Pelican Products launches the Marine smartphone cases at CES 2016-- the first waterproof iPhone case line from the company promising protection from drops, snow, dirt, dust and, of course, water.

The maker claims the Marine cases feature 5 layers of military-grade shock protection, while a scratch-resistant screen protector helps users avoid display damage. The case should also allow one to submerge the iPhone in up to 2m of water for 30 minutes, as well as protect against the elements.

MIT researchers develop electrochemical-based batteries able to harvest power from a wide variety of human motions and activities-- in other words batteries one can charge by running or even walking.

Motion-charged batteries already exist, but these are based on the tribolectric effect (the principle behind producing sparks by rubbing a balloon against a wool sweater) or piezoelectrics (crystals producing a small voltage when bent or compressed). Such principles work well with high-frequency motion sources, but are limited by regular human motions. The required materials can also be quite expensive, and have high electrical impedance and bending rigidity.

On the other hand the new MIT-developed batteries promise to be inexpensive to produce at large scale while demanding less motion to actually produce power. The technology is actually similar to lithium ion batteries, since it consists a porous polymer soaked in liquid electrolyte sandwiched between 2 thin lithium alloy electrodes.

BenQ PC gaming accessories get a rebrand with ZOWIE, a name the company says "will continue to show its commitment to gamers by providing eSports athletes with premium professional gaming products."

The ZOWIE brand is not a new one-- it has actually been making eSports-focused gaming gear, including mice, mouse pads/gaming surfaces, keyboards, headsets and other accessories (such as "skatez" replacement mouse feet) since 2008. But following what appears to be a substantial investment it has become the BenQ gaming brand.

Taiwanese accessory maker Cougar presents the Attack X3-- a mechanical keyboard promising to cover the essentials "purist gamers" demand, namely quality, functionality and durability.

Featuring Cherry MX switches (in Red, Brown, Blue and Black options) in a brushed aluminium design, the keyboard promises tunable polling reaching 1000Hz, 1ms response time and N key rollover capabilities. It offers 10 programmable keys (with on-board memory), on the fly mode switching and dedicated media keys, with Cougar UIX software macro handling editing, storage and sharing.

Apple launches an update on the Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader-- one offering support for USB 3.0 data transfer speeds when used with the iPad Pro.

USB 3.0 data transfer speeds reach up to 5Gbps, a tenfold increase over USB 2.0. Teardowns reveal the iPad Pro carries a USB 3.0 controller, making it more attractive to customers working on large photo and 4K video files.

Cooler Master hopes the Sentinel III stands out from the gaming mouse competition with the inclusion of OLED display together with the more typical RGB lighting and customisable DPI.

The OLED display is set back from the mouse wheel and not only shows current DPI settings, but also allows one to make DPI adjustments (400/1200/400/6400 DPI) in-game, without need to open software. In addition, a small 32x32 area allows users to upload a logo or any kind of graphic.

Inter BEE 2015 sees CalDigit announce 2 lines of USB Type-C docks, a pair of USB-C adapters and a dual-interface PCIe card adding USB and eSATA ports to any PC or Mac.

The CalDigit USB-C Dock adds 2 USB-C ports, 2 USB-A ports, an HDMI port, a Display Port, an ethernet port, audio in/out and AC power to notebooks such as the new Macbook and Google Chromebook. The dual-display connectivity allow users to connect dual 4K monitors, and the dock handles the charging of computers while handling the connection of all devices.

Meanwhile the smaller USB-C mini Dock features 2 USB-C, 2 USB-A, HDMI, VGA and gigabit ethernet ports. However it does not charge computers, meaning it draws power from the connected device.

Sonnet launches the long-delayed (first announced back in 2013) Echo 15+ Thunderbolt 2 Dock-- a 16-port docking station compatible with Mac and Windows PCs featuring Thunderbolt ports.

It offers x4 USB 3.0 ports (able to supply 7.5W of power even when the computer is switched off), x2 6Gb/s eSata ports, a FireWire 800 port, x1 gigabit ethernet port, x2 3.5mm audio inputs, x2 3.5mm audio outputs and x2 Thunderbolt 2 ports.

Also included is a drive bay with 6Gb/s interfaces for one 3.5-inch or two 2.5-inch SATA drives and a built-in optical drive offering 8x DVD+/-RW drive, a Blu-ray BD-ROM/8x DVD+/-RW drive with Blu-ray player software for OS X, or a Blu-ray burner 4x BD-R/8x DVD+/-RW drive.