Articles

Roku XR February 4, 2010 - Most people should have heard about the ease of use that the Netflix streaming service provides. One of the major components of this ease of use would be the set top boxes that provide the service on TVs. Roku was the original and is still the best way to get streaming Netflix to your TV, right now. Read full article

CES 2010 Wrap Up January 22, 2010 - The year is 2010 and CES is now over. The exhibitor count was even less than last year, even though attendance was a bit higher. There were some interesting bits, but most of the fancy 3D TVs are just so-so technology. We take out some of the very interesting things seen on the show floor. Read full article

Kingston MobileLite G2 FCR-MLG2+SD4/16GB December 24, 2009 - Most consumer electronic products that use flash memory have moved to SD/SDHC media and with the convergences comes products that can be smaller and portable. Kingston produced an update to the original MobileLite brand of portable card reader known as the MobileLite G2 and this is the focus of the review. Read full article

Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ 16GB USB Flash December 11, 2009 - Tax documents, company memos and even personal files are just some of the things that you might not want others to be able to see. With those security needs in mind, Kingston has created the DataTraveler Locker+, and ASE Labs has the 16GB model up for review. Read full article

D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router December 8, 2009 - Take a router, a NAS, and a picture frame. Now smash it together. What is the end result? The D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router. This convergence device matches a router with a LCD picture frame and even manages to squeeze in a drive based NAS as well. Read full article

Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive November 24, 2009 - SSDs are here to stay. What changes is the segment they can be used in. Kingston has a new approach to a new product in the SSDNow V Series line; The SSD is the boot drive while your spindle drive takes care of all the large amounts of data. You can get the best of both worlds. Read full article

Puretrak Mousepads November 15, 2009 - While mousepads may be dull and boring, there are a few things that you should be concerned about when purchasing one. ASE Labs has always had a fondness for nice mousepads ever since we got a Duke Nukem 3D mousepad way back when... Times have certainly changed and now you see pads that cost an arm and a leg. Thankfully, some companies offer quality products along with a good price. Puretrak is one of those companies. Read full article

Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard October 15, 2009 - Logitech's newest gaming keyboard, the G19, has been released with much praise from reviewers. The color LCD and ability to change the backlighting color of the keys are just some of the features of this new gaming keyboard. Unfortunately, the keyboard seems to have taken a step back in one area critical to the intended use... the typing ability is worse than the older G15. The keyboard may pack a bunch of cool features, but is it worth it with that glaring problem? Read full article

Logitech diNovo Edge Mac Edition October 10, 2009 - Media center setups are now a part of many homes, and with that comes the need to have good input devices to handle the functionality of the setup. Logitech steps forward with the diNovo Edge and really brings home what it means to be a major player in the input device market. This product does pretty much everything right. Read full article

Kingston SSDNow V Series 128GB September 2, 2009 - Kingston has waited a long time before entering the SSD market. Was it worth the wait? The SSDNow V Series shows what a low priced SSD can be given the proper time for the bugs to be worked out. Consumers should be thankful that Kingston waited until the SSD was mature enough to be brought to market with a low price controller. Kingston's brand name still stands strong unlike those of other companies that rushed out SSDs only to have problem after problem. Read full article

Cables To Go Trulink 4-Port Wireless USB and Adapter Kit July 22, 2009 - Where is wireless USB right now? No, it isn't the prime time technology it really should be. The original standard promised that wireless USB would be the THE protocol for many other technologies. It isn't there, yet. It might not ever be as good as promise or even implemented into products. Regardless, there are companies providing support for the fledgling standard to get on the ground floor when it finally takes off. Cables To Go provides a great kit to intro wireless USB. Read full article

G-Cube Mini G Laser Mouse July 6, 2009 - G-Cube is a new company that produces myriad peripherals designed by women for female computer users. The G-Laser wired and retractable mouse appears small and cute while in the package, but we're going to find out if this mouse is all looks or actually performs like a champ. Read full article

Antec Nine Hundred Two June 30, 2009 - Well known as a heavyweight in the enthusiast community, Antec has been pushing out quality products for over two decades. As the successor to the renowned Nine Hundred, the Nine Hundred Two boasts an all black interior and a few other enhancements. Is it worth replacing the classic, or is this just another case to ignore? Read full article

Cables To Go TruLink 4-Port VGA/USB KVM June 3, 2009 - While KVMs have already invaded the server room and every datacenter, the home market is just getting into the mold of having multiple computers that are more server than workstation and the need to have multiple monitors and input devices becomes less of an issue. Enter the KVM for home use and Cables To Go is easily at home in the server room as well. Read full article

Callpod Fueltank Portable Charger May 21, 2009 - We live in a wireless world. Everyday, people use portable devices to browse the internet, make calls, listen to music, and more. All those individual devices use up considerable power. What do you do when you aren't near an outlet? The Callpod Fueltank is a simple solution to this problem. Read full article

D-Link DSM-210 Photo Frame May 13, 2009 - While there are many homes that have digital photo frames, not many of them own a piece of technology that can get information off of the internet. The D-Link DSM-210 takes the concept of a digital photo frame and expands its use for everyday functionality. No longer is the photo frame an eye catcher for company when useful information is being displayed such as the latest news and weather reports. The DSM-210 is a perfect addition to the digital home. Read full article

Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB HDD WD20EADS April 28, 2009 - A very long time ago, "experts" in the technology field shouted that the end of magnetic storage was soon to be. It was at the release of the pre-Gigabyte drives that those experts said that magnetic storage would hit a wall in terms of density and the entire storage solution would move to flash. Western Digital scoffs at those so-called "experts" to release a brand new Caviar Green 2TB drive. While those same experts were wrong about magnetic storage limits (for now), SSDs are the future of computer only due to the non-moving parts and high transfer speeds. That being said, magnetic storage brings the highest density possible in the same form factor. SSDs can't touch this yet. Read full article

Otterbox Defender Blackberry Storm Case April 15, 2009 - When RIM released the Blackberry Storm a decision was made to not include a holster packaged with the phone. While there are many solutions to this problem, OtterBox steps in with the Defender series of cases specifically made for the Storm. Combining overall case protection in addition to the holster, this case can take some punishment and is a worthy compliment to the Storm itself. Read full article

Honeywell Airlite 740 Bluetooth Headset March 27, 2009 - With bluetooth headsets becoming nearly as common as the cell phones they are designed to complement, it can be easy for a good product to be lost among all others. With that in mind, Honeywell CE has recently released the Airlite 740; a stylish product that also manages to combine good performance with an acceptable price. Read full article

Crucial Tracer Red 6GB Triple PC3-12800 BL3KIT25664TR1608 March 23, 2009 - The introduction of the Core i7 platform has ushered in a new wave of triple channel memory kits. ASE Labs has been waiting and asking for the new Crucial Ballistix Tracer Red DDR3 kits for some time and it seems that Crucial has waited for this pivotal time to release them. The new Tracer Red 6GB PC3-12800 kit brings new LED patterns and easy to use XMP profiles for simple setting of the 8-8-8-21-2T timings. Read full article

LiteON SATA DVD-RW 22x March 17, 2009 - There are a few trends in computing technology that are happening now. One of them seems to be the moving away from optical media in favor of some type of flash memory. While the death of optical media may be premature, the majority of boxed hardware comes specifically on this type of media. Optical drives are here to stay for a bit longer and LITEON's latest 22x iHAS422 is a good drive to own. Read full article

Honeywell SecuraDrive RFID March 7, 2009 - ASE Labs has taken a close look at Honeywell's new SecuraDrive. These slim USB hard drives will be released as 250GB and 500GB units. A simple wave of the little RFID tag over the drive, activates and deactivates the AES 128 bit encryption, ensuring that private data is kept secure. Read full article

Kingston HyperX PC2-8500 4GB KHX8500D2T1K2/4G February 23, 2009 - DDR3 has been out for a pretty long time already and even though a majority of enthusiasts currently run systems that utilize DDR3, the majority of systems are still running on DDR2. DDR2 is the mainstream technology and has a price point to match. The KHX8500D2T1K2/4G kit comes with brand new heat-spreaders and good performance for a 4GB DDR2 kit. Read full article

Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 February 14, 2009 - The market for graphics cards centers around price to performance. While high-end cards capture the eye of the press, it is the job of the mainstream graphics card to capture the entire market. The 4600 series from ATI is targeted to the mainstream crowd and the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 has just been refreshed with GDDR4 and a faster memory speed. The time to buy may be now. Read full article

Antec Skeleton February 3, 2009 - Antec is one of the most respected and well known case manufactures in the computer industry. They make a variety of cases that satisfy the OEM crowd as well as the enthusiast niche. The Skeleton is a completely unique design and the term "case" really doesn't describe the enclosure that well. This case is made to really show off your components. Read full article

Kingston 19-in-1 USB Card Reader FCR-HS219/1 January 28, 2009 - Kingston manufacturers a number of consumer electronic devices that have to do with memory. The main business of Kingston is memory and every enthusiast knows that Kingston makes enthusiast RAM for overclocking. That market segment is quite small compared to consumer electronics in general and the Kingston 19-in-1 USB card reader really shines with good features you don't see elsewhere. Read full article

Core i7: Memory Speed January 26, 2009 - The Intel Core i7 CPU promises new performance levels with increased memory utilization and other new features. The benefits of an on die memory controller really made AMD systems shine when it was first released. While memory speeds have been increasing, it really doesn't matter if the system isn't running at the highest memory speed possible. Yes, it is better, but not by much. Read full article

CES 2009: End Of Days January 21, 2009 - CES 2009 may have come and gone, but there was a few items in the last day of the show that caught our interest at ASE Labs. While the entire show was very light, there were some spotlights. Read full article

Intel X25-M SSD January 20, 2009 - Solid state disk technology is one of the best things to happen to computers and Intel hits a home run with the X25-M SSD. Read full article

CES 2009: Half-time Report January 10, 2009 - CES 2009 reflects the situation that started in September of last year. It is really telling of where the world stands now. Read full article