2013

iGrip: Slap that phone on your bike handle and e-mail on the go

LAS VEGAS--The Consumer Electronics show never has a shortage of accessory companies aiming to serve the growing number of devices we all carry -- and CES 2013 looks like it'll be no exception. Most are easy to ignore. iGrip, made by the German company Herbert Richter, however, stands out, particularly because the mounts are solidly built.

The company's devices mount on car windows, attach to he back of seats and to bicycle handle bars, as you can see in the photo above. The holders adjust so that you don't have to take your phone out of it … Read more

Double-speed USB 3.0 to arrive next year

Computing industry powers are doubling the data-transfer speed of USB 3.0 from today's 5 gigabits per second rate to 10Gbps.

The move will uncork speed bottlenecks of external SSD storage devices, open up options such second monitors, and help confine the even faster Thunderbolt interface to a high-end niche.

But it won't happen immediately. The specification should be done in mid-2013, which "will enable initial products to appear in late 2014 with a much broader availability of products in 2015," according to the USB 3.0 Promoter Group, which announced the faster Universal Serial Bus … Read more

Seagate Wireless Plus: A totally new mobile storage experience made from an old concept

Unveiled at CES 2013, Seagate's Wireless Plus won CNET's Best of CES for Networking and Storage category for a reason: it's a big step up from its predecessor, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite.

The drive now combines 1TB of storage space, 10-hour-and-then-some battery life, and a built-in Wi-Fi network that supports up to eight concurrent clients in one compact package about the size of a regular USB 3.0 portable drive. Connected clients can stream digital content from it and you can also back up content to it, using a mobile app or a network browser.

And, when … Read more

Pure adds louder Jongo and hi-fi adapter to streaming range

LAS VEGAS--Pure is a British company trying to crack the streaming-audio market with a set of cheap, colorful Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speakers that offer some of the functions of a Sonos. Today it's adding a higher-end speaker to the midrange model that it announced last year.

Called the Jongo T640B, Pure says it's designed to act as the main hi-fi in a living room. With 100 watts of power produced by two 5-inch drivers, it may well have a point. Stands are available from Pure so the Jongo can sit upright rather than lying down, or be mounted … Read more

Lenovo touches up its IdeaPad laptop back catalog with U and Z Touch

LAS VEGAS--Touch, anyone?

Two of Lenovo's IdeaPad lines will be joining the touch fray this year: both the IdeaPad U310/410 and IdeaPad Z400/500 have multitouch screens. Much like USB 3.0, HDMI, and solid-state drives were in previous years, touch seems to be the de rigueur Windows laptop upgrade of early 2013.

The IdeaPad U310 and U410 Touch ultrabooks, previously reviewed by CNET, are thin notebooks with more than a passing resemblance to a MacBook. The new 2013 versions are equipped with up to a third-gen Intel Core i7 processor and dedicated Nvidia graphics in the U410 … Read more

Dish at CES 2013: Join us Monday, 3 p.m. PT (live blog)

Dish Hopper with Sling: new HD DVR almost has it all

LAS VEGAS--Dish Network holds its Consumer Electronics Show press conference at 3 p.m. PT (6 p.m. ET) on Monday, and CNET will be there to cover it live. We'll have a live video stream, along with a blog full of news and analysis, as it happens.

You can tune in to the blog and video stream here:

CNET's live coverage of Dish's CES 2013 press conference.

What does Dish Network have in store for us?

At last year's Consumer Electronics Show, Dish managed to make some waves with its Hopper digital video recorder, … Read more

LaCie 5big Thunderbolt: Massive, fast, but lacks RAID 5

Two months ago, I called Promise's four-bay Pegasus J4 Thunderbolt storage device unconventional for its lack of RAID 5 support. Soon after that, at CES 2013, LaCie made the omission of RAID 5 a little more conventional with the introduction of the five-bay 5big Thunderbolt.

The new 5big Thunderbolt is the first multiple-bay storage device from LaCie that only supports RAID 0 or RAID 1. (Find out more about RAIDs here). In return it's a lot more affordable than a RAID 5-capable storage device of similar configuration.

The new 5big Thunderbolt is far from budget-friendly, however, with the … Read more

LaCie Blade Runner: An external hard drive that wants to be something else

LAS VEGAS--Looking for a one-of-a-kind storage device? LaCie has one for you.

The storage vendor unveiled today at CES 2013 a new USB 3.0 external hard drive, called the Blade Runner, that either screams crazy, or shows off as a statement piece, depending on your mood. LaCie says the drive is designed to look more like a piece of art than a storage device. And it indeed doesn't look like any external drives I've seen before.

The Blade Runner comes in a super-rugged all-aluminum body that is squared but not smooth. The body is designed to look … Read more

LaCie 5big NAS Pro to offer massive storage, cloud features, and ease of use

LAS VEGAS--LaCie showed off today at CES 2013 its latest high-end network attached storage (NAS) server, the 5big NAS Pro, which is a major upgrade to the company's previous 5big Network 2.

Powered by a dual-core 2.13GHz Intel 64-bit Atom processor and 4GB RAM, the 5big NAS Pro is a five-bay server that offers a massive amount of storage space (up to 20GB), and promises data rates up to 200MBps via its two Gigabit Ethernet ports.

The most prominent feature of the 5big NAS Pro, however, is its totally new novice-friendly SimplyRAID mode and cloud features

A new … Read more

Ford at 2013 CES: Join us Monday, 4 p.m. PT (live blog)

All eyes will be on Ford during the company's press conference at the 2013 International CES. The event kicks off at 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET) on Monday, January 7, and CNET will be there to cover it live. We'll have a live video stream, along with a live blog chock full of news and analysis, as it happens.

You can tune in to the blog and video stream here:

CNET's live coverage of Ford's 2013 CES press conference