Tag Archives: peripherals

Foot-Controlled Power Strip [Stuff We Like]

Power strips are often located under desks, or at minimum on the floor well out of reach, which makes this clever foot-switch power strip particularly handy. Recently I noticed what a pain it was to toggle my power strips on and off every time I wanted to shut them down to save power (especially from energy vampires ). You can buy power strips that sense when the computer hooked up to them powers down and shut down the peripherals accordingly, but it didn't fit my need. Often times I would leave my computer on to do some task buy I wanted to kill the power to the monitors easily and with a single motion. You would think a foot switch for a power strip wouldn't be hard to find but 99% of the ones you can find are light duty extension cords designed for holiday lights—no grounding prong, light-gauge wire, not safe for three monitors worth of juice. After much searching I found the strip pictured here from Woods Industries. Since I already had a heavy-duty APC power strip, I just unplugged the monitors from the APC strip, chained this one onto that strip and hooked all the monitors back up. Now when I get up from the computer, even if only for ten minutes, I can easily tap the foot pedal and kill the juice to all three monitors. It's a great addition to your office if you want an easy way to toggle the power for peripherals without hibernating your computer or wasting time with a half dozen switches. The Woods Industry power strip with foot-pedal is available for $13 at Amazon. Have a piece of office equipment—big or small—that you can't image life without Let's hear about it in the comments. Woods Industry 6 Outlet Power Strip with Foot Switch [Amazon]
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The Porn Detection Stick Is Like the Hot Tub Time Machine for Smut [Peripherals]

We have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the Porn Detection Stick , a simple USB dongle, will legitimately, automatically scan your hard drive for pornography. The good news is, well, times have changed. The Porn Detection Stick, by Paraben, is a $100 thumb drive stuffed with Windows-compatible image detection software. Give it an hour and a half, and the device can scan 70,000 images—even deleted ones—with algorithms that analyze "facial features, flesh tone colors, image back grounds, body part shapes, and more." The system promises less than 1% false positives. Of course, what the software can't analyze are any videos that may be saved to your hard drive or pretty much anything in the web. In fact, the Porn Detection Stick seems designed for a whole other era of pornographic distribution, one when the discerning man might have scanned the latest Playboy to his 386 for posterity before pulling down his Zubaz pants to masturbate to it. Then again, maybe that's a good thing. [ Porn Detection Stick via 69gagdet via ChipChick ]
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New Wacom Cintiq 21UX Has 2048 Pressure Levels and Back Touchpads [Tablets]

I'm a fan of Wacom's Cintiq display tablets , so I'm excited about their new 21-inch model, the Cintiq 21UX. According to Wacom, it has better pen performance and ergonomics. The two back touch-strips have me intrigued. They say their new Grip Pen has their new Tip Sensor technology that requires near-zero pressure to start painting, which is great to get a more natural feeling. It also has 2048 levels of pressure—doubling the previous model. The tablet itself has been redesigned, with eight programmable keys on each side of the tablet, over the bezel. The coolest addition, however, are the two touch strips on the sides of the tablet, on the back of the bezel itself. These are like mini-trackpads, which can be used for four functions depending on the application. You change the function with your thumb using the round button on the front of the tablet—a LED displays the selected function—and use your middle or forefinger to manipulate the touchpad up and down. For example, you can use it to control the variation of a brush, then click the round button, and use it to control the speed of the airbrush, while using the pen with your other hand. Smart. Can't wait to try it. The tablet display allows you to position the screen at any angle between 10 and 65 degrees, and it can be detached to use any VESA-compatible mount. I would definitely want to have one mounted on a hydraulically-assisted arm, to be able to position it in front of my main monitor at any time.
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MSI Air Keyboard Mouse Is Like a QWERTY Keypad Crossed With a Wiimote [Peripherals]

The upcoming MSI Air Keyboard is an HTPC keyboard/mouse combo that fits right in your hands much like a game controller. Because aside from the typical QWERTY layout, the back is ergonomic for dual-handed use, and it even includes LB and RB shoulder triggers. And much like the Wiimote, the Air doubles as a mouse through the use of an internal accelerometer, allowing you to aim the device to control an onscreen cursor—effectively eliminating that whole where-does-the-mouse-go-on-the-couch problem. Through a USB dongle, the MSI Air (which is technically a rebranding of an existing product by Cideko ), can connect to PCs and Macs up to an impressive 160 feet away. It's available overseas now for the equivalent of $110. [ ElectricPig via EverythingUSB ]
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huBox Adds Another Practical Element to USB Hubs [Peripherals]

A USB hub/SD card reader is a handy thing to have on your desk. But the huBox takes both of these components and sticks them into a small, Mac-Mini-friendly box. Clever. (On sale soon for unknown price.) [ huBox via AkihabaraNews ]
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eVouse Mouse Concept Bridges Regular Mice With Air Mice [Concept]

Air Mice are fine enough if you have to control an HTPC from your bed, across the room, they're usually inaccurate and finicky. Why not make it a regular mouse too? And lo, the eVouse is. This concept, which designer Marcial Ahsayane shoved a Microsoft logo on, transforms from a right-side-up B2 bomber in regular mouse mode to a holy-crap-stop-turning-so-sharply B2 bomber in air mouse mode. You use the latter mode to do stuff "like drawing, "optical pens" do, like drawing and pointing at stuff. [ Yanko Design ]
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Recycled Keyboard Purse Stores Keys In Keys [Fashion]

The Keyboard Purse is cute enough, and for $40, it's a reasonably priced purchase. Now if only you could actually type on the thing, I'd reclassify it as a manbag in a heartbeat. [ Neatorama ]
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Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 Has Near-Undead Three Year Battery Life [Desktop]

Both the keyboard and mouse of the Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 purportedly get a ridiculously hearty three years of battery life. Between that and its concave keyboard: that's some weird voodoo, Logitech. Like the MK700 , the keyboard is designed to "cradle" your fingertips, which sounds like it would make my hands fall asleep. It's paired with a sculpted mouse with "hyper-fast" scrolling, and of course the wireless goodness spares you the trouble of all of those extra USB cords lying around. Most impressive, though, is that three year battery life, which is positively Methuselahn in wireless keyboard terms. Europe will be getting the MK710 this month, while us Yanks will have to wait until April. Both can expect to pay $100 US. Logitech Announces Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 Mouse-and-Keyboard Combo Features Industry-First Three-Year Battery Life FREMONT, Calif. - Feb. 10, 2010 - Whether you're catching up on your e-mail, updating your status on Facebook™ or just doing a little shopping, you don't want any unnecessary inconveniences. To help you enjoy a comfortable and hassle-free laptop experience, Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) today introduced the Logitech® Wireless Desktop MK710 - the first keyboard-and-mouse combination to feature up to three years of battery life for both the keyboard and mouse, as well as the tiny Logitech® Unifying receiver, comfortable Logitech® Incurve keys™ and hyper-fast scrolling for the mouse. "No one thinks about changing batteries until they have to, but when that time comes, it can stop you in your tracks," said Rory Dooley, Logitech's senior vice president and general manager of the Control Devices business unit. "With its industry-first three-year battery life for a combo, you might just forget the Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 uses batteries at all." Ready to Work or Play – Whenever, Wherever The combination of three years of battery life and the leave-in Logitech Unifying receiver ensures the Wireless Desktop MK710 is ready whenever and wherever you need it. To achieve three years of battery life, Logitech® Advanced 2.4 GHz wireless technology transmits information much faster and more efficiently than typical 27 MHz wireless systems. Furthermore, by reducing the amount of time the keyboard and mouse remain in active mode when left idle, the Wireless Desktop MK710 conserves power and minimizes lag when you resume typing or mousing. (Battery life of Logitech keyboards is based on a calculation of an estimated two million keystrokes per year in an office environment; battery life for Logitech mice may vary based on user and computing conditions.) First introduced in August 2009, the tiny Logitech Unifying receiver is so small it can stay in your laptop when you're moving around. And, a single receiver can be paired with up to six Unifying-compatible Logitech keyboards and mice - freeing up valuable USB ports and making it easy to mix, match and add to your existing setup, no matter where you are. Comfort and Convenience – At Your Fingertips The low-profile keyboard features Logitech Incurve keys and a cushioned palm rest. With their concave design, Incurve keys support the shape of your fingertips, while helping guide your fingers to the right keys. In addition, the soft, rounded edges make it easy for your fingers to glide from key to key. The cushioned palm rest gives you a place to rest your hands when you're not typing. Plus, an LCD dashboard gives you at-a-glance status for Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, Num Lock and battery life. The comfortable, midsize laser mouse delivers smooth tracking on a variety of surfaces and puts control in the palm of your hand. Hyper-fast scrolling lets you fly through long documents or, if you prefer, you can easily shift to precise click-to-click scrolling to navigate lists, slides and image collections. The mouse's sculpted, right-hand shape guides your hand to a naturally comfortable position and places the three customizable thumb buttons within easy reach, so you can move quickly between Web pages or applications (after downloading of Logitech software). Logitech Advanced 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity delivers the reliability of a cord plus wireless convenience and freedom. Fast data transmission, virtually no delays or dropouts, and 128-bit AES encryption give you the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your data is protected moving from keyboard to receiver to computer. Pricing and Availability The Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 is expected to be available in Europe beginning in February 2010 and in the U.S. beginning in April 2010, for a suggested retail price of $99.99 (U.S.).
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Droid gets a USB hack allowing it to control printers and cameras, humans put on alert

Time to resurrect that old Droid Does chant, folks. Already headed for Android 2.1 from official sources, the Droid is gettings some extra software capabilities courtesy of a few benevolent UK hackers as well. Chris Paget has revealed a mod for Motorola's flagship that turns it from a USB peripheral into a USB host, thereby letting it communicate with and control USB devices that speak the Linux language. That includes printers, webcams, and the vast majority of other things you typically jack into your computer . Mind you, this is one hack that'll require you to get your hands dirty, as you'll need to splice a few cables together and reboot your phone to switch between modes, but that's how real modders do it anyway, right? Droid gets a USB hack allowing it to control printers and cameras, humans put on alert originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Read SD Cards on Your iPhone With ZoomIt [IPhone]

Remember all those clever iPhone peripherals that we were supposed to see with firmware 3.0? Well ZoomIt is among the first. It's an SD card reader for the iPhone and iPod touch . Used in conjunction with the ZoomIt app, the dongle connects through the iPhone's dock connector to load photos, music and miscellaneous files (like PowerPoint, PDF and anything else supported by iPhone OS) from an SD card. If nothing else, it's a handy way to extend your iPhone's storage in a pinch, or simply backup your photos on vacation without lugging around a laptop (which is my particular reason for excitement here). You can pre-order the ZoomIt for $50 now. It'll actually be available this April. [ ZoomIt via iLounge ]
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