Global USB Flash Drives Market to Reach 568.98 Million Units by 2015, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global report on USB Flash Drives. The world market for USB Flash Drives, by volume sales is projected to reach 568.98 million units by 2015. The market currently witnesses challenges manifested in the form of the ongoing recession and resulting erosion in consumer confidence.

San Jose, CA (PRWEB) February 17, 2010 — With data storage needs evolving from “dumb” storage models, such as, compact flash cards, SD cards, floppy drives, CDs, smart media, and other removable storage devices, to more intelligent self-computing portable storage solutions, its USB flash drives’ time in the sun. With a long list of benefits stacked in its favor, USB flash drives are outshining other types of storage devices in the marketplace. The market over the last couple of years witnessed heady growth patterns. The ongoing global economic recession has, however, put the USB Flash Drives market on a “high alert” after forcing a retarded growth in the volume sales, as seen in 2008 and early 2009. Given the intense competition and deceleration in growth in USB flash drives market, innovation will be the name of the game for industry players. Continuous, and effervescent innovation remains critical in ensuring sustained kindling of customer enthusiasm. In short, incorporation of new value-added features and services into USB flash drives, such as, creative industrial designs and form factors will help keep customer interests sufficiently ignited.

As stated by the new market research report on USB Flash Drives market, Europe and Asia-Pacific collectively account for a major share of the global USB Flash Drives market. The sluggish growth in the market can primarily be attributed to tightened budgetary conditions and reduced spending triggered by the financial crisis, the impact of which continues to diffuse in the marketplace. The economic slowdown and the resulting erosion in consumer confidence, steadily deteriorating consumer sentiment as a result of falling (more…)

Here is a simple and incredibly fun USB hack where you turn an old CPU into a hot plate for your coffee, tea or some liquid fragrance [in a dish].

This very useful USB hack can be done in 4 steps.

• Step 1) Tools and Materials

1. A dead CPU. (Ofcourse you can use a working one but it won’t be feasible.) 2. A USB cable 3. A Fan grill with screws. 4. Any box (I used a wooden tie box cover) 5. A rotary Tool (the best tool ever invented) 6. Epoxy 7. A creative artistic mind…[continute]

• Step 2) The Idea

A CPU will still have some working electronic circuits even if it stopped functioning probably. And this project will use the heat generated by running some Volts in the CPU through a USB cable.  First things first. Be Very Careful. Connecting a malfunctioning CPU to your computer may and will damage your computer’s ports or even worse. If you don’t have enough…[continue]

• Step 3) The Steps

First, prepare the base. You have to find a thin box or a box cover to use as the base of the plate. I used a tie box cover made of wood because it has the same thickness as my laptop. Now put the CPU over the base you picked and mark a square to drill with your rotary device. The square must be a little bit bigger than the CPU. The reason behind the bigger hole…[continue]

• Step 4) Preparing the hot plate

locate the ground pins in your CPU and that can be done by reviewing the CPU data sheet or simply by the devastating trial and error. Cut the USB wire and pass it through the hole you made previously in the base. Strip the USB cable and locate the black and red weirs (black wire = ground, Red wire = +5V). You can cut out the white and green data weirs for more space…[continue]

Clearly this tutorial is from Instructables…Thanks Eric!

Hovercam X500 is great name for the function it performs, hovering over documents to project via camera.  The Hovercam is meant to replace the age old overhead projector we are most familiar with from grade school.

The X500 USB imaging device has a 5 megapixel sensor mounted on a swing arm that can either scan and recognize or monitor and project anything on the surface underneath. As a scanner, the HoverCam performs as a 600dpi equivalent scanner. Scans are snapped as photos would be, in an instant. No more waiting for the slow trudging of the scan sensor to run up and down the page.

The free software that is included with the X500 is called HoverCam Flex. The Flex is not surprisingly built on the Adobe Air platform, and is a desktop based application that connects directly to their web services. Images can be uploaded, saved, published, shared and OCR’d with a quick drag and drop. The HoverCam Flex service also provides quick integration with other cloud services like Google OCR, Picassa, DropBox and e-Fax. The benefits of the software alone might be worth the $199 asking price of the HoverCam X500.

To get the Hovercam X500 just visit Amazon and you’ll get a better price than the MSRP. (more…)

The mini RC helicopters have been in all the computer shops as of lately, and Brando just upped the ante with their USB rechargeable version, the Grand NANO.

I’ve seen these things in action, don’t use them around small children, the helicopter blades move so fast, it could cut off a finger if flown right into a child [by mistake of course!].

The Grand NANO is made of light weight metal alloy and has shockproof landing gear.  This makes it a bit less likely you’ll smash the thing while landing.

The Grand NANO has an electronic gyroscope system which provides excellent stability, control and maneuverability.

Equally impressive, is the modified poker chip case for quick and easy storage of the USB rechargeable helicopter.

Brando is dumping this for (more…)

One of GetUSB.info’s most popular post’s is the Review: MagicJack Phone article that talks about the product and services as experienced by one of my contributing editors.  Today, we find out that MagicJack paid $50Gs to Boing Boing in a defamation lawsuit pertaining to an article they wrote.

So what was all the fuss?  Boing Boing uncovered some interesting information about the MagicJack which we didn’t realize during our review.  The MagicJack uses customer profiles, locations and call habits to push targeted ads to the MagicJack software interface.

Boing Boing reports that during the purchase of the product, activation of the product or support for the product, at no time is the user aware of these terms and conditions.

Now, I don’t think the ad sponsored business plan is a bad one, but giving the users a heads-up or opt-out choice is definitely needed.  Even with the small amount of ad space used for such an incredibly cheap and convenient product is not a big deal [in my eyes].

So here is our official notice:  be aware of this fact before buying a MagicJack phone.  To read the full review of this wonderful product, please visit the original article:  Review:  MagicJack Phone.

Source:  Boing Boing.

Banking giant UBS started deploying a device from IBM which ensures online banking transactions aren’t being manipulated by on-line hackers.

IBM’s ZTIC (Zone Trusted Information Channel) is a smart-card reader that attaches to computer via a USB cable. During an online banking transaction, it bypasses the Web browser and makes a direct connection with the bank.  The connection is an industry standard SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which enables the user to enjoy a secure link between their computer and the bank server.

What is great about the USB secure product is that a hacker could not cloak a transaction via the web and show the user a transaction of one amount, while robbing them blind with a different amount as the “actual” transaction.

What is funny about the UBS press release is the following:

If the transaction has been hacked and the account number is different, the customer can abort the payment by hitting a red “x,” or a green check if it’s fine

Well…if they knew the transaction was hacked, wouldn’t they stop it anyway?

Another nice feature of the UBS secure USB device is that a keylogger could not record keystrokes because the sync process between the user and bank happens through the UBS device, no account numbers are used or typed. (more…)

The Japanese firm Hanwa’s announced today their solution to putting DTS digital sound on your computer via their USB Vacuum Tube dongle.

I seriously doubt the vacuum tube brings any value to enhancing the digital sound, but rather put a nestaligic look to a high tech product.

The USB vacuum tube will retail in Japan for $45 USD and include the USB dongle with DTS technology along with the headphones which support DTS sound.  After all, the dongle doesn’t do you any good without some speakers for enjoyment.

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Source:  SlipperyBrick.