Archive for September, 2007

LaCie Little Disk by Sam Hecht

Wednesday, September 19th, 2007

Lacie Little Disk designed by Sam HechtI admit that I wasn’t overly impressed with the design of the last LaCie hard drive my eyes wandered over but LaCie may just have won me over with the Little Disk. Designed by a gentlemen called Sam Hecht, the Little Disk looks quite attractive with its extendable USB cable and flip off lid and who would know what lies inside the little black box when its not in use. Unfortunately any kudos built up as a man of mystery with his ‘little black box’ would soon be blown away when people realise it contains a series of zeros and ones. However for a while there you were ‘the dude with the mystery black box’.

Anyway lets crank out the numbers on this puppy

* All models sport USB 2.0 connectivity at 480 Mbps with a couple of FireWire 400 ports at 400 Mbps on larger models
* Spinning speed is 5,400 rpm for all apart from an oh so slow 3,600 for the 30 and 60 GB models
* Most models measure up at 81 x 129 x 18 mm but the dinky 30/60 GB models square up at a mere 64 x 80 x 18 mm
* Again the larger units weigh in at 195g but the smaller ones are 126g
* Capacity starts at the 30 GB mark and goes up to 250 GB on the biggest model

Prices start at US$100 for the 30 GB up to $230 for the 250 GB although there is a 250 GB without FireWire for $180. So nothing to write home about but its sleekness and elegance – attributes fairly uncommon in the external HDD world – make the Little Disk stand out in the crowd.

Source: LaCie

Logic3 SoundStage – 5.1 sound with no wires

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007

Logic3 Soundstage

This little sucker only seems available in Europe, but its looks and price tag got my attention. The Logic3 SoundStage certainly looks the part and will fit snugly underneath that LCD unit hanging from your lounge wall. No more trailing wires for your rear and side speaker units and a simpler setup you could not find, with just one optical or coaxial cable required to fire this puppy up, oh yeah and a power lead!

The 15 speaker system pumps out 150 Watts RMS and according to Logic3 will provide ‘a room filling sound’. It supposedly lifts up the sound to be level with your head as opposed to waist or ankle level, well since I tend to be sitting rather than standing when I watch a movie or sports event, I think waist level will suit me fine!

Marketing hyperbole aside this speaker system is a steal at 250 sterling (US$500) and certainly would be a benefit in any spatially challenged room. As always I would be concerned about the actual quality of the sound reproduction and the system’s ability to provide true surround sound. Whilst audiophiles may prefer a wireless option with individual speakers, the price tag and looks of the SoundStage certainly make it worth considering.

Source: PocketLint

Memory Mouse – Microsoft release self-charging mouse with memory

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

Microsoft Mobile Memory Mouse 8000Microsoft have brought out this nifty little mouse, the Mobile Memory Mouse 8000. US$100 gets you a re-charging wireless mouse with 1 GB of memory, 10 metre range and a battery life indicator. The memory sits neatly in the transceiver plugged into a USB port on your PC freeing up another USB port. The unit recharges when a magnetic connector from the mouse is attached to the transceiver in your USB port – very handy. The mouse boasts 4 way scrolling with Tilt Wheel Technology and sports five programmable buttons. There’s also an on/off switch to power off the batteries when not in use, a great energy saving feature.

As you can probably tell I’m quite taken with this little sucker. Well, almost, in the MS blurb there is no mention of the 1 GB flash memory being ReadyBoost compatible. So although it sports some excellent features it probably lacks the most obvious feature that a memory mouse should really have, an omission made even more glaring when you realise that the mouse is manufactured by the same company that produce the bloated OS in the first place. Come on MS, prove me wrong, tell me marketing screwed up and it is ReadyBoost compatible.

Source: I4U