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Super Talent's USB 3.0 SuperCrypt thumbdrive reviewed, Cryptkeeper approves
Sure, USB 3.0 can make external hard drives pretty snappy, but who wants to lug around a rock? We want to know where the SuperSpeed port takes our tiny USB keys, and the fine folks at PC Perspective have the answer to that question. They found the Super Talent SuperCrypt not only a capable performer, but nearly as fast as a modern SSD, with average read and write speeds of 185MB / sec and 50MB / sec respectively. Given that the silver stick costs more than an SSD, too (from $119 for 16GB to $778 for 256GB), that's not so surprising... but the idea of transferring the full contents of a dual-layer DVD from this sucker in under a minute is positively jaw-dropping. Assuming that -- like Cryptkeeper -- you still have one to drop.
LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 external HDD to hit stores this May
The gang at LaCie sure do love their orange, life raft-esque external HDDs. As you've probably guessed, the Rugged USB 3.0 takes the already familiar device, which is designed to resist drops up to 2.2 meters, and throws SuperSpeed USB into the mix. The 500GB (7200 RPM) model becomes available in early May for $150. If anything, it looks like this company definitely got its money's worth out of Neil Poulton!
Super Talent debuts SuperCrypt thumbdrives with USB 3.0, 256-bit encryption
Hot on the heels of its USB 3.0 thumb drive the kids at Super Talent have announced the SuperCrypt line of secure portable storage. These devices are available in capacities up to 256GB and offers up to 240 MB/s transfer rates, with your choice of either 128-bit ECB (SuperCrypt) or 256-bit XTS (SuperCrypt Pro) encryption. As for the rest of us, this bad boy is fully backward compatible with USB 2.0, so you'll be able to access Grandma's famous top secret chicken recipe (why else would you own one of these?) on damn near any computer you need to. No word on a price or release date, but we'll be keeping our eyes peeled. In the meantime, feel free to check out the PR after the break.
USB-IF certifies 50 SuperSpeed USB products, leaves five shrouded in mystery
That 80-port hub you bought to increase your military might? Obsolete. Novelty thumb drives? Their days are numbered as the USB-IF announces the completion of SuperSpeed USB (3.0) compliance on 50 devices. Yes, of all the countless, teeming masses of USB 2.0-compliant whatsits out there, a whole 50 3.0 devices currently officially exist, ranging from PCIe adapters to... well... ExpressCard adapters. Yes, there are a few legitimate devices in there, like HP's Envy 15 laptop and WD's My Book 3.0 external hard drive, but that the vast majority are adapters says a lot about how early this format is. Of the 50 said to be certified only 45 are listed on the site, meaning there are five left unidentified, ready for a stunning, blue-plugged unveiling. It'll surely be a magical event.
NEC manages 16Gbps, tries to put a dimmer on Light Peak (updated)
If you didn't know it, there's a brewing interface war between the effortlessly backwards compatible USB 3.0 and the decidedly fresh break offered by Light Peak. Most people are fans of new stuff that works with their old stuff, but so too do people like stuff that's really fast, and USB 3.0's 5Gbps just can't match Light Peak's 10Gbps. Or can it? NEC says it can, indicating that its USB 3.0 NEC has demonstrated a new chipset managing a whopping 16Gbps (2GB per second) over a single cable, finding a way to overcome that standard's signal interference problems to more than triple the USB 3.0's held ceiling. It remains to be seen whether NEC's technique will be integrated into the still young 3.0 spec, but that would certainly be the logical thing to do. Update: TheLostSwede commented to point us to an English version of the press release that, in Japanese form, seems to have led to the Electronista story we used as a source. Apparently something previously got lost in translation as the release actually talks about a wholly new inter-chip serial interface offering 16Gbps speeds, not an extension to USB 3.0. This could provide the system internals to shovel bits to whatever new external interface reigns supreme.
ASUS N82 and N61 join the USB 3.0 laptop party
We're kind of starting to figure out ASUS' naming scheme -- E is for Easy, and N is for eNtertainment, jolly good. In other self-evident news, Engadget Chinese is the place to go if you want the lowdown on happenings in China and its nearby states. Joining HP's Envy 15 in the USB 3.0-sporting ranks will soon be the familiar 16-inch ASUS N61 and the seemingly brand spanking new N82 14-incher. See the galleries below for the eye candy, but keep it here for specs. Core i5 and i7 CPUs will populate the role of orchestrator inside, while ATI and NVIDIA discrete graphics options will also be made available when these make their imminent Taiwan debut. In live demonstrations, the one USB 3.0 port (yes, you only get one) was shown to be three times as fast as USB 2.0, so not quite reaching its theoretical superiority, but hardly an unwelcome improvement. Let's hope for quick global distribution following the Taiwanese launch, which is slated for the middle of this month.%Gallery-84581%%Gallery-84582%
USB 3.0 SuperSpeed gone wild at CES 2010, trumps even your new SSD
Just in case you didn't notice the arrow, that's a USB 3.0 cable up there, plugged into a USB 3.0 port, running in a Fujitsu laptop that is the first to pack integrated support for USB 3.0. How fast was it? On the other end of this one was a Buffalo external enclosure stuffed with an old-fashioned, platter-based hard disk, which still delivered perfectly absurd transfer rates of about 135MB/sec. When another, similar setup ran with an Intel SSD what happened the results were even more impressive: a few ticks over 200MB/sec. Yes, we're about to enter another dimension. A time when external drives are as fast as internal ones. Where the speed at which you can fill up your MP3 player is limited only by the speed of the storage on that device itself. You are about to enter... the SuperSpeed zone. %Gallery-82425%
USB 3.0-infused DisplayLink products coming in 2010
DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort may be enjoying the spoils right now, but the world's most popular port may just give 'em a run for their collective dollars by the end of next year. DisplayLink, which enables monitors to receive signals via USB instead of through one of the more conventional cables, has been mildly successful with USB 2.0 at the helm, but a whole new world is about to open up with the introduction of USB 3.0. As you've no doubt seen by now, the third iteration offers up over ten times the bandwidth of v2.0, which would obviously allow for great resolution support when channeling video. In reality, USB 3.0 is the first USB protocol that could support a legitimate high-def video stream, and it's expected that a prototype device will be shown at CES next month transmitting content at up to 4.8 gigabits per second. In theory, at least, USB 3.0-enabled DisplayLink would allow vast 30-inch panels to be connected to netbooks via USB without having to rely on a sub-native resolution, but then again, said netbooks will probably need a GPU with a bit more oomph than the current Ion can provide. Not like that'll be an issue for long, though.
USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter promises more than it can deliver
Been fretting over the upcoming slew of USB 3.0 devices and your relatively new laptop's inability to exploit their full speed? Well this isn't going to help you much, but it's a great example of why you should shop with a careful eye and preferably from reputable stores. British e-tailer StarTech.com (no, we haven't heard of them before either) is now offering an ExpressCard-based USB 3.0 adapter for £39 (about $64), which seems a bargain considering the promised 5Gbps transfer speeds and general bragging rights associated with having SuperSpeed. But here's the rub: while USB 3.0 certainly supports such speeds, the ExpressCard 1.0 device in question doesn't. In fact, you'll be limited to a tenth half the speed the 3.0 controller onboard is capable of, leaving us to question what the exact point of this device really is. Any ideas? Update: We've double-checked the specs and this card can in fact give you 2.5Gbps throughput, which isn't quite so terrible, but still isn't the full USB 3.0 spec which is lauded on their sales page.
Super Talent introduces world's first USB 3.0 flash drive
USB 3.0 devices are just now starting to peek their heads out at retail, and it looks as if Super Talent is doing its darnedest to not be left out of the spotlight. Said company has just introduced what looks to be the planet's first USB 3.0 thumb drive (or "RAIDDrive," as it were), promising transfer rates of up to 320MB/sec when relying on a separate UAS Protocol driver with a USB 3.0 port. If you're using a stock USB 3.0 socket, you'll see speeds as high as 200MB/sec, while those bold enough to slam this into a USB 2.0 connector will see it slow to USB 2.0 speeds. There's no mention of a price or release date, but it should ship relatively soon in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB flavors. %Gallery-77281%
NVIDIA confirms Intel chipsets won't support USB 3.0 until 2011
What was once an unverifiable rumor from an anonymous source has now, sadly, become a confirmed fact. Intel won't be integrating USB 3.0 support into its chipsets until at least 2011. Motherboard makers such as ASUS can still opt to add discrete 3.0 controllers at an extra cost, but Intel -- already accused of dragging its heels on the standard's development -- won't be. NVIDIA spokesman Brian Burke has expressed, in no uncertain terms, his company's disappointment with Intel, while also claiming that chipsets by NVIDIA are more feature-rich and just plain better than Intel's own efforts. We'll add this to our ever-growing collection of things NVIDIA doesn't like about Intel, but we also hope that the immature outburst doesn't obscure the real issue. NVIDIA is correct in noting that Intel needs competition in the chipset space, and the new interconnect's dependence on Intel's whims demonstrates the market-altering powers that reside in Santa Clara, CA. Unless another chipmaker gets serious about competing with Intel, we could face plenty more of these seemingly arbitrary delays in tech rollouts.
Dane-Elec comes clean with external USB 3.0 HDDs / SSDs
It's been almost an entire year since we heard a peep from the good lads and ladies at Dane-Elec, but those very individuals have today informed us that a few USB 3.0 drives are on the way from its labs. 'Course, we'd like to point out that it's being a little ambitious with that whole "world's first" thing, but given the youth of the format, we'll take all the competition (and excitement) we can get. The outfit's So SuperSpeed line of external drives will soon be taking on the US market, offering consumers up to 250MBps data transfers starting on December 11th. Sizes will range from 500GB to 2TB (in both 2.5- and 3.5-inch forms), and we're told that the SSD options (80GB and 160GB) will indeed be Intel-branded under the hood. Looking for prices? Sure you are -- they're just past the break.
Point Grey puts USB 3.0 into a webcam, along with other telltale signs of over engineering
We kid, we kid. We're sure it was totally necessary to put SuperSpeed USB 3.0 into this new desktop video camera to push uncompressed 1080p, 60 fps video to a computer. According to Point Grey, that unbridled bandwidth allows the camera to offload compression duties to the computer and allows for spiffy applications like face recognition and a general level of uncompressedness. At the heart of this camera is a 3 megapixel Sony IMX036 CMOS sensor, but we'll have to wait until IDF next week to get the lowdown on the rest of this camera's crazy ways -- and sure-to-be-crazy price. [Via TG Daily]
USB 3.0 logos now being handed out to certified wares
Aww suki suki now. With CES 2010 leaning around the corner and refusing to leave our periphery, we're getting more and more evidence that the January trade show will be a launching pad for a new suite of USB products. Several months after the first USB 3.0 cables curiously went on sale, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) has announced the availability of the USB 3.0 Compliance and Certification Program. What's that mean? It means that a program is now firmly in place to provide compatible wares with a SuperSpeed USB logo, which in turn means that USB 3.0 gear is that much closer to retail shelves. So, who's anxious to slap a USB 3.0 PCI expansion card into their shiny new PC? [Via HotHardware]
ASUS kills USB 3.0-laden P6X58 motherboard for reasons unknown
Such a shame, no? As has become all too common in the uncertain world known as ASUS' R&D lab, it looks as if yet another promising product has been canned before it ever had a chance to truly live. After the aforementioned company's P6X58 Premium motherboard set the world ablaze just over a week ago, primarily due to the USB 3.0 sockets shown there on the left, the mainboard has reportedly been canceled for reasons unknown. According to a report over at The Inquirer, an ASUS spokesperson claimed that the mobo had been shelved "not for any particularly interesting reasons," leaving us to wonder when we'll ever see a motherboard equipped with that so-called SuperSpeed magic. Our true emotions are captured nicely in the video just past the break.[Via HotHardware]
Kinetik speeds into the profiled halls of Champions Online
It's becoming apparent that somebody is a Flash fan, because the most recently profiled Champions Online character, Kinetik, is very much inspired by the iconic character. Not that we think it's a bad thing, especially considering that there are differences between the the characters.Of course there are a lot of Flashes in the DC Universe. We're speaking specifically about Barry Allen and the lab accident that turned him into the scarlet speedster. Kinetic -- aka Brendan Grant -- may have had a lab accident, but the events leading to his clash with superheroism are drastically different from Barry Allen's. Also, much of the two character's purposes in life are different as well. Barry has his love Iris, while Brendan has his younger brethren in need of his help. Read the profile if you're keen for the specifics.What really has us curious is the fact that all the Champions profiles so far feature characters whose powers are represented within the game somehow. Kinetic seems to be the exception with his superspeed being his bread and butter power. The game has superspeed as a travel power, but nothing beyond that. With the recently announced delay, will we see the addition of these powers? Or, are players merely expected to substitute other powers in order to feel super speedsters themselves?
Robot mania continues with Champions Online's latest screenshots
This time last year we'd consider selling a non-vital organ to get as many screenshots for Champions Online as we are nowadays, but that's just a testament to our impatience. Now we realize the folly of our kidney selling ways and can simply enjoy all these menacing robots.So that guy up there, he's very likely using a superspeed travel power. Either that, or he's practicing to audition for the upcoming remake of Flashdance -- but we're gonna go with the former.Both this shot and many of the other more recent screenshots appear to have been taken without the cel-shading effect seen in earlier images. We had heard rumblings of the option to turn the cel-shading off in the graphical options, but can now safely say that it looks to be true. Options are a good thing, and this way people who like and dislike the cel-shading approach should be happy with how their heroes look come launch day.%Gallery-17946%
Finalized USB 3.0 tests just months away, consumer devices set for next year
We've heard the details and watched the bits fly in person, and now representatives from Agilent Technologies Inc. are saying that test specifications for the SuperSpeediest standard ever will be fully ratified by the end of June. Sure, you probably don't care much about the internal workings of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF for those fond of acronyms), but without tests manufacturers can't certify their devices, and with no certification that 500MBps external USB HDD of your dreams will never come to market. However, if all goes to plan and those standards fall in place before the dog days of summer begin, USB-IF members expect consumer devices should hit shelves in 2010. Better start saving.