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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Here is a great tool for cleaning Windows Registry of USB drive entries. The program runs in the Windows console and removes all devices that are not currently connected.
To clean up the Windows registry of a USB flash drive, or other USB devices can make your system boot faster and run faster.
For example, each time you connect a USB printer to a different USB port on your PC there are registry entries made which associate the device with the drivers. Windows is trying to be smart and log this information so the next time you connect the device, Windows will know exactly what to do. Meaning when you connect the printer a second time, you don’t see the balloon from Windows saying “Installing Brother driver” or something, it’s just connected and ready to go.
But, for example, lets say you connect your Nikon camera to your PC and you use a different USB port each time, now you have a bunch of registry entries that can make your PC boot slower, run slower or possible give you trouble with that external device.
With all this said, if you are having trouble with a USB drive, or a USB camera, printer or scanner, the first thing you’ll probably want to do is run this Windows registry cleaner utility. Good chance it will solve your problems.
System Requirements:
WinXP / Vista / Win7 Writes settings to:
Does not write files to host computer Dependencies:
Administrator rights License:
Freeware How to extract:
Download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch drivecleanup.exe either in the ‘Win32’ folder or ‘x64’ folder.
As with any good project, there should always be a back up plan. The Curiosity for Mars is no different. The system has a B-Side computer in the event the A-Side computer went down…well guess what, it went down.
There is a theory that cosmic rays affected some of the flash memory on Curiosity causing the A-Side computer to shut down and reboot into Safe Mode.
JPL is currently backup up the A-Side data to the B-Side computer and should reboot by weeks end. Configuration and data transfer can take a while, then of course the verification process of everything done right.
JPL states:
“The hardware that we fly is radiation tolerant, but there’s a limit to how hardened it can be, you can still get high-energy particles that can cause the memory to be corrupted. It certainly is a possibility and that’s what we’re looking into.”
ComputerWorld did a nice write up about the IronKey Workspace product for Windows 8 operating system.
Read the full article here.
“IronKey storage devices have also been validated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to meet the stringent Level 3 criteria of FIPS 140-2. Combined with the cloud -based IronKey Enterprise Management Service, data security can be managed and audited from anywhere in the world. The IronKey Workspace flash drive, however, is not FIPS-certified.”
The IronKey will boot from any PC or Mac computer. Boots in about 35 seconds but has an initial configuration time of about 4 minutes.
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If you haven’t heard,DELL is looking to buy back it’s public shares and go private. Why you ask? Going private would allow them to make quick and swift changes with in the company to re-invent itself. Currently the never-ending demands of the stock holders and investors ties their hands in freedom to create as they wish.
DELL, so it is said, started a new code project call Ophelia. The project is turning a USB key into a portable desktop. The USB would have the ability to access online software tools and operating systems. The USB solution from Ophelia will still require a hardware setup (someone’s PC) so think of it as a USB stick high-jacking the processor, RAM, motherboard, video controller etc to run it’s own OS.
We’ve seen things like this from smaller, start-up companies, but DELL has the ability to really make this main stream. The rumor on target price is $50 US Dollars.
I for one believe the ability to high-jack another PCs hardware doesn’t warrant it enough to be more then a complimentary tool to one’s main PC. Now if DELL can high-jack the
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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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If you look up ambiguous in the dictionary [or wiki page] you’ll probably find a picture of a USB flash drive. After all, aren’t they? Not with standing, Zana Design has put craft, materials and resource to the limit with their Apophis meteorite flash drive.
Of course, just being made with a meteorite seems like enough, but no, it also comes with a high-purity diamond embedded in it. The drive also incorporates African Black Wood, which is considered a rather high quality material.
As far as the actual thumb drive is concerned, it’s USB 3.0-compatible, and comes with 64GB of internal memory. It also has a lifetime warranty, so at least you know if anything goes wrong with your ultra-expensive drive, you will be able to get it replaced.
The device comes in two different flavors. Both have the diamond and meteorite, but the cheaper version also features silver and will set you back $1,130. The more expensive 18C gold model will set you back $1,990.
My buddy made the comment:Â
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Nexcopy has released a USB Copy Protection solution for those who need to share files, but without giving the “receiver” full ability to copy and re-distribute.
The great thing about a USB flash drive is file sharing. They are great for copying, saving, and taking files on the road. This same convenience factor also makes it very difficult to have Digital Rights Management as well. With Nexcopy’s USB Copy Protection, it’s not difficult any longer!
How USB Copy Protection Works
First, let’s explain the difference between write protection and USB copy protection. Some think it’s the same, but it’s not.
USB write protection (also called data lock) means the files cannot be deleted off the drive… it also means files cannot be added to the drive. But you can still copy the files off the drive to your desktop or hard drive.
USB copy protection provides the same functionality as write protection, but in addition, does not allow the files to be copied off the drive. This means even the most honest person couldn’t save a file to their desktop or hard drive.
So what type of customer would be looking for USB copy protection? Think of a college lesson plan where the administration doesn’t want the lesson going out for free. Or how about artists with very large, high-resolution photos they don’t want a customer to print unlimited numbers? Or an oil company with confidential information that should not be uploaded to the internet or sent to competitors… these are examples of companies who could use USB copy protection.
The Nexcopy solution restricts the ability to print a file. You cannot share, copy, or paste the files from the USB stick to the desktop or hard drive. You can set passwords to further control the content, and of course, none of these files can be deleted off the drive.
*We’ve seen some solutions where they claim copy protection, but they are just encrypted files… format the drive and everything is gone. Well, that’s not good… if it’s important enough to copy protect, then it shouldn’t be deletable either.
Several other key factors about the Nexcopy USB Copy Protection:
PC and Mac compatible (Windows XP+ and macOS 10.6+)
No Admin rights required on the user’s computer
No software installed on the host machine
No internet connection required
Standalone solution (hardware + software)
Nexcopy doesn’t support every file known to man, but they do cover the big ones:
Documents: PDF, TXT, HTML, CSS
Images: JPEG, GIF, PNG
Audio: MP3, WAV
Video: WMV, MOV
Visit Nexcopy’s site for pricing and additional details.
The USB-IF released the Power Delivery [PD] specification for USB 3.0. In addition, the 2.0 forum approved it too.
Because we are talking about 100watts over USB there is some risk associated with introducing such a spec. The USB-IF said the power can be sent, both ways, intelligently where power ramps up or down upon delivery. The spec includes an intelligent check of both the cable and the other end’s capability to insure nothing goes up in flames.
If you stop and think about this, if a typical laptop has three USB sockets, what kind of power brick would you need to power the laptop plus 300watts of power, assuming all sockets are requesting a full load. Maybe the power brick will end up being bigger and heavier then the laptop {grin}.
For a very interesting read on the entire PD report,
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Flash drives are getting cheaper and flashdrives are getting bigger. You get to a point and ask yourself, should I archive my valuable information on a large flashdrive or a USB hard drive? For example, lets say you have 10GBs of photos from your phone or camera and you are looking to archive those pictures. Should you do this to a flash drive or a hard drive?
The easiest and most convenient decision would be saving your files to the flash drive. Most everyone has a 16GB USB flashdrive these days, it fits in your hand and you can carry it around with out trouble. But will it last? Is a USB flashdrive where I should put my photos if my computer crashes and I need to restore my photos? Lets forget about the possibility you simply misplace the USB flashdrive. Is the device archive worthy?
The other option is the USB hard drive. Most people don’t have one so you’ll need to buy one. Although they are cheap, a USB hard drive is not as cheap as a 16GB or 32GB flash drive…and to be honest the 16-32GB sticks probably have enough space that it could hold your photos. So is it worth the extra time and money to archive to a USB hard drive? I guess this is the question more and more people are asking themselves. Well I have the definitive answer:
USB hard drive.
Flashdrives are great products for quickly moving files from one computer to another. However, they are not the best choice for archive purposes, and here are some reasons why:
The devices are small and will most likely get damaged. Unless of course you put the USB stick into the back of your desk drawer, a USB flashdrive gets banged around a lot and this abuse lends itself to failed cells in the memory. Meaning, over time the files will get corrupted because the NAND memory gets damaged.
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Apple released their new MacBook Air product and we are very excited to hear USB 3.0 is now standard.
If you have concerns about USB 3.0 being a new technology without much compatibility, you are totally wrong. The great thing about USB is their backward compatible specification. What this means, is the USB-IF [the forum which governs the technology] requires that any new USB specification work will all legacy USB protocols.
So even using that ultra slow USB drive from 2004 will work in the new MacBook Air products. Not like you would, but it’s just an example. Another example is using slower USB products like USB keyboards or USB calculators or USB breast warmers will work from the Apple USB 3.0 socket.
The USB 3.0 specification has a maximum transfer speed of gigabits per second. That’s about 500MBs per second. You must keep in mind this is the theoretical maximum and you can never expect this type of performance from a USB device, but it’s nice to know the efficiency ratios are dramatically improved with the new USB 3.0 specification.
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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
Continue Reading
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 
As with any good project, there should always be a back up plan. The Curiosity for Mars is no different. The system has a B-Side computer in the event the A-Side computer went down…well guess what, it went down.
There is a theory that cosmic rays affected some of the flash memory on Curiosity causing the A-Side computer to shut down and reboot into Safe Mode.
JPL is currently backup up the A-Side data to the B-Side computer and should reboot by weeks end. Configuration and data transfer can take a while, then of course the verification process of everything done right.
JPL states:
Read the 
DELL, so it is said, started a new code project call Ophelia. The project is turning a USB key into a portable desktop. The USB would have the ability to access online software tools and operating systems. The USB solution from Ophelia will still require a hardware setup (someone’s PC) so think of it as a USB stick high-jacking the processor, RAM, motherboard, video controller etc to run it’s own OS.
We’ve seen things like this from smaller, 
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 
Of course, just being made with a meteorite seems like enough, but no, it also comes with a high-purity diamond embedded in it. The drive also incorporates African Black Wood, which is considered a rather high quality material.
As far as the actual thumb drive is concerned, it’s USB 3.0-compatible, and comes with 64GB of internal memory. It also has a lifetime warranty, so at least you know if anything goes wrong with your ultra-expensive drive, you will be able to get it replaced.
The device comes in two different flavors. Both have the diamond and meteorite, but the cheaper version also features silver and will set you back $1,130. The more expensive 18C gold model will set you back $1,990.
My buddy made the comment:Â
If you stop and think about this, if a typical laptop has three USB sockets, what kind of power brick would you need to power the laptop plus 300watts of power, assuming all sockets are requesting a full load. Maybe the power brick will end up being bigger and heavier then the laptop {grin}.
For a very interesting read on the entire PD report,
The easiest and most convenient decision would be saving your files to the flash drive. Most everyone has a 16GB USB flashdrive these days, it fits in your hand and you can carry it around with out trouble. But will it last? Is a USB flashdrive where I should put my photos if my computer crashes and I need to restore my photos? Lets forget about the possibility you simply misplace the USB flashdrive. Is the device archive worthy?
The other option is the USB hard drive. Most people don’t have one so you’ll need to buy one. Although they are cheap, a USB hard drive is not as cheap as a 16GB or 32GB flash drive…and to be honest the 16-32GB sticks probably have enough space that it could hold your photos. So is it worth the extra time and money to archive to a USB hard drive? I guess this is the question more and more people are asking themselves. Well I have the definitive answer:
USB hard drive.
Flashdrives are great products for quickly moving files from one computer to another. However, they are not the best choice for archive purposes, and here are some reasons why:
The devices are small and will most likely get damaged. Unless of course you put the USB stick into the back of your desk drawer, a USB 
If you have concerns about