I hate lugging around my work laptop because it is bulky and weighs too much. That’s why my personal laptop is a 13″ Macbook Air. I like thin and light. Those of you that prefer the Windows OS and are interested in an ultra portable computer should consider the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook. It’s due any day now and it looks really sexy with its super thin carbon fiber case and 13″ Gorilla glass display. It’s not all looks and no brains though as it is powered by your choice of a 2nd Gen Intel® Core™ i5 or i7 processor. Check out this 30 second Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook promo video where people in San Francisco were asked to choose which skinny laptop the liked best…

Filed in categories: Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Laptop

The Dell Ultrabook Challenge in San Francisco originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 7, 2012 at 5:56 pm.

ZunZun is a Dutch company that has a great idea.  They make sun visor shades for computer laptops 10.5″ and 15.6″ and even GPS units. These shades are essentially flexible hoods that attach via elastic bands around your computer to shade the screen so you can see it and still type on your keyboard.  For the record, I like the idea of this product.  

I celebrate this idea.  I love writing outdoors.  I hate being cooped up and lately, my living situation being what it is, I am more prone to cabin fever than ever.   While I am no fan of the State of California per se, the state does boast some lovely parks and fabulous beaches.  All perfect for kicking back, enjoying the fresh air, temperate climate (seriously…it’s early February and even in January…highs were in the mid 60s) and the crashing of the waves.

I’m a surfer…internet surfer.  But still it’s cool to take my laptop out to the beaches near Pacifica or Half Moon Bay and watch the real surfer guys.  I’m a (struggling but aspiring) writer so there are a lot of times I just want to be on the beach doing my thing.   It’s not possible when you can’t see your screen. Computer screen technology has evolved over the years, yes, but Mother Nature on a California beach still has the last word, and I can’t see what I write half the time.

The hood works.  It definitely improves the clarity and reduces glare from the sun.  I have not used the ZunZun GPS sun visors, but the design of the GPS visor is what the design for the laptops should be.

The visor for the laptops encircles the screen while the visor for the  GPS units are really more of a hood covering the top and sides.  As you can see, the visor completely boxes in the screen. You view the screen almost as you would one of those eye exam machines where you view an image through a tunnel.  I’ve taken the bottom half of the visor off so that it’s now a three sided gabled hood, much like ZunZun’s GPS visor.  A hood design, like the computer sun shade featured here, does not interfere with the user’s keyboarding activity.

Simply put, the product works.  It does what it says it’s supposed to do.  But the box-like design of the laptop visor makes it awkward to use your keyboard.  I’m a type-by-touch kind of person but many keyboardists are not…they look at their fingers to see what buttons or keys they’re hitting.  The box-like construction makes that uncomfortable.  A better design for the laptop visor would be the design that ZunZun uses for their GPS units:  the gable-like hood.

At 19.95 Euro or $27.13 (depending on currency rates), you need to love this product in order to purchase it.  ZunZun is a Dutch based company and their products are sold from their website, not sold in stores in the USA.

Filed in categories: Laptops and Gear, Outdoor Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Laptop, Sun shield

ZunZun Computer Laptop Sun Visor Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 4, 2012 at 11:00 am.

The One Keyboard from Matias is designed to plug into your computer (PC or Mac) for use as a keyboard and a 2-port USB 2.0 hub.  The standard model (shown above) is also designed to “connect wirelessly” to your iPhone or via Bluetooth to other smartphones for easy data entry.  You switch between the computer and phone with just a button click.  The keyboard shown is designed specifically for iPhone, but there are other models: one specifically for Blackberry, a slim keyboard that omits the numeric keypad and the on-board phone dock, and one that incorporates the phone dock into Matias’ Tactile keyboard.  Prices range from $79.95 for the slim, to $99.95 for the phone-specific models, to $199.95 for the Tactile version.  The keyboards are shipping soon; you can place a pre-order now.

Filed in categories: Bluetooth Gear, Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: iPhone 4 Bluetooth keyboard, Keyboard with USB hub

Matias One Keyboard Works with Both Your Computer and Your Smartphone originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 30, 2012 at 10:00 am.

As unmanly as it sounds, the first thoughts that ran through my mind when I first saw and touched the Saddleback Classic MacBook Air Sleeve was……’Ooooo, pretty’. To make it worse, I even took a (nice long) whiff of the leather as I was unpacking it….smelled wonderful. Saddleback’s rich leather, craftsmanship, and incredible attention to detail have never failed to impress me. So, when I upgraded from my 2010 13″ MacBook Air to the latest, more petite 11″ version I, of course, needed new tech-accessories to properly protect my new laptop and this sleeve is a great (stylish) place to start.

The Saddleback Classic MacBook Air sleeve is created from a single piece of thick, rich full grain leather.  A majority of Saddleback Leather creations are constructed of 4-5 ounce full grain leather, which comes from the top layer of the cow hide (the toughest part). In the case of the MBAir sleeve, the leather is folded over and double stitched along three of its four sides.

The front of the sleeve is stylishly embossed with the Saddleback logo; the only distinguishing nuance of this relatively simplistic, yet classically styled, laptop accessory.

Other than being a gorgeous piece of leather, there is little to note on the backside of the sleeve. The cutouts on the top and bottom make it easier to get the MBAir out of the sleeve. At the beginning, the sleeve was tight, needing two hands and a good deal of force to get my MBAir in and especially out. Over the past month or so of use, the sleeve has stretched a bit, enabling me to insert and remove my MBAir more easily.

That said, the sleeve remains snug and form-fitted enough so that the laptop will not accidentally/unexpectedly slip out. It still takes two hands to remove but does not take a huge effort.

The design of the Saddleback Classic MacBook Air sleeve really works well with the wedge shape of the MBAir. As you can see, the folding of the leather creates a rounded side for the thicker part of the sleek laptop. While the stitched side tappers to a near point for the thinnest part of the MBAir.

The smooth, curved edge is ideal, in terms of comfort and function, for carrying the sleeve and MBAir around in your hand.

As discussed above, the bottom of the sleeve has an access point to push on the laptop while pulling from the other side to more easily remove the laptop.

Even though some of the MacBook Air is exposed, the Saddleback sleeve does a good job of protecting a majority of its aluminum casing. The sleeve primarily protects against bumps and dings (vs falls and drops).

The inside of the sleeve is lined with pigskin (which has the 2nd toughest tensile strength rating of leathers (FYI: kangaroo is the toughest)).

As you would expect of any Saddleback product, the sleeve’s finishing and stitching are of the highest quality and craftsmanship. The stitching along the sides and bottom is done with a single strand of continuous-filament, marine-grade U.V. resistant polyester thread. Like all the Saddleback Leather creations I have seen/reviewed over the years, they are built to withstand the test of time. So far, I have yet to have one of their items even break in let alone wear out.

The MBAir Sleeve is available in Saddleback’s four usual colors:

• Chestnut
• Carbon black
• Dark coffee
• Tobacco

Specifications:

• Outside Dimensions – W: 8.625″ x D: 0.75″ x H: 12.625″ (21.91cm x 1.91cm x 32.07cm)
• Inside Dimensions – W: 8″ x D: 0.5″ x H: 12.375″ (20.32cm x 1.27cm x 31.433cm)
• Weight: 0.65 lbs
• Lining: Lined with pigskin

The extra small sleeve is designed for the 11″ MBAir and the small is sized for the 13″ MBAir.

Not only does the Saddleback Classic MacBook Air sleeve look professional, but it feels great to carry as well. The sleeve adds approximately 10 ounces to the 2.2 lbs MBAir, not a huge amount of extra weight considering the protection it provides. This sleeve radiates Old World charm, handmade quality that is difficult to find in today’s day and age. Considering it comes with a 100 year warranty, its cost of under $70 is very well spent.

Note: The links to Saddleback Leather on this page are affiliate links, which earns a small percentage of any sales that come from The Gadgeteer.

Filed in categories: Bags, Backpacks, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Laptop Bag, Laptop Sleeve, Leather

Saddleback Classic MacBook Air Sleeve Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 24, 2012 at 11:00 am.

Those of you who lug around a lot of gear like myself, and remember my article on a single convergence device, might just find this concept design by Indian Industrial Designer Prashant Chandra very interesting. His entry in the Fujitsu Design Awards competition, the Lifebook2013, was shortlisted to the top 100 from over 3000 entries from 99 countries. Consisting of a notebook, tablet, phone/MP3 player, and camera, the unit doesn’t actually have a physical keyboard, the tablet becomes a virtual keyboard when docked. When connected, the unit shares hardware and storage and only needs a single power charger.

“Our life in this IT age typically consist of these digital devices that we use everyday to do our work, entertain ourselves, enjoy our hobbies, save our memories and share and socialize with our family & friends. Presently we buy each one of these devices separately and then struggle to keep them all synchronised with our data. Also we always use these devices one at a time. This means a lot of wasted hardware which is repeated in these devices and is sitting idle in one device, when we are using other. If there was a device that could have these devices integrated into one thereby making synchronization a seamless process and overall cost of ownership lesser than what I would spend for four individual devices, it would truly be my Lifebook.”

More pictures and details can be seen in Prashant’s portolio on coroflot.com

Filed in categories: Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: concept product, notebook, Phone, Tablet

Lifebook 2013 Concept – A single convergence device? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 21, 2012 at 1:00 pm.

In my mind’s eye, I am the protagonist in an adventure serial entitled Indiana Jacobs and the Quest for the Perfect Gear-Hauling Bag. Of course, that I’m from Indiana (“Hoosier by Birth; Boilermaker by the Grace of God,” as the saying goes) aids in spinning this yarn, but so does my very real quest.  The latest chapter was my opportunity to try out the new Cadet Laptop Bag by Tom Bihn.  The Cadet is intended to be a “minimalist” laptop bag, meaning it was designed to carry just the essentials and nothing more.  Will it meet my Holy Grail of Bags criteria?  Let’s check it out!

NOTE: All images in this review have been enabled with clickable enlargeability for your viewing pleasure.  ;-)

Background

As stated above, I’m one one of those people. You may know one of us. We’re on a quest for the perfect bag to carry our gear.  My criteria to meet this challenge is a bit of a nebulous, “I’ll know it when I see it” combination of features, but it is basically a mix of style, organizational features and capacity that seems right for my needs and tastes.  Several years ago, I spent about eight months researching before I purchased my first “real” gear bag, the Timbuk2 Commute messenger.  It was during this extensive research period that I first found myself at The Gadgeteer, reading a review of the Tom Bihn Super Ego Messenger Bag (of which I have since become I delighted owner).  I’ve always been partial to messenger-style bags, and the Timbuk2 Commute and Tom Bihn Super Ego are about the closest I’ve come to “perfect” for me.  Will the Cadet be my Holy Grail of bags?

Options

When ordering the Cadet from the Tom Bihn site, there are several options from which you can select: size, color, laptop insert and shoulder strap.

Size - The Cadet is currently available in a 15/13 Cadet for 15-inch or 13-inch laptops, or 11/iPad Cadet for 11-inch laptops, netbooks or tablets.

Color – Currently available color combinations (these can change periodically) are Black/Iberian, Black/Steel, Steel/Solar, Forest/Steel, Cardinal/Steel and Navy/Solar.

Laptop Insert –  These are available in 15-inch MacBook Pro, 13-inch MacBook/MacBook Pro, 13-inch MacBook Air, 11-inch MacBook Air and iPad/iPad 2.  Note that if you do not want a laptop insert, you can specify this and it will deduct $30 from the price of the bag.

Shoulder Strap – Standard or Absolute.  Selecting Absolute instead of Standard Strap adds $20 to the  price of the bag.

As Reviewed – The configuration of the Cadet I reviewed was a 15/13 size in Steel exterior (sort of a very stately slate gray) with Solar interior (a bright lemonish yellow with a grid pattern), a 15-inch MacBook Pro laptop insert and an Absolute Shoulder Strap.

Specs

From the Tom Bihn site:

• Location of manufacture: TOM BIHN Factory in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
• Exterior made of U.S. 1050 denier Ballistic nylon
• Interior lined with ultra-light yet super-tough Japanese Dyeema/nylon ripstop fabric
• 0.25 in / 8 mm closed cell foam on the front, back and bottom
• YKK Uretech® splash-proof zippers on main compartment (#10) and exterior pockets (#8)
• Volume, without laptop or Cadet Cache (ASTM Standard Measure):

Packaging

Tom Bihn’s packaging is minimalist and functional with a bit of fun thrown in.  Clamshell-style folding cardboard box.  Pretty standard.

Retro-style Tom Bihn logos on the outside of the box.  I dig their retro plane flying over the Eiffel Tower logo.  Simple, but conveys a sense of nostalgia, harkening back to the early days of air travel, when every flight seemed to hold the possibility of intrigue and adventure.  In fairness, I wasn’t around in those days, but that’s the feeling this logo give me anyway.

Nostalgic plane again, this time with QR matrix.

And finally, as allude to above, Tom Bihn has taken steps to be environmentally responsible in its packaging.

Unboxing

Pop open the cardboard box and the Cadet is presented front and center.  No foam peanuts, no bubble wrap.  Enviro-friendly and no mess.

Right out of the box, the Cadet has a nice, clean look.  Understated yet handsome.  Front…

…and back.

Organizer Pouches

We’ll get into the nitty-gritty of the Cadet itself shortly.  For now, let’s check out the extras.  Along with the Cadet bag itself, the thoughtful folks at Tom Bihn sent a few other items that help round out the whole ensemble and really complete the Cadet.  First up, two organizer pouches.  Tom Bihn sells these in lots of shapes, sizes, colors, materials and prices.  Each one features a plastic zipper closure to avoid  scratching the contents and a swivel snap-hook that allows it to attach to the O-ring features built into Tom Bihn’s bags.  They not only help with organizing small items, but also give an extra layer of protection against dings, spills and the like.  Neither of these come with standard with the Cadet.  In the two pics below, the pouch above is a size Small Clear Organizer Pouch in Steel color ($10).  The bottom one is a size Mini Padded Organizer Pouch in Black color ($9).  A shot of them from the front……and from the back.

Padded Pouch for Magic Mouse

Let’s take a closer look at the size Mini Padded Organizer Pouch.  These Padded Organizer Pouches are intended to protect small electronic gadgets. In fact, this particular size also happens to fit the Apple Magic Mouse perfectly, which is why Tom Bihn also calls this particular size the Padded Pouch for Magic Mouse.  All Padded Organizer Pouches feature a light layer of padding to protect against external bumps and dings as well as an interior of soft brushed tricot and a zipper with plastic slider to prevent scratching the contents.

Snug fit…

…but solidly protected.

Ultrasuede Screen Cloth

Tom Bihn’s peeps also included an Ultrasuede® Screen Cloth.  These are made from genuine Ultrasuede material, not a knock-off, and they are extremely soft.  Great for cleaning grubby fingerprints and smudges from your device’s display after you’ve told your significant other or youngling not to touch it for the umpteenth time.  It is washable (hand wash recommended) and even comes in its own logo-branded envelope.  There’s that plane again, beckoning wistfully toward your next travel adventure.  Note that the Ultrasuede Screen Cloth is not included with the Cadet, and is an additional $7.

The Ultrasuede Screen Cloth I received is in the Lapis Blue color.  What the heck is a lapis?  Lapis, or more properly lapis lazuli is a blue-colored semi-precious stone that, not so coincidentally, is very similar in color to the one pictured below.  Didn’t know that?  Neither did I—I had to look it up!

Tom Bihn’s classic logo, complete with the nostalgic plane, is embossed into one corner of the Cloth.

Absolute Shoulder Strap

Ever had to hump a laptop bag from one end of Chicago O’Hare to the other?  Or through a week long trade show or conference?  Even the lightest bags can start to cut into your shoulder like a cinder block hanging from a length of kite string.   One of the gems among Tom Bihn’s accessories is the Absolute Shoulder Strap.  The main feature is its “unique, patented internal control-stretch system” that combines a soft, durable neoprene pad with comfortable stretch backing that elongates under load and helps dampen the weight on your shoulder.  However, keep in mind that if you want to swap the Cadet’s Standard Shoulder Strap for the the Absolute Shoulder Strap, it will add $20 to the price of the Cadet.  That’s a nice discount, because the Absolute Shoulder Strap is $30 when purchased separately.

Like all Tom Bihn products, the Absolute Shoulder Strap is very well built, with durable materials and solid construction.  This thing just feels solid when you pick it up and attach it to your bag.  It also include two adjustment sliders, one on either side, for extra customization.

Very heavy-duty metal spring-hooks connect the strap to the bag.  The springs snap into place with a commanding click, and you actually have to apply a fair amount of pressure to compress them enough to release them.  So you don’t have to worry about these things coming off accidentally.

Even the strap attachment points on the Cadet are thick, chunky, solid slabs of plastic.  They were apparently designed by Tom Bihn himself and are made from DuPont™ Delrin® polymer “tested to 260 pounds each.”  Look closely and you’ll see little “Tom Bihn Designs” and “Made in U.S.A.” molded into the plastic.  I was a bit disappointed not to see a tiny version of the nostalgic plane here.  Total miss, Tom.  Just kidding.

Cadet Cache Laptop Insert

As mentioned above, one of the options you will select when ordering your Cadet is a laptop insert appropriately sized for your laptop.  The Cadet Cache is essentially the Cache, a basic laptop sleeve available separately from Tom Bihn.  It has 1/4 inch thick padding laminated with an exterior of four-ply Taslan and an interior of brushed tricot that cradles your laptop.   If for some reason you don’t need or want a laptop insert, you can indicate this when ordering and $30 will be deducted from the price of the Cadet.

The Cadet Cache differs from the standard Cache by the addition of two Gatekeeper clips at the bottom rear.  These attach to two vertical strips of webbing in the main compartment of the Cadet (more on this further down).

Closeup of the Gatekeeper clips.  Easy to open but secure once closed.

A shot of my 15 inch MacBook Pro inserted into the Cadet Cache.  Fits perfectly.

The Cadet Cache has no closure features—no Velcro®, snaps, buckles or others.  Just a simple flap that tucks down over the laptop.

Cadet Bag

Now that we’ve warmed up a bit on some of the accessories, let’s move on to the item itself.  I’ve already mentioned its understated handsomeness, but indulge me while I expound further.  If this review happens to be your first exposure to Tom Bihn’s products, and you like what you see with the Cadet, then you are in for a treat when you view the rest of the product lines.  Since the early days, Tom Bihn’s designs have been all about three things: understated style, smart functionality, and durability.  I feel that they’ve hit the grand slam in combining these three aspects, and this is very apparent with the Cadet as well.

First, the understated style.  Tom Bihn’s bags have been consistently designed with a certain appearance and style.  To me, it is clean and simple, yet with an almost dignified touch.  Very appropriate for a business environment, but eye-catching enough that people might even ask you about it.  Second, the smart functionality.  All of Tom Bihn’s products, but especially their bags, have been designed by people who have a real sense of what is useful to a traveler, and maybe more importantly, what is not.  Third, the durability.  Tom Bihn uses extremely high quality materials in all of its products, and designs and builds them (in the USA) for maximum durability.

Combining all three aspects into one product does not come cheaply: these are some of the most expensively-priced travels bags you will find.  And not just because they have a “known” brand name, like Tumi or others, but in my view—and I’ve studied a few bags throughout my quest—they are among the absolute best.

The Cadet’s basic design is a “brief” style bag.  A descendant of the classic briefcase that your dad or granddad carried into the office with a newspaper under his arm and cup o’ joe in his hand, the Cadet is shaped to carry objects that are roughly 8.5 x 11 inches in size.  This style of bag typically has an opening on top to slide items into it, a couple of handles for hand carry and a shoulder strap.  The Cadet does indeed share these basic features with its venerable ancestors.

Closeup of the front of the Cadet.  Prolific Tom Bihn nostalgic plane logo visible throughout on multiple tags and labels.

As mentioned above, the Cadet has two handles, one on each side of the zipper opening on top.  The handles are internally padded, but very basic and no-nonsense.  Yet they are thick enough to feel comfortable and solid enough to lift an elephant.  That is, if you could fit an elephant in the Cadet.  Or maybe just a smallish object with the density of an elephant.  But I digress.  I’ve used bags with handles that are a bit more comfortable, but many times they are complicated contraptions and as a result they just don’t feel that solid.  These do.

This might be a good point to describe the materials from which the exterior of the Cadet is made (interior materials will be described a bit further down).  As mentioned above, the Cadet is made from U.S. 1050 denier ballistic nylon.  Sounds impressive, but so what?  Originally developed for flak jackets in World War II, “ballistic” nylon was intended to help protect the wearer from flying fragmentation-type debris.  However, it was not intended to protect against bullets directly (this would come later with the development of Kevlar material).  Further, denier refers to the weight of the fabric.  As the Tom Bihn site states, ”our Ballistic has twice the abrasion resistance of 1680 denier fabric.”  So this is genuinely tough stuff and will definitely wear well, to say the least, though everything from your everyday commute to globe-trekking adventures.  In addition, the Cadet has 1/4 inch thick closed cell foam between the interior and exterior on the front, back and bottom, which gives added protection and also helps the bag retain its shape.

There are a lot of bags out there that are made from some unspecified type of “nylon” material.  But 1050 denier is the good stuff.  And I don’t know what it is about the 1050 denier that Tom Bihn uses in their bags, but not only does it have a very solid and protective feel, it also feels relatively soft and supple, not rigid and scratchy like you might find with many of the tactical or military-styled bags that also use 1050 denier.  This may have something to do with Tom Bihn using a U.S. supplier of the material and being able to help specify the properties.  A quick anecdote on this.  My wife and daughter took the Cadet to the library to do some research recently.  Our daughter was carrying the Cadet and by the time she got home, the side of the bag was covered with brown fuzz that had presumably been removed from her pants leg as she carried the Cadet.  Admittedly, the pants she was wearing had sort of a soft, felt-like texture, so not much abrasion resistance, but something to keep in mind.

The Cadet, like most of Tom Bihn’s bags, utilizes YKK Uretech® splash-proof zippers on the main compartment (#10) and exterior pockets (#8).  If you’ve never seen or used these before, they are quite amazing.  The exterior of the zipper has two strips of urethane over each set of teeth which neatly separate during unzipping and then just as neatly join back together again when zipping to create a water-resistant seal.  I don’t know how many products use these babies (I’ve not seen them anywhere except on Tom Bihn’s stuff), but I was amazed the first time I saw them.  The urethane strips don’t impede the zipperin’ action in any way, and the seal they create is very uniform.  Now, these things aren’t going to enable you to throw your Cadet over your should and go snorkeling, but if you’re caught in a monsoon, or at ground zero of a drive-by curb splashing, your bag’s contents have a pretty good chance of staying moisture-free.

This is also a good time to mention that, to my knowledge, Tom Bihn does not use Velcro* in any of their products.  I suspect that this is because Velcro can be noisy and wears out over time, both of which would detract from the aesthetic and durability that are hallmarks of Tom Bihn’s products.

*[Update: Tom Bihn does use Velcro, or "Velcro-like material" in a handful of their products.  A Velcro-like material is used to affix the customizable Strips onto the front of their Ego and Super Ego Messenger Bags.  Their Strapeez are basically a strip of Velcro-like material used to assist in cable management.  And their Horizontal and Vertical Brain Cells utilize a Velcro-like material for the closures.]

Closeup of the small pocket on the front of the Cadet.  The interior is lined with Ultrasuede, the same super-soft stuff that Tom Bihn’s Ultrasuede Screen Cloth is made from–yep, same stuff as up above.  Placement and size of this pocket are perfect for quick external access to a phone or other small objects.

My old iPhone 3GS in Speck Candyshell case fits with a room to spare.

The rear of the Cadet, simple-looking though it may be, has some stuff going on as well.  Yep, there’s a pocket; pretty standard for bags such as this.  It’s big enough for a magazine or newspaper (so you don’t have to tuck it under your arm like Dad did).

Just another shot, this time looking down into the rear pocket.  It’s fairly deep and actually goes all the way to the bottom of the bag.

But that’s not all.  The rear pocket has a secret.  Under a little flap near the bottom rear of the Cadet is a concealed zipper.

Lifting the flap and unzipping the super-secret zipper turns the rear pocket into a band that can be slid over the handle of a rolling bag.  Tom Bihn calls this a “dual-function ‘roll-aboard’/magazine pocket”…

…as I shall now demonstrate, with my arm playing the part of a rolling bag’s handle.  I really wish that Tom Bihn would have included this feature in all of their messenger bags that include a rear pocket like this—especially in my Super Ego Messenger Bag.  Hint, hint, Tom Bihn folks!

The interior of the Cadet is Dyneema® fabric.  What the heck is Dyneema?  No, it’s not Wonder Woman’s real name.  Dyneema is an Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMwPE) fiber that is billed as the “strongest fiber in the world.”  It has extremely high strength-to-weight ratio, chemical and moisture resistance and durability.  Tom Bihn uses Dyneema in several of its products (for both external and internal applications), including the Cadet:

Inside the Dyneema tag.   Looks like marketing-ized scientific-type info, but it makes the case for Dyneema’s strength and durability compared to other materials.

Unzipping the larger of the two zippers on the front of the Cadet reveals an organizer compartment.  The bright yellow grid-pattern interior material is the Dyneema fabric.  The brightly-colored interior is an advantage when you are in dimly-lit surroundings and need to search for something small at the bottom of the bag.  Let’s walk through the organizer compartment’s features.  Starting at the top are two plastic O-rings, one on each side.  Below the O-rings are a row of pockets in various sizes.

Here, I’ve placed a few items that I normally carry with me in the Cadet.  Starting at the top, I’ve attached to the left O-ring one of  Tom Bihn’s Key Straps, which is included with the Cadet.  These are available in 8-inch or 16-inch lengths and are $2 each if you’d like to get additional ones.  These straps have many uses, one of which is to complement Tom Bihn’s organizer pouches (see above).  Depicted is one of Tom Bihn’s 8-inch Key Straps to which I’ll attach my car keys and toss them into the bottom of this organizer compartment, then easily retrieve them by grabbing the strap.  On the top right O-ring I’ve attached the Padded Pouch for Magic Mouse (see above).  In the organizer pockets below, I’ve placed a Sharpie, Paper Mate mechanical pencil, Pilot gel pen, small Moleskine notebook and the Ultrasuede Screen Cloth (folded and hidden behind the Pouch), and there is room for more.  What you put in here is up to you, but as someone who likes lots of organization features, I find this to be just about the right amount for a bag of this type—you’re not going to carry your whole office in here, or even as much as you would in a cavernous messenger bag, so you can just stick to the essentials and keep it simple and lightweight.  There is also sufficient room in this organizer compartment to toss in your power supply or other similarly-sized items.

The only criticism I have here is that at the far left and right of the organizer pockets there are two things that look like pockets at first glance, but only when you try to stick something into them to you realize that they are actually sewn shut.  I don’t know why Tom Bihn does this, but it is also this way on my Tom Bihn Super Ego Messenger Bag.  I suspect it may have something to do with strength and durability, but in any case it’s a bit frustrating to see what looks like two additional pockets that are in fact useless.

Now let’s dive into the Cadet’s main compartment.  I found it to be simple, but with just about the right amount of features.

The “front” of the interior (the side where the organizer compartment resides on the exterior) has a large pocket.  This could be used for papers, folders, magazines and the like.  Above it are two more O-rings that you can use however you’d like.  The “back” of the interior has two strips of webbing that run top to bottom.  These straps serve as the points for attaching the Cadet Cache laptop insert into the Cadet.

Here, I’ve placed the Cadet Cache down into the Cadet’s main compartment.

Looking down into the Cadet Cache.

In the photo below, you can just barely make out the Gatekeeper clips at the bottom of the Cadet Cache, which have been attached to the two vertical webbing strips.  Because the Gatekeeper clips can slide along the webbing strips, this allows the Cadet Cache—with laptop inside—to be slid out of the Cadet with the laptop still inside.  This feature is intended to be “TSA checkpoint friendly” and to comply with current TSA regulations which stipulate that you can leave your laptop in a sleeve when going through the X-ray machine at the airport.  Once through X-ray, just slide the Cadet Cache back into into the Cadet.  Quick and easy.  Two things to note.  First is that, because the main compartment must be unzipped for it to function in this way, it does leave the contents of the bag free to fall or slide out either when you pull out the Cadet Cache or place it on the X-ray belt, or even to pilfering in the security process.  I haven’t had this happen, but it does seem like a possibility.  Second is that, in my travels I have yet to encounter a TSA agent that actually allowed me to do this.  Every one yet has forced me to remove my laptop from my bag, despite pointing out that the regs have changed.  Frustrating.

A shot of my 15 inch MacBook Pro inserted into the Cadet Cache inside the Cadet.

Here, I’ve moved the Magic Mouse Pouch from the front organizer section and clipped to one of the two O-rings in the Cadet’s interior.  The O-rings and clips on various Tom Bihn accessories give the Cadet a lot of organizational versatility and customization.

Front view of the Cadet.

Rear view of the Cadet.

Below are two of the three ways of carrying the Cadet: over the shoulder like a shoulder bag and across the chest like a messenger bag.  Of course, the Cadet can also be carried by the handles, but I forgot to get a shot of this.  The Cadet’s minimalist design helps minimize the weight, and its slim profile makes it a comfortable bag to carry.  With the addition of the Absolute Shoulder Strap, it becomes almost effortless—I almost forget I am carrying it.

Price

OK, let’s talk price.  The total price of the Cadet and all accessories as configured above, if I’ve figured everything correctly, is about $216.  $200+ for a simple, minimalist laptop bag?  Yeah, that seems ridiculous to me as well.  But as I’m sure you’ve surmised by now, though the Cadet may at first glance appear to be ordinary and simple, it is anything but.  As I’ve stated above, the Cadet, like all of Tom Bihn’s products, is very high quality in design and materials—some of the best travel bags and accessories you can buy.  And this doesn’t come cheaply.  This is not a laptop bag like you would find on the clearance rack at Walmart.  These are investments, and should be treated as such.  If your needs are lower-demand, if you don’t travel that often or don’t need such durability, then Tom Bihn’s products may not be worth the price to you.  But if you travel frequently, or to exotic locations, or don’t want to have to replace your bag every year, then I would encourage you to consider Tom Bihn’s products.  There is a Forums area at the Tom Bihn site in which fellow owners tell tales of their travels, what abuse their bags have endured, how long they’ve had their bags, suggestions for improvements and so forth.  Many of those who have committed to purchasing a Tom Bihn product have only one lament: that the darn things last so long.  Because they can’t justify buying another one until their current one wears out!  That is a satisfied customer and brand loyalty.

Conclusion

As far as my Holy Grail of Bags quest, the Cadet does more or less meet many of my criteria, including understated looks, hard core durability and a decent amount of organizational features. However, for my daily commute bag I personally need something with a bit more organization and quite a bit more capacity, so my quest continues.  But that’s just me.  The Tom Bihn Cadet is a minimalist laptop bag that is designed to protect your laptop while also carrying your mobile computing essentials.  Like all Tom Bihn products, its features have been very thoughtfully designed, it has been built with the highest quality, most durable materials, and the styling is simple yet elegant and looks great.  The price is a bit steep, but with travel gear you really do get what you pay for, and Tom Bihn makes some of the best products on the market.  If a minimalist laptop bag is what you’re looking for, I highly recommend the Tom Bihn Cadet.

Filed in categories: Bags, Backpacks, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Laptop Bag, Tom Bihn

Tom Bihn Cadet Laptop Bag Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 20, 2012 at 8:00 am.

The new wide-format Artisan 1430 inkjet printer from Epson gives you prints up to 13″ X 19″.  This printer has  advanced color and lighting correction for amazing photos, and it includes Adobe® Photoshop® Elements for more editing features.  You can print Ultra Hi-Definition prints (5760 x 1440 optimized dpi) on paper or photo paper, and you can print on CDs and DVDs.  Photos are smudge, scratch, water and fade resistant thanks to Claria® Hi-Definition Ink, and they’ll last up to four times longer than photo lab prints.  The Artisan 1430 is wireless, so you can share it with everyone on your network.  The MSRP is $299.99, but there’s currently an $80 mail-in rebate.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Printer, Wireless

Epson’s New Wide-Format Artisan 1430 Printer originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 18, 2012 at 8:03 am.

Got a new Mac with the brand new Thunderbolt port but no accessories to connect to it?  The only accessories out now for the Thunderbolt port would be the $999 Apple Thunderbolt Display, a Thunderbolt to HDMI adaptor, or those pricey Thunderbolt External Hard Drives.  Don’t you just wish you could do more with that Thunderbolt port?  That’s where Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock comes in.  Announced at CES 2012, this dock packs 3 USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire 800 port, HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet jack, 3.5mm audio jack, and a pair of Thunderbolt ports capable of daisy chaining.  This will be something that I’ll definitely get for my Macbook Air 11” which only has 2 lonely USB ports.  As much as I would want this, the price of $299 is quite expensive for this dock.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Dock, thunderbolt, USB

Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 10, 2012 at 8:00 am.

Note the variety of angles that can be locked into place with the Crane Stand

Working with electronics in various portable configurations is very flexible. It’s what enables many of our flexible work situations, and feeds our gadget lust. Sometimes, however, you get to a location where there just isn’t a good place to lay out your gear in any semblance of an order that will enhance your task at hand. Other times, you have so many different pieces of gear to use that there’s no way to reach anything, if you don’t have some sort of stacking system. Enter the Crane Hardware company, and their Crane Stand Pro.This unit is not some cheap, light, make-do piece of kit. It’s aluminum, welded at joints, and designed for a life on the road being made to bend to it’s owner’s will in many different situations. And in the testing I was able to do, it behaves like a champ.

The Crane Stand Pro can give you a lot of room between your work surface and the gear it's holding up.

The Crane Stand Pro folded for travel. It's less than 2" thick in this position!

The friction locks are of a heavy-duty metal, not just stamped out of sheet work. When you click this into place, it stays put. Note the heavy o-ring holding the stand off the surface.

Detail of one of the jointed pieces. Note the rubber o-rings protecting the wood of the table, and the silver knurled tension adjustment knob on the right, opposite the friction lock. I cannot stress how solidly this thing is made.

Fully welded joints on every join. This thing is built to take a licking and stand up to it!

It's no lightweight stand!

Filed in categories: Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Laptop, Stand

Crane Stand Pro Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 9, 2012 at 11:00 am.

Logitech has just announced the Cube.  It’s a powerful mouse  that connects with your computer (PC and Mac) via the included Unifying Receiver, which features Logitech Advanced 2.4 GHz connectivity with the “reliability of a cord with the convenience of wireless, along with the option to connect up to six compatible devices.”  The Cube mouse is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand or in a pocket.  It has a rechargeable battery and an off switch so you don’t waste battery when you don’t need it.  Using Logitech’s Flow Scroll software, stroke your finger along the top panel and you’ll experience smooth, continuous scrolling that’s similar to scrolling on a touchscreen smartphone.  It also functions as a presenter.  Just lift it into the air and wait a moment while it switches modes, then you can advance slides by simply “clicking” the top of the mouse.  When you need to go back, turn the Cube over, then click again.  It’s available online only for $69.99 at Logitech.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Mouse

The Logitech Cube – A New Type of Mouse originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 6, 2012 at 8:21 am.

Last month I did a review of the Crimson Frame Case for the iPhone 4. While I thought their aluminum case was too boxy and utilitarian, I loved the iPhone 4 screen protectors that Crimson included with the case. So much so, I wanted to see if their screen protectors for the MacBook Air series were just as nice.  So, I made the request and Crimson sent me the Anti-Glare surface protector for 11″ MacBook Air to try on my new laptop.

Contents:

• One (1) piece of Anti-glare screen protector
• Microfiber cleaning cloth

Crimson does an intense job of packaging the screen protector. The plastic sleeve and instructions sheet that the screen protector comes in is MANY times thicker than the product itself. Of course this thick, rigid protection is necessary since the screen protector obviously can not be bent or folded.

Features:

• Made from the highest quality, multi-layered, Japanese-manufactured film
• The ultimate protection against dust, scratches, oil, and dirt for your MacBook Air screen
• Advanced silicone adhesive minimizes bubbles during application and allows for easy removal – without residue
• Surface Protectors can be cleaned with water and reapplied
• No “rainbow” effect
• Microfiber cleaning cloth included

The screen protector is ready to apply onto the Air’s screen once the simple backing is removed. Applying the plastic film is a relatively easy process. Not nearly as ‘dicey’ as the wet process that a ZAGG invisibleSHIELD requires. The application process is very similar to the Power Support laptop screen protector I reviewed years ago.

Like many smartphone and tablet screen protectors I have installed over the years, the first step is to completely clean the screen itself….making sure all dust, fingerprints, and perhaps even a bit of snot is removed. If you are as AR as I am, it totally irritates/bothers me when gunk is caught between the screen and protector, forever trapping it there :-I. Once the screen is cleaned to your satisfaction, you align the plastic before beginning and then squeegee the piece of plastic as you go, minimizing the number of residual air bubbles needing to be dealt with later.

Once applied, the next step is to carefully force the remaining air bubbles out from between the MBAir screen and the protector. This part of the process was surprisingly easy; much more so than a majority of other plastic films I have installed in the past.

If for whatever reason you need to remove it, the silicone layer that enables the protector to adhere to the screen, also allows for (relatively) easy removal. The screen protector can be washed/cleaned with water and then reapplied as desired. I have not attempted this, but according to Crimson it is an option.

Bottom line: the anti-glare film looks great. It uses a special matte finish that effectively reduces glare for easier/better viewing. You can hardly tell it is there. Along with the anti-glare viewing experience, the protection it provides against materials marring the screen is stellar. I find the $30 cost of the Crimson Anti-Glare Screen Protector a reasonable price to pay for the added protection it provides. Considering its relatively simply/easy installation, I would recommend it to anyone who asks….

Filed in categories: Laptops and Gear, Reviews, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: anti-glare, Laptop, Screen Protector

Crimson Anti-Glare Screen Protector for MacBook Air Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 3, 2012 at 11:00 am.

The team at Drobo asked The Gadgeteer to review their Drobo S, generation two, a five bay USB and/or Firewire storage enclosure.  For those unfamiliar with Drobo, the company came on the storage scene in the middle of 2007 with a focus on making storage simple.  I like to think of Drobo as the black-colored Apple of the USB and Firewire storage market. The reason that I think of Drobo this way is that the Drobo team has a similar mindset and focus as Apple with their desire to take an old idea and give it a new and useful spin, all in a glossy black coating.  Drobo may not be the the first to deliver innovative features, or the least expensive product in the market, but they have a loyal following.  In this review we will see if the Drobo S, at $799 from the Drobo Store, can deliver the ease of use and performance that has converted many consumers to avid followers of the shiny little black storage box.

Over the years Drobo has done a good deal of listening to their customers as well as to the market and has added new products to the mix including Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems designed for the small and medium business marketplace.  Personally, I can remember when Drobo came to market in 2007.  At the time, many storage vendors were moving to deliver NAS offerings, and Drobo lagged in the market by a few years with only USB and Firewire connectivty.  When Drobo delivered their first NAS product to market it was a kludge at best, requiring an external networking box to connect the Drobo to the network.  This kludgie time period within the Drobo corporate history is securely in the rear-view mirror of the company as they are now delivering a full family of storage solutions for the home and business market including a NAS offering in a single package.

Drobo delivered their Drobo S, second edition, and I opened the package to find a well packed product that is reminiscent of my opening my first Mac, albeit in black versus the Apple Mac white.  I had to stop myself from thinking outloud if Drobo is the yin to the Apple corporate yang. All joking aside, the second generation of the Drobo S differs from the first edition in that it adds a USB 3.0 port where the first generation only offered USB 2.0 along with Firewire.  The Drobo box includes a simple-to-open secondary box, labeled “Welcome to the World of…” as well as the Drobo S unit wrapped in a black felt-like material labeled with the Drobo logo.  Upon opening the secondary box, I was greeted by the Drobo company logo.   I was now officially “Welcome(d) to the World of Drobo.”
I must admit that the packaging was the first of its kind that I had seen in an external or NAS storage device, and it made me think about the thought that went into the packaging and how the Drobo team really cares about its products.  In my opinion, caring about packaging is something all of the technology and gadget vendors in the world could do with a little bit more of.  Understandably, having this kind of packaging adds to the cost of the overall unit and may be one of the reasons that many vendors stay away from delivering it along with their products, but I think that charging a little extra for great packaging that delivers the value of the company brand is worthwhile in the long run as it ensures that the company is burned in the mind of the consumer.  I am getting off of my soap box now and getting back to the review.

The secondary box contained;  USB 3.0/2.0, eSATA, and Fireware cables, power adapter and US three prong power plug, a CD with software, and 1/2 inch thick instruction manual.  For those that know me, I am not much a RTFM kind of guy in my regular life, but when doing product reviews I spend a good deal of time reviewing the instructions and following each direction as a good consumer should, but I was a bit shocked to find a 1/2 inch thick instruction manual in the box as this should be as easy as setting up any other storage device:  install software, connect up power and connectivity, add drives, and away you go.  The team at Drobo elected to include an instruction manual with four languages to ensure worldwide applicability.  The English section of the instruction manual comprised 40 pages of the manual and the first few pages were a glorified advertisement for the Drobo, which you would have already been happy to have purchased and then see more advertising.  I remember a movie that I saw in the past, I think it was Dave, in which a fake president asked his cabinet to cut their budget and one of the line items was for an advertising campaign to ensure the consumers that purchased American cars were happy with their car purchase.  From this reviewer’s perspective, it just does not make sense to advertise to your customers that have already purchased  your products when it was obvious that they had already convinced themselves to have purchased the products to begin with.  What I really liked about the packaging, was the top part of the secondary box that when opened showed you three simple steps to getting the product setup:

1)  Install the Dashboard from the Drobo provided CD

2)  Insert drives in Drobo, starting with at least two drives

3)  Connect power and computer cables and follow Drobo Dashboard directions.

Could it really be that simple?  The answer is yes, it really was that simple.

The Drobo unit itself is very pretty in a gloss and flat black finish.  In fact, the gloss black front cover is so glossy I had a hard time taking pictures of it with my DSLR, so I resorted to using a Drobo-provided product shot.  Be warned, if you like your products clean and shiny, the Drobo will not make you happy as it is a fingerprint magnet of the highest order.  The Drobo S is 5.9″ wide, 7.3″ high, 10.3″ deep and weighs in at 8lbs without any hard drives or the power supply.

The front of the Drobo has a number of lights on it, including;

• Five bay status lights on the right hand side arranged vertically to mirror the drive bays they show the status of
• Power light on the left hand lower corner
• Capacity lights in blue from lower left to right that light up to show you available capacity as a percentage in 10% increments, or a total of ten lights
• Access light that shows when the unit is being accessed for read-write operations

The front door of the Drobo unit is magnetic, a first in the storage devices that I have reviewed, and makes for easy removal and re-installation, albeit prone to being installed upside down.  In my case I installed the door upside down several times.  The air flow and venting are symmetrical so there are no concerns with installing the door upside down.   On the back of the door is a legend that clearly shows the meaning of the various drive action status lights and the actions that are required, including:

• Green:  None, system healthy
• Yellow: Add a drive here soon
• Yellow/Green:  Don’t remove this drive
• Red:  Add a drive here
• Red Flashing:  Drive failure, replace

One thing that I did notice about the front of the unit and the sides is that there seems to be a very small amount of air flow vents cut into the surfaces.  Most units of this design have larger air vents to allow the air to flow from front to back as it is pulled by a cooling fan.  We will have to see how the Drobo S fairs in terms of cooling in our testing.

On the back of the Drobo S one can find the following:

• 12V power connector
• eSATA connection
• Two Firewire 400/800 ports for primary connection and daisy chaining a secondary Firewire device
• USB 3.0/2.0 port
• Power toggle switch
• Kensignton Cable Lock Connector to keep the Drobo S in place when would-be thieves come calling

Much of the surface area of the rear of the Drobo S is occupied by venting for the cooling fan.  The team at Drobo elected to fit five drives into the standard size drive enclosure where other vendors would normally fit four.  One of the main design considerations for this trade off was where to place the AC transformer, inside or outside of the unit.  The team at Drobo elected to go with external placement to keep the form factor of the Drobo S smaller, while adopting a laptop style AC adapter to the packaging.

One of the main features that I was looking forward to testing out is the BeyondRAID data layout and disk management utility that is built into the Drobo S unit.  Where other vendors stick with standard RAID configurations, from RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10, Drobo elected to utilize a proprietary RAID setup.  BeyondRAID  enables a consumer to use drives of different sizes and capabilities where most vendors with their standard RAID layouts require the same drive capacities and capabilities.  Also, recently the team at Drobo updated BeyondRAID to include an implementation of RAID 6, or parallel RAID, enabling the Drobo S to survive two disk failures out of five in the unit.  While the mathematics behind figuring out the case where two drives fail at the same time escapes me, the team at Drobo wants to ensure that your important data is available in the case of the unthinkable happening.

To ease the transition to BeyondRAID the team at Drobo has delivered a web-based Capacity Calculator.  The Capacity Calculator is a intuitive drag and drop application in which you select your drive capacity and add it to your Drobo unit of choice and the bottom line capacity is calculated and displayed.

At this point, it was time to add my SATA Hard Disk Drives to the unit.  The Drobo adds another innovative feature to the external storage market, carrier-less drives.  The Drobo does not require any mounting rails or enclosures for Hard Disk Drives, making insertion and removal a breeze.  No more fighting with the enclosure to fit the drive in or screwing in minuscule Phillips headed screws only to lose one and have to get on your hands and knees to find it.  A very nice touch for the Drobo S.

The drives that I used for my testing included the following:

• 2 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM SATA
• 1 x Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM SATA

To start the testing I installed two drives; a 1TB and a 500GB.  I then launched the Drobo Dashboard on my MacBook Pro and was told that it was ready to connect.  I then turned on the power to the Drobo S and was asked if I wanted to check for an update to the Drobo S, which I did.  There were no updates available.  Next, the Drobo Dashboard asked me to format the hard drives installed in the system as they had not been seen by the Drobo S before.  There were two choices available, HFS+, and FAT32.  I should take a moment at this point to explain that all file systems are not created equally, nor are they all accessible from every operating platform.  For example, Windows, Linux, and Mac systems can all see FAT32, but only a Mac can see HFS+.  That is one of the main differences between the various file systems.  There are many others, including performance, availability in the case of a device failure, maximize volume and single file size, data layouts, and application support to name a few, but this product review is not a review of files systems.  If you are interested in finding out more about file systems you can check out the Wikipedia’s File System Comparison chart.  The Drobo Dashboard tells you about the difference between HFS+ and FAT32 in terms of operating platform connectivity.  For this product review I selected HFS+ to ensure a high level of performance and reliability.

Next, I was asked how large I would like my volumes to be.  I selected the largest volume size of 16TB, not that I am going to ever grow to that size, but I may go there in the future, and the Drobo Dashboard tells me as much, by asking me to plan for the “foreseeable future.” Finally, I was asked to give the volume a name.  I selected Drobo-Vol1 so when it shows up on my Mac I know what I am looking at.  The formatting started and a message was displayed on the Drobo Dashboard that the Drobo formatting will take five minutes and require a reboot of the Drobo, along with a message to “Please be patient and allow Drobo to finish the format process.”  The formatting process took under five minutes, exactly 4:32 to be exact at which point I was shown the available capacity of my Drobo S at 432.99GB of free space. You may be saying “wait a minute, I thought that you said that you put a 1TB and a 500GB drive in the Drobo S, should it be more free space?”  Ah, but don’t forget that this is a BeyondRAID configuration and the Drobo S is capable of losing either drive and continuing on, in effect one drive is backing the other up, similar to a RAID 1 configuration, or a simple mirror.

As you can see above in the Drobo Dashboard, the usable capacity is broken down based on the BeyondRAID layout of the two drives, with the following:

• 434.89GB usable capacity for data
• 465.75GB reserved for expansion
• 496.62GB used for protection, in case of a drive failure
• 815.08MB overhead

After formatting I was told that an update of the Drobo S is available, to firmware v2.1.2 and if I wanted to update, I selected “Yes.”

At this point, the Drobo asked me to stop any data transfers and wait until the Drobo came back up, reminding me not to unplug or disconnect the Drobo while the update operation was in progress.  Once the update completed, the Drobo Dashboard asked me to reboot the Drobo, which I did. When the Drobo rebooted the lights on the device flashed and settled down to show the two drive bays occupied with a bright green.  Once that completed, the Drobo Dashboard told me that an update to the Drobo S had an updated version, v2.0.3a and would I love to install the update.  I said “Yes” and off I went to upgrade the Drobo Dashboard, which took approximately three minutes to download.  The time required to download the software will vary depending on the speed of your Internet connection.  Once download, it took another two minutes to install and I was back in the Drobo Dashboard, ready to manage my Drobo S.

While the Drobo S was running on my desk it was barely noticeable in terms of noise, and the unit stayed cool during my testing, nullifying my initial concerns about venting and airflow.

What is Thin Provisioning all about?

Once the Drobo S setup was complete, I opened Finder on my MacBook Pro to find the Drobo S was not available for content.  I select the drive and selected “Get Info” to see the capacity as seen from my Mac’s perspective and was told I had 17.59TB of capacity, as can be seen below.

At this point, you are probably saying to yourself , “wait a minute, there was only 400+GB available from the Drobo S a moment ago, how did the Mac see over 17TB’s of capacity?” The answer is in a technology called Thin Provisioning.  Thin Provisioning technology enables a device to virtualize the storage and make it appear to the operating platform, users, and applications that there is more storage available then there truly is.  In reality there is still only 450GB of storage available, but it looks to me as there is a much larger pool of storage available.  This works well for users that think they need a lot of storage, but tend not to use it, which will increase the costs for the organization without any really benefit.  While not a perfect solution, Thin Provisioning, is very useful for users that do not need as much space as they think that they do.  Thin Provisioning is in contrast to what the industry has come to call Fat Provisioning in which the full amount storage is actually allocated at the time of provisioning regardless of usage.  In the case of the Drobo S, the thin provisioning provides a bit of a buffer to expand the volume to almost double the size in the BeyondRAID configuration that I was working with.  This was all done automatically for me, which saved me a bunch of time during the setup process.  Most vendors do not offer Thin Provisioning at all, let alone in a package at this price point. If you would like to read more about Thin Provisioning check out the Wikipedia page on Thin Provisioning.

Is expanding storage capacity really that simple?

One of the major claims from the team at Drobo is how easy it is to expand the capacity of their Drobo units, and I set about testing this claim by adding a 1TB 7200 RPM drive to the unit, and it did not miss a beat.  It took under five minutes to add the new drive and grow the volume.  When completed, the Drobo S turned the drive bay light green to mark that it was added.  I must say that it was a very smooth and seamless process that impressed me.  With other vendor’s storage products, one usually has to plan for drive expansion and allow time for the new drive to be added and the system rebalanced to deliver maximum performance and usable capacity.

After adding the 1TB, drive the Drobo S updated the volume layout within the BeyondRAID configuration and provided a new set of capacity metrics, which can be seen below.

By adding a 1TB drive the following usage was available:

• 1.30TB available for data
• 0GB reserved for expansion
• 992.11GB used for protection, in case of a drive failure
• 2.3GB of overhead

Another view of the Drobo Dashboard showing the capacity of the newly expanded BeyondRAID configuration can be seen below:

I must admit, that I like the Drobo Dashboard; it is intuitive and very pleasing to my eyes.  Other storage vendors in the market should take note of the simplicity and workflow of the Drobo Dashboard and look to incorporate its simple and glacial approach to storage management.  With that said, at the price point of $799 it should be this simple and one is paying for this level of simplicity.  I remember from almost a decade ago that several analysts said that the initial cost of storage was some 15% of the overall cost, while the other 85% was born out of the management expense of the personnel and other costs.  From an enterprise perspective these costs may be hard to justify a higher initial out of pocket, but I realize that over time the amount of time that I personally devote to managing my storage is costly and having this kind of management interface and capabilities ensures that I will not be spending hours and hours working that I have done in the past when the management capabilities were not as intuitive or well laid out.

Also, the Drobo S has a strong of blue lights on the lower part of the unit that show the usable capacity in 10% consumption based increments.

Performance

I created a number of file sets to test the Drobo S with, including a small file set composed of thousands of smaller 1MB files, and a large file set with 100 1GB+ files.  I utilize my MacBook Pro and connected the Drobo S via USB 2.0 for the first test.

The performance of the Drobo S with three drives was 27.5MB/s write and  34.2MB/s read.  While not super impressive for the small file test given that there are three 7200 RPM SATA disks in the Drobo S, I am not surprised as the USB connection could not sustain a high level of writes.

During the large file test, the Drobo S faired a bit better with 34.5MB/s write and 40.3MB/s read.

Both tests show that the Drobo S can handle most of the workloads that it will run into on a daily basis, including streaming SD and some lower-resolution encoded HD video.  I did not test it personally, but I believe that HD content encoded in true HD will present a challenge for the Drobo S as one needs consistent 40MB/s performance to stream a high quality HD piece of content.  Personally, I would expect the performance to be a bit higher, but I am not familiar the specifics of the internal processor and memory of the Drobo S.

Reliability

I wanted to test the reliability of the Drobo S, so I set a test in place that would see how the Drobo S does under load when a drive was pulled out.  First step is to create a test load, which I did using my large file set.  The system was humming along at a hair over 30MB/s when I pulled the lowest drive, a 1TB 7200 RPM drive.  Immediately, the lights on the Drobo S changed from a green to a flashing green and yellow signifying that I should not remove any drives and that the unit was in a recovery mode.

Also, on the Drobo Dashboard, which I have come to find installed itself as a startup application-a mixed blessing we all know well – that a red warning message appeared telling me that my “Drobo cannot currently protect your data against hard drive failures.”

The Drobo S continued to copy the files, albeit a bit slower.  Performance dropped to 14.8MB/s during the reconstruct.  I opened the Drobo Dashboard to dig a bit deeper into the status and I found that the management software displayed very useful information, including a time estimate to complete the reconstruct of six minutes.  True to the estimate, the Drobo S completed the reconstruct in just a hair over 5:30.

During the reconstruction, the file copy completed and the unit returned to normal operational mode, as you can see in the screen shot of the Drobo Dashboard below.

Finally, to test that the Drobo S could fully recover, I reinserted the failed drive, which was never actually a bad drive, under the same load, and the Drobo S instantly recognized the drive as one it had seen before and added it to the BeyondRAID configuration.  During the reinsertion of the drive, performance was as seen before with this file set of 37.2MB/s.

One other note on the management capabilities of the Drobo S.  The Drobo Dashboard includes a proactive email capability that supports sending email alerts to a user or administrator of choice in the case of a failure or other useful information.  This is a very nice feature for those in a corporate setting in which the user may not manage his or her own systems, especially with a USB device that does not sit on the network, nor is centrally managed.

Backup?

The Drobo S can serve as a backup target, or Time Machine target for Macs.  For Time Machine, I would strongly suggest creating a separate volume within the Drobo to keep your files and backups separate.  Finally, the Drobo S has a Drobo Copy function available from within the Drobo Dashboard that can automatically backup source folders to the Drobo S at a scheduled time and day.  This is a nice feature for those that want to automate the backup of Windows, Linux, or Mac file sets without having to load a third party backup software package or run Time Machine.  I did not test the Drobo Copy capability during my testing so I do not have any information or review to share on this capability.

Conclusion

So, the big question, will the Drobo S live on, or will it go to the gadget graveyard?  The answer isn’t a simple cut-and-dry one as it is in most of my reviews.  A few years ago I purchased a NetGear ReadyNAS and have been using it as a consolidated storage pool for all of my systems in my home where I backup and store all of my content.  I also have a few USB storage devices that I use for travel and scratch space for my video projects that are starting to fill up and I need to spend the time to clean them out, so from that perspective the Drobo S will find a home on my desk, but in the long term I see it going to the gadget graveyard as the performance and price tag are not what they need to be for me to use the Drobo S on a daily basis.

Overall, the Drobo S is a very well executed USB and Firewire storage product.  The major selling points for me are the simplicity and usability found in the Drobo Dashboard coupled with the efficiency found in Thin Provisioning and reliability of the Drobo S.  The mediocre performance and exorbitantly high price detract from what otherwise is a very well rounded storage unit.  I would like to see how the Drobo network storage solutions perform as I see users, including myself, migrating away from USB and Firewire disk enclosures to network attached storage products that can be placed within a centralized location, like my wiring coat closet, or even in a small and medium business wiring closet with the telephone equipment and centralized server.  Even home users are moving to centralizing their storage and consolidating down the number of storage resources, if not for any other reason, but to share the content.  There are some markets, such as digital video editing that will always require a direct connection of some kind to the workstation for scratch or temporary disk space where the Drobo S and other like it will find homes, but I see their time drawing to a close as well as networks and NAS devices increasingly will compete and win this market.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: External hard drive storage

Drobo S Storage Array Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 31, 2011 at 11:00 am.

Would you like a work table for your laptop, but you don’t have room for a desk?  Or you’d like to use it while sitting on your sofa, without burning your legs?  The Room-for-My-Sidekick Table from Levenger will let you add a work table to any room.  It’s big enough to use with a laptop or your tablet, and there’s a storage drawer that conveniently opens from either side for easy access to your supplies.  The table glides easily over tiles, wood, or carpet, and the brushed-chrome base slides under your chair to position the table over your lap.  When you don’t need it, slide it beside the sofa or chair and use it as a side table.  It’s available in dark cherry, natural cherry, or walnut wood veneers.  It’s $239 for either cherry veneer or $299 for the walnut; special pricing ends January 22, 2012.

Filed in categories: Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Laptop table/stand

Add a Work Table Anywhere with the Room-for-My-Sidekick Table originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 30, 2011 at 2:00 pm.

With the move to eSATA, many consumers are looking for a way to quickly and easily clone or move their content from their current SATA or IDE disk drive to a new eSATA drive, or they may be looking for a way to connect a new eSATA drive to a USB port for quick and easy access to data from another system. In either case, most of those looking to use this kind of product are professional techies within the IT Support Function of a company or service provider looking to deliver quick and easy service to their clients who want their important data moved between an old system and a new one, or have had a system failure and want quick access to recover their data. StarTech, the maker of many useful gadgets to connect everything from your home theater to your servers and USB devices, asked The Gadgeteer to review the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock. While I do not regularly need to clone disk drives, I do have the need to copy my trusty USB 500GB hard disk drive to a eSATA drive that I am installing in my kids’ PC so I have an online backup copy of my content. Read on to see how the product fared and if it ended up in my gadget graveyard or not.

I received the box and quickly opened it to find the following:

• StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock
• AC Power Supply for the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock Product Review
• USB to eSATA Cable
• Mini USB to USB Male Cable
• Product Manual written in several languages

The StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock is tiny and easily fits in the palm of my hand. Weighing 1.59 oz (45G) and measuring in at a scant .64″ (16.3mm) high x 2.76″ (70mm) wide x 3.15″ (80mm) long it is easy to see how taking the product along for the ride would be simple.

The Hard Drive Duplicator Dock is well labeled with ports for every hard disk drive interface that you can think of, save for SCSI, but no one really uses SCSI devices any longer. With that said, the weight of the product and size does not include the required power supply, which easily quadruples the weight. I would have thought that StarTech would have gone for a smaller cell phone style pop up AC prong charger to match the scant size of their Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock, but then they would have had to pick a voltage and made two part numbers, one for the 240 folks, and another for the 110 folks. This way, they killed two birds with one AC Adapter, but gave up on the ultimate portability.

I used the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock to duplicate one of my USB hard disk drives to a new eSATA drive that I planned to install in a PC that my kids are using. To use the device, one simply connects the AC power and the source and target hard disk drives to the correct ports on the Hard Drive Duplicator Dock and presses a button and the cloning magically happens. The process can be monitored by looking at the progress bar LEDs that are broken into four 25% segments. Depending on your drive size and drive characteristics, the cloning process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours for larger drives and those with slower interfaces. When I cloned my drive, a 500GB disk drive it took a bit under two hours. The drives were connected via USB and the eSATA connections. From my review of the clone drive, it was a perfect copy of the original – there were no issues with the files nor directory structure of the cloned drive. I used the Drive Duplicator to connect the eSATA drive to my laptop via USB, as the dock enables one to use an eSATA drive through USB in a slave mode. I tried a number of drives and the device was a bit finicky on which drives it would connect to, but after a bit of fiddling with the connection and powering the device off and on I was able to see the drives.

The Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock can also be used as a slave device to allow you to connect your USB, SATA, or eSATA devices to your PC or Mac to browse the contents of a disk drive. To change the mode of the device, one simply presses the Mode Selection Button and the color changes to show you that the mode has been switched. I should add that the device also shows that source, target, and slave devices have been successfully recognized by changing colors on the LEDs. This is important as you need a visual “OK” to show you that you are ready to go. The Slave Mode is a very useful feature as I was able to connect my PC drive to my Mac without the use of a drive enclosure. For a professional techie or service technician this capability is invaluable as one can show up at a job site and access any disk drive type simply and easily. As we all know, or should know, when you have a system failure, the first thing that you do is worry about your precious data and many of us do not backup our data as we should. Being able to connect up any disk drive type to your laptop and check that the information is ok is worth the $75 asking price alone. Having drive cloning capability on top of that is an added benefit along with the size and portability of the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock.

To sum up the review, I would happily recommend the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock for any professional techie or service technician that needs to quickly and easily clone or access the contents of a disk drive. The Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock is available on the StarTech website as well as your favorite gadget retailers for around $75. The StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock will live on, perhaps not in daily use, but at least a couple of times a year.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Duplication, eSATA, Hard Drive

StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock Product Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 26, 2011 at 12:30 pm.

The Gadgeteer was asked by the team at Buffalo Technology, makers of wireless networking, NAS, and all around good gadgets for the hi-tech home and business, to review one of their latest NAS products, the Buffalo TeraStation Pro Quad – TS-QVH8.0TL/R6.   The Buffalo TeraStation Pro Quad is positioned for storing and protecting the small and medium business market’s (SMB) most important asset – its data.  While not specifically designed for the home market, and with a price tag of $1,200, I can understand why it is positioned as such.  From my perspective, the home technology consumer market is quickly evolving and on the edge of that market are consumers looking for a way to quickly and easily share their media, documents, and other content and may look at these NAS offerings shortly.  Having reviewed several other NAS products for The Gadgeteer, I was excited to review one of the larger and more performance-oriented NAS products on the market.I received the Buffalo TeraStation Pro Quad and opened the box to find a well packaged NAS unit complete with power cord, CAT-6 Ethernet Cable and a package with a CD and setup instructions.  From a physical perspective, the Buffalo TeraStation measures in at 6.7″ wide x 8.5″ deep x 9.1 ” high.  It is a small form factor when you consider that it holds four standard 3.5″ hard disk drives in hot-swappable bays.  Many of the NAS units in the market have a similar small form factor.

Weighing the unit I came up with 17.2lbs without the power cable.  From a power perspective, the Buffalo TeraStation is worldwide-capable, supporting 110-240v power through an integrated power supply, which adds to the weight of the unit.  The Buffalo TeraStation is finished in a flat black textured plastic and will fit in well within a network or server environment  While the product packaging does not exude quality – as it feels a bit cheaper then it should for the price – I have seen a lot worse and a lot better.  The Buffalo TeraStation could do with a makeover to bring it up to the  higher build quality and more modern look and feel of  the NetGear ReadyNAS family of NAS products.  From my perspective, The NetGear ReadyNAS family of NAS products are more stylized as they use polished metals and more attractive and tactile smooth finishes.  Look and feel is subjective and I can understand why Buffalo selected the black matte finished texture, as it neither adds nor detracts the look and feel of a data center; it just sits there and does its job – storing and ensuring that data is available when and how it is requested.On the front of the unit are the following:

• Power Button that lights up when the system is active
• Two-Line Backlit LCD Message Panel – making for easy reading in the dark
• Lights for Error, Information, LAN 1, and LAN 2
• Display Button
• Function Button
• Keyed Locking Mechanism
• VGA Port for connecting an external display, but the disk door must remain open

On the back of the Buffalo TeraStation are every network and storage port that one could think of, save for an eSATA connection, which some consumers may be looking for given the eSATA devices on the market.  The fit and feel of the back of the unit is anything but simple, reminding me of my first DELL Servers, simple metal with etched port names and a removable fan that requires a Phillips screwdriver for removal. One nice thing about the design of the back of the Buffalo TeraStation is that it includes a power connector stabilizer that will keep the power plugged into the unit.  It is the little black piece of plastic that is directly below the power connector in the above picture – a nice addition that keeps the power flowing and the connection secure.   The Buffalo TeraStation has the following ports on the back of the unit:

• Two USB 3.0 ports – that are color coded in the standard USB 3.0 blue color
• Two USB 2.0 ports
• Two 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports
• UPS Serial port
• Power Connector
• USB-Internal HDD Boot Selector Switch
• Fan Outlet – I strongly recommend placing the unit so there is adequate ventilation of six inches behind the unit
• Kensington Security Connector

The unit came with a Quick Setup Guide that informed me that there were five steps to setup the software.  The instructions were simple to follow and also included the most important information, the default userid and password to get into the NAS Management Console – TeraStation Navigator.

Within a few minutes of running through the five steps on the setup program that came on the CD, I was able to access the Buffalo TeraStation.  All and all the setup was very simple and straightforward, and I could see any user that had a basic knowledge of their network setup the Buffalo Terastation with ease.  Once up and running, I saw that the Buffalo Terastation had an easy to read LCD front panel that displays the status of the NAS device along with information on the IP address on the network and a host of other useful information.  I logged into the TeraStation Navigator, the web based management interface, and started to explore the management console and the features of the Buffalo TeraStation.  The Buffalo TeraStation was very quiet and did not run hot during my testing.  There was a good deal of airflow on the front and the back of the unit drawing cool air across the hard disk drives.  I could barely hear it running in my wiring closet in my home.  Most small businesses or home users will be installing the unit in wiring closet or cabinet next to other equipment, such as a server, that will, most likely, be louder than the Buffalo TeraStation.

To log into the TeraStation Navigator, one needs to supply a username and password, which can be setup in the setup.

The web-based management interface is fairly intuitive given my experience with other NAS systems.  For those that have not setup a NAS system, the management interface is reminiscent of the 802.11G and 802.11N wireless routers that many have learned to manage.  One of the instructions is to set the local time zone in the web management interface, which I did and the clock automatically set itself as the Buffalo TeraStation is set to a Network Time Protocol Server.  The web-based management interface is setup around a two-tier navigation framework with major tasks at the the top level and secondary tasks within the selected section available once the top level is selected.  An example is under the System top level category are functions grouped into that area, including; settings, storage, LVM, LVM Volume, Backup, Failover, Maintenance, Power Management, and Restore/Erase.

From the time zone setup, I explored a bit further and found the storage tab, where I saw that the Buffalo TeraStation ships in a RAID 5 configuration by default.  For those unfamiliar with RAID, it stands for Redundant Array of Independent Drives.  There are a number of RAID configurations that meet the performance and data availability requirements.  For each configuration there is a certain amount of overhead in terms of stripping the data across the drives.  The base system includes 8TB of RAW storage capacity in four (4) 2TB SATA drives.  In a RAID 5 configuration, data is stripped across the drives and the fourth drive is where all of the parity data is written.  In other words, performance is increased as the four drives are combined in a single logical volume and each write takes advantage of the four drives together while the parity stripe protects the drives in case a single data drive is lost.

From a NAS protocol support perspective the Buffalo TeraStation offers every protocol one could want, including:

• NFS – Network File System support for Linux
• CIFS (SMB) – for Microsoft Windows and Mac
• HTTP – for serving web pages directly from the Buffalo TeraStation
• FTP – File Transfer Protocol
• BitTorrent
• iTunes
• DLNA
• AFS
• Time Machine

What makes the Buffalo TeraStation good for small and medium sized business?

Performance

To test the performance of the Buffalo TeraStation, I created two file sets; a small file set with thousands of ~1MB files, and a second large file set with 20 100MB+ files.  I tested the file copy from a standard Mac and PC setup, both with SSDs, and found that for small files, the performance delivered an impressive 38Mb/s thanks to the read-write performance of the processor, RAM cache, and multiple drives.  Single drive systems can turn in 4-8Mb/s performance, while a multiple drive NAS system can easily double, or in this case quadruple the performance.  For the larger files the performance increased to 42.6Mb/s.  Larger files usually deliver more impressive results in testing for these systems as the file size makes a single file movement simple.  I will add that I did not turn on Jumbo Frames on the devices as it would have increased the performance a bit more as the MTU size goes from 1500 to 9000 or six times the amount of data in each packet on the wire.

Hardware and Operating System

From a hardware perspective the Buffalo TeraStation has a 1.6Ghz processor and 2GB of RAM and runs Buffalo’s own NAS operating system.  I am assuming that Buffalo selected an open source version of Linux and then added in the packages that they needed to meet the needs of the market.   In the end, the operating system and feature set is extremely well done and complete, making for a seamless experience.

Availability and Replication Built-In

With RAID protection built-in and the processor and RAM to keep your files moving, the Buffalo TeraStation will keep up with the demands of many small and medium businesses as well as many home users looking to beef up their media collections.  I was able to test the Buffalo TeraStation replication using a secondary Buffalo TeraStation on my network.  I was excited to see my files replicate the two systems and failover occur seamlessly when I cut the power to the primary system.  The Buffalo TeraStation takes advantage of a Distributed File System (DFS) to resolve network aliases to allow easy access to files.  Within the web-based management console, there is a setting that enables the Buffalo TeraStation to failover and take ownership of the files that have been replicated.  The Buffalo TeraStation automatically recognized the backup Buffalo TeraStation and configured itself for failover once the device was set as the target device.  After the failover, the devices synchronized themselves once the primary device came back online.  This feature was impressive as all of my changes to the files replicated back to the restored system as though nothing changed.  One thing to realize is that the replicated target must be the same size as the primary storage.  In other words, there is no free lunch. One other thing to realize is the network segment that the replication is on will get a bit hot during replications, and I would strongly suggest looking at setting up a separate VLAN to keep the devices on their own segment if you plan on using this feature.  You will give up some of the redundancy of trunking two paths together, but you will gain a much faster replication.  With that said, replication will take away from the overall performance of the device itself.  I did not test the performance during replication and suggest that this is again a no free lunch concern of having a device that can do so much in a single package.

Backup support

The Buffalo TeraStation comes with a 10 pack of backup software supporting backup of all of the major operating systems.  Additionally, the Buffalo TeraStation supports Apple’s Time Machine for Mac so no additional software is needed to backup your Windows, Linux, or Mac clients.  This is a major plus for those in the IT market looking to deploy a centralized backup target for all of their critical servers and users that would not backup without a central storage device.  Many IT shops distribute USB devices to backup their critical servers and workstations.  While effective, centralizing backup to a NAS system enables a better level of control.  Further, one can add a USB backup hard disk drive device to the Buffalo TeraStation and back it up for a third level of support, or leverage the included integration with Amazon S3 Cloud Storage Service to automatically backup important data to the cloud.

Security

With support for 128bit AES encryption the Buffalo TeraStation ensures that even if someone has physical access to the device it will be very hard, but not impossible, for the thief to access the files contained within the system.  By default the encryption is disabled and one will need to enable it.   Encryption will slow device writes and reads and is a necessary trade-off in some security-conscious organizations.

Virus Checking Built-In

The Buffalo TeraStation includes built-in virus protection which keeps your files free from viruses.  The team at Buffalo strongly suggests creating a secondary file share to quarantine suspected infected files.

Three year warranty

Buffalo backs their Buffalo TeraStation with an industry-leading three-year warranty.

Industry leading support

I looked at the Buffalo Technology website and reached out to the technical support team via contacting their support center and found the staff knowledgeable and supportive for even the simplest question.  Also, the Buffalo TeraStation is capable of checking and updating the operating system on its own.  I did not get a chance to test this feature out as there was no new upgrades available.  I suspect the upgrade will require an outage in serving files as the system will surely have to reboot.  Additionally, the Buffalo TeraStation supports a UPS.  In the case of a power failure, the UPS will gracefully shut down the Buffalo TeraStation, avoiding a time consuming replay of the log and checking the RAID layout for errors.

Support for Active Directory with up to 5,000 users

By integrating with Active Directory or other directory services, the Buffalo TeraStation makes it easy to integrate into an organization.  The team at Buffalo Technology wisely suggests to stay away from directory services with over 5,000 users as synchronizing the account list can take away from file serving performance, which is the primary task of the device.

Ability to block certain file types

Blocking certain file types within an organization is important as there are some file types that may be restricted, such as game files, pictures, music, and video.  These file types can consume costly storage space and take away from the goals of the IT organization in providing a shared service, let alone violating copyright issues.

Power Management

The Buffalo TeraStation includes a powerful power management feature set that enables the IT organization to set three power schedules for spinning down the drives and putting the system into a standby mode.  I did not test the power consumption of the device and did not ask Buffalo for the power requirements, but I assume that it consumes about the same amount of power as a 60W light bulb even under load.

Conclusion

Overall, the Buffalo TeraStation is an impressive solution for small and medium businesses to share their files between the users within the organization.  The Buffalo TeraStation can share files with all of the operating systems within the organization while ensuring that they are highly available and replicated to a secondary system.  Additionally, the Buffalo TeraStation has the performance and scalability while sharing media files and web pages that enables the organization to consolidate their servers, thereby justifying some of the increased cost.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: External hard drive, NAS

Buffalo TeraStation Pro Quad TS-QVH8.0TL/R6 Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 21, 2011 at 11:00 am.

The Satechi BT Wireless Bluetooth Speaker is designed for use with smartphones, tablets, and laptops.  It is small and compact enough, especially when closed (see image in the bottom left of above picture), to fit easily in your gear bag.  It has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for up to 6 hours of sound.  It has been designed with “Satechi’s signature Bass Expansion System which extends the speakers to amplify dynamic audio range without compromising acoustic integrity.   The BT Portable Speaker features a vacuum chamber that opens up like an accordion to mimic the acoustic properties of subwoofers resulting in enhanced bass output.”  In addition to streaming music, it also works as a speakerphone for Bluetooth-equipped phones.  The Satechi BT speaker is available for $44.99 at Satechi or Amazon.

Filed in categories: Android related, Audio, Video, TV Gear, iPhone, iPad, iPod related, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Bluetooth speakers

Satechi BT Wireless Bluetooth Speaker originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 18, 2011 at 9:00 am.

The tiny Data Traveler 109 USB drive from Kingston comes preloaded with urDrive software “that gives you a new and exciting way to look at your data“, according to the maker. I am always interested in new and exciting ways to look at my data, so let’s take a look!

Kingston makes good stuff and the Data Traveler 109 thumbdrive is a nice piece of work:

• 2 capacities (8 and 16gb) and 7 colors
• 1.535″ x 0.486″ x 0.179″ (39.00mm x 12.35mm x 4.55mm)
• A bit more than a gram
• Compatible with any USB 2 system (urDrive is for Windows XP or newer)
• Convenient lanyard hole (that is pretty dang close to being bigger than the drive itself!)

The unit is very small in a plastic housing that would not be very tough in a larger unit, but is OK in the smaller package. The large lanyard hole makes it easy to slip on a keyring or, just maybe, a lanyard! In fact, I found I needed to thread a large rubber band in it during the review period just to keep it from getting lost in the detritus on my desk. No instructions are included in the packaging.

"Just how small IS it?"

I was sent an 8MG black and white unit to review, and it works perfectly as a thumb drive alone. It is pre-loaded with the 122MB URDrive software and applications suite which is designed to elevate the thumb drive experience. The site claims “Most USB Flash drives offer passive storage, which simply allows users to store and retrieve their data. urDrive offers engaged, active storage that allows you to easily access and organize your files, photos, videos and music.”

The urDrive is not bootable – it is not an operating system, more like a shell program that allows you to better use and view the files you choose to store on it. When launched from the screen icon or with autoplay, it displays several apps in the main screen, icons on the bottom, and some other scattered buttons or bars like ‘back’ and ‘search’.

The Home Screen

The large app buttons bring up several pre-loaded applications-

• Norton PC Checkup, which needs to be loaded onto your PC.
• Maxthon Browser, which needs an internet connection and can download data straight to the thumb drive.
• vDrive Backup, offering 6GB of free back-up. Needs to install on your PC and requires an internet connection.
• FoozKids Basic, a ‘kid-safe’ zone with educational activities and apps. Installs on the PC and offers a subscription service for more options.
• Games, similar to many on-line games sites, offering a selection of free and ‘for pay’ games.
• A store for apps and music, and apps for YouTube, Facebook and Twitter round out the offerings.

These programs are easily available on-line if you want them and there does not seem to be any benefit to getting them from the drive as opposed to loading them yourself – other than the portability of those that do not load onto your computer. You can also find reviews of each of these apps on-line to help you decide if they might interest you.

The ‘thumb drive shell programs’ are more interesting. Icons take you home, or to your files, photos, music, videos, (Kingston) news, settings, and help. You can use the ‘Import to USB’ button or just drag and drop files into the folder system. One small quirk is that you cannot drag to the Home screen with the apps, but you can to the ‘My Files’ screen. Note that if you drag and drop something like an MP3 there, it will not automatically go to your music file, but if you click on it, it will open with the included player.

The Maxthon Browser

The included players – photo, music, and video – are simple and work great. They seem to be based on Windows Media Player. They are nice enough that I would not mind using them on my laptop since they do such a nice job with such small footprints, but I suspect they actually use your computer’s copy of Media Player to do the job. When playing music or looking at photos, you can click on an icon for ‘Library View’, which taps into the entire media library on your computer – not just that on the thumb drive. This almost feels like a ‘back door’ since you cannot do this elsewhere in the urDrive, and I didn’t find a comment about it in the help.

The Music Player

The urDrive suite is nicely done – attractive, flexible, intuitive, and does everything it does nicely. I am not convinced it is helping me see my data in an new and exciting way, but it is sort of nice to have an on-board set of tools… even though I still have access to the needed tools on the main computer since this is not a bootable system. I suspect most Gadgeteers who are interested in this already have a thumb drive loaded with tools from places like PortableApps.com, which offers a wider range of customization, security, privacy, etc. (Just FYI- there does not seem to be anything in the urDrive that offers more security or privacy than what the Norton or other apps offer.) Regardless, the Data Traveler 109 is a pretty sweet drive!

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews, Travel Gear

Tagged: Flash Drive, Flash Memory, Security, USB Drive

Kingston Data Traveler 109 with urDrive Software Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 17, 2011 at 5:09 pm.

When you purchase a netbook or a MacBook Air, you want a lightweight, compact computer that you can carry in a small bag or even your normal purse/gear bag.  A limitation that some netbooks, especially older ones, and some MacBook Airs have in common is low amounts of data storage.  You can connect an external disk for more space, but having to lug around another device defeats the purpose of getting those tiny computers in the first place.  You can use a USB flash drive, but again, it’s another thing to keep up with.  Not all netbooks or Airs have built-in card readers, so you can’t just opt for leaving an SD card in for extra storage.  The Nano Mobile Micro SD Reader from ELAGO will allow you to add memory with microSD cards, and it’s small enough that you can put it in a USB port and leave it – even while your computer is in your bag.

You’ll see that the ELAGO nano I purchased is white, but there is also a black version.  The Nano is tiny.  It’s about 0.6″ wide X 0.3″ thick X 0.9″ long with the cap in place or 0.7″ long without the cap. As you can see from the top picture, it comes with a tiny lanyard so you can attach it to a keychain.

ELAGO says the Nano is compatible with Windows Vista and is certified for Windows XP and Mac OS X.  It’s a plug-and-play USB 2.0 device.

When inserted into the USB port, it protrudes from the computer about 0.25″.  The top side of the Nano has a blue LED that lights up when it’s plugged in and blinks as it is accessed.

I use the Built Neoprene Tote Bag for the 13″ MacBook with my MBP, and the laptop sleeve inside the bag is a very snug fit.   I was afraid that I couldn’t fit the laptop inside with the Nano installed, but it slipped in with absolutely no problems.

The Nano is certainly not as big and bulky as standard USB flash drives.  It’s not a flash drive, though.  It’s a card reader.  (It’s also much smaller than other USB card readers.)  You’ll have to supply your own microSD card.  I used a 4GB Dane-elec microSD card I happened to have on hand.  I’ve owned this card for at least 3 years, so it’s probably not the latest and greatest technology.

You can see the microSD card just peeping out of the Nano’s metal connector (above).  Note the position of the yellow tab on the back of the white plastic part.  This yellow tab is the ejector for removing the microSD card when you want to swap it out for another card.

You can see the yellow tab is fully exposed here, indicating that a microSD card is in place.  I plugged it in to my MBP, and the Nano was immediately available.  There was no delay for driver installation and no problems reading the card.

I decided I’d try out the Nano by doing a speed test for copying files from my computer to the Nano.  I compared its copy rates to a 4GB Dane-elec USB flash drive I also had on hand.  The flash drive is about the same vintage as the microSD card.

I tested each storage device by first copying over a folder with 457 pictures in it; it had a total of 1.25GB of data.  I then copied over a single file that was 1.85GB.

I realize, of course, that the speed of the ELAGO is determined by the card inside it.  I’m not sure what the data, above, shows – other than the microSD card is much faster than the USB flash drive. But, hey!  I felt I should show something to indicate that I tested it out.

I think the ELAGO Nano Mobile Micro SD Reader has a couple of advantages over USB flash drives and external drives.  First of all, the tiny size allows you to insert it in your computer’s USB port and just leave it there.  You don’t have to worry about transporting it or losing it.  Secondly, it is a card reader, so you aren’t limited to a set amount of storage like with a USB flash drive.  (Yes, I still have a USB flash drive with a whopping 256MB of space…)  You can easily use multiple microSD cards as a means of organizing your files, or you could replace a microSD card with one with much more storage, as your storage needs grow.  You could buy a 32GB microSD, plug it into some netbooks with the Nano, and have a second drive with more storage than the internal drive.  The Nano is easier to carry than an external drive and cheaper than a new netbook.  It’s an economical way to extend the useful life of your small computer without adding to the gear you have to lug around.

Filed in categories: Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: USB card reader

ELAGO Nano Mobile Micro SD Reader Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 15, 2011 at 1:18 pm.

With the my-Ditto from Dane-Elec, you’ll have access to your files from anywhere.  It’s flexible and powerful enough for personal or business use.  Simply connect the my-Ditto to the router, plug the provided key (looks like a USB flash drive) into a PC or Mac and wait while your files are backed up to the my-Ditto.  Now you’ll be able to access the files on the my-Ditto anywhere by plugging the key into a PC or Mac and entering your password.  You can connect up to 30 keys to the my-Ditto.  There are even free Android and iOS apps that give you remote access to platform-appropriate files. You can also use the my-Ditto as a media server for your music and videos.  The my-Ditto is available as a diskless bay for $110 or with 500GB to 4TB of storage for $150 to $370.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: External hard drive, Network Storage

Protect and Access Your Data from Anywhere with my-Ditto originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 1, 2011 at 1:00 pm.

Hokay, let’s be honest here.  I’m going to mention something and I want you to close your eyes and picture the first thing that comes into your head.  Ready…..

Lap Tray, Stable Table

If you’re like me the first thing you see in your mind is either an elderly person sitting on a floral couch with doilies, surrounded by their six cats  or a larger gentlemen, comb-over , eating a heat and eat meal in his white singlet in a room lit only by the glow of his television

So when Julie and Trabasack offered me to review their Laptop Desk and Travel bag ( Trabasack Mini ) I had to wonder if I fitted into either of those two stereotypes ( I didn’t ask my kids as I know what they’d say )

So has my time with the Laptop Desk made me old(er) , fat(ter)  and lonely(ier) ……let’s find out.

The Trabasack at first glance looks like any other small notebook bag.  At 33 x 25 x 6.5cm and 510g it’s  sized to fit up to a 14″ notebook and it’s machine-washable should it get too dirty.

Inside, you’ll also find straps that convert this bag into a messenger or backpack (more on the backpack later).

Here it is loaded up with a Toshiba 13.3″ notebook.

So far, so good, but this is where the Trabasack Mini differs from other notebook bags.  On the other side of the bag is a flat, vinyl covered hard surface.

And on the other side  inside there’s actually a  removable bean bag inside a zipper pocket.

So when you’re out and about, you’ve actually got a lap tray/stable table to use to write on, eat off or whatever.  Here it is on my lap, sitting on a stool with my Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″ on it.

You’ll note that the tray has an edge around it to assist in keeping things from rolling off the table.

Another thing to note is the zipper pull rings used through out. They’re nice and large and easy to use.

With a notebook inside, the top and bottom of the notebook are well protected by the bean bag and the table surface, however there’s no protection around the edges.  Might be an issue when you’re putting your notebook down or when its swinging around if you normally carry your notebook or devices “naked”.

The straps included can be used to connect to the various D-Rings attached to the bag. The clips to attach are nice and big and easy to use.

The swivel clips are really nice and big and easy to undo, so you don’t actually have to slip the bag over your head to remove if you don’t want to or it’s too hard, just unclip, remove, and reclip.

Used as a messenger bag, it’s comfortable, and depending on which side you have towards your body, the table surface raised edges or the bean bag create a cushioning effect against your body.

The strap can also be used around your waist to stop the tray from sliding off you lap if you find yourself in that situation. Again the quick release swivel strap makes this easy to use.

By using both straps, the bag can be turned into a backpack, and it’s here that I have my real only issue with the bag. Here’s my 16 year old son with the backpack on.  Again, the edges of the tray create a nice cushion against your back.

While the rest of  the features on this bag seem to be “hand friendly ” (large pull-rings, large swivel buttons), the adjustment process using the adjustment sliders was not an easy one. Then once we got it on and adjusted, there was a lot of excess strap hanging down. We tried the straps clipped on both ways.  With the clips on the top of the backpack, there was a lot of excess strap and my son mentioned he didn’t like the clips on top of his shoulders, and clipped the other way the excess strap hung down a long way. In the above picture, you can see how much strap was hanging in the backpack configuration. It would appear that the long straps are actually a marketing feature from reading the brochures that came with the bag, but in my personal opinion they just flap around way too much.

The good, though, was that to take it off you didn’t have to swing it around and contort your arms like with a normal backpack, again you could just unclip those nice “hand friendly” swivel clips.

All in all the Trabasack Mini is a very useful companion.  I’ve used it out and about over the last couple of weeks, and it’s proved itself extremely versatile when you need a lap tray to write on or put things on.  I’ve used it around town and on the weekend, and it’s good for writing in logbooks while geocaching. I’ve used it in the house a couple of times even to rest my Galaxy Tab or a bowl of food on. I’ve even thought outside the square and used it as a cushion ( making sure there was nothing breakable inside ) to be a bit more comfortable and keep off the wet grass while in the park.

Also available is a version where the tray is covered in velcro material.  You can then stick small patches of “opposing” velcro to your objects so that they stick to the surface and don’t slide about.

My only suggestion is that the backpack straps need to be looked into both in terms of their length (yes I could just cut them off an seal them with a cigarette lighter) and also in terms of adjustment. Some of the other features like the pull-rings and large button swivel clips are obviously aimed for someone who maybe has something like very arthritic hands, and I think they’d have issues adjusting the straps. This isn’t so much of an issue when using in messenger bag configuration.

The other thing to consider is that there’s no  small pockets inside the bag to store pens, or notebooks, or MP3 players and the like.

I note on the Trabasacks site that one of the target markets is people in wheelchairs, and it just so happens that I was recently at a conference with a mate who’s in one. Knowing this bag was coming, I was interested to see  the “trouble” that he and other wheelchair users had while say, eating their lunch during the non-sit down buffet lunches.  I’m actually going to pass this onto him and hopefully get a review from his perspective.

That being said, don’t discount this bag if you find yourself out and about and needing a stable flat surface, this might just suit your needs.

And finally to end, I notice that in all the promo pictures on Trabasacks website, all the cups being used seem to be empty.  Here’s a full glass of water on my Trabasack Mini on my lap while sitting on a stool  :)

Thanks for reading, and now if you’ll please excuse me, I have to go feed my 7 cats and microwave my dinner

Filed in categories: Bags, Backpacks, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: gear bags

Trabasack Mini Laptop Desk and Travel Bag Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 30, 2011 at 2:00 pm.

Kensington Computer Products Group is one of the old-timers in the computerperipheral business having launched their first product (Apple II System Saver) back in 1981. Kensington’s most ubiquitous product is the K-Lock security slot that is found on many laptops. As Kensington is an established company with a history of quality products I felt relatively safe in trusting my high-priced electronics to the AbsolutePower Charger. A bad/incorrect charger can ruin a battery or worse very quickly so it’s always a good idea to double check the power supply you’re going to use before plugging in your expensive gadgets.

While not the only device to have this issue, the Apple iPad introduced many people to the concept that not all USB ports are equal especially when it comes to providing charging power. Rather than go into a discussion on electrical theory and USB standards those interested may want to check out this article in MacWorld.

For the rest of us, just because your charging cable has a USB plug at one end doesn’t mean that all USB ports will be capable of providing sufficient power to charge your device. However, the Kensington AbsolutePower charger provides enough power to its two USB ports (one micro, one standard) to handle most power hungry devices like tablets (but not all).

What's in the box...

Kensington includes 10 charging tips with the charger that work with many laptops by Acer, Asus, Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba among others. For a list of compatible devices check Kensington’s website. Most notably absent from the list are Apple’s MacBooks that use a proprietary connector (MagSafe) which is kept away from other companies by a slew of lawyers.

The AbsolutePower, like most quality chargers works with AC power of 50 or 60 cycles and from 100 to 240 VAC making it capable of handling most “wall” power available throughout the world. There are no international adapters in the box so I can only assume that when purchased in countries outside of the US either an adapter or different power cord is included.

Kensington claims that the charger is the smallest, lightest, most powerful charger in its class (when compared with similar in-class power adapters). The box lists the weight at 8 ounces (225g) and the dimensions at 4.3” long, 2.75” wide, and .73” high (110mm x 70mm x 18.5mm) or roughly the size (but thicker) than an iPhone 4s. Be aware though that Kensington didn’t include the weight of the power cable in that measurement (you gotta love those “marketing” specs). With both cables connected and an adapter tip in place, the charger weighs 10.8 ounces (306g). That’s still not a bad size or weight for a 90-watt charger.

A relatively small and lightweight charger that comes with a slew of adapter tips that cover laptops by almost every major manufacturer and two high-power USB ports…that sounds great…well, almost.

So, what’s not to like?

Just a few things really, but they’re pretty darn annoying.

The first issue I have is with the lack of a suitable case for the device. The AbsolutePower charger is marketed as being small and light and without a doubt it’s meant for use by travelers. Since it comes with 10 easy-to-lose power tips, a separate power cable, and a micro-USB to USB adapter it would have been nice if they had included a case for storage and transport. I ended up tossing it all in a ZipLoc bag…far from an elegant solution.

Exacerbating the storage issue is the fixed power cable on one side. The input power cable (one that plugs into an outlet) is not attached permanently to the charger making it easy to remove and store, however the cable that connects between the AbsolutePower and the laptop is permanently attached. This means that while the charger is small, the cable must always be wrapped next to it for storage. At $120 Kensington could include a case/pouch that holds all the parts compactly making it easy for customers to toss it into their briefcase or laptop bag.

Size matters!

I have another problem with that fixed power cord: it’s too darn short! It’s just 24 inches long forcing you to keep the charger on the table or desk close to your computer rather than on the floor. The charger has a hard plastic shell and no rubber feet so it’s all too easy for it to fall or be pushed off your work surface. This could cause it to come unplugged or even damage the laptop’s charging port. I would much prefer a cable that was long enough to allow it to drape off the work surface and have the charging unit on the floor. I realize that might make it a little harder to get to the USB ports, but USB cables are available in lengths more than long enough to make that a non-issue.

Nothing good can come of this.

Also be aware that the adapter tips are made with a 90-degree angle to the cable. While this wasn’t a problem with my laptop it’s possible that this type of connection could block access to a port or ventilation. Check your specific laptop and make sure you have at least 1.5” of clearance on one side of the power input.

Most people assume that setting up a laptop charger involves nothing more than plugging one end into an outlet and the other end into their computer. The AbsolutePower adds another level of complexity into the mix that some manufacturers (Targus and iGo) of similar devices seem to have done away with, and that’s a voltage switch. On the end of the charger is a small switch that sets output voltage at either 16 volts or 19 volts. The unit’s Instruction sheet states that the end user must find out the input voltage for their laptop and then set the switch accordingly. When I checked my ThinkPad I found a small sticker with typical micro-font that listed the input voltage at 20 volts. Fortunately, I looked at the side of the AbsolutePower box and realized that the 16 volt setting was actually good for 14 – 17VDC (at 5.0 Amps) and the 19 volt setting handled 17 – 21VDC (at 4.72 Amps). This information was not included on the rather sparse instruction sheet.

Power output, 2 x USB and voltage switch/power LED

The switch also doubles as a power LED and is inset (requiring a small screwdriver to move it) and with the voltage settings engraved by the switch as black on black many people will never know that it is a switch or a setting that needs to be selected. While you can clearly see the switch settings in my picture in anything other than direct light from a few inches away the settings are all but invisible. Requiring users to find their laptop’s voltage requirements is an inconvenience; not marking the switch clearly could potentially cause problems. Whether having the wrong setting would cause serious damage to someone’s laptop is questionable, but I’d argue if it’s important to make the choice it’s important to make the necessity and method for doing so a whole lot more evident than Kensington has done.

Finally, I was a bit surprised that Kensington didn’t include an Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad charging cable in the kit. Since the iPad is a primary reason people are looking for high-powered USB ports nowadays a cable would have been nice. Even better make the fixed power cord 48 inches long and include an Apple compatible cable to match!

Settings and power cord issues aside the charger does its job without getting very warm. After several hours of use the charger was barely over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The AbsolutePower charged my Lenovo ThinkPad x220 laptop, Apple iPad and TMobile G2 phone simultaneously. Although, it did seem that with both devices plugged into the charger’s USB ports and the laptop running the rate of charging was a bit slower than if they were all on their individual chargers there didn’t appear to be a dramatic difference.

The HP TouchPad was the only device that wouldn’t charge from the AbsolutePower. Using the USB cable that came with the TouchPad the device warned that it might not charge when connected to the AbsolutePower’s micro USB port. When I connected the TouchPad to the standard USB port on the AbsolutePower there was no warning or indication of charging at all (swapping USB cables made no difference). The TouchPad’s own charger lists output at 5.3 volts at 2.0 amps which is slightly higher than the 5.0 volt/2.0 amp rating for the AbsolutePower and is higher than the iPad’s requirements.

I like the concept of the Kensington Absolute Power charger. Dual high-power USB ports in a reasonably sized package are a definite plus. After spending some time with the charger though the short power cable would probably make me look at competitors. I just like my power “bricks” to live on the floor. If that doesn’t bother you and you can figure out the voltage requirement for your laptop this unit is certainly worth comparing to the other top brands in the marketplace as either a replacement power supply or second unit to keep in your travel bag.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, Laptops and Gear, Reviews, Tablet Computers and Gear, Travel Gear

Tagged: Charger, power adapter, USB

Kensington AbsolutePower Laptop, Phone, Tablet Charger Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 21, 2011 at 11:00 am.

j5create’s new Wormhole Station JUH320v2 will let users easily drag and drop files and copy/paste text between PCs, and Apple computers via a simple USB connection with speeds of up to 480Mbps. It also allow users to connect a laptop or tablet to desktop computers and share keyboard and mouse inputs. Other features include an Ethernet connection, audio connections, flash card reader and USB 3.0 support. The Wormhole Station is available now at Buy.com and other retailers for an MSRP of $129.99

Filed in categories: Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Macbook

j5create’s Wormhole Station – Share data between PC and Macs originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 15, 2011 at 1:00 pm.

Apple products are gaining in popularity each passing day, and there are a lot of accessories manufacturers who want to capitalize on that popularity.  There are hundreds – if not thousands – of cases, cables, headphones, styluses, skins, and more designed for Apple laptops, iPhones, iPads, and iPods.  Finding quality accessories for your gadgets often means looking through the few offerings in your local retailers or digging through countless online sites looking for what you want.  Two brothers named Taylor and Thayne Davis, both Apple product owners themselves, realized there was a need for a single place where you can shop to outfit your Apple products with quality gear.  They created outfitYOURS.com, an online shopping site that’s stocked with almost any product you could need for your Apple devices.  They are so sure of your shopping experience at outfitYOURS, Thayne asked The Gadgeteer to do some “secret shopping” at their site and report on our experience.  I was selected to go shopping.

There’s a video on the outfitYOURS website in which Taylor describes the concept behind the store.  The brothers know there are a lot of cheap accessories on the market, because they too are Apple users and have searched for gear themselves.  They wanted to provide a shopping experience where every product you see is a quality product worthy of the purchase price.

They know the frustration of placing an order and then being notified that the product is back-ordered and you’ll be receiving your order sometime after the 12^th of Never.  They never drop-ship products.  They warehouse their own inventory, and as Taylor says in the video, you know the product is in stock if you can put it in your cart and checkout.  And because every product is in stock and you can reach an actual person at the customer service number, outfitYOURS employees can inspect the actual product to answer any questions you might have about it.

I went to the outfitYOURS website and started looking around.  Finding what you want is simple.  You can choose to shop all accessories for a given Apple product, for example the iPhone.  Hover over iPhone in the category list to then select which model of phone you have.  Or you can choose to shop by brand.  And, I had heard of all the brands they offer, except for two case manufacturers.  Once you’ve chosen your category, you can further filter results by price range so you don’t have to waste time looking at products outside your budget.

Stocking all these products themselves represents a large investment, so I thought they’d probably stock a limited number of styles from each manufacturer and a limited number of colors/variations for each product.   Searching through the Sena section showed me that they do offer a variety of styles, and a variety of colors for each style.  In addition to the more neutral browns and black, I saw lime green, orange, pink, sky blue, and even striped cases.  Each case I clicked on was available to put in my shopping cart, which means it was in stock and ready to ship.  outfitYOURS may not stock every single item by every single manufacturer they offer, but they have a varied selection that should let you find what you like.  They offer a variety of styles of cases, too.  You can get everything from a sedate black leather wallet case for your iPhone to a back cover with a colorful, blinged-out design.

In addition to cases, outfitYOURS offers cables, gear bags and backpacks, Bluetooth headsets, speakers, screen cleaning kits and microfiber cloths, backup batteries, styluses, even credit card readers for your iPhone.  These were the sorts of accessories I expected to find.

They even have videos they created showing you features of some of the products.

They also had something unexpected – the Griffin Universal Remote Control Beacon System.  I’ve reviewed more than my fair share of cases lately, so I decided I’d try something different and ordered the Beacon.  I added it to my cart and began the checkout process.

You can create an account with outfitYOURS to make checking out easier for future purchases, or you can check out as a guest.  I was pleased to see that you can also use Paypal;  I like using Paypal so I don’t have my credit card information on dozens of online shopping sites.  I’m a little more likely to shop at a new place if they take Paypal.

outfitYOURS says they use faster shipping methods so that you’ll have your items quickly.  Standard shipping is free, and you’ll notice it says 4-5 business days shipping, unlike some websites that use 7-10 business days methods.  Taylor said in his video that they ship the item the same day they receive the order, too.  I chose the standard shipping option.  I was also struck by how reasonable their express shipping rates are.  Some sites I’ve seen will charge $75 or $100 for overnight shipping, even for small items.  (Need I say that I do not shop with those vendors if I need something immediately?)

Within minutes of checking out, I received an email with my order confirmation.  I received another email a couple of hours later telling me my package had shipped.

Right after I checked out, I went back to the Griffin Beacon page.  You can see that it has changed to “sold out”, so the next shopper after me wouldn’t order this only to be then told that it was back-ordered.  I checked this page a couple of times in the next couple of days, and the status of this product did quickly return to in stock and ready to ship.

I waited for my package, but I didn’t have long to wait.  The package was delivered via USPS Priority Mail two days after I placed my order.   That’s pretty fast shipping from Utah to North Carolina.  The cardboard package was sturdy, and it was taped securely.  It had a green outfitYOURS sticker on the side.   The package arrived in great shape.

I opened it up from the bottom and started unloading the box.  Paperwork was on the very bottom.  In addition to the invoice, I found a $1 bill stapled to a “bribe”.

Turns out it wasn’t a special bribe for reviewers – it’s for any outfitYOURS customer.  It’s an effective attention-grabber to ensure you notice the customer service contacts in case you have any problem with the ordering experience, shipment, or the products.  They ask you to buy yourself a cold drink and then contact them if you have any problems or questions.

Next up was a sample pack of disposable screen cleaning cloths – something any Apple owner could use.

Last was my actual product followed by some crumpled brown paper.  But remember, I opened from the bottom.  The first thing you’d see opening from the top would be the cushioning paper, then your product.  The product package was all sealed up.  There was a little tear at the hanger on the top of the package, but that didn’t look like it could have occurred in shipment.

All in all, a very easy and fast shopping experience from opening the website to opening my package!

While I working on this review, I realized I hadn’t tried out their claim that I could call with questions and someone at outfitYOURS could grab the product to answer them.  A reader had left a comment on another Gadgeteer post today asking if an 11″ MacBook Air would fit into a particular Speck bag.  Luckily, outfitYOURS sells that exact Speck bag, so I decided to call and test their claims.  I first called a couple of minutes before 11:00 EST, and I got a recording asking me to leave a message or call back during business hours – only they didn’t tell me what hours are business hours.  I waited a few minutes and called back after 11:00.  Taylor answered my call.  I didn’t tell him who I was or my ulterior motive for calling – I simply asked if an 11″ MacBook Air would fit in the Speck iPad A-line bag.  Sure enough, he said “let me just grab one and do some measuring”!  In just a few seconds, he was back on the phone with the bag in hand. While he was measuring, he mentioned that they also offered that exact Speck bag sized for the 13″ MacBook Pro.  He quickly determined that the Air would be a little too long for the iPad version and again mentioned the 13″ Speck bag that would certainly fit the MacBook Air.  Taylor did exactly what outfitYOURS promised to do – grab something out of inventory and use it to answer my questions.

I liked shopping at outfitYOURS.com.  They have a varied selection of products for Apple laptops and mobile devices.  They offer quality products from vendors you’ve heard of before, and they have a selection that lets you find the style, color, and price-point you’re looking for.  You can quickly see if a product is available, and I’m sure that outfitYOURS could let you know when they expect it back in if it happens to be out of stock at the moment.  My product was carefully packaged, and it arrived even sooner than promised.  And they are knowledgeable about the products they sell and can answer your questions to help you decide if a product is right for you.  The only thing I can suggest is to add their business hours to their phone message.

Oh, and be on the lookout for my review of the Griffin Universal Remote Beacon System soon.

Filed in categories: Gear, iPhone, iPad, iPod related, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: website shopping experience

outfitYOURS.com Online Shopping Experience Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 8, 2011 at 2:00 pm.

The iTwin, “two ends of a cable, no cable”. The idea for iTwin came about with the belief that remote access to a second computer was found to often be too complicated for most users.  USB drives, on the other hand, are pretty simple to use for almost all users. They do have the pitfalls of not enough storage to share an entire computer hard drive or do not have enough security.  Thus, creation of iTwin.  Let’s give it a closer look.

iTwin requires Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 (32 bit and 64 bit), broadband internet connection, and two online computers.  The iTwin website states that iTwin has an upgrade to be compatible with Mac too.  I have read that this is a beta version and support is so-so.  The latest version of the iTwin is fully compatible with OSX on Mac computers too. iTwin has limitless storage as a plug ‘n’ play USB device and allows you to easily store the contents of your computer’s hard drive.

The iTwin has the two connecting ends, two USB ends, and there is an iTwin activity indicator that is illuminated when plugged into your computer.  The indicator lights are located on the sides of the two halves.   The light is blue when functioning normally and red if there is a problem.   The blue light flashes when data is being transferred.  It looks like a dual-ended USB flash drive when the halves are placed together.

Installation of the iTwin is quite easy.  You do need admin access to install the software.  You need both halves connected together and plugged into an online computer.  After installing iTwin (software is contained in iTwin), you register your e-mail address and receive a message that will contain a unique code and URL that will allow you to remotely disable the connection between the two halves of the iTwin as a safety measure in the unfortunate event of losing one half.  This step is very important because you can not remotely disable the connection between the two halves if you do not register your e-mail address!  All data is accessed with AES-256 encryption, safer than cloud storage.

After registering and when the iTwin window appears, the two halves of the iTwin are “paired”.  The two halves can find each other across the internet when plugged into any two online computers.  You can then take off one half of the iTwin and take it with you, anywhere in the world.  The local or host computer must be turned on and connected to the internet before plugging in the second half to your remote computer.  You can connect through almost any firewall or proxy.

iTwin allows you to remotely edit your files and folders.  Transfer speed is only limited by the speed of your own internet connection.  When I was going to add files to share, I kept getting prompted to install an upgrade.  I had to uninstall iTwin and then re-install for some reason and I selected to not do the upgrade.  I was then able to select my files to share off the host computer, which is my desktop, for viewing and editing with the other half plugged into my laptop.

The iTwin is a sharp-looking plug ‘n’ play device that has a suggested retail of $99. It has a 30 day money back guarantee and a 90 day warranty.  iTwin has secure end to end encryption and no other fees once the device has been purchased.  The only downfall with the iTwin is that you can only connect two online computers at one time and not more.  Learn more by going to the iTwin website.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: remote connectivity

iTwin Secure and Private Internet File Access Device Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 7, 2011 at 11:00 am.

Some bags are big enough to carry all your gear and the kitchen sink.  That’s great if you need and want that, but they are overkill for when you only need your laptop, phone, and a couple of other items.  Tom Bihn has designed the Cadet for those of us who like to carry a minimum of things.  The Cadet is designed with Apple computers and the iPad in mind, but other gear will work with it.  (Check their fit list to see if yours will fit.)  It comes in two sizes: 15/13 Cadet for 15″ and 13″ MacBook Pro, 13″ MacBook, or the 13″ Air; and the 11/iPad for 11″ MacBook Air and the iPad.  In addition to the main compartment, there is a large organizer pocket and zippered slip-in pocket on the front.  The case is made using the normal, sturdy fabrics and the same quality construction methods always used by Tom Bihn.  It’s available in several color combinations.  The Cadet is $170 and comes with a Cadet Cache laptop insert sized to fit your computer or iPad.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: iPad bag, Laptop Bag

Tom Bihn Cadet Minimalist Laptop Bag originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 7, 2011 at 8:09 am.