats.

via klunker

LG has introduced 3 new Blu-ray drives that feature 6x write speeds:

The BE06 is an external drive that connects via USB and has a recommended price of $379.95, the other two are internal drives: the GBC-H20L is a blu-ray reader that retails for under $200 - a great price if you want to watch blu-ray movies on your PC, or for $280 get the GBW-H20L which adds blu-ray and DVD writing.

(full press release follows)

I-O Data has announced this good looking bluetooth keyboard for cellphones.

There's no info on exactly how big it is, what it will cost, or if it is made of metal or spray painted plastic... but why worry over the little details.

What's the point? well if you type a lot of emails on your PDA phone or blackberry it could save you from the dreaded blackberry thumb repetitive strain injuries. We have an iGo Stowaway folding bluetooth keyboard that is great but is a little flimsy, something like this could be a stronger alternative.

I-O Data Mini Keyboard via ubergizmo

It seems like we have new solid state drives (SSDs) coming out weekly, and the latest one from Mtron also claims to be the fastest SSD ever.

The Pro 7500 series SSDs from Mtron are said to have a read speed of up to 130MBps and a write speed of up to 120MBps through a SATA II interface in capacities from 32GB to 128GB.

It's great that they're speedy but what is the point of speedy when they are so costly that no average joe can afford one. Wake me up when the prices drop.

Full press release follows.

Mtron claims fastest SSD ever (via akihibaranews)

More details are coming out about the ATI Radeon 4800 launch that was supposed to happen in May but now appears to have been pushed back to mid-June (not good for ATI as this means Nvidia will have their new high-end cards out first).

The Radeon 4800 will come in 3 512MB varieties: 4850, 4870, and 4870 X2, plus there will be a 256MB 4850 for OEM builders.

Tom's Hardware has a lot more info on the features of each card.

more at Tom's Hardware

Creative announced their Sound Blaster XFi today. The XFi is a USB 2.0 external sound card that support 5.1 surround sound, offering an easy sound upgrade path for any desktop or laptop owner.

For S$99 (about $70) you get full cinematic surround sound plus EAX advanced HD for more realism in games.

The Creative Sound Blaster XFi USB 2.0 external sound card will be out by the end of May.

Creative Sound Blaster XFi at FarEastGizmos

Is this a leaked drawing of the upcoming Nvidia GeForce 9900GTX and 9900GTS graphics cards that use the GT200 chip?

No-one is certain but we suspect the drawing of the 9900GTX and 9900GTS is a fake.

Tom's Hardware has a good analysis of the drawing: they support triple-SLI, the GTX has up to 300w of power coming in, and there are some inconsistencies on the memory and the presence of a NVIO chip.

Geeks love rumors and we expect a bunch more gossip about the 9900GTX and 9900GTS in the days and weeks to come.

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AMD is going greener with the release of 5 new 55w low-power processors in their Opteron HE line designed for blade and rack servers.

Press release after the jump.

Low power processors at AMD

The moshi zefyr is a USB powered cooling pad that sits underneath your macbook, both cooling it and lifting the rear to make it more ergonomically friendly.

If you use it on your lap the 6 degree temperature drop will help protect your little swimmers too.

Available now for $75 in black and silver.

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Hp Mini-Note PC Blog has posted a how-to with some photos of how to upgrade the hard drive in the HP2133 mini-note PC.

Compared to some of the upgrades posted for the eee pc and the min-note this one is easy, all you need is a new 2.5" hard drive (like the nice new hitachi 320gb ones) plus some basic tools (small philips screwdriver, small torx screwdriver, pliers).

This is a great upgrade for people that got the basic 4GB mini-note and need more storage space.

Don't have the right tools? worried about causing damage to your mini-note? hand in your "man card" right now and go take up a more relaxing hobby, knitting maybe.

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CuPhone has announced an Echo-free USB to phone adapter for Skype, that seems simple to use: plug it into your computer, plug in your phone line, and plug in your phone.

Once that is done you can use your phone to make or receive both skype call and regular landline calls, plus the call quality will be improved because th adapter has built-in echo cancellation technology.

This is a product I would buy and use: my wife travels a lot on business and when she is in Asia or Europe we rely on skype computer to computer calls to save money, but that means we have to arrange calls times in advance so I can be at the computer with a headset on ready for the call. With this product I could just pick up my regular phone and talk.

The CuPhone Echo-free USB to phone adapter for Skype is available now for $34.

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Equinux has introduced a hybrid USB television receiver that contains two tuners - one for analog signals and one for digital, allowing users to watch and record all their favorite programs.

The Tubestick comes with interesting software that allows you to chat with other people watching the same show as you and to transfer recorded shows to an ipod or iphone.

Obviously it isn't as good as a full dedicated media pc but for $129 it's a good way to watch TV wherever you go.

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Toms Hardware has reviewed the Memoright 32GB solid state disk (SSD).

Here's what they thought of it:

"The benchmark results for the Memoright flash SSDs (we used four 32-GB models MR25.2-032S) speak for themselves. A sequential throughput of 115 MB/s is a new record for flash-based drives, and Memoright even managed to sustain almost the same throughput for write operations as well. I/O performance is stellar and the drive's power consumption is lower than the power requirements of the direct competitor, the Mtron Flash SSD. The only benchmark sections where it cannot beat everything else is the PCMark05 Windows XP startup benchmark and the IOmeter Webserver benchmark. In every other test, Memoright slaps the other drive manufacturers in the face by providing bone-crushing storage performance. Server administrators should especially study the benchmark results carefully, as we're talking about many hundreds to thousands of I/O operations per second on an individual drive."

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The guys at Tweaktown were at a Gigabyte media event this morning and came across some Gigabyte GK-K8000 gaming keyboards.

They should have been out by now but are delayed due to "design issues". One interesting feature they have is a detachable USB connector for easily moving the keyboard from one PC to another.

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Greenhouse has come out with two new products that allow you to add eSATA to your laptop or desktop PC so you can run external hard drives faster than over USB.

The GH-ESC-ESA2 has 2 eSATA slots that transfer data at up to 3GB/sec (much faster than USB or firewire), and it supports RAID 0/1.

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The Space Shuttle Columbia exploded during reentry on February 1, 2003, killing all seven crewmembers.

A hard drive was recovered from the wreckage, that hard drive was part of an experiment to study how xeon gas flows in microgravity.

Amazingly 99% of the data of the hard drive was able to be recovered and now, over 5 years after the explosion, the results of that experiment has been published in the journal Physics Review E.

RIP Colonel Rick Husband, Commander William McCool, Lt. Colonel Michael Anderson, Colonel Ilan Ramon, Kalpana Chawla, Captain David Brown, and Captain Laurel Clark.

(scientificamerican, via engadget)

OCZ is now the leader in the race for the fastest most awesome overclockable desktop pc memory.

They just announced the availability of 4GB PC3-16000 DDR3 memory kits designed for overclockers who want the best possible memory.

They are 100% hand-tested, have a lifetime warranty, and unsurprisingly the price has not been released - if you need to know the price you probably can't afford it.

(press release)

Super talent has announced a new line of solid state drives (SSDs).

The MasterDrive series are designed as direct replacements for laptop 2.5" drives and connect over the SATA-II interface. They also feature Super Talent's patented wear leveling algorithms and bad bit management for extended lifespan.

The news drives come in 30GB, 60GB and 120GB capacities with 120/40 MB/sec read/write, consume 85% less power than a conventional hard drive, and retail for $299, $449, and $699.

(more at supertalent)

EVGA has come out with a couple of cool new stackable USB based graphics adapters that allow you to easily add an additional monitor to your PC without needing to open the box.

They don't have a GPU processor of their own so don't expect to run games on them but they sounds great for adding an extra monitor for improved web browsing or locating widgets or email off your main screen.Both have a DVD outlet and a DVI to VGA converter for older monitors, the UV-12 supports up to 1280x1024 resolution and the DV-16 supports up to 1600x1200.

Blogeee has done some testing of the battery shipped with the Eee PC 900 and the performance is not that impressive.

With the display at 100% using openoffice word processor spreadsheet etc they only got 82 minutes of life out of the battery, stop using the mouse turn off wifi and turn the screen down to 30% and you still only get 108 minutes.

Want to watch a movie? I hope it's a short one: just 50 minutes battery life watching a movie on a USB drive or 66 minutes if the movie is stored on the SSD.

As much as we love owning the latest and best gadgets we think it may make sense to wait for an ultraportable using Intel's delayed Atom processor to get a good battery life.

(more at blogeee)