Buffalo's 500GB MiniStation TurboUSB External HDD

Although Buffalo managed to squeeze one whole terabyte of storage into its new LinkStation Mini, the firm is looking to give the bytes within its latest external drive a bit more breathing room. The 500GB MiniStation TurboUSB is a touch more capacious than the previous 320GB king, and as with other TurboUSB devices, it supposedly offers up "30-percent faster transfer rates than most USB hard drives."

Additionally, the firm throws in its own Shock Resistant technology along with its SecureLockWare in order to prevent "unauthorized access in the event the drive is lost or stolen." Heck, you'll even find Memeo's AutoBackup right in the box, and as for the box itself, look for it to land later this month for a cool $329.

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First in the world cellphone with built-in projector

News about concept GSM phones with projectors inside was around for a while; however, there was no information about how soon these concepts will turn into serial models. Well, Chinese manufacturers are first to introduce this idea into life. First cell phone with built-in projector is already being sold, and its parameters are quite interesting.

This Chinese marvel is named Epoq EGP-PP01, and it is first cell phone in the world with built-in projector. Its characteristics are amazing for its small sizes: it can produce image in VGA resolution (640 x 480)! This was made possible by using miniature LCoS projector, and a very bright LED as a source of light. Maximum distance from phone to the projected surface is 762 mm, or 30 inches. Built-in battery will last for nearly 3 hours when projector is working, which is enough for presentation or movies. Thanks to the USB port, gadget can be connected to DVD player, laptop or PC, to project information that phone cannot read by itself. It can show video and photo without any external help, so it can be useful when you want to show your new photos and videos to some friends or colleagues.

Apart from the amazing projecting ability, phone also has touchscreen (as almost any new Chinese phone does today), camera, 0.5 Watt dynamics and a very familiar interface, that was fully copied from the world's most famous smartphone - iPhone. Not sure, would Apple sue manufacturers of this device for stealing their intellectual property, but if this phone will be sold only inside the country there will be no problems for Epoq at all. They tried to experiment with the phone buttons like many other Chinese phone manufacturers, placing them in a strange unfamiliar pattern - in three rows. Nevertheless, getting familiar with this button placement it is only a matter of time.

Not sure, will this idea of placing projectors inside cell phones be successful, but this interesting gadget deserves some attention. Maybe tomorrow these mobile projectors will be as common as cell phone cameras nowadays? In any case, you can touch to the future now for 550 dollars.


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Recently released USB 3.0 technology will increase the speed tenfold!

Majority of modern gadgets connect to the computer via USB cable. For nearly 13 years this port has been standard for all external devices. When USB was introduced in 1995, it became clear that this port would replace all those big and bulky connectors that were used in the past. Data exchange speed was growing with every generation: from 12 Mbps in USB 1.1 to 480 Mbps in USB 2.0. Nevertheless, as time goes by, bigger and bigger speeds are needed. Therefore, after 8 years of reigning, USB 2.0 must be replaced with something more modern and powerful, and this new successor will be USB 3.0, which is already developed and soon will be widely supported by hardware developers. What advantages it brings? Let us see.

USB 2.0 was named Hi-Speed, and it surely is quite fast. USB 3.0, however, truly deserves its title Superspeed, because it strongly overlaps the speed of its predecessor! New USB 3.0 devices will exchange data with speed up to 4.8 Gbps, which is ten times bigger than USB 2.0. Another big advantage of new USB port is its ability to receive and send data simultaneously, which is a no-go for previous USB generations. New USB 3.0 will keep the downward compatibility with all previous USB versions, so do not worry if your device will not support USB 3.0 - it will work with it anyways, at supported speed.

New generation of USB connectors opens a wide field of possible adaptation. Speed up to 4.8 Gbps will be enough for HD video and audio signal broadcast, with such speed there will be no more "bottleneck" effect, when USB 2.0 speed is limiting the performance of external devices, such as portable HDDs or external optical drives. The cable will be a bit thicker though, but this cannot be really considered as disadvantage. In any case, small increase in thickness is reasonable for such big increase of speed. There are images of new USB 3.0 connectors, including redesigned miniUSB and USB 3.0 type B. (click to enlarge)

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Electronic Car Keys Finder

The daily haste forces us to lose time, but not only on important problems, but also on searching of the necessary things. For example, car keys or cell phones and remote controls are the things that we tend to lose all the time. New unusual gadget will remind you that your keys are not with you. The mini electronic gadget will allow you to define the location of your keys.

The electronic tracking device allows you to find the lost things from fairly far away, issuing a sound signal. So-called tags or metal tips are used for determining where the device is. With its help it is possible to find many useful things, which are lost or dropped in an unknown places. This gadget can be placed in a purse, occupies not much space.

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