The Universal Serial Buss Implementers Forum or USB-IF has released their new specification, USB 3.1. The full spec will be available for download off the USB-IF website on Friday Aug 2, 2013. The new specification allows for 10Gb/s transfer rate. Of course this is optimal transfer speed without the incurrence of operating system resources trying to regulate bandwidth for multi device transfers, but none-the-less it’s a huge jump in speed for USB.
USB 3.1 cable
USB is the most versatile connector type in the computer market. Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and communications protocols used in a bus for connection, communication, and power supply between computers and electronic devices.
Originally USB was specific to connect computer peripherals such as keyboards, pointing devices, digital cameras, printers and network adapters. With the increased need for bandwidth with digital content and the faster speeds of portable storage devices and smartphones the need to increase the speed of USB has been significant.
In addition the USB specification incorporated a Power Delivery or PD protocol which can deliver up to 100watts of power over a USB cable. The PD technology must use a certified cable with the Power Delivery wiring so not all USB cables will have the PD ability. The intent is to permit uniformly charging laptops, tablets, USB-powered disks and similarly higher power consumer electronics, as a natural extension of existing European and Chinese mobile telephone charging standards.
With the increased 3.1 speeds and the power ability of 100watts per cable it appears USB has made a substantial gain in the cable of choice for manufacturers and consumers a like for connecting their peripherals to their host computers.
The USB 3.1 specification is just now in development and products should come to market in the next 8-10 months.
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You can’t help to think Apple’s push for Thunderbolt has something to do with the latest announcement from the USB-IF…in that transfer speeds via USB will double what the USB 3.0 specification currently is. If development can stay on target, this increased speed should be seeing implementation by end of 2014.
The new specification will run with USB 3.0 sockets and connectors; however, will require new wire setup for the cables.
It is expected to see the faster USB spec in PCs, adapter cards and hard drives, but will take significantly longer to reach mobile devices and tablets. As it stands now, USB 3.0 is just gaining momentum as a standard socket in PCs and mobile devices should start seeing 3.0 connectors in late 2013. Â
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In recent weeks the cost of flash memory has increased substantially. The commodity product, is for the most part, a stable consumable with pricing that fluctuations in single digit percentages. However, lately the prices have increased between 10-30%. As with any product there are variables which contribute to price and the following information might help explain why flash memory is getting more expensive.
The two largest manufacturers of flash memory (NAND memory) are Samsung and Toshiba. Together they account for about 70% of the world’s flash. These companies produce a wide variety of flash memory models and the factories have various levels of quality for the output of their product.
Typically the high performance memory that gets the best test ratings is sold to large consumers like Apple, Nokia and Sony. As the ratings for the speed of the memory drop, these variants get pushed into the low-end market segments, such as USB drives and inexpensive MP3 players and other promotional gadgets.
In Q3 2012 Toshiba made an announcement they will reduce world wide production by 30%. Since this time, flash pricing has remained stable and has not decreased in cost.
With the on-going patent battles between Apple and Samsung the Cupertino based company made a decision
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Gizmodo posted about a USB necklace in early February and all the comments ripped them a new one for the non-tech product. I kinda agree, but the funny thing, the “Upload” necklace is sold out. And sold out with a price tag of $48.
I think we should push the jeweler (if we can call her that) to make some more.
Order Page: Here!
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The DN-84254 is a microUSB cable which mirrors your smartphone screen on your PC. The sync software allows you to click around on the PC screen and control your phone.
So what’s it good for, imagine this:Â Â If an app would require you to input letters or characters, you can simply do so by using the PC’s keyboard. Several key shortcut buttons on top of the program also allow you to conveniently make the device do specific commands, or access certain areas instantly. So, aside from being able to record screen activity directly on your PC (for gaming and reviews and the likes), you can also intuitively control the smartphone within the PC’s environment as if it was just a simple Android emulating program or similar.
For me, this cable is worth
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The Alesis IO Dock is a great product for iPad musicians – this small hack makes it even greater. It overcomes one limitation of the IO Dock: You can’t simply hook it to a USB hub. So I decided to build in an additional hub – which allows me to hook up additional class-compliant interfaces like my M-Audio Axiom master keyboard, and power them via the hub.
Yes, it works. No, it hasn’t been thoroughly tested yet. So try at your own risk.
Full Tutorial (nice)
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Gamestick is creating a set-top gaming console for the Android space. The GameStick is true to it’s name where the data sits on a USB flash drive and the flash drive fits inside the hand held console.
The GameStick is targeted at $79 and plays the same games as other Android platforms. Of the 700,000 Android games about 200 have been targeted by GameStick to be developed and fully supported for the GameStick environment.
The console sports an Amlogic 8726-MX processor, with 8GB of flash memory and 1GB of DDR3 RAM. It supports Bluetooth 4.0, and also comes with the standard 802.11 b/g/n WiFi. The console ships with Jelly Bean.
PlayJam, the developers, state they have a working prototype, and is 90% of the way toward getting the final pre-production sample. If you
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What is it about USB steampunk flash drives? Am I the only one with a keen interest in showing off these hand crafted USB drives? Could it be the material used which draws my attention? Could it be the fine detail of each device which peaks my interested? Could it be the impressive number of hours required to make each piece? I’m not sure, but I could flip through pages and pages of these USB steampunk drives.
For 2012, here are the top 12 styles. There is not particular order as each person will favor their own, but you will agree these are probably the 12 most unique designs you’ve seen the past twelve months.
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Slim is in…hasn’t that been the motto of runway models for the past 20 years. I guess you can say the same for tech gadgets, laptops and of course storage peripherals.
LaCie introduces the Porsche Designed ultra slim 120GB SSD hard drive.
The $149.99 Slim Drive P9223 by LaCie, powered by none other than USB 3.0, follows the same minimalist design set by Porsche Design. It has a thickness of a mere 11mm; this makes it a great compliment to a 17mm slim MacBook. It’s chassis is made of solid aluminum which doubles as a heat sink for fast dissipation of any heat build up from the NAND chips.
The LaCie Porsche SSD can top a transfer speed of 400/MBs. But it’s not a walk in the park to get that data transfer rate. You need to have a computer which supports the USB Attached SCSI [UAS] protocol. This is a protocol which overcomes the aging bulk-only transport method which has been around since USB 1.0.
Source:Â EverythingUSB.
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Apple has added Lightning to micro USB port support to its online store. The new Lightning to micro USB adapter is compatible with the newest iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch device. The product can be used to sync as well as charge each type of device.
The move shows Apple’s willingness to extend its new adapters capabilities. In the past, a 30-pin dock connector to micro USB adapter was only available for sale in Europe. The new adapter, while listed in the United States, is also shown with EU specifications.
Apple had refused a micro USB adapter on its 30-pin connector because it wanted to stick with proprietary options that would protect its devices from third party device adapters. The move in the EU, however, allowed for less waste since old adapters from legacy devices could be adapted
Apple also chose to forgo micro USB adapters because they didn’t allow the company to make iOS devices as thin and light as they wanted.
Micro USB adapters are not as fast as Apple’s Lightning connectors; however, they are also not a standard type of connection option like 30-pin connectors had become over five years of iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch sales.
Apple sells an adapter to convert from Lighting to 30-pin so that most legacy accessories can still function, but some devices have become unavoidably incompatible with the newest iOS devices because of the Lightning connector. In some cases, users have become angered when video capabilities would not operate with the company’s lightning to 30-pin connector adapter.
Other adapters already offered by Apple include options for SD card readers, VGA connectors, Lightning to HDMI, Firewire, and eSATA.
The new micro USB adapter comes at a cost of $19.
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I read a great article on The Unofficial Apple Weblog [TUAW] about making a Mountain Lion installer on USB.
To make an installer version of Mountain Lion on USB you’ll obviously need a copy of the OSX Mountain Lion installer.
Next, go to your applications folder and find the actual installer…should be called Mac OS X Mount Lion.
Rich click that bad boy and select the Show Package Contents form the pop-up.
Navigate to Contents > SharedSupport and then start looking for the InstallESD.dmg. This is the image file for the installer.
Now we need to launch the DiskUtility so open a new folder with Command N.
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The two largest manufacturers of flash memory (NAND memory) are Samsung and Toshiba. Together they account for about 70% of the world’s flash. These companies produce a wide variety of flash memory models and the factories have various levels of quality for the output of their product.
Typically the high performance memory that gets the best test ratings is sold to large consumers like Apple, Nokia and Sony. As the ratings for the speed of the memory drop, these variants get pushed into the low-end market segments, such as 
So what’s it good for, imagine this:Â Â If an app would require you to input letters or characters, you can simply do so by using the PC’s keyboard. Several key shortcut buttons on top of the program also allow you to conveniently make the device do specific commands, or access certain areas instantly. So, aside from being able to record screen activity directly on your PC (for gaming and reviews and the likes), you can also intuitively control the smartphone within the PC’s environment as if it was just a simple Android emulating program or similar.
For me, this cable is worth
The console sports an Amlogic 8726-MX processor, with 8GB of flash memory and 1GB of DDR3 RAM. It supports Bluetooth 4.0, and also comes with the standard 802.11 b/g/n WiFi. The console ships with Jelly Bean.
PlayJam, the developers, state they have a working prototype, and is 90% of the way toward getting the final pre-production sample. If you
The $149.99 Slim Drive P9223 by LaCie, powered by none other than USB 3.0, follows the same minimalist design set by Porsche Design. It has a thickness of a mere 11mm; this makes it a great compliment to a 17mm slim MacBook. It’s chassis is made of solid aluminum which doubles as a heat sink for fast dissipation of any heat build up from the NAND chips.
The LaCie Porsche SSD can top a transfer speed of 400/MBs. But it’s not a walk in the park to get that data transfer rate. You need to have a computer which supports the USB Attached SCSI [UAS] protocol. This is a protocol which overcomes the aging bulk-only transport method which has been around since USB 1.0.
Source:Â 
Other adapters already offered by Apple include options for SD card readers, VGA connectors, Lightning to HDMI, Firewire, and eSATA.
The new micro USB adapter comes at a cost of $19.
Rich click that bad boy and select the Show Package Contents form the pop-up.
Navigate to Contents > SharedSupport and then start looking for the InstallESD.dmg. This is the image file for the installer.
Now we need to launch the DiskUtility so open a new folder with Command N.