Have you ever thrown your hands up in frustration because you simply want to use the Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse of a laptop to access a server or other standalone device?  I have, but never know what product could help…now I do.

The Portable Laptop KVM Adapter from StarTech is specifically designed to turn your notebook into a portable KVM station.  Simply connect the adapter between your standalone [or GUIless device] and notebook and you’re off and running.

I would think the biggest market for such a product are large data centers where they need to access any number of servers without a full KVM installation.

“Aside from a rack mount LCD console, which can be expensive, server administrators and technicians would typically have to use a server room ‘crash cart’, which is a cart comprised of a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Although a typical ‘crash cart’ is somewhat mobile, it lacks the portability of our Laptop KVM Adapter, which provides identical but more convenient control”.

The NOTECONS01 USB 2.0 Laptop KVM Adapter offers immediate BIOS-level access to the connected computer from the laptop control point, as well as the ability to handle full configuration of the attached PC, server, or other headless machines such as ATMs, kiosks and VLTs.

But the portable USB KVM station doesn’t come cheap, the MSRP starts at $470.

Thanks Andrea!

Tektronix just announced test tools for the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed specification.  This means those uber geeks - and we don’t mean that in a derogatory way - will have the tools to prove their devices meet the new USB 3.0 specification.

It is estimated that initial SuperSpeed USB interface ICs and consumer products should appear in early 2010, with widespread adoption continuing throughout 2010. The first SuperSpeed USB products will likely include data-storage devices such as flash drives, external hard drives, digital music players, and digital cameras.

“SuperSpeed USB is a giant leap forward in data transfer rates for many devices and consequently requires much more sophisticated testing,” said Ian Valentine, general manager, Technology Solutions Group, Tektronix. “SuperSpeed USB will operate at 5 Gb/s, more than 10 times greater than the existing high-speed USB standard. This speed will require comprehensive signal testing for transmitters, interconnects, and receivers. Customers will be able to fully test the physical layers of their SuperSpeed USB devices using the latest test solution from Tektronix.”

The Tektronix test solution for USB 3.0 includes: (more…)

So what could they think of next? A USB pregnancy test kit? - you have got to be kidding me! Nope.

Pteq is taking the process totally digital with their new USB pregnancy test kit. I’m not sure why, as any test kit is a simple pee on the stick, and wait for one strip or two. So what does the USB bring to the table?

Well, to answer that question lets visit ThinkGeek and see what they had to say…and I must say, the did a great job describing the product. Take a read:

Quote:One line or two. Yes or no. Pregnancy tests are binary by their very nature. So when we found p-Teq’s USB Pregnancy Test Kit that’s chock full of extra scientific information, we knew we had to get this geeky goodness to our potentially spawning fans.

The process starts off like most pregnancy tests. You pee on a stick, specifically the absorbent test strip at one end. But everything’s different after that first step. Remove the cap from the other end of the stick (cleverly provided to keep you from accidentally contaminating the wrong end) to reveal the USB connector. Pop it in your computer. The power from your USB port starts the electrospray ionization process, creating a spectrograph of the various masses for your analysis. Get it? Your analysis? Urinalysis? *rimshot* Moving on. (more…)

On the heels of the USB infra-red heating pad for relieve of aches and pains we bring you the USB pedometer. Pivoting off the “age of information” the USB pedometer enables you to further analyze calories burned, distance and a hand full of other snibbits of info.

USB Fever offers this product for $17 and includes the following features: (more…)

Granted the USB thermometer won’t be standard gadget gear for the average geek, but for the ubergeek, the USBFever TEMPer thermometer is a must have.

Designed for ease and convenience the TEMPer USB thermometer simply plugs into a USB port and records the ambient air temperature of a room. Although a prudent geek wouldn’t plug the Temper directly into a computer the device does ship with a USB cable to separate the monitoring device from the host computer (avoid radiant heat).

The Temper USB thermometer tests and records temperatures between (more…)

Jungo’s Software Connectivity Business Unit, a market leading provider of USB software protocol stacks, driver development tools and testing tools, today announced the release of version 1.01 of its USBTester product line: a software USB testing tool that enables USB developers to quickly validate their USB devices for USB compatibility, Chapter 9 conformance and mass storage functionality and performance.

A thoughtful feature Jungo included with this release version is the ability to configure read and write tests to any block size. I’m especially pleased with this configuration option as I spoke with Matan Naor of Jungo to implement this ability. Thanks! It allows developers to test their code when optimizing for different packet sizes in their embedded firmware. (more…)

Car engine light on? This USB powered gadget, CarMD, will help you diagnose the problem before reaching out for help. Several steps will give you the negotating power to insure a good deal on fix-up.

Hers’s what’s up: (more…)