SoBeTECH

Kensington Ci70 Keyboard Has USB/Mini USB Ports and Laptop-Styled Keys [Peripherals]

We love Kensington’s low-profile keyboards with the laptop style keys, which is why this Ci70 keyboard looks so appetizing. It’s got two USB ports, nothing special, but a mini USB connector that actually hides underneath a cover on top. So to recap, two USB ports, one mini USB cord, really low/quiet style Kensington keys, 35% smaller than other “standard multimedia keyboards” and a price of $49.99. Works with both PCs and Macs thanks to it having both a Windows key and a Mac Command key. [Kensington]

galleryPost(’kensingtonci70′, 3, ”);

(Via Gizmodo.)

Safari: most popular mobile browser in US

StatCounter today revealed that Safari is the most popular web browser in use in the United States, surpassing Windows Mobile, Palm, and Opera by a wide margin. According to Yahoo, Safari occupies 0.23 percent of US web traffic, with Nokia devices coming in at around 0.08 percent.

(Via MacNN | The Macintosh News Network.)

Isolé IDP-3050 cuts power when you leave the room

This Isolé IDP-3050 is one smart power strip. It can detect your presence with its outboard infrared sensor. When you leave the room, it cuts power to six of its eight outlets, keeping those multi gigawatts from seeping out of countless wall warts and into energy wasteland. It can detect your presence over a 300-square-foot area, and you can adjust its cutoff threshold from 30 seconds to a half-hour.

It might be a good idea to plug a space heater and your monitor into the auto-cutoff sockets, while leaving your PC and cell phone charger plugged into one of the two non-switched outlets. We like the idea of shutting off all power to those phantom energy drainers, but wonder if the Isolé is able to reliably detect our presence. One thing’s for sure: It’s going to take a few years to recover the $90 cost of this thing.

(Via DVICE.)

FireWire jumps to 1.6 Gbps
Symwave, a semiconductor maker, has announced the FirePHY-1600, which doubles the speed of FireWire to 1.6 Gbps. Current FireWire 800 only manages 800 Mbps.

FirePHY-1600 is fully backwards compatible with Firewire 400 and FireWire 800, and the speed increases are dramatic. According to Macworld, Symwave says that in under 5 seconds, you can transfer 1,000 4 megapixel photos. Of course, this is possible at 1.6 Gbps, which is the maximum throughput. Actual throughput will be less on average.

Given that FireWire is an Apple-introduced standard, it would be nice to see Apple first on the bandwagon for Firewire 1600, at least in their Mac Pros.

(Via Appletell.)

Iomega acquired by EMC for $213 million

Not even a month after we heard that Iomega was warming to a revised takeover bid from EMC, the two lovebirds have finally let their true feelings be known. Announced today, EMC is acquiring the famed Zip Drive manufacturer for $213 million. The final figure is nearly $7 million higher than the one proposed in March, and the all-cash agreement worked out to $3.85-per share — 5.8-percent higher than Iomega’s Tuesday closing price of $3.64. Also of note, Iomega will be picking up the tab on a $7.5 million termination fee to the shareholders for a canceled deal involving China’s ExcelStor Group, and EMC stated that it didn’t expect the acquisition to “have any material impact on its full-year earnings.

(Via Engadget.)

Van Der Led’s WM2 cellphone is Slayer approved

Can it be? Why… why yes, a watch with integrated cellphone we might (might!) actually wear. The Van Der Led WM2 is a quad-band GSM watch with itty bitty 1.3-inch, 260k color touchscreen display, stereo Bluetooth, up to 240-hours of standby or 300-minutes talk, and 1GB of storage for a few of your MP3 or MP4 files. Better yet, from a distance, those uber geeky keys on the numeric pad look just like the glittering wrist studs capable of mesmerizing Death Metal, she-groupies backstage. Yours for €300 (about $471 US Rubbles) starting Monday.

(Via Engadget.)

Adobe Media Player 1.0 released

Adobe today announced the immediate availability of Adobe Media Player 1.0 software.

Adobe Media Player can provide high-quality playback of streamed, downloaded or locally-stored video in the Adobe Flash format.
For the first time, you can download video outside the browser in the Adobe Flash format, which can be viewed in 1080p, 720p or 480i video display resolutions with the most advanced audio quality.
You can also subscribe to television shows and other online video content and then automatically receive new episodes of the shows as they become available.
To help you discover new content, a broad, searchable catalog of shows from leading media companies and networks is available and it is expected that it will continually expand to include video from additional broadcasters, studios and independent producers.

(Via I4U News.)