USB 3.0 has been slowly making it’s way into the retail space. When you have a new entry from Sony for such a technology I believe it’s safe to say the title wave is about to start.
Enter the USB 3.0 Sony Micro Vault flashdrive. The Micro Vault can transfer speeds at 120MB/s for reading and 90MB/s for writing. Now that is fast! Connecting this same device to USB 2.0 and you can expect around 40MB/s read speeds.
The USB 3.0 Sony Micro Vault is made of brushed aluminum case, pop-tail for expanding and contracting the USB connector along with LED to show status light during activity.
You can expect this product to hit the retail market by February 1, 2012.
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Transcend and Taiwan’s ITRI are doing a joint venture design on an ultra slim 2TB USB flashdrive. The “Thin Card” was shown at the Display Taiwan convention. Not sure why the release was at a flat screen convention, but I guess a moot point.
Nothing official from either company in regards to specs or a simple introduction, nor does the high-capacity USB 3.0 stick appear on Display Taiwan’s trade show website. So adding this all up, it could be nothing more then a USB case and a trade show hottie giving out false information.
If you watch the video [here] you can hear the girl say things like “this could be a 2TB drive” well no sh!t I could pull out any sized drive and claim it “could be 2TB” and follow up with a release date of March 2015.
However, lets keep a positive attitude about this and hope a 2TB drive isn’t too far off.
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Several years ago the concept of a 2GB luggage tag would be out of the questions. A 2GB drive was about $15 and for that reason, most everyone would consider it too expensive.
Today however, with a 2GB flash drive less than $5.00 it makes plenty of sense to use a flash drive to store your contact information via USB. Sure, you still write your name, address and phone number on the label above, but you can now include additional information. Travel itinerary, medical information and 2nd contact information.
Now, if you want the luggage tag looking USB with label area, it will cost you the full price of $30, but I’d rather take an old USB or a new $5.00 and create my own. Wouldn’t be that hard with some creative material like duct tape.
Not everyone keeps their flash drive on a key-chain or in their pocket. For many, using a ultra slim USB flashdrive and sticking it into your wallet is your form of portability. For those who do this, read on for a good DIY to insure the stick doesn’t get lost.
First off, if you are using something like the Kingmax Super Stick, the drive is so small you’re more likely to lose it pulling keys out of your pocket then forgetting in the computer USB port. For this reason, the USB wallet is a DIY project to stitch the drive into your wallet.
You’ll need:
wallet
tiny USB flash drive
piece of Velcro
thread, needle and a thimble
In addition, this method of storing your drive will provide extra protection from the slim stick getting damaged.
In short, you’re going to use the lanyard loop of the stick and some thread to stitch it a piece of Velcro which is then put into the wallet. This design allows the drive to be some-what permanent, yet you can pull it out completely when needed.
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If you have a geeky love one, the following NES USB storage cartridges might stike that cord to make a perfect Valentine gift. Etsy dealer 8BitMemory is doing a fantastic job of mod jobs for NES hard drives like the Zelda cartridge below:
Some live, eat and sleep SuperMario, or at least did when they where younger will enjoy this small USB flash drive cartridge:
Or for the hard cord geek who needs a boat load of extra storage you can pull out all the stops for this 1TB hard drive,
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It’s clear USB 3.0 is coming. It’s an unstoppable train which is building momentum with each new day and each new product launch. Millions of PC and peripherals will ship this year with the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed bus interface. With that said, it’s no wonder the timing of the Nexcopy SuperSpeed USB duplicator couldn’t be at a better moment. Now it’s possible for users to manage these new peripherals without using legacy 2.0 products.
The SSUSB160PC is a 16 target USB duplicator which works off the USB 3.0 technology. What you need to remember is that a USB 2.0 stick won’t jump to the 3.0 speed just because it’s a new interface. Fortunately, the 3.0 system will easily handle 3.0 hard drives, which seem to be the most prevalent in the market, as well as 3.0 flash drives which are just starting to show as mainstream.
The SSUSB160PC is a slick looking product with a light weight aluminum body making it ideal for on-site duplication and data loading. The USB duplicator has a built in 120 watt power supply and will copy at your devices maximum transfer rate. For some ideas, it’s reported by Nexcopy that 32GBs of data can copy in about 6 minutes.
We’ve reported on other products from Nexcopy Corporation – maybe it time I request an evaluation unit…some glamor shots after the jump…
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Bradley Manning was able to download over a quarter million documents from the US government via USB slurping…where by, he downloaded the sensitive data directly to his flash drive, then sent the docs to Wikileaks.
Not a cool move Private Manning.
So as a result, the US Military is banning all USB flash drives with systems connected to, or have access to, the SIPRNET network. The Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, in simple terms, the internet used bye the DOD. Of course it’s much more sophisticated then your office network with internet access.
The US Government has taken this breach of information so seriously that any military who do not comply with the data transfer ban “may be punished under Article 92 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.†The article covers failure to obey orders and dereliction of duty and makes clear that any persons in violation of such rules “shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.â€
In a day when typing “cougar” into Google yields more pornography then the animal you would expect, it’s almost a shock to hear about Playboy content being available on USB hard drive. Wouldn’t you think it had already been done?
It hasn’t, and that is why I’m here to tell you about the 250GB USB hard drive full of all Playboy magazine content. All of it – back from 1953 when the first issue was published.
The USB Hard drive from Playboy holds 650 magazines and over 100,000 pages of fascinating articles, photographs and interviews.
The hard drive works on any computer, just like you’d expect a USB hard drive to work, but you do need to install
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If the benchmark claim rings true, LaCie has a new USB 3.0 flash drive which is living up to the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed promise. Things might be coming to fruition with the most recent product from LaCie, the FastKey.
The FastKey has print on the box claiming a whopping 260MB/s transfer speed. If it true, this puts a single flash drive at a faster transfer rate than your best hard drive. As EveryThingUSB points out:
“To put that in its proper perspective a typical 3.5″ hard drive has a peak read speed of about HALF of that and has an average speed about one THIRD of this little bad boy’s performance numbers”
So dumping your buddies MP3 collection of a 1,000s songs will be much easier with this USB 3.0 flash drive, then your portable USB hard drive. But don’t think this convenience, and some would say luxury, come without a price. The LaCie FastKey comes in a variety of sizes, starting at
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PQI introduced their first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 flash drive today, called the U339V. The PQI 3.0 stick is available in 8GB through 64GB sizes. As with any new technology, the performance is lagging behind the specification of performance.
For example the smaller 8GB PQI drive shows a read speed of 55MB/s and a write speed of 10MB/s. Verse the larger 16GB and larger sizes are more like 86MB/s read speed and 20MB/s write speed. If you know anything about flash drives, it just means the bigger sizes are dual channel and the 8GB is single channel.
Still far from the 5Gbps transfer rate USB 3.0 is suppose to offer, but once more advanced controllers come into the market, we’ll see the performance rise.
The PQI drive will be available through
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A New York artist names Aram Bartholl is trying a very daring, if not crazy, art exhibit by placing USB sticks throughout New York City. The idea is for others to share their digital life, secrets, information with others to bridge the life of digital information with that of the physical world. So what exactly do you do?
Aram has placed a small collection of USB ports in public places thinking that others will connect their laptop or computer to the USB port and upload or download data to share. I bit crazy if you ask me…you know how many viruses and key logging programs one could get? Even with virus checking software – there are sophisticated attacks you could expose yourself too. BUT, if you dare, connect!
Currently the installation is only a five-stick preview, but Bartholl is planning to expand the operation to more sticks and more cities. Check Bartholl’s blog for coming information including “full documentation, movie, map, and ‘How to make your own dead drop’ manual coming soon!â€
Aram – you should use USB Write Protected flash drives and share controlled data so that you’re exhibit doesn’t kill computers! Maybe provide an upload link where you can control the data, then put the data on flash drives and write protect the stick. Don’t know how – contact us, we’ll show you.
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Verbatim announced their 32GB flash drive today in the form of a USB dongle no larger than a nickel. There is no lanyard loop and it’s damn small, so will most likely get lost if you place it in your pocket – but that is all okay. It seems Verbatim is gunning for this product to be a permanent extension of memory for your Netbook or laptop anyway.
However, in the event you plan to swap the 32GB stick from PC to PC there is one dirty little secret you should be aware of…it needs a DC powered USB port.
In most situations and applications this isn’t a problem as the device will be connected directly to a motherboard USB port, but you’ll need to pay specific attention to dock stations or non-powered USB hubs. To understand a little better, the device controller needs
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