One of the limitations we felt when we reviewed the Kingston Wi-Drive was that its space was limited to 32GB. The good news today is that Kingston has heard us. Admittedly, it’s not as big as the Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite offering but Kingston basically doubled the storage with the new variant reaching up to 64GB. Kingston hasn’t revealed the price or the availability but promises to release it soon.

Furthermore, Kingston also released a firmware update for its existing Wi-Drive devices that adds support for browsing content via the web browser.

For the uninitiated, Wi-Drive wirelessly expands the storage of any Wi-Fi-enabled device and communicates with it over the wireless network. Kingston currently has a dedicated app for the iOS as well as Android OS.

Firmware Update

With download speeds increasing amongst smartphones and tablets thanks to the adoption of LTE networks, having a storage that is able to write and read at fast speeds has become equally important. Thus, Samsung today announced that they’ve started mass producing Ultra High Speed-1 (UHS-1) cards that are apt for such devices.

Samsung says their first UHS-1 microSD card can reach sequential read speeds to up to 80MB/s which is almost 4 times faster than the current generation of high-speed microSD cards.

The microSD card will come in 16GB capacity that uses 20nm-class 64Gb chip with toggle DDR 2.0 support.

Samsung will also offer 32GB UHS-1 microSD cards later this year.

RIM today announced a new accessory to complement its maiden tablet. The BlackBerry Mini Keyboard is compatible with BlackBerry PlayBook and doubles up as a stand to give it a laptop-like form factor. Another advantage is the integration of a multi-touch touchpad that not only functions as a regular mouse but also supports Playbook gestures.

RIM says the keyboard connects securely over Bluetooth to PlayBook and has a battery life of up to 30 days.

The keyboard can be pre-ordered for US$119.99.

Press Release

We are big fans of Just Mobile here at Tech Ticker. The company is known for creating accessories that are not only useful but are aesthetically pleasing as well, complementing the shiny Apple gadgets. Their latest accessory to attract the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners is the Highway car charger which we took out for a spin to see if it’s worth for your car’s dashboard.

Design is one of the elements Just Mobile puts a lot of effort in and the Highway, no matter how small and limited in use, has been designed after some thought. The company calls it as a “chic in-car charger” and we tend to agree. The device comes in dual toned design with matte black finish that goes into the cigarette lighter socket whereas reveals only the diamond-tread aluminum head. The aluminum head also sports a small LED signifying the status of the charger. In fact, Highway has been awarded Good Design and iF Product Design 2012 awards for its simple design.

Highway is a car charger and it works as intended but there are few things that set it apart from the competition. For instance, Highway’s USB port delivers an output of 2.1A which is perfect for charging high-powered gadgets like iPad. For devices like iPhone and iPod touch the output will help the gadget to charge faster.

Another peculiar thing about Highway is the built-in fuse. Integrated fuse enables gadget protection from unexpected power surges.

Highway has a normal USB port, which means the accessory is not exclusive to Apple devices only. We hooked our Galaxy S II, Nexus S and all charged up pretty fine. However, since Just Mobile predominantly targets the Apple audience, Highway is bundled with a coiled Apple-certified charging cable.

Just Mobile has priced Highway at $34.95 plus shipping charges and although it is expensive for a car charger, Highway brings in some interesting features that are generally missing in another car charger.

Product Page

Rating:
Pros: Design, 2.1A USB port output
Cons: Slightly expensive

Sony has announced speedier memory cards that support the new XQD specification. The recently approved and licensed format from CompactFlash Association, XQD cards are touted for its speed and performance that can capture up to 100 frames in RAW format in continuous shooting mode.

The new XQD card from Sony is compatible with Nikon’s D4 DSLR that promises to give a write and read speed of up to 1Gbps and 125MB/s respectively.

Sony XQD card will be available in 16GB and 32GB capacities at a price of $129.99 and $229.99.

We’ve been Zagg fans for quite some time, thanks to its ultimate gadget protector — Invisible Shield. But this is the first time we are reviewing an accessory from Zagg, which isn’t guarding us from scratches or any other untowardness. We take a look at the newly announced ZAGGkeys FLEX Keyboard for iOS and Android devices.

Design:

The fact that the new Zagg keyboard is an Honoree in the Designs and Engineering category for CES 2012 speaks for itself. In addition to bundling just a keyboard, Zagg ships the wireless keyboard with a case for the keyboard or can double up as a kickstand for the gadget (read tablet) you’re typing on.

The keyboard is made of plastic, which makes it very light and portable to carry. The case on the other hand, adopts a rubbery texture on the outside to give a grip to the gadgets while acting as a stand and has a velvet-material on the inside.

Overall, the complete package is portable that makes it easy to tuck the external keyboard in a small bag.

Performance:
Keyboards on the Mac are one of the best in the industry and this offering from Zagg tries to emulate it and to be honest, it does a very good job. The keys are nicely spaced; tactile feedback is good and can be set to take advantage of iOS or Android-centric features with dedicated buttons. The keyboard has an iOS-Android switch that a user can select, depending on the device.

One thing I would like to note is that the keyboard boasts almost universal compatibility with devices. I tried using the keyboard with HP TouchPad and it worked just fine except it can’t execute certain commands specific to the webOS.

As far as battery goes, ZAGGkeys FLEX has a built-in battery that can be charged via a regular microUSB cable. The battery life is very impressive, which is about 30 days of standby time and usage of more than 20 hours.

The keyboard case which also doubles up as a device stand is good but the viewing angle when the device is placed, is restricted.

Conclusion:
With the increased usage of iPad and Android tablets, most consumers have started to use it as an important communication device and though the touch-enabled keyboard works just fine, it cannot beat the usability of a physical keyboard. Make it portable just like the one Zagg has created and you’ve got an ultimate combination.

It retails for $79.99.

Product Page

Rating:
Pros: Excellent Keyboard, Lightweight, Battery Life
Cons: Restricted viewing angle of gadget on the case

Smartphones and tablets have become an integral part of our lives. We create as well as consume an equal amount of content on our mobile devices. Thus having ample storage on the device has become a must. However, with devices like iPhone, iPad or the recent Galaxy Nexus Android phone, users face an issue of limited storage with no external expansion slot. To solve such issues, Kingston has come with a solution called the Wi-Drive.

Wi-Drive basically expands the storage wirelessly so a user can access all the content on his mobile device without having to attach anything to the device. However, Wi-Drive is just not an portable storage device, but its very well pocketable, almost like an iPhone 3G. But is expanding storage wirelessly worth it? We take a look.

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Read the rest of Kingston Wi-Drive Review (548 words)

Creative announced that their EP-series noise-isolation earphones are now available in India, including the EP-660 and EP-600. The EP-series boasts noise-isolation technology that prevents ambient noise and gives users an unmatched listening experience.

The EP-660 and EP-600 comes with a high-quality Neodymium driver to deliver crystal clear playback with deep bass and are designed ergonomically that are suitable for prolonged sessions of music listening. Additionally, the EP-660 features a tilt-pipe acoustic chamber for improved music reproduction.

The EP-series earphones start from an affordable Rs. 700 and goes up to Rs. 1,499. EP-600 and EP-660 are priced at Rs. 899 and Rs. 1,499 respectively.

In addition to unveiling the sleek and sexy Moto RAZR, Motorola also announced a new lifestyle device that combines fitness tracking and music player in one. Dubbed as MOTOACTV, the device is reminiscent to Apple’s iPod nano but comes with a belt that allows wearing on a wrist.

MOTOACTV is equipped with AccuSense and GPS that tracks exact time, distance, speed, heart rate and calories burned which then can be uploaded on motoactv.com.

As for its music prowess, MOTOACTV comes in capacity of 8 or 16GB that can store up to 4,000 songs and has a smart music player that learns what tracks motivate the user by measuring the performance against the music. Moreover, there’s FM Radio as well, in case a user does not want to hear the loaded music.

Other features include a 1.6-inch touchscreen display with Gorilla Glass, Bluetooth 4.0, Android device sync support to receive incoming calls and messages and up to 10 hours of battery life.

MOTOACTV is currently on pre-order for $249 (8GB) and $299 (16GB) respectively and will be available from November 6.

Product Page

Creative, off late has been very aggressive in launching wireless portable devices. Latest to add it to their product list are the WP-450, WP-350 and WP-250 Bluetooth music listening and voice communication headphones with invisible mic. Compatible with iPod, iPhone and other smart phones, the WP-series of headphones deliver high quality music, claims Creative.

“We designed the Creative WP-Series of headphones to provide the highest quality wireless voice communications and music playback, so anyone with a smartphone can experience much clearer calling and excellent audio playback quality from just one set of headphones,” said Ernest Sim, Regional Sales Manager for the Indian Subcontinent at Creative Technology Ltd.

The Creative WP-350 and WP-450 headphones offers music playback up to 8 hours and talk time up to 9 hours, supports apt-X Bluetooth codec and comes with on-ear music and call controls. The headphones can be charged via USB cable.

The Creative WP-450, Creative WP-350 and Creative WP-250 headphones are priced at Rs.7,999, Rs.5,999 and Rs.3,599 respectively.