While all pre-built desktops and laptops come with a hard drive, it’s not uncommon for users to look for a more mobile way to store their data rather than carrying their entire machine with them to all destinations. External hard drives have been the answer to this lack of mobility ever since the ingenuity of a floppy disk met with the carrying capacity of standard disk or optical memory and while many users have their needs met by existing externals, the paradigm of “bigger, faster, and cheaper” in the tech industry rings true as Seagate unveils the Innov8.
The Seagate Innov8 is first in its class in a variety of ways. Its 8TB capacity is something rarely seen in externals and the reason for this is transfer speed. External hard drives usually connect to a machine through a USB cable and with the standard transfer rates of USB 2.0 and even USB 3.0, uploading and accessing such a massive quantity of data was not feasible. Seagate has solved this by being the first and only pioneer to not only use USB Type-C connections to access data, but also for power needs. The Innov8 reduces the additional power cord required for external hard drives of this size by making it energy efficient enough that just one Type-C connector can power the device. Additionally, with the recent release of USB 3.1, an 8TB drive is no longer some overwhelming beast of a data load to sift through when armed with speeds up to 10Gbps.
Never again will the average skateboarder miss out on recording a sweet 12-stair or kickflip due to lack of battery life on the most popular recording device on the planet. With the revolutionary method of harnessing centripetal force, FluxTech Industries is looking to change the lives of millions of skaters across the world with the PowerBoard.
While many have dreamt of the hover board since Marty McFly showed us its possibilities, the PowerBoard achieves a far greater feat. To understand this, lets look at some of the board’s functionality. Underneath, there is a thin panel covered in an adamantium shell. Inside the panel a unique architecture of circuits, capacitors, and Legos enables the board’s magnificent ability to convert each wheel’s centripetal force into electromagnetic energy with 120% efficiency, a magnitude completely unheard of in the physical world.
It’s over 2500 years old and the rules are deceptively simple, but Go is an incredibly complex game. The rules are simpler than those of chess, but a player typically has a much more vast choice of moves. The game is played with white and black stones and the aim is to capture territory as well as your opponent’s pieces. Stones can be captured by surrounding them but the control of the board is a much more complicated matter which is why a true competitive AI has been rather difficult to create. In a landmark victory against the European champion in October it was proven that the efforts of the DeepMind team and subsequently Google’s efforts on the AlphaGo project had found success in what had been thought impossible since the early years of computing.
By first studying the patterns repeated in various games, AlphaGo will play different versions of itself millions of times during a single match and learn incrementally. Learning from its mistakes is what makes the AI truly remarkable and what led its developers to take their months of improvements since beating the European champion, to the next level. As of today, AlphaGo has secured its second win against world champion Go master Lee Sedol in a 5-game match worth 1 million US dollars. The games are being played with a 2 hour set time limit for each player followed by three 60 second overtime periods as well as the standard Chinese ruleset.
The magnitude of this achievement opens many doors to advanced functionality of artificial intelligence. The emerging truth is machines can learn real world tasks in much the same way they learn to make moves in a game. This opens new paths of scientific research while augmenting existing industries where machines can learn to identify promising areas of research and help humans in the right direction. Whether it’s fields with a sheer overload of data needing to be sifted through such as biology or security, or more subjective fields such as arts and language. As stated many times in AlphaGo’s 7 matches thus far, regardless of which player wins, it is a victory for humanity.
Game 3 between Lee Sedol and AlphaGo is set to take place tonight, March 11th, at 8:00 PST Watch Here
For those into home-brew programming projects, its easy to make a microcontroller spit out some Morse code with the post shown below. What makes [pavlin’s] take on this project interesting is that it resides on a tiny USB board with an ARM processor. The design for the board is available with single-sided artwork suitable for production using simple methods like toner transfer.
The STM device has a built-in USB bootloader. It can also act as a serial port, which makes the project very simple and a bit more flexible. The only external parts are a speaker and an opt-oisolator.
The program provides a command line interface over the serial port that you can use to program the message and set other options like speed and the delay between messages.
CES, 2016. Sony releases a USB turntable, named HX500. Sony will provide backup- software for the Mac and PC and it connects via USB. From there, you can send the DSD (Direct Stream Digital) copies to your computer or device. Of course Sony would prefer you to play them back on their Hi-Res-playing Sony Walkmans.
The DSD audio is a lossless audio quality that will sound more full and rich than your downloaded MP3 file. Andy why not, vinyl records have been making a big comeback the last couple of years.
The Airbar will turn any Windows laptop into a touch screen. Very cool. The technology is friendly with Windows 8 and 10 and this is because it uses Microsoft’s “Gestures” technology to turn your laptop into a touchscreen laptop.
The Airbar was designed in Sweden and made in Sweden. The bar is $50 US Dollars.
The Airbar works by invisible light beams. To get it working you connect is via USB and set the bar at the bottom of your laptop screen, just like you see in the picture.
The Airbar will project light upward. As your fingers break the barrier of the projected light, the bar will translate this into gestures. Through the Windows API for gestures your actions will translate to the programs running.
The USB 3.0 / 4K display and dock station is ideal for the Bring Your Own Device work environment (BYOD).
Assuming you have a limited port laptop computer the StarTech dock station can expand your laptop screen and extend out to a 4K video feed needed. It doesn’t stop there with USB 3.0 port connectivity, and Ethernet connection.
The front side of the dock station also includes a USB charging port. You can avoid the inconvenience of a dead battery and make sure your mobile device is always ready to go, using the dock’s USB fast-charge and sync port. Plus, the always-on port supports device charging even when your laptop isn’t connected to the dock.
The dock station can act as a charging station unplugged as well, making it a very portable solution. A good fit for this product would be home-office where the work space is not that large, or class room where the budget isn’t there for a complete work station and a BYOD situation best applies.
With the single USB-C port of the new MacBook laptop we knew a power station and/or dock station was right behind. Here is a Kickstarter compaign to address the single port computer and connecting all your peripheral gadgets to your new computer.
The ultimate dock station will power and charge your system using USB’s new Power Delivery specification, while providing an additional alternate mode video output up to 4K resolution, gigabit Ethernet, audio input/output, and 4 USB ports. The tall slender design of the dock station packs a number of sockets to support any type of peripheral you need to connect.
In addition, the USB 3.1 Type-C specification supports a feature called “VESA Alternate Mode” which works with the built-in graphics processor on supported systems to provide video output at resolutions up to 4K. This is particularly important given the up-tick in TVs and monitors which are being released with a 4K specification. The other two display outputs in the Ultimate Dock are enabled by the DisplayLink DL-3900 graphics processor, which can support two additional 1080P displays at 60Hz. The DisplayLink driver is still in development, but the Kickstarter campaign claims the driver will have a final release by the time the dock station hits full production.
The Plugable Ultimate USB-C Universal Docking Station supports:
Yes, there are million flash drives in the market. This one is a bit clever don’t you think? Buy the 4GB drive off Urban Outfitters. Create your own multimedia message with audio, video or text and save it to this flash drive. Throw it into the ocean and see what happens.
Infinite USB is a concept which dates back five years. The concept is brilliantly simple. The USB cable design allows multiple devices to be charge from an extending USB plug, and at the same time, allow data transfer through that one original USB port.
Today, Infinite USB has released a new version for the Mac computer. One which supports Apple’s Type C connector. This is a really smart move on Infinite USB’s part because the Mac computer only has one USB port. So additional sockets is very important.
Like the original design from years back, the connection is simple and straight forward.
Using the original USB port of the computer, the Infinite USB creates a pass through, or extended USB port. They do this so that once the Infinite USB cable is connected, you still have access to the data transfer ability of that original Mac USB port. However, Infinite USB was ultra-clever and created a design to steam off some power form the USB buss so you can charge additional devices.
The USB connector builds upon this concept with module cables and connectors so you may continue to high-jack power off the original USB socket, while still having the original USB port with data transfer capabilities.
To be perfectly clear, the Infinite USB will only transfer data to one USB device… it will not transfer data to all the devices connected. It is important to understand the Infinity USB concepts is a creative charging station, not a USB hub.
The product can be found on Kickstarter for $20. There is only one day left at the time of this writing, after that you can order product through the company website.
There are two ways to make a USB read only. One method will make the USB read-only on anything it is connected to, so you could say this is a universal way of making a flash drive write protected.
The other way is a PC-specific solution where some registry edits are required on any computer the USB flash drive is connected to.
When we say 100% permanent, this means the USB stick is read only (write protected) on all devices, whether it be computers like a Mac, Windows PC, Linux box, or non-processor based products like a car stereo. This permanent solution also means the status of the drive cannot be changed. The other method flags a USB device to be read only in relation to the PC it is connected to, so whenever that USB stick is connected to that computer, it makes the USB read only and blocks all write commands to the device.
Most times an IT manager or content owner wants the USB stick to be read only so the files cannot be deleted or formatted off the drive. Another reason for making a USB read only is for the original files to remain the same and block the ability for files to be changed or manipulated. Finally, it’s smart to have USB drives set to read only so that viruses don’t jump onto the drive and possibly spread to other computers.
Let us start with the less permanent way because it’s easier to do and doesn’t require any specific hardware.
You will need a Windows 7 machine or higher. Windows 7 includes the DiskPart utility, which allows us to perform useful tasks on flash drives, like setting write protection.
Connect the USB to your Windows computer.
To begin, go to your Windows Start menu and in the search field type cmd.
This will run your Command Prompt.
Next, you will want to get to the C root of the Command Prompt. If you are signed in as a user you can simply type cd\ – this will get you back to the root of the C drive.
Type DISKPART.
Type LIST DISK.
Now you will need to find the USB stick connected to your PC. Most likely it’s DISK 1.
