StarTech 3 Port Portable USB 3.0 Hub With Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

StarTech brings back what Ultrabook makers left out.

For those that can afford Ultrabooks they're great, right up till you realise to make a system that thin and powerful, some parts were intentionally left out. Optical disks were annexed a while back, and these days' even USB and LAN ports are being banished in an attempt to be ever thinner and lighter.

The ST3300GU3B by StarTech aims to add back both a selection of USB 3.0 ports and a LAN port back, all packaged in a neat aluminium cased accessory. All this is done with portability in mind, I presume, as the adapter is just 87mm long, 40mm wide and 12mm high (excluding the short integrated USB cable). Alongside this in the packaging are a driver CD, multi-regional power supply, and some basic instructions.

Ashampoo HDD Control 3

Keep your hard drives in good condition with this set of utilities from Ashampoo.

I think it's fair to say that very few computer users give much thought to their hard drives. They just sit there passing data back and forth and last forever... right? No... wrong! They have a life expectancy like everything else, and have a habit of failing at the most inopportune moment. This means that investing in some software that can keep them in tip top condition, while possibly warning you of impending disaster, seems sensible. This latest product from Ashampoo will do all that, and a whole lot more as well.

Belkin WEMO Maker

Your world is now fully controllable with a WEMO maker.

I've wanted to write about Wemo for a while, as it's a really interesting technology. Devised by Belkin, Wemo products have the capability to be remotely controlled using a phone and tablet using local wi-fi. So far Belkin has released power switches. Smart LED Blubs and even some security cameras to utilise the technology, but the new Wemo Maker takes the concept to wholly new place, by embracing the maker community with a tool to Wemo almost any piece of low voltage electronics.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha on Vodafone

Vodafone offer most of the top designs in their Pay Monthly selection these days, and have included the Samsung Galaxy Alpha alongside the S5, Nexus 6, Apple's iPhone 6, and various LG, Blackberry, Nokia Lumia, Sony and HTC products.

You can get it free on contract from £30.50 a month, £4 less than the S5. Or, you can get that down to £22.50 a month if you stump £149 upfront, and agree to a 24 month contract for 100 mins, 100MB and unlimited texts.

Currently Vodafone haven't added this phone to their Pay Monthly range, but you can get it unlocked elsewhere for roughly £450-500. That price is an accurate reflection of the specification, where it's close to being a leader without ever actually heading the pack.

Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon R9 290X 8GB

The freaks come out at night.

Sometimes, at the tail end of a generation of GPUs or CPUs, you see something a little exotic get to retail shelves, perhaps as a way to boost sales of remaining inventory before the shiny new thing wipes the slate clean. Other times, it’s simply a window of opportunity for experimentation. Asus is delivering the Ares III, a Radeon R9 295X designed for custom water cooling and built on a custom PCB. (They’re only making 500 of them, though, so good luck tracking one down.) Now, Sapphire has come along with a 290X that doubles the VRAM allotment from 4GB to 8GB.