CES 2012

LAS VEGAS--A year ago, during CES 2010, consumers had a chance to experience D-Link's Boxee Box for the first time. This is a funky online media streamer that can play back digital content, especially videos, from various online sources.

The connection is unclear, but a year later, Iomega today announced a similar product called Iomega TV with Boxee + Storage, which, in addition to being able to stream online content, can also play back from local and network storage devices.

The Iomega TV with Boxee + Storage comes with an internal 3.5-inch hard drive with either 1TB or 2TB capacities, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Netgear did it a while ago with the Powerline AV 200 Wireless-N Extender Kit, and now Trendnet has just joined the club. The networking vendor announced today its first HomePlug AV 200Mbps power-line Wireless-N access point, the TPL-310AP.

The full name of the product is the 200Mbps Powerline AV Wireless-N Access Point, and it's essentially a HomePlug AV power-line adapter that can also work as a 300Mbps Wireless-N access point at the far end of the power-line connection.

This is a single unit and therefore will work only in homes where a power-line connection exists. The device will … Read more

LAS VEGAS--One of many benefits of a having a network-attached storage server at home is that you can access your data from anywhere via the Internet. That is, of course, if the NAS server supports this feature.

And if you buy any new NAS servers from Iomega this year, you'll for sure be able to enjoy this benefit. The company announced today "Iomega Personal Cloud," its new approach to the remote-access functionality of its network storage server.

Basically, it's an enhanced, easy to use, and comprehensive way for people to access an NAS server at home … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you plan on getting one of those new 450Mbps wireless routers and access points from Trendnet, such as the TEW-691GR or the TEW-692GR, you'll need wireless clients or adapters that can take advantage of the new higher speed.

Today the company announced a product of the sort, something it calls the "first 450Mbps Wireless-N gaming adapter," the TEW-687GA.

This is a wireless device that adds wireless capability to Ethernet-ready devices, such as computers, gaming consoles, televisions, media players, and so on. Traditionally, these devices have required a network cable to connect to a network.

Gaming … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Just a month ago, Trendnet debuted the first 500Mbps power-line adapter kit, the TPL-401E2K, and earlier than that, Netgear introduced the first 200Mbps power-line kit to incorporate a wireless access point, the AV 200 Wireless-N Extender Kit XAVNB2001.

Now, as predicted, it seems we will soon have the first product that combines both of these: Trendnet announced today the 500Mbps Powerline AV Wireless-N Access Point, model TPL-410AP. It's a 500Mbps power-line adapter that can also work as a Wi-Fi extender.

Similar to Netgear's XAVNB2001 kit, the TPL-410AP combines a high-performance 500Mbps power-line adapter with a 300Mbps Wireless-N … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Trendnet is one of a few networking vendors that's been strong on being green. During CES 2010, the company expanded its GreenNet technology networking portfolio to hubs and switches and now it announced at CES 2011 the integration of energy efficient Green Wi-Fi technology in its wireless networking products.

Green Wi-Fi is designed specifically for wireless networking products. The company claims that this would result in the reduction of power consumption in its applicable wireless routers, access points, and adapters by up to 50 percent.

The GreenNet technology, which was introduced back in 2008, determines and supplies the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--During 2010, Trendnet introduced its (and also the world's) first 450Mbps Wireless-N router, the  TEW-691GR, and the TEW-690AP access point. Both of these products, however, support only a single wireless band, operating in the 2.4GHz frequency.

Now at CES 2011 today, the company continued the effort on the faster N speed by announcing and demonstrating the first 450Mbps true dual-band router, the TEW-692GR.

This is the first router for general consumers that offers the ceiling speed of 450Mbps in both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless bands. The true dual-band notion means that the router can … Read more

LAS VEGAS--As there are more and more storage needs in the media world, hard-drive vendors are optimizing drives to store audio and video content. Western Digital has done it with the WD RE4-GP, Seagate with the Barracuda LP, and now, though it's pretty late to the game, Hitachi has decided to join the club.

The company announced today at CES its two new lines of hard drives designed for consumer electronic (CE) devices such as digital video recorders, IPTV set-top-boxes, video surveillance gadgets, and the emerging hard-drive-embedded TV markets.

The new drives include the 3.5-inch (desktop) CinemaStar 5K2000 … Read more

The stateside arrival of a 10.8-inch tablet is typically a cause for wild celebration, but this latest arrival at the FCC doesn't seem to have the makings of an iPad-killer.

Instead, it looks like the Sharp Galapagos e-reader has finally trickled out of Asia, gracing us with its Linux-based, large format design. If you're looking for an oversize Nook Color, minus the core Android features, this could be just the thing.

To my eye, though, the design looks too polished to be cheap, and the features seem too limited to justify a high price. The addition … Read more