With the exception of Mickey Mouse…is a mouse really that cute you need to make a million gadgets shaped like them?
Nope. But that doesn’t stop Brando. Here is a classic example. The USB mouse stands on four USB port legs. The legs can swivel around for easy connection, but even after a single device is connected the mouse wont stand…so what’s the point. Oh there isn’t one? OK.
Available in two colors of green or pink with high speed USB transfer rates you can add another animated animal to your drawer of crap for just $12.
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Capture video direct to H.264 video files for your iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, YouTube and even full resolution video backups from Blackmagic. So why is Blackmagic so great? Because it captures video into the native file format of your mobile device like iPod or iPhone.
The Blackmagic USB video recorder plugs directly into your PC via USB and using the included, easy to use software from Blackmagic you can recorder VHS, Video-8 or content directly from your video camera recorder.
The software has a graphical interface to quickly and easily identify your destination device during job setup to begin the ripping process. The software includes a cropping tool because sometimes your VHS tape has black borders or time display stamps. Well not anymore.
Check out this image of the software interface. It’s clean, simple and logical.
So getting excited and ready to pull the trigger on a purchase or maybe work it into your next months gadget budget. Well be sure to set aside $119 + shipping.
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Icron is leading the way in low cost USB extension options with their new Ranger 2101 and Ranger 2104 products. These extension adapters are a single connect to extend a USB device up to 100 meters away. The concept is simple, through USB and CAT5 Icron ExtremeUSB technology can maintain high speed USB transfer rates over such a hard wired configuration.
The Ranger 2101 is a single connect ExtremeUSB extension box with a retail price of $349 and the Ranger 2104 is a single connect with 4 port end-point hub for multiple device connection for only $389. To learn more about the Icron ExtremeUSB technology read my earlier posts.
As for today’s announcement:
“Our customers are connecting USB enabled devices in more challenging and unique applications which demand higher performance and flexibility from our ExtremeUSB technology.†stated Robert Eisses, President and CEO of Icron Technologies. “We are committed to enhancing the technology to increase the implementation options to be able to dramatically expand the market for ExtremeUSB technology. Ranger 2101 and Ranger 2104 are the initial products in a new series of solutions from Icron that include other cost down products and ultimately a family of single chip ExtremeUSB devices, ideal for embedding into a variety of applications.â€
Over the past 18 months the company has focused its Research and Development initiatives on evolving its core ExtremeUSB technology to be more flexible and cost effective to encourage quick adoption into larger markets. With over 2 Billion USB ports shipped
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Pexagon Technology has a fresh, contemporary way for schools to raise money for their academic and extracurricular activities via USB. The idea is simple, offer a 1GB gift card to schools, kids and parents where by the purchase results in a customized 1GB drive with their school mascot or logo.
The USB fundraising plan is simple; the schools contract an agreed bulk price with Pexagon along with customized logo design, the school then set their own gift card price which best suites their community. The delta between the cost and fundraiser purchase price goes right to the school club or program.
With memory prices constantly decreasing, this is an excellent way to get valuable technology into the students hands while providing contributions to their schools fundraising activities. If parents had to choose when buying flash memory, I’m sure they’d opt for USB fundraising option.
To learn more about USB fundraising with Pexagon you may contact Shane Schmidt for more details. Here is the contact page: USB Fundraising with Pexagon Technology.
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Set Top boxes have a big limitation in that you get Pigeon Holed into one device such as AppleTV or the forthcoming NetFlix unit, but the Myka could change the landscape forever. The Myka is a BitTorrent device which will work with anything the web has to offer and can download/play MPEG2, H.264, WMV and DivX media.
As Wired reports, the Myka is userfriendly because it takes the nerd out of the BitTorrent process. The Myka is intelligent enough to provide content (legal or otherwise) from a Peer2Peer network without all the advanced skills often required to pull off a BitTorrent download. The Linux based box is a simple connection to the TV via HDMI, composite (ouch), S-Video or SPDIF and connects to the internet via eithernet or WiFi. The Myka comes with a variety of internal hard drive configurations (80, 160 or 500GB) and includes an external USB port for additional storage or future connectivity / peripheral options.
“There’s no way the content providers will allow this pirate box on the market, right? Wrong. Myka already has the official BitTorrent service on board, which means it will carry legitimate content from 20th Century Fox, MTV, Warner and Playboy, amongst others.”
Wired posted a full interview with Myka’s president Dan Lovy, so if you’d like to learn more about the Myka set top box which will rule them all, jump.
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..or at least a professional sounding podcaster. I’ve considering doing the podcasting, but I want to build up my reader subscription a bit more. The Alesis USB podcasting kit doesn’t care who you are, it’ll work on Mac or PC computers. The kit is designed for the novice user with features an advanced technical geek would enjoy.
Stream from 16 bit, 44.1-48kHz directly from your computer and use the high-quality headphones for monitoring your session. The USB podcasting microphone makes it a snap to get connected and get going.
One of the best applications for this type of product, other than being self-absorbed and loving the sound of your voice on the net, would be setting up a portable studio for trade-show interviews with customers, clients and critics. With the ease of setup from the Alesis system, your booth could have a podcasting station for in depth interviews, tutorials on products or guest speakers you could immediately deliver to the world via podcasting and the internet. After all, the classic 10×20 booth with some posters and fliers is so old-school.
The Alesis USB podcasting kit is priced at just $99 bucks. A drop in the bucket for anyone reading this post.
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It’s not often you hear “vertical” and “keyboard” in the same sentence so I jumped on this article when I heard Kensington re-styled their C170 keyboard to include a vertical mounted USB port.
So now that I’ve settled the vertical+keyboard question, the next is why? Look at the picture, then make the jump.
Accordian USB drive, are you kidding me? This is nothing more than silicone wrapped around a USB adapter port. Sure you could slap some marketing gargon on there, like accordion USB drive, but we’ll all see past it.
None the less, I didn’t think of it so kudos to Jacek Ryn for such an idea. You can see his little gadget trap at Poland’s Fine Arts in Gdansk.
The concept is fairly simple and straight forward. Put a USB port and memory device into an accordion shaped silicone casing and call it something new.
Sorry, but this stuff kills me.Source:Â Core77.
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I’ve written about USB albums many times before and even a microSD music disk from Ricky Martin, but I thought he was going out on a limb. Apparently not.
SanDisk just announced a sponsorship in association with the Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards from April 6-10 in Hollywood, Florida. I guess the sponsorship is a reflection on SanDisk’s marketing campaign to “Wake Up Your Phone” by providing pre-loaded entertainment on microSD cards. “Wake Up Your Phone” is focused on informing mobile phone users how they can capture their experiences and take their music with them by expanding the storage capacity of their mobile phones – or between the lines – “hey consumers, don’t forget to stuff your memory slot with a microSD card for $30.”
The Billboard Latin Music Conference will also offer attendees the ability to download additional multimedia entertainment to the microSD cards, such as photos and video, in the attempt to show there is more to do that just microSD music cards.
“This year’s Billboard Latin Music Conference is all about exploring the new way of doing business, so it is extremely fitting that SanDisk Corporation is an in association sponsor of the event,” said Leila Cobo, Billboard’s Executive Director of Content & Programming for Latin Music & Entertainment. “From ringtones to video, understanding and utilizing mobile technology is crucial for any artist or company that wants to succeed in the Latin music business, and we’re thrilled that SanDisk will be giving our attendees the opportunity to experience the true power of mobile entertainment through its microSD cards.”
To increase awareness for how microSD cards can be used SanDisk launched this very entertertaining website WakeUpYourPhone.com.
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The typical UFD sticking out of your laptop is probably nothing more than fancy shaped plastic, or possibly wood or even gold ($6,000). Today we look at the softer, fuzzier side of UFDs. Paul from Technabob uncovered these fuzzy little USB critters, created by a design artist Nifer Fahrion.
Nifer Fahrion has two version of her fuzzy USBs. The one above is called Maggie the Maggot and the one below is named Gizzy the Data Worm. I’d opt for Gizzy if I had to choose.
Honestly, I think these fuzzy guys are an example of what some kids could do on a rain day to kill some time. Grab some material, glue and let the imagination run wild. I’m tempted to try this myself and turn it into a USB tutorial, but I don’t think anyone would care or try.
SO, with that being said – if I’m off base and you digg this kinda stuff, hop on over to Technabob’s post or Nifer’s site and get ready to drop your $66 on a 4GB original.
Source: Technabob.
As an after-thought, if you are looking for another home-project, how about turning a Pez dispensor into something interesting.
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MSN has this exclusive i-Buddy design for their instant message customers. The idea is providing a visual message when a new instant message arrives. Akihabara reports the i-Buddy will perform various motions when an new instant message arrives which corresponds to the emotion of the sender. Not sure how that works, but…
The i-Buddy connects via USB port and cable and stands about 3″ tall. I’m not clear about the details, but it seems you must be apart of the i-Buddy community to use the i-Buddy USB figure. All features provided by the i-Buddy Community are free of charge, exclusively to those members. i-Buddy customers can login to express themselves through the innovative functions designed it.
Don’t get too excited for this IM buddy, as Japan will be the first to try it, before the i-Buddy community rolls out to other countries.
All major browsers are supported by i-Buddy.com, including Microsoft Internet Explorer 6/7, Mozilla Firefox 2, Safari 3 and Opera 9. However, to ensure maximum compatibility, we recommend users to use either Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+ or Mozilla Firefox 2.0+. Flash player is required to browse certain parts of i-Buddy.com
Source:Â Akihabara News.
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Luigi had some of his clan review the BFG 9800 GTX Video Card over at i4u gadgets and I wanted to pass along their findings:
The BFG 9800 GTX runs on the NVIDIA 9800 GTX GPU. The core clock of the card runs at 675 MHz, the shader clock is 1688 MHz and the memory clock is 2200 MHz. the card has a 256-bit memory interface and a memory bandwidth of 70.4GB/sec. the BFG 9800 GTX has 128 stream processors. The card features 512MB of GDDR3 RAM and the card is PCI Express 2.0 compliant. Other features include HDMI capable with adapter and HDCP capable for protected HD content. Read the entire review:
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