Although hearing this thing on video is probably the only review you need, where’s the harm in taking a more in-depth look at the rest of the Zen Wav? Apparently sharing our sentiments, the folks over at AnythingButiPod were able to snag a unit to test, and while it did point out that there’s really nothing outstanding here beyond the integrated speakers and MSC support, we’re sure there’s a niche who’d find that enough to warrant a purchase. As you’d probably expect, design and construction were ho hum, controls were basic and lacking a dedicated volume button(s), the FM tuner was deemed “solid,” and the rest of the amenities (photo viewing, sound quality, video playback, etc.) seemed satisfactory enough. Overall, Creative’s Zen Wav looks alright if you’re particularly interested in the unique features it offers, but if you’re not mesmerized by built-in drivers or the MSC connection, you’ll likely be served better by something else.
LaCie is apparently looking to grab video editors’ attention with the introduction of its latest RAID tower, which comes stocked with 5TB of storage and is scalable to up to 20TB for HD multi-stream support. The 5TB Biggest S2S five-disk RAID boasts a 3Gbit/sec eSATA interface, direct eSATA-to-SATA connection, burst rates of over 200MB/sec, and the ability to link up with three other S2S units on the eSATA PCI-X / ExpressCard to achieve the aforementioned 20TB solution. Furthermore, the disks are hot-swappable and the tower is hot-pluggable, and it can even be setup to beam out email alerts in the event of disk failure. The 5TB S2S is available now for $3,699 with a PCI-X card, or you can toss in an extra Benjamin and go for the PCI-E bundle.
As if there weren’t enough options to cram underneath your Mac mini, here’s yet another. NewerTech is introducing its miniStack NAS enclosure, which can be pre-configured with as much as 750GB of storage, and should fit quite well above or below your mini. The box sports Ethernet / USB 2.0 ports, PC and Mac support, Ximeta’s NDAS 2011 network chipset, LED status lights, auto power on / off, and “intelligent thermal monitoring for minimal fan power consumption.” For those interested in adding their own HDD, the device itself can be snagged for $79.99, while ordering with a hard drive already included will run you up to $329.99 depending on capacity.
The US military has already upped the arsenal of its robots deployed in Iraq, and it now looks to be planning to expand its non-human forces even further, with it recently putting out word of a competition to find a company that can quickly deliver a slew of new bots. According to Wired’s Danger Room, these new robots won’t be armed, but will instead mainly be used for reconnaissance duty, and must include the ability to look inside car windows and peer underneath vehicles. Due to the urgent need for the bots, the Army’s done away with the usual formal bid process and will effectively be awarding a contract on the spot to the winner of the competition, who will be required to deliver its first bots within ten days. The Army then hopes to have 1,000 new reconnaissance bots by the end of the year, with another 2,000 planned for the next five years. As Danger Room reports, iRobot seems to be the favorite to win the competition, especially considering the requirement get the bots off the assembly line as quickly as possible.
Just months after displaying Dahan T&S’ 120-inch multi-touch panel, the firm is now showing off its 42-inch widescreen LCD that incorporates the same technology. This living-room-friendly display contains “multi-dot recognition functions to control image size and direction by [using your] fingers,” meaning that a single press will translate into a left-click, while using two fingers will replicate a right-click. No word on resolution, price, or a release date just yet, but click on if you’re down with a couple more pics.
Option has already done quite a bit of bragging about its various HSUPA and HSDPA offerings, but it looks like the company now has one more cause to pat itself on the back, as its GlobeTrotter Express HSUPA card has netted the all-important FCC approval. According to the company, that makes it the first such card to do so, paving the way for it to be released in the U.S. Apart from the ExpressCard form factor, however, the card is pretty much in line with the company’s HSUPA USB adapter, with it boasting 7.2 Mbps download speeds and upload speeds approaching 2 Mbps, along with support for tri-band UMTS operation and compatibility with quad-band EDGE and GPRS. While there’s nothing to hold it back now, there unfortunately still doesn’t appear to be any word on a price or release date.