Hasta La Gadget!

One neat feature of Apple’s new Time Capsule and Airport Extreme base stations is the ability to access them remotely via Mobile Me’s Back to My Mac service (stop sniggering at the back — we know Back to My Mac doesn’t work, even with hard-wired drives).

Previously, Back to My Mac would only fail to connect to drives hooked directly to the Mac. The new hardware allows you to fail to connect to USB drives hooked up as network attached storage (NAS).

Now, a simple software update from Apple allows owners of the old Time Capsule and Airport Extreme to do the exact same thing, enabling "remote access to compatible USB connected drives via Back to My Mac (except on AirPort Express)".

Ah, yes, Airport Express. One of the neatest, handiest little gadgets in the Apple line-up, except that you can’t hook up a USB drive and use it over the air. This update still applies to the Express, but it only fixes a few security holes, and the USB port on the side remains completely useless unless you have a printer to plug into it.

The update is available now. Rumors that Apple is working to fix Back to My Mac are unfounded.

Product page [Apple]

Not everyone cares about audio quality. In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest we’re raising a generation that actually prefers the sound of MP3s over higher-fidelity recordings. Still, there will always be people who obsess over sound quality–just as there are always people with discerning taste in food, …

Originally posted at MP3 Insider

Here it is, the world’s first SDXC card… announcement. Unfortunately, PRETEC’s take on the new SD eXtended Capacity storage format falls well short of the 2TB theoretical maximum at 32GB (a 64GB card is promised for later in the year), as does the card’s 50MBps transfer rate when 300MBps data rates are possible. Still, a first’s a first, at least it could be if this is the first SDXC card to go retail — PRETEC doesn’t list a price or a ship date. Let’s just hope that devices supporting the SDXC standard appear at about the same time these SDXC cards do ship, eh?

Filed under: Storage

PRETEC pointlessly announces world’s first SDXC card without a ship date originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yeah, that’s right, Portland, wipe that smug grin off your face. You too, Baltimore, because Clearwire has committed to a list of new mobile WiMAX launches for this year and next — and needless to say, there are some major markets in the mix. In its earnings call this week, Clearwire revealed 2009 will see Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas / Fort Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia, and Seattle all take the plunge, while ’10 will add New York, Washington DC, Boston, and San Fran (among other to-be-named metros). We’re not sure whether they’re talking about the same U300 USB modem that launched before, but the company has also mentioned that it’ll be launching a dual-mode data card this summer, and ahead of that, we’ll be getting that portable WiMAX WiFi hotspot by the end of this month. The goal is to cover about 120 million pops in 80 markets by the end of next year, which certainly seems strong enough to give the oncoming LTE rush a run for its money, doesn’t it?

[Via mocoNews]

Filed under: Wireless

Portland non-residents rejoice: Clearwire’s WiMAX service to expand to major markets this year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yeah, we already heard that Dell’s Phenom II-equipped XPS 625 was a solid value, but what does that really mean? The testing fiends over at HotHardware sought to find out, and after putting this gaming beast through more tests than it ever wanted to endure, they mirrored most of the earlier (positive) sentiments. In fact, it was found to boast one of the best price-to-performance ratios out there, and the “minimalist” software installation definitely earned brownie points in our book. One thing that bothered critics, however, was the excessive amount of noise. We too have noticed that Dell’s ginormous XPS towers — which, by the way, reviewers also found to be unnecessarily heavy and unwieldy — can emit some serious decibels under heavy loads, but you’d think the engineers in Round Rock would’ve figured out a solution by now. Still, those quirks are probably small hassles to deal with given the savings compared to similar rigs, but we’d highly recommend digging into the read link just to be sure.

Filed under: Desktops

Dell’s Phenom II-equipped XPS 625 benchmarked to the hilt originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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