Microsoft’s new wireless keyboard-and-mouse duo aims to thwart keystroke spies with full AES 128-bit encryption on over-the-air data — an improvement on older wireless models that have proven to be easy pickings for hacker-types.
You can pick up the Wireless Desktop 2000 now for $40, but that won’t buy you protection from more common threats like Shandong phishmongers, nor will it make up for security loopholes in your other peripherals.
Speaking of which, are you still using that seemingly innocent USB
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Peripherals
- Date: Apr 2,2011
Your standard mouse may do it on the table, but 3D mice do it with extra dimension — some of the time, anyway. Quit 3ds Max and suddenly you have one axis too many on your hands.
After all, the vast majority of applications are 2D to match mice that may exist in a 3D reality but are limited to a decidedly dual-dimensional existence.
No more. 3Dconnexion, makers of a couple different controllers with depth, has released 3DxWare, a Mac or Windows driver that enables exciting 3D mice to work with boring 2D apps.
The first video after the break shows some one-handed zooming and browsing, while the second has you cutting and mixing in Final Cut Pro — again with nary a keyboard or controller in sight. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Peripherals
- Date: Feb 6,2011
Last we heard, Nokia’s bike-powered cellphone charger was set to roll out worldwide by the end of 2010 for about €15 — now the company’s peddling it for €30 to European velocipede enthusiasts.
(Sure, it’s twice as expensive as we anticipated, but it’s a huge step up from this thing.) The kit, intended primarily for developing markets, comes with a Nokia charger, phone holder, and bottle dynamo: the thing that spins your pedal pushing into cellphone juice.
Aside from price and availability, Nokia seems to have followed through on the rest of its promises — it sports a 2-mm charger interface and provides 28 minutes of talk time for every 10 minutes spent riding between 6kph (4mph) and 50kph (31mph).
European riders can pick up the charger kit from Nokia’s online store, while the rest of us just keep spinning our wheels.
Peanut butter and jelly. Gin and tonic. Peaches and cream. Some strange combinations make perfect sense paired, but how about the mouse and the PC gamepad?
Those two items are what a Hong Kong peripheral manufacturer decided to combine, and the result was the Shogun Bros.
Chameleon X-1 — a gaming mouse you can flip to find twelve buttons and two miniature analog sticks on the bottom.
It works as a gamepad, sure enough, and functions as a one-handed multimedia remote too. But is it any good? We’ve used it as our primary peripheral for over a week, and after the break, we’ll tell you. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Peripherals
- Date: Mar 14,2010
Push-up bars for the Wii Balance Board? Now that sounds like a fantastic idea — just the thing broad-shouldered individuals need to play Wii Fit without backstrain.
Too bad this particular set of bars isn’t worth the plastic it’s printed from. The latest and greatest from the minds in the chintzy plastic peripheral industry, the $25 CTA Digital Wii Push Up Bar is held in place by only your weight and a few foam strips without reinforcement of any kind, meaning it could detach itself with any significant exertion.
The only good that comes out of all this is an embarrassing video demonstration after the break, which features a pair of smiling humans pretending to have fun with the contraption. QVC, eat your heart out.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sorry if we’re the sort of folks to look a gift SD card reader in the mouth, but while we’re oh-so-happy that Apple finally opened up application-enabled hardware development in iPhone OS 3.0, we really wish an accessory like this had been available for the iPhone right from the start.
The new zoomIt SD card reader from zoomMediaPlus adds a bit of external, swappable memory to the iPhone and iPod touch at long last, giving you the ability to store your iPhone’s pictures on the card, or pull stuff off it onto your handset using the free zoomIt app.
Interestingly, this is coming to light just a couple weeks after we saw Apple’s own similar solution for getting cameras into the iPad mix — the SD and USB-adapting iPad Camera Connection Kit, which will be a mere $30.
There’s no word if Apple’s adapter will work with the iPhone (we doubt it) or if the zoomIt will work with the iPad (perhaps), but the $60 pricetag on the zoomIt is a bit of a turn off. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Peripherals
- Date: May 11,2009
The new Asus Eee PC-in-a-Keyboard is exactly what it sounds like, an entire PC fitted inside of a keyboard. It also has a small touchscreen display in place of the number pad on the right.
The specs include:
- 1.6Ghz Atom Processor
- 1GB of Ram
- 8GB or 16GB SSD Drive
- 5″ Touchscreen display
- VGA and HDMI output (optional wireless video capability)
Two new Eee PC-in-a-Keyboard models will be available in May for around $400 and $600 each. This is a nice twist on the usual all-in-one pc.
Flush with the success of its G13 gameboard, Logitech is now creating a whole series of peripherals that will all work together to celebrate the seventh letter of the alphabet.
The G-series line includes a new $199 G19 keyboard, offering a 320 x 240 color LCD mounted on top and 12 “G-keys” that can have up to three macros assigned to each.
Next up is the $129 G35, a 7.1 surround-sound headset with integrated “voice-morphing” options for those who’d rather sound like a space squirrel than domestic gamer. Read the rest of this entry »
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Peripherals
- Date: Jun 14,2007
Early adopters who hitched their wagon to Razer early on are likely to remember the elusive “First Edition” Boomslang mice, and if you’ve been clamoring for a practically identical replacement, Razer’s got you covered.
The Boomslang Collector’s Edition 2007 will make its debut at this summer’s DreamHack, will be limited to 10,000 units worldwide, and will be encased in a sleek titanium housing. Moreover, the mouse will glow green from underneath to add that final dash of 1337-ness at a dark LAN party, but there’s no word yet on DPI nor price.
[Via Electronista]
Why Logitech decided to eschew a “next-gen” feature for a “” one in its newest PS3 controller we’ll never know, but the esteemed peripherals manufacturer is nonetheless poised to loose its rumble-tastic, accelerometer-free Cordless Precision for PlayStation 3 on the gaming world.
IGN got a first look at the SIXAXIS competitor, and while they appreciate the build quality, battery life, and solid wireless connection, the lack of motion sensing, crappy D-pad, and absence of Bluetooth-related functionality (the Precision requires a USB dongle to communicate with the console) aren’t worth the ten dollar discount you’re getting when compared to a first-party offering.
Plus, now that Sony and Immersion have finally made nice, you’re bound to see some Bluetooth gamepads incorporating both force feedback and tilty goodness in the very near future.
[Via Joystiq]
