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Logitech’s G613 "Lightspeed" Wireless Mechanical Keyboard Cuts Wires & Input Lag
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Logitech’s G613 “Lightspeed” Wireless Mechanical Keyboard Cuts Wires & Input Lag

Logitech this week introduced its new wire mechanical keyboard aimed at gamers, touting its low input lag for a wireless keyboard as a defining feature. While the Logitech G613 was designed for gamers and has a number of gaming-oriented features, it is not overloaded with them and it can connect to two host systems using different wireless technologies, which makes it suitable for business environments as well.

Mechanical keyboards for gamers and wireless keyboards have existed for ages, but well-known manufacturers of keyboards have restrained themselves from wedding “gaming” and “wireless” for multiple reasons; the relatively high input lag being the primary one. Logitech’s Lightspeed platform promises to cut the input lag by optimizing internal architecture of keyboards/mice, decreasing polling rate of wireless receivers to 1 ms, increasing signal strength, applying a proprietary frequency agility mechanism to avoid interference and optimizing drivers. The Lightspeed-enabled input devices use special receivers, which are different from Logitech’s popular Unifying receivers.

The Logitech G613 mechanical wireless keyboard uses the company’s Romer-G switches featuring 1.5 mm actuation distance and rated for 70 million key presses. The device is equipped with six programmable keys, media playback control keys and can connect to hosts using the Lightspeed or Bluetooth radio technologies. Each G613 keyboard comes with a bundled Lightspeed receiver, which requires a USB Type-A port as well as Windows 7 or later, Mac OS X 10.8 or later, ChromeOS, or Android 3.2 or later to work.

The Logitech G613 looks rather minimalistic, it has no programmable RGB LED lighting and resembles advanced office keyboards with a palm rest, so apart from gamers it can address other demanding users as well. One of the key features that Logitech advertises about its G613 is its battery life: it can operate on two AA batteries for up to 18 months, which will be appreciated by people interested in not only gaming performance, but overall comfort in general.

Logitech says that the G613 mechanical wireless keyboard will be available shortly for $149.99 in the U.S. Prices in other countries may vary.

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Lenovo Immerses into Windows Mixed Reality with Lenovo Explorer
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Lenovo Immerses into Windows Mixed Reality with Lenovo Explorer

Lenovo has introduced its augmented/virtual reality head mounted display (HMD) compatible with the Windows Mixed Reality platform. The Lenovo Explorer device requires a PC to operate and runs applications developed for WMR or Microsoft HoloLens and other AR/VR devices.

From technical point of view, the Lenovo Explorer HMD does not differ from WMR devices by Acer, ASUS or Dell: it has two 1440×1440@90 Hz LCD panels (for a total resolution of 2880×1440) and two cameras to capture the outside world. The Lenovo Explorer headset connects to a modern Windows 10-based PC using USB and HDMI cables and blends virtual reality with the real world. The HMD has integrated sensors, so users can move around in an area of up to 3.5 by 3.5 meters and do not need any external tracking systems.

Lenovo claims that its headset was engineered to ensure maximum comfort for its users. In particular, the HMD is light and is easy to wear.

Just like other companies involved into the Windows Mixed Reality initiative, Lenovo positions its HMD for VR games and entertainment, 360° video, work, AR-supporting programs and other emerging workloads. For those, who plan to use apps designed for the WMR platform, Lenovo will offer Motion Controllers (similar to those supplied with other WMR HDMs), whereas for gamers the company will offer an Xbox One controller.

Lenovo will sell its Lenovo Explorer HMD starting from October for the price of $349. When bundled with motion controller, the headset will cost $449.

 

Gallery: Lenovo Explorer

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Longsys Acquires Lexar Brand from Micron
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Longsys Acquires Lexar Brand from Micron

Longsys on Thursday announced that it has acquired the Lexar brand name from Micron. The China-based supplier of NAND flash memory-based products will use the trademark to sell Lexar’s traditional devices — removable storage like memory cards and USB flash drives. The company believes that going forward usage of removable storage will expand.

Micron announced plans to discontinue its Lexar business in late June, possibly because of its slow growth and Micron’s intentions to focus on businesses that are more profitable. The company indicated that it would sell all or a part of its Lexar business, but it clearly wanted to exit the market of inexpensive removable storage devices. The two companies did not disclose financial terms of the transaction, but it is likely that Micron will have to reveal the sum in its quarter results.

Longsys is a large China-based supplier of NAND flash-based storage solutions that include everything from memory cards to SSDs and embedded storage. The company was established in 1999 and currently sells hundreds of millions of NAND flash-based products every year, primarily in China, but also in many other countries. The acquisition of Lexar enables Longsys to enter the U.S. market with products carrying a well-known brand and therefore increase its sales. Unlike Micron, Longsys believes in long-term growth of removable storage products because new types of devices emerge (such as drones).

“Lexar has built a great brand name and our vision is to make it even greater,” said Huabo Cai, CEO of Longsys Electronics. “Existing customers can rest assured that the innovative solutions and excellent support that they have experienced from Lexar will continue. The mission to make Lexar the go-to brand for high-performance removable storage continues, and we will expand upon it to offer even more compelling solutions as the age of wireless and big-data impact the consumer storage markets.”

What remains to be seen is whether Longsys intends to use the Lexar brand to market SSDs in the U.S., or only hopes to make memory cards, flash drives and embedded storage under the trademark. If the company decides to expand usage of the brand to SSDs, then it will compete against Micron using the latter’s NAND in the U.S., which would be an interesting turn of events.

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Coming October 17
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Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Coming October 17

This morning at IFA in Berlin, Terry Myerson, EVP of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, announced that the next Windows 10 update will be launched worldwide on October 17. Dubbed the Fall Creators Update, it’s the first such update sinc…