Buffalo MiniStation Lite USB3.0 (HD-PEU3 Series)

Just got myself a Buffalo MiniStation Lite USB3.0!

Check out the specification:

• Support for legacy USB 2.0 and SuperSpeed USB 3.0 
• Preformatted hard drive is ready for immediate use with Windows® and Mac®
• Connect to your computer for additional storage or backup of your music, photo, video and data files
• Perfect comopanion for your laptop or netbook - No external power supply needed
• Enhance the overall perfomance of your PC and increase file transfer rates up to 135% over USB 2.0 hard drives
• Eco minded power management tool regulates power usage, conserving energy and battery consumption 
• Buffalo's Backup Utility for automatic backup of your PCs, and Time Machine® support for continuous backup of your Mac computer

I got this at the Digital Mall Petaling Jaya with the price of RM219 and mainly I will be using this to store all the VPC or Virtual Hard Disk. The key point about this portable hard disk is the transfer rate by using USB 3.0 (Max 3 Gbps) and the utilities bundle together to make the transfer speed even more faster.

 The  USB SuperSpeed portable HDD + USB3.0 Mini Connector + Manuals

USB 3.0 A side Mini Connector and B side connector

The USB 3.0 is like an extension of micro USB B. It's easy to identified the USB 3.0/SuperSpeed cable since the inside plastic is blue and the indicator of 'SS' on the USB sign.

USB 3.0/SuperSpeed is backward compatible with USB 2.0/1.1

I have tried using my micro USB from my HTC Desire HD cable and it fits

LED light indicator

LED emits white light for the Buffalo logo and kinda like greenish/yellow light on the left side when loading data. There is a short blue light emitted when I plug in the cable to my laptop USB port.

Application and Utilities for the Buffalo MiniStation Lite USB3.0

 BuffaloTools - Utilities for better performance

I would mostly use the TurboPC and TurboCopy as it does improve the performance of file transfer. This is done by configuring and managing well on the data caching. At the moment I can't really test the performance as I don't have a USB3.0 port on both my laptop and desktop yet it's good to have it once USB 3.0 is more widely available in the market.

Buffalo TurboCopy

The installed utilities actually improve the User Interface and additional features shown when copy or move files. This actually apply to all file copy or move the the cached being use when transferring file.

I personally like the sleek and compact design of the portable HDD yet this is the MiniStation Lite which lacking Encryption Model available at the HD-PXTU2 Series. Still! The LED emitted light on the Buffalo logo is very solid and bright =P

USB 3.0 was release more than a year but the adaptation for this SuperSpeed for the mainstream consuption is so laggard due to the complication of Intel updating their chipset specification. Right now most USB 3.0 port available in the market is not direct support from the native chipset and Windows 7

Intel basically have their own plan on the development of Light Peak technology.i Rght now, Intel basically change their mind and finally adopt USB 3.0 in the Sandy Bridge chipset. I guess this is due to the overall demand from the mainstream consumer and pressure from AMD to adopt USB 3.0 to their Fuzion chipsets.

Garmin Mobile XT 4.20.50w

Finally a release from Garmin that supports my phone GPS and still new on this so will take a number of test and live experiment to see comparison on the GPS navigation software (MapKing G10) I'm currently using. Also this release by Garmin Mobile XT does support my sister Nokia 6110 Navigator which will take a while to install. Will post some review as soon as I can...

*Update 22 September 2008*
Tried routing and navigate my way to work and I was impress with the voice navigation provided yet I still find that it's having issues displaying the route properly at some turns. In term of searching for places, its a bit troublesome in finding specific roads or more I should say that there is a glitch as unable to select any state for road search.

MaxiVista: Multi Monitor Software Solution

I started using MaxiVista for about a month now and really impress on this multi monitor software as I carry two laptop to work and MaxiVista allow me to extend primary screen to my secondary laptop screen with just one mouse to control both screen. Usually this can be done by plugging additional CRT or LCD monitor plug but in this case I don't have an additonal monitor to use.

What you can see on the photo here is three laptop installed with MaxiVista Mirror Pro, the middle laptop is the primary where the left and right side laptop is the extended which I open up a Windows Media Player then enlarge it to all three screen (Can't really see much but I'm sure it works). MaxiVista is able to extend up to four screens and all this is just connected through LAN or WAN, also MaxiVista Mirror Pro allow user to control multiple screen base on the actual laptop host system.

I find it convinient to have this multi monitor software where I can open multiple word document to do cross referencing while copy and paste is also possible. Furthermore, development task is much more flexible by having more wider screen to work around. The best part for me is get to control all my system with just one mouse but it would be great to have options to control each keyboard base on the extended screen rather than just the primary system keyboard.

MapKing 2007

I have been using MapKing 2007 ever since i got my HTC P3300 which it has built-in GPS. Initially i had hard time to understand how it function as the interface is not truly friendly and I don’t understand most of the features that is being displayed. Still, i took some time to read the manual and I was stupid enough to find GPS signal in my room which it’s basically impossible to get any signal. So i ended up done most of the test outside my house and truly I was happy that it actually works.

Basically I’m using MalSing Malaysia map and sad to say that the map don’t even have detail road map within my housing area. Still the most important part is too see the functionality of the software and how accurate is the navigation provided to me when I’m traveling.

MapKing 2007 on my phone took quite some time about 1 minutes to pinpoint and connect on the GPS signal which it’s troublesome if I’m rushing out. During my travel i find that the routing and distance provided is quite accurate but still stupid in a sense where the route recommended sometimes is not logical. Basically I could drive straight and pass under the flyover highway but the route provided by MapKing 2007 directed me to go above the flyover highway which has traffic light and drive back down from the flyover highway…

Various test has been done in different location and i find that the route to Kuala Lumpur is really not reliable at all but maybe is because I’m using MalSing Malaysia map. So i would take some time to acquire different version of map and see the outcome.

In term of battery usage, it’s best to have a car charger while using MapKing 2007 as it require extensive amount of power as i estimated a full charge battery could allow about 3 ~ 4 hour usage. It’s sufficient to be use but considering that it’s my mobile phone i still need to use it for communication purposes which it’s not a good idea if my phone runs out of battery.

The benefit i gain from using this software is knowing more location and it’s much more easy for me to travel to new places that I rarely go but still I would rather rely on my driving instincts as this software is not 100% reliable. I’m going to test out more and it’s still too early to conclude the functionality of this software but at least I’m glad I have one to try out~