Backyard Brand is looking to coin a new phrase with their FlashHarp USB drive.  I’m classifying this under hand crafted USB because it’s a relatively simple mod of a harmonica to include a USB drive.

Granted, Backyard came up with the idea, so props to them.

They do a good job of selling the concept with: “Even if you never master the art of blowing the harp, you’ll never have to throw this harmonica in the back of a drawer. Sweet gift for anybody, young or old, who really likes music.”

If this stick gains any kind of traction we can expect china to knock off a plastic version of this in about 3 months or less.  Granted, it’s not your typical custom USB drive, but for those looking to get the original mod, head over to Etsy and grab yourself a 2GBer of sweet soul for $44USD.

USB Harmonica FlashHarp product page [they should spell it FlasHarp]

In most cases, the cigarette lighter inside a car is used for nothing more than a charger outlet.  This is why Rosenberger31 updated his outlet with a USB connector.  It’s a nice USB hack.

There is no data connection here, just a regulated port to provide a nice stream of 5v to your USB Powered Gadgets.

He removed the access door on the console where the 12v lighter was located. A Dynex 12-volt to USB adapter was piggy-backed onto the power lines and the USB connector was then fit into the blank accessory plate next to it.  What he didn’t mention was a much needed switch to insure juice wasn’t flowing to your USB device while the power is off.

I think Rosenberger31 did a nice job on the dashboard mod.  What do you think? (more…)

Here at GetUSB.info we are a fan of the USB key logger technology.  After all, what better way to find out what employees, girlfriends and such are doing with their spare time.  Especially with all the social network, it’s important to know what is, or is not, being said about you.

We have reported about USB key loggers before, but this one is especially nice with the old school PS/2 connector.  Great for the older machines.

The device comes with 2MB of internal memory, but check it often as that amount of space will be filled quickly.

Pricing is a bit different depending on the connection type you need.  $60-$75.

Here is the USB key logger product page.

Reminder from UberGizmo.

In the beginning of July Engadget posted an article about a new release of Star Wars USB drives, not that we need more, but it was a fun little gallery - yet, not impressive enough to make you buy.  Today that changed with this artist’s rendition of what he thinks a Star Wars USB drive should look like.

It should look like Luke Skywalker’s hand just got cut off.

That’s right, to gain access to your portable storage you need to sever Luke’s hand.

What’s more impressive is the detail of this home-brewed USB stick and the agony you can see in Luke’s eyes while you detach his hand just to store the latest collection of Tera Patrick photos.

No price as I don’t think these are for sale, but definitely a sweet little project for some bored teen. (more…)

How about a real Cigar that glows when connected and stores data on the USB memory?  You can build this authentic smelling USB Cigar flash drive yourself in jest 10 or so easy steps.

Before you get started, here is a list of items you’ll need: (more…)

How To Make a Favicon for a Flash Drive

In the heat of getting a new site launched over the weekend, I needed an .ico Favicon for the website.  I came across this free on-line tool which made everything a snap.  No software download, no .exe to load…just down and dirty ico creator.  Today I thought it would be a great review [from original post] to go over How To Make a Favicon for a Flash Drive.

It’s just several easy steps.  Lets begin.

1. Using a program to create an image file, make a jpeg for what you want the ico to look like.  You can use something as simple as Microsoft Paint or something as fancy as Photoshop.  When you make the jpeg, make the overal shape square.  Try and keep the logo simple - simple will translate best into an ico file.
2. Browse to Chamie and click the “Favicon from Pics” link.  Upload your file.  Chami will automatically generate your ico file.  Chami gives you some great options for the USB favicon file.  You can get a static image or an animated .gif file.
3. Once you have the .ico file, save that image to the root of your USB flash drive.
4. Next, open Notepad in Microsoft [or any plain text editor] and type the following:

[autorun]
icon=favicon.ico

Save this to the root of your USB stick as “autorun.inf”

Once you’ve done all the above, (more…)

If you are like me, you’ve done a great bit of searching on the internet to remove Read Only USB partition or to remove CDROM USB partition, and unfortunately there isn’t much information out there.  The only utility we’ve found, is the one used to remove the U3 platform off a retail USB stick made by Sandisk, but chances are you are dealing with a different vendor or stick.

We found a company that can do this, and they do it in bulk.  USBCopier.com is a USB duplication service company that specializes in fixing your problem, like removing a Read Only USB partition.  I’m not sure how they do it, but their services worked for us.

As you know, a simple format or delete attempt to the USB device simply doesn’t work…you get the “This disk is write protected” message.

I spoke with USBCopier.com about the issue, and they can remove a USB partition off all types of drives, like USB sticks with Chipsbank controllers, Alcor, SMI, USBest and many others.  They also said the partition type doesn’t matter, it can be either the Read Only or CDROM and they can remove it.  USBCopier also mentioned if they can remove the USB partition, then chances are, they can also recreate it.

The company was a life saver to us and I wanted to pass along the information.  It was much cheaper to pay the service fee to remove the USB partition than it was to re-buy all the USB sticks and start from scratch.

Here is the link to their USB duplication service page.  Here is the link to their contact page.

If you are in a bit of trouble - I wish you luck - these guys could possibly help.