Here is a nice quick and easy USB tutorial.

Swapping storage can become a headache in Windows as you never know or can remember which drive letter Windows assigns your drive.  At Lifehacker, they posted a nice tip on assign USB drives to folders.  This method not only keeps things organized, but adds one additional benefit most wouldn’t think of.

First, the tip.

Create a main USB folder where we will mount all the USB drives once connected.  Then assign all your USB devices to sub-folders within that main folder.  After creating the folder structure, do the following for assignment.

• Click > Start > Run then enter diskmgmt.msc and hit enter. This opens the Disk Management configuration that should display all drives and devices currently connected to your computer.
• Pick an USB device from the list and right-click that entry. Select Change Drive Letter and Paths from the menu.
• This should open a new window that is displaying the current drive letter of the device and three buttons at the bottom which are named Add, Change and Remove.
• Click on the Add button, select Mount into the following empty NTFS folder and click on browse. Now navigate to the subfolder that you want to assign the usb drive to and confirm the assignment. The USB drive will from now on be accessible from that folder as well if it is connected to the computer.

Now, the additional benefit: (more…)

The Sharper Image does seem to come out with some cool stuff.  Example, they announced a laser beam music system powered by USB.  The music system is shaped like a big “W” with laser beams spanning each post.  Using your fingers or hands, breaking the laser beams produces pre-authored sounds.

Although it appears simplistic with only 6 laser strings, the pre-authored pulses allow you to play pulses, streams, riffs and loops from a variety of instrument selections.  Configure the laser beam music system to play strings, keyboards, winds and percussion instruments.

The laser beam music system from Sharper Image includes 30 original songs in 19 different music genres.  Genres include Jazz, bluegrass, classical, hip-hop, reggae, heavy metal and more. (more…)

Press Release: Philips Launches New USB Smart Key for Dictation Product Line.

Philips is the first company to offer such a tool, which replaces current dongles and older security codes that had to be manually typed in. The USB Smart Key is now packaged with Philips SpeechExec Pro Dictate and Philips SpeechExec Pro Transcribe, as well as Transcribe software packages.

The USB Smart Key can simply be inserted into a USB port and the software will automatically access the license stored on the key. The license can then be easily transferred to a computer with the touch of a download button and, after download is complete, the key is no longer needed for licensing and users can work on that computer without having to keep and carry a dongle. If a user wishes to work with the dictation software on an office computer as well as a computer at home, the USB Smart Key allows him or her to switch from one computer to another without having to purchase a second license. (more…)

It’s been said for a while now that WiiWare was expecting Karaoke ability under a software program called Joysound. It appears this is finally coming to fruition. The Joysound Karaoke program has some ambitious plans with over 20,000 title by it’s release in mid summer with an additional 1,000 songs added each month.

“Although it’s being referred to as a WiiWare title, Joysound is a bit different from the rest of the WiiWare lineup. Users download the Joysound program from a server that’s being exclusively set up for it. This server will also house the songs for downloading.

Hudson is currently considering a billing system based not on a per song rate, but on a subscription rate. Users will presumably be able to download as much as they want over a set period of time.”

As previously mentioned the Karaoke Joysound will be available in two packages. You can either download the software to run Karaoke but you’ll need to have your own USB microphone. Or a bundled package will be available which includes the software along with USB microphone. There are even talks about including (more…)

This “everything you need” HDTV connection kit is one Pretty Hot And Tempting deal from Buy.com for only $22.49.  I’ve seen just a single HDMI cable at BestBuy for more than $50 so this deal is off the hook.

What you get for just over $20 bones:

• 6ft RCA Type Audio/Video Combination Interconnect
• 6ft Component Video Cable
• 6ft RCA Type Audio Interconnect
• 2m HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interconnect 2m TOSLINK Optical Digital Cable
• 6ft S-Video Interconnect
• HDMI to Male DVI Inline Adapter

All the cables have 24-karat gold plated connectors for optimal performance and quality.  The gold plated connectors also ensure long lasting quality without degradation for connect and disconnect sequences.  The cable ends are molded for ease of use, handling and comfort during installation AND these cables come with a lifetime warranty.  You can’t go wrong.

However, BUY.com did say the quantities are limited and this GetUSB Dealz will only be around for a short while.  $32.49 with $10 rebate.  Free shipping so total is $22.49.

Review: Casio LK300 Keyboard

Today I’m able to report about the Casio LK300 with USB and TV connectivity. I didn’t perform the review, rather my brother did. So lets see what Ned had to say:

I have to say the Casio LK300 is bigger than I expected and definitely more solid and quality built than anyone would expect for the price (about $200). The LK300 keys provide just enough friction to make them feel almost real, but obviously not exactly like a real, piano hammer like feel.

Although I’m not a piano enthusiast, I did pick up the LK300 to learn. After all part of the enticing thing about the Casio is the ability to connect it to a TV and learn along with instructional lessons. During a lesson, the LK300 keys will light-up as the song is played giving you the exact location of which key to hit and when. It’s even got a nice feature to cover any delay you might have in stroking the key…a little late…that’s OK, the sound still matches the lesson song.

With the lessons, the software will provide feedback in the form of a scoring system whereby it calculates the number of (more…)

What could be better than working with USB, robots, legos and our imagination? Our beloved memories of childhood play with Legos has now turned into adult fun with the new robotic line of Mindstroms.

The Mindstroms from Lego is based off their NXT Technology whereby a main NXT brain unit controls 5 different robotic functions for you to let the imagination run free. Build anything you want with the legos, intuitive robotic software or get extreme with Lego’s open source developers kit.

So what are the 5 building blocks of the Mindstrom units?

• Touch sensor
• Sound sensor
• Light sensor
• Ultrasonic sensor
• Servo motors

Through these sensors, some crafty lego design build your robot and communicate via USB for software download and development stages. The world’s next Frankenstein is only a lego or two away.

So this is how it works.

Build your lego monster with available parts kits.

Launch the intuitive robot software and use pre-defined commands to build motion, touch, light and other sensory functions.

Last, connect and communicate via USB to test your functions and ultimately download the finished firmware version to the NXT Lego robot.

The USB monster Lego kits, or Mindstroms are available for $250 from Amazon. This is one excellent gift for the 9+ age who’s into computers, gadgets and tinkering.