D-Link Takes Networking Up a Notch
The folks at D-Link have been hard at work networking things like digital photo frames and they don’t make a bad wireless N router either. While at CES, we spotted a couple of other goodies that will make life easier for some of us.
Although Powerline Networking is definitely a great alternative to wireless, even that has it’s own set of hurdles. I mean, if you use all the power plugs, how do you plug stuff in? Well, D-Link has answered that with a new coaxial based networking product called the D-Link DXN-221. It takes your ethernet and runs it through the existing television cable in your home and provides up to 100Mbps of bandwidth (MoCA 1.0). A firmware upgrade down the road will get you up to 175Mbps (Moca 1.1).
D-Link has simplified network storage as well as wireless and wired connectivity with the DIR-685 Xtreme N router. The product takes a standard SATA 2.5 inch hard drive via a hatch on the side and immediately offers it up as a network storage device. You can then use it to backup all your data or view your photos with the included 3.2 inch color LCD screen. There’s even FTP access and you can use the two included USB ports share printers or other external storage devices like a DROBO for instance. All of this is packed into a package no bigger than a standard router which makes it almost ideal to carry around with you when you travel to trade shows like CES.
The Empire Strikes Back
CES wouldn’t be CES without Microsoft. There had been some rumors about Windows Mobile 7, a Zune Phone, and a portable Xbox. None of those came to pass at CES 2009, but Microsoft still had a pretty big gun to unleash onto the crowd.
The big news to come out of Microsoft was the public beta release of Windows 7, the official successor to Microsoft Windows Vista. From an aesthetic point of view, Windows 7 is pretty similar to Vista, but it does bring many neat innovations into the mix. For example, a minimized window gets reduced to a simple icon on the taskbar rather than a block with some text. Hovering over this, you get a preview of what that minimized window contains, not unlike what you get in a Mac OS X environment. Did I mention that it feels faster than bloated Vista?
A couple of other features that I thought were pretty neat were the automatic split-screen snapping of windows and the automatic ability to stretch a window to its vertical maximum. With the first, you simply drag the window of choice off the left side of the screen and it will automatically “snap” to fill the left half of the display. Grab another window and “snap” it to the right, and you effectively have a perfect split-screen effect. This can be incredibly useful for editors, photo geeks, and other people who need to see two windows at once.
The vertical stretching is also cool. If you stretch a window to the top of the screen, the bottom of the window will automatically stretch to the bottom of the screen. You can tell I’m really excited about this new OS. If you want a taste of your own, Microsoft has released the public BETA and you can go download it here.
There’s definitely no shortage of stuff for PC Gamers and Enthusiasts at CES 2009. Keep your eyes on the front page as we continue our brain dump. More pictures from all these visits on the next page in the gallery.
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