Sep 19

ITwin Dongle Splits in Two, Connects Remote Computers

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Today's Chili, usb

ITwin tries to make sharing files between remote computers less absurd than it should be in 2011

One thing that our computers are still comically bad at is sharing large files between each other. You want to send a birthday movie to your mother? Good luck. E-mail is hopeless for large files and sharing services are too complicated. Your best (and fastest) bet is to burn the files to a DVD and mail it.

ITwin is an attempt to fix this, although it comes with its own problems. The double-ended USB dongle breaks in two and plugs into two different computers, allowing you to transfer files between them over the Internet. These computers can be Macs or PCs, and the only other requirement is that they be switched on and online.

The dongle auto-installs its software the first time you plug it in, and the two halves generate and share an encryption key between themselves whilst still joined together. Then, when split, the second part can be plugged into any machine and files are transferred back and forth. ITwin is billed as a connecting cable, without the cable. We might add “without the speed” to that list, as you’re limited by the upstream connection of the sending computer.

The iTwin is really little more than software disguised as hardware: you could punch a hole in your firewall and encrypt the transfers for free if you wanted to. The difference is that your Uncle Pete can use this as easily as using a USB stick.

The price is $100, which is cheap or way overpriced, depending on your needs. The iTwin is available now.

iTwin product page [iTwin. Thanks, Madison!]

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Sep 19

Logitech Wireless Touchpad for Windows

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, logitech, multitouch, Today's Chili, Windows

Logitech’s fugly trackpad is the perfect match for your Windows PC

The target market for Logitech’s Windows-only Wireless Touchpad is a strange one. It consists of people who are sufficiently Apple-aware to want a wireless multitouch trackpad, who have $50 lying around to buy one, and yet — inexplicably — haven’t actually bought a Mac.

Despite this odd start, Logitech seems to have got everything else right: The styling is sufficiently ugly and cheap-looking to match any PC, the battery life is a very respectable four months (on 2 AA cells) and it can be used with one, two, three or four fingers simultaneously. It also has a couple of buttons at the bottom, like a traditional laptop trackpad (in contrast to Apple’s whole-pad clicks) and it uses Logitech’s excellent 2.4GHz receiver.

These receivers are great. They’re tiny, and they make all your Logitech input devices appear as USB mice/pads/keyboards to the computer. They’re also way more reliable (and responsive) than Bluetooth peripherals.

If you can stomach putting this ugly chunk of plastic on your desk, you can have one right now, for the aforementioned $50.

Wireless Touchpad product page [Logitech]

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Sep 19

Belkin’s Taco-Shaped Thunderbolt Dock

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, thunderbolt, Today's Chili

Taco Belkin: Why buy a whole new monitor when you can just grab this little dock instead? Photo Daily Tech

If you own a new Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Air, you probably have an eye on Apple’s new 27-inch Thunderbolt monitor, with its mess of expansion ports out back which will let you turn laptop into desktop by plugging in just one cable.

But before you ditch your perfectly good monitor and drop a grand on a new one, consider Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock, a standalone dock which has the exact same ports as the Cinema Display.

The dock, an aluminum taco shell, has three USB ports, a FireWire 800 port and a hole for Gigabit Ethernet. It also has a Thunderbolt passthrough to send video and anything else onto monitors or further docks, and has a DC-in socket to power all the junk you have attached.

It’s a great idea, and although Belkin hasn’t yet put the thing up on its site, the dock is sure to cost a lot less than a new monitor. And if you’re using one of Apple’s aluminum Cinema Displays already, this dock will sit on its foot and blend right in.

IDF 2011: Belkin Shows Off Thunderbolt Express Dock [Daily Tech]

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Sep 14

Wireless Keyboard Sports Slick Face, Retractable Keys

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, bluetooth, keyboard, Tablets and E-Readers, Today's Chili, Wireless

The Levitatr is available for a $79 pre-order. Image courtesy Levitatr.

At rest, the Levitatr looks like a shiny, expensive glass rectangle in an aluminum chassis. Press the activation key, and up springs a backlit full-size 77 key Bluetooth keyboard.

Designer James Stumpf came up with the concept after becoming frustrated with typing on the virtual keyboard on his iPad. He imagined how great it would be if keys rose from the glass. This wireless keyboard is a start, but Stumpf hopes to get the technology integrated directly into a tablet.

The keyboard runs on four AAA batteries, and features a retracting aluminum stand to hold a tablet. It is compatible with the iPad, iPad 2, iPod Touch. iPhone, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and HP TouchPad.

The keyboard is currently a Kickstarter project, and is available for pre-order via donation towards his goal of $60,000. A minimum pledge of $79 gets you your own Levitatr.

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Sep 08

Handy Rubber-Band-Inspired iPhone Case

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, iPhone, Today's Chili

Elasty is a surprisingly practical phone case

Belkin doesn’t make this Belkin-branded iPhone case, but it should do. It’s a concept design from Yoori Koo, and is the functional equivalent of wrapping a couple of rubber bands around your phone, only it doesn’t obscure the display.

Koo’s Elasty case is much like any other bumper-with-a-back style case, encasing the iPhone’s squared-off body in a silicone shroud. The difference comes in a set of four thin strips formed by slits in the rubber. These pull away and let you tuck in cash, cables, cards and even pens. Anything that can be squeezed behind a loop can be carried.

Larger items are of course impractical, but once they get really big, the relationship changes and you can hang the phone em on them. Otherwise, tucking in your beer money or your wound-up earbuds is a great idea.

According to Radhika Seth of Yanko Design, Koo’s design has actually won a “Korean Belkin Design Award,” so maybe we’ll see it on stores sooner or later. In the meantime, might I suggest you get going with some old bike inner tubes.

Simple Slits for Phones [Yanko]

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Sep 08

Induction Charging Kit Costs More Than the iPad it Juices

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, charger, money, Today's Chili

Like a zombie hungry for brains, all LaunchPort can think about is your moneyyyyyy

Nickel and dime, nickel and dime. Ching, ching! If you could hear design and marketing strategies as sounds, then that’s the sound you’d hear coming from LaunchPort, makers of inductive iPad chargers and mounts.

The product itself is appealing. You put your iPad into the PowerShuttle case, which adds the necessary charging circuitry, as well as a widening the bezel and adding a chin. This will cost you $150.

Next, you buy the WallStation, a giant magnet that screws to the wall and charges the iPad by induction when it is stuck up there inside its PowerShuttle case. This will cost you another $150. Subtotal: $300.

And if you want to use the system at your desk? You go for the BaseStation, a triangle of brushed aluminum with a magnet and the same charging functions. The cost? $200.

If you’re keeping score, you’ll realize that we’re up to $500, or the cost of a new iPad, just to get an oversized case, a desk dock and a wall dock. And that’s not all. Because these are not yet ready to ship, they’re available for pre-order only. And here’s the kicker: in order to do this, you have to pay a $10 “Exclusive Reservation Fee.” Ker-ching!

Apple’s $30 iPad dock looks pretty cheap now, huh?

LaunchPort product page [LaunchPort via Da Giz]

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Sep 07

Classic Cursor Stylus Takes the Tablet Back in Time

Posted in: accessories, Accessories and Peripherals, ipad, tablet, Tablets and E-Readers, Today's Chili

The BigBig Arrow gives your tablet that retro vibe. Image courtesy of BigBig Cursor.

For those who miss the decades-old aesthetics of that half-arrow, or link-clicking pointer finger, there’s the Big Big Arrow and Big Big Pointer styluses. They, like most models, have a rubber tip designed to point with accuracy, but glide across the glass for drawing and scrolling. Both are magnetic and can adhere to the screen’s rim, Apple Smartcover, or refrigerator.

Steve Jobs has said of his iPad, “If you need a stylus, you’ve already failed,” but there are some major advantages gained by sacrificing the tactility. Besides keeping your tablet free from Cheeto dust, the accessory makes it easier to use drawing software.

The styluses are the brainchild of Mike Mak, a graduate of Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design. Both models are available for $12.99 each.

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Sep 07

Jean Michelle Jarre’s 11-Foot Tall iPad Speaker Dock Is Impractically Awesome

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Retro, Today's Chili

One of these speakers is 11-feet tall, the other just 3.5 feet. Can you tell which is which?

Do you have €400,000 ($562,000) lying around? Well, you might want to do something about that, especially if it’s on the kitchen table, you have windows open and it’s a breezy day. And if you’re a complete moron, I have just the thing to waste it on: Jean Michele Jarre’s AeroDream One, aka “The ultimate tower station for iPod, iPad and iPhone.”

Possibly the best thing about the AeroDream One is the publicity photo, featuring a grinning Jarre climbing a (built-in) ladder to put his iPad into the top of the 11-foot behemoth. Why the hell is the slot on the top?

The answer is that this isn’t the real AeroDream One. It is a ginat-sized, fully-functioning replica to be used to (shrewdly) drum up interest in the actual €400 AeroDream One, a three-year-old product. But before we get to that, you want to see the specs of this monster, right?

The tower has an 18-inch subwoofer, a pair of 12-inch mid-range drivers and two three-inch tweeters. These are driven by a 10,000-watt, five channel amp. Inputs come via jack, 30-pin iPhone dock, USB and XLR, and there’s an HDMI output. The whole lot weighs 395 kilos, or 871 pounds.

Is anyone else thinking about Marty McFly cranking up the guitar amp in Doc Brown’s workshop right now?

The more practical version is just over a meter high (3.6 feet), and packs a 60-watt sub and a pair of 30-watt tweeters. It too has a 30-pin dock up top, along with a 3.5mm jack and USB port. It weighs a mere 14kg, or 31 pounds — barely enough to crush a dog if it falls, let alone a human.

I’m not sure if I’m in the market for a $500+ speaker dock just to play crappy MP3s, but once I saw the photo of 1980s legend JMJ up a ladder I had no choice but to write this post. The only thing that could be better would be the same photo, only with David Hasselhoff on a matching speaker ladder, and both of them giving a double thumbs-up. Tell me you wouldn’t pay to see that.

AeroSystem One product page (small) [Jarre via New Launches and Oh Gizmo!]

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Sep 02

GPS Pet-Tracker Lets You Stalk Pooch

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, gps, Today's Chili

Now you can follow your dog from the comfort of the nearest browser. Photo credit PetTracker

Photocopied “lost dog”” flyers taped to lampposts and stapled to telegraph poles are so 20th century. The modern day approach to a mislaid canine is GPS tracking. Specifically, the Tagg Pet Tracker.

The Tagg is a collar-mounted tag with GPS and cellular radios. Using it, you can track pooch on a map and find him, wherever he may have wandered. And if he strays from a preset “Tagg zone,” you’ll be notified immediately so you can go grab him before he digs up the neighbor’s petunias. Again.

The Tagg will last for up to 30 days on a charge, and can even be worn for brief swims — it can be submerged up to a meter deep (just over a yard) for 30 minutes — more than enough time to chase a duck.

The $200 kit consist of the Tagg itself, a base station for charging, a collar clip mount and a year’s worth of service. Pre orders can be made now, for September delivery. Further Taggs can be had for $140 apiece.

Tagg product page [Pet Tracker]

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Sep 01

HP Makes Special Edition of 30-Year-Old 12c Calculator

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, HP, Retro, Today's Chili

The new 12c is as hard to fathom as the old one. Photos HP

HP may or may not be dumping its PC business, and it may have messed up its hardware future in a post-PC world, but the company still knows what’s important. A new handheld from the Palo Alto company is set to rock the miniature tablet world. Behold: The HP 12c Financial Calculator 30th Anniversary Edition.

Above you see the 30-year old original (left) and the new version, side by side. The tiny calculator was used by bean counters who apparently loved its shirt-pocket size, accurate calculations and the fact that you can use it in CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exams (the other permitted calculator is the Texas Instruments BA II Plus).

I have a vague memory of owning one of these, although I’m not sure why. And I’m absolutely certain that I didn’t know how to use it. Put a scientific calculator in front of me and I’ll rip through cosines, tangents and non base 10 math as if I were still in school. But put the 12c on my desk my eyes will roll back in my head at the thought of Reverse Polish Notation and Zzzzzz. Uh. Sorry. You see?

The Anniversary Edition is exactly the same as the original, but for the writing on the front and a laser-etched production number on the back. You’ll be able to pick one up for $80, or around the same as a TouchPad (Sorry. Couldn’t resist).

The HP-12C turns 30, Goes Limited Edition. Thanks, Greta! [HP]

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