HP is hard at work readying two new portable notebooks for release, the EliteBook 2560p and 2760p. The news comes from HP itself and a NotebookItalia report, which reveals some specs for the 12.1-inch notebooks.

They might replace the current 12.1-inch 2540p and 2740p as they are getting long in the tooth at about a year old. The 2760 will be a convertible tablet, and the 2560 a more traditional notebook. Both will feature USB 3.0, DisplayPort and your choice of 1.4GHz Core i5, 1.6GHz Core i7 and 2.7GHz Core i7 chips. They may also have up to 16GB of RAM and a Blu-ray drive. The 2760p offers an LED-backlit 1366×768 display and an optional 1440×900.

Continuance is a rechargable battery concept by Haimo Bao, Hailong Piao, Yuancheng Liu & Xiameng Hu. It redesigns the traditional AA battery by putting a USB port on it. This way, the battery can be charged via a USB connection or the device can be used to charge mobile and other devices via USB.

It doesn’t seem very practical. You would lose some of the battery capacity just by putting the USB port in the battery. But it is still neat. Maybe in the future this could work very well.

It may not look like much, but this is the first USB 3.0 video card. And don’t worry, you don’t have to sacrifice image quality and frame rates with this device because USB 3.0 has enough bandwidth for even multiple HD monitors. Awesome. This USB 3.0 video card from Sunix has a GPU either from in-house or SMSC.

The adapter draws just 400mA current, helping with backwards compatibility. That means that the dongle will work when plugged into a USB 2.0 port. The max resolution the adapter can handle is 2048×1152 and the HDMI 1.2 connection.

Here’s the latest in crazy cat gadgets and I’m not talking Hello Kitty. It’s a mouse pad shaped like a cat head with a USB heater inside. You know, in case your hand gets cold and you would like to stick it in a cat’s mouth. Weird.

The cat pad is 234 mm x 260 mm x 110 mm (9.21 in x 10.24 in x 4.33 in) and weighs 95 g (3.35 oz). No word on price but I can think of much better uses for your money. What if your poor cat sees this. He will think that he’s gonna get a fist in his mouth too. It’s just not right.

If you love the Angry Birds games, you are probably into collecting all of the Angry Birds Plush Toys and other merchandise as well. How about Angry Birds USB Flash Drive Keychains? They come in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB capacities, and feature many different birds and pigs from the Angry Birds game.

Whichever is your favorite bird, you can have it with you at all times. These cost $10.80 and up. The price depends on the character and the data capacity. Which one is your favorite?

Roku made a grand entrance onto the retail scene on Wednesday, by landing a deal with Best Buy. The stores will carry the Roku XD both in retail and online. This is the first time one of the company’s networked media hubs will be available at stores across the US without a rebranding.

To refresh your memory, the XD can play 1080p video, supports 802.11n Wi-Fi and has a remote with the instant replay button. It lacks the dual-band Wi-Fi, component video out and USB of the XDS, but both can do Amazon Video, Hulu Plus, Netflix, and live sports from the MLB and NHL.

MSI has launched a new X370 notebook that features AMD’s E-350 processor. It features MSI’s ECO Engine which is designed to save power. That’s great news for your electric bill. The Notebook measures less than one inch thick and weighs just 1.4KG, with a battery life of up to 10 hours.

Other features include a dual core AMD E350 processor, a 13.4 inch HD backlit LED display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, AMD Radeon HD 6310 discrete graphics card, your choice of either a 320GB, 500GB or 640GB hard drive, one HDMI port, one VGA port, two USB 2.0 ports and a card reader.

Hercules has a new range of eCAFE netbooks in the eCAFE Slim HD and the eCAFE EX HD. They are both ultra portable, and the EX HD will deliver up to 13 hours of usage. Both feature a Cortex A8 processor, with Linux as the OS.

They also have 512MB of RAM and 8GB of storage in the eCAFE Slim HD or 16GB of storage in the eCAFE EX HD, plus 50GB of online storage. Both feature a 10.1 inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Ethernet, three USB 2.0 ports and a mini USB port.

The MIX Wireless Mini HTPC keyboard mouse is a palm-sized 2.4GHz RF wireless keyboard which only needs batteries and a free USB port to operate. So obviously it makes a good choice for HTPC use.

The device features an optical touchpad, so you can interact more easily with your operating system and it will operate from within 10 meters of range. The device measures just 109mm x 59mm x 18mm and weighs just 93 grams.

Acer’s Iconia-6120 is amazingly drool worthy. Those who have been waiting to preorder in the US and Canada now have a price and release date. It will run you $1,199.99 and for that price you get a touchbook with two 14-inch Gorilla Glass touchpanels, a Core i5 CPU, 4GB of memory, integrated Intel HD graphics and 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium.

Other features include USB 3.0 support, a 640GB hard drive, a 1.3 megapixel camera, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, HDMI output, and gigabit Ethernet. Amazon and other e-tailers should be taking orders right about now.

Some leaked images and specs of an upcoming LG handset have been leaked. The handset will feature the same Nova display as the current Optimus Black, but at a larger 4.3 inches. That’s why the phone is being called the LG Optimus Big.

It’s expected to launch at Korea’s U+ provider in April. Some of the leaked specs include a 1GHz single-core CPU and a T-DMB TV tuner, which allows watching over-the-air TV broadcasts. That last feature insures that the handset won’t be coming to other markets. At least not without some major changes.

Do you use Twitter everyday? Takara Tomy wants to make your experience a cute one, by using Twimal. It must be the Pokemon that got away. Just plug it into your Windows machine using USB and it will read your tweets.

It comes in blue or white with male or female voices and can read all kinds of tweets like replies, lists, etc. in Japanese only. It will hit Japan on March 31 for ¥2,480 or about 30 of your hard earned dollars.

Fujitsu has unveiled a price range of £749 up to £849 for the Stylistic Q550, its business tablet. The tablet will arrive next month in two versions, one with a 32GB SSD and the other with a 64GB SSD. The tablet will also pack in an Intel ‘Oak Trail’ Atom processor and up to 2GB of RAM.

There’s also WiFi and Bluetooth, front and rear webcams, USB 2.0, HDMI, and an SD card reader with 3G and GPS as extra options.

Many of us are still using USB 2.0, and it will take some time to phase it out, but more and more USB 3.0 devices are arriving daily. Now it is Super Talent’s turn as it is introducing a new line of USB 3.0 flash drives at USB 2.0 prices.

The USB 3.0 Express DUO 2-CH flash drives feature a cap-less design and a nice piano black finish. The design makes it so that you twist the plastic housing to reveal the USB 3.0 port inside. It comes with Microsoft’s Security Essentials antivirus program right on the drive too. These new drives come in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities for about $19, $30, and $70.

It looks like Verbatim has finally decided to release its new Store n Go USB drive. These drives are available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB storage spaces. The attraction here is that these drives are super-tiny, but with good capacity for the size.

These drives have a USB 2.0 interface and will deliver read and write speeds of up to 11 MB/s and 3 MB/s. The Verbatim Store n Go USB drive is available now in Europe and will cost you about $25 and up.