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Cooler Master Selling Super-Slim Laptop Power Adapters

Paul Lilly — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:10:47 -0500

We've long heard that good things come in small packages, and that appears to have been Cooler Master's inspiration for its SNA 95, a compact 95W power adapter for laptops. In fact, it's the "smallest 95W adapter in the world," Cooler Master claims, measuring just 2.9 x 0.7 x 5.7 inches.

The late Billy Mays (may he rest in peace) would have a field day with this one, as not only is the SNA 95 the tiniest 95W adapter you can get, but it also sports a few extras, like a USB charging port, cable management base, and nine power tips so you can use it with your iPod, smartphone, PDA, GPS, and other mobile gadgets. It also comes with a smart LED indicator.

So far, we've only spotted the SNA 95 at Sundial Micro for $70 (currently out of stock), but expect to see more retailers carrying the device in the coming weeks.

Image Credit: Cooler Master

DSLR Compact Flash Users, Get Into the SD/SDHC (and Eye-Fi) Game with CFMulti

Mark Edward Soper — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:32:52 -0500

If you're a Compact Flash user, life's not been fair to you lately. You've seen CF stalwarts like Nikon and Canon turn their backs on this longtime favorite in favor of the new kid on the block, SDHC, in their newest DSLRs. Buy a new camera, and you make your collection of CF cards obsolete. Meanwhile, you've watched SDHC and its kid brother, SD, dominate the deals in your favorite big-box electronics superstores' weekly tabloids. And, just to add a cherry on the top of your cake of frustration, you've been thinking about how cool it would be to use wireless file transfer with Eye-Fi cards, but Eye-Fi is also in the tank for SD. Oh, and did I mention that "Compact" Flash is now the bulkiest flash memory format?

For all these reasons, Synchrotech's introduction of the CFMulti CompactFlash Type II to Eye-Fi + Multi-Card Adapter has come at a very good time. While CF adapters for SD cards have been around for awhile, the CFMulti also supports newer flavors such as SDHC and MMC+ as well as SD and any old MultiMediaCards (MMC) you have floating around. Plus, it's the first adapter to support Eye-Fi cards, albeit with a reduction in range. See the CFMulti and Eye-Fi FAQ for details and a list of tested cameras.

In addition to enabling some CF-based cameras to use Eye-Fi cards, this adapter will be helpful to users of Nikon and Canon DSLRs that use a mixture of CF and SD/SDHC cards. At $28.00, it takes some of the sting out of making the move from CF-based cameras such as the Canon Rebel XTi or Nikon D70 to SD/SDHC-based cameras like the Canon Rebel XSi, Rebel XS or Nikon D90. You can still use high-speed UDMA Compact Flash cards when you need the absolute best speed on your CF-based cameras, but you can now take advantage of numerous deals on easier-to-tote SD and SDHC cards. Sweet!

Hit Comments to tell us if CFMulti's going to make your digital photography life easier.

CFMulti illustration courtesy of Terry White's Tech Blog.

Hawking Technology 300N Dish Network Adapter

Michael Brown — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:23:38 -0500

The last unconventional network adapter we examined, hField Technologies’ WiFire Wi-Fi adapter, wowed us with its range, but its sloppy antenna mount robbed it of a Kick Ass award. We didn’t ding it for not working with 802.11n networks because nothing else did like it, either. That’s no longer the case.

Hawking Technology's 300N Dish Network Adapter is big and bulky, but it gets

the job done when you're a long way from your router.

Hawking Technology doesn’t have much of a knack for naming products, and this one is no exception. It would be exceedingly tiresome to repeat “Hi-Gain USB Wireless-300N Dish Network Adapter” every time we mention the product, so we’ll just use the model number, instead: HWDN1. Hawking’s HWDN1 is capable of operating with 802.11b, -g, and -n networks; so if you’re operating an 802.11n network, you can leave your router in “n-only” mode.

Like hFields Wi-Fire, the HWDN1 plugs into your laptop’s USB port. Unlike the Wi-Fire, however, Hawking’s HWDN1 doesn’t have any means of being mounted to your laptop; it’s designed to sit on a tabletop next to your laptop, instead. That’s not a big deal unless you’re working in a crowded coffee shop or are actually using the PC on your lap because you don’t have a table.

As you’ve probably guessed, by virtue of its dish shape, the HWDN1 is a highly directional antenna that performs best when it’s aimed squarely in the direction of the router to which it’s connected. This adapter is much bulkier than the Wi-Fire, measuring four inches wide, 5.25 inches long, and 2.75 inches thick when folded flat for travel (it stands 5.25 inches tall when in use).

We tested the adapter using our new favorite 802.11n router, the dual-band Linksys WRT600N (incidentally, the HWDN1 works only on the 2.4GHz frequency band). As you can see from the benchmark chart below, the adapter performed relatively poorly at close range when compared to Linksys’ WPC600N PC Card adapter, delivering TCP throughput of just 62.3Mb/sec (compared to the WPC600N’s 125Mb/sec at the same location). On the other hand, the HWDN1 was considerably faster than the Wi-Fire, which is limited to operating on 802.11g networks, it performed much better than both adapters in our media-room test, and it clobbered the PC Card adapter in our outdoor tests.

The Wi-Fire remains the extreme-distance champ by virtue of its ability to deliver TCP throughput of 14.5Mb/sec at 350 feet (with the signal passing through a garage firewall and a steel garage door). The HWDN1 maxed out at 13.9Mb/sec at 300 feet and dropped its connection to the router when we ventured further out. Given a choice between the two adapters, however, we’d go with the HWDN1. Its bulky form factor makes it a pain to travel with, but its capacity for operating on 802.11n networks at very long distances gives it an undeniable edge.

Linksys WUSBF54G

Michael Brown — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:37:34 -0600

Linksys’ inelegantly named WUSBF54G is not just an 802.11b/g network adapter, it’s also a handy Wi-Fi finder. It’s just the ticket for frequent travelers, especially those with laptops predating 802.11g.

The Wi-Fi finder aggressively snoops out wireless routers and displays their SSID and operating channel on its 1.5-inch LCD. It proved capable of detecting our test router from a range of 120 feet (with two residential-construction walls in between). It also sniffed out two of our neighbors’ Wi-Fi routers. The device will advise you whether detected routers are secure (one of our neighbor’s wasn’t), but its simple padlock icon won’t tell you what type of security—WPA or simple WEP—is in use. The LCD isn’t backlit, either, so bring a flashlight if you plan to go war-driving in the dark.

The WUSBF54G is on the chunky side (measuring 3.78 inches long,
1.14 inches wide, and 0.63 inches thick), and it blocked the adjacent USB port on our test laptop. But Linksys provides a docking cradle with a 4-foot cable, which enables you to orient the adapter to receive the strongest possible signal while it charges its Li-ion battery.

We were also pleased with the WUSBF54G’s real-world performance as a Wi-Fi adapter. Although we didn’t get anywhere near the mythological 54Mb/s promised by the 802.11g standard, throughput of 18.2Mb/s enabled us to transfer a 239MB test file from our laptop to a PC hardwired to the router in just one minute, 45 seconds.

Month Reviewed: March 2006

Verdict: 8

URL: www.linksys.com