Now cast yourselves away from 3D graphics... well sort of because Diamond are also recently announced their Home Free wireless LAN, which could be a nifty little gizmo for LAN parties and the like. HomFree not only allows gamers to link PCs together to play multi-player games from room to room but also over a single Internet account.
So just how does it work? HomeFree uses radio wave technology to pass connections through walls, ceilings and floors thus getting rid of the need for expensive cabling. And with a 150 feet of range I guess you could say that's no mean… um feat? Well here goes (take a deep breath)… via its use of radio wave technology HomeFree copes with up to a decent enough 2.4Ghz for high bandwidth and throughput speeds of up to 1Mbps, which is just super fab. For today's multiplayer games thank you very much. And being wireless is one thing but interference is another right? Well interference shouldn't be a problem as it makes use of multiple encrypted channels spreading a spectru, frequency hopping. With some 75 searchable channels it's sure to come up with at least one good one.
This kinda of gear used to cost $600-800 a throw. Not anymore. Diamond will be shipping the HomeFree products in September for $199.95 a throw for the Desktop Pack, which includes a PCI and ISA card respectively. And for $229 you get the full monty Combo Pack which includes an ISA card and a PC card for a Laptop
A couple of small titbits to leave you with till my NDA's are seen through, are two products. Firstly, you already know that Diamond pioneered the 3D audio bit with their original Monster Sound right? Well the follow up is of course immanent and just a few months away. Having been at the Sound Blaster Live! party last week I know that 3D sound is really going to take off this year. I'll write up about the Sound Blaster Live! another time but bear this in mind- the Vortex 2.0 chipset supports three API's, Aureal 3D 2.0, Direct 3D Sound and even Creative Labs' own EAX (Environmental Audio Extensions), which Creative Labs raved on about so much. Saying it'll support EAX is one thing though but just how well implemented it'll be on Diamond's next Sound Card is unclear.
Lastly and perhaps more unexpectedly, is a product so secretive and so far removed from what you'd expect from Diamond but what I can say is that there are going to start selling a new device that might well dilute the need for the Walkman- dare I say it?
And that's a wrap folks- I've since had another trip up north to San Jose but the secrets of that trip will be disclosed in another article later this week. Darn I hate NDA's...