Hasta La Gadget!

A lot of us could use a second display nowadays, but if you travel a lot and rely on your laptop to get a lot of work done, not only are you limited to a small screen, but it’s hard to take a second display around with you. However, AOC just outed a new 16-inch monitor that is powered by only a single USB 3.0 cable.

The AOC E1659FWU, as it’s officially called aims to be the portable monitor to cater towards road warriors while still providing a large enough display to get work done. Sadly, it only has a 1366×768 resolution, which is pretty poor for a 15.6-inch viewable monitor, but we’re guessing AOC wanted to keep the price down, seeing as how it only costs $129.

At 16 inches, the monitor will be able to fit into most carrying bags, and it even comes with its own protective case, so there’s no worries about scratching the display while you’re toting it around, or worrying about having to find a cloth to wrap around it.

Since the monitor is powered by USB, as well as used for the video transmission, there’s no battery that users will have to keep charging. The monitor only pulls seven watts of power, but you’ll have to make sure your laptop has USB 3.0 before you go out buy this new display, as it won’t work over USB 2.0.

The new display is available for pre-order right now on Amazon, but if you’re looking to save a little bit of cash, AOC also still has the previous-generation display up on Amazon, which only costs $89 and is available now. The new monitor isn’t shipping until August 5.

AOC 16-inch portable monitor arrives with USB 3.0 in tow is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Acer has ditched plans to push Thunderbolt on its Windows PCs, turning instead to USB 3.0 despite being the first PC manufacturer to support Intel’s high-speed connection. According to Acer, which first included Thunderbolt on the Aspire S5 ultrabook in early 2012, it’s a matter of cost, USB 3.0 offering comparable speed among other advantages, and the continuing shortage of peripherals actually using Thunderbolt technology that have soured it on the port.

“We’re really focusing on USB 3.0 – it’s an excellent alternative to Thunderbolt,” Acer spokesperson Ruth Rosene told CNET. “It’s less expensive, offers comparable bandwidth, charging for devices such as mobile phones, and has a large installed base of accessories and peripherals.”

Acer was one of a trio of PC manufacturers said to be shifting interconnect attention to Thunderbolt back in 2012, including ASUS and Lenovo. Since then, Dell, HP, and Gigabyte have all released laptops or desktops with the port, which offers 10 Gbps in each direction simultaneously.

Apple is the company most associated with Thunderbolt, however, including the port on all of its current MacBook notebooks, and most of its Mac desktops. The new Mac Pro 2013 will even debut Intel’s second-gen version, Thunderbolt 2, with even greater bandwidth.

Whereas the current Mac Pro is a sizable tower, the new version is a far smaller cylinder. Instead of offering multiple internal bays for expansion, Apple expects Thunderbolt 2 to be used, with six ports in total, each offering daisy-chaining support for up to six devices, for a total of 36.

Exactly what devices will be hooked up is perhaps Acer’s lingering concern. The market for Thunderbolt peripherals remains small, with high-speed external storage often using SSDs the most common application. They’re expensive, however, and target a niche audience; even the new Mac Pro includes USB 3.0 ports, recognizing the connectivity standard’s ubiquity.

Acer abandons Thunderbolt in favor of cheaper USB 3.0 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Twenty-five bucks worth of molded plastic and electronics is about to vastly improve your bedroom experience. This set of four risers from Bed Bath & Beyond not only boosts the height of your bed by eight inches, making you feel more important and increasing the amount of storage space you’ve got underneath. They also put a pair of power outlets and USB ports in easy reach so you can charge all of your electronic paraphernalia over night.

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What happens when you want to transfer a file from a USB flash drive over to your smartphone or tablet? Most of the time, we would hook up the smartphone or tablet to a computer, and likewise, do the same for the USB flash drive, before we open up the relevant windows and perform the file transfer. If only there was no need for a middleman, or in this case, a middle device, life would be a whole lot more convenient, don’t you think so? This is the particular niche that the Leef Bridge USB flash drive intends to fill, where it not only comes with a full sized USB connector, it also comes alongside a microUSB connector.

The latter makes it extremely easy to connect the Leef Bridge USB flash drive into a smartphone or tablet, where all that is required of you would be to slide out the segment that you want to use, while the case of the Leef Bridge USB flash drive will offer protection to the other end. Of course, one should take this into consideration that not all Android-powered devices that have a microUSB port will be compatible with the Leef Bridge, as some of these ports are meant for charging purposes only, so make sure your device has USB OTG (On The Go) compatibility in the first place. Expect the Leef Bridge USB flash drive to arrive in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities, where the first two models will retail for $17.99 and $28.99, respectively.
[ Leef Bridge USB flash drive copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Apple could further slim its MacBook Air and Pro range by combining ports, a new patent application suggests, developing hybrid USB and SD card reader ports that save notebook space without sacrificing connectivity. The newly published patent, simply titled “combined input port“, describes a single connector that, thanks to offset pins inside, could work with

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