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Western Digital enters the router market, higher-end models include built-in hard drives
Western Digital is no stranger to media streaming, but until now its specialty has been moving content off a set-top box and onto your television. Now, though, the company is getting into the wireless game as well: it just announced its first networking products, including four dual-band routers and an Ethernet switch. Across the board, the routers use WD's so-called FasTrack technology to prioritize bandwidth-hogging activities like movie streaming, video chats and online gaming. And, like any modern-day router worth its salt, they include options for parental controls, as well as setting up a guest network. At the high end, the N900 Central (pictured) doubles as network-attached storage, suggesting WD was eager to put its hard drive know-how to good use. That'll be available in 1TB and 2TB flavors, and you can use a WD 2 Go website to access the drive remotely. (There are also iOS and Android apps, with a Windows Phone version coming soon.) Rounding out the list, it has four Ethernet ports and one USB connection. Similarly, the N900 router is rated for top speeds of 900 Mbps, except it lacks the built-in storage. In its place, it has seven Gigabit sockets, along with two USB ports. Moving on down the line, the N750 and N600 each have four Ethernet ports and two USB openings, with the N750 maxing out at 750 Mbps and the N600 -- well, you get the idea. Lastly, that switch has eight Gigabit ports if increasing your wired connections is what you're really after. With the exception of the storage-enhanced N900 Central, these are all available today, with prices ranging form $70 for the switch, $80 for the N600, $120 for the N750 and $180 for the N900. The N900 Central won't be available until next quarter, and will cost either $300 or $350 depending on whether you go for the 1TB or 2TB model.
Logitech's Touch Lapdesk holds your notebook, provides a pull-out multitouch surface
After relieving our wrists, buffeting our ears and cooling our notebook down, there was only one likely way for Logitech would update its Lapdock lineup -- add a finger-friendly digitizer to the equation. Yes, the Touch Lapdesk N600 we saw at the FCC in April has become a reality today, and it's actually a pretty simple slab of plastic all told. The hollow, fairly cheap-feeling frame houses a slide-out surface with a nice big three-finger multitouch panel measuring five inches across, a pair of giant left and right mouse buttons, and some multimedia keys as well. You pop open a panel on the rear of the unit to insert 4 AA batteries good for up to six months of use, pull out Logitech's tiny Unifying Receiver, insert it into your laptop, power on the desk, and you're good to go. Unlike its immediate predecessors, however, there's no fan or speakers to be had here -- just the extra input scheme -- for those who prefer gestures to lugging around a good old-fashioned mouse. Yours for $70 later this month, wherever such things are sold. PR after the break. %Gallery-125754%
Belkin repackages old wireless routers for its new N-series lineup (updated)
This wouldn't be the first time a company repackages old routers for the new year, but to be fair, there haven't been many technological advances recently for them to do much else. Belkin happens to be one such company, which has just announced five N-series 802.11n WiFi routers ranging from $39.99 (N150 at up to 150Mbps) all the way up to $129.99 (N750 at up to 450Mbps with dual band and USB). Frankly, a quick glance at the specifications doesn't show much of an improvement from last year's models, and that "exclusive" MultiBeam range-extending technology seems to be just a fancy name for MIMO. Still, you gotta give it to Belkin's designers for the new chassis design -- we much prefer this rounded look to the previous boxes. You can now grab an N150, N300, or N600 DB in the shops, whereas the N450 and flagship N750 DB will be showing up in mid-May. See press release after the break for the full details. Update: Belkin got in touch to finally shed some light on MultiBeam. Essentially, this is a new antenna technology that beefs up the routers' MIMO signal with a 6db gain, as opposed to just 1.5db on traditional onboard "trace" antennas. Another feature delivered by MultiBeam is an improved, apple-shaped coverage pattern, which apparently bests the standard donut-shaped version. The high end N450 and N750 also come with "implicit beam forming" that focuses the radio signal beam onto client devices for more reliable connection. Let's see if the guinea pigs can prove these claims.
Logitech's wireless Touch Lapdesk hits the FCC
There's not exactly a lot of details on this one, but it looks like Logitech may be getting set to introduce some new company for its speaker / lapdesk contraption, the Speaker Lapdesk. A device known as the Touch Lapdesk N600 has now turned up at the FCC, which apparently not only adds some "touch" to the equation, but some 2.4GHz wireless connectivity as well. Unfortunately, that's about all that the FCC's willing to share at the moment, but there's a handsome label after the break, and a couple of dozen pages of test reports at the source link below if you're looking for a bit more evidence that this thing actually exists.
