Belkin Bows Wireless Interactive Router with LCD Screen

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Belkin is introducing a gadget to please computer users with a yen for a “data dashboard” on their routers.

It will ship in the August/September time frame what the company says is a first-of-its-kind consumer-use wireless 802.11n-compatible router that offers interactive access to data on device status, network upload/download speeds – and, by the way, the date and time as well – on a built-in LCD screen.

The vertical design on the N1 Vision Model F5D8232 ($199.99) takes up less space on a desktop and is wall-mountable, according to Jonathan Bettino, the company’s business unit manager for networking. The display uses icons to describe the various devices connected to it, and when an icon blinks, indicating a problem, the unit can be switched into a troubleshooting mode, offering suggestions for possible corrective actions. Also visually trackable are variations in both upload and download speeds, and both figures can be viewed simultaneously, speedometer-style. The device can also show information about which computers are connected on a network while it tracks their usage. The N1 Vision, Bettino adds, is firmware-upgradable.

Other Belkin introductions rolling out in the late summer and pre-holiday seasons include the company’s first four-port Wireless USB Hub (F5U302; $199.99) – a system that lets the user plug a printer, a digital camera or a hard drive into the hub and then access the devices wirelessly from up to 30 feet away via a plug-in USB adapter at the PC end.

Belkin is also making available in the fall a product it first showed at CES 2007: the TuneStudio for iPod – a four-channel audio mixer that lets musicians record directly to their iPods at the 16-bit, 44kHz quality level. It takes input from up to four instruments or audio sources. Belkin says the device is also idea for studio or on-location podcast recording ($249.99).

An array of other iPod and iPhone enhancers is also destined for holiday-season introduction. These include an iPhone headphone adapter to solve the problem posed by the device’s recessed port, an acrylic holder and a sport armband enclosure.

Emerging from the partnership Belkin has forged with the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation against breast cancer are two pink iPod enclosures for the nano; 10 percent of the retail sales take on those will be donated to the Foundation by the company.

Other holiday gadgets of note: a child-friendly submersible mouse of rubberized material for easy cleaning ($29.99) and a laptop cooling pad ($29.95) with a built-in, USB-powered fan. The latter is currently available only through Dell distribution but will soon be sold through Apple’s retail stores.