You have a cable problem. Belkin has the docking solution.

The Thunderbolt Express Dock aims to be a notebook (or iMac) owner’s best friend. As the name suggests, the dock utilizes the speedy, multiplatform Thunderbolt interconnect to expand a computer’s available ports. Simply plug in a single Thunderbolt cable to access three USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire 800 port, one 3.5mm Audio port, one gigabit Ethernet port and two Thunderbolt ports. Extra ports FTW!

“People purchase MacBook Airs and Ultrabooks for ultimate portability, but constantly plugging-in and unplugging numerous cable-connected peripherals is an annoying and time consuming ordeal,” said Martin Avilla, general manager of Belkin’s Core Business Unit in a released statement.

Look for the Thunderbolt Express Dock this summer at an unannounced price.

See ya in two weeks, paycheck! Belkin.com is running a huge sale today. Everything, and I mean everything as there isn’t a minumum purhcase amount, can be yours for 50% under list today. That is if their website comes back to life before midnight tonight.

The news of the sale hit the standard deal sites this morning and then reblogged by several gadgets sites including Gizmodo. The site was up long enough to confirm the “FB50” coupon code works, but then it crashed hard. As of this post’s writing, Belkin.com is up but responding very slow. And for good reason, too. This sort of sale is rare even on Black Friday. Belkin is offering 50% off everything they sell including their just-announced iPad accessory line. Under-the-counter iPad mount. It’s $25 today. Power monitor? $15 bucks today. Keyboard folio case? $50.

Shop smart, though. Some items like the Conserve Valet USB charging station with smart power is already half off on Amazon and Belkin’s shipping seems to start at $7.50.

Belkin has just announced the availability of their $99 iPad “Folio” case that includes a battery-powered Bluetooth keyboard that would, in theory, turn your iPad 2 into a full-bore mini-computer.

While I, personally, have never been able to use a keyboard/tablet combo with any exuberance, I suspect that this kit, complete with 60-hour battery and a full iPad stand – might make for a better experience.

If you’ve been dreaming of turning your iPad into an ultrabook, this may be your chance.

Keyboard Folio for iPad 2 (F5L090) – $99.99
• Premium suede-like feel with stitching
• TruType™ keys for comfortable typing
• Tri-fold design tucks keyboard away to keep screen protected
• Adjustable angles for viewing and typing
• Rigid backplate for stand stability
• Bluetooth connection avoids messy cables
• 60-hour active battery life
• Micro USB port for charging works with standard cables
• Compatible with iPad 2

Product Page

We all know something needs to happen to deal with the future of energy. Simple things such as leaving home electronics on contribute to more than 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity wasted. While it can be easy to forget that a device is on or that it is even drawing electricity, Belkin is saying it’s important and is offering up a few products that will make sure to help.

The Conserve Insight – $29.99 – is a meter of sorts that offers detailed information about how bad you’re making the planet when cooking microwave popcorn. It shows power-plant CO2 emissions and cost of the device by year or month and also projects the cost of operation. The Conserve Smart AV – $29.99 – is a surge protector with auto-off feature that ‘knows’ when your device is turned off and then completely restricts power. The Conserve Valet – $39.99 – is great for cell phone charging, it is a large pad with four outlets to charge phones. Also great is that when a phone is charged it shuts off power to the charger, potentially extending the life of your phone battery. Finally, the Conserve Socket – $9.99 – is a timed electrical socket. Great for products that draw a lot of energy or things that are dangerous when left on.

The price of the products are pretty cheap, you’re on your way to saving the planet, and I’m sure the value they provide exceed their cost.

Press Release details:

Setting up a router should be the easiest part of your day. There is no reason the average person needs to think about SSIDs, WPA, and pre-shared keys. Thankfully, folks like Belkin are looking out for us morons.

Their new line of routers feature four step set-up as well as a little card containing everything you need to know about your router on one card. You plug it into the cable modem or DSL box, plug the router into the wall, and select your wireless network. That’s literally all you need to worry about.

Granted this is nothing new and any sane person would be able to install a wireless networking device, but Belkin’s zero set-up system is quite handy.

In terms of speed this $129 router runs at N+N, which means it can support two N streams at the same time, one for video, say, and the other for web browsing. It has a theoretical speed of 300Mbps but in practice you’ll see considerably less. However, the router offered nice whole-home coverage and the dual access points will help speed up the network load considerably.

Regardless, it’s a great router for the non-technically inclined and the extra features – including torrent downloading support and some media utilities included on the install disk – are just the icing to a strong cake.

Product Page

Video music by Bacalao.

http://freemusicarchive.org/swf/playlistplayer.swf

The $49 Surf Wireless Router (F7D2301) is just a basic 802.11n 2.4GHz wireless router with 256-bit WPA/WPA2 encryption and MIMO technology. Fair enough. The $79.99 Share Wireless Router (F7D3302) is the same basic setup but adds a USB port for external drive and USB printer sharing. That’s why it’s called the Share Wireless Router.

Then we hit the $99 Play Wireless Router (F7D4302). This boy utilize a 5GHz dual-band 802.11n for speeds up to 300Mbps. It still has the same security and USB sharing capabilities as the previous two models, but is just a bit faster for wireless gaming. The $129 Play Max Wireless Router (F7D4301) has all the wireless goods of the Play Wireless Router, but adds Gigabit LAN ports to the mix along with another USB port and UPnP server.

In an age when standard USB 2.0 cables can be purchased for next to nothing, the $40 price tag on Belkin’s 4-foot USB 3.0 cable ought to be enough to keep most of us out of the early adopter demographic for a while.

If you’re hell bent on transfer speeds that are “three times faster than USB 2.0,” though, you’ll be able to pick up a few products from Belkin starting in April.

There’s the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCIe Add-In Card for $80, the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ExpressCard for $80, and four different cables: a 4-foot A-B cable for $40, an 8-foot A-B cable for $50, a 4-foot Micro-B cable for $40, and an 8-foot Micro-B cable for $50.

Those are the suggested retail prices, so they may be a bit lower once they hit the market. Everything’s backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 devices, too.

Full Press Release:

Belkin Introduces SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Products

• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Products Deliver Transfer Speeds of up to Three Times Faster Than USB 2.0
• Download HD Movies, Charge Mobile Devices, and Transfer Videos and Photos from Your Camera to Your Computer More Quickly with SuperSpeed USB 3.0

PLAYA VISTA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Belkin announces a new line of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 products, including a PCIe Add-In Card, ExpressCard, and Premium A-B and Micro-B Cables. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 products provide a high rate of transfer speed that allows you to move content-rich media back and forth between different devices.

USB 3.0 is specified to transfer at five gigabits per second, or 10 times faster than USB 2.0*. In our tests we observed speeds of up to 180 megabits per second, or three times faster than USB 2.0, which is a great improvement for activities such as large file transfers. USB 3.0 products are backward-compatible with USB 2.0 devices and will interoperate with them as well.

With SuperSpeed USB 3.0 products, you can do the following faster than before:

• Download HD movies and other multimedia
• Transfer high-bandwidth media and files back and forth
• Charge and sync devices, like a digital camera or smartphone

STATISTICS

• An In-Stat 2008 report shows more than 3 billion USB-enabled devices currently being shipped.
• According to The NPD Group data from February 2010, Belkin is the current market leader in USB connectivity**.

AVAILABILITY

• April 2010 in the US.
• May 2010 in Canada.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCIe Add-In Card (F4U023) – $79.99

• Connects up to 127 USB devices (through cascading additional hubs)
• Supports plug and play and hot-swap functionality

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ExpressCard™ (F4U024) – $79.99

• Fully compliant with ExpressCard specification 1.0 and Universal Serial Bus 3.0 specification Revision 1.0
• Supports plug and play and hot-swap functionality
• Connects up to 127 USB devices (through cascading additional hubs)

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Premium A-B Cable, 4 ft. (F3U158-04) – $39.99; 8 ft. (F3U158-08) – $49.99

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Premium Micro-B Cable, 4 ft. (F3U165-04) – $39.99; 8 ft. (F3U165-08) – $49.99

QUOTE

RJ Theodore, General Manager of Core Products, at Belkin:

“Belkin has always led in adopting new technology and bringing products that support these new technologies to consumers. USB 3.0 is positioned to have a major impact in connectivity for computers, media players, and other devices. Similar to when USB 2.0 was first introduced, we plan on leading the integration of USB 3.0 with a line of thoughtful solutions that are easy for our customers to understand and use.”

*This is the theoretical performance of the USB 3.0 standard as specified by the USB-IF. Real-world throughputs will vary.

**USB connectivity consists of the following NPD categories: USB Hubs and USB Cables.

Hey there, Hot Thighs. Got an uncomfortably warm laptop there, Hot Thighs? Listen, Hot Thighs, I saw that Belkin’s coming out with a new Laptop Cooling Pad and I thought of you. I was like, “Who’s the perfect candidate for a laptop cooler? Oh, doi. Hot Thighs.”

Don’t just assume this is some crap cooling pad, Hot Thighs. According to Belkin, it’s “proven to cool better than others on the market.” And there’s a patent-pending AirFlow Wing. And a patented wave design. And a single fan design powered via USB. And you can fit up to a 15.4-inch thigh-scorching laptop. All for an MSRP of $30 when it comes out in April.

Available for pre-order on Amazon for $25. Amazon took one look at the MSRP and immediately went to the beat of its own drummer. Just like you, Hot Thighs.

Press Release

The “TuneCast Auto Live” FM transmitter from Belkin costs $80. That’s a lot of coin for an FM transmitter. It works with most iPhone and iPod devices, but you get extra features if you use it with your iPhone – most notably, there’s a free app that uses GPS and a ratings system populated by other TuneCast/iPhone users to find the clearest FM channels in your area.

That’s a relatively novel approach, although whether it’s worth spending $80 on an FM transmitter remains to be seen. If you live in a big city with a lot of FM stations, you may find that there aren’t that many super clear open channels.

If you don’t have an iPhone, “TuneCast Auto Live also works with iPod Touch, Nano and Classic. ClearScan Technology lets iPod users scan the best FM frequency without an app,” according to the product description. Therein lies the rub. If the device itself is capable of finding the best frequency on its own, what’s the use of the GPS and user ratings features?

TuneCast Auto Live [Belkin]

Looking at this Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver, I’m over here thinking, “Man, 99 percent of the stuff we write about is useless unless you’re in the market for that type of item.” That’s not a knock against the Bluetooth thing here, but if you’re not looking for one right now? Not all that exciting, no.

Moving on, what does this do? It sends music from your iPhone or iPod touch to a tiny receiver that plugs into speakers. Pretty simple concept, really, and one that I would imagine is pretty hard to screw up.

She works up to 33 feet away from the receiver—yes, it’s Bluetooth—and the receiver comes with 3.5mm and RCA adapters.

It is available now (CHRISTMAS~!) in the U.S. for $50, which is pretty reasonable. People lucky enough (and I do mean that) to live in Canada or Europe or Asia or Australia will have to wait till March. Frowny face.

Apparently something with the rotating plug molding and housing can cause fires. The recall covers 68,700 surge protectors sold between September 2003 and December 2007. The model numbers within the recall are F9G930-10, F9G930v10, F9G930-10-W and F9G930-10-SN. If you happen to own one of these, visit this website for more info. And if I sold you one, I’m really sorry. I guess I should have drank the Kool-Aid and pushed a $100 Monster Cable surge protector instead. [via Slashgear]

Ah, late October – a time when a young man’s fancy turns to love, the autumn gingerly steps aside to make way for winter, and, this year, the beginning of at least a year’s worth of non-stop free tech support you’ll have to provide to any of your friends and family that decide to buy a new computer with Windows 7 on it.

The biggest question: How do I get all my dumb photos, tax returns, and Miley Cyrus MP3s onto my new computer? Your new answer: Buy this $40 cable and leave me alone.

That’ll hopefully cut down on your charity workload considerably. Apparently the cable was designed to work with the Windows Easy Transfer utility and setup basically consists of connecting each end of it to the old and new computers. It’ll transfer files, user accounts, settings and customizations, e-mails, and contacts and then provide a report about which programs need to be re-installed along with “links to download latest versions of programs.”

So you’ll still get the “Why didn’t any of my programs transfer?” question that inevitably arises after every new computer purchase, at which point you’re free to suggest that your friend or family member write a strongly-worded letter to Microsoft and then hunker down for an entire weekend of trying to find their old Office 97, Print Shop, and AOL discs.

Available October 23rd, same day as one day after Windows 7.

Grip Vue for iPod nano and iPod touch — $25 and $30, respectively. Flexible and grippy, scratch-resistant, made of thermoplastic polyurethane. The iPod touch version features a “ClearScreen Overlay” to protect the LCD.

FastFit for iPod nano and iPod touch — $30 each. Armband, key storage, screen protector, reflective safety material for nighttime merrymaking.

HandBand for iPod nano — $25. It’s a band… for your hand. Doesn’t look like there’s a hole for the new video camera, probably because your hand would block it.

Grip Ergo with Handstrap for iPod touch — $25. Grippy, surrounded by “a rugged layer of silicone.” Then there’s the two-tone Grip Pulse for iPod nano and iPod touch — $25 and $30, respectively. Finally, we have the Grip Pulse Duo for iPod touch and iPod classic — $20 each. The iPod nano versions have cutouts for the new video camera.

There’s also a slew of new polycarbonate and leather cases available as well, ranging from $20 to $30. Most of the new cases announced are either available now or will be available by next week, while additional cases will continue to roll out between now and November.

Belkin iPod cases [Belkin.com]

Press Release

Any hoots, the Wireless Comfort Mouse is just that, a wireless mouse. It takes two AAA batteries, it’s compatible with Macs, has a power-save mode that puts the mouse to sleep after eight minutes of inactivity and comes in the following colors: Midnight Blue, Pitch Black, Fuchsia and Candy Red.

There’s a Bluetooth Comfort Mouse that works over the 2.4Ghz spectrum and features a scroll wheel and laser optical sensor. This one comes in black or white.

And rounding out the announcement is the Retractable Comfort Mouse. It, too, is compatible with Macs and has a retractable cable. Colors are the same as the Wireless model.

The wireless and Bluetooth models will be available at the end of this month while the retractable model will be available in August. The wireless, Bluetooth and retractable models will retail for $30, $50 and $20, respectively.

With today’s announcement, Belkin has covered the whole gamut to meet everyone’s needs. A variety of silicone and leather cases with various graphics will adorn your iPhone and there’s even a douchey horizontal holster for you belt. Oh, there’s a sport band case as well. I think I’ll be picking one of those up. All the cases are available now for $20 to $30 except the BodyGuard cases, which launch next month.

[PSGallery=2ibld7ramu]

Belkin

Belkin, and others, have been making similar car docks for a while now so your probably know how this new model works. There are two versions coming: the TuneBase FM has a FM modulator and the TuneBase Direct outputs via a 3.5mm jack. Both will get your iPod/iPhone hooked up to your car’s speakers while simultaneously charging it and providing a speakerphone for the iPhone.

Basically, when a call comes in, hit any button on the TuneBase and the iPhone’s call will be routed through the vehicle’s speakers. Expect to pay $89.99 for the FM model when it launches in mid-July, and $69 for the 3.5mm in June.

New TuneBase^TM Products Let You Answer Your Calls Hands-Free on Your iPhone and Play Music in the Car

Listen to music from your iPhone while it charges
Talk on your iPhone and answer calls, hands-free, while driving
With one push of a button, TuneBase FM’s ClearScan automatically finds the clearest FM station
COMPTON, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Belkin’s new TuneBase FM and TuneBase Direct allow you to pick up a call on your iPhone while in the car, hands-free. The thoughtful design of these two products lets you use them without removing your iPhone or iPod from its case. The TuneBase cradle easily repositions your iPhone horizontally to view turn-by-turn directions and videos.

Newer cars include an auxiliary input jack to connect different audio sources to the car’s stereo. Using a 3.5mm cable, TuneBase Direct connects to your car stereo through the auxiliary input, so you can play the music from your iPhone or iPod while in the car. TuneBase Direct also charges your iPod so the battery doesn’t run out while you’re on the road.

TuneBase FM lets you listen to music from your iPhone or iPod in your car while simultaneously charging it. Its ClearScan feature automatically searches for the clearest FM frequency.

How to Answer Calls in the Car

Listen to music from iPhone in the car
When call comes in, TuneBase FM and TuneBase Direct fade out music
Answer the call by simply pressing a button on the TuneBase
The call’s audio will come through the car stereo
Safely talk using speakerphone feature
AVAILABILITY

TuneBase FM – Available in mid-July 2009 in the US
TuneBase Direct – Available in early June 2009 in the US
Both available in mid-May in the EU
TuneBase FM with Hands-Free (F8Z441) – $89.99

Features push-button call pickup and speakerphone
Features ClearScan technology
Transmits audio wirelessly on multiple FM channels from 88.1MHz-107.9MHz
TuneBase Direct with Hands-Free (F8Z442) – $69.99

Features push-button call pickup and speakerphone
3.5mm cable included

Straight outta Compton (yes, Belkin is located in Compton — interesting factoid for your next dinner party) comes Belkin’s $30 CushDesk. It’s a hard-top work surface with a padded underside that sits on your lap, allowing you to work on a notebook up to 17 inches in size without scalding your nether regions.

It comes in one of three color combinations — black on gray, black on black, and espresso on fuchsia. The CushDesk is supposedly available now, according to Belkin’s press materials, although the product page lists it as “Coming Soon” so let’s go with that one for the time being.

CushDesk [Belkin]

The big one has two USB ports and will charge pretty much anything that can charge over USB, but it also sticks out super far. I guess you can’t have everything.

My Problem: I needed internet connectivity in my garage, which is the only thing on the first level of my house. Thing is, my garage seems to be built like a friggin’ faraday cage – the wireless signals just don’t survive the journey through whatever freaky space age insulation they used during construction. The router and modem are on the second level, and running ethernet cables across hallways and a flight of stairs seemed like a quick way to end up with someone busting their noggin. The Solution: the Belkin Powerline AV+ Starter Kit.

What’s in the box:

• Two adapters (One for transmitting, one for receiving)
• Two ethernet cables
• Two power cords
• Two power cord wall adapters (For plugging the boxes in wall-wart style.)
• CD with installation software/manual

The idea of the Powerline AV+ is simple: plug an ethernet cable with internet connectivity (from your router, for example) into one end of the first box, then plug the box into an electrical outlet. Bam – your electrical wiring now doubles as networking wiring. Take the second box and plug it in to any other outlet anywhere in your house, and you’ve now got three ethernet ports juiced up and ready to go. It sounds simple, right?

And it is. Seriously – it’s dead friggin’ simple. No configuration screens, no nonsense. It’s as plug-and-play as possible. Going from unboxing to up-and-running took me less than 5 minutes. The only snag I ran into was a classic case of RTFM; I’d plugged the receiver box into a power strip, which the manual specifically says is a no-go.

My internet connection is a paltry 5 megabits per second, and the Powerline AV touts a theoretical cap of 200 megabits per second. Still, I expected some slowdown or latency increase – but there was none. I ran three speed tests at each location: straight out of the router, and on the other end of the Powerline AV+. Results were nearly identical, considering fluctuations in the incoming pipe. The images below are from two of these back-to-back tests.

Straight from the router (Modem > Router > Wired to laptop):

Through the Powerline AV+ (Modem > Router > Powerline AV > Wired to laptop):

As you can see, the speeds through the Powerline AV+ were actually slightly faster than those through the router; this doesn’t mean that the Powerline AV+ is some magical accelerator, however – there was just some fluctuation on my ISP’s end. It does show, though, that we don’t have to worry about it choking internet connectivity speed.

With most home internet connections being in the 5-15 megabit per second range, the only time you’re likely to ever get anywhere near the 200 Mbps cap is when you’re transferring stuff over the local network. Even then, 200 Mbps should be more than enough for most, especially with a significant chunk of people still on 10/100 LAN routers (which top out at 100Mbps for wired connections). Compared to wireless, it’s faster than 802.11g (54Mbps), but a bit slower than 802.11n (around 248Mbps). A couple of quick transfers across our network were clocking in at around 165Mbps.

The goods:

• Setup is so, so, so incredibly simple.
• One ethernet port in, three ethernet ports out. (As compared to the AV Starter Kit, which has one in and one out – note the lack of a plus sign behind AV)
• 128-bit DES encryption if you’re worried about someone jacking into your internets and stealing your daterbytes with a coat hanger in an outlet.

The bads:

• At an MSRP of $179 ($149 on Amazon), the price of entry is quite high for a somewhat niche product – especially with wireless router prices plummeting.

The bottom line:

If you’ve got a use for it, you’ll love it. It’s easy to install, it’s plenty fast for the vast majority of users, and it’s rock solid. We’ve been using it with out home media server and an Xbox 360 on Live for a few weeks now, and we’ve had no hiccups whatsoever. If wireless isn’t an option but you don’t want to booby trap your house with hundreds of feet of ethernet cable, we’d solidly recommend the Belkin Powerline AV+.