FUNside

Having more than one computer in the house is common these days, hence the need for a network-attached storage devices arises (shortly named NAS) – a storage space to be able to access your files from anywhere any time. It’s either that or having to look through a bunch of CDs to find what you want each time. In most cases a NAS system works independently, having most hardware parts of a proper PC, but it usually has a very basic GUI, tends to be more power efficient and has a more discreet operation cycle.

I had recently bought the Thecus N5200PRO, portrayed here:

It’s a rather average solution, well reviewed here. Not to say that I’m not absolutely pleased with it. My only problem is the separation it has between the shared folders and the other data stored in the file system – you can view the shared folders you create in any computer but they have an absolutely distinct operation with the iSCSI or USB partitions you create. But it does have a serious feature set and it’s firmware is a work in progress so I won’t keep against it a few mishaps it may have.

Interestingly though, recently I’ve been stumbling on a number of alternate solutions I could’ve (would’ve?) chosen. The one that’s making me drool is the HP Mediasmart server
with Windows Home Server pre-installed and optimized for media center connectivity (read review).

Maybe a more affordable solution (at this time) is to use an actual PC as a NAS – especially if you have an old computer laying around in the house. If I was going to do that now I would probably go for something like the Drobo.

It requires a geek to become operational (meaning it may not be as plug-n-play as other storage devices) but it also required the mind of a geek to be appreciated. Simple and precise, it’s set to do one thing and it excels on it – to give you heaps of extra storage at high transfer rates. No bells and whistles here, just pure efficiency.

For whoever wants a “How to” guide there is a walkthrough for setting up a 2.5 TB hot-swap array on any PC.

Remaining on the subject, you can find some peculiar solutions (that said in a good way) by Addonics. It makes you wonder “How come no one else thought of that before?”. For example, have a look at the “2.5″ Disk Array 4SA“:

An excerpt from their website: “Designed to fit inside the space of a standard 5.25″ drive bay, the new Addonics 2.5″ Disk Array 4SA is a unique drive cage solution that can accommodate up to 4 2.5″ SAS or SATA hard drives . Thus the 2.5″ Disk Array 4SA can be easily deployed in many computing equipment and as many as 16 2.5″ SATA or SAS hard drive”.

I for one would like to buy one of their other products that seems practical and kinda fancy – the Jupiter Hard Drive kit. Other accessories that might be handy (just to mention a few) are: the Max4 3.5” SATA HDD Rack, a Portable Add-Ons Rack for 2.5-in Internal Hard Drive in 3.5-in Bay, or the Memphis USB 2.0 2.5″ External Hard Drive with Cradle.

At first I was with the ones that spoofed bluetooth keyboards, thinking they are practically useless since there are wireless keyboards with radio frequencies out there anyway.

But now I realize that adopting a more universal cordless technology (like bluetooth) for a dedicated device connection gives you far greater flexibility, once you have more than one computers you need to operate.

Especially if you have a PDA or UMPC, devices that really need an attachment keyboard if you are going to do some heavy-duty typing, you can just make a connection with the bluetooth keyboard of your desktop computer and use that same keyboard without any further setup. Effortless and money effective computing if you ask me…

I personally have a Q1 and was looking on the Net at the keyboard options I have for it. Of course there is the official keyboard that doesn’t look that promising as it seems I can’t use it for anything else.

There is quite a variety on small-factor bluetooth keyboards, some offering a qwerty interface that folds (1, 2) and some just saving space with completely weird key setups (primary example being the Frogpad – I mean really, will this gadget help me or make me feel like I’m typing an endless sms message??)

A couple of original ideas drew my attention. Specifically:

- The bluetooth fabric keyboard called RoKy² and released by Just Mobile (1, 2, 3, 4).

- And the all-time geek favorite the Virtual Laser Keyboard (which actually doesn’t make sense and should be re-named laser projection virtual keyboard).

I must admit this stole my heart the minute I saw it – I would buy it just for fun. It is also worth mentioning that both of these innovative ideas offer a full-sized QWERTY keyboard layout making the transition from traditional keyboards much easier.

But since I’ll be using it primarily on my multimedia PC (and secondarily on a UMPC) it seems a sensible choice to go with a full-featured multimedia keyboard, the Logitech diNovo Edge.

I think that’s what I’ll choose for now – what will your choice be?

I always had the search “gamepad with trackball” in my frequent list, visiting Goggle time after time until I found the gamepad that had a trackball on it so I could finally play FPS games properly from my couch.

Let’s face it, the analog stick will never have the precision of a mouse.

I had a link about a manufacturer that had such a prototype (saw a screen anyways) and he was accepting enquiries from his website (but not orders). After a full year of inactivity I deleted that link because I felt it was going nowhere.

Anyway, this time I stumbled on a game gear review, provocatively named:

Keyboard and gamepad’s unholy love child

It was about a new kind of user device called AlphaGrip. It’s supposed to be more than a gamepad – in fact it’s inventors promote it as the fastest typing machine even created!

The truth is that they’ve combined a keyboard and a trackball in one gamepad-like form, probably making the use of a conventional keyboard+mouse obsolete

In the video game arena, it provides a whole different experience. You can handle more complex games than the traditional gamepad – like strategy games that require many different keystrokes to accomplish your objectives. Even newer FPSs have started using the keyboard extensively, as a simulation of a physical control panel.

All this AphaGrip can handle with ease and you’ll still feel in control (while laying on the couch)

Did I also say that the keys are programmable? And that it costs only $99?

This would be a certain buy for me if only it was wireless. But it’s USB wired

Having a wire lying around across the living room is not a particularly good idea, and for this kid of device it feels such a natural decision to go wireless.

I saw in the AlphaGrip wiki that the creators have it on top of their list, in the features they want to implement in future releases of the AlphaGrip

Nevertheless, I wasn’t ready to give up so easily. So, I tried a search for any available solutions – to convert a USB cable into a wireless transmission.

Such a technology (as you might know) is well on it’s way and it’s calles UWB (Ultra Wideband). Some hubs are available in the market right now (not exactly what I want to attach to a game pad ) but there could be some more compact products released in the near future.

Either way, I’ll have to wait a while until I get my ultimate controller on my couch.

(weep)

While searching for a solution to make a wired device wireless (the AlphaGrip to be exact) I found that the only substitute for the plug-n-play nature of the USB can be the UWB – that’s why it’s developed anyway.

It’s supposed to be faster than Wi-Fi but slower than cabled USB. Find more information at the UWB Wiki-pedia page

At present there are only a handful of devices using this technology, mainly hubs that don’t connect physically to the host computer (like Belkin’s UWB hub.

People say they are still too expensive and too un-reliable. They are right. As they say, wait for version 2…

This is a radio transmitting technology that hasn’t been specified in an IEEE standard. It’s still too early to predict how things will go. I read a couple of articles to get a general idea, you might find something useful in these webpages:

• Making USB without wires work for consumers
• Review: Wireless USB Hubs Show Promise