Computer Hardware/Accessories

Posted by Chad Criswell

Buying rechargable batteries is a great way to help conserve resources. Instead of tossing used batteries into the trash bin you can recharge and reuse the battery dozens of times. The problem with such batteries (until now) is that you had to carry around a recharging station with you otherwise you would be left with no other option than to go buy a new set of dry cells at the local convenience store. With the USB Powercells you never need to worry about taking along a charger, the charging mechanism is built into the battery itself!

By flipping open the positive end cap on a USB powercell you expose a standard USB device connector. By plugging that connection into your computer the computer will then recharge the NiMH battery to full power in an hour or two. The web site claims that even a short recharge will allow you to power your AA devices for several hours. Cool!

Posted by Chad Criswell

Lower power, lower carbon footprint, and ecologically friendly materials go together to make the Simpletech [re]drive a star for the green minded geeks among us. Sporting a recycled aluminmum and bamboo (yes, Bamboo!) enclosure and a 150gig capacity the [re]drive is impressive yet also very expensive by comparison. Still, for those that want the most environmentally friendly PC components, this new hard drive bears some attention.

Posted by Chad Criswell

Musicians that use a single MIDI device with their computer will normally purchase a USB powered MIDI converter to connect their keyboard or other musical instrument to their PC. For more advanced artists that have multiple instruments this may not be the best bet. Brando has introduced a very economical four port standard MIDI cable based interface (with a single USB connection from the box to the PC) that allows amateurs to pump up the instruments without pumping up the budget. It sells for $38.00 and is available now.

Posted by Chad Criswell

No need to carry around a bunch of different gadgets when the USB 4-in-1 Web Cam rolls four often used toys into one convenient, if moderately ugly, package. The device uses a single USB connection to supply the user with a web cam, an LED light bar (for lighting up your smiling face), a small fan (to keep you cool of course), and of course, a microphone to record the hum of the fan whirring next to it. While it is not a gadget that will wind up in everyone's shopping basket it is still a very novel and useful rethinking of some very common USB accessories. It is currently selling for $23 over at Brando.com.

Posted by Chad Criswell

Okay, I don't think I would want this giant thing sitting in front of my computer all day long, but the idea is in general a good one. This high tech treadmill connects to a PC to allow a user to walk through the environment of your favorite games while still being able to control the various parts of the game by using attached hand controls. It is similar to an idea called the GamerSize PC Sport that fits quietly under your desk, but unlike the FPGameRunner the GamerSize PC Sport does not provide you with the ability to interact with any games as yet. It will, however keep track of your exercise routine and is a lot easier to move around the office.

Posted by Chad Criswell

There is nothing worse than the horror of having a hard drive fail and losing all of your precious digital photos or videos that were stored on it. Backing up is not a huge hassle, but for many people remembering to do so and then followign through with it are still difficult to do. Memorex has now come out with a special DVD that they are calling the SimpleSave which has backup software already on it. When a user pops the SimpleSave disc into their computer the backup software automatically loads and begins to copy all of the photos and videos on the hard drive to the DVD. The disc can hold thousands of photos or hours of compressed video files. For those who have trouble remembering to back up their hard drive the new SimpleSave may be just the ticket to save those previous memories with little or no hassle involved.

Posted by Chad Criswell

HP is a great company that has come out with many useful innovations over the years. They are most well known for their printers (and a dismally unsuccessful PC line) but now they have come out with a printer that has one more feature that you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else. They have combined a traditional multifunction printer with copy, fax, and printing capabilities with a high speed, dual layer DVD burner. All of which are controlled by buttons on the printer or through software on the connected PC. The burner is able to use Lightscribe technology to burn labels onto specially designed blank media discs. It also has ports for all of the common media card formats as well. No idea if you can burn directly from these cards to the burner or not. Although it may seem strange at first the idea of combining all of these devices into one is actually a very good thing. I'd love to get ahold of one to do a review on it, but sadly I bet these are going to be a very hot commodity over the next few months.

Posted by Chad Criswell

Each time a new generation of media storage comes out it takes a while for the technology to mature. In the case of Blu-Ray DVD burners, until now 2x write speeds have been the norm. At that rate it takes as much as 45 minutes to burn 25 gigabytes of data to a standard Blu-Ray recordable disc. Now a few manufacturers have come out with 4x burners, effectively halving the amount of time it takes to burn a full BD-R disc. LaCie is one of the most recent, with their new "d2" drive burns both 25 gig and 50 gig Blu-Ray Recordable discs and comes with ports for both Firewire and USB connections. Of course, that degree of speed and convenience will cost a pretty penny. Street price at the moment is in the neighborhood of $649.00.

Source: Lacie.com

Posted by Chad Criswell

One of the easiest ways to use a traditional telephone with Skype is to use a USB based adaptor such as the CU Free Echo Free USB Phone Adaptor. This matchbook sized USB key has two standard telephone ports on one end, allowing the user to connect a traditional telephone as well as connect to an incoming land line circuit. Using the adaptor and included software, calls coming into the home on the old land line are routed to the telephone handsets as normal, but outgoing long distance calls are automatically routed through the computer and the Skype service. The Echo Free adaptor also includes other useful functions such as 3 way conference calling and call forwarding to a cell phone or any desired phone number.

Posted by Chad Criswell

Skype and other Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services use a person’s computer to make cheap long distance telephone calls using a high speed Internet connection. New accessories are now available that allows a person to use their traditional land line phone in conjunction with the computer based Skype services instead of a computer headset or dedicated Skype phone. There are many different options available for users that want to connect a land line phone to a computer, all with varying degrees of features.