USB

Netgear today teamed up with Broadcom to announce and demonstrate a new line of wireless networking products that use Broadcom's 802.11ac chips. These are the chips that Broadcom showed off in preparation for and during CES 2012.

These devices include two routers, the Netgear R6300 WiFi and the R6300 WiFi, and one USB adapter, the A6200 WiFi.

All of these devices are based on the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard (or 5G Wi-Fi, as Broadcom calls it). The Netgear R6300 is the top of the line and supports the three-stream 802.11ac standard that offers up to 1.… Read more

Greetings Car Tech fans and welcome back to CNET Roadside Assistance. Listeners of the podcast formerly known as Car Tech Live will no doubt remember that we used to devote an entire segment to answering user e-mails. Well, we're back, only in a less auditory format. So if you've got a car tech question you'd like to have answered, and you may find the answer to your query right here on the Car Tech Blog.

And now, let's get to the questions. "Twoheadedboy8" asks:

NEW ORLEANS--When Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg used his Consumer Electronics Show keynote to demonstrate the company's Connected Me concept, which turns the human body into a bridge between gadgets, he was met with lackluster applause.

Part of the problem was the audience didn't fully grasp what Vestberg was trying to show. He was on stage holding a smartphone in one hand and the sensor for an audio system in the other. The data signal shot through his body, playing an MP3 from the phone on the speaker system. In effect, he became a replacement for a USB cord … Read more

British audiophile brand Arcam appears to be making a greater effort to go mainstream these days with products such as the Arcam rCube iPhone dock and now, an entry-level USB DAC/headphone amplifier (amp) combo.

Meant as a smaller (and cheaper) alternative to the rDac digital-to-analog converter, this model only has a single USB input, with an asynchronous DAC. Audiophiles tend to prefer asynchronous USB inputs on DACs for the more consistent audio quality they're supposed to provide as the device creates the clock signals and not the (sometimes ancient) USB controller.… Read more

Your trusty USB flash drive is much more versatile than you might realize, packing capabilities that go well beyond storing and transferring files.

These little-known tricks can be utilized by computer newbies and technogeeks alike to achieve anything from restoring a virus-ridden computer to launching and playing portable apps right from the drive.

Unlock our top-10 ways to use a USB flash drive with the guide below. Thanks to fellow How To blogger Ed Rhee, and the team at CNET, you'll be surprised to find that storing files might not be the best use of thumbdrives after all.

1. … Read more

USB devices can be hot-swapped, but their convenience is hindered by their need to be removed safely by using the Windows Safe Removal option. There's a policy for each USB device, however, that allows you to set them for quick removal, at the expense of a very minor performance hit.

Here's how to check to make sure that your USB device's quick removal policy is turned on:

Step 1: After you've inserted your USB device, launch Device Manager by hitting the Windows logo key, then typing "device manager" and selecting it from the search … Read more

I heard about the Wadia 151PowerDAC from my friends at Magnepan, who make some of my favorite flat-panel speakers. They loved the way the 151 brought their fourteen-inch tall Mini Maggie speakers to life. That's great news, because when I auditioned the Minis at the factory last year (before they tried the 151) the speakers were hooked up to a massive Threshold stereo power amp. The Threshold/Maggie system was, by a large margin, the best-sounding desktop system I ever heard. Using a monster amp like that wasn't a practical solution for most buyers, but now with the … Read more

What's in the next spin of the MacBook Pro? 0ne answer is obvious, others are guesswork.

The obvious? Intel's newest Ivy Bridge chip. The guesswork? A thinner MBP made possible by ripping out the optical drive, a la the MacBook Air. And here's some more wishful thinking:

Retina display: A Pro (or maybe a new Air at some point?) with a 2,560x1,600 resolution display? That's the resolution that Intel's Kirk Skaugen mentioned this week at an Intel conference in Beijing in connection with the upcoming Ivy Bridge chip. And he specifically used the … Read more

If you've been wondering when Thunderbolt is available for Windows, the answer is now.

LaCie, one of the two storage companies that participated in the introduction of the Thunderbolt standard, told me today that it will be showing off two Thunderbolt devices, the Little Big Disk SSD and the 2big Thunderbolt, at NAB Show 2012.

While these two devices are not new, this is going to be the first time they are demoed on both platforms: Mac and Windows. Up to now, Thunderbolt has been available only to Macs, exclusively. LaCie also revealed that the support for Thunderbolt in … Read more