Computers

Short on desk space? Adesso's latest desktop keyboard, the AKB-440, features a touchpad located on the right of the keypad which works as a mouse. It has a vertical scrolling and tapping feature and two touchpad buttons for right and left click mouse functions. Back and forward, zoom in and out, and horizontal scrolling functions are also available by installing the GlidePoint touchpad driver.

The AKB-440 also has embedded multimedia and internet hotkeys, so you can control home entertainment functions directly on the keyboard.

The AKB-440 keyboard is compatible with Windows Vista, XP and 2000, as well as Mac OS X. It is available now at www.adesso.com and has an MSRP of $59.99.

Roxio Creator 2010 is an upgrade focused on the process of capturing, editing and enjoying personal video, including high-definition content. Roxio Creator 2010 now offers automatic smart encoding to dramatically decrease rendering times while maintaining optimum video quality, and leverages ATI Stream and NVIDIA CUDA technologies to make project encoding up to five times faster. Creator 2010 also adds a range of Blu-ray Disc (BD) features including AVCHD Archiving, BD-RE on-disc editing, and complements its comprehensive Blu-ray Disc authoring capabilities with a new array of high-definition motion menus.

Roxio Creator 2010 makes it easier to enjoy video on a range of mobile devices with a newly revised output display that enables users to quickly transfer videos that are automatically optimized for the display characteristics and playback features of their particular device. Adding to Creator 2010's versatile video capabilities is a Web video capture feature that allows you to grab streaming video, such as user-generated content on YouTube, for viewing offline on portable devices and DVD players.Read more

Perfect for the college student heading off to school, Kensington has a new Essentials Kit for Netbooks. The kit features computer accessories that were designed with a netbook in mind. Each Kensington netbook accessory is sized just right for your netbook and fits easily in your bag.

Accessories in the kit include:

• Wired Mouse for netbooks: Plug-n-play via USB and built-in scroll wheel
• Security Lock for netbooks: Attaches to the Kensington Security Slot found on netbooks with 10,000 personalized combinations
• Reversible Sleeve for Netbooks: Stores & protects up to a 10" netbook

The Kensington Essentials Kit for Netbooks has a 2-year warranty. But best of all…this handy kit is priced at just $39.99.

MSI Computer's ultra-slim 15.6" MSI X600 notebook is now available for only $899.99 MSRP. The X600 notebook weighs just 5.5 pounds, is only .98 inches thick and features the Intel ULV CPU, which uses 1/6th the power of a regular mobile CPU. The X600 also includes an external optical drive and ATI HD 4330 Graphics card. The HD LCD display has a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1366x768 resolution.

The X600 also features a 320GB HDD, 4GB of DDR 2 memory, 6-cell battery, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam.

The X600 notebook is available now in Silver and Black at Amazon.com and Newegg.com for $899.99. A 3-year limited warranty is included.

Apple today announced that Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard will go on sale this Friday, August 28.

Snow Leopard is said to have hundreds of refinements, new core technologies and support for Microsoft Exchange. Some of these refinements are; a more responsive Finder; Mail that loads messages up to twice as fast; Time Machine with an up to 80 percent faster initial backup; a Dock with Expose integration; QuickTime X with a redesigned player that lets you view, record, trim and share video; and a 64-bit version of Safari 4 that is faster and resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard is also half the size of the previous version, which will free up about 7GB of drive space once it's installed.

Apple's online store is now accepting pre-orders. Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users for $29 (single user) on August 28, 2009 through Apple Authorized Resellers and Apple Retail Stores. The Snow Leopard Family Pack, a single household, five-user license, will be available for $49. For Tiger users with an Intel-based Mac, the Mac Box Set includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife '09 and iWork '09 and will be available for $169 and a Family Pack is available for $229.

With netbooks getting more and more popular, Hannspree decided to get in the game. They just announced a new line of 10" ultra-mobile laptop PCs, the HannsNote.

The HannsNote features an Intel Atom processor, Windows XP operating system, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0, 1.3MP webcam, 3-in-1 card reader, and full-function keyboard. It weighs just 2.9 lbs, and its 6-Cell Lithum-Ion battery will last up to 5 hours on a single charge.

"We are entering the mini-laptop market with a strong product. The HannsNote offers many benefits to the consumer. This mini-laptop is ideal for business or school use, or for anyone who is always on-the-go because of its ultra-portability and performance. We are very confident not only in the quality and performance of the HannsNote, but also in the service we provide," said Wynn Yiu, president of Hannspree North America, Inc.

The HannsNote is available in two colors: High-gloss Pearl Black and Pearl White for $379.99. A protective carrying sleeve and cleaning cloth are included.

Canon just introduced the new SELPHY ES40 Compact Photo Printer. This portable printer has ink and paper in one cartridge and prints color or black and white images in either credit card or postcard sizes. But what makes this portable printer different is it talks to you! It has a voice guidance system that gives you step-by-step instructions for printing and adding graphics to images without having to read the manual. Because, really, who reads the manual anyway?

The printer also features a, large 3.5-inch LCD screen, Easy Scroll Wheel and a Creative Print function that lets you add things like stamps, frames, and effects to your pictures. Its Portrait Image Optimize feature has face detection, backlight correction and noise reduction, as well.

The SELPHY ES40 doesn't need to be connected to a computer to print photos. You can print directly from your memory card, camera or Bluetooth device. It will be available in September 2009 with an MSRP of $149.99.

Epson just introduced two new photo all-in-ones – the Artisan 810 and Artisan 710. Both all-in-ones feature built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet, wireless printing from an iPhone, fast print speeds, and many creative applications. Not only can you scan, copy and print, these AIO's offer double-sided printing to save paper, and have built-in Automatic Photo Correction to improve poorly exposed images. Also, using the front USB port, you can charge your cell phone, GPS device or MP3 player.

Do you need a fax too? In addition to the above features, the Artisan 810 has a built-in fax, 7.8-inch smart touch panel with a 3.5-inch LCD screen, and a 30-page Automatic Document Feeder for added convenience. Read more

Logitech just announced a new computer mouse that you can use almost anywhere – even glass surfaces! With Logitech Darkfield Laser Tracking, you can use your mouse on clear glass (that's at least 4 mm thick) and high-gloss surfaces. The new technology is available in the Logitech Performance Mouse MX, a full-size mouse, and the Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX for the notebook computer.

To track on glass, Logitech Darkfield uses dark field microscopy to detect microscopic particles and micro-scratches on these surfaces, rather than tracking the surface itself. The mouse's sensor sees the clean areas of glass as a dark background with bright dots (the dust). Then, the sensor interprets the movement of these dots to track exactly where you've moved the mouse. Pretty cool, huh?Read more

Olympus just announced the new WS-400S Kit that packages its WS-400S digital audio recorder with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 10 Recorder Edition speech recognition software. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking, simply dictate on the WS-400S, download files to a computer, and recordings are automatically transcribed to text! The kit also includes the ME-12 noise-canceling microphone to cut down on background noise.

The WS-400S features a large backlit LCD, has 1GB of internal flash memory and can capture up to 272 hours of Windows Media Audio files on its built-in stereo microphone. Two higher-quality recording modes are also available, stereo standard play (SSP), and stereo high quality (SHQ), for even better sound quality.Read more