CES 2012 officially kicks off today despite a ton of announcements from just about every major company in the days leading up to the event. We already gave you a peek at Thunderbolt enabled external drives from Western Digital, Hitachi and Seagate, and we showed you new accessories and hardware from LaCie, Belkin, and Elgato. Today, we bring you some of the newest accessories and peripherals shown off and announced in Las Vegas. Among them: A vertical dock for MacBook Air, an amp enabling Airplay playback on non-powered speakers, and a new lineup of cloud routers and cameras from Dlink.
Henge MacBook Air Dock: You might remember the vertical Henge Dock for MacBooks that the company has sold versions of since 2010. Henge introduced new models today for the 11-inch ($55) and 13-inch ($60) Thunderbolt MacBook Airs. This is probably the nicest MacBook docking solution around with mini Display Port and USB access, rubberized cradle, and a clip to secure your MagSafe cable. You can preorder now from Henge for a mid-February launch. A video of the previous model can be viewed here.
Griffin Twenty digital audio amplifier: Griffin did not announce pricing or a release date, but it did unveil a new accessory for AirPort Express that enables you to stream audio through any set of speakers using AirPlay by connecting them to the Twenty through S/PDIF and TOSLINK connector (included). The “low-profile digital amplifier” known as Griffin Twenty will essentially enable any non-powered speakers for untethered, AirPlay playback. It also includes 20 watts per channel, a frequency response of 0 Hz – 20 kHz +0 – 0.34 dB, and an RCA subwoofer connector. Cnet said the device would land later this year.
AirPlay streams Apple Lossless-encoded audio from your iTunes library or an AirPlay-enabled app. The Twenty Audio Amplifier uses your Airport Express to capture the AirPlay stream, decode it, then send the sound through your speakers… Note: This is an amplifier. Which means you’ll need to BYO speakers and a powered subwoofer. So drag those 201s out of the attic. They want to sing.
D-Link routers & cloud-camera: D-link announced a number of new routers at CES including the industry’s first sub-$50 cloud server with the D-Link Cloud Router (DIR-605L). The router (pictured above, left) will provide full access to D-Link’s cloud services through mydlink on the web or by way of the mylink iOS app.
The company also announced the Cloud Camera 5000 (DCS-5222L), a new 340 degree surveillance solution that will let you access live video feed from the mydlink iOS app on your iPhone or iPad (pictured above, right). It comes with a built-in microSD slot, pan/tilt control, and it records 720p video at 30 fps. According to the press release, the Cloud Camera 5000 will cost around $150 when it ships in April.
The Airport Express-like All-in-One Mobile Companion (DIR-505) router (pictured right) that provides access to Wi-Fi as well as a USB port for connecting external drives and sending its content to an iPhone or iPad. You can grab it for under $75 in April. (Image via PC World)
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Lantronix xPrintServer: Lantronix’s new xPrintServer is about the size of your iPhone, and it will enable iOS devices to print to virtually any printer connected to your network. The company has a list of thousands of supported printers from HP, Canon, Dell and just about every other vendor here, and the world can expect the device to land for $150 in 2012’s first quarter. It is already available for pre-order here.
The xPrintServer, roughly the size of an iPhone, is an easy-to-use hardware solution that utilizes the iOS native print menu and requires no additional applications, software downloads, or printer driver installations. With automatic printer discovery and no configuration, printing is easy and hassle-free. Simply open the box, plug the xPrintServer anywhere into the network, and print wirelessly from any iOS device running iOS version 4.2 or later, to virtually any network-connected printer.
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