Some things sound better on paper than real life. Take, for example, this stylish wrist watch that doubles as a USB storage device. First, it is so clever, you always need a watch, you always need your USB drive, put the two together and it’s a perfect match.
Aaaah, but wait, there is a flaw. The USB flash drive is on the wrist band. This means you [most likely] need to remove the watch from your person to use the USB stick for any length of time. What a waste.
Couldn’t they put the USB flash drive on the other side of the of the wrist band?
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Today Sunland International introduced their self powered Blu-ray DVD writer. The unit doesn’t need an AC connection to burn a disc, but it does need a PC connection for the software to control it. You can think of this as a USB connected Blu-ray burner, but it’s ultra portable because it doesn’t require AC power or laptop power to burn a disc. Rather, the self-powered DIG-78102 [nice name guys] uses an Li-Poly battery to get it’s daily dose.
The self-powered Blu-ray burner uses a “smart charge” approach via USB to power the device. With an intelligent power manager to auto trickle charge the internal Li-Poly battery you can get up to 3 hours of use without a charge.
The new USB video borescope from USBFever gives you the chance to check things out that you’ve never wanted to see. Ok maybe that’s a bit odious [and suggestive], but the option is available considering the water resistant camera head and tube.
The USB borescope has a 300k digital camera on the front end, plus a nice accessory magnetic kit for the tip. Now it’s easier than ever to find your keys lost behind the couch.
Two white LED lights are positioned at the apex to illuminate those dark holes or areas.
What is especially cool about the USB borescope is the ability for taking pictures or live video. With the video option you can take those YouTube clips to the next level.
The USB snake scope retails for $64 + a couple bucks shipping.
Product Page here.
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Here is a tricked out USB stick that does the downloading work while your PC is in standby mode. The sleeptalking USB stick is aptly named, Somniloquy [medical term for talking in your sleep] and provides a great service when you take a closer look.
A team effort between University of California and Microsoft Research came up with the Somniloquy concept to reduce a computers carbin footprint into todays “going green” world. Many users keep their PCs on for late night syncs, virus software updates, computer hard drive backups, or large data downloads. The sleeptalking USB stick is designed to allow all of these things to happen while the computer remains in standby mode…meaning reduced power consumption for those critical updates or juice torrent downloads.
The Somniloquy is a prototype device that packs an entire low-power PC and embedded operating system onto the USB thumb drive. It needs only 1/10 the power of a typical PC or laptop.
Somniloquy essentially takes over as the computer’s presence on the network while the actual PC is
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Sugar Labs coined the phrase, “One Laptop per Child” and today they are getting us one step closer with Sugar On a Stick.
Sugar On a Stick is the Linux operating system fit to run off any USB drive. Fit to run on any computer setup. The Sugar Stick is based off the Fedora LiveUSB package and boots into Linux. The package will keep all data usage on the drive so the host computer stays clean.
The Sugar Stick is intended to run on any legacy hardware configuration, so if you’ve got a moment, download the package, put it on a stick and give it a try.
Check out the full website:Â SugarLabs.org
Source:Â Betanews.
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Don’t get too excited, the flash drive doesn’t blow up and take everyone with it, nor does it spit out harmful bio chemicals for mass destruction. Rather, the Fujitsu USB flash drive will self destruct using a much less flamboyant method…it will erase itself.
The drive is a prototype design whereby the internal workings include a processor and battery and after a certain amount of time, the data on the stick will erase itself. Or self destruct.
But just incase this method is a bit too hard-core, Fujitsu has an alternate method for data protection. The second method includes an auto erase feature if the USB flash drive is used to copy files to an unauthorized workstation or server. Using the Fujitsu re-direct software as the backbone, it can prevent data from being uploaded to file-sharing networks, sent as e-mail attachments, or printed, according to Fujitsu.
Since this is just a prototype you’ll need to wait a bit longer, but for those who are impatient, GetUSB.info knows of one flash drive which already offers USB Copy Protection. The drive will also Copy Protect PDF files, flash, MPG and a host more multimedia files.
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Gizmodo just did a review about the Pogoplug device which allows anyone to share their USB stick over the internet with just a couple clicks.
The box has it’s own internal client and makes installation and connection a snap. The device will support a number of formats such as FAT, FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ or EXT2/EXT3 Linux.
Using Pogoplug is just as simple as setting it up. You, as the account owner, can hit up your Pogoplug.com share from any web browser and upload/download/view files from there. If you’re on the same local network as your Pogoplug, it’s smart enough to use your Wi-Fi/Ethernet to transfer files faster. There’s also Mac and Windows software that loads the share as a network-mounted drive.
Other cool things you can do: Grab the iPhone app and stream MP3 files, view JPG files, open PDF/Doc files over Wi-Fi or 3G.
The great thing about the Pogoplug is that it only costs $100 and no monthly access fee. Given this, along with it’s universal accpetance to OS support, it’s one slick answer to easy file sharing.
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The iTunes store offers hundreds of games for adults and teens, but what about the younger kids. The kindergartners, preschoolers and 1st graders? Today I am reviewing an iPhone application called Shape Builder.
Shape Builder is a puzzle game where a youngster drags puzzle shapes over a silhouette to build an image. Once the image is complete either a sound effect or spoke word is played for the graphic.
The game is amazingly simple. I have a 3 year old who figured it out instantly. The shapes are familiar and in sync with what kindergartners are learning. Shapes such as fire trucks, letters and animals.
The graphics are excellent. Colors are vibrant. The voice over was done by a speech thearapest so the words are phonetically correct.
Check out the video:
I look forward to additional puzzle sets for older kids, or focus on specific group of items, such as the just the alphabet.
The iPhone application for kids, Shape Builder, gets a five star rating from GetUSB.info. Well worth the pennies you’ll spend to buy it!
The Register.com website has been down far to long [over 3 hours]. I’ve got customers from California, to New York to Israel who don’t have a site running – anyone know what is going on?
Is this another story of a big boy falling in these uncertain times or we just talking about some serious technical support issues?
Corsair put an interesting twist on backup technology. They have devised a one touch USB flash drive backup adapter. The adapter has a female USB port sitting on the top of the device. This is where you can plug in any flash drive. The adapter then connects to your PC via miniUSB cable.
At this point, the USB backup adapter is ready to suck information off your PC and stuff it onto your flash drive, with the push of a single button.
Of course you need to set some configuration options in the NovaBackUp software, but once set – you’re ready at any moment.
“Our research indicated that over 80% of users have a My Documents folder of less than 64GB, and more than 85% need to regularly transport less than 64GB of data between different PCs. This shows that USB flash drives are an efficient method of backing up your data, and with high-capacity USB flash drives, there is still plenty of room for your favorite music, photos and even movies,” said Jim Carlton, Corsair’s vice president of marketing.
This is also an excellent marketing tool to encourage users to break away from their 2 year old 1GB drives and saddle up for a larger 16GB, 32GB or 64GB flash drive.
I for one, am a lazy backer-upper and a device like this might encourage me to be more vigilante about data backups.
The Corsair USB backup adapter has an MSRP of $35.
Corsair product page.
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Every company is looking for a way to make a custom flash drive and Canon is onto something hot here with the 5D minaturized down to a USB stick. Well, not the entire device, but the lens pops out to become the flash drive.
It’s not clear if the 5D custom flash drive is made of plastic or rubber, but from the image, it looks spot-on to the real deal.
The minature 5D Canon knock off is a cool $100 on ebay. It’s a 4GB drive.
Source: OhGizmo.
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Lebedev Studio released a prototype USB hub based off a light prism. The creativity and look as very cool with a clear communication of how data transfers through the device.
To bad the colorful USB cables aren’t available and I believe it’s just a design style not yet available.
What do you think?
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Sugar Labs coined the phrase, “One Laptop per Child” and today they are getting us one step closer with Sugar On a Stick.
Sugar On a Stick is the Linux operating system fit to run off any USB drive. Fit to run on any computer setup. The Sugar Stick is based off the Fedora LiveUSB package and boots into Linux. The package will keep all data usage on the drive so the host computer stays clean.
The Sugar Stick is intended to run on any legacy hardware configuration, so if you’ve got a moment, download the package, put it on a stick and give it a try.
Check out the full website:Â SugarLabs.org
Source:Â Betanews.
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