Category: Peripherals
Kindle was such a… success… Amazon is pushing ahead with Kindle 2
It was, as everything always is, leaked on the internet a couple of weeks ago, now Amazon’s finally detailed the specs of Kindle 2 – ideal if you’re just starting to get in on the hot new book-reading scene.
Kindle 2 will feature a 25% longer battery life, according to Amazon, will turn the pages 20% quicker if you’re an amazingly impatient person for whom TIME is MONEY and you can’t waste TIME waiting for PAGES to BLOODY TURN, will be thinner and…
Buffalo intros world's first solid state NAS drive: quiet storage at a price
We’re gradually moving to a world where devices that used to have hard drives in them are now sporting solid-state drives instead, but it’s still quite a hit on the wallet.
Take Buffalo’s latest device which it claims is a world first — a solid state Network Attached Storage (NAS) device that can be used to store all your multimedia files, is compact, reliable, has low power consumption, and is extremely quiet…
Samsung cranks out 32GB DDR3 RAM sticks
Samsung has managed to cram 32GB of memory onto a single RAM stick, by developing a 4Gb RAM chip (4Gb = 512MB). The 32GB capacity is possible by shoehorning two 16GB modules onto one unit. Of course the real effect will probably be an increase in the availability of 16GB RAM sticks, which are much easier and cheaper to create.
Considering most people still run 32-bit operating systems, which can cope with a maximum of 3.8GB of RAM, this development is one to file under ‘wait a few years’, especially as most people will likely plump for 32-bit Windows 7 for compatibility reasons. Despite the scientific progress, the market is still stuck in the 2GB – 4GB range that it has been for a couple of years.
(via Gizmodo)
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SHINY VIDEO REVIEW: Huawei E176 USB dongle – SIM-powered 7.2Mbps mobile broadband
For something I was a little nonplussed to read about when I first received the news, I’ve got to say I was mighty impressed with the Huawei E176 HSPA mobile broadband USB stick. It’s the kind of kit that makes up your mind about getting an unlimited data package on your phone…
USB lunchbox pumps out 60°C of face-melting heat
This scares me a little. It’s a little bag with a heating element in, which claims to cook your lunch when plugged in via USB. In reality though, 60C is barely warmer than a cup of tea – certainly not enough to kill any bacteria. Don’t rely on it to grill a steak beyond “rare”.
On the other hand, if all you’re doing is heating up your cous-cous, then my objection isn’t so pronounced. Who knows? Maybe in the hands of Heston Blumenthal it could be a force for good. Now there’s a program I’d like to see – Heston Blumenthal’s USB Lunchbox.
Thanko (via Oh! Gizmo)
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AMD launches 760G integrated graphics chipset
AMD, fighting a constant battle with Intel over the PC chip market, has announced that it’s releasing a new graphics chipset aimed at low-end PCs, called the 760G. It’ll be replacing the aging 740G chipset. The company is promising an energy efficient design and ‘smooth multitasking’, as well as a “compelling out-of-box visual experience for novice gamers playing some of today’s most popular games”.
It’s the word ‘novice’ that makes me laugh, because it seems to imply that anyone who’s played PC games before will fail to find a “compelling visual experience” using this chip. The 760G supports DirectX 10, and you’ll be able to upgrade easily to a full-on ATI graphics card with the Hybrid CrossFireX technology.
The 760G will begin showing up in motherboards from Asus, ECS, Gigabyte, Asrock, MSI, Foxconn and Biostar as of today, starting with the Asus M3A76-CM, and the Gigabyte GA-MA76GM-US2.
AMD 760G (via Fudzilla)
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Graphics cards are much better than CPUs at cracking Wi-Fi passwords
There’s a lot of software out there for cracking wireless passwords, and most of it’s legal. Why? Because it’s sold as a way for network administrators to ‘test’ their network’s security. Of course, there’s nothing to stop you ‘testing’ a network that you don’t own, in a coffee shop or airport, for example.
Most cracking programs use your PC’s CPU to do the hardcore number-crunching, but it turns out that the graphics card is actually far better at doing the kinds of calculations necessary. How good? Well, an above average quad-core CPU, the Intel Q6600 can only accomplish 1,100 passwords per second, whereas a similarly above-average ATI HD4870 graphics card can smash through 15,750 passwords per seconds.
Who woulda thunk it? Luckily, we might be seeing some of this power hit regular programs too, with Nvidia’s CUDA, ATI’s Stream, and Apple’s OpenCL frameworks. The graphics card isn’t best at every type of calculation, but if a program can intelligently route calculations to their fastest solver, then we could see blazing program speed increases in the near future.
(via HotHardware)
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LaCie Flat Cables – geeky designer joy for tech heads far and wide
Lovely bit of design this – how to make something ugly like cables into something actually desirable. Good job LaCie and their Flat Cables.
The idea is that they not only look pretty…
Humans and Klingons brought together via the medium of the Cherry Klingon Language Wired Keyboard
Turns out we have a lot more in common with our Klingon friends than we first thought.
Klingons like a nice big Enter key on the right to make typing easier, just like us. They also enjoy a big Space bar, plus it looks like they have evolved a similar aesthetic of placing the ‘Esc’ key at the top-left and sticking a range of Function keys that go from about F1 to F12 along the top for easy access to features.
Klingons also like to use a separate numeric keypad…
Make your life even more ironic with the 3.5" floppy disk iTunes and Firefox posters
Here’s how you can be even more ironic than your ironic mate who does nothing but ironically play ironic 1970s children’s TV programme theme tunes all day – buy yourself a set of the deeply ironic posters based around 3.5″ discs.
Ironically imagining what it would’ve been like had iTunes or Firefox launched in the 1980s and been distributed on floppy disks, these ironic posters will ironically enhance any ironic modern living space. They also feature the right number of discs required to fit today’s modern apps – iTunes 8.02 would need to be spread across 42 floppies, for example.
I’m only bitter because I didn’t have the idea first. Maker Mehmet Gozetlik is promising to have full-size prints available soon from his shop, for a relatively…
