Having a big screen laptop without Blu-ray is kinda like missing an opportunity to cruise down an empty highway. Granted, you can download HD content, but if you are geeks like us, there’s an urge to fully leverage the full potential of the notebook. For whatever reasons you are getting Blu-ray, the USB-powered Asus’ slim & sleek drive has you covered. It has upped the max. read speed to 4.8x for BD-ROM/RE which should relieve the agonizingly slow Blu-ray disc loading time. This however doesn’t help with writing Blu-ray as the Asus SBC-04D1S-U is only a BD reader, a tray-loading one.

What we also like about the BD reader is the big glowing ‘X’ on the side, making it far more aesthetically pleasing than the FastMac. A copy of CyberLink is bundled for movie playback. Keep in mind you can only output the HD content given both the laptop and the LCD screen have either HDMI or DVI (HDCP).

There’s a rumor circulating in the blogsphere that MS is planning to offer Windows 7 on a flash drive which would make it third way to get the OS without buying a new PC. The other two are through download & retail DVD. While the decision is still being made, this move is being considered in the first place to appeal to the ever growing netbook crowd whose under-powered machines usually lack any optical media drive.

Having said that, thumbdrives logically become the easiest, not to mention fastest route to get Windows 7 running on a netbook. In fact, they have already become the unofficial install method for XP, Vista and now 7 if you are comfortable with command prompt. If tweakers can teach newbies to do it in 10 minutes, it should be dead easy for MS to get a Windows 7 thumbdrive package ready.

As convenient and versatile as laptops are, they aren’t far from perfect, especially in the ergonomic department. Back pain, stiff necks, sore shoulders and alike are often bad side effects associated with prolonged laptop usage. This nifty Thanko articulating laptop riser (a.k.a. Easy Desk Cool 2) with fans should be just what you need to eliminate those problems.

You could refer this ergonomic gadget as a desk, which comes with three joints and folding legs so you can adjust the viewing angle of the notebook to the most comfortable position whether you are lying flat or sitting upright. When not in use, you can fold the legs together, and store it anywhere. A pair of built-in USB fans and the aluminum desktop surface work together in active and passive cooling method respectively to dissipate heat better from a notebook.

Samsung S2 mobile hard drive series is unique in its own right. The S2 is different from other portable drives in that it relies on on-board USB technology to reduce the length of the chassis, making it very compact (smaller than a typical passport, according to Samsung). We have to assume the engineers have taken out the SATA native interface and replaced it with USB. So this doesn’t look like you can gut the S2’s shell to remove the drive for other applications.

Available in 4 different colors (piano black, snow white, wine red, chocolate brown, sweet pink & ocean blue), the S2 is also anti-slippery with leatherette back cover. Other features include auto-backup, software data encryption & capacity gauge. It would appear Amazon has started carrying the S2 at around $109 for 500GB; $85 for 320GB; and as low as $65 for 250GB.

OLED applications aren’t just limited to photo frames and MP3 players as you may think. Recent novelty gadgets such as fingerprint flash drive and keypad also make use of OLED. And now, OCZ finds new use of OLED to sell its pedestrian keyboard, Sabre.

OCZ Sabre is touted as a professional gaming keyboard, but oddly, the keys here aren’t backlit like that of G19, G15 or even OCZ’s own Alchemy Illuminati. The 9 customizable OLED buttons also have an amber color scheme. The bundled software will convert any digital image into icon for the OLED hotkeys, and the best part is that you can store as many sets of icons as you see fit for different applications. That is of course, if you bother finding icons closely associated with the functions you often need quick access to. Those OLED hotkeys will also change on-the-fly as you alternate between programs. Lastly, the Sabre is complete with a blue LED side-lighting. Check back for the MSRP as OCZ could be still trying to figure out the price in this troubled economy.

SmartFish is no stranger to ergonomic peripherals (still remember their keyboard?). What we didn’t know until now is that it’s interested in PC gaming market. Its latest Pro:Motion is the first controller of its kind that emphasizes more on preventing hand fatigue than improving your performance.

Unique to the “batwing” gamepad is the ergonomic shape. Instead of a conventional “fixed position” design, the Pro:Motion relies on robotic technology that tracks your usage pattern, and it will actually reposition itself (vertical & horizontal wrist rotation) using its built-in motorized parts. So, the dynamic positioning gamepad in aluminum finish is literally made for everyone. Besides its sophisticated ergonomic features, the Pro:Motion comes with two analog sticks, triggers, and D-pad as well as vibration feedback. Its 5-year warranty reassures us that the doctors are quite confident about the product, or they could be hit with a heap of lawsuits.

Long, hot summer looms heavily upon us. While we often concern about computers getting overheated, we should actually worry about overheating ourselves in a room cluttered with NASs, overclocked rigs, and alike. USB fans are one eco-friendly way to keep ourselves cool while we are at our desk. They come in all types of style, from classic to LED illuminated.

Now, we have the ultimate USB fan that pretends to be a packaged terminal air conditioner (PTAC). Even if this isn’t the real thing, the dual fan “AC” can be mounted on a wall and comes with a remote for power control. As soon as USB 3.0 arrives on PC, we may even see a quad-fan model. Fly to Japan if you really want this fake AC, or instead wait for a gadget importer.

What’s Yoostar? In a nutshell, it lets you live your hollywood dream, in front of your PC. Yoostar is a kit comprising of a special USB webcam, a portable greenscreen and software that can insert your image into your favorite movies. From the video demo, we could see the host replacing Glover from Sesame Street, and then he tried follow the original conversations with Elmo.

You’ll get 14 classic scenes each of which is between 1 and 2 minutes long when Yoostar hits retail next month. The company has already secured rights to content from Paramount, Universal, MGM, Liongate and Warner Brothers. Don’t expect user-contributed scenes as they are a copyright no-no. Before Yoostar can upload new movie scenes, this could get old fast, but in the long run, social community will be created where other users can upload their clips, comment on them, share tips, and possibly compete in talent contests. Due to copyright restrictions, Yoostart ($169) will only be available in the States initially although plans to roll out this internationally is well underway. Video demo after the jump.

We never saw this coming. If this isn’t some 2010 April Fool’s joke leaked too early, the i.Saw Chainsaw possibly opens a whole new category of USB weaponry tools. The i.Saw is reportedly no larger than the size of a regular keyboard, and it is built with touch plastic and lightweight alloy to reduce the weight for the chainsaw for office use(?).

The company almost has everything listed on their website from dimensions to weight, guide bar length and different safety features. The only and most important thing left to answer is how they figured out feeding enough juice from a 5W USB 2.0 port to move those sharp chains at a speed that can cut through different woods. Unfortunately, the folks behind i.Saw hid their website’s WHOIS record so we couldn’t check if the same group of people has previously tried to pull hoax on the blog community. The device is listed for merely $59.95. You could sign up for pre-order, and wait to see if the i.Saw USB chainsaw will actually materialize in September – the estimated shipping month.

The FreeAgent series (i.e. XTreme, Go, Desk, Theater) has long been Seagate’s cash cow. So when the manufacturer rolls out new, bigger drive, the FreeAgent will be the first to get it. Seagate’s own website provides a teaser on what appears to be the largest FreeAgent Go ever, equipping with a 640GB 2.5″ drive. Before this, 500GB is the max. capacity offered by anyone in the laptop-friendly HDD form factor. So, this product page sheds light on what is to come.

As a consumer storage line-up, the FreeAgent Go comes in 250GB, 320GB and 500GB as well as the unannounced 640GB. While all the other capacities are available in at least 5 colors, the 640GB will only get two (titanium silver and tuxedo black) for now. In-house developed backup software is for Windows only and oddly works with Seagate drives only. And a 5-year warranty is about as good as it gets for a portable USB drive.