Gadget Update: USB 3.0 is coming right at you

Hehehey! MacPCWiz‘s 2nd Gadget Update coming right at you. (boo yah!) In this issue we feature a couple of computers plus a few interesting gadgets for you. Hold on tight, enjoy the ride.

LG’s BD590 – First Blu-ray player with inegrated hard drive

The LG BD590 - Blu-ray player with hard drive storage

First up is LG‘s new Blu-ray player BD590, touted to be the first Blu-ray player to have hard drive storage. From our estimation, it certainly is one of the first to offer HDD storage. Note to all of you, and I’m sure you thought it too — this does NOT rip commercially produced DVD and Blu-ray movie discs. We will forgive you for thinking along those lines, though. It will rip music CDs, and can store any video file you transfer into it via the USB or Ethernet port. It is WiFi capable as well.

First seen at Gizmodo.com.

A Netbook with an internal optical drive

Frontier's UX6 - netbook with DVD burner

Frontier‘s new UX6 definitely is a netbook in form — it has a 10-inch screen and weighs just under 3 pounds, so portability is not a question at all. They’ve built an internal DVD burner into the form factor as well, so you won’t need an external DVD burner like one of our DIGISTOR USB DVD burners.

One may think that this is a novel idea, only that we feel it isn’t, really. It’s been done before, in a technology called… uhhh, laptops? This again just gives fire to that argument that sooner or later, the distinction that netbooks have will soon be gone. And after all, at US$644, you probably could get a netbook with a 12-inch screen and slightly more powerful specs.

Seen at MiniFrag.com.

Steadicam for your iPhone

Steadicam for iPhone camera junkies

Are you into using your iPhone camera that much? Like, doing home movies and really serious movie stuff? Yeah, we thought as much. But if you are one of those that love your iPhone camera that way, this one is for you.

The Steadicam is an iPhone accessory that is meant to steady your shots, giving you jitter-free video output. It seems like an interesting idea, at best. But from the looks of it, it’s not really a “carry it around” deal. You can carry your iPhone around, but you can’t exactly just whip this one out when you need it, eh?

First seen at UberGizmo.com.

HP releases one of the first USB 3.0 laptops

HP's Envy 15 Quad Core USB 3.0 laptops

Yeah, that USB 3.0 train is gaining a bit of momentum, and there is definitely going to be a lot of business in that direction soon. HP looks to provide some of the early jumpers a taste of that 5Gbps data transfer speed. (Say it with us, “5 Gbps!!!!”) This feature is an optional add on to some of the Envy 15  quad core notebook variants. There may not be a lot of USB 3.0 gadgets around, and Intel doesn’t even have a USB 3.0 chipset out yet, but soom my loves, very soon…

(Check out this USB 3.0 Blu-ray burner that we featured a while back.)

Again from UberGizmo.com.

And still on USB 3.0…

The Active Atomix SuperSpeed USB 3.0 adapter

Active Atomix USB 3.0 Adapter

This one is an early jumper delight. At $35-$40 US, you can get your USB 3.0 fix with Active Atomix’s SuperSpeed USB 3.0 adapter. You will be able to use this on your desktop or laptop, apparently, since it comes in PCIe and Express Card versions. If you bought for yourself one of those USB 3.0 external hard drives and just can’t wait to get the top speed on it, this adapter is probably the best USB 3.0 deal at the moment.

First seen at UberGizmo.com.

There you have it, this weekend’s gadget update. See you guys on the flipside.