Mar/100
Netgear’s HD streamering AV adapters
Another month, another blockbuster trade show. CeBIT’s show floor doesn’t open up until tomorrow (and yeah, we’ll be storming it like no other), but Netgear’s wasting precisely no time in unveiling its latest wares. The two pieces that are nearest and dearest to our hearts are the WNHDB3004 and WNHDB3004, the former of which is an 802.11n HD Home Theater Kit and the latter of which is a universal WiFi adapter that adds wireless support to any AV product with an Ethernet jack. Users interested in streaming “multiple, simultaneous, jitter-free 1080p HD video streams wirelessly throughout the home” should certainly give the first a look, as it enables instant wireless streaming from your existing router to any component with an Ethernet port; think of this as the beautiful alternative to running a 50 foot patch cable through your living room and simultaneously eroding your relationship with Mr. / Mrs. Significant Other. The outfit also doled out a few SMB-centric ReadyNAS devices and a couple of HomePlug AV boxes with AC outlet passthroughs, all of which are detailed there in the source links.
Mar/100
Final Version of the Eee Keyboard Showcased at CeBIT 2010
Now, this right here is a geeky gadget and I am talking, of course, about the Eee Keyboard PC EK1542 showcased by Asus at CeBIT yesterday. Although until now, there used to be computer peripherals like a keyboard or a mouse, now it seems like a whole PC system can be a peripheral to a regular-sized keyboard. This nano technology evolves so fast that the poor keyboards have been left behind.
The Eee Keyboard PC is a different approach to computing, with the side 5-inch touchscreen attached to a regular sized keyboard. It has some good specs and some of its features will be extremely useful for future users, because of the small-sized screen the EK1542 has. My colleague says it is rather tiny to use.
I have an observation to make before I get to tell you the specs of this device and I am pretty sure that most of you will agree with me. If you make a keyboard-related product, because let’s face it, the keyboard is the most viewable component of this system, why make it so that it looks like the keyboards that other laptop manufacturers usually build and not come up with an original one.
I am not saying that Sony patented the last year keyboard models used in their Vaio series, or the brushed metal look, but this separate key layout and general aspect simply reminds me of those laptops.
Now, what this baby can do is wirelessly connect via the 802.11 b/g/n tech to the internet from any hotspot and can upscale HD videos on any HD-ready display you might have. So that it keeps a slim and light profile, Asus has integrated in the EK1542 both a 16 GB SSD storage solution and a 32 GB SSD one, depending on your needs.