Sep/090
LaCie Brings Colorful Alternatives to Boring Gray Cables
You know how computer cables are boring? I can’t find anything more boring than computer cables. I suppose LaCie thought so as well, since they came up with the idea to manufacture some new and pretty colored flat computer cables, which the company believes to represent a simple and ingenious solution to an old and annoying problem.
The cables are designed by item (yes, “item”) and their goal is to delight users with eye pleasing colors and an organized office look. The cables are color-coded as follows: blue for USB, green-orange for FireWire (400 and 800) and orange-green for eSATA, so that users can easily distinguish between different peripherals without having to actually follow any of the cables from one end to the other. Furthermore, each cable comes with 24 adhesive labels, so if you have 5 USB devices, you’ll quickly find out which cable belongs to which device.
Alexis Kobassian, Accessories Product Manager for LaCie, states that “these colorful cables will delight users’ sensibilities while making their work areas less chaotic”, adding that the company expects “they will be popular among practical business users in the office as well as customers who want to reduce cable clutter at home.”
With this three different cable categories, users will be able to connect virtually any current digital device to their PC and enjoy a wealth of multimedia features, while maintaining an enjoyable environment.
LaCie states that cable clutter is a very rare occurrence when it comes to flat cables and it is sure these colorful cables will attend to home users and business users alike. Somehow, I fail to imagine how something like this could end up on some top executive director’s desk.
The cables are available starting with the first of December and can be purchased for $13 through LaCie’s homepage or LaCie resellers.
Aug/090
Flatter, Wider and More Flexible Cables Introduced by Gore
Given the fact that modern applications require cables (any type of cable, really) to be quite long and flexible, in order to enable a high level of versatility during use, more and more manufacturers of such components are starting to improve on their design. And that’s also the case with W. L. Gore that has just released a flat flexible cable with a total width of 300 mm, which also offers quite an impressive estimated functioning life on the side.
Thus, this new, 300 mm wide, flat flexible cable offers a long lifetime of more than 150 million bending cycles, together with further excellent properties, such as suitability for clean room use and the possibility of stacking (several cables can be stacked on top of each other). The use of PTFE (Polytetrafluoride) as the insulation material of Gore cables and also of other high quality plastics and materials ensures that these cable constructions will take their place as further highlights in the Gore cable product assortment, which includes shielded/unshielded power and signal, video, Ethernet, IEEE 1394 and fiber optic cables.
In fact, Gore’s announcement doesn’t really come as a surprise, given the company’s expertise in configuring the versatile polymer PTFE. This has resulted in numerous products for various ranges of applications, such as electronic signal transmission, fabric laminates, medical implants, as well as membrane, filtration, sealant, and fiber technologies for diverse industries.
Sadly, no information has been provided regarding the exact moment when these ultra-flat and very flexible cables make their appearance into various real-life products and devices, but it’s very likely that this moment is not far away.