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Aluratek Mini Surge Dual USB Charging Station: Pocket-sized power package
One of my major gripes while traveling is the lack of available wall sockets in hotels, as I often have two or three devices while my wife brings her iPhone and iPad. To help keep us from fighting over where to plug in our gadgets, Aluratek is now shipping the Mini Surge Dual USB Charging Station (US$19.99). Design What's so great about this little white box? In one small package it offers two USB charging ports and three grounded AC outlets (American-style plugs), all while providing 612 Joules of power surge protection. The prongs on the plug on the back of the Mini Surge fold flat for travel, keeping them from damage in transit and from scratching any of your gizmos. Unlike some portable power solutions I've tried before, the prongs on the Mini Surge lock into place so you know they're going to stay extended when plugging the device into a socket. The Mini Surge is designed to handle up to 1800 Watts of power at a current of 15 Amps. If you're planning on plugging in a lot of "big equipment," ensure that you won't exceed that limit. Most portable electronics won't have a problem. Using the Mini Surge Dual USB Charging Station Fortunately, I have a lot of stuff that I need to charge up and keep powered, so I have the perfect setup for trying this out. I plugged an iPhone 4 (with a cable to charge up a Mophie Juice Pack Air) and an iPad into the USB ports, and my MacBook Air, Apple Battery Charger, and an iPad 2 with charging brick into the AC outlets. I'm not sure of the total power load on the Mini Surge as a result, but the device didn't get warm at all. There's a green LED to let you know that the surge protection is working -- if you are hit with a surge the light will go out if the protection is no longer sufficient to keep your gadgets safe. I love the fact, even with five devices connected, I still had an empty socket on my wall. Conclusion There are similar solutions available from other brand-name vendors. Belkin's Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger (US$24.99) also has three AC outlets and two USB ports. While the prongs on the plug don't fold down as they do on the Aluratek Mini Surge, the Belkin device does rotate through 360° so that you can actually fit two of them on one standard two-socket outlet -- one pointing up, one pointing down, or each pointing an opposite direction sideways. For a few years, I've had a Kensington Portable Power Outlet ($24.99). It also has three AC outlets, two USB ports, and surge protection, but has the added flexibility of a 17" flat power cord that means it can also be a short extension cable. In terms of price and size, the Aluratek Mini Surge Dual USB Charging Station really has the edge. I have a personal mission to keep reducing the amount of bulk carried on my travels, and this is an attractive and lightweight way to keep all of my devices powered up without carrying too many adapters.
Aluratek goes boldly where many have gone before, announces Libre Air e-reader and Cinepad tablet (update)
In what appears to be Aluratek's latest feat of badge engineering, the company's outing a familiar pair of slates -- a 5-inch reflective TFT LCD e-reader and a 10-inch Android tablet. Aluratek's calling the former the Libre Air, and says it's nigh-identical to last year's Libre Pro save the addition of WiFi, a curved chassis and a $130 price price point. Meanwhile, the spacious capacitive touchscreen at right (which ships with Adobe Flash Lite) belongs to the Cinepad. Last time we saw the Foxconn-sourced tablet, it ran Android 1.6 on a Marvell Armada 100 SoC and a fairly unimpressive screen, so things had better have changed drastically -- Aluratek's pricing it at $300 when it ships next month. PR after the break. Update: Aluratek tells us the Cinepad now runs Android 2.2 on a 1024 x 600 screen, and has a 2600mAh battery that should last five to ten hours on a charge. %Gallery-112646%
Aluratek's new wireless speakers go Bump in the night
Speakers? Oh yeah. Wires? Heck no. Aluratek has launched three new wireless audio products collectively called Bump -- though somehow a wired model got lumped in there too. A bit of a step from the company's previous digi frame and e-reader offerings, the four tune-pumping solutions start with the $49.99 AMS01F, a wee boombox that plays music from SD, line-in, or FM and does six hours on a charge. The $79.99 AUWS01F ditches the media player functionality, relying on a signal sent from a 2.4GHz USB dongle that you stick in your nearest PC or Mac (within 60 feet) that has some tunes on it. Next is the $99.99 AWS01F, basically the AMS01F boombox with the addition of a separate wireless speaker. Finally, if you're not ready to cut the cord, there's the $19.99 APS01F, a single little tweeter with a 3.5mm cable sprouting from below. They're all available now, so you know what to do. Update: Seems these are a rebadge. Welp, at least you've got another option.
Borders' Kobo-powered eBook Store now live with 1.5 million titles, Android and BlackBerry apps (update)
Exactly how many eBook stores do we need? Depends. If you own a dedicated e-reader then one is all you get. Own a tablet or smartphone and the world of eBook stores is pretty much yours for the taking through competing apps. Borders looks to be taking a hybrid approach by offering up the $150 Kobo, $120 Aluratek Libre (available July 20th), $170 Sony Touch, and $150 Sony Pocket eReaders and today's launch of a self-branded eBook store powered by Kobo's catalog of more than 1.5 million titles -- "thousands" of which are free and available in a variety of formats including ePub (primarily) and PDF. Borders also has desktop PC and Mac apps ready for download in addition to a few apps listed as "coming soon" for both Android and BlackBerry devices -- these join the apps already released for Apple's iOS. It just went live so why not hit the source and have a browse. P.S. Funny enough, there's not a single mention of Spring Design's Alex on Borders' new site. Funny sad, not ha ha. Update: The Android and BlackBerry apps are now live.
Aluratek tempts with 8.9-inch 720p Cinepal PMP
Aluratek hasn't been one to really rival the mainstays in the digiframe and e-reader markets, but the outfit's latest portable media player looks atypically slick. Boasting an expansive 8.9-inch display and an almost slate-like look, the Cinepal arrives with 4GB of inbuilt memory, an SD / SDHC expansion slot, 720p display and a built-in Li-ion good for up to six hours of continuous use. Aside from playing back WMA and MP3 jams, it'll also handle DRM-laced DivX files along with the usual assortment: AVI, VOB, DAT, MPEG, H.264, MKV, JPEG, etc. Best of all, the player is priced at just $179, and it'll be available next month for the Yanks who care.
Aluratek Libre eBook Reader PRO sports monochrome reflective LCD, $179 pricetag
The stranglehold E-Ink has had on the e-book market is slipping. We've seen the tantalizing promises of Pixel Qi, mixing a color LCD with a low-power reflective display, but in the here and now we've got a new LCD-based e-reader from Aluratek. Extensively dubbed the "Libre eBook Reader PRO," the unit uses an unnamed 5-inch monochrome reflective LCD panel, with 24 hours of continuous use off a battery charge. Not as great as E-Ink, but it should be plenty for most people, and the resultant $179 price is hard to knock. The Libre is ePUB and PDF compatible, and comes with a 2GB SD card -- just the right sort of barebones-yet-functional we appreciate. We'll have to see how well that LCD performs in person before we pull the trigger, but for people looking for an alternative to the premium devices out there (or something with a faster page refresh rate), it might just fit the bill.
Aluratek's new 11-inch and 15-inch photo frames try and keep up
It's no easy task keeping up with the ever expanding screen sizes of digital photo frames, but Aluratek is doing its darnedest with the new 11-inch ADMPF311F and the 15-inch ADMPF315F frames it just shuffled onto the market. Oddly, the 11-inch model brings 1GB of built-in memory, while the 15-incher only does 256MB, but we're guessing you're going to do most of your viewing off the CompactFlash / SD card readers. The frames can handle JPEG, MPEG, AVI, MP3 and WMV files, offer support for USB thumb drives, show off your photos at a 1024 x 768 resolution, and are priced at $200 and $300, respectively.
Aluratek's 10.5-inch ADMPF110 digiframe does HD movies, too
Since the medium-sized digiframe market is getting so crowded these days, it's leaving manufacturers with little choice but to spruce up their offerings or get left in the crowd. Thankfully for us all, Aluratek has decided to bolster its stance by throwing down a 10.5-inch digital photo frame that not only sports a sleek, classy design, but also ups the ante in the specs department. The 1,024 x 768 resolution seen here has definitely made an appearance on another (albeit larger) frame before, but it touts 256MB of built-in memory, USB 2.0, compatibility with CF, MS, SD, MMC, and xD flash cards, and support for JPEG, Motion JPEG, AVI, and MP3 file formats. Additionally, a bundled wireless remote allows you to control the still / video slideshows from afar, and the audio output enables users to crank things on the home stereo whilst utilizing the integrated display. Best of all, the pricetag isn't one to balk at, as the $199 Aluratek is asking for here isn't too greedy at all when compared to the (mostly lacking) competition. [Via PopGadget]
