The IOGEAR Powerline Stereo Audio System connects your iPod or other audio input device to speakers in a different room through the magic of electricity, avoiding all the cancer enducing radio waves that pollute our air. The base station has an iPod dock, with several brackets included in the box to ensure your specific iPod model fits snugly, as well RCA jacks and a 3.5 mm input jack. The audio signal is sent through your home electrical wiring to the remote unit, which plugs directly into the outlet and connects to your powered speakers by RCA jacks.

Read More

Normally about $80 to $100, Office Max has the IOGEAR Mobile Digital Scribe for $60 until October 18th. The device captures your writing from just about any normal paper surface (up to Letter or A4 size) and then digitizes it to be archived on your computer. You can also hook the Mobile Digital Scribe directly up to your computer and record your handwriting in real time. Seems like a great gadget for note-taking students or anyone who has a “real” job with meetings and whatnot.

[via dealnews]

What is with all these computer peripherals lately?

IOGEAR is betting all you collegians are going to need a bong-proof-keyboard so they’ve come out with their own spill-resistant keyboard that has a drainage hole, hot keys, thin design and a detachable rubber-coated wrist rest. Packaged with said keyboard is an 800dpi optical mouse that has back and forward buttons. Yay! This combo is only $30.

The Bluetooth Tilt Wheel Laser mouse, however, adds a bit more oomph allowing you to change sensitivity between 400-, 800- 1200- and 1600dpi with no drivers! The Tilt connects over Bluetooth (duh) and comes with an extra rechargeable battery. Along with a beefier feature set comes a bigger price tag at $70.

Damn, if you squint your eyes you just may be able to see the Iogear DVI Net ShareStation. It’s a small box you put onto your home network that then lets up to six different computers share the same monitor. (You plug the monitor into the box, then the box into the network.) It supports resolutions up to 1600×1200, so you’re not sacrificing too much screen real estate by sharing with your amigos.

If you’re so inclined, you can add an additional monitor to the whole setup by plugging one into the USB port.

It debuts at the CEDIA trade show (lots of home entertainment goodies) next week. Maybe by then we won’t need the Hubble to see it.
Read More

IOGEAR may win today’s award for “most innovative products announced on a single day” first with their USB Laptop KVM and now this, Wireless USB to VGA kit. The latter of those two happens to be exactly what it sounds like, as it allows users to wirelessly extend a VGA signal up to 30-feet. So far only Windows XP and Vista users need apply, but for those that do, IOGEAR makes it sound as easy as plug-n-play. The wireless signal is encrypted with AES 128-bit security and transmits a respectable UXGA or WSXGA+ signal. Those salivating for this wireless solution can pick one up next month for $229.

via wireless-iogear-vga (PDF)

I’m a huge KVM fan. I followed them all through high school and was really upset when the broke up. Not a lot of people could do proto-punk-reggae like those guys and even 311 don’t hold a candle to their work. That said, this is another kind of KVM. It’s essentially a USB cable that you connect to two computers. The host computer can then bring up the guest computer’s desktop and you can drag and drop files back and forth.

When would you use this thing? If you had a PC at home and wanted to connect a laptop, for example, or if you wanted to run multiple PCs at once. It is a true Keyboard-Video-Mouse switch simply because you use the host’s keyboard to control the guest.

The $129.95 device is available now and even has a midpoint USB slot for adding external storage or a printer.

Read More

I don’t know why this isn’t a standard at this point. We’ve all got a ton of systems, inputs, outputs, displays, so we need a switcher, obviously. But we’ve also got a nice place to sit and maybe a romantic interlude happening so maybe we’d rather not get up to switch the switch from one’s Netflox 360 to one’s Al Green CD, or perhaps one’s Vudu porn box, depending on the circumstances. It’d be nice at those times to have this simple little IOGear A/V switcher remote setup with spots for four HDMI outputs.

Unfortunately for me, I’m kind of a last-generation guy, so I’d need spots for component, composite, and DVI, but for those of you with lots of HDMI-compatible devices, this seems like a no-brainer. It costs $90 and should be available now. Kind of expensive but honey, you deserve it. [via Blast]

Looking to share USB devices across your home network? Got $80? Then pick up the IOGEAR USB Net ShareStation. The product’s website says, “Users may not achieve optimum audio/video streaming performance when connecting to the USB Net ShareStation through a wireless Ethernet router,” but I loaded up a 1080p WMV file and streamed it via wireless just fine. You can hook up external drives, a 4-port USB hub, a webcam, a printer, or just about any other USB device.

IOGEAR USB Net ShareStation [IOGEAR.com]

In the spirit of summertime travel, IOGEAR has given us three GearJuice Mobile Pocket Power systems to give away. Each kit consists of a lightweight and rechargeable battery pack capable of recharging small devices like MP3 players and cell phones. The kits come with seven interchangeable power tips to charge devices that use Sony Ericsson, Samsung, USB, mini-USB, and Nokia ports.

To win, simply leave a comment at the end of this post with a short, quick story about the worst time one of your gadgets ran out of power. Stuck in the middle of nowhere with car trouble and a dead phone? Hired to take photos at a wedding when your camera’s battery ran dry? Grab a non-working flashlight before being chased through the woods? That kind of stuff.

We’ll pick the three best ones this Friday and ship the GearJuice kits out to the winning storytellers. Good luck and have fun.

UPDATE: The contest is over. Here are the winners. Congrats!

Dan

depends on how much you stretch the term gadget.

My first car used to like to play tricks on me. I would drive around doing what ever it is that kids do. and every now and then then engine just wouldn’t turn over. 3 of the 5 times it happened a friend was with me. We decided to pass time by hitting a tennis ball in the parking lot. After 10 minutes of playing I went back and tried the car, it started right up.

A while later it did it again, we played “tennis”, and the car started.

The 3rd time we hit the ball once, went back and the car started.

So if your car won’t start try tennis.

Jeff Spitters

Went camping a few years back – must have eaten a funny sausage cooked on the campfire cause I woke up at mid-night with a meatball emergency. Grabbed the flash-light to make a run for it…the thing ran out of juice along the way, got completely lost in the dark. Tripped in the dark and knocked my ass on a boulder. I did get to hit a Laundra-Land the next day…which is nice.

Ralph

I was on hold with Microsoft in India for 2+ hours. The guy came on and my battery wend dead.

IOGEAR’s ShareStation costs $80 and allows you to share USB devices. Smart, huh? You can share just about any USB-based device across multiple computers that are connected to the same network.

IOGEAR cautions that “Users may not achieve optimum audio/video streaming performance when connecting to the USB Net ShareStation through a wireless Ethernet router,” if you were to share, say, a USB hard drive, but it looks like most other devices that don’t require lightning-quick reflexes should do just fine — printers, scanners, and whatnot. You can plug the device into a 4-port USB 2.0 hub, too, and do a little four-way sharing. Very nice.

Read More

If you’re not fortunate enough to have a dual-monitor workstation, Iogear’s got something you should check out in the USB 2.0 External DVI Video Card. It’s what it sounds like, a USB device that adds a second video card and second monitor support to your PC via USB.

It’s very much like the VGA version launched last year, but with with DVI. No word on the exact specs, but we know it can support up to at least 1280×1024 at 24 bit color, is bus powered, and works with all KVMs.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this so I’ll see if I can’t get my hands on a review unit to take it for a spin. The IOGEAR Portable Media Player is 3.2-inches wide by 5.25-inches long by .75-inches thick and contains a 120GB hard drive.

You hook the device up to your computer via USB, dump videos and photos onto it, and then hook it up to your TV via composite or component cables. No HDMI, though, which is kind of an odd choice considering that IOGEAR says that it “enhances standard definition video playback viewing up to 720p resolution on an HDTV” and is pushing this as a portable device. There’s nothing all that portable about the five different connectors that come along with component cables.

Read More

Bloops! The EPA has fined IOGEAR $208,000 for claiming their mice controlled germs. Their crime? “Unsubstantiated public health claims regarding unregistered products, and their ability to control germs and pathogens.” So that’s why I got all those cold sores!

IOGEAR Fined $208,000 By EPA For Germ-Free Mice Claims

IOGEAR’s Digital Scribe may look like an ordinary pen, but it isn’t. Duh. It converts all your doodles and notes into digital text via an ultrasonic transmitter plugged into a USB port, which does its thing with the OCR software on your PC. People who still take handwritten notes will want to pick one of these up. It’s available now for $99.95.

Product Page

Having a two computer setup can be nice, but all those cords can become a problem quickly. Ease the tension by picking up IOGEAR’s new MiniView Micro PS/2 KVM switch. It allows for two computers to share an LCD with DVI output and a max resolution of 1600×1200, as well as USB or PS/2 keyboards and mice. The MiniView also has an audio switch so you can listen to tunes from one PC while goofing off on the other.

Due to its small form factor and extra features, the MiniView doesn’t come cheap. You’ll have to empty $160 from your bank account to go home with this one. Might just be a better idea to buy another monitor and a second video card.

Product Page

IOGEAR rolls ultra-compact KVM switch for DVI, audio [Electronista]

If your A/V receiver is becoming a tad too crowded because of all the HDMI cables and you hate switching back and forth from your next-gen DVD player to your game console then check out IOGear’s 4-port HDMI Switch. As you’d expect you can connect up to four devices to the Switch, which relays everything to your 1080p TV. The Switch is HDCP compliant and uses IOGear’s patented HDAS technology that immediately locks in and transfers any active A/V content for your visual and auditory pleasure. Pick up the Switch now for $189.95.

Press Release

Yep, it’s a mouse. A corded, laser mouse with a biometric fingerprint reader. Oh, and its surface is covered with a Titanium Dioxide and Silver nano-particle compound that contains antimicrobial properties.

The IOGEAR Personal Security Mouse with Nano Technology (also known by its far catchier name, the GMEFP1W6) lets you login to a computer or Web site or anything else password protected with a single finger swipe. You can also use it to encrypt files, folders or the entire hard drive. And it lets you store up to five identities, so multiple users can set up profiles on a single computer.

And, well, it’s a mouse, too. With antimicrobial protection. It’s priced at $89.95 (MSRP) and is available immediately from all major catalog and online resellers, as well as selected retail outlets. It includes an installation CD and is compatible with Windows 2000, XP and above. It also comes with IOGEAR’s standard three-year warranty.

Read More