Hyundai Motors will place a USB port into their 2009 Elantra car for stereo connectivity and support of the Microsoft automotive initiative Blue&Me.

Given the fact you’d find yourself in a Hyundai it’s not clear on how you can actually use the USB port, although it’s obvious the USB port would give you access to sync GPS devices, access the stereo for flash based music libraries and display contact information from your PDA on the upgraded nav station.

Blue&Me Link to Microsoft page.

Icron brought us the ExtremeUSB technology making it possible to connect via USB from over a mile away, now Icron is bringing us USB over power lines. Not bad, not bad at all.

Integrating Icron’s patented ExtremeUSB technology and Panasonic’s leading edge HD-PLC power line communications devices, the system extends USB 2.0 over standard power lines enabling remote connection of standard USB devices such as keyboards, printers, flash drives, hard drives and web cameras over the AC outlets in your home or office.

“We are excited to once again be able to showcase the flexibility of our ExtremeUSB technology. With the help of Panasonic’s leading edge HD-PLC devices, we have been able to quickly implement our platform to extend USB 2.0 over standard power lines.” stated Robert Eisses, President and CEO of Icron Technologies. ”With power line technology poised to be a major catalyst for converged home network solutions, we are pleased to be working with Panasonic to add USB 2.0 to that picture”.

In case you are scratching your head about the HD-PLC technology, this explanation might help:

Power Line Communication (PLC) is a technology that uses power lines to both supply electric power and transmit data. Electricity travels in large, slowly changing waves, while data signals move in small, quickly changing waves. Since these waves travel at different speeds, there is no mutual interference when they travel together. This makes it possible to send data signals through power lines, and access the Internet from power outlets. Original Panasonic HD technology uses this principle to provide the large data transmission capacity and high speed of the HD-PLC Ethernet Adaptor. (more…)

Linksys, a division of Cisco, released their new Wireless G USB Network Adaptor aimed at small business. What Linksys did with this product is incorporate range booster technology to increase signal strength and improve data transfer speeds.

The RangeBooster technology makes the claim that range will increase by double and data transfer speed will increase by about 35%.

And if you’re concerned about security, well then wireless products might be a little scary. Linksys covered their bases with a WPA2 256-bit encryption engine along with a Security Monitoring abilities to get the low-down when there’s a crack-down.

No word on pricing or availability.

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The long awaited wireless USB hubs are starting to show their face. Belkin did a push for nearly a year before their wireless hub came out; Gefen just made their announcement about a 4 port wireless USB hub.

This is an excellent choice for those having peripherals further then a common USB cable connection. The Gefen WUSB hub uses a USB dongle at the host PC and will communicate up to 60 feet to the wireless hub.

Since these types of products have not hit the shelves yet, the real-world transfer rate is yet to be determined. The specification calls for data transfer rates between 55Mb/s to the max of 480Mb/s (wouldn’t that be nice) but I believe that will depend more on distance. (more…)

IOGear is like a rising tide when it comes to cranking out USB products for Geek consumption. It just never stops coming.

From the long list of new IOGear products, here are the four most needed geek items you must have.

1) The IOGear wireless laser mouse with germaphobe coating. I mention this because not only having a wireless mouse is a must-have, but raising the geekness level to the antibacterial state is definitely cool.

2) Show me one Geek who wouldn’t like to have another monitor. And since a primary intrinsic value of geekness is saving space, working from a laptop is very standard, thus limiting the options for endless monitor configurations. The IOGear USB VGA video card adaptor is definitely a must-have for the monitor lacking. (more…)

Wireless technology is everywhere. Whether it’s buzz about something new or a product currently available, I cannot go through a day without reading or bumping into something related to wireless technology.There are seven built in wireless technologies that make the world go round. When I say “built in” I’m talking about products which have wireless technology inside the device. Most familiar to most people are Wireless USB, Bluetooth and RFID. However, there are four more technologies you should at least know about. So here are all seven technologies: WUSB, Bluetooth, RFID, WiMedia, UWB, NFC and ZigBee.

WiMedia - WiMedia refers to the Ultra Wide Band radio platform which enables high data transfer rates. The goal of WiMedia is to standardize the protocols or code used in wireless devices. For example, WiMedia standards are used in Ultra Wide Band (UWB), Bluetooth and WUSB technology products. The end result for a consumer is that WiMedia guarantees (more…)

GetUSB.info has reported on several off-the-shelf USB extenders, but they are high priced, at least for the home user. If you have low signal strength and on a tight budget, here is a tutorial on making your own beefed up WiFi USB extender.

Using this home-brew WiFi extender will help pick up dozens more hot-spots in your area; don’t believe it - we’ll you’ll just have to try it - this really works. The premise of this solution is taking a parabolic dish and bouncing all possible waves into the focal point of the “dish” or in this case, the WiFi USB stick. (more…)