Microsoft Arc Touch

 

The Arc Touch Mouse is a fully functional fashion statement for traveling professionals. There are no side buttons because, more or less, there are no sides. When flat, the mouse measures 5.14 inches long, 2.3 inches wide, and just over half an inch at its thickest depth. This flat bar bows up into an arc designed to conform to the inside of your hand. The BlueTrack sensing technology works flawlessly on practically every surface, even our glossy, black granite countertop. To someone with largish hands, the Arc Touch feels small, although definitely not as small as many other travel mice. We found that we had to concentrate on not letting our hands slip too far back, otherwise it took more pressure than usual to
depress the buttons with our fingertips. Between the two buttons is a little strip that emulates a traditional scroll wheel. Sliding your middle finger along it elicits little haptic feedback vibrations. Flicking the bar

quickly yields very rapid scrolling—handy for long documents or Web pages. Install Microsoft’s free Intellitouch software, and tapping the strip will be able to execute page up, page down, and a custom function. Our overall impression was that a bit of practice made the strip every bit as usable as a conventional wheel. Other admirable points: There is no power button. Once you have two AAA batteries in place, the mouse is on when flexed and off when flat. Although you can download additional software for the Arc Touch from Microsoft, our unit worked without issue under Windows 7 just by plugging in the wireless dongle, which sticks to a magnet in the mouse’s belly when not in use. Also, being symmetrical,
the mouse is great for left-handers. Once we dialed down the mouse’s sensitivity slightly in Windows, we found the Arc Touch accurate, stylish, convenient, and our new favorite travel mouse for general use.

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Panasonic AG-AF101

 

Exotic tech exorbitantly priced—that’s our manna here in dreamland. Ever and anon, however, there’s a populist innovation we can’t help but celebrate. This new HD flash camcorder could make a lot of indie filmmakers very, very smiley. The AGAF101 (www.panasonic-broadcast.com) blends pro cam features such as HD-SDI output and timecode stamping with DSLR perks such as a low price (about $6,400)
and micro Four Thirds interchangeable lenses. Auteurs on a budget will be able to capture cinematic-
looking footage, Panasonic says, such as wide-angle, 1080p/24fps shots with a shallow depth of field. Its 16:9, Four Thirds MOS imaging sensor is said to be the key to that elusive (at this price point) 35mm look. The purpose-built cam should be on the market for the holidays.

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Thermaltake Armor A60

Thermaltake has expanded its midtower Armor series with the Armor A60, a practical and durable case with USB 3.0 connectivity. What makes the Armor A60 a builder-friendly enclosure is the externally
accessible SideClick EasySwap 3.5 HDD bay and support for up to seven fans. The left side panel includes a 3.5-inch HDD bay with a spring-loaded cover that houses one of six 3.5-inch HDD drawers (these are also compatible with 2.5-inch drives) and acts as a hot-swap bay (that is, if you’re running in AHCI mode). The front of each HDD drawer is protected by two flexible plastic arms that should probably be a bit more pliable because we inconveniently snapped one off when we were experimenting with the SideClick EasySwap drawer.
When considering the number of drive cages and fans, as well as the case’s form factor, it’s possible that a deckedout build could get slightly cramped. We recommend using a modular PSU, especially if you plan to install multiple cards and hard drives. The all-black paint job might cause you to overlook some of the significant practical features Thermaltake has incorporated. Some examples are the detachable PSU filter on the A60’s bottom panel, two holes reserved for liquid-cooling tubes, and an external security lock
(held in place with an interior tool-less screw) for the keyboard and mouse. There is also tool-less mounting on the 5.25-inch drive bays. Even though the Armor A60 will accommodate video cards up to 12 inches long, as well as heatsinks up to 180mm high, from the outside it may not impress you or any curious onlooker. You can buy the Armor A60 for its functionality and call it good.

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Patriot Inferno 120GB

Any power user contemplating an SSD upgrade should be familiar with SandForce by now. The company makes the controllers at the heart of many of today’s most sought-after SSDs, such as the Patriot    nferno 120GB. Like other SandForce SF-1222-based SSDs, the Inferno 120GB is rated for 285MBps and 275MBps maximum sequential reads and writes, respectively. The Inferno offers only 119GB of available
storage space when formatted, despite having 128GB of MLC NAND flash memory. The spare flash
memory is used for bad block management, wear leveling, garbage collection, and other proprietary SandForce features. Throughout testing, the Patriot Inferno 120GB proved to be an excellent performer. In the SiSoft Sandra 2010 physical disk benchmark, the drive managed 256.4MBps reads and 192MBps
writes, respectively, which is among the best we’ve seen from a 3Gbps SATA SSD.

The Inferno’s performance in HDTach was similarly very good. In PCMark Vantage’s HDD benchmark, although the Inferno continued to perform well, it was ever so slightly outpaced by OCZ’s and Corsair’s competitive offerings we’ve tested in the past. Ultimately, the Patriot Inferno 120GBis yet another excellent SandForce-based SSD. If you’re in the market for a new SSD, do yourself a favor and give it a serious look .

by Marco Chiappetta

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