Hmm, that title came out a little weird. Anyway, Vladimir released updated versions of his USB wood drives to include some odd shapes that include, what looks like to me, a mushroom, tree stump, wooden tooth and a fluted casing.
Wooden Jewelery is offering these for $20 [1GB] and $30 [2GB]. The wood drives come with a leather lanyard and a quality case. The line is called MEMORE and there is a full selection available with larger shapes and sizes to choose from.
So what else do you get for the $20 or $30? Well, for starters you get a very unique wood USB drive perfect to start any conversation. Not only does your USB drive hold valuable data, but the wood case is valuable too. To prove that point you can explain [depending on what you get] that a Bog Oak drive has been created from wood that is carbon dated back 1,300 years. Or Yew Root drives have been carbon dated back 600 years.
A quote from the creator:
…I prefer to work in wood because it is a living material…
-Vladimir Levestam
On the heels of announcing the EVGA USB to VGA or DVI adapter comes USB Fever with their power house trifecta USB to VGA, DVI and HDMI adapter. I believe it’s the first USB video adapter with these three options.
So with the news of USB Fevers multi-display adapter we can revisit the idea of boosting your video space. For me, this product is of special interest as I’m currently running a 19″ wide screen off my laptop dock station. Unfortunately the laptop doesn’t have enough video processing to push two monitors. The USB Fever multi-display USB adapter solves this problem.
It appears EVGA has an edge on higher end resolution, but the USB Fever will still get you a max 1400×1050 resolution. This is ideal for 19″ wide screens. The VGA, DVI and HDMI video adapter can string up to 6 monitors together and will work through powered USB hubs. I would venture to say this solution isn’t ideal for hi-end graphics applications like 3D modeling or gaming, but would be a good product for use of viewing spreadsheets, email, word processing, web surfing, blogging, Photoshop and TV.
Continue Reading
EVGA is lowering the bar for USB to VGA adapters and that’s a good thing. Traditionally you would pay upwards of $200 dollars for a USB to VGA adapter but now the UV12 and UV16 adapter from EVGA are under $80!
The UV Plus family take an existing USB port and convert that bus into a VGA/DVI adapter for additional monitors. This is ideal for those will lower video processing power (laptops) who want two or three widescreen monitors.
I spoke with Jeff, a pre-sales rep at EVGA and he did caution me against using the UV Plus family for hard core video applications such as
Continue Reading
Microsoft developed a USB stick to pluck evidence out of computers at crime scenes. The USB device is called COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor) and has the power to blast through security settings to get the good stuff…and quick.
The COFEE USB devices is ideal for on-site investigation where law-enforcement needs to extract data quickly and accurately. The Microsoft COFEE contains 150 commands which dramatically cuts down time to gather digital evidence. It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer’s
Continue Reading
I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but Texas Hold’em in the US is a very popular past time right now. In fact, I got 2nd place last night in my neighborhood poker tournament. Well, Dane-Memory is a fan too. Dane-Electronic made 1GB and 2GB USB poker chips.
The size is official but I’m wondering if the chip has that clay feel to it? The USB poker chip splits in half when being used. Top half is the cap and the bottom half has the USB connection and memory. Red is 1GB and blue is 2GB.
For the Texas Hold’em enthusiast you might want to pick up several of these USB poker chips, as now you can go “all in” using your personal financial records as liquid cash.
USB poker chip product page.
Source:Â UberGizmo.
**Mike [Dane-Elec Irvina CA – send me a comment if you’ve seen/used this chip before]
Continue Reading
Joe from USB Geek sent me an email about his new USB washing machine alarm clock, I thought we hit the mother-load. We didn’t. But lets stop and think for a minute, could we – one day - have a USB washing machine? It’s possible if the USB 3.0 spec really boosts the power over the bus to 12v. Until then, the USB washing machine can only be an alarm clock.
The USB washing machine plays four crappy alarm clock sounds along with an hourly chime and LED signal. Perfect for late night slumber.
In case you have a military friend you can set the hours for 12 or 24 and power the gadget via USB or two double A batteries.
At just $20 you can please any gadget lover who’s a germaphobic and likes to sleep in.
Visit the USBGeek web page and get a sample of the alarm clock sounds. Music to the ears [not].
USB washing machine alarm clock product page.
Continue Reading
WiHood is a relatively new service which is the world’s first “virtual laptop” that protects children online [ anywhere & at all times] with the WiHood’s USB bracelet.
The concept is ideal and it appears the user interface, setup and configuration is just as simple. This is what WiHood is: A USB bracelet which auto-launches a virtual desktop when connected to any computer. The virtual desktop runs off the WiHood servers which monitor and update website, programs, virus etc 24/7 for a completely kid friendly computer system.
From personal experience, my kids have trashed my computer – by mistake of course – but it still took time and skill to restore my PC. The WiHood USB bracelet eliminates this risk because a virtual desktop is all your child can use. The other issue I have with my kids using “the parent’s PC” is constant maintenance to monitor website, filters and content. With WiHood, that daunting task is automatically taken care of.
“WiHood protects children, saves parents from purchasing a new PC, and kids love that they have their own “virtual laptop” which stores their pictures, music, homework, etc. and can be worn on their wrist!”
The USB bracelet uses the internal storage to save files, folders, pictures, music etc…but those files are only accessed through the virtual desktop which runs off the WiHood servers. This means your kids will enjoy all the performance of a PC with the security of a remote server running the underlining PC desktop.
The WiHood is free to try and costs $49 for 6 months service or $100 per year. Stack that cost up against purchase of a dedicated PC for the kids and the WiHood is the clear choice.
Still interested. Maybe some more information? Check out the WiHood FAQ page. Or their WiHood Virtual Laptop home page.
WiHood was founded in August 2007 and has been honored to be awarded funding from Innovation Norway, a division of the Norwegian government providing capital to the most innovative companies in Norway.
Continue Reading
With over 5,300 Diggs, I figure this would be a good article to report about on how to make a sawed-off USB key. Nothing about this project is too technical, but the idea is clever enough it’s gained a lot of attention.
The sawed off UFD is a mod of using a slim Kingmax USB drive, USB cable and some glue + knife for a very cool looking storage device.
The intro line to this tutorial from the main page is:
“Holy crap– somebody just went and TORE MY FREAKING USB CABLE IN HALF while it was still attached to my laptop!!!
No– wait– sorry. That’s just my USB drive. My bad. Never mind.”
Which I think is pretty funny.
So besides getting a slim Kingmax USB drive (here is a 4GB for $15), you will need the following:Â USB cable, X-acto knife, glue, pliers, small screwdriver and some mad cutting skills.
First thing you will want to do is cut open the female end of the USB cable so you can insert the memory for storage. It’s fairly straight forward in the process. Some additional pictures are available
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
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?
Continue Reading
WiHood is a relatively new service which is the world’s first “virtual laptop” that protects children online [ anywhere & at all times] with the WiHood’s USB bracelet.
The concept is ideal and it appears the user interface, setup and configuration is just as simple. This is what WiHood is: A USB bracelet which auto-launches a virtual desktop when connected to any computer. The virtual desktop runs off the WiHood servers which monitor and update website, programs, virus etc 24/7 for a completely kid friendly computer system.
