For a moment there, the UK was almost ahead: Mio’s Navman Spirit TV PNDs wowed and impressed with their blend of GPS navigation and digital TV, only to be blown out of the proverbial water by Korean firm Hyundai Telematics. Their new PROVIA A7+ PND takes the Navman Spirit TV and uses that as a mere kicking-off point, stuffing in simultaneous T-DMB digital TV and TPEG road status reception and more.
Do you have room in your heart for another tiny memory stick? Super Talent hope so, hence their latest Pico Mini thumb-drives. Offering 2GB to 16GB of storage with a USB 2.0 interface and up to 200x transfer speeds, the drives are also waterproof.
With the abundance of gadgets people have these days, it’s no wonder you have more items than USB ports. That’s why the USB hub was invented. And if you’re going to get a USB hub, why not get one that’s in the shape of an octopus.
A-DATA have unveiled what they’re calling “the first flash drive compatible with Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)”, though as far as we’ve heard there haven’t been many reported problems with existing drives and the Windows 7 RC. Still, if you’re looking for up to 64GB of portable storage then the A-DATA XPG Xupreme may be the drive of your dreams.
As hugely convergent devices go, D-Link’s DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router could be best of breed. Announced at CES in January, the DIR-685 not only offers WiFi draft-n support and four gigabit ethernet ports, but a 3.5-inch display with multimedia widgets, dual USB 2.0 ports for sharing printers and external drives, and an internal 2.5-inch HDD bay for turning it into a NAS. Overkill or network overlord? OhGizmo! took a look, and while the DIR-685 is expensive it’s also just as capable as you’d hope.
In a move that’s been a long time coming, the major participants in the European cellphone market have backed a proposal to standardize microUSB as the generic charger port. The scheme was led by the European Commission, and has now received support from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Motorola, NEC, LG, RIM, Qualcomm, Samsung and Texas Instruments.
How can you make your external USB Blu-ray drive better than everyone elses? Well, you could make it a Blu-ray burner, give it a range of connections and make it super-cheap, or you could go the ASUS way and put a great big light-up blue X on the side.
We first heard about Huawei’s E583X wireless modem back in February, and now the company has been showing it off at CommunicAsia in Singapore. A MiFi rival, the E583X – also known as the i-Mo – packs an HSPA modem and WiFi router into a palm-sized battery powered box.
Video hands-on after the cut
USB hubs are super practical and a great way to ensure all your gizmos have a place to plug in. However, what if you’re out and about and need to power up multiple gadgets? That’s where the Solar Charging USB Hub comes into play.
Verizon are wising up to the fact that data subscribers want to keep using their WWAN modems even when outside the reach out EVDO Rev.A networks, hence this: the USB1000 Global Modem. As well as CDMA service while in the US, the Verizon USB1000 supports triband HSPA for when you’re abroad; there are also global data plans for regular travelers.
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