Today I’m able to report about the Casio LK300 with USB and TV connectivity. I didn’t perform the review, rather my brother did. So lets see what Ned had to say:
I have to say the Casio LK300 is bigger than I expected and definitely more solid and quality built than anyone would expect for the price (about $200). The LK300 keys provide just enough friction to make them feel almost real, but obviously not exactly like a real, piano hammer like feel.
Although I’m not a piano enthusiast, I did pick up the LK300 to learn. After all part of the enticing thing about the Casio is the ability to connect it to a TV and learn along with instructional lessons. During a lesson, the LK300 keys will light-up as the song is played giving you the exact location of which key to hit and when. It’s even got a nice feature to cover any delay you might have in stroking the key…a little late…that’s OK, the sound still matches the lesson song.
With the lessons, the software will provide feedback in the form of a scoring system whereby it calculates the number of
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What could be better than working with USB, robots, legos and our imagination? Our beloved memories of childhood play with Legos has now turned into adult fun with the new robotic line of Mindstroms.
The Mindstroms from Lego is based off their NXT Technology whereby a main NXT brain unit controls 5 different robotic functions for you to let the imagination run free. Build anything you want with the legos, intuitive robotic software or get extreme with Lego’s open source developers kit.
So what are the 5 building blocks of the Mindstrom units?
Touch sensor
Sound sensor
Light sensor
Ultrasonic sensor
Servo motors
Through these sensors, some crafty lego design build your robot and communicate via USB for software download and development stages. The world’s next Frankenstein is only a lego or two away.
So this is how it works.
Build your lego monster with available parts kits.
Launch the intuitive robot software and use pre-defined commands to build motion, touch, light and other sensory functions.
Last, connect and communicate via USB to test your functions and ultimately download the finished firmware version to the NXT Lego robot.
USB Fever is sporting their new 11 button multi-media USB mouse as the best ticket to enhance your work productivity, increase your efficiency and ultimately land you that promotion. Well, maybe not the last three, but chances are with an 11 button mouse things will be [a bit] more convenient.
So for those armchair executives, consider the following 11 quick access features the USB Fever mouse offers:
Internet key
Speed switch
Volume down control
page forward
page backward
volume up control
left button
double click button with only single click
click wheel
right button
play and pause button control
Granted you’ll need a weeks worth of practice to flawlessly work the 11 button super mouse, but the payoff is huge.
The multi media 11 button USB mouse is only $15 directly from USB Fever with an additional $3 for shipping anywhere in the world.
Thanks for the tip Thomas!
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Yesterday we spoke about the asterisk USB hub which solved a basic problem of USB ports being too close together. Today, Brando announces a new turnable USB hub which also address tight layout of USB ports found on most hubs. The turnable USB hub not only offers the ability to rotate 180 degrees for each connector, but Brando spiced it up with some flashy color. Making it easy to find that hub in your pile of papers, coffee cups and other desk junk.
Running through the rainbow colors you have a 4 port hub with one up-stream port. From purple, to red, orange, yellow and finally green.
It’s definitely a fun looking little hub which might double as a 1 year old twisty-turn toy. Price from Brando is $12.00 with a few more chips for shipping cost.
Brando Turnable USB hub product page.
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The Asterisk USB hub is one fancy looking device, too bad it doesn’t work. This is another design prototype from contempo designer Joel Escalona. What I like about this layout, besides the bright Ferrari red is the space between each USB port. Too often have I not been able to use all the ports of a USB hub, making it half as efficient as what it should be.
The issue I see with Asterisco hub (Asterisk hub) is how wide it would be if directly connected to a USB port. It would clearly block other ports to the sides, so an extension cord would be needed to make this ideal. Give and take I suppose.
If you are not familiar with Joel’s work, maybe you can jump over to view his USB bomb or USB furniture. Both are enjoyable to consider.
Joel – if you’re out there – has anyone picked these up for production?
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Mimobot, the company which makes those lovable, fun and sometimes crazy looking USB drives is now coming out with Tokidoki Branded UFDs. Renowned Italian artist Simone Legno and his popular Tokidoki brand is crossing over to the fashion tech world with the introduction of the Tokidoki Mimobot.
Legno, the artistic genius behind the wildly successful, super-kawaii Tokidoki lifestyle brand, joins creative forces with Mimoco to bring you monkey adorned Meletta, Italian devil chef Pastaio and treasure hunting Pirate Nero.
Meaning “sometimes” in Japanese, Tokidoki was named because of Simon’s love for Japanese culture and because he believes “everyone waits for moments that change one’s destiny”
The Mimobot series will be released April 18th where Simone wil be in New York at the Comic Con store. You can pre order now, and if you’re into Tokidoki you should as only 2,000 of each Mimobot Pirate Nero, Pastaio and Meletta will be made.
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I’ve often thought of what shape [not] would make the perfect card reader and USB hub, and I must admit the idea of fitting all this into a can never crossed my mind. However, our friends at Brando did think outside the box, with this canned shaped card reader and USB hub. The 3 port hub supports SD, SDHC, MMC, XD, CF and microSD flash memory cards.
Granted the design is unique and different but not designed for travel or someone looking for a card reader in a compact size. The canned card reader does not include a power adapter and is USB powered, thus not the ideal unit for large or long data file transfers. Read to know why.
As for a marketing product, the card reader seems to be the ideal promotional product for a company like Coke or Pepsi or any other canned food or drink manufacturer.
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I believe we have all thought of…or wanted a…customized neon sign over the years. Whether it be making your kegg’r party that much better, or let the world know you are open for business, a customized neon sign would have fit the bill. Well, wait no longer.
ThinkGeek is offering up a customized neon sign kit and it will not only fit the bill, but make a damn big one. The customized neon sign is $30 to start, then add $7 for each letter, or $5 for each number.
The snap-together letters are 2″ x 3″ which connect to a single power source. There is low heat and power consumption so it’s ultra safe for the front office or the kids bedroom.
Sealed blue neon letter blocks
Low heat generation
Choose from letters, numbers, and special characters
Push button control for blinking or steady-on
Up to 22 neon letters can be connected to a single Power Supply unit
Even though the customized neon sign for “free beer” would run you $86, it pails in comparison to buying a REAL customized neon sign. Let your communication juices begin the free flowing.
Taking things off topic for a moment, GetUSB’s blogging buddy, Zedomax, has a friend of a friend who just released their first official music video. I’m working hard to convince them of using USB music albums rather than vinyl or CD. Below is the official video. The song is called Mr. Pitiful. I must say…it’s good and the guy has a great voice. If this single doesn’t help him break into the music industry, than he sure as hell should try American Idol next season. Take a listen:
As for my buddy at Zedomax (Max) he’s also the founder/developer for the viral and ever popular website SiteHoppin. If you like Stumble or Digg or any other social network than SiteHoppin is the next big thing and an absolute must.
If you can’t view the video go to the YouTube channel.
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Dixau put a new spin on an old product. Take our traditional OCR scanner (optical character recognition) and digitally translate any written page into electronic form. Well, what if you’re scanning in a topic you know nothing about? The folks at Dixau developed a method to automatically searches Google or Wikis on text scanned, but not familiar with.
The hand held Dixau USB scanner has the ability to OCR a physical page, then click a button to take a picture of the text and the scanner will display explanations and background information from an auto search function built into the software, right on your screen. No need to type in complicated words into Google, the intellegent software will do the work for you.
The hardware, software combination increases productivity and although initially used for Koreans to learn translation, this would also be useful for young children to learn about words and subject matter.
The Dixau OCR USB scanner is available for $90.
Source: EverythingUSB via OhGizmo.
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 Is that a PMP in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Sorry, that’s all I could think of for this super mini video player that sports a 2.4″ or 2.8″ full-size bright high-res LCD display. The device can be expanded with a memory card (T-Flash or MicroSD) but comes with 2GB built-in. The battery life will let you play video for 3-4 hours and audio for 6-8 hours.
The device is so simple but really combines many features people look for in a PMP including simplicity of transferring video to the device (supports USB mass-storage mode for easy transfer of video on any OS), expandability memory, charging via USB (when traveling I hate bring extra chargers) and can play FM Radio, Text, Pictures, Games and Videos.
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It’s kill or be killed in office warfare so you need every advantage you can get and this USB Wireless Rocket Launcher gives you 15 extra feet from your base station to smite your enemies, er co-workers, down. No longer do you have to worry about an abduction of your Red Swingline Stapler, your special neon-colored dry-erase markers or that last piece of your boss’ birthday cake while this Rocket Launcher’s got your back!Purchase the USB Wireless Rocket Launcher online at ThinkGeek.
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What could be better than working with USB, robots, legos and our imagination? Our beloved memories of childhood play with Legos has now turned into adult fun with the new robotic line of Mindstroms.
The 
It’s kill or be killed in office warfare so you need every advantage you can get and this USB Wireless Rocket Launcher gives you 15 extra feet from your base station to smite your enemies, er co-workers, down. No longer do you have to worry about an abduction of your Red Swingline Stapler, your special neon-colored dry-erase markers or that last piece of your boss’ birthday cake while this Rocket Launcher’s got your back!Purchase the USB Wireless Rocket Launcher online at