With the glut of technology products being launched daily, we’re fortunate to have the Internet as a seemingly endless source of feedback on all things tech and otherwise. Of course, there are many different levels to choose from. End user reviews from sites like Amazon, NewEgg and Anandtech offer no-holds-barred criticism and praise for gear, the only drawback being you don’t always know the contributor’s level of acumen or the quality of the other hardware being used. But even so, there’s no questioning the value of end user feedback.

For a slightly different perspective you have the professional product reviewer. Often an editor/journalist representing a media outlet, a blogger or a full-time reviewer, he or she is expected to possess a higher level of acumen, use the product to its specifications, and provide both the good and critical points, while sharing the details regarding all associated equipment that was used.

As a company, we are very responsive to media and professional reviewer requests. Below are some of the recent IOGEAR product reviews that have been written, we hope they can be useful to those considering any of these connectivity solutions.


Residential Systems Magazine – Universal Wifi N Adapter (This magazine is written for professionals who install home A/V solutions and home theaters)

Our favorite line: But let’s say your client is preternaturally attached to his existing wireless router. Say his favorite auntie had left it to him in her will, or Nolan Bushnell himself autographed the thing or something.


Tom’s Guide – Solar Bluetooth Handsfree Car Kit (GBHFK231)

Our favorite line: The beauty of the Solar Handsfree kit is that it charges while you’re driving around or parked as long as it’s outside and during the day.


AVrev.com – Wireless HD Computer to TV Kit (GUWAVKIT2)

Our favorite line: The convenience of this low hassle computer to HDTV solution is well worth looking into, particularly if you’ve been looking at projectors or some other computer sharing device. Not worrying about safety issues with guests tripping over wires is a huge plus.


MissingRemote.com – Wireless HTPC Keyboard (GKM581R)

Our favorite line: I was not immediately smitten by the football-shaped form factor but was quickly won over by the rewarding tactile experience provided by the surface material, side grips and “triggers” (scroll + middle-click on the left and left-click on the right) on the front of the keyboard; more importantly my wife found it easy to use, even commenting after the first day that she was happy with the switch.

EverythingUSB.com – USB Theater Sound Xperience

Our favorite line: This dongle’s ability to create surprisingly rich, accurate and believable virtual 5.1 surround stage does rival that of many older gaming headset I have owned. This is all thanks to DTS Surround Sensation; a bigger richer soundstage, crystal clear voices and increased low frequency effects all happen when you pair a DTS enabled movie with this small device.

Product performance feedback helps IOGEAR drive future product development, so we value this information immensely and thanks the reviewers who took the time to post.

NEW PRODUCT NEWS

On a relevant note, we launched a new product last week, (Wireless 4-Port USB Sharing Station) which is summed up nicely over on Engadget:


IOGEAR USB Sharing Station connects to WiFi, cuts the cord on four of your devices.

Thanks for reading, we’ll share some additional reviews in the future, or just check our Facebook and Twitter feeds for day-to-day updates.

IOGEAR has a long standing commitment to going green, planting over 390,000 trees across America already, with intentions to plant even more! And to help boost the number of trees we will plant, we are asking for your help, in return you’ll be entered in a contest to win a $50 prize! From simply becoming our Fan on Facebook, to inviting your friends, to taking a photo of what you’re doing that’s green could make you a winner. More information on how to enter can be found here.


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Winning the contest will be awesome of course, not only for you but for the environment! But you don’t have to wait for the contest to end to start Going Green today nor should you stop your green efforts when Earth Day is past. We’ve put together a list of 49 extremely helpful, energy saving and earth friendly tips for you to [link to previous tips article here]. As if that’s not enough, IOGEAR has Green technology built into several products, filling two needs at once — providing a better planet to live in and fulfilling your technology needs.

If you have more than one computer setup in your home or office, stop using two separate computer monitors for them. The electrical draw on them costs both the environment and your wallet monthly. Instead, try one of IOGEAR’s KVM Switches, designed to share one keyboard, video display and mouse between two or more computers. These economical and highly efficient devices will save electricity, boost productivity and clean a monitor off your desk, giving you more room to work! And while you are at it, donate that extra monitor to your favorite charity.

Because our busy lives are always on the go and technology isn’t just around us in the home or office, IOGEAR has products aimed to help fill your mobile needs too. The Solar Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit is designed to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road. Since the device utilizes solar technology, there is not need to plug into your cigarette lighter for power so the device doesn’t put a strain on your cars alternator or battery, which would result in a lower miles per gallon average. As if that wasn’t cool enough, the Solar Bluetooth Caller Announce Hands Free Kit downloads your phone’s contact list via Bluetooth and then, on an incoming call, will announce who it is. This again keeps you focused on the road and not fumbling around with your phone. Like The Solar Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit, this device too is solar powered to be environmentally friendly.

Going Green does not mean a sacrifice in how you live your life or how you do business; in many ways green technology will enhance your day-to-day life. Don’t forget, take a photo of yourself Going Green and it could win you a $50 prize!

Say the word “mobility” in the context of technology and you’re likely to get people thinking about smartphones, Blackberries, iPads and the ever-growing number of mobile accessories that allow us to do everything from answer our phones with no hands to powering our mobile devices with no AC outlet.

New technologies and functionality are ushered into the mobility segment on a daily basis. Most of the advancements are introduced with one or two goals in mind: making life more convenient and/or giving us better access to and management of content. By definition, mobility is just the quality of being mobile with “mobile” defined as, capable of moving or being moved readily.


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By this definition, a Q-tip could be considered a “mobility” product, but for the sake of argument, we’re focusing on AV connectivity and convergence products that may not fit in the traditional view of “mobility.”

Inside the home may not seem like a place where mobility products would be in high-demand, but a closer look reveals quite the opposite. The very notion of convergence epitomizes a healthy marriage between computer and AV devices. Often, the best way to foster technology matrimony is with an input device like a wireless keyboard that can toggle seamlessly between PC and TV; managing content, inputting data and eliminating the need to juggle multiple devices.

You may not be able to stash a wireless keyboard in your briefcase, but few input devices offer the same level of functionality around the home. With features like custom hotkeys, no line of site needed and the optical trackball, IOGEAR has turned a simple input device into an invaluable Home Theater PC and productivity controller.

Mobility is evolving into a lifestyle more than a segment of products. The ability to access our entire professional and social networks at the touch of a button is still a relatively new concept, but completely changing how business is done and relationships are built. Add to this our ability to share, produce and manage content without being tethered to a chair in an office, we see that the definition of mobility is evolving daily.

How do you define a mobility product and what are your favorite IOGEAR offerings? Do have an example of how one of our products has helped you become more mobile?

Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page.

Green living means different things to different people. Some folks pursue a completely sustainable lifestyle, recycling everything and surrounding themselves in green building materials while monitoring and negating carbon emissions to reduce their footprint. For others, not littering and recycling paper and plastic goods is enough of an effort to help the planet.

No matter what your view on green living, harnessing power from the sun to make life more convenient is a good idea. With increasingly mobile lifestyles and smart phones turning our cars into moving offices, the demand for hands-free mobile phone accessories has never been higher. Combine this with recent legislation in many states that makes handheld cell phone use and texting illegal while driving; and finding a solution to hands and clutter free in-car communications can even become a legal issue.

Fortunately, IOGEAR is a strong advocate for green technology and has crafted mobile phone accessory solutions that make driving safer, a philosophy that inspired the Solar Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit (GBHFK231). Our cars are filled with enough clutter before we have multiple charging cables running from the dashboard. The hands-free car kit is an excellent passenger since it uses the sun’s solar energy to wirelessly place and receive phone calls from Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones while the driver concentrates on navigating through jumping reindeer, holiday revelers and tipsy sledders who may be enjoying the winter season.

Great as a belated gift for busy professionals or yakking teens, our friends from TigerDirectTv.com even created a video about the Solar Bluetooth Hands-free Car Kit that provides more details below. IOGEAR will also have a newer version of the solar car kit, now with caller announce text-to-speech technology (GBHFK331) along with other USB, KVM and convergence through connectivity products on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. If you interested in checking them out, you can visit us in Central Hall, booth # 13427.

IOGEAR emphasizes the conservation of natural resources to both employees and customers through its GREEN initiatives program and “Road to a Million Trees” campaign. In partnership with Trees for the Future, one tree is planted for every product purchased on the IOGEAR site or through an IOGEAR GREEN initiative partner.

Have you gone hands-free? How about hands-free and green? We look forward to hearing your experiences here on the blog comments section or at our Facebook page.

By the way, don’t miss out on a chance to win an iPad by sharing your favorite streaming media links. Check out this post for details. Happy Holidays!

If you’ve been keeping up to speed on the latest announcements coming out of the tech world, you’re probably aware of Google’s recent news stemming from its latest project – the hands-free vehicle. Yep, Google’s been testing computer-operated vehicles for a while now – in fact these cars have traveled an incredible 140,000 miles on major California roads, navigating through traffic patterns and abiding by speed limits!

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Equipped with video cameras, radar sensors and lasers, the cars’ computers are able to detect traffic and follow maps. During the testing phase, engineers would go along for the ride, ready to slam on the breaks or take the wheel if needed. The purpose behind this, you ask? Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt declared via the Google blog, “…prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce emissions…”

This is just one more breakthrough in an ongoing global effort to help reduce unwanted collisions and fatalities on roads and highways. Google predicts that this new technology could help reduce traffic accidents and save about 600,000 lives a year worldwide. To top it, these cars will help reduce carbon emissions tremendously.

Of the same mindset, IOGEAR has been developing products aiming to reduce waste and increase car safety, as evidenced in our Solar Bluetooth Caller Announce Hands Free Car Kit. This puppy uses the sun’s rays to fuel itself and lets the driver focus on the road, able to make phone calls via voice command.

As time progresses, it will be interesting to see if Google’s hands-free vehicle becomes commonplace on our roads, as well as what other life-changing technologies will come to fruition to make our lives safer, and the planet greener.

What do you think about computer-operated vehicles? Do you think there are too many risks involved, or do you see them as remedying collisions? Let us know here on our blog, on Twitter or our Facebook page.

You probably don’t need us to tell you this, but texting and driving is bad, very bad! Everyone from Obama to Oprah to whoever writes those email forwards our mom sends us will tell you the same thing. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drivers who are texting can be more than 20 times more likely to crash than non-distracted drivers. Don’t let yourself fall into that category!

We know maximizing our time is crucial, right? We can refrain from texting and driving, which is illegal in many states, but sometimes talking and driving is unavoidable. That’s where we come in with our IOGEAR Solar Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit. This bad boy lets you wirelessly place and receive calls on your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone while keeping your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel. Oh, and it uses the sun’s rays to charge your phone, so you are helping Mother Earth simultaneously.

We think it’s pretty cool, and our friends at Smart Money magazine do too – they were nice enough to give the kit a nod in this article. They position our hands-free product alongside services for concerned parents such as Getizup.com and tXtBlocker.com, which allow parents to disable a cellphone once a car hits a certain speed, say 12-miles-per-hour. These are just some of the products on the market that are keeping our highways and roads a little bit safer.

What’s your strategy for taking calls when you’re in the car? Bluetooth? Headset? Let us know here on the blog, on Twitter or Facebook.

If you are looking for a great deal on the Solar Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit, look no further than our own store. The coupon code promoi25 will get you 25% off until August 31, 2010. And, if you sign up to become an IOGEAR Club member, you’ll receive a 30% discount.

Green technology is all the rage in the tech space, and here at IOGEAR we love nothing more than to keep our finger on the green pulse. From Apple’s work-in-progress solar powered iPad and iPhone, to the grass-trimming goats Google has put to work, earth conscious companies are developing new ways to help our waning Mother Earth.

This week Cisco Systems announced the testing phase of their home energy management system, temporarily named the home energy controller. Despite the unsexy name, this is a pretty slick device which helps keep an eye on mounting energy costs. The controller’s digital readout helps people keep track of energy consumption throughout their home and do away with energy waste. Wasting energy is so passé, people.

Users can sign up for the system’s demand-response program, which provides rebates for shutting off the switches during peak times. It saves you money AND gives you the glow of being a green conscious American – all from one small control panel!

In case you are new to our blog, we here at IOGEAR have a vested interest in keeping up with the newest green technologies. We are doing our part to help our planet every day with a variety of products that cut back on energy usage – from energy saving convergence devices like KVM switches and Wireless AV kit to Solar BT hands free kits which harness the sun’s rays to power cell phones.

So, everyone, let’s start doing our part to stay up-to-speed, and hopefully adopt the latest green tech developments – it’s up to us.

What are you doing to incorporate green methods into your home or lifestyle?

Until next week, this is the IOGEAR team signing off. Stay green, readers.

Here at IOGEAR, we like to keep a finger on the ‘green pulse’ of the electronics industry. This week, the latest announcement from Apple caught our eco-friendly eye. If you’ve ever wondered what the green-conscious engineers at Apple have been cooking deep in the labs, read on!

Apple announced earlier this week that while they have yet to release a solar-powered gadget, their best and brightest brains are already working on incorporating solar power into popular items such as the iPad and iPhone.

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Excitingly, a recently surfaced patent application from Apple shows that engineers have been investigating ways to embed solar cells under the touch screens of handheld devices. The patent, which was filed in September 2008, also calls for the use of “light channels” to direct light to a solar cell underneath a touch screen, potentially using a parabolic reflector. Put simply, a solar powered iPod could soon be winging its way to you!



Of course at IOGEAR, we’re no strangers to sun worshipping. Our popular Solar Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit has been harnessing the sunshine since launch, and allows hands-free communication and cord-free charging. Allowing you to roll your car windows down and drive in the sun without having to worry about fumbling for cords, this kit allows for safe, clean and eco-friendly charging on the move.

We also believe it’s also important to be energy efficient in our homes. In an effort to conserve energy, we created the KVM switch to reduce energy consumption by eliminating the use of multiple computer monitors. This switch, along with other energy saving products designed for your home, can help make a noticeable difference on your next energy bill and we are happy to help lower that number with you.

From solar devices, to energy saving, to supporting the natural world through our partnership with Road to a Million Trees, we are excited to be doing our part to save energy and minimize the amount of waste produced – and we love seeing companies like Apple join in the green fun!

How are YOU doing your part to promote a greener tomorrow?

Cheers
The IOGEAR team

For green goodies and more, try your hand at our Mystery Photo Contest on Facebook to test your skills and win high-tech gadgets for your own living room setup!

Is YOUR parent crying out for more technology? According to CNN, about half of web active parents ‘friend’ their children on Facebook. If this has YOU rushing for the privacy controls, don’t panic – here at IOGEAR we have some parent-friendly technology suggestions to celebrate Mother’s Day in style.

Flowers and chocolates may be the traditional way to thank that special mom in your life, but this weekend why not introduce Mom to gadgets that will keep her connected and tech-savvy?

From iPads to Twitter feeds, it can be an intimidating world out there for moms looking to stay ahead of the technology curve. Luckily we’re here to help cut through the clutter and provide some helpful suggestions for anyone looking for last minute Mother’s day gifts for the tech-savvy or tech-hungry Mom.

For commuting Moms on the move, or those patiently negotiating the school run, IOGEAR’s Solar Bluetooth Hands-Free car kit allows for easy and green cell phone charging on the move. Perfect for the eco-conscious Mom, the kit is simple to install in any car and enables the driver to wirelessly place and receive calls on a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone while keeping their eyes on the road. Perfect for keeping one eye on mischievous kids on the back seat!

For snap-happy Moms whose digital cameras are filling up fast with proud pictures of children or grandchildren, the 3-Port USB Hub and 45-in-One card reader may be the perfect pocket-sized solution. Compact enough to slip into any purse on the go, this gadget bridges the gap between the computer and devices such as cell phones, digital cameras, and portable MP3 players. Combining three high-speed USB 2.0 ports with a 45-in-1 card reader, it’s easy for Mom to insert a memory card from her digital camera, and upload pictures at blazing fast speed – ready to share with friends and family all over the world.

Of course, Mother’s Day is not the only day of the year we should celebrate our Moms. If you’ve left it too late to celebrate this coming holiday, just remember – it’s NEVER too late to give Mom a boost with a special gift, any time of the year!

For any questions or last-minute panics about Mom-friendly gadgets and home entertainment solutions, leave us a comment!

How will YOU be thanking your Mom for everything this Sunday?

Be sure to take a moment to check out our brand new Mystery Photo Contest on Facebook for a chance to win exciting prizes!

Cheers
The IOGEAR team