A few weeks with LaCie's iamaKey thumb drive
USB thumb drives are everywhere. Heck, they've been everywhere for years. Never before have I see a new class of product become so ubiquitous so quickly.
The USB thumb drive's rapid rise shouldn't come as a surprise, though. We live in an increasingly digital world where even the average small-town Walmart shopper probably has numerous personal document files, a substantial MP3 collection, loads of digital photos, and at least a few pirated movies he or a friend grabbed off The BitTorrent. Folks want to be able to move this data around with ease, and for most, there's no better way than with cheap, portable, and most importantly plug-and-play USB storage.
It doesn't take much to convince someone that they need a thumb drive. It takes even less time to show them how to use one. Given today's prices, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who can't afford a drive with at least a few gigabytes of storage capacity.
So thumb drives have become a commodity. The market is flooded with models in every capacity, shape, and size from a growing list of manufacturers. Unfortunately, however, most of these drives are painfully generic, cheaply made, and entirely uninteresting. That's why you rarely see them covered here at TR. Every so often, though, one catches our eye. Such was the case with LaCie's appropriately-named iamaKey, which stealthily shoehorns 4 or 8GB of flash memory into something that looks right at home on a keychain.
If you want to have your thumb drive with you at all times, I can think of no better place to put it than your keychain. Really, what else are you less likely to leave the house without?
The iamaKey fits quite nicely onto any standard keychain, and while it's a little bigger than the keys I have on mine, it's smaller than a good many car keys. For reference, the iamaKey measures 57 x 24 x 3 mm (2.24" x 0.94' x 0.12"). LaCie doesn't list the drive's weight, but it feels only marginally heavier than my house key, which is practically weightless.
Of course, if you're one of those folks who insists on carrying around a fist-sized mess of keys mixed with charms, souvenirs, and other accessories, the iamaKey's diminutive proportions probably won't be a big draw. I run a pretty lean collection of keys without any unnecessary trinkets, so the iamaKey fits right in.
Although LaCie is known for more striking designs, the iamaKey's subtle styling perfectly suits the product. The drive is encased in a metal shell whose brushed finish should stand up well to the sort of abuse that has scuffed, scratched, and otherwise beaten up all the other keys on my keychain.
One component of the iamaKey that may not stand up as well to rough treatment is the drive's USB interface. To maintain its slim profile, the drive's contact points are exposed rather than encased in a male port like most USB devices. A small, plastic cap slides onto the end of the drive to shield these golden fingers from the jingle jangle of surrounding keys.
When I first saw the key cap, I figured it would fall off and be forever lost within days. Much to my surprise, however, it's stubbornly stayed put for weeks. A couple of little nubs hold the cap in place, and they seem to do the trick. It would be nice if the cap were somehow integrated into the drive, though. Even if it doesn't fall off accidentally, I can see losing the cap simply because it's such a small piece of transparent plastic.
The iamaKey has lived on my keychain for a few weeks now, and it seems to be holding up pretty well. Granted, the painted-on graphics have largely worn off, scuffed away by the surrounding keys and the rigors of everyday pocket life. But the metal casing remains intact and shows no signs of wear or abuse.
To be sure that the iamaKey could withstand the worst my keychain has to offer, I threw it into the wash with a load of clothes. The drive emerged with even more of its graphics worn off, no doubt a result of all the clanging I heard during the tumble dry. That seems to be the extent of the damage, though. The key cap is still intact, the drive still works, and the rest of my keys are noticeably cleaner.
So how does the iamaKey fare when plugged into a PC? Quite well, actually. The drive isn't oddly-partitioned or otherwise crippled with annoying CD emulation software that some folks might find difficult to remove. The iamaKey is reasonably quick, too. According to CrystalDiskMark's sequential transfer rate tests, the drive reads at 34MB/s and writes at 12MB/s—a little faster than the read and write speeds claimed by LaCie. It's certainly not the fastest thumb drive around, but the iamaKey should be speedy enough for most.
With a street price hovering around $25, the 4GB iamaKey isn't quite as good a deal as the 8GB version, which sells for as little as $35. Both are considerably more expensive than run-of-the-mill flash drives with comparable capacities, though. That might turn off some folks, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. In the last year, I've had two keychain-mounted thumb drives fracture their fragile, plastic bodies, in one case causing me to lose a drive entirely. For something I carry around on a daily basis, I'm willing to pay a little extra for solid construction and a clever design. LaCie's iamaKey thumb drive offers both at a price that's still easily affordable.
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Last by A_Pickle at 8:28 AM on 07/11/09
The rise of netbooks has been a remarkable thing to watch. What started with a little Eee PC that was at best a curious novelty among enthusiasts has turned into the beginnings of a revolution in mobile computing. We've moved beyond the Eee now, and the market is teeming with fresh entries from Asus, Acer, MSI, Gigabyte, Samsung, Lenovo, HP, Dell, and others. Even Apple is rumored to have a netbook in the works.
So what is a netbook, exactly? The term netbook was appropriated at a time when the market was pretty homogeneous. Despite coming from different manufacturers, most systems stuck to the same basic formula: 9-10" screen pushing 1024x600 pixels, single-core Atom processor at 1.6GHz, no optical drive, and a price tag of around $500 or less. It's almost as if Intel itself had carefully crafted a set of low-end specifications that wouldn't cannibalize more profitable notebook sales and then strongly, ahem, suggested that its partners not deviate from them.
Fortunately, netbooks have become such a hit that PC maker are quickly diversifying to meet what appears to be incredibly strong demand. The Atom processor, for example, continues to defy its roots and can now be found in select 12" systems that look and awful lot like proper laptops. One can't expect killer performance from these systems, but they do offer bigger keyboards and larger, higher-resolution displays. You can even get an Atom processor alongside an optical drive in Asus' new Eee PC 1004DN.
There is also a growing trickle of thinner, lighter, and more stylish netbooks that do little to change the Atom platform's core components. These luxury netbooks are even slower than their predecessors thanks to 1.8" hard drives, and they're selling at a premium, with prices starting at around $650 and going up from there.
Speaking of luxury, there's Sony's Vaio P, a featherweight by 9" netbook standards. Although it's not cheap at $900-$1500, you do get a freakishly high-res 1600x768 display. The Vaio P may have an Atom processor, but it clearly thumbs its nose at the genre's affordable roots. Is it still a netbook?
As the Atom moves into new price and size territory, there's also the matter of smaller notebooks that have moved down to meet it. Take HP's Pavilion dv2, for example. For just $750, the dv2 offers a 1.6GHz Athlon Neo CPU that should easily out-muscle an Atom, a 12" 1280x800 display with a svelte enclosure to match, Mobility Radeon HD 3410 integrated graphics, a whopping 4GB of memory, Vista x64, and an external DVD burner. The dv2 certainly looks like a full-fledged notebook, but it's the same price as Asus' Atom-powered N10Jc-A1, which looks an awful lot like a netbook.
Truth be told, many of the qualities that define the so-called netbook are rather relative: "low" price, "small" size, "good enough" performance, and so on. I tend to think of netbooks as budget ultraportables that make sacrifices to hit lower price points while still delivering just enough speed for most applications.
Given the netbook market's current scope, I think it's reasonable to allow for some segmentation within the genre. After all, traditional notebooks go from low-rent 15.4" clunkers all the way up to pimped out gaming systems and ultra-premium thin and lights—a range of several thousand of dollars. A premium thin-and-light netbook may cost about as much as a budget 12" notebook, but that doesn't mean that the two are gunning for the same slice of the market. They involve very different trade-offs. Realistically, however, even a loose definition of netbooks shouldn't have to deal with a price swing of more than a grand.
At the end of the day, I couldn't care less what you call these systems. I was fine when the Eee PC was a budget ultraportable notebook. That terminology definitely lacks zazz, but it's a much more apt description.
What I really care about is the rapid democratization of portable networked computers, regardless of what artificial market segmentation banner they arrive under. In fact, I'm quite delighted to see a mix of alternative and oddball designs muddying the waters. That just gives consumers a greater variety of options to choose from, and I guarantee you they're interested. I've had more random strangers come up to me and ask about my Eee PC 1000HA than I've had random strangers approach me about... anything. And not one of them had any clue what the word "netbook" meant.
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Last by DASQ at 1:40 PM on 04/20/09
I'm constantly amazed by the pace at which technology improves. Take what's happened in, oh, the last six years, for example. We've gone from space-heater Prescotts and single-core Athlon 64s to surprisingly competent Phenom IIs and incredibly powerful Core i7s packing up to four cores each. In the graphics world, GPUs have discarded traditionally inflexible pixel pipelines in favor of massively parallel processor arrays with general-purpose computing capabilities and truly awe-inspiring performance. Hard drive capacities have increased tenfold, bringing faster transfer rates ahead of a growing tide of SSDs that redefine quick access times.
Even motherboards have evolved before our eyes. In just six years, we've replaced AGP with PCI Express, as point-to-point interconnects slowly take over from bus-based connectivity. The number and speed of expansion ports has grown, too, and at least on enthusiast-oriented boards, cheap electrical components have been replaced by ones of purportedly higher quality.
The motherboard BIOS has become a lot better in the last six years, too. You didn't get integrated flashing utilities and support for multiple configuration profiles back then, but those features are commonplace today. Once-rare memory timing, voltage, and overclocking controls have also become all but ubiquitous on mid-range and high-end motherboards, and they're even available on plenty of budget models.
I've been reviewing enthusiast-oriented motherboards for close to eight years now, and I'm stunned by level of control we now have over system variables. Clock speeds can be manipulated with practically limitless range in ultra-fine 1MHz increments, a whole host of system voltages can be tuned by fractions of a millivolt, and there are enough memory timing options on offer to make even a seasoned tweaker's head spin.
So why does BIOS-level fan speed control suck?
Take the big three motherboard makers, for example. MSI's BIOSes are currently the best of the breed on this front, offering automatic fan speed control for the processor, with the ability to set a temperature target and minimum fan speed. Automatic fan speed control doesn't apply to the system fans, though; you can only choose between a handful of static speeds. Asus supports temperature-based fan speed control for both processor and system fans, but you're limited to choosing one of three preset profiles that cannot be modified. At least that's more choice than is offered by Gigabyte's BIOSes, whose fan speed control options are essentially limited to on/off switches that don't give users any control over how aggressive fan speeds ramp up in respond to rising CPU or system temperatures.
For those who have only ever owned a motherboard from the big three, these basic fan speed controls might be acceptable. But surely, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI can do better. After all, Abit did more than six years ago with uGuru—the finest collection of BIOS-level system monitoring and fan speed controls we've seen to date.
uGuru fan speed control circa 2004
uGuru's temperature-based fan speed controls were simple yet powerful. Users could set a reference temperature for each fan, typically choosing between CPU, motherboard, and chipset sensors. They were then free to set not only high and low temperature ranges, but also corresponding fan voltages. These generous fan speed controls weren't restricted to just the processor fan, either; individual controls were available for each and every onboard fan header.
Even the best of today's fan speed controls are a joke by comparison, and with Abit's days as a motherboard maker finished, so is uGuru. That's really a shame, because running a quiet, efficient, well-cooled system has only become increasingly important to PC enthusiasts. uGuru made it trivial to set up a stealthily silent system that would only spin up its army of fans when absolutely necessary. And because everything was run through the BIOS, fan speed controls were OS-independent, too.
Now I know that fan speed control isn't sexy. But then neither is the ability to finely tune the voltage fed to a north bridge chip's PCI Express controller. Modern BIOSes lavish users with far more system clock speed, voltage, and memory timing options than even the vast majority of PC enthusiasts actually need, while delivering only the most basic control over fan speed profiles that should be considered every bit as important.
Surely, it can't be too difficult to allow users to set independent temperature targets, reference temperatures, and voltage ranges for each and every onboard fan header. So how 'bout it Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and others? Think you can bring BIOS-level fan speed control up to, oh, where Abit had it six years ago? I'd rather have that than more control over increasingly obscure memory timings, voltage options I'll never touch, and sky-high clock speeds I'd need liquid nitrogen to reach.
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Last by lammers at 12:09 PM on 04/14/09
It seems like every year, someone thinks that Linux is on the verge of making real inroads on the desktop. And every year, the alternative operating system's desktop market share fails to grow significantly. Yet Linux continues to pop up in new places, one of which should be of great interest to enthusiasts.
Flash memory prices have tumbled in recent years, which has been good for MP3 players, cell phones, SSDs, and the now-ubiquitous USB thumb drive. Falling flash prices have also been good for motherboards, allowing Asus to cheaply equip some of its latest models with 512MB memory chips that house an ExpressGate instant-on operating system that's—you guessed it—based on Linux.
ExpressGate is actually a re-branded version of DeviceVM's SplashTop operating system, which packs web browsing, music playback, photo management, chat, and Skype applications. It's a neat idea, and the bundled applications cover what most folks do with their PCs on a day-to-day basis. However, ExpressGate has always struck me as a little gimmicky. I find it hard to imagine that enthusiasts or even mainstream users are going to be willing to ditch the functionality of their full-blown desktop operating systems in favor of such a limited collection of instant-on applications. ExpressGate doesn't even have a file management utility, and that's sort of an important OS component. Still, I don't think it would take much to transform ExpressGate into a must-have feature for PC enthusiasts.
Now I'm not suggesting that ExpressGate could—or even should—replace a user's primary operating system. You can certainly squeeze a lot of Linux onto a 512MB flash chip, but as many alternative operating systems have proven over the years, it's tough to get even savvy PC enthusiasts to leave Windows behind. That doesn't mean that ExpressGate can't coexist with a user's primary operating system, though.
Perhaps the most obvious use for a secondary operating system would be as a backup for one's primary OS. If your primary operating system gets hosed, either due to a hard drive failure or a particularly insidious virus or malware infection, the ability to reboot into a flash-based OS immune to such issues would certainly be valuable. You're going to want that OS to pack more than just a web browser, chat clients, and a photo gallery app, though. To be a useful recovery tool, this OS really needs a robust file management utility that allows one to browse a system's hard drive (assuming it's still functional) and copy files to a USB thumb drive or other storage device. A virus scanner capable of cleansing an infected hard drive wouldn't hurt, either.
For system recovery, the combination of a web browser, chat client, file manager, and virus scanner is a good starting point. Web browsing and file management capabilities should also come in handy for folks setting up a system for the first time. I like to load up a thumb drive with the latest BIOS and drivers for a new rig before setting it up, and while that makes system setup a lot easier, it also requires a secondary PC. There's no reason why this job can't be easily accommodated by an OS embedded on the motherboard.
Of course, there are other elements to my system setup routine that could use a helping hand from an instant-on OS. I prefer to test hardware for stability before installing an operating system, especially when overclocking. An instant-on OS could easily include processor and memory stress tests, in addition to a basic system utility that tracks clock speeds, voltages, and temperatures. This sort of functionality would be useful not only for folks looking to find the limits of their hardware before installing an operating system, but also those who want to tinker with clock speeds and other variables without the risk of corrupting their primary OS.
Linux may have little chance of supplanting Windows, but that doesn't mean that desktop systems can't benefit from a secondary operating system. Quite the contrary. Asus has already proven the concept with ExpressGate, and all that's needed is a little tweaking to turn this novelty into a indispensible tool for enthusiasts. There's no reason why other motherboard makers can't get in on the action, either. After all, flash is cheap and Linux is free.
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Last by travbrad at 1:15 PM on 04/04/09
The headphone market is littered with an incredible range of options, from the throwaway garbage bundled with cheap MP3 players to audiophile earmuffs that would give Princess Leia a run for her money. So where's the sweet spot? Seriously. Where is it?
I'm looking for some high-quality headphones that deliver the best blend of impeccable sound quality and solid value. Something for a serious audio enthusiast rather than a diehard audiophile. I don't need anything wireless, nor will I be attempting to drive these with a pint-sized MP3 player. Any recommendations?
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Last by blitzy at 5:02 PM on 04/03/09
Perhaps more than any other Apple product, the iPod shuffle is the perfect example of the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field in action. When the shuffle was initially released, it was widely criticized for lacking the screen offered by other players in its price range. But the missing screen wasn't an oversight—it was a feature, along with the wildly innovative concept of randomized playback. Yeah, right.
Despite its obvious shortcomings, the original shuffle became a popular player for Apple fans who couldn't afford more expensive iPods. It also caught on as a workout companion for those loathe to rattling their hard-drive-based iPods while running, at the gym, or otherwise engaged in vigorous physical activity.
The shuffle's eventual successor offered greater capacity and added a useful clip to the back, making it a better workout player. But again, Apple refused to endow the device with a screen, keeping it one step behind rivals that also offered higher capacities at lower prices. To be fair, the new shuffle was smaller than its direct competition, but only in an academic sense. Even comparatively larger MP3 players from the likes of Creative and SanDisk were more than small enough to disappear easily into a pocket or to feel weightless when clipped onto clothing.
Apple's philosophy behind the shuffle was clear: make the smallest, lightest MP3 player possible, even if that meant restricting its usability and capacity. Oh, and charge way more than the competition, because there are droves of iZombies poised to shell out for anything Steve Jobs trots out at a keynote.
So what of this latest shuffle, then? Well it's tiny—the smallest MP3 player around, according to Apple. But the shuffle's form factor passed the point of diminishing returns long ago. This new version may be the smallest shuffle yet, but in practical terms, it's really not any more portable than the last one—or the droves of other mini MP3 players available on the market.
The new shuffle's freshly-shrunk form factor leaves no room for a screen, which should come as no surprise. Even more ridiculous, however, is the device's lack of buttons. Rather than putting standard playback and volume controls on the player, Apple has moved them to a remote control unit on the shuffle's headphones. The remote only has three buttons: two for volume and a single control button that, through the magic of Morse code, controls playback, track navigation, and playlist selection. I guess we should have expected this from the same folks who thought a one-button mouse was a good idea.
Apple argues that this new remote control is easier to access than buttons on the player, but it also suggests clipping the new shuffle onto your clothes, which would presumably make buttons on the device readily accessible. There's a bigger problem, though. Because the new shuffle's controls reside in the headphones, you can't ditch Apple's notoriously poor quality ear buds for better ones without losing the ability to control playback and volume. Some have argued that Apple's ear buds should be sufficient for a simple workout MP3 player, but I beg to differ. The ear buds have a reputation for refusing to stay in your ears, which is rather important when at the gym or out for a run. I don't imagine that ear buds infamous for their poor quality will handle sweat or rain all that well, either.
Of course, Apple will surely offer a remote adapter that allows users to combine any headphones they like with the new shuffle. You'll have to pay for the privilege, though.
At least Apple bumped the new shuffle's capacity up to 4GB, so meaningful progress has been made on one front. And therein lies a rather striking disconnect. This latest shuffle is capable of carrying more music than ever, but Apple has actually made it more difficult to navigate that collection of tracks. The fact the remote control unit requires instructions confirms that it's harder to use and less intuitive than traditional MP3 player controls. Without a screen, users will also have to rely on VoiceOver to dictate song and playlist titles. The Apple faithful have argued that this means you don't have to interrupt a workout to look down at a screen, which is true. However, finding a track or playlist is going to take a lot longer on a shuffle, which can only parse through items one at a time, than it would on even the most basic of alternatives, which allow users to scroll quickly through tracks and playlists, arbitrarily selecting whichever they please.
Given the shuffle's obvious limitations, one might expect it to be fairly cheap. But this is Apple, so it's not. The latest shuffle will cost you a cool $80, which is nearly double the price of a 4GB Sansa Clip that has not only a screen, but proper controls that won't limit your headphone options. Why anyone looking for a new MP3 player would even consider the shuffle is beyond me. Perhaps that's because the shuffle isn't just an MP3 player. According to Apple, it's a "fashion tech-cessory," which presumably makes it OK to sacrifice functionality, usability, and value in pursuit of smaller, sleeker form factors. This isn't just an MP3 player for the gym; it's an MP3 player for people who put on make up and only the most fashionable workout attire to be seen at the gym, and that's what makes the new shuffle the quintessential Apple product.
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Last by indeego at 6:05 PM on 03/18/09
The marketing of enthusiast-class PC hardware tends to be all over the map, from extreme branding that targets overcaffeinated gamers to stodgy corporate attempts at hipster relevance that rarely hit the mark. And, of course, there are the bizarre foreign imports that tend to lose something in translation. Take the latest graphic running on Thermaltake's website, for example:
Apparently, Thermaltake thinks this image invokes excitement. Never mind that raising your hands in imaginary victory on an empty and quiet country road is perhaps the least exciting thing you can do on a bike. Or in spandex.
Even more perplexing is the fact that Thermaltake seems to think that cycling will resonate with its core audience. You know, because nothing says PC enthusiast like physical activity, being outside, wearing skin-tight clothing, and men shaving their legs. And I say this as an avid cyclist with six bikes, a wardrobe filled with lycra, and more hair on my face than on my quads.
The next frame is rather appropriate, since I find this graphic truly fascinating. But nothing compares to the money shot:
Keep constantly high? Seriously?
I can only suspect that Thermaltake has leveraged its expertise with water-cooling kits to build some sort of ultimate bong. After all, the use of mind-altering substances would easily explain the company's latest enclosure concept. And I mean that in a good way.
Perhaps Thermaltake is simply trying to broaden its audience to include doped up cyclists. As a bike geek living in Vancouver, Canada—the home of BC Bud—I thoroughly approve. Although I'm still confused.
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Last by OneArmedScissor at 1:23 PM on 03/10/09
