Philips Notebook Soundbar SPA5210
When it comes to blasting audio on the road, the first thing that comes to my mind is the powerful X-Mini speaker-balls, a product that leaves me impressed every time I crack 'em out.
There are plenty of equally-booming choices out there, from the likes of Altec-Lansing, to the Logitech and Creative, but this sound bar from Philips caught my eye through sheer convenience. It draws power from USB and clips on the top of the laptop screen improving audio and keeping neatly out of the way. It's cute and simple and for that price, is difficult to overlook.
Yet if you spend a lot of time on trains and don't fancy sodcasting with loudspeakers, then perhaps a headset is more up your street. Check out our various headphone roundups for ideas and options.
Swiftpoint Futuremouse
Trackpads are treacherous at the best of times and even multi-touch gesture support does little in the ways to compete with the reliability of a regular mouse peripheral. But mice are clunky and need desk space, so when it comes to portability, finding a small but practical model is a necessity.
The Swiftpoint mouse does a good job of taking on these tasks. Held like a pen, the mini-clicker features a conveniently placed scroll-wheel and several notable shortcuts. You don't need to go wandering across desks or down jeans either – our full review of the Swiftpoint Futuremouse here on Reg Hardware reveals all.
Next page: Modern-Tech USB Hub
COMMENTS
If all you sinister folk weren't so contrary and just learned to use things with the correct hand the problem would go away.
Mains inverters are silly for laptops
Converting to mains and back is inefficient - might not be a problem for charging while driving but can be if using when the engine's off. Far better and more portable to get a dedicated laptop car adaptor (not much more than £5 on eBay). I know you can't plug other things into it but this article is about laptop accessories.
Worse - there are much smaller printers, much smaller projectors (some stupidly tiny), much smaller USB hubs, much more efficient and smaller car chargers for laptops (even generic, multi-voltage ones), and things like the mouse are an abomination.
I was hoping to see a small USB scanner for a half-decent price. I can safely say I would never buy any of the products listed there (£700 USB keys? Buy a fecking external 1Tb hard drive, or even 10, ffs). Even the soundbar is just a nice way to put extra leverage on your screen hinges, and hardly any of it is "portable".
If you want something to be a "laptop accessory" I have to be able to reasonable carry it in an ordinary laptop bag with all my other accessories. I don't think any of those items except the stupidly-expensive USB key would fit that bill.
No TV-tuners? (just bought a DVB-T and analog dual-tuner - so can watch / record two digital channels simultaneously - model for less than £20) No scanners? No external hard drives? No fancy gadgets like, I don't know, some sort of joypad/joystick that folds away? No mention of things like the wireless presenter controls that can slip into an Expresscard slot for storage, etc.? Disappointing, and very misnamed, round-up of useless and expensive products.
