802.11ac RF Hands-On with Buffalo AirStation WZR-1750H

We just stopped by Buffalo's booth at CES 2012, who were kind enough to let us use a WiSpy DBx from Metageek we're working on reviewing to look at an 802.11ac signal. The WiSpy DBx is an inexpensive (for spectrum analyzers) spectral analysis tool, and with 802.11ac specifically the interesting thing to look at is what 80 MHz OFDM window. This is as opposed to the 20 or 40 MHz channels that are a part of 802.11n. 

 
With the markers shown, clearly 80 MHz OFDM

Buffalo was running a 3x3:3 80 MHz 802.11ac demo at their booth, with two AirStation WZR-1750H APs and their visible Broadcom miniPCIe 802.11ac solution visible. The two cards were just wired together (even though 802.11ac works on 5 GHz) just to ensure no spectrum crowding issues affected the demo. However, Buffalo let us get nice and close to the pigtails, close enough to catch some of the 5 GHz RF leaking out. Wired together the simple network with two APs talking to each other was doing just over 800 Mbps of traffic. 

Gallery: Buffalo AirStation WZR-1750H 802.11ac 80 MHz in Chanalyzer

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Buffalo launches nippy DriveStation Velocity hard drives

Buffalo Technology's latest hard drives, the DriveStation Velocity range, claim to have the ability to transfer 1,000 digital photos in under than 7 seconds.

That's all thanks to the 7,200 RPM drive along with the TurboPC Ex utility for Windows PCs which add up to a data transfer rate of 5Gbps. So while it's not the fastest hard drive we've ever heard of, it's not bad for a desk buddy for your average joe.

Unsurprisingly, it's a USB 3.0 affair but it is backwardly compatible with USB 2.0 if you're yet to upgrade and don't mind the slower speeds.

Looker

It's not a bad looking device either, coming in shiny piano black and a fairly compact frame.

Spies and other secretive sorts will be pleased to hear that it comes with 256-bit AES Full Disk Encryption to keep all those secret files and photos safe from prying eyes.

The Buffalo DriveStation Velocity is available to buy now, and will set you back the fairly reasonable prices of £89.99 for 1TB, £112 for 2TB and £164 for 3TB.

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Pioneer And Buffalo Unveil World’s First BDXL PC Blu-Ray Burners

Pioneer and Buffalo have just launched their new BDXL drives capable of handling 4-layer (128GB) and 3-layer (100GB) BD-R XL at 4x speeds in addition to 3-layer BD-RE XL and older BD-R/BD-R DL and BD-RE/BD-RE DL Blu-ray disc media.

The Pioneer BDR-206MBK supports 3D Blu-ray discs will arrive in Japanese stores next month with a $372 price tag.

Buffalo have unveiled their BRXL-6FBS-BK drive that supports the same BDXL discs as the Pioneer and plays 3D Blu-rays. Buffalo will be shipping the device in Japan next month if all goes to plan, with an open price model.

It will be available in both an external (USB 2.0) BRXL-6U2 and an internal (SATA

) BRXL-6FBS-BK.