Just last night, while browsing in my local Apple reseller, I stumbled upon one of those products that made me stand up go WOW!

Allistair has one of these in his cue for review.

The Mimo line of 7″ USB powered monitors were on display at the new store.  As soon as I cast eyes on one I knew I’d be taking one home.

Check out my un-boxing and initial thoughts on this little gem of a device and look for Allistair’s review soon.

When Apple came out with the iPhone, suddenly it seemed like everyone and their brother–well, if their brother owned RIM or Nokia or whatever–was getting ready to put out a touch-screen phone with more or fewer buttons.

Now, I won’t say that it’s the rumored Apple tablet computer (rumored to be coming to a rumored Apple store rumored to be near you,  rumored to be coming in the first quarter of 2010–so I’ve heard) has encouraged other manufacturers to come out with larger–i.e., not smartphone-sized–touchscreen systems.  But it does make a guy wonder.

And so, allow us to tell you about you about MSI’s new touch screen computer.  It’s pretty durn big:  a 21.5-inch screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio (full HD).  Comes with an NVIDIA ION graphics and the latest Intel^® Core 2 Duo/Pentium Dual Core processors, has both VGA and HDMI input ports, and of course the touch screen.

The touch screen uses MSI’s own graphic interface, and the system itself has “native support for multi-touch capabilities in the new Windows^® 7 operating system.”  So if you’re a touch-screen kinda person, you might want to check it out.

Full press release after the jump.

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USBFever is a great site with a wealth of USB devices for sale; pretty much everything that you could want that plugs into a USB port (and many items that don’t), from memory sticks to sync/charge cables to hubs.  But they go well beyond the “usual” USB gadgets into the well… odd.  I often shake my head at some of the items they have, which are mostly (but not always) USB-powered and often (but not always) utterly gratuitous.  Sure, they’re fun and could possibly be useful in a particular situation; they just don’t have the obvious usefulness of most USB items. — and maybe that’s the appeal.  You’d be hard pressed to truthfully say you need this stuff, but it’s easy to want it.  Take for example, some of their newest items:

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Want to play Blue-Ray discs on your Mac Mini?

It’s impossible to do without upgrading the Mini’s drive and now AMEX Digital makes it all possible with it’s Blue-Ray upgrade kit.  The kit, which sells for $199.99, makes it possible to covert the Mini’s drive and lets you play DVD and Blue-Ray discs via your Mac Mini.

The drive supports the latest green ECO S.M.A.R.T which maximizes power efficiency and its SATA Drive has a 30% faster data transfer rate.  Quiet Drive technology reduces the noise level of audio and video recording or playback while also delivering increased writing reliability.

You can read the full press release on the upgrade the kit from AMEX Digital here.

Still on the fence about when you’ll upgrade your Windows desktop computer? Today’s hardware deal  could be the upgrade you’ve waited for. It’s an HP Elite e9250t Core i5 Desktop PC. Windows 7 64 bit is pre-installed, 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350 video graphics, 7.1ch Audio; DVD+/-RW LightScribe. Inside is 6GB DDR3 RAM; 500GB Hard Drive; Gigabit Ethernet. Free 15 month Norton Internet Security subscription is included. Add to cart & apply coupon code SVNY56474 to get the final $775 price.

HP Pavilion Elite e9250t – $775 via GearSponsor LogicBuy

In conjunction with two other sites, John Obeto is giving away an HP dx9000 TouchSmart PC over at AbsolutelyWindows. What do you have to do to get your mitts on this ~$1400 piece of kit?
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If you never know where to place your mobile phone, digital music player or GPS, but you need them to be upright and visible, USB Fever has got a sticky stand that might fit your needs. The Smart Stand is supposed to work both on your desktop and dashboard; it uses “sticky” blades to adhere to both the base surface and the back of your device, so in addition to creating a surface that will grab and hold your electronics. Due to the stickiness of the blades, it will also likely grab and hold any floating lint or dust that might be in your office or auto.

The good news is that you can wash the sticky blades as often as necessary to clean them, but those with pets in the area where this might be used can likely already envision the ramifications.

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I saw this printer in action in a New York Best Buy last week, and I have to say that it was nothing short of cool. You can get and print maps, recipes, coupons, purchase movie tickets, and do all kinds of other things – directly from the touch panel front of this web connected beast of a printer. Granted, you could do the same from your computer, but being able to do these things without booting up the ol’ desktop is a pretty cool feature; plus the printer itself is pretty nice.

The regular price is $399.99, but you can get yours for $339.99 with free shipping. Not bad for a day’s savings!

Do you do a lot of scanning?  Do you need to get it done quickly?  Maybe even while doing other tasks?

KeyScan, the first company to develop and integrated keyboard-scanner product and of makers of  “NoTouch™-AutoScan” software, have announced a limited time offer of $99.99 for the KS810-Plus Imaging Keyboard.

The keyboard, which features a built in scanner, comes with a no-touch, autoscan mode that allows the user to complete their most frequent scanning task without even touching a button.

The KS810-P also houses a USB2 Hub.

The keyboard is available at Tiger Direct and Comp USA for $99.99

You can learn more about the KeyScan keyboard and watch a video of it in action here.

Not all speaker sets are created equal, that much is certain.  Altec Lansing has sent me their latest — and what I consider their best — the Altec Lansing Expressionist Ultra Speakers.

The Expressionist Ultra is currently the top of the Altec Lansing line.  This very stylish three speaker system boasts 200 Watts of power, and its tremendous sub woofer is bigger than the computer the system is connected to. Continue Reading

Back in August, we wrote about the PlanOn Printstik Bluetooth printer for BlackBerry devices.  This past week, PlanOn provided a review unit on loan, and allowed me to put it through its paces for several days.   Now that the Printstik has been returned, what did I like about it?  What could be improved?  More importantly, is this an item that should be added to your gear for daily use?  Let’s find out…

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Blue has released an update to the Eyeball webcam that I liked so well.  The new Eyeball 2.0 improves upon the Eyeball 1.0.  The new webcam has the same Microphone capsule and upgraded the video to 1600 x 1200 at 30 fps.  It’s not 1080p, but it looks to be a very nice webcam.  The Eyeball 2.0 is available for $53.55 at Amazon.com.

When Windows 7 is released on October 22 quite a few people will need a way to transfer data off their old computers to their shiny new Windows 7 hardware. Belkin announces their Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7 that’s a fast and easy way to get files off one computer and onto another. With a list price of $39 you’ll probably find it worth the money versus other labor intensive choices like backing up your files to a few dozen DVDs and then copying them to your new computer – especially when you consider that the software post-migration report provides a comprehensive view of what was transferred, including lists of all programs and applications installed on old PC and links to download latest versions of programs

Belkin

Mophie, the company known for it uber-popular external batteries the Juice Pack and the Juice Pack air, has released some new charging accessories which work with USB compatible devices.

Three of the new items stand out:

The Low Profile USB Car Charger, which sells for $14.95, is very slim and should remain relatively unnoticeable in your car’s dash.

The Hybrid Wall and Car Charger, which sells for $24.95, combines a car charger along with a standard wall charger.  The wall charger’s prongs rotate 270 degrees to ensure you’ll be able to plug it in anywhere.

And finally, the Dual USB Wall Charger, which to me looks the coolest, allows you to charge two USB compatible devices simultaneously. It sells for $19.95

You can check out all the new devices on the Mophie web site.

Last year Judie reviewed the Altec Lansing Orbit speaker.  It was a interesting speaker that can be used with any device sporting a normal 3.5 mm headphone jack.  The downside to using such a speaker with a laptop is that the internal sound card in most laptops can be a bit noisy.

Altec Lansing recently sent me a sample of their  Orbit USB iML237 speaker. It solves the sound card issue perfectly.   Continue Reading