Computer cables are the most over looked piece of technology on any computer system. Too often a cheap cable or a poorly made socket is the cause of many late nights or critical problems at urgent moments. You should never short change yourself and save a few dollars between a cheap cable and higher end cable. Today GetUSB looks at Tendon USB cables.
Tendon makes a full line of USB cables, DVI cables, HDMI cables and host of other cable products.
Today we are looking at the 15 foot USB-A to USB-A cable which is ideal for scanners, printers, external hard drives and USB hubs. Tendon also sent a variety of other USB cables, all of which are made using the same technique, materials and craftsmanship.
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I received the iPod FM Transmitter from Hannah over at Proporta and today had a chance to play around with it.
The iPod FM Transmitter is a compact, light and simple product to use. Using the iPod connector you click the FM transmitter into your iPod Nano (also supports iPod mini, Photo, 4 & 5GB pods and video iPod – but today tested with Nano) which is nice to have the direct connect because no extra cables or wires are needed to make your iPod work with a 3rd party radio.
Upon connection you get a confirmation the FM transmitter is sending a signal on FM frequency 88.8Mhz channel. This is the default setting, however, you have 9 memory channels to set the FM transmitter to.
The Proporta FM transmitter has three buttons. A memory button to select one of nine preset channels, a scroll up button and scroll down button to navigate through the radio frequencies. It’s simple. It’s easy.
Using the iPod FM transmitter I had mixed experience. Overall a good product – this is what I found:
Using the iPod FM transmitter without a power connection I had decent reception.
Using the iPod FM transmitter indoors gave much better reception to the radio than using the transmitter in the car. I can attribute the poor performance in the car due to many other electrical disturbances. The same results where found on different frequency settings. I did find the best reception was having the iPod close to the radio itself to boost signal strength over distance.
Using the iPod FM transmitter with a power connection did yield slightly better performance.
When the Proporta iPod FM transmitter is connected it’s best to set it and leave it. I found the connection between the two devices didn’t like being moved around and upon picking up and moving there would be static across the radio. This isn’t a big deal to me as I figure most users would set it and forget it. If you plan on walking around with your iPod forget the FM transmitter and use your headphones.
Bottom Line: For the $24 price tag it’s a good product for getting your tunes to a radio; however, we’d like to see some more signal strength to make the music clear in all situations.
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Why give someone a single still framed picture when you can give them an entire slide show? The MF-575 is an inexpensive hi-tech digital photo, MP3, and video player with a bright, high-resolution 5.6-inch color TFT screen and USB connectivity.
When I bought my first MF-575 picture frame, I got it as a gift for a family member who liked to complain that I never send them pictures anymore. The problem is, I have a digital camera and haven’t gotten any pictures developed in several years. So now, whenever I go over to their house for a visit, I just bring an extra memory card from my digital camera full of new pictures. If you don’t have an extra memory card, the MF-575 has an easy-to-use MD/SD/MMC memory card reader that plugs into any computer with a USB port. So you can just plug the entire picture frame into your computer and copy the pictures onto the card that way if necessary.
This year on Christmas morning, I was thinking about taking a series of pictures while everyone is opening their gifts. Then I’ll take the memory card out of my digital camera and pop it into the MF-575 picture frame for an instant slide show for everyone to enjoy on Christmas afternoon. Good idea right? The number of images you can put into your MF-575 slide show is only limited by the capacity of the memory card being used.
Here’s the full review: MF-575 Digital Picture Frame
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Robert from USB Fever sent me a USB car adapter charger and I wanted to chime in with a quick review.
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As expected it’s literally plug-n-play. Works without a problem. What originally got my attention about this simple device was the two port connectivity. Easy to charge his and her cell phones, iPods or PDAs.
A nice glowing red LED shows the unit is working and charging. It would be nice to have a switching LED for when the battery is full. I did notice the USB car adapter charger has over-current protection. This means if your car outputs a spike in volts the charger will cut off power before your device gets fried.
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Just the other day, Martin of Digital Reviews Network sent me a product review of the MoGo Bluetooth mouse from Newton Peripherals.
I report on the Mogo Mouse earlier and commented on the slim design and handy storage area, in the PCMCIA slot. Martin’s review proves this point and a whole lot more.
The primary goal of the review was to find out if the MoGo mouse really performed as a functional device, despite the small size and slim design.
However, Digital Reviews was very surprised to find it’s an elegant design which is very useful.
“one quick flick and the (hind) legs spring out from underneath making the MoGo mouse poised and more comfortable to use! With that “kickstand†it is eminently “holdable and usable” but not as comfortable of course as a normally proportioned rodent.”
The Pinnacle PCTV DVB-T Flash Stick is one of the many TV receiver solutions out in the market these days. Dave Carter from Gadget Centre did a detailed review I’ll share with you. First off, the Pinnacle USB tuner is a step above the rest in that it’s true plug-n-play. There is no loading of software, simply plug in via USB and you’re set-up. This is a big bonus as taking the TV tuner from PC to PC is a snap.
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The Logitech USB MX3200 is a stylish wireless keyboard, loaded with hotkey options and built in LED display features. Our Across-the-Pond friends at Gadget Centre did a nice review and it’s worth a read if you’re shopping for a wireless keyboard.
The Logitech MX3200 is a sleek black HID (human input device) that connects instantly via the secure USB receiver supplied, using Logitech’s SetPoint software to configure a range of hotkeys to work within Windows.
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Maxfield released their sleek looking MAX-IVY MP3 player just a several month ago. The new product is very attractive, small with high-tech magnesium casing. Sizes are available from 1GB to 4GB and play all the formats one would expect (MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM, OGG, MPEG4, AVI, WMV, JPG). At 14 hours play time and only 42g or 1.5oz the model definitely peaked our interest.
Our friends at Gadget Centre had the following to say in their review,
“The GUI itself is pretty good; the functions are clearly listed and presented with a large icon on the IVY’s decent 1.8in color screen.
The USB Circus Cannon from Brando is manufactured by Dream Cheeky of Hong Kong. Along with the USB Circus Cannon, Dream Cheeky also makes the USB Missile Launcher, Aroma Diffuser, USB Chess Game and a handful of other USB gadgets. Since the manufacturer doesn’t offer a purchasing option Brando is the distributor. GetUSB.info wrote about this a while back so we wanted to give her a shot, literally.
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Did you ever ask yourself “Why hasn’t anyone come up with ‘XYZ’…” and the very next day you somehow, miraculously, stumble upon the exact solution you need? Well Bookmark Base was that exact scenario for me. Bookmark Base is a simple, clean software utility that auto-syncs your web browser bookmarks between computers. For example, doing research for GetUSB.info creates
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Synchronization software sounds like a utility which seems valuable and worth-while, but many software packages fail on execution because the user interface isn’t logical or you get conflict errors with the device. So, to compile features which are intuitive enough to use without difficulty, yet perform
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I’ve had Swiss Army knives on my keychain for years, it’s come in handy on many occasions. Recently I always seem to have a USB flash drive in my pocket too. When I received the SWISS MEMORY USB Victorinox drive from Swissbit it was obvious that combining the two was actually a very good idea. The Victorinox is compact, easy to use and brings the usefulness of the Swiss Arm tools. The USB drive comes in a variety of sizes from 128MB to 2GB and is a plug-n-play (unless Win 98) device and price points range from $50USD to $225USD respectively.
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Upon connection you get a confirmation the FM transmitter is sending a signal on FM frequency 88.8Mhz channel. This is the default setting, however, you have 9 memory channels to set the FM transmitter to.
The Proporta FM transmitter has three buttons. A memory button to select one of nine preset channels, a scroll up button and scroll down button to navigate through the radio frequencies. It’s simple. It’s easy.
Using the iPod FM transmitter I had mixed experience. Overall a good product – this is what I found:
Using the iPod FM transmitter without a power connection I had decent reception.
Using the iPod FM transmitter indoors gave much better reception to the radio than using the transmitter in the car. I can attribute the poor performance in the car due to many other electrical disturbances. The same results where found on different frequency settings. I did find the best reception was having the iPod close to the radio itself to boost signal strength over distance.
Using the iPod FM transmitter with a power connection did yield slightly better performance.
When the Proporta iPod FM transmitter is connected it’s best to set it and leave it. I found the connection between the two devices didn’t like being moved around and upon picking up and moving there would be static across the radio. This isn’t a big deal to me as I figure most users would set it and forget it. If you plan on walking around with your iPod forget the FM transmitter and use your headphones.
This year on Christmas morning, I was thinking about taking a series of pictures while everyone is opening their gifts. Then I’ll take the memory card out of my digital camera and pop it into the MF-575 picture frame for an instant slide show for everyone to enjoy on Christmas afternoon. Good idea right? The number of images you can put into your MF-575 slide show is only limited by the capacity of the memory card being used.
Here’s the full review: MF-575 Digital Picture Frame
BeSocial: digg story | methodshop
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The USB Circus Cannon from Brando is manufactured by Dream Cheeky of Hong Kong. Along with the USB Circus Cannon, Dream Cheeky also makes the USB Missile Launcher, Aroma Diffuser, USB Chess Game and a handful of other USB gadgets. Since the manufacturer doesn’t offer a purchasing option Brando is the distributor. GetUSB.info wrote about this a while back so we wanted to give her a shot, literally.
Continue Reading
Did you ever ask yourself “Why hasn’t anyone come up with ‘XYZ’…” and the very next day you somehow, miraculously, stumble upon the exact solution you need? Well Bookmark Base was that exact scenario for me. Bookmark Base is a simple, clean software utility that auto-syncs your web browser bookmarks between computers. For example, doing research for GetUSB.info creates
Continue Reading
Synchronization software sounds like a utility which seems valuable and worth-while, but many software packages fail on execution because the user interface isn’t logical or you get conflict errors with the device. So, to compile features which are intuitive enough to use without difficulty, yet perform
Continue Reading
I’ve had Swiss Army knives on my keychain for years, it’s come in handy on many occasions. Recently I always seem to have a USB flash drive in my pocket too. When I received the SWISS MEMORY USB Victorinox drive from Swissbit it was obvious that combining the two was actually a very good idea. The Victorinox is compact, easy to use and brings the usefulness of the Swiss Arm tools. The USB drive comes in a variety of sizes from 128MB to 2GB and is a plug-n-play (unless Win 98) device and price points range from $50USD to $225USD respectively.
Continue Reading
