IronKey has long been known as the ultimate in data storage and security for content loaded on a flash drive. With hardware encryption, self destruct safety protocols for incorrect passwords and AES 256 data encryption it’s no wonder those who need the ultimate in data security go to IronKey. Well no longer says Imation.
Under the agreement, Imation will receive exclusive license rights from IronKey for the secure storage management software and service along with licensing to use the IronKey brand for its secure storage products.
While Imation is bringing the IronKey brand to a global distribution channel, IronKey will accelerate their focus on cloud-based security tools and features. IronKey will support
Continue ReadingNo Comments
I think we can agree that “USB light back” is not a common tech term among the geeks out there. What I mean is a LED system powered by USB which provide background lighting to your TV or monitor.
USB light back takes your TV one step further by supply complimentary tones and colors to what is currently being displayed on your TV. Gives you a theater effect.
The only way to fully understand, is to watch:
A quote from the creator:
The software analyzes the image on your monitor and transfers its data by USB to the Lightpack board. This board lights the surface behind a monitor, TV or laptop by means of RGB LEDs of the corresponding colors. The effect reminds us of the illumination of Phillips Ambilight TVs most of all.
The lightpack is available for all via Google Code download link. For the more advanced, but an very effective tool to enhance your TV experience.
Continue ReadingNo Comments
These days it’s popular to take just about any house hold item, a USB flash drive, and mill out a space to make a USB mod case. Today’s post is no exception. Using just two dice and a mini USB, in four easy steps you can make a USB dice key-chain.
Step 1: Get your items. Dice, USB, Dremel, blue or epoxy and a file.
Step 2:Â After some measurements, mill out the hold where the USB will be inserted.
Step 3: Repeat step 2 for the second die as this will be your cap. You also need to drill a hole on a dice side for the lanyard which will attached to your key-chain
Step 4: Epoxy the USB drive into the base die, and attached the lanyard to the cap die. Now you’ve got a USB dice key-chain.
You might want to take things a step further and
Continue ReadingNo Comments
Found this today, little kid project for turning a USB drive into a Shuriken. Not familiar with the term, then check this out.
As for the tutorial and link, it’s after the jump.
Continue ReadingNo Comments
Apple has made waves in the news with their stellar 2nd Quarter results, increased stock price, new MacBook Air and Mac Mini’s computers, no wonder many are talking about them. In addition, Apple released another OS update, the OS X Lion. Lion is available immediately via download off the app store. Some may not want to download a new 4GB OS update. For that, Apple will release their Lion on USB.
First off, lets get some pricing out of the way. The download update is retail at $30. The USB stick is set to be at $70. Not bad, but seems like their math doesn’t add up. Granted you get an 8GB stick, but lets take a look…$30 for update + $15 for an 8GB stick, the retail should around $45. Oh, and the Apple logo, that’s another $25. Okay, now my math is correct. I apologize.
However, if you have an extra 4GB or 8GB stick you can create your own USB OS X Lion stick. The USB tutorial isn’t that long and only involves three steps. For the tutorial, I’m going to redirect you to
Continue ReadingNo Comments
Who didn’t love the movie thriller “The Da Vinci Code?” Not only that, who didn’t dream about having a cool Cryptex gadget to store all your valuable secrets? Come one, you know it would be phenomenally great to have such a device. Well, it might not be that far off.
A Russian engineer has posted his version of a USB Cryptex case which includes detailed drawings, CAD files and component assembly.
You can’t help but to want one. [more photo’s after the break]
Continue ReadingNo Comments
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.
Continue ReadingNo Comments
Sifting through the Instructables website I came along this retro looking USB spinner wheel or Jog wheel. The USB tutorial project is a bit complicated and requires some technical know-how, so if you are looking to increase your mod skill sets, this might be the project for you.
So what is something like this good for anyway? The jog wheel functions like your wheel on that mouse you have, but larger and has good momentum which is nice when searching through large bits of code, viewing long webpages or searching through numerous documents.
A job wheel is also excellent for media editing like sound or video. You can scroll around in these large files effortlessly and without stressing out your finger from the mouse scroll wheel. With the heaviness of the VCR head you can get the motion going and it’s inertia will keep it spinning for quite some time and when you’ve found the frame you’re looking for, just hold the wheel to stop it.
Enough about the sales pitch of a DIY project, jump over to
Continue ReadingNo Comments
For several years we’ve seen many Linux guys post about bootable USB flash drives into portable operating systems like Ubuntu or simplified versions of the OS for children, like Strawberry from SugarLabs
via donated USB flash drives.
In the spirit of ultra portable operating systems – over the weekend – we learned of Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry is not only an operating system from a flash drive, but it includes the processor too! This means the Linux OS is not high jacking the hardware of the host computer, but rather using it’s own processing power to boot into Linux.
The developer, David Braben, are shooting for a target price of the Raspberry USB computer to be around $25. The above prototype isn’t pretty, but hey – what prototype is? David and his team started this project in the effort to bring ultra low cost computers to less fortunate kids who need and want computer access.
A long long time ago, the One Laptop per Child was a program to get $100 computers into the hands of kids who’d otherwise never get a computer.
To give you an idea of what this mini USB computer can do, here are the specifications of the prototype:
700MHz ARM11
128MB of SDRAM
OpenGL ES 2.0
1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
Composite and HDMI video output
USB 2.0
SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
General-purpose I/O
Open software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)
If you are looking for video to spoon feed you this information, check out the video after the jump:
Continue ReadingNo Comments
USB keyloggers are always a good idea to have around. Sure you could make the argument that it’s incroaching on someone’s space, or that it’s flat out illegal to track someone without them knowing…but forget all that. To many ups sides.
What about keeping check with your kids? Or making sure employees are keeping honest? What about some backup or recovery and you need to know where you’ve been?
Well in any case, for the DIY folks, here is a nice tutorial on taking a standard PS/2 and converting it into a USB keylogger. What I like about it is the simple fact the average computer user wouldn’t notice. We all see the PS/2 on the back panel, so why investigate it to see if there’s mod to it?
The full tutorial can be found at Instructables. Only tip is that you need some good soldering skills. Other then that, not a hard task at all.
Continue ReadingNo Comments
A leaked version of Windows 8 has surfaced and there look to be some promising features for the USB lovers out there. First and formost, check out this screen shot of Windows 8 asking if you’d like to run from a USB flash drive.
Is it possible Microsoft figured out the best possible solution for longevity is letting users run their OS from a flash drive, then plug it into any PC they see fit to run their computer? Some storage problesm with that, but never-the-less, a good starting point.
Here are some other things we think might be bundled with Windows 8:
Granted I didn’t think of this concept, but looking back, it’s odd this USB hack took as long as it did. Hacker, Jonas Wagner, was able to rig his Microsoft Kinect to a USB missile launcher. From what we’ve read, Jonas wanted to control a missile launcher with his Kinect, only problem is that he didn’t have access to missiles. Next best thing was a USB missile launcher.
To give him some feedback about position, the first thing Jonas did was mount a video cam above the USB missile launcher. Next step was polish up his Python skills and incorporate the libfreenect library for control.
Using his hands to position the USB missile launcher, Jonas can rotate the base unit, angle the barrel up or down and fire the launcher – all thorugh his Kinect.
Video after the jump of Jonas shooting his brother[?]
Continue ReadingNo Comments