The FREETALK Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter is designed to make it easier for consumers to enjoy Skype conversations with any of their Skype contacts, regardless of their device, including: computers (PC, Mac or Linux), iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and even to fancy a Skype-enabled HDTV. Consumers can also receive Skype to Skype calls from other Skype users on their landline phone using the Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter.

So how is it to set up? I hate to describe things as idiotproof, but the colour coded plug and play setup makes getting things going pretty straightforward. You only need a PC or Mac for the initial set up (after which you don’t have to turn on a computer to connect to Skype) and helpfully all the cords and cables needed to connect to home phones and to the Internet are included in box.

In addition, The FREETALK Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter also enables regular landline calling – simply add a prefix ## for a Skype call or * for a regular landline conversation and you can of course tweak this to your preference.

For more info check out Skype

[Source: FREETALK Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter]

In combining the knowledge of the award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, Drobo, with the experience of Pogoplug, another award-winning outfit for its creation of streaming and lining devices, one would expect Drobo and Pogoplug’s Personal Cloud solution to deliver the goods.

In using Pogoplug Cloud, users can transform their Drobo into a multi-terabyte private cloud. ‘Pogoplug, private cloud, multi-terabyte’, what does all this jargon actually all mean, we all cry?! Basically, the new co-created ‘Personal Cloud’ device provides secure and remote access for an entire digital library of documents, photos, music, games and movies. On top of providing a safe home for our precious digital data, the Personal Cloud also provides users with 10GB of free public cloud storage, meaning it is ideal for synching crucial files between Drobo and ‘the cloud’.

Shedding some much needed further light on, what we are assured is a ‘sophisticated yet easy-to-use and affordable solution for professionals and businesses,’ is Tom Buiocchi, CEO of Drobo, who said of his company’s latest storage creation:

“Small businesses, professionals, and consumers already store large collections of files on their Drobo. Adding remote access, media streaming and other cloud capabilities turns the Drobo into the ultimate personal cloud – combining the simple, reliable storage Drobo users have come to expect with the flexibility and freedom of the cloud.”

While I feel inclined to shop around a bit for my data storage solution, if the Drobo/Pogoplug partnership has convinced you, you’ll find more information about this ‘seamless hybrid cloud solution’ at: www.drobo.co.uk/pogoplug

[Source: New Drobo/Pogoplug collaboration: A seamless hybrid cloud solution]

The keyboard is perhaps the most visually stunning example we have seen, complete with its night-vision LED backlit keys to look the part. Seeing as most gamers prefer to play with the lights off, this can prove to be a real boon when burning the midnight oil.

Featuring six fully programmable G-keys, the G105 can keep up to 18 macro combinations to assist you whilst you play. With one press of the button, once programmed, you can perform complex maneuvers which normally require a combination of different keystrokes.

Advanced anti-ghosting technology allows you to press up to five different keys at once, thus allowing you to aim, shoot, run, jump and make a cup of tea all at the same time. What more could you want?

The mouse too, has been designed with the serious gamer in mind, with an ultras precision speed of up to 165 inches per second. Need to move your gun around in a hurry and fire with pin-point precision? Then this is the mouse for you. You can even adjust the pixel targeting from 200dpu up to an incredibly rapid 5700dpi, making this an impressive bit of kit, and the mouse of choice for the hardcore gamer.

Whilst we have not been given a release date, rest assured as soon as we do we will test them to death and give you the full lowdown on both.

For more information, please visit www.logitech.com

[Source: Gear up for war! Logitech announce new Call of Duty-inspired keyboards and mice]

The MiniStation Extreme combines USB 3.0 and Buffalo TurboPC EX providing data transfer speeds of up to 5G bits per second (bps) making it very useful for all of the important social (and business) norms including the transfer and sharing of videos, large digital photo collections, music files and other data-intensive stuff.

The internal hard drive is encased within a highly shock-resistant body with life-saving rubberised elements. If our featuring of this product isn’t proof enough of its quality, then we’ll be glad to inform you that its shock protection features meet with United States Military Standard MIL-STD-810F 516.5 Procedure IV (so, it’s hard as frickin’ nails) and has passed free-fall drop tests of up 2.3m. Pretty damn tough. Like we said.

The new release is available in piano-black, silver and red colour, and is fitted with an integrated USB cable, which snaps to the chassis for pack-and-go portability.

Paul Hudson, Sales Director for Northern Europe at Buffalo Technology (who specialise in the design, development and manufacturing of storage and wireless networking solutions) comments: “The MiniStation Extreme is a prime example of Buffalo’s commitment to product innovation. This latest addition to the MiniStation family is ideal for globetrotters who travel with their PCs and portable HDDs and demand a robust, fast and secure high performance portable storage device.” 

Available in 500GB and 1TB, the MiniStation Extreme also includes 256-bit AES Full Disk Encryption (FDE) to protect your data from unauthorised access.

The recommended retail price for the 500 GB unit is £78 and it’s £113 for the 1TB unit.
For more information visit: www.buffalo-technology.com

[Source: Buffalo MiniStation: Portable hard-as-nails drive]

With its slick looks, the desktop comes with a 1080p high-definition display which caters for streaming HD films and playing games. The units are available with a choice of processor options, ranging from Core 13 up to i7, which ensures it delivers enough performance to pack a punch. In terms of memory, you can choose between 4GB right up to 8GB DDR3, and a 500GB hard drive with the option to go up to a mouth-watering 2TB.

Building on its family-friendly credentials, the built-in HD webcam makes it easy for people to stay in touch no matter where they are, and connecting to the internet couldn’t be easier thanks to the desktops built in Wi-Fi. Each unit also comes with SRS audio, and there is also the option to add JBL speakers which transforms it into a powerful hub for home entertainment.

Finally, the Inspirion One 2320 has a 23″ touch-screen display which is easy to use, and will make you forget what a mouse is for after a few hours. The menu system is both simple and logical, and navigation is intuitive. Dell have also included a couple of touch-screen games for you to try “Bug Blast” and Drum Zone”. No prizes for guessing which either of them consists of.

Having had a quick play on a unit, it gets the thumbs up from us – if you are in the market for a new PC, you could do a lot worse than consider adding the Inspirion One 2320 to your wish list…

For more information visit www.dell.co.uk/desktops

[Source: The new Dell Inspiron One 2320 desktop PC – fun for all the family]

I guess it makes sense to bring all your entertainment into one space and make the whole experience more sociable, rather than sitting alone in front of the computer screen. So, welcome the GoFlex Cinema multimedia drive.

This new high-capacity drive “is designed to transform the television into a digital media centre,” says Seagate.

So what can you do with the GoFlex? Well, first, you can play back most video formats (including MKV, H.264 and MP4,) in 1080p HD quality, and you can view your digital photos this way too. What’s more, you can load content onto the drive without having to go through your computer (really handy if your laptop is like mine and crammed full of content already).

So, to watch your latest holiday snaps when you get home, just connect your digital camera direct to the drive, and use the remote control to drive the slide show. If there’s not enough space you can upgrade to a higher-capacity GoFlex Desk drive.

If you are a bilingual computer user and use both a PC and Mac, the good news is that the GoFlex drive is compatible with both Windows and MacOSX.

The 1TB model costs around £130, while the 2Tb and 3TB modesl are selling for around £164 and £191 respectively on Amazon.

More details at Seagate

[Source: Seagate GoFlex Cinema: Helping your TV multitask]

So it was with great joy that I received the news that Freecom has come up with a clever capless design for its latest USB sticks – dubbed DataBar. Industrial designers Niels in Vorm and EigenID are behind the clever design, which sees a sliding mechanism retract the USB connection into the stick when it’s not in use. It’s a simple, but incredibly clever, design feature.

“The whole point of USB sticks is that they are small enough to carry around wherever users go, but with traditional designs it’s easy to misplace the cap when moving a stick around from one place to the other,” said Cas de Heus, marketing and communications manager EUMEA at Freecom.  “With the DataBar, we have overcome this problem thanks to the capless design – and what’s more, this ‘all in one’ USB stick is as stylish as it is practical.”

The DataBar is USB 2.0 compatible and has up to 64GB of capacity, which can store more than 43,000 pictures, should you wish.

Prices start at a slightly pricey £5.49 for the 2GB stick (you can pick up an ordinary 8Gb stick for around the same price), up to £135 for the 64GB version. Find out more at www.freecom.com

[Source: Don’t put a lid on it – Freecom’s USB DataBar]

Being able to swipe and scan content and then send it directly on to your computer in real time, means the LG Smartscan Mouse is possibly the smartest gadget LG has produced to date. And that’s not all, once content is on your computer you can crop, edit and highlight it to your heart’s content, and even put tables from scanned images into Excel so that they are then fully editable.

Another mouse that helps pave the argument that computer mice certainly aren’t dead is the Microsoft Touch Mouse. Dual-functionality it hasn’t, but this sleekly black-matte mouse is certainly an impressive additional to Microsoft’s mice portfolio. Its superiority lies in the fact that the Touch Mouse is optimised for Windows 7 and so every feature and gesture performed with the Touch Mouse is designed to augment the Windows 7 performance.

Hot on Microsoft’s heels is the Apple Magic Mouse, which was the first-ever multi-touch capable mouse to hit the market. This ambidextrous mouse adopts Apple’s minimalist design, although for some, it takes minimalism a little too far as isn’t large enough to fill the natural curve of your hand.

With revolutionary hyper-fast scrolling for flying through web pages and documents, the Logitech MX 1100 Cordless Laser Mouse is definitely a contender in the race to find the world’s most dynamic mouse. With adjustable dpi laser engine, customisable precision is achieved and with enhanced 2.4 GHz cordless technology, the MX 1100 Cordless Laser Mouse has gained a reputation for providing a robust and reliable performance.

We still reckon LG’s Smartscan tips the pedestal of the world’s most premium mice and that LG’s rivals will soon follow suit and that there will be an impending explosion of dual-functioning mice on our doorstep.

[Source: LG Smartscan, Microsoft Touch, Apple Magic and MX 1100 – Possibly the world’s niftiest mice!]

So I was delighted to hear that 3 had launched a newer, faster version of my forth favourite toy. acceding to tests from USwitch the E586 is up to 50% faster than the previous model. 3 were nice enough to let me run up an outrageous data bill on one of the new models for a week so I could do a side-by-side comparison and it definitely feels faster – websites loaded faster, songs streamed easier on Spotify with fewer pauses and podcasts downloaded much, much quicker.

3 are planning to increase their network speed to a tantalising 21.1Mbps via the wonders of a HSPA+ network upgrade, which should make it possible to be seriously productive pretty much anywhere – beyond simply emails and social networking and into the realms of dropboxing, editing a video chatting with a high quality mobile connection. It’s potentially quite liberating (although obvious the potential to be chained to your desk without having to set foot in the office also exists).

It’s not just a speed bump however. Hooking devices up to your network is faster than ever due to a little key at the side that displays your SSID and Key. There’s also a little cradle, which makes charing your dongle a little neater.

3 claim the battery lasts about 4.5 hours and we got similar results wandering round town streaming the Pod F Tompcast. Like previous iterations of MiFi dongles, you can connect up to five devices and there is also a micro SD card slot (up to 32 gb). Sadly you can’t access material stored on the card wireless from your devices (imagine how cool that would be)

Out now from Three

[Source: Spending a week with a 3 Huawei E586 MiFi]

As it’s not released in October we haven’t managed to get our hands on a copy or a review yet, so we cannot comment on performance, but from the pictures we’ve seen it is an attractive little thing, with the 21.7 x 58.05 x 45.74 cm  screen hinged onto a frame like an artist’s easel.  This allows the screen to tilt back, forwards and around for supreme ease of sharing when you’ve just got to show that video with the guys on the treadmill to your nearest and dearest across the dinner table.

Users will be able to access all regular Windows applications, as well as a raft of ones built especially for the touch experience.  In a rather nice touch, the machine also harnessed the divine power of the TouchSmart Magic Canvas with HP LinkUp, which means purchasers of the TouchSmart will be able to use programs from their musty old notebook machines on this super-speeded all-round sexier model.

In a sign that it is making a pitch for all those music-lovers that have got thoroughly bored with listening through tinny speakers the music they’ve lovingly trawled halfways across the web to find Hp will also be incorporating the Dr Dre sponsored Beats Audio software.  The technical wizardy at play with this invention is alien to a philistine such as yours truly, but we are assured that its sole purpose in life is to make music sound the way the artist intended which, as far as we’re concerned, is a pretty good thing.

With a dreadfully decent 500GB of storage, the 520 will also have space for you to store all your non Apple-affiliated tunes on, as well as all those videos in that file you keep well hidden for fear of familial reprisal and/or police investigation.  Priced at £599 it’s an affordable price, and it does come with a wireless keyboard so typing long e-mails and documents isn’t a complete faff/impossibility a la iPad.  Time will tell, but from where we’re sitting the TouchSmart looks like a pretty smart (sorry) choice.

[Source: HP TouchSmart 520: Family friendly All-In-One]