Hasta La Gadget!

Speakers? Oh yeah. Wires? Heck no. Aluratek has launched three new wireless audio products collectively called Bump — though somehow a wired model got lumped in there too. A bit of a step from the company’s previous digi frame and e-reader offerings, the four tune-pumping solutions start with the $49.99 AMS01F, a wee boombox that plays music from SD, line-in, or FM and does six hours on a charge. The $79.99 AUWS01F ditches the media player functionality, relying on a signal sent from a 2.4GHz USB dongle that you stick in your nearest PC or Mac (within 60 feet) that has some tunes on it. Next is the $99.99 AWS01F, basically the AMS01F boombox with the addition of a separate wireless speaker. Finally, if you’re not ready to cut the cord, there’s the $19.99 APS01F, a single little tweeter with a 3.5mm cable sprouting from below. They’re all available now, so you know what to do.

Update: Seems these are a rebadge. Welp, at least you’ve got another option.

Continue reading Aluratek’s new wireless speakers go Bump in the night

Aluratek’s new wireless speakers go Bump in the night originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How many dedicated LTE-capable USB modems does Verizon need? At least three, apparently, because we’ve just been sent shots of Novatel’s upcoming USB551L that looks perhaps a tad glossier and sleeker than the Pantech and LG models that have preceded it. Hard to say from the spec sheet here, but it looks like there’s at least a chance this is LTE-only without CDMA / EV-DO fallback since there’s no explicit mention of it; unlikely considering how small Verizon’s LTE footprint is for the time being, but you never know. More importantly, there is explicit mention of Mac support, something the carrier’s current options lack. No word on a release date or pricing, but we imagine it won’t be long now that these dummy units — which you can see in the gallery below — are floating around.

Novatel’s USB551L LTE modem for Verizon in the wild, does Mac support out of the box originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A clever designer at the Samsung Art and Design Institute has solved one of mankind’s peskiest problems: how to share photos with your friends.

In truth, this was answered long ago by the camera phone, and later, by direct uploads to Facebook. But should you be hanging out with some more old-school buddies, Jung Eun Park’s UCIM is for you. The concept camera features a trio of USB-ports. When taking snaps that you want to share, you collect up your friends’ thumb-drives and plug them in. Any photos you take are copied direct to all the sticks.

Teasing aside, this is a very nice feature, and easily avoids the two alternative scenarios: One, you take every picture three times, once with each camera. Only one of these photos will have everybody with their eyes open. Second, the person with a camera promises to email the photos, or burn them to a CD. Or something. Only they never send them, or if they do, then you get crappy low-res files, or a subset of all the pics taken. This solves the problem of lazy, lying friends.

The UCIM is also cute-looking, although the USB-ports could be put into any camera, not just this puffy, marshmallow-flavored case. I’m sold. Or I would be, if I hadn’t discovered a great new trick of my own. Borrow a friend’s iPhone, take my picture and then email it to myself. If you try this, always remember to mail the full-resolution version. It’s not your 3G bandwidth you’re using up, after all.

Take Picture, Share Picture [Yanko]

See Also:

• Flickr Hooks Up With Facebook for Photo Sharing Love
• Share That Photo: Hit Save
• Instagram for iPhone, Like a Lomo-Twitter for Your Photos

So, let’s say you’re out with a bud. Two buds. Just you three, hanging out, talking up memories of the days when you all kept in touch via the Kin Spot. And then, a monument. Any monument will do. You bust out a point and shoot, scrunch together, and snap a picture. Fast forward to next week, and your buds are still wondering when you’re ever going to offload those images and shoot ’em over via email. You’ve not only let down the two most important people in your life, but you’ve failed yourself. Enter Samsung’s Ucim camera, which sports a full trio of USB ports meant to house three USB memory nubs. When the shutter snaps, it logs images to all three nubs, and when the party’s over, you and your two buds grab your respective nubs and part ways. Too bad it’s just a concept for now, but here’s hoping it becomes much more than that in the near future. Your buds hope so, too.

Samsung Ucim digicam concept saves shots to three USB sticks originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It took LaCie nearly a full year to ship the 2big USB 3.0 RAID drive — a device that was announced in the fall of 2009 — but now that it’s here, it’s being accompanied by a concept that actually far outshines the unit itself: USB 3.0 on a Mac. For whatever reason, Apple has refused to offer SuperSpeed USB on any of its machines, even a fully specced-out Mac Pro costing well north of $10,000. We’ve seen purported emails from Steve Jobs noting that USB 3.0 just isn’t mainstream enough to sweat just yet, but coming from the guy who’s still bearish on Blu-ray, we get the feeling that it’ll be quite some time far too long before Apple finally caves and upgrades from USB 2.0. We’re obviously no fans of the holdout — after all, even a few sub-$500 netbooks are enjoying the SuperSpeed spoils already — so we couldn’t have possibly been more excited to hear that a longstanding storage vendor was about to fill the void that Cupertino continues to ignore. We were able to pick up a LaCie USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card as well as a 4TB (2 x 2TB) 2big USB 3.0 drive and put the whole setup through its paces on our in-house Mac Pro. Care to see how it stacked up against USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800? Head on past the break for the grisly details.

Continue reading USB 3.0 for Mac review and benchmarks (with a LaCie 2big USB 3.0)

USB 3.0 for Mac review and benchmarks (with a LaCie 2big USB 3.0) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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