Kicking around in technology since 2002. I like to write about technology products and ideas, but at the consumer level understanding. Some tech, but not too techie.
My buddy purchased a Zune a couple days ago and learned it didn’t work with his Windows Vista. He did figure out how to run the Zune on Windows Vista. A little digging around he came up with the following article, thought to pass it along.
Before you start be sure you have the Zune CD, WinRAR (if you don’t have it, grab a trial version) and a this Zune.msi install patch (here *requires log-in on forum).
There are 10 steps to this process and please don’t plug in your Zune until prompted to by the Zune software.
Instructions:
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Are dog tags that hard to get? Well PetSafe thinks so. Their MicroID Rescue Collar is exactly what you think it is, a flash drive fit to set in a dog collar.
Sure you can store the dogs history, owner information and anything else you want, but do you really want to for-go the simple dog tag in the hopes whoever finds your Bassett Hound is savvy enough to extract your dog data? Oh, don’t get me wrong, USB is plug-n-play and
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The Victorinox Swiss Army USB Knife is one of the most popular flash drives with a touch of novelty. This week at CeBIT, the famous pocket knife maker cleaned house of Asian exhibitors pushing knock-off look-a-likes. It’s reported that 7 booths got a visit from the German police, some where closed completely.
I reviewed a Victorinox Swiss USB Knife a while back and must say they are made of quality and nothing would be more frustrating then spending your hard earned cash on a knock-off.
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So you’ve jumped into the world of VoIP but frustrated with those hollow, echo sounding calls? Polycom is now introducing High Definition sound into their consumer based VoIP products. Take the most recent entries of SoundPoint IP550, IP330 and IP320.
So this is what the Polycom marketing guy came up with to explain HD Voice:
The Future Is Calling – Polycom HD Voice delivers over twice the clarity of ordinary phone calls for life-like, vibrant conversations. The difference is so astounding, you will never want to go back to regular phone calls.
So there you have it. For me, the more interesting feature is the new VoIP phones have XHTML capability to support a wider range of VoIP applications.
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With spring just around the corner it’s a great time to get some digital gear for summer. Nothing would fit that ticket better then a USB SurfDrive. Obviously you couldn’t hang-ten with this board, unless you where a USB Star Wars Pez but a great Easter basket stuffer for your little one. USB SurfDrives are available in sizes from 256MB to 1GB with free shipping. Who said USB novelty items are worthless?
Softland jumps onto the U3 momentum and offers a portable backup solution, Back Up 4 All. One feature which caught my eye, is the ability to preconfigure a UFD to auto-backup upon plugin to a host computer.
BackUp4All can also back up locked files and perform full, partial or mirror backups. Softland mentions you can also set filters and review which files changed between the current back and the previous.
If you are like the other 90% of computer users, backing up once a month will do the trick, but if you’re a U3 junkie or simply want to be better prepaired, grab Back Up 4 All.
Source: U3, Download BackUp4AllContinue Reading
OCZ Technology ups the ante for UFDs with their Rally 2 with Firewire connectivity. Although USB is king for connectivity it never hurts to have options, especially when USB ports disappear so quickly with keyboards, speakers and now monitors.
The Rally 2 flash drive comes with two Firewire version, a small 4pin version and larger 6 pin version. As Dave White from Mobile Magazine admits, the Rally 2 could be the answer to what could be a common problem – lack of USB ports.
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Samsung announced a new 19-inch LCD monitor called, the SyncMaster 940UX, which can be connected to a PC using only a USB port. I’ve been saying this for years, but a move like this from Samsung once again proves my point…USB is king of plug-n-play solutions.
The SyncMaster approach of USB connectivity for monitors eliminates the need for a second graphics card and although it never took a masters degree in engineering
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Doing music releases on a flash drive are slowly becoming more popular. Now available are The Fratellis on flash.
The 256MB flash drive includes the single Baby Fratelli (listen now), the video which goes along with it, a web link and “competition,” whatever that is. I would say The Fratellis have a touch of Penny Wise, Wild Flower and my buddies band Imperial X.
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UPDATE: The MagicJack phone jack received Product of the Year in 2007. After the purchase of the MagicJack USB dongle (about $40) you pay a one time fee of $19.95 per year for unlimited calling. Not $19.95 per month BUT $19.95 per year. This will reduce your phone bill to just $20 a year! The MagicJack phone is available at Amazon.
Review: GetUSB.info reviews MagicJack, the Magic Phone Jack.
MagicJack is a convenient USB dongle with phone jack attached to it. By connecting your regular phone to the MagicJack phone port, you can now make free calls anywhere within the US for free. If traveling in Canada, Mexico, UK, China, Italy and Israel then you can call home (USA) for free.
MagicJack is a VoIP service which doesn’t have phone charges but rather an upfront cost for the USB dongle. No pricing yet, but it does provide not only free calling using your regular phone, but includes
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So here’s a poor mans USB hack to secure your network from unscrupulous characters downloading company secrets via USB.
In Windows XP SP2 and Vista you can disable writing to USB devices altogether by implementing a simple registry hack.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Control\StorageDevicePolicies] “WriteProtectâ€=dword:00000001
**Note: I inserted a break after …Set\< br>Control… to fit into post page.
Once done, reboot and you’re set. Make sure others don’t have Administrative rights, otherwise they could easily set things back. Here is the Vista error message upon copy attempt:
There is an auto executable download available to disable writing to USB drives without searching for the registry area yourself. If interested in this USB hack, then jump over to How-To-Geek and snag it.
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