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Lots of people use a wireless Bluetooth keyboard to type on their MacBook laptops, on their iPads, on their televisions (via Apple TV) and on their iPhones. But not many people use a single keyboard on all those devises — unless they have a keyboard like the Kanex Multi-Sync Bluetooth Keyboard.
The Kanex Multi-Sync can pair to as many as three Bluetooth devices simultaneously. Buttons on the top of the keyboard make switching between devices seamless. Very cool.
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Most readers of this blog have people on their gift list who love traveling with gadgets. Okay, most readers of this blog are people who love traveling with gadgets.
Yet hardly anyone has all five (or even one) of the cool gift suggestions reviewed below, gifts designed to help tech-loving travelers watch, hear, power and organize their gadgetry better. Our selections each range from $9 to $299 and come with a WOW factor!
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Spot Cool Stuff recently moved into a farmhouse. It’s a lovely place, built in the 1780s, but there’s something about the layout or the construction materials used or the ghosts of past generations who lived here or we-know-not-what that prevents a wireless internet signal from traveling through the house well. What’s a four-bar wifi signal in the home office is reduced to one bar most anywhere else downstairs. Upstairs there’s no signal at all.
So we asked our Tech Editor to propose a solution. The one he came up with: the Western Digital My Net Wifi Range Extender.
It seemed too good to be true, if only because the paperback-sized device costs a mere $35 with the current Amazon discount (versus the $75 retail price). Here’s what we found when we gave it a try:
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The computer mouse has been around for nearly as long as the computer has — the first trackball was invented as part of a secret U.S. government military project back in 1952!
Since then, there have been many variants of the mouse, with most new iterations better than the last. We’ve written before about the surprisingly well-designed Microsoft Arc Mouse. And we love (and always travel with) an Apple Magic Mouse. But somehow every mouse we’ve used also has something about it that doesn’t feel quite right. We couldn’t figure out what exactly that something was until we tried the Evoluent VerticalMouse 4.
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All-in-one printers — printers that can scan, copy, fax and and produce photos in addition to, you know, printing out black and white text on a sheet of paper — are useful for multitasking. But they also tend not to perform any one function that well. And they occupy a huge amount of desk space.
The later drawback is what drew our attention to the Epson Expression Premium XP-800 multi-function printer. At 15.4 by 13.3 by 7.5 inches (390 x 340 x 190mm for those metrically-inclined), we wouldn’t exactly call this printer compact. But it is less space hogging than it’s competitors. And it looks pretty cool too.
So how does the XP-800 compare in terms of quality? Spot Cool Stuff take a look:
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You needn’t be an international banker, royal family member or Scarlett Johansson to want to keep your private files private. Basic digital security is something everyone should (do but few people actually do) practice.
One easy step you can take: When you save your files to an external disk drive, especially one you are likely to travel around with, make it a biometric drive. Like the LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Fingerprint-Secured External Hard Drive.
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Black is the color of nearly every iPhone (and other cell phones), iPod (and other MP3 players), iPad (and other tablet computers) and Kindle (and other e-book readers). So putting a skin covering on your electronics devices is as much about making it distinctive as about protecting it. Fortunately, GelaSkins has you covered in both regards. Their skins are both durable and personality-full.
Gelaskins are available for a huge variety of gadgets, including virtually every major smartphone, all the recent models of the iPod and Zune and the most popular ebook readers, gaming consoles and Apple MacBooks variations. You can even get a skin for a Magic Trackpad.
For each of those, you can choose from hundreds of pre-designed skins or—and we find this very cool—design your own.
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Today almost all laptops store data on one of two types of devices: a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD).
In almost every way the solid state drive is the higher quality of the two. Because SSDs use flash memory they are significantly faster than HDDs. They use no moving parts and so are more durable. Compared to HDDs, they are also a bit quieter and less battery-draining.
The problem is: An SSD is much more expensive than a hard disk drive. A good 500GB 5400 rpm laptop HDD will set you back a mere $60. A faster, high-end 7200 rmp HDD can be had for around $85. But a 500GB SSD? That’s a whopping $2,000 or more!
If only there were a drive with the speed of an SSD but with the price of a HDD, you may be wishfully saying to yourself.
Now there is: The Seagate Momentus XL.
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