A printer that sits on your notebook lid

While the image of a printer has always been a beige and bulky contraception that takes up too much space on the desk, designer Hung Chih Wang wants to change that by introducing Trak.

His mobile printer fits comfortably on the back of the screen of a notebook and is powered by USB, so there are no messy power cables looping around. The printer head is detachable, and zips along a track on the printer itself to get the job done.

The pictures on the Web show black-and-white printouts, but we hope a color version will come out soon. With a detachable printhead, this shouldn't be a difficult task.

While it seems that this is still in development, we can see Trak going a long way as an indispensable companion for road warriors who need to get work done while on the road.

Via Yanko Design

DIY laptop batteries... at your own risk

Some DIY projects are like extreme sports. It's done not because it will advance human knowledge or break any technological barriers. It's simply because it can. This particular project, however, is a little too close to real danger for us to recommend. So read this for academic knowledge only.

Though Lithium-ion cells have no memory effect, it does have a limited lifespan counted in charge cycles. In about a year of normal use, most cells would be lucky to hold half their orginal charge. Buying a new battery may not be economical, and though there are third-party services that can swap the tired cells with fresh ones, an budget-conscious (read: Cheap) forummer at notebookreviews decided to do it himself instead.

Frankly, the results he got weren't impressive at all, and the danger was obvious. However, it's still a nice prodject to do if you are really bored with life or decide it's time to do some insurance claims.

Via notebookreviews

New Linksys' duo stream multimedia further and faster

The CES 2008-announced Linksys Media Center Extenders have finally landed in Singapore. The S$399 (US$293.38) DMA2100 and S$499 (US$366.91) DMA2200 feature Wi-Fi 802.11N wireless technology, offering enhanced bandwidth and extended multimedia streaming range. The beefed-up networking performance aside, both models also support all major media formats and come standard with an HDMI output plus value-added learning remote control.

For S$100 (US$73.53) more, the DMA2200 has an inbuilt DVD player with 1080p video-upscaling capability and three instead of two radio antennas. It's also notably larger and heavier than the 2100 at 231 x 125 x 329mm and 2.2kg. Do check out these Windows Media Center PC-centric wireless streamers during the IT Show tomorrow. Pricing and availability for the rest of Asia were not available at press time.

i-mate Ultimate series to debut at IT Show 2008

Finally, after months of anticipation and delays, i-mate will begin to sell its Ultimate range of Windows Mobile handhelds. The Dubai-based company will offer them for sale at retail, with all four of them available from tomorrow at the IT Show 2008 in Singapore.

It doesn't seem like i-mate will be tying up with the operators for this, so those hoping to get an operator discount may have to wait-and-see. The company did get a deal done with Australian operator Telstra Down Under--that was announced last month at the Mobile World Congress. We currently don't have information about where else in Asia it will be launched for now, so look out for an update when we do find out.

In any case, the important thing is that you can now get your hands on these PDA-phones. Prices will range from S$998 to S$1,348 for the flagship Ultimate 9502. Check out our IT Show 2008 special for details on the prices and bundles.

Samsung: HDD and SSD will continue to coexist

Samsung will immediately begin shipping two new high-capacity hard drives Tuesday, but it also is betting heavily on solid-state drives.

The company gave details regarding its storage business at a press event here, and also gave a good indication of how it sees its fortunes unfolding over the next few years. Samsung shipped 13,052,200 hard drives in the fourth quarter of 2007, which puts it in fourth place behind industry leader Seagate, which shipped 49,595,000 last quarter, according to IDC.

The first new drive is a 2.5-inch, 500GB--or half a terabyte--harddisk drive (HDD) for notebook PCs. That is achieved with three separate platters, or discs where information is stored, that fit 167GB each. It has what has become regarded as a mainstream spin speed of 5,400 revolutions per minute. Fujitsu announced its own 500GB drive last week, but it has a slower spin speed of 4,200rpm.
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