Archive for the 'Hardware' Category
The new JVC XS-SR3 surround dock is a sleek, glossy black speaker tube with a curved design that allows the iPod to nestle between the speakers. The iPod holder rotates for viewing video in widescreen mode and comes with four clips to hold selected iPod models. The speakers’ powerful neodymium magnets ensure clean, crisp sound, while Dolby Virtual Surround creates the illusion of a wider sound field when viewing video content. Power output is five watts and the system features two audio inputs, one analog and one digital optical. A remote control is included.
In addition to its function as an iPod speaker dock, the XS-SR3 can also be used as computer speaker system.
The JVC XS-SR3 is available this month for $149.95.
Readers of SvenOnTech will know just how much we love the Sonos Multi-room Music System (review). Anyone that steps into our office or home is always shown or Sonos set-up as part of the tour and most go away with promises of getting a Sonos for themselves. The only con we can ever find with Sonos is cost.
Well, Santa Barbra-based Sonos has just announced the ZonePlayer S5, an all-in-one unit that drives cost down to a price point anyone can get excited about. By including the brains behind Sonos into a box filled with speakers, all one needs to do is plug the power, pull out an iPhone or iPod touch, and connect to a ZoneBridge and you’re jamming to some tunes (view demo). Like the other ZonePlayers, the S5 gives you a full-featured experience with access to your entire iTunes DRM-free library, Internet Radio, as well as services such as Napster and Pandora. You control all this from the free app available at the iTunes AppStore from the palm of your hand.
Now are you ready for the price? $399. Ya, just $400! Remember, you are getting, essentially, a Sonos ZonePlayer and killer sounding speakers. This is less than those Bose systems that does less and in our opinion has lost sight of its audiophile roots. Speaking of roots, the guys that started Sonos came from a loudspeaker background so you KNOW these things kick and trust us, they haven’t forgot their roots!
The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 will be available at the end of the month and we know it’ll be all treat and no trick.
Altec Lansing, a division of Plantronics, Inc., today introduced the new MIX™ (iMT800) digital boombox for iPhone and iPod. The MIX features a retro audio rack-style design and a powerful built-in subwoofer to thump big bass from the heart of your scene. Compatible with both iPhone and iPod, the MIX also includes two top-mounted auxiliary inputs plus onboard FM radio and a seven-band graphic equalizer. Its towering volume, perfect clarity and heavyweight bass make the new MIX the ultimate sound system for any party.
“The MIX is the genuine ‘next generation’ boombox for the way music enthusiasts are playing their music today,” said Ed Benforado, Product Category Director. “With rugged style and high end sound, the MIX is perfect for those ‘unofficial DJs’ who like to start their parties with sound. They can ‘mix it up’ between three music player inputs – a 30-pin dock connector for the iPhone and iPod and also two front-facing 3.5mm jacks — so everyone can jump in with their jams. And we’ve included heavy-duty carry handles and battery operation to take the MIX on the road or around the house just as easily.”
Geared to keep the party jumping, the MIX drives your favorite music through specially engineered horn-loaded tweeters and mid-range drivers. The 5.25” side-firing subwoofer and 5.25” tuned passive radiator pump out natural roaring bass, further enhanced with XdB technology for extra heavy punch. A digital 7-band graphic equalizer allows music lovers to quickly tailor the sound to their preferred taste. True to its retro boombox roots, the MIX runs on AC or gives 30 hours of play time on 8 D-cell batteries, even sporting a built-in battery life display.
Made for iPod and Apple-certified to “Work with iPhone,” the MIX is engineered to be immune to GSM signals, therefore preventing the speakers from picking up potential intermittent noises emitted by the iPhone or other mobile devices. The music pauses and resumes play before and after taking a voice call without ever switching the iPhone to airplane mode.
The MIX also includes a clip-on carabineer remote control so you don’t lose it at the party. Between parties, a built-in cubby secures the remote so it can always be found.
Go to www.alteclansing.com/fallpk2009 for the full MIX “inspiration” story.
Features
Crystal-clear high end – Specially engineered horn-loaded silk dome tweeters designed for smooth, wide dispersion.
Full mid-range – Two custom-designed drivers push room-filling mids and mid bass.
Fierce bass – XdB bass-enhanced side-firing subwoofer and tuned passive radiator deliver formidable bass.
· Audio Alignment™ – Drivers, enclosure and electronics are balanced for optimum sound.
Digital FM radio – Tune in to clean reception with telescopic antenna and four station presets.
AC or battery-powered – Plug in or lose the wires with up to 30 hours of play with 8 D batteries. Battery life is displayed on LCD.
Dual AUX IN jacks – Connect up to two additional audio players via front-facing 3.5mm jacks.
· Clip-on remote – Enhanced wireless carabineer remote provides song and playlist navigation.
Music Pause – Automatically pauses music when a call is received on the iPhone.
Interference Free – Unique design is immune to mobile phone interference, eliminating the need to switch to airplane mode.
· At-A-Glance LCD – Track, artist, album and station display.
Customizable EQ’s – Multiple EQ modes let you adjust your sound, including 7-band graphic equalizer, four EQ presets and separate Bass and Treble controls.
Onboard controls – Control most functions from the unit.
Universal dock for iPhone and iPod – Recharges while it plays your tunes.
Pricing and Availability
The Altec Lansing MIX (iMT800) is now available at Apple retail stores, BestBuy.com, Amazon and other leading consumer electronics retailers, as well as at www.alteclansing.com. MSRP is US$299.95.
For more information on the complete new Fall 2009 audio collection from Altec Lansing, visit www.alteclansing.com.
WD today introduced its new one terabyte (TB) and 750 gigabyte (GB) capacity My Passport™ Essential™ SE Portable USB Drives. Available now at WD’s online store, the new drives feature a titanium silver finish and put massive storage capacity in the palm of your hand.
Perfect for saving, storing and backing up all of the digital memories captured this summer, the new 1 TB and 750 GB capacity My Passport Essential SE drives are light and compact to carry and, because they are USB-powered, they do not need an external power adapter1. Equipped with sync and encryption software (Windows®-compatible only), this small drive, with mega-capacity, makes it easy to securely carry thousands of songs or videos or photos.
WD Sync™ software allows consumers to easily take desktop content with them by simplifying the synchronization of essential personal files and Microsoft® Outlook® data on a PC. Should owners misplace the drive, they know their data is protected with 128-bit encryption.
“The enormous capacity of these new My Passport Essential SE drives makes them the perfect travel-friendly storage device to hold all the rich media content generated by higher resolution photos and HD videos and music,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “Carrying digital files close at hand continues to be a growing consumer interest and this new drive offers a sleek and stylish solution with plenty of storage capacity for people on the move.”
A product specification sheet and photos of My Passport Essential SE drives are available on the company’s Web site.
Price and Availability
WD’s My Passport Essential SE portable drives are available now in the U.S. at select retail stores and from WD’s online store (www.shopwd.com). MSRP for the My Passport Essential SE 1 TB portable drive is $299.99 USD and for the 750 GB model is $199.99 USD.
If you’re looking for a new external hard drive device to back up your data and or get you some mass density of speed for, say, video editing, then take a look our just posted review off the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2. This beefy unit is impressive and pretty darn sweet. We got raw test figures and some real life examples. The results are impressive and, well, just read the review and see for yourself what we thought in the end.
A Faster Mac In 10 Minutes
The OWC series of free online upgrade installation videos for MacBook and MacBook Pro models are rated from an “Easy” to “Straightforward” level and can be performed at home as quickly as an estimated 10-minute installation time. The complete series of installation videos for MacBook and MacBook Pros, as well as videos for Mac tower, desktop, and iPod battery installs is available at: http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/
“One of OWC’s founding principles is to maximize the usefulness of existing resources. Whether a customer has a legacy Mac or the latest machine, these videos are an invaluable resource for getting greater performance from their Mac and/or extending its useful life,” said Larry O’Connor, CEO, OWC. “With the typical service center charging upwards of $80 for an easy memory install, MacBook and MacBook Pro owners can save both time and money by utilizing this free resource.”
Memory Upgrades From $29.79, 7200RPM Hard Drives From $64.99
OWC Memory Upgrade Kits priced starting at $29.79 are available up to 8GB for MacBook and MacBook Pro models and are backed with a Money Back Guarantee and OWC’s Lifetime Advance Replacement Warranty. Additional money savings are also available through OWC’s Rebate program, which provides $5.00 Cash Back per 1GB Apple Factory Standard memory module.
Upgrading the internal hard drive can also make MacBook and MacBook Pro machines faster. Prices start at $64.99 for a 250GB 7200RPM drive, with the most popular upgrades including a 320GB 7200RPM drive priced at $84.99 and a 500GB 7200RPM drive priced at $149.99. In addition, MacBook and MacBook Pro owners that purchase a new hard drive from OWC also enjoy the benefit of keeping their existing drive, which can be used as a temporary backup drive, converted into an external storage solution, or sent to OWC for a cash back trade-in.
For a complete list of upgrades for MacBook and MacBook Pro models, visit:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade
OWC – The Trusted Name in Mac Memory
OWC memory upgrades are available from 16MB up to 32GB for nearly every current and past Apple notebook and desktop computer manufactured during the past twenty years, including Mac Pro Xeon, iMac, PowerMac, Xserve, iBook, and PowerBook computers. By maintaining an active state-of-the-art test lab, OWC can ensure its memory upgrades offer the highest product quality and reliability and backs them with a Lifetime Advance Replacement Warranty and Money Back Guarantee.
OWC’s independent memory benchmarks testing on a wide variety of Mac computers consistently demonstrates having more memory provides higher real-world performance. OWC memory performance gains are even more apparent when using memory intensive applications, such as audio/video, photo, 3D modeling, gaming and other applications, where OWC memory upgrades offer the best performance for the investment.
The full OWC Memory line, as well as a compatibility guide which directs customers to the correct upgrades for each specific Apple model, can be found online at: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/
Today LaCie announced the general availability of the LaCie 12big Rack product range – an enterprise class 2U rack-mounted portfolio, targeted at corporate IT users and video professionals. The LaCie 12big Rack Fibre, LaCie 12big Rack Serial, and LaCie 12big Rack Network, provide (respectively) SAN, DAS and NAS storage solutions that are designed to target the most demanding uses through their performance, customization, minimized downtime and ease-of-use. The range features multipathed 4x 4Gb/s fiber channel connections, dual mini-SAS connection (SFF-8088) or dual 1Gb/s Ethernet connection – making the 12big Rack portfolio a comprehensive storage range.
“I’m very pleased to introduce the 2U rack product range, a natural evolution to LaCie’s 20 years of experience with professional storage solutions. The new portfolio is complementary to LaCie’s existing high end storage, and allows LaCie to support a wider range of professional applications from Corporate IT to content creation and post-production companies,” said Minh Le, LaCie’s Marketing Director. “The LaCie 12big Rack product range provides the highest performance, data security levels, and minimized downtime, with no tradeoffs. We’re now offering our customers a comprehensive, customizable and expandable enterprise solution – starting with 6TB and scaling up to 60TB per storage system.”
Built with Enterprise Class SATA disks, the LaCie 12big Rack product range will ensure data is always available through the redundancy of power supplies, cooling units and a dual-controller option for the LaCie 12big Rack Fibre and the LaCie 12big Rack Serial. The range also offers multiple RAID levels for data protection, from RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and 50, up to RAID 6 – the 12big Rack storage systems will keep the most critical data safe against two-disk failure. Additionally, the LaCie 12big Rack Fibre’s Advanced Power Management feature and disk verify feature help ensure archived data is duly available upon the customer’s request.
While data security and integrity – even over a long period – is ensured, together with significant power saving features, the 12big Rack portfolio doesn’t compromise on performance. The LaCie 12big Rack Fibre supports a dual Active/Active controllers option and allows up to six streams of 422 uncompressed HD video. As such, the LaCie 12big Rack Fibre enables video-intensive users to edit uncompressed video streams on storage networks; the LaCie 12big Rack Serial is able to achieve similar performance as direct attached storage. Alternatively, the LaCie 12big Rack Network supports link teaming (IEEE 802.3ad) of its dual gigabit connections, allowing users to host critical backups, file sharing or archiving.
Every storage enclosure is expandable through miniSAS (SFF-8088) connections, and can support up to four daisy-chained 2U expansion enclosures depending on the 12big Rack product. Available with an impressive list of compatibilities, in terms of fibre channels switches, fiber channel HBAs, and RAID controllers, the LaCie 12big Rack portfolio has been designed to offer a diverse feature-set and comes with the LaCie Advance Care Option to provide customers with extra peace of mind.
For more information regarding specific features and capabilities, please visit http://www.lacie.com.
“The Expressionist PLUS (FX3021) subwoofer packs tremendous punch for its tiny size,“ says Don Milks, Altec Lansing’s Senior Manager, Product Management for PC Audio. “By doing away with the enclosure and making the satellites angle-adjustable, we’ve made it easy for the listener to enjoy a remarkably deep, precise soundstage, no matter what distance or angle they listen from. We think this is the best performing $99 PC speaker on the market.“
The new Expressionist PLUS is a 2.1 channel subwoofer-satellite system featuring a dramatic cone-shaped, bottom loaded subwoofer that at its base is about the size of a small Frisbee disc. This sleek, modern looking sub utilizes a 5.25-inch, long-throw driver for authoritative bass that extends down to 50 Hz, even when placed on a desktop. The bass output is conveniently controlled within fingertip reach, letting the user tailor the optimum balance between sub and satellites. The entire system is driven by an impressive 24 watts of power.
The dual 2-inch full range satellites of the Expressionist PLUS complete the system, and are remarkable achievements of design and simplicity. Their innovative form utilizes Altec Lansing’s Audio Alignment™ craftsmanship that precisely aligns the drivers, enclosure and electronics for natural-sounding audio performance, the way the artist intended. The satellites can be aimed in any direction to focus the soundstage for the ideal listening position, distance and height. The end result is a deep and realistic stereo image that’s exactly proportioned to the listening area.
The diminutive size of the Expressionist PLUS makes it a perfect accompaniment for desktop and laptop computers and other 3.5mm-connected entertainment such as an iPod®. Power and volume controls are conveniently located for easy access.
Altec Lansing’s Expressionist PLUS FX3021 PC Speaker System will be available in June of 2009 at consumer electronics retailers and at www.alteclansing.com.
The impressive list of hardware for the Axess HD includes a powerful Core i7 processor combined with dual 9800 GT video cards in SLI to deliver a stunningly visual1080p experience. MAINGEAR also teamed up with NVIDIA to integrate GeForce 3D Vision so that gamers with Mitsubishi DLP’s or Samsung desktop LCDs can experience an unparalleled 3D gaming experience. MAINGEAR further enhances the luxurious home theater gaming experience by being the first company to offer the Phantom Lapboard, a unique keyboard that liberates users from desktop settings through an innovative 360-degree rotating design. The Axess HD Gamer also offers cutting edge media center capabilities including 7 channel pre amplified audio, Blu Ray and DVD Movies, Music, Home Videos, HD TV, Internet TV, based on Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Premium which also provides access to Netflix’s online streaming through the Media Center interface.
”The Axess HD Gamer was conceived to deliver unsurpassed gaming performance fused with advanced media center capabilities all contained within a low profile case, making it the perfect cornerstone for any home theater environment” said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of MAINGEAR. “A lot of the media centers currently on the market don’t specifically address the PC Gamer and we want to give our customers a solution to game from the comfort of the living room without sacrificing quality or performance.”
“We’re thrilled that MAINGEAR is providing a Games for Windows solution that complements the wide range of media functionality that Windows Vista Media Center already provides,” said Megan Both, Snr. Director of OEM Sales at Microsoft. “This high performance 3D gaming system combined with the advanced functionality of Windows Media Center make the Axess HD Gamer a phenomenal option for the home theater enthusiast as well as the avid gamer.”
Gamers can purchase the Axess HD Gamer at MAINGEAR’s Web site www.maingear.com or order by phone at (888-MAINGEAR). The base price is $1,799. Axess HD Gamer comes with MAINGEAR’s standard 14 month warranty and is backed by the best in-house support team in the country.
Adesso Inc., a leading manufacturer of computer input peripherals, today announced the release of its latest addition to its extensive line of keyboards, the WKB-3100, a wireless, mini keyboard with integrated optical trackball. This compact keyboard offers the freedom of wireless computing in a wide array of environments, and is available for $79.99 at www.adesso.com.
The WKB-3100 lets users work freely, without any space, angles or distance constraints. The enclosed optical trackball delivers distinct precision and smooth motion, requiring virtually no maintenance or cleaning. The compact size of this keyboard allows for ease of use in tight spaces, including living rooms, kiosk stations, conference rooms and workgroup project environments.
The innovative keyboard is compatible with modern PC systems, flat LCD monitors and tablet PCs in various office environments. The small, compact size also allows users to work remotely, fitting snugly in any briefcase or backpack.
The WKB-3100 features the following:
Limitless connectivity angle with a wide range
6500 IDs on 12 channels, offering 30 feet of wireless freedom
Optical trackball technology that provides precision and control
Measures less than 12 inches in size
Adesso’s various product lines are available through Ingram Micro, Synnex and D&H direct vendors, eRetailers, including AMAZON, Buy.com, PC Mall, CDW, Insight, Newegg and TigerDirect. In addition, they are also available at retail stores, such as Micro Center and CompUSA, and leading catalogs, including CDW, PC Mall and PC Connection.