Here is an illuminating tutorial for you. A simple “how to” on making a USB flash light. In just a few minutes you can have a handy flash light for peaking into your PC tower, under the desk or behind the office credenza for that lost business card.

I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but Texas Hold’em in the US is a very popular past time right now.  In fact, I got 2nd place last night in my neighborhood poker tournament.  Well, Dane-Memory is a fan too.  Dane-Electronic made 1GB and 2GB USB poker chips.

The size is official but I’m wondering if the chip has that clay feel to it?  The USB poker chip splits in half when being used.  Top half is the cap and the bottom half has the USB connection and memory.  Red is 1GB and blue is 2GB.

For the Texas Hold’em enthusiast you might want to pick up several of these USB poker chips, as now you can go “all in” using your personal financial records as liquid cash.

USB poker chip product page.

Source:  UberGizmo.

**Mike [Dane-Elec Irvina CA - send me a comment if you’ve seen/used this chip before]

Buffalo introduces their VH-MU01 USB phone for Skype and MSN chat so you can drop those headsets if you have a complex.  The Buffalo USB phone looks like a slim design with easy button navigation.  Any asstute reader will quickly realize there is no LCD or display for the phone.  Well, if you’re looking to get into USB phones for home or work, don’t let the lack of display worry you.

These phones are designed to work with software like Skype where the software on your computer provides the visual display you need.  So as you click the touch pad of the USB phone the action shows up on your Skype software.

This type of USB phone makes using on-line VoIP more like the traditional phone.  However, if you just can’t part with the land-line setup than you should consider the MagicJack phone.  The MagicJack is a USB dongle which connects to your computer and on the other end of the dongle is a traditional phone connection.  Simply connect your good’ol phone to the dongle and you’re talking over VoIP. (more…)

The Imation Disc Stakka is a management tool for keeping those messy CDs organized and accessible.  Granted your music is probably on your iPod and if it isn’t then you should contact a CD Ripper Service…but even with all your music on that MP3 player you can still find a use for the Disc Stakka.

I’ve got at least 3 dozen installation CDs, software CDs, and utility CDs that I like to have in storage.  Problem is the over flow of putting those CDs into a leather case - now I’ve got two cases.  Rather then spending more mone on another bulky leather CD/DVD case, I’m looking at this Disc Stakka.

The Stakka is an automated carousel that stores and protects your CDs and DVDs.  It does the painfully obvious as well, retrieves them.  The Stakka holds (more…)

The Hawking parabolic WiFi dish is a fancy version of our home-brew version to boost your wireless signal.  The one thing Hawking has which you will never achieve, this the cool dish look.  The Hi-Gain Wireless 300N is a dish adapter to your WiFi network which connects via USB and could boost your signal as much as 600%.

The 300N supports b, g and n networks so regardless of your setup, you can put the Wireless-300N to use.  As with any wireless solution security is a big concern and the Hawking unit supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 enccryption - so again, whever your setup the 300N will work.

“Since the dual-antenna is highly directional, they’re also trying to sell it on the idea that you can avoid signal interference by pointing it away from other electronics.  I’m not sure that’s something I’ve ever experienced using WiFi, but I could imagine it might be useful to specifically target a base station in an area with lots of wireless congestion.   – SlashGear“

The Hawking Wireless is on sale for $99. (more…)

If you’ve got Guitar Hero and recently acquired Rock Band from say…Christmas then you’ve probably wanted to bridge the two together for a complete bi-gaming experience.  Since Activision and Harmonix will never come to minds on hardware connectivity and interface you’ll have to resort to the Ant Commandos converter to make the two play nice.

The converter has a USB connector on one end and PS2 connector on the other. Simply plug the converter into PS3, connect the PS2 controller, and set the switch to either Guitar Hero, Rock Band or Gamepad and you are  ready  to go.

TAC’s Universal PS2-to-PS3 Converter is compatible with PS3 Rock Band and PS2 / PS3 GHIII, and it works with basically every PS2 axe you can think of, wired and wireless.

The PS2 to PS3 converter product page.

Source: Engadget.

We reported a while back on the Nexcopy USB Flash Drive Duplicator and today VConsole announces a similar system but larger capacity and encryption technology.

The VConsole appears to be lightening fast as well, with a copy speed of 91 seconds for 512MB of information.  Taking a quick visit to their site I see the 91 seconds copy speed is the same for their 21 drive system, 42 drive system and 60 drive system.  Hmm…strange how those speeds do show, even the slightest, sign of degradation in transfer speed.

Putting that aside, the 128 encryption function is a nice benefit, although not included with the base unit for $8,000, it does make you wonder what the price tag is for that feature.  From what I’ve seen, most USB flash drive duplicators are used to copy content to give-away USB drives and if that’s the case, I’m not sure why you’d want to encrypt a viral marketing gadget.  However, with USB getting more popular as a distribution medium, I’m sure there are plenty of uses for the encryption function.

The USB flash drive duplicator can work as a stand alone system or the user can launch a GUI interface to see more details.  Vconsole mentions they have a multi-casting technology in the works for stringing multiple units together for expanded production.  This would be of a big benefit for the guys over seas making the drives.

I like the VConsole product, but I honestly see a better fit for the general market with the Nexcopy USB Duplicator and with the attractive price tag of $1,299 verse the VConsole $8,000 unit, you’ll need to take a hard, close look at which system best fits your needs.