Storage Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 USB 3.0 SSD reviewed, hits ludicrous speeds

We've all seen the scene in some movie or another: secret agent infiltrates the enemy stronghold, sneaks into the server room, then fights off bad guy after bad guy while an agonizingly slowe progress bar ticks across the screen, super-secret egg salad recipe files taking ages to copy. If only they had a Kingston HyperX Max USB 3.0 external drive they could have escaped without needing that big final fight scene. The drive was recently tested by PC Perspective and found to feature solid construction and performance, offering the highest sequential write speeds the site had ever seen thanks to a Toshiba HG2 controller coupled with 128GB of Toshiba flash and 128MB of DDR cache memory. And, at $280 for a 128GB model, it's even somewhat reasonably priced -- well, for an external USB 3.0 SSD, anyway.

Switched On: Acer's Iconic Keyboard

Nao developer program kicks off: $4,800, robot included

Australian Senate passes bill to split Telstra in two, pushes National Broadband Network closer to reality

The future of Australian's Labor Party-backed National Broadband Network is looking much brighter today. The Senate voted in favor of an A$11 billion bill for Telstra's copper network that also has the Telecom company (and former government-owned entity) splitting into both a retail group and a wholesale network group. The House of Representatives will weigh in on Monday, with all signs pointing to passage there as well. The opposition party and its A$6.3 billion proposal? A lost packet.

Keepin' it real fake: 'MacBook Pro' runs 'OS X,' dodges questions on 'legitimacy'

Oh, sure -- we've seen a litany of knockoff MacBook Pro units, but how's about one that actually ships with OS X? As the level of nerve skyrockets towards infinity, an unnamed manufacturer in an unnamed section of China seems to be hawking a lookalike MBP with Snow Leopard onboard -- a feat that even Psystar couldn't achieve for long. As the story goes, around $466 buys you a 14-inch machine with a paltry 1.66GHz Atom D510 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive and NVIDIA's Ion 2 graphics platform. Oh, and a glowing Apple logo on the lid. Unfortunately, the dodgy specifications list seems somewhat reluctant to "admit" that "OS X" is actually loaded on, but it's there. Trust us. We think.

Tokyoflash brings RPM LED wristwatch concept to reality

Manufacture Royale debuts $1.2 million Opera accordion watch, Sir Steampunk scoffs

Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs start to seep out, 2GHz quad-core i7-2630QM coming to HP dv7

Intel's Core i7-2630QM chip has made the leap from the company's roadmap onto its first spec sheet, courtesy of HP's dv7. We've come across a provisional component list for an update to HP's gaming laptop, which includes the 2GHz quad-core CPU as the star of its show. Now, of course, neither HP nor Intel has said anything official on the matter, but Laptoping has also been snooping around and found listings at online retailers for laptops from Gateway and Lenovo also offering the still unannounced part. It's not exactly a secret that Intel intends to blow the bloody doors off CES 2011 with its Sandy Bridge processor line, but it's reassuring to see vendors looking eager and ready so far in advance of the launch date -- it should mean no shortage of choice when Paul Otellini finally steps to the stage and makes things officially official.

Modified radar gun identifies suicide bombers up to ten meters away

William Fox of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and John Vesecky, his colleague at UC Santa Cruz, are working on a modified radar gun that can identify suicide bombs worn under the clothing. To do this, they cataloged the most common arrangements of looped wires used to construct "suicide vests," and developed software that can identify the radar cross-section of each. So far, results have been pretty good: according to New Scientist, "telltale factors in the polarisation of the reflected signals" allowed them to correctly identify volunteers dressed as bombers up to ten meters away, roughly eighty-five percent of the time. Of course, even with a success rate this high, such a system would be prone to kicking up false positives. In order to minimize this, the devices would have to combined with other technologies, such as smart surveillance camera systems and infrared imaging.

Pirate Bay founders lose appeal: jail time reduced, fines raised

It's been a while since the four Pirate Bay founders lost their case in a Stockholm district court -- April 2009, to be more precise. The verdict was of course appealed, but alas, it was not to be. A Swedish appeals court has upheld the original ruling but changed the sentencing. Three of the quartet have had their jail time reduced: Fredrik Neij gets ten months, Peter Sunde eight months, and Carl Lundstrom four (Gottfrid Svartholm was too ill at the time of the hearing; his "criminal liability" will be determined later, according to BBC News). The fine, however, has been upped from the original 30 million kronor to 46 million (US $6.4m). That's seriously going to cut into their Black Friday shopping plans, but hey, we know a great way to pick up the Adobe suite. Well, maybe not.

Hasselblad's Ferrari-branded H4D camera: now available for just €21,499

Land Crawler exTreme robot carries 175 pounds of human

Cellphones, Mobile Handsets Nokia X7-00 spotted feeding its Need for Speed in the wild

 

Panasonic's Evolta robot finishes 500-kilometer trek ahead of schedule

Infinitec Infinite USB Memory Drive review

The idea behind Infinitec's Infinite USB Memory Drive is actually quite straightforward, but we've found that when we tell friends and acquaintances about the unit, it often boggles their minds. So, we'll try to keep it real simple: This red plastic stick is a 802.11b/g/n WiFi radio disguised as a USB flash drive. And when we say "disguised", we're not just talking about the stick's size, but its functionality as well -- it lets you wirelessly transfer files direct from your WiFi-equipped laptop's hard drive to just about anything with a USB port. Stick it into an Xbox 360 or set-top-box, for instance, and it pretends to be your average thumbdrive, but with access to theoretically anything you choose.

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace hits 3,000 apps and games, attracts 15,000 developers

Woow Digital's The One tablet cooks up Tegra 2 with Gingerbread just in time for Christmas

No, we can't say we've ever heard of Woow Digital before either, but we've just received some very legit-looking imagery of the company's forthcoming tablet, modestly titled The One. Google's impending Android Gingerbread release is promised as the OS, while the internal equipment includes an NVIDIA Tegra 2 core, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of flash storage. Up front you'll find a 10-inch display spanning a 1024 x 600 resolution, while wireless connectivity is taken care of with Bluetooth, WiFi and WCDMA 3G radios built in. Woow tells us it plans to launch The One in Japan before Christmas at a price of ¥42,000 ($504), which will be followed up by availability in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Europe. Well, it had better hope that release schedule doesn't shift, because come CES 2011, we should be up to our ears in Tegra 2 tablets and phones.

Movea turns your iPod touch or iPhone into an Air Mouse for just $2

Kinect hacks let you control a web browser and Windows 7 using only The Force

Nintendo won't be exhibiting at CES 2011 after all, will conduct meetings behind closed doors

Smartfish Whirl Mini Notebook Laser Mouse review, now on sale for $50

Acer announces new 3D monitor, AS5745DG 3D laptop

MacBook Air 2010 meets Colorware, births skinny rainbow children

FCC looking to accept 911 texting, MMS, and even streaming video

New Potato reveals TuneLink Auto Bluetooth-to-FM transmitter for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad