OWC is giving you GB hungry data hoggers some extra storage space. Their new 500GB Mercury portable hard drive is their largest [portable] edition yet. It’s got Firewire and USB connectivity to support any gear you’re dealing with. A couple concerns I have are a) it’s a 5400 RPM hard drive, which is standard for portable hard drives – but I like 7200 RPM, and since the Mercury is b) bus powered, the 7200 RPM wont see the light of day. As I’ve mentioned before, if you are looking for serious use off your USB hard drive, don’t deal with bus powered devices.
So given those two knocks, it’s still super slim for a half Terabyte of data storage, and at just $359 it’s doable, but I’ve seen plenty of options out there.
Nothing posted on OWC’s site for purchase, but check their homepage and use the search function.
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Iomega is shifting it’s focus to the consumers with more disposable income, the gamers. Well at least in theory. The Iomega Media Xporter is a portable 160GB hard drive designed to seamlessly integrate with cross-platform applications to PlayStation 3 consoles and Xbox 360 console.
With the gaming console become more of a home entertainment center, it’s Iomega’s goal to provide the tools to enjoy photo’s, video, music and games without hassle. The Media Xporter allows users to experience all the above without a PC. Once more, the photo’s and video will look stunning on a hi-def TV since the PlayStation and Xbox support HDMI as well as HDTV connectivity.
I don’t know about you, but a family function or get together would be a lot more fun sharing photo’s on a sweet flat screen then huttled up over a computer monitor. The Media Xporter makes this a simple and easy process.
The 160GB Iomega Media Xporter drive is power via USB 2.0 and will retail for $120. Although I do have some concerns about a bus powered USB hard drive.
Source: Coolest-Gadgets. Media Xporter product page.
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Capture video direct to H.264 video files for your iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, YouTube and even full resolution video backups from Blackmagic. So why is Blackmagic so great? Because it captures video into the native file format of your mobile device like iPod or iPhone.
The Blackmagic USB video recorder plugs directly into your PC via USB and using the included, easy to use software from Blackmagic you can recorder VHS, Video-8 or content directly from your video camera recorder.
The software has a graphical interface to quickly and easily identify your destination device during job setup to begin the ripping process. The software includes a cropping tool because sometimes your VHS tape has black borders or time display stamps. Well not anymore.
Check out this image of the software interface. It’s clean, simple and logical.
So getting excited and ready to pull the trigger on a purchase or maybe work it into your next months gadget budget. Well be sure to set aside $119 + shipping.
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I’m on the left coast, so not exactly sure on why Pexagon had the motivation to create a New Yorker USB Hard Drive [customer request], but none-the-less, it’s here and available.
The Pexagon New Yorker hard drive has over 4,000 issues of the East Coast’s favorite magazine. The Complete New Yorker gives you instant access to every poem, short story, cartoon and ad since the magazine’s inception back in 1925.
Pexagon is known for their engraving to USB storage devices and The Complete New Yorker is no exception. The hard drive measures 3 x 5 inches and has a brushed aluminum front with beautifully etched New Yorker logo and icon. The magazine archive takes up a small percentage of the 80GB hard drive so the $65 price tag gets you not only storage but a great opportunity to educate yourself and become well read if you’ve been living under a rock for the past 80 years.
I would imagine someone interested in this would need to be a die hard fan of the magazine, so now the question is: Are you?
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Set Top boxes have a big limitation in that you get Pigeon Holed into one device such as AppleTV or the forthcoming NetFlix unit, but the Myka could change the landscape forever. The Myka is a BitTorrent device which will work with anything the web has to offer and can download/play MPEG2, H.264, WMV and DivX media.
As Wired reports, the Myka is userfriendly because it takes the nerd out of the BitTorrent process. The Myka is intelligent enough to provide content (legal or otherwise) from a Peer2Peer network without all the advanced skills often required to pull off a BitTorrent download. The Linux based box is a simple connection to the TV via HDMI, composite (ouch), S-Video or SPDIF and connects to the internet via eithernet or WiFi. The Myka comes with a variety of internal hard drive configurations (80, 160 or 500GB) and includes an external USB port for additional storage or future connectivity / peripheral options.
“There’s no way the content providers will allow this pirate box on the market, right? Wrong. Myka already has the official BitTorrent service on board, which means it will carry legitimate content from 20th Century Fox, MTV, Warner and Playboy, amongst others.”
Wired posted a full interview with Myka’s president Dan Lovy, so if you’d like to learn more about the Myka set top box which will rule them all, jump.
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Accordian USB drive, are you kidding me? This is nothing more than silicone wrapped around a USB adapter port. Sure you could slap some marketing gargon on there, like accordion USB drive, but we’ll all see past it.
None the less, I didn’t think of it so kudos to Jacek Ryn for such an idea. You can see his little gadget trap at Poland’s Fine Arts in Gdansk.
The concept is fairly simple and straight forward. Put a USB port and memory device into an accordion shaped silicone casing and call it something new.
Sorry, but this stuff kills me.Source:Â Core77.
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The typical UFD sticking out of your laptop is probably nothing more than fancy shaped plastic, or possibly wood or even gold ($6,000). Today we look at the softer, fuzzier side of UFDs. Paul from Technabob uncovered these fuzzy little USB critters, created by a design artist Nifer Fahrion.
Nifer Fahrion has two version of her fuzzy USBs. The one above is called Maggie the Maggot and the one below is named Gizzy the Data Worm. I’d opt for Gizzy if I had to choose.
Honestly, I think these fuzzy guys are an example of what some kids could do on a rain day to kill some time. Grab some material, glue and let the imagination run wild. I’m tempted to try this myself and turn it into a USB tutorial, but I don’t think anyone would care or try.
SO, with that being said – if I’m off base and you digg this kinda stuff, hop on over to Technabob’s post or Nifer’s site and get ready to drop your $66 on a 4GB original.
Source: Technabob.
As an after-thought, if you are looking for another home-project, how about turning a Pez dispensor into something interesting.
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Not that fee shipping on a USB drive should put anyone over the edge, but consider an 8GB Kingston drive for only $32 – now that’s a deal worth jumping on board [for].
This GetUSB Dealz has no rebates or coupons, just raw savings. The Kingston DataTraveler was originaly $54 but is reduced to $32 and change.
This particular model has the flip-out USB connector which I’ve always been a fan. The mechanism reduces the device size and helps protect the product for a longer lasting unit.
So here is the company line:DataTraveler 110 contains room for high-definition photos, graphics-intensive documents, videos, spreadsheets, presentations, term papers, and music that can be stored and retrieved in a flash. Sleek, practical, and attractively designed, the affordable DataTraveler 110 serves the needs of the budget-conscious user as well as those looking for significant storage capacity in a lightweight, compact design. DataTraveler 110 features a retractable USB connector for ease of use and safe housing.
What does a high class manufacturer of motorcycles have to do with a manufacturer of USB sticks? Ducati and Sandisk have decided to create a partnership together creating fast memory products like CompactFlash and USB Flash Drives.
Well, Ducati and SanDisk believe by slapping “Sandisk Extreme Ducati Edition” and creating a 4GB flash drive with a fast 20MB/second transfer rate will be able to command $125 from consumers. Why so expensive? The flash drive was designed in an industrial look echoing “the performance, colors and lines of a Ducati MotoGP motorcycle.” I’m sure someone will buy it, but I can get a 500GB drive that would be faster (and much bigger) for about the same price!
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Luigi had some of his clan review the BFG 9800 GTX Video Card over at i4u gadgets and I wanted to pass along their findings:
The BFG 9800 GTX runs on the NVIDIA 9800 GTX GPU. The core clock of the card runs at 675 MHz, the shader clock is 1688 MHz and the memory clock is 2200 MHz. the card has a 256-bit memory interface and a memory bandwidth of 70.4GB/sec. the BFG 9800 GTX has 128 stream processors. The card features 512MB of GDDR3 RAM and the card is PCI Express 2.0 compliant. Other features include HDMI capable with adapter and HDCP capable for protected HD content. Read the entire review:
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AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX is a long name to describe the multitude of functions the USB TV tuner does. The USB based TV tuner stick has the ability to receive HDTV, Analog TV and FM radio on any Windows XP or Vista computer or laptop.
Unless you need specific subscription channels, you no longer have to put up with cable or satellite costs to get the High Definition TV everyone is craving for. The AverTV Hybrid Volar MAX does it all. For video quality, playback and speed consider this:
“The AVer MeidaCenter provides users more joy from Clear QAM digital cable TV. Advanced real-time H.264 recording compression significantly reduces CPU loading and the amount of hard disk space needed for recording. The optional 320×240 resolution enables users to save and playback video on an iPod.”
Don’t hold doubt either, the AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX can truly present the details of HDTV in 720p/1080i resolution. With an exclusive Vista MCE Video Gaming Plug-in, the AverTV Hybrid Volar MAX resolves the
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Press Release: Philips Launches New USB Smart Key for Dictation Product Line.
Philips is the first company to offer such a tool, which replaces current dongles and older security codes that had to be manually typed in. The USB Smart Key is now packaged with Philips SpeechExec Pro Dictate and Philips SpeechExec Pro Transcribe, as well as Transcribe software packages.
The USB Smart Key can simply be inserted into a USB port and the software will automatically access the license stored on the key. The license can then be easily transferred to a computer with the touch of a download button and, after download is complete, the key is no longer needed for licensing and users can work on that computer without having to keep and carry a dongle. If a user wishes to work with the dictation software on an office computer as well as a computer at home, the USB Smart Key allows him or her to switch from one computer to another without having to purchase a second license.
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