Hasta La Gadget!

One of the better things to appear in computers of recent vintage is the SD-card reader, which lets us slot the memory-cards from our cameras directly into our notebooks and slurp off the photographs. But not all computers come equipped with this handy little slit, so we’re forced to use (and carry) an external card reader. Elecom has come to the rescue with the “MR-C25 Series”, a USB card-reader with – literally – a twist.

Elecom’s reader slots into a spare USB-port, but instead of sticking out perpendicular to the side of the machine it lays snug and flat along the side. What’s that, you say? It covers up all the other ports next to it? Sure, but look – it swivels, flipping up-and-over to get out of the way when needed. Thus plugged, it is thin enough to stay in place, even when you slip your computer into its travel-case.

The reader has another trick, too. It reads not only SD-cards (SDHC and SDXC formats are both supported) but also those tiny microSD cards that are smaller than your pinkie’s thumbnail and so popular with the cellphone kids these days.

The reader should start to show up in November, price unknown. Just keep your fingers crossed that the buyer for you local retail chain appreciates a nifty gadget as much as we do.

Elecom MR-C25 [Elecom via Akihabara News]

See Also:

• ZoomIt: An SD Card-Reader for iPhone
• AirStash Wireless SD Card Reader: Perfect iPad Companion?
• USB Card Reader Generates Its Own Slideshows
• Totally Awesome: Eye-Fi Card Reader Uploads Digital Pics Via Wi-Fi …

Contort is another crazy-useful looking gadget from the seemingly bottomless idea-pit at Quirky. Like all Quirky gear, it combines simplicity with a re-think of existing solutions. This particular widget is a four-port USB-hub and cable-manager.

At Quirky, they actually are working with a bottomless pit of ideas. A community of internet denizens coughs out an idea and then they work together tirelessly to perfect the design like an army of termites building a dirt-skyscraper, only in this case the termites are you and me and the termite-mound is a handy computer peripheral.

The hub is ridiculously basic. The four ports occupy one side of a reel around which you wrap stray cables, keeping things tidy and tangle-free. The lone USB-plug sprouts from one end and swivels on its flexible TPE-rubber cord, dangling straight from the hole on the back or side of your computer. There are also four cut-out “anchor” points around the circumference to hook cables and keep them firmly tucked in.

Like any Quirky product, you need to pre-order and then, when enough people have committed, production begins. The Contort will cost you $30, and is ready to order right now.

Contort product page [Quirky. Thanks, Tiffany!]

See Also:

• USB Hub Packs Clutter-Reducing iPhone Charger
• Hermaphrodite USB Cords Stack to Infinity
• Daisy-Chaining USB Cables Add Endless Connections
• Quirky Jointed Power-Strip Is 'A Creative Outlet'
• Quirky's iPad Case With Two-Way Kick-Stand
• Quirky Switch, A customizable Multi-Tool

Quirky‘s community has just outed another nifty peripheral that might just come in handy when looking for a few stocking stuffers later this year. Or, you know, right now if you can’t make heads or tails of your USB peripheral collection. The Contort is a plug-in 4-port USB hub, and the cord management roll enables users to keep an iPod Dock Connector cable, micro-USB cable and mini-USB cable neatly spooled for charging just about anything. It’s up for pre-sale as we speak at $29.99, and we can only offer you the best of luck in resisting.

Continue reading Quirky Contort contorts around your excess cabling, doubles as 4-port USB hub

Quirky Contort contorts around your excess cabling, doubles as 4-port USB hub originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Big Brother is watching you, and you’d better remember. Forget for just a moment and you could find yourself committing thoughtcrime doupleplusquick. Enter the £49.99 ($78) Blink Now. It’s ostensibly a device designed to save you from Computer Vision Syndrome, a modern affliction that causes headaches and blurry vision among those who spend a little too much time basking in the glow of a CRT or LCD. But, we’re thinking its purposes are rather more nefarious. It’s basically just a little LCD that you hang in your monitor and connect via USB. It presents an eye, always looking at you, lazily and nonchalantly blinking. In theory, if you see an eye blinking you’ll blink more often yourself and cut down on eye strain. In reality, the thinkpol is always watching and this is just another reminder.

The Blaze Blink Now saves you from Computer Vision Syndrome, is always watching originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know what was the best news at yesterday’s Back to the Mac event? The MacBook Air’s Software Reinstall Drive, which finally spells the end of the clunky optical drive.

Apple likes to drop old tech as early as possible. The floppy drive is the classic example, and caused a fuss when it was left out of the original Bondi BLue iMac. FireWire has been on life-support these last few years, flickering in and out of existence on Apple’s portables. And while the original Air had no way to load a CD or DVD, you still had to use one via a slow and clunky DVD or CD Sharing feature which let you “wirelessly ‘borrow’ the optical drive of a nearby Mac or PC” to install software.

Now, though, it is possible to buy an Mac and never have to deal with spinning media again. Hell, you can’t even buy a MacBook Air with a hard-drive anymore: inside, the only thing that moves is the fan and the clicking trackpad.

So the bundled restore DVD has been replaced with a typically stylish USB stick, something that will certainly come to other Mac in the future. And good riddance to this battery-sucking, space-gobbling piece of legacy tech. Who needs it? Hell, it’s quicker to download a movie these days than it is to rip a DVD.

The one irony here is that the new iLife suite, also announced yesterday, is only available on DVD. Because iLife, unlike iWork, does not require a serial number for activation, there’s no download available. Maybe next year, iLife 12 will come on a USB stick, too.

What’s in the Box (MacBook Air) [Apple]

See Also:

• Apple Unleashes New MacBook Airs
• New MacBook Air Will Come in 11 and 13-Inch Flavors
• Hands-On With Apple's New MacBook Airs
• Rumor: Apple to Introduce 11.6-Inch MacBook Next Week