Latest USB Gadgets in the Market

[Tg. GT]

USB product a tuamtuamte et theih pak ding in C & P ong bawl suk igh ei. A nei khin i om leh a zat nuam hiam, recommand hiam cih ki hawm sawn leng i vek in i lei ma in ki gensawn ciat ni. A lei tak leh zong recommend ki bawl thei leng thupi in ka lamen hi.

News: Intel Engineer Further Hints Chipset Support for USB 3.0 in 2012 Friday 17th September, 2010 As any enthusiast will tell you USB 2.0 is dead as disco, and USB 3.0 is where the future is! Everyone from Asus subsidiary ASMedia to Texas Instruments is hustling to get USB 3.0 controllers out the door and into the hot waiting hands of consumers. Well, it appears some one at Intel did NOT get the memo as one unnamed Intel Engineer let it slip within hearing range of a Techon reporter that it will not be until 2012 at the earliest before INTEL puts USB 3.0 support into their controllers. Although this self same "source" did acknowledge USB 3.0 market it about to explode in popularity, Intel will be for all intents and purposes ignoring it for full extra year. This is of course is still only an unsubstantial rumor which goes counter to what they HAVE announced and implied in the past; but with Intel hot to push Light Peak over USB it does have enough creditability to almost sound like something an Intel Ivory Tower Suit would come up with! If it is true it does give not only all the other SuperSpeed USB chip makers some much needed breathing room to gain market dominance but might just offer a ray of hope to AMD. Interesting times indeed! Permanent Link In USB Technologies News: Veebeam HD Wireless USB Media Streamer Hits 1080p Thursday 16th September, 2010 Wireless media streaming is certainly gaining in popularity. After all, everyone want the power and flexibility a HTPC offers but not everyone wants to spend the kind of cash needed to have one. Recently Intel and their WiDi, have taken the limelight, but WiDi is a new standard with a relatively small market acceptance. Conversely, nearly everyone already own a fairly new laptop or computer that has enough horsepower for 1080p movies and have at least one free USB port! Sadly, most previous Wireless USB options were capped at 720p. Veebeam understands this is a major weakness and as such has set out to over come it WITHOUT using WiDi. Their Veebeam HD streamer is not only capable of streaming in lower 720 "high definition" but can actually do 1080p over Certified Wireless USB. In fact, it can not only stream movies from your Mac or PC but also can literally your TV into a second monitor for it. With its HDMI port for high definition and its RCA ports and S/PDIF port for digital audio, no matter what standard your TV has you probably will be able to use this bad boy. More importantly where it is a USB based device it has an easy to use "plug and play" installation. With a price of $139, the Veebeam HD streamer certainly is cheaper then buying a new WiDi capable laptop and if you don’t need 1080p, the Veebeam SD at $99 is even more reasonably priced. Permanent Link In Mobile Accessories News: Mophie Juice Pack PowerStation Supercharged Thursday 16th September, 2010 No matter how good and how long your various electronics battery life is, there are times when you will need/want/desire MORE then the built in battery can provide and there is going to be times when a wall outlet to recharge the battery is simply going to be out of the question. For times like this an external battery pack is a godsend. Mophie knows this and has made quiet the reputation on providing exactly this: LONGER battery life through external battery packs. While Mophie has mainly concentrated in on device specific batteries, not everyone wants to buy a battery for each and everyone of their electronics. Mophie knows this, and has wisely released their latest creation - the Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation, which is meant to be a universal battery station for all your recharging needs. With its built in 3600 mAh battery, you should be able to be get numerous charges out of it before it has to be recharged. With its built in LED status indicator you will KNOW when it has to be recharged. Add in an output of up to 2 amps and the ability to charge darn anything which can be plugged into a USB port and the end result does look like the ultimate universal charging station. The only potential negative to this svelte power house is sticker shock. With a MSRP of $99.95 it is not what you can call an "Impulse buy"! If you can justify it is available for purchase directly from Mophie’s website. Permanent Link In MP3 Players Review: Apple iPod touch 4 32GB Thursday 16th September, 2010 In the Personal Media Player arena, one company certainly has quite the enviable reputation: Apple. Whether or not you drink the Apple flavored (and branded and trademarked) Kool-aid or not, they do have a tendency to produce highly polished user EXPERIENCES; and wrap them in some of the prettiest packages going. Is the all new Apple iPod touch 4 a continuation on the venerable iPod name or is it nothing but hype? Let's find out! Read on for my full review. Permanent Link In USB Webcams , Camcorders & Digital Cameras News: MS LifeCam Studio 1080p Webcam to Welcome Windows Live Messenger 2011 Wednesday 15th September, 2010 Microsoft has unveiled a mostly upgraded version of its Cinema, the full HD-capable LifeCam Studio. They've replaced the single megapixel sensor with a 2 megapixel for a max video output of up to 1080p. You'll need a robust PC to make use of this level of video. While the webcam does support 1080p, you will need at least quad-core CPU running at 3Ghz or faster with 4GB RAM to handle the load. Video conferencing software such as Skype 4 and the upcoming Windows Live Messenger 2011 will only support up to 720p at their highest. Having said that, this additionally assumes that you have the bandwidth available to you to support 1080p upload. MS recommends a dual core 3Ghz or better processor just to handle 720p recording. The truly glaring omission from this high bandwidth peripheral is that it's limited to USB 2.0. Not making this webcam USB 3.0 is mind-boggling. One can only assume that they afraid of getting mistakenly overlooked due to misconceptions of USB 3.0 devices not being compatible with USB 2.0 computers. So please continue to tell your friends so we can get out from under the USB 2.0 yoke and start getting better toys. Permanent Link In USB Mice & Trackballs News: Logitech Wireless Trackball M570 Extends Unifying Line Wednesday 15th September, 2010 Ah, thank you Logitech, one of the few remaining benevolent manufacturers of trackballs. Today they bless us yet again with a new Wireless Trackball M570. There are still quite a few of us that have found wrist relief with this life saving input device. Similar to the endangered ergonomic keyboard, trackballs are religiously maintained by their owners as they are so are hard to come by these days. Logitech continues to put out a decent new model of both for those of us who have become addicted to the additional comfort they provide. The M570 builds upon the previous model with subtle changes to form factor and migration to the Unifying wireless adapter. Logitech's Unity is a one-adapter-serves-all nano wireless adapter. All of Logitech's recent keyboards and mice can be share a single Unifying adapter. This makes the tiny adapter even smaller from a mathematical perspective. The M570 Trackballs also get the boost in battery life common to all of Logitech's current stock of rodentia. They claim 18 months on a single AA, which we have confirmed with several personal observations of the aforementioned critters in their natural habitat. Catch and domesticate your own at the end of this month for only $59. Your wrists will thank you as you both work together to get your corporate food pellets. Permanent Link In External Hard Drives News: LaCie 2big USB 3.0 RAID Breaks Speed Barrier Tuesday 14th September, 2010 For the first time, USB becomes the center of attention in LaCie's big prosumer-level storage line. The company's latest 2big USB 3.0 is the first in the series history to go with a single interface rather than multi-connections. While other members in the big storage family all have USB 2.0 to maintain compatibility, none of the owners hardly use it for obvious reasons. Now SuperSpeed turns the tide. The new 2big USB 3.0 - powered by Symware - is a dual-bay RAID solution with speed reportedly up to 205MB/s. That's pretty impressive compared to FireWire 800 and even eSATA. The LaCie 2big USB 3.0 will ship in both 2TB (2x 1TB) and 4TB (2x 2TB) model. You can set it to "Safe" and "Fast" mode which LaCie likes to call it for RAID-1 and RAID-0 respectively. The RAID-0 is the only mode that boosts the drive beyond 200MB/s mark. The aluminum chassis makes it possible for the unit to dissipate heat without the help of a fan. Backed by a three-year warranty, the 2big USB 3.0 has two vertical mount accessible from the rear where you will also find RAID mode switch. For this particular RAID, it's probably best to pair with Fresco Logic FL1009 host controller as Symware has been touting how its storage controller is able to break new record with the said USB 3.0 host. Expect the LaCie 2big USB 3.0 to be available soon for $349.99 (2TB) and $579.99 (4TB). Permanent Link In USB Technologies News: DisplayLink SuperSpeed USB Video Gains HDCP 2.0 Approval Tuesday 14th September, 2010 DisplayLink whose name is often synonymous with USB graphics has single-handedly created and virtually owned the market. (Though, this may change with the entry of SMSC.) At IDF 2010, the company is giving a glimpse of the its SuperSpeed USB video chip platform. Its DL-3000 single-chip solution now reportedly takes full advantage of bi-directional bandwidth by USB 3.0. This means not one but two full HD display outputs over the same compatible adapter. Current generation DL-195 can handle one 1080p display but it's not without compromise. You can hardly use it for fast-motion applications at full HD resolution. In contrast, a single DL-3000 IC can easily provides fluid HD video playback over dual display in addition to multi-channel audio and 3D capability. Perhaps the most important addition is the support for HDCP 2.0 for protected content compatibility. As with other DisplayLink ICs, the DL-3000 will likely find its way into a wide range of peripherals including notebook docks, mini monitors, mobile projectors, external video cards, thin clients and so on. Expect DL-3000 powered devices to ship as early as first half of next year. Permanent Link In USB Flash Drives News: BluLightning to Make All Flash Cards Use mini-USB 3.0 Connector Sunday 12th September, 2010 Some day archaeologists from the future will look back on the mess of connectors and memory standards and laugh themselves out our their rocket boots. The recently proposed BluLightning standard aims to take us out of the comically dark ages and remove most of the variety of memory card types. Instead of dealing with the wide compact flash connectors and any variety of tiny SD, SDHC, SDXC, Memory Stick, Duo, Micro, etc., the BluLighting standard hopes that every large capacity memory card will opt for a mini USB 3.0 connector. This will happily make card readers obsolete due to the card being easily attached to a simple mini-USB 3.0 cable. While the size and shape of the card may still offer a few variants the SuperSpeed bandwidth should be at least near term future-proof. While it also won't be able to compete with the tiniest of form factors it should at least offer a more suitable path for future developments. Let's hope manufacturers buy into this one and start designing to available and accepted interfaces instead of making up their own every time. Someone make sure Sony is paying attention. The BluLightning standard has only just been introduced as a concept but let's hope the light bulb flashes on and everyone gets behind this terribly obvious idea. Permanent Link In USB Video Capture / PVR & USB Video Cards News: Petite Nokia USB OTG Accessory Adds DVB TV Tuner to N8 Smartphone Sunday 12th September, 2010 If you own one of the top of the line Nokia cellular phones, Nokia has unwrapped a piece of gadget-candy that will let you get a little bit more out of it. The On-The-Go Mobile TV add-on cable plugs into Nokia's micro-USB port and brings you any available DVB-H signals available. This won't do you much good here in the states but the DVB digital TV broadcast standard is gaining a foothold in Asia and parts of Europe. DVB has seen tons of exposure in Korea and portable TV devices are quite commonplace. The tiny USB Mobile TV device is barely more than a cable in size, but has a 3.5mm headphone jack for TV sound. Once you are plugged in you can use the tiny controls on the connector to change the channel and turn the volume up and down. The price is also pretty tiny at roughly $50 as well as the DVB signal, where available, is freely broadcast into the air. If you happen to live in an area where you have access to DVB, the On-The-Go Mobile TV should be available for order by the end of the year. Permanent Link In Flatbed & Photo Scanners News: Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanners Get Amazing Anniversary Makeover Sunday 12th September, 2010 Celebrating their 50th anniversary, PFU Imaging Solutions is releasing a special edition of parent company Fujitsu's immensely popular ScanSnap Scanners. The USB powered, bulk document scanner has been lovingly draped in Urushi lacquer and gold accents. The new finish gives the ScanSnap S1500 and S1300 the look of antique Japanese woodwork. This lacquerware technique originated in PFU's home region in Japan centuries ago and they have imbued their pride in their history honoring and transcending their modern livelihood. The limited run of these refined scanners only blemish one aspect of their previous incarnations, the price. At up to $3,200, these will only likely make into the offices of their executives and as gifts to business partners instead of retail sales. If you share the love of either Fujitsu or computer components disguised as art, you may have to work very hard to get your hands on one. 10 of them will be given away in a lottery for anyone who buys one of the normal ScanSnap models or by entering at their website. That drawing will take place on November 10th. Anyone interesting in buying one of them direct will need to contact Fujitsu directly, in all likelihood these will only be made to order. Permanent Link In External Hard Drives News: LaCie Minimus & Rikiki Join USB 3.0 Drive Line-up Thursday 9th September, 2010 LaCie is no stranger to USB 3.0 as it has already started shipping SuperSpeed version of its Rugged portable drive. Specializing in designer peripherals, LaCie is pretty good at coming up with curious names for their arsenal of minimalist European style external storage. This pair of new mobile drives are no exception. The aptly-named Minimus and Rikiki are respectively the desktop version and notebook flavor of USB 3.0 storage. LaCie claims both Minimus and Rikiki are smallest of their kind. We would have to say Samsung S2 USB 3.0 is still the most compact in the portable 2.5" drive category as the said product is able to reduce size by integrating USB 3.0 controller into the drive. Though, we have to give LaCie credit for the fully recyclable, scratch-resistant brushed aluminum chassis, which compares favorably to other drives' flimsy plastic case. Better wait for some reviews before spending your hard earned cash on these as their respective product webpages contain no information on the transfer speed. Permanent Link In Smartphones News: Mophie Juice Pack Air is Back with iPhone 4 Compatibility Thursday 9th September, 2010 Mophie has debuted Juice Pack Air for iPhone 4. This is the follow-up to last year version that was tailor-made for both 3G and 3GS. Since the release of the original Juice Pack Air, a dozen or more competitors have emerged so Mophie's updated version no longer dominates the battery case niche market. There are however several things we like about the new Juice Pack Air. First of all, the Juice Pack Air form-fitting case doesn't ruin iPhone 4 design, mirroring the phone's silver streak. It even adds a layer of rubberized finish, making slippery iPhone 4 easier to grip than without the pack. It's all good until you start looking at it from the side. The Juice Pack does add considerable weight and thickness to your otherwise slim smartphone. Granted, the 1420mAh Li-Polymer battery pack is supposedly a lifesaver which can jumpstart a dead iPhone and recharge the battery to the fullest. With the Juice Pack Air, your iPhone 4 battery life effectively doubles to 11 hours of Internet browsing over 3G as opposed to just 6 hours without the pack. Video playback now lasts up to 19 hours rather than 10. The pack also acts as a virtual speaker box, redirecting sound from the iPhone's bottom to the front. The Mophie Juice Pack Air recharges through micro-USB. It costs $79.95 and is immediately available with free shipping option. Permanent Link In USB Technologies News: Intel to Announce USB 3.0 Support for Next Platform? Tuesday 7th September, 2010 Judging by the reactions of the media outlets, everyone seems to be overly excited by the rumor that Intel intends to launch its first native USB 3.0 silicon and to ship it with the Cougar Point reference motherboard. However, this doesn't necessarily mean Intel will integrate USB 3.0 into the chipset level. The reason for the change of heart could be that Intel sees Light Peak still has a long road ahead before it becomes a standard and that the chip giant probably wants a share in the lucrative discrete USB 3.0 solution market that is largely dominated by Renesas. To date, Renesas and Fresco Logic are shipping USB 3.0 host silicons in significant quantity. In fact, nearly all the USB 3.0 host chips shipped to Asus, Gigabyte and ASRock are from Renesas; only a small quantity comes from Fresco Logic. ASMedia, VLI and other IC makers seem to be having some problems with USB 3.0 driver stack, a major obstacle before they can get their chips approved by the USB-IF. Of course, if the rumor (i.e. chipset integration) is true, this coupled with AMD's confirmed plan to support USB 3.0 will most likely push the SuperSpeed interface towards mainstream a year earlier than expected. We are keeping our fingers crossed until IDF 2010. Permanent Link In USB Technologies News: SMSC ViewSpan 5G - First USB 3.0 Video Interface Tuesday 7th September, 2010 Finally, DisplayLink has met its match. SMSC Semiconductor said its ViewSpan 5G USB 3.0 remote graphics technology is ready for sampling. There's also a USB 2.0 version, but it isn't anything to write home about. Like DisplayLink's solution, SMSC ViewSpan 5G consists of a discrete USB device controller that connects to the display and a piece of software that handles the compression on a USB host system. Our best guess is that there would be now be less compression involved as USB 3.0 can provide at least 300MB/s of bandwidth to the USB video sub-system. If DisplayLink can manage 1080p with only USB 2.0, it only makes sense we can expect silk smooth video at beyond HD over multiple high-res monitors. Docking stations, secondary monitors, mini display, thin-clients will be the battleground for SMSC and DisplayLink. The former company also intends to integrate USB 3.0 display, Ethernet, audio and flash media into one chip in 2012. SMSC will be showcasing the ViewSpan 5G USB 3.0 interface during IDF 2010 beginning September 13th. Permanent Link In Gaming Headsets & USB Speakers News: Creative D220W Soundbar is Sound Blaster Wireless-friendly Tuesday 7th September, 2010 Besides Bluetooth, Creative is also embracing its proprietary 2.4Ghz RF for wireless music streaming. There's in fact an entire ecosystem bearing the Sound Blaster logo that includes a starter kit, a speaker set, a pair of headphones, a rock-lookalike waterproof speaker and now, a soundbar. The Creative D220W - unlike the D200 Bluetooth variant - receives lossless tunes from a USB dongle connected to either Mac or PC up to 100 feet away. The Sound Blaster Wireless doesn't piggyback WiFi so you don't have to worry about network congestion. Though, you may have to watch out if you have a lot of RF-based wireless gadgets. The Creative D220W soundbar has a pretty sleek form factor with a strong European styling. Encased in the glossy black shell are some high-end amplifiers and drivers that reportedly deliver deep bass and excellent sonic quality. But Creative didn't give us any specs for the speaker. For just $169.99 MSRP, the D220W is pretty affordable for wireless lossless music streaming considering the package already comes with the wireless USB transmitter. Permanent Link In USB Mice & Trackballs Review: SmartFish ErgoMotion Mouse Friday 3rd September, 2010 The number of people suffering from Repetitive Stress Injury and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is on the rise and so too is the number of “ergonomic” mice available in the marketplace. Ergonomic mice are certainly nothing new; however SmartFish and their ErgoMotion Laser Mouse is certainly a new twist on the old way of accomplishing things as it looks a heck of a lot like a normal mouse. As a sufferer of bilateral CTS my question is does it work and is their any downsides? Read on for my full review. Permanent Link In USB Technologies News: Samsung Certified Wireless USB Modules to Go Mass Production Friday 3rd September, 2010 Samsung is readying a new Certified Wireless USB solution that breathes new life into the dying UWB technology. The company cites the high-speed, low-power chipset - designated S3C2680/S5M8311 - will enable video content to be wirelessly streamed from a mobile electronics to a HDTV. Samsung has a diverse interest in consumer products to create their own eco system. If they want to, they could add the WUSB module into their arsenal of mobile headsets, cameras, HDTVs, notebooks, home theater, camcorders and etc. For Samsung WUSB solution to succeed, it must find its way into the company's smartphones, one of which can already sync video playback with HDTV. WiFi sucks too much battery to leave it on all the time. For this reason, Samsung WUSB module low consumption of less than 300mW should be appealing, but effective throughput is still an uncertainly. A high-end Toshiba laptop dock powered by Alereon manages to boast 1080p video output, though keep in mind that these docks usually aren't placed too far away from their host. Another potential market is the SD add-on whose primary competitor is the EyeFi. As of this writing, the chipset will go into mass production in Q4 yet there's no word on the pricing. Permanent Link In USB Webcams , Camcorders & Digital Cameras News: Sony Bloggie Touch Mini-camcorder Reminds us of a Smartphone Thursday 2nd September, 2010 Only one thing comes to mind after a glance at the new Sony Bloggie Touch: is it a smartphone? As the follow-up to last year's MHS-PM5, the $200 Sony Bloggie Touch MHS-TS20 shares the same minimalist design as an iPhone and a Google Nexus. The front of the handheld camcorder is dominated by a 3" 230k-dot capacitive touch screen. So you do most of the navigations through swiping. There's only one button below the LCD. The power button is on one side while the HDMI connector is on the other. The flip-out USB connector is revealed by pressing on the release latch. Unfortunately, there's neither removable battery nor expandable memory slot. You will find a nice big lens on top of its curvy back brushed metal casing. And that's clearly distinguishes the Bloggie Touch from the competitors. The f2.8 lens has much needed auto-focus and macro mode. It can also record panoramic video with ease at twice the resolution compared to previous Bloggie. Sony cites the Bloggie Touch's low-light performance to be equally impressive thanks to the Exmor CMOS sensor. The on-board accelerometer allows video to be shot in both landscape and portrait mode - a feature first found on iPhone. We are still waiting for a mini-camcorder that does 1080p60 for those fast motion recording, but 1080p30 and 720p60 will have to suffice for now until Sony decides to quadruple the built-in 8GB memory (4GB also available) to 32GB. Still, we would suggest you check out the formidable Xacti VPC-PD2 (hint: optical zoom, built-in flash) first before making a decision. Permanent Link In MP3 Players News: iPod nano Welcomes Multi-touch, Says Goodbye to Click-wheel Thursday 2nd September, 2010 After five generations of nano, Apple now dumps physical button navigation in favor of multi-touch interface. The iPod nano's form factor is long due for an update, but that click-wheel is obviously standing between miniaturization and innovation. So it's logical to let go of the wheel. This move could signal the end for the legendary click-wheel should Apple also decide to phase out the iPod classic in near future. There's a lot to like about the new 6th generation iPod nano. With a tiny 1.54" touch-sensitive display and a size not much bigger than the shuffle, it looks a lot like those cheap photo frame keychains. The software interface is completely revamped, resulting in something that is reminiscent of iPhone's home screen. You are allowed to have 4 pages, each of which contain 4 icons. Like the iPod touch and iPhone, you can customize each screen by moving these icons around. Trying to scroll through the song list is by swiping in either up or down direction. During playback, the album art dominates the entire screen. Apple did remove a few things, notably the camcorder, H.264 video playback, and ability to run iPod games. FM radio, pedometer and VoiceOver stay. There are now seven colors to choose from, down from nine of previous generation. iPod nano 8GB will retail for $149 and the 16GB for $179. From the looks of it, the capable yet compact iPod nano 6G could cannibalize iPod shuffle even if the latter is now only $49. Permanent Link In MP3 Players News: iPod touch 4 Almost Completely Matches Specs of iPhone 4 Wednesday 1st September, 2010 It isn't news that the touch has quickly overtaken nano as the most popular iPod. The Apple iPod touch has access to over 250,000 apps, many of which are games that go for less than $10 and some are even free. Now the iPod touch - as a portable game player - outsells combined worldwide sales of Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. In many ways, the iPod touch is just as important to Apple as iPhone. It isn't a surprise that Apple matches the new iPod touch 4 features with that of the infamous iPhone 4. Being only 0.28 inches thick, the fourth gen. iPod touch is basically razor-sharp version of iPhone 4, only without the phone part. The two now share the same Retina Display (another way to saying a 3.5" IPS-based LCD boasting 960 by 640 pixels); the same speedy Apple A4 chip; the same 3-axis gyroscope to make motion tracking more accurate; ability to record 720p video with its back camera; and ability to run FaceTime with its front camera. The iPod touch 4 will have iOS 4.1 built-in. However, future updates for touch will likely not be free whereas iPhone 4 will definitely get 'patches' and major iOS as free download. Pre-orders are available right now. 8GB will go for $229; 32GB for $299; and 64GB for $399. Curiously, Apple skipped 16GB altogether. Permanent Link

August 2010

In External Hard Drives Review: ioSafe SoloPRO Waterproof / Fireproof USB 3.0 Hard Drive Tuesday 31st August, 2010 While most external storage customers don't mind the fact their data is more vulnerable than if it was inside because of the added convenience / portability it offers; there is a group of people who want MORE protection than simply sticking the drive inside a case. For this group IoSafe has many makes and models. One such model is the 1TB SoloPro USB 3.0 model, which boasts not only tank like amour chassis, but water AND fire proof abilities! Lets see how good this tank really is! Read on for my full review. Permanent Link In Gaming Headsets & USB Speakers News: Logitech Z305 Laptop Speaker - A Bus-powered 360-degree Sound Bar Tuesday 31st August, 2010 Those hoping to turn a netbook into a portable movie theater are setting themselves up for disappointment. Those severely underpowered netbook speakers are so lame that they alone create a new aftermarket opportunity for audio upgrades. As a follow-up to the Z205 clip-on speakers, Logitech's Laptop Speaker Z305 sound bar is a no-brainer way to give any netbook a boost. The extremely lightweight Logitech Z305 attaches to the back of the screen. This design is different than say the Z205 in that the Z305's speakers are actually facing away from the user. Logitech cites this bus-powered speaker projects sound more uniformly in all directions. Both forward- and backward-firing drivers provide sound output that is more tonally balanced. So you won't hear high and mid frequencies dropping out when you move to the side of the speaker. All Logitech wanted to do is to make a 360-degree sound system, but everything is still marketing hype for now. Still, let's hope the $59.99 is worth every penny.