6/16/2008

Innovative Device Lets Families Share Projects among Computers and USB Peripherals - With Just the Press of a Button

Kensington Computer Products Group, a worldwide leader in delivering smart made simple™ computing accessories for the mobile consumer, today announced ShareCentral, an innovative USB peripheral sharing device for the home that lets family members instantly and effortlessly share up to five USB peripheral devices between any two computers with an easy press of a button.  ShareCentral brings the cords and cables of external devices into one small, attractive desktop or wall mounted unit, allowing people to share their choice of peripherals and content in one easy fingertip motion, with no network required.

Recent Kensington research conducted by Markettools showed that more than 40% of households have 3 - 4 computers in their home belonging to different family members.  A full 70% of these households have a dedicated computing space equipped with a stationary computer, as well as a variety of peripherals, that are shared by the whole family.  These multiple-computer families  have a screaming need to be able to easily share access to the peripherals they use the most including printers (50%), scanners (30%) and external disks drives (22%) so they can turn work, homework, photos and music gathered on laptops, flash drives and iPod music players into polished, finished work meant for sharing with others.

"ShareCentral is a great example of our smart made simple design philosophy," said Frederic Frappereau, Global Product Marketing Manager at Kensington. "Everyone is mobile. Then they bring the day's data, photos and music back to one shared, usually cramped, home computing center which the entire family needs to access in those few hours between dinnertime and bedtime. Up until now, they spent that precious time switching out cords and cables to connect their computers to their peripherals. Now with ShareCentral, they can focus on sharing the content, to produce creative results of which they all can be proud."

Key features include

• Share up to five different USB peripherals - Instantly share access to multiple USB peripherals between two computers at the press of a button.  Users gain instant access to their USB peripherals by plugging one simple USB cable into their computers. LED lights on the product indicate which computer has access.
• Easy to set up, simple and straightforward - ShareCentral is easy to set up and easy to use with no network or software required. Plug-n-play right out of the box!
• No more cord clutter - ShareCentral eliminates cable mess by connecting device cables into a central desktop unit; also wall mountable.
• Easy printer sharing -Simply press a button to switch the USB printer from one computer to another. ShareCentral 2 and ShareCentral 5 Automatic Print Sharing will detect and automatically switch to the computer that is trying to print, conveniently eliminating the need for any buttons to be pressed (available for Windows® XP and Windows Vista®).
• Adaptable and personal - All USB ports are independently controlled by a button and assignable to either computer. Each button comes with interchangeable magnetic keycaps for personalization to user's device and specifications.

The ShareCentral Collection

Notes to editors

About Kensington

Kensington is a leading provider of desktop and mobile device accessories, trusted by IT, educators, business and home office professionals around the world for more than 35 years. Kensington products empower people to dynamically interact with content, creating a better working experience for productive performance. In both office and mobile environments, Kensington’s extensive portfolio of award-winning products provides trusted security, desktop productivity innovations, and ergonomic well-being. Our core competencies in engineering, industrial design, product quality and responsive customer support make Kensington The Professionals’ Choice^™.

Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Kensington operates as the technology division of ACCO Brands (NYSE: ACCO), one of the world’s largest designers, marketers and manufacturers of branded business, academic and consumer products, sold in more than 100 countries across the globe.

Kensington is the inventor and worldwide leader in laptop security locks, the acknowledged leader of Trackball innovation and offers a broad range of premium-branded desktop productivity solutions.