A company called Suck UK is about to launch this UFD cleverly disguised as a cassette tape. Nothing more than some creative packaging. So why am I writing about this? Because the other products on their website are absolutely classic for a good laugh. Such as Suck UK’s Smoking Mittens, Razorblade Mirror, Cardboard Mini Arcade and the list wouldn’t be complete without the Emergency Money Box. More fun stuff, check them out.
As for the USB stick in a cassette box, it’s available end of September and sizes are yet to be announced. If by chance you have a library of cassette tapes needing to be digitized than check out our post from the other day on a USB Cassette Archiver.
Update: Movie Photo Birth Announcements now has multiple templates to choose from. Templates are conveniently organized and include fun topics such as; Pirates, Baseball, Golf, Princess and Girl Teddy Bear themes.
Definitely off topic, but close friend and commenter on GetUSB.info just launched a Photo Birth Announcements website; MovieBirthAnnouncements.com. This isn’t your typical snap-shot stuffed into an envelope birth announcement either. It’s not even close to those Shutter Fly birth announcements; rather a fully customized Movie postcard with clever phrases and wording to bring a smile to the entire family tree.
Movie Birth Announcements currently has one template with four more coming in several weeks. This is an excellent way for telling the world about your new baby addition and much more creative than just about anything you could drum up.
Wish I had this service when my two little ones where born – Grandma and Grandpa just got a post-it note and Polaroid (not really).
Prices are very reasonable and FAQ for the inquisitive. And not to leave any stone unturned you have the option for customized photo birth announcement envelopes.
Running under the assumption most visitors of this site are male – if you know of anyone who’s prego or you just want to sharpen your communication skills with your female half – fire off this web link or email them.
Source: Movie Photo Birth Announcements.com
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So what exactly are we looking at? Mimobot USB characters have always been a little off in their design, but I guess that’s why their following is so strong. Or is it?
Nine new models came out last week and they are strange – must be based off the characters in the animated movie, Chicken Little. So lets do a quick run-down.
Row One:
PSY mimobot
Ptry mimobot
PupStar mimobot
RayD8 mimobot
How do they come up with these names?
Row Two:
Galacula mimobot (Okay that makes sense)
Gigglebyte mimobot
Fairybit mimobot
Owsley Owlbert mimobot
The straggler Swirl mimobot.
Each Mimobot is available from 512MB to 4GB size and range in price from $40 to $110. As with most Mimobots these fun little USB characters are manufactured in only 2,000 quantity so if one strikes-your-fancy; get it!
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Today I put together all the information needed to run a mobile Library from Apple iTunes on a USB stick or USB drive. This method will run the entire iTunes application from the storage device, making it easy to manage iTunes libraries from a single location. I believe this is how iTunes should have be developed – as having a library specific for each computer is a frustrating way to enjoy your music.
What pushed me over the edge is my wife wanting to purchase music from iTunes at work and sync them up with the iTunes computer at home. Typically this is done by purchasing the music and downloading directly to the iPod, but she’s a CPA and travels from location to location for audits and doesn’t even use the same computer all the time – yet she loves her music. The solution was to run iTunes from a USB flash drive to manage a single Library.
This tutorial includes installing iTunes on a flash drive, creating autorun files for auto-launching iTunes from the flash drive and how to set-up iTunes on different computers to run a music library from the single flash drive. Of course this method also works for larger storage hard drives – basically anything that appears as a Mass Storage Device on your system. If you are looking for a long term strategy for managing your iTunes music, I strongly recommend doing this process to an external hard drive that is, at least, 120GBs. So here we go:
Here is a quick summary so you know what we are getting into:
Nokia is leading the way in accepting the fact that USB is the end-all connectivity. The new Nokia 8600 Luna has only one external socket; a microUSB port. Since China set the standard for all charging to cell phones be via USB, this would be Nokia’s answer to the call.
So with Nokia on board for 100% USB charging and connectivity on this model, I would expect a quick adoption to other models.
You can see the microUSB port at the bottom of the picture; this micro port is our interface to the computer, charger and any audio devices. Amazing. The Nokia 8600 comes with microUSB adapter for audio connection as we haven’t seen audio devices with microUSB support as of yet.
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Why give someone a single still framed picture when you can give them an entire slide show? The MF-575 is an inexpensive hi-tech digital photo, MP3, and video player with a bright, high-resolution 5.6-inch color TFT screen and USB connectivity.
When I bought my first MF-575 picture frame, I got it as a gift for a family member who liked to complain that I never send them pictures anymore. The problem is, I have a digital camera and haven’t gotten any pictures developed in several years. So now, whenever I go over to their house for a visit, I just bring an extra memory card from my digital camera full of new pictures. If you don’t have an extra memory card, the MF-575 has an easy-to-use MD/SD/MMC memory card reader that plugs into any computer with a USB port. So you can just plug the entire picture frame into your computer and copy the pictures onto the card that way if necessary.
This year on Christmas morning, I was thinking about taking a series of pictures while everyone is opening their gifts. Then I’ll take the memory card out of my digital camera and pop it into the MF-575 picture frame for an instant slide show for everyone to enjoy on Christmas afternoon. Good idea right? The number of images you can put into your MF-575 slide show is only limited by the capacity of the memory card being used.
Here’s the full review: MF-575 Digital Picture Frame
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Virgin America planes are coming to the US. With it, comes purple hue cabins and high tech services. Every seat has a 110 volt port, Ethernet and USB for charging iPods, phones and other gadgets.
The Virgin line includes computer servers which hold 3000 MP3 songs and the ability to create your own play list which is available the next time you fly. Nice. The Virgin system, called “Red” includes in-house IM chat both public and private along with standard offerings of movies and TV channels. I can see it now: IM chat: “I farted, can anyone tell?”
We’ve seen iPod mixers before but none like this with over sized dials and clean layout design. The iBuddy and iSpin from Sergio are two devices that let you do your music your way. Both iPod DJ systems let you run iPods or MP3 players from the dock stations simultaneously.
The iBuddy center dial is used for flange and autophase between songs on the two iPods and the iSpin center dial is used for spinning between MP3 players with jog wheel for cross over fades. It would be nice if both features where in one – but they’re not.
The iBuddy and iSpin accept all iPod models and have a couple pre-program settings along with ability to route a mic through the effects, if you want.
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So the grandparents have the Ion Audio USB Turntable for converting vinyl records to MP3 and now Ion introduces the TAPE2PC USB cassette archiver for the 40 Somethings.
With a dual dubbing cassette deck and advanced software to convert directly into your iTunes library, those old cassette tapes will never feel left out again. Ion Audio left no stone unturned with a “metal” or “CrO2” tape selection feature – if you even remember what its for.
The TAPE2PC connects via USB therefore no drivers need – yet another plus for the technically challenged middle aged. Price is around $100USD.
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Update: The Tengu is now available from ThinkGeek for only $45ish.
SolidAlliance might be on to something with their USB Tengu, self talking USB gadget. At the size of a cigarette box this guy comes to life upon USB connection. The LEDs turn bright red into a friendly face, then reacts to music and sound – ideal for those looking for anonymity and in need of a front man (Jeffrey Skilling could have used this a couple years ago).
Not on sale yet – but will be in Japan mid August. Price tag – about $40USD. Now Available! YouTube video below will make you laugh, worth the look – if you have IE6 click here.
The Tengu is now available from ThinkGeek for only $45ish so shut down that YouTube video and click over to grab your Tengu today. After all, everyone needs a front man.
Laptops rejoice! Sewell is spinning out a very inexpensive USB to DVI adapter to offer high quality video displays for those tiny notebooks displays. The process is simple. The external DVI video unit has a USB port which you connect to your laptop (or PC) and a DVI port you connect to you external monitor, turn everything on and you’re done.
The $120 price tag might seem a couple dollars high, but considering there is 128MB of flash memory used for buffering and processing the video signal you wont be disappointed. Sewell claims the USB to DVI adapter drove a 20 inch DVI screen with no visible differences what-so-ever.
The USB bandwidth is more than enough to transfer the necessary video data to the USB to DVI adapter, and the 128 megs of onboard RAM does the rest to bring you perfect performance every time.
With this unit you can turn any laptop into a three monitor system: 1) Laptop screen, 2) use DVI output of laptop 3) use Sewell DVI adapter for monitor #3.
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This SATA/IDE to USB converter kit would be the easiest way to clone your hard drive and finally upgrade your laptop storage space. However, the combo kit isn’t limited to just 2.5 inch hard drives but includes connection support for 1.8, 3.5 and 5.25 inch hard drives along with CD-ROM drives, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD blah blah blah – anything in 5.25 inch size.
The USB to SATA/IDE combo kit is fully compliant with USB 2.0 so you can expect maximum transfer speeds of 480Mbps (yet that never happens) and plug-n-play connectivity with hot-swap support. For the techie, the chipset used in this guy is JMicron-JM20337.
With $3 shipping for any order this converter kit to go from USB to SATA/IDE (product page) puts you back exactly $32USD. Takes about 7 days to receive anywhere in the world.
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This year on Christmas morning, I was thinking about taking a series of pictures while everyone is opening their gifts. Then I’ll take the memory card out of my digital camera and pop it into the MF-575 picture frame for an instant slide show for everyone to enjoy on Christmas afternoon. Good idea right? The number of images you can put into your MF-575 slide show is only limited by the capacity of the memory card being used.
Here’s the full review: 
