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Voltaic – Solar Charger For iPad & The Likes

Voltaic is a company that deals with voltage.  They specialize in the solar charging to create volts.  Their latest entry is the Spark.  The Spark is a solar panel design for tablet and notebooks. Voltaic is marketing the Spark for the iPad – and why not as there’s plenty of marketing spin going on for Apple tablets. The Spark will generate 8watts of solar power.  So for those who don’t have an electrical engineering degree, or simply can’t do the math – one hour of sun to the Spark will generate enough power to run one hour of video off the iPad.  Not bad.
  • Weather:  Panels are waterproof, lightweight and built to withstand abuse.
  • Charge times: About 10 hours in direct sun will fully charge an iPad, other tablets may take less time.
  • Peak Output: 6 Volts, 1,333mA or 12 Volts, 667mA
  • Connector:  USB and 5 standard adapters
So here is the price – $299 USD.  To learn more, visit Continue Reading

USB Dongle Lockbox from Lucas

Press Release

Lucas Distribution, LLC a worldwide distributor of office equipment and security hardware, announces Dongle Lockbox to secure USB dongle keys. Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) June 09, 2011 Lucas Distribution, LLC, an Atlanta-based worldwide distributor of office products and equipment, recently launched the Dongle Lockbox to keep USB dongle keys secure. “Dongle keys are used by software developers to protect their software from piracy. Today, virtually all dongle keys are USB type and must be plugged into an available USB port on your PC or Laptop computer to run the software program,” said Sales and Marketing Manager Dave Lucas. “If you misplace your dongle key or if it is stolen, your software is now unusable. At the very least you will have to purchase a new dongle key and worst case you will have to purchase the software again.” In addition to the cost of replacing software, areas of business that need this software cannot function until the replacement package is received and reinstalled on the computer. Now there is a solution available to alleviate concerns and mitigate risks – the USB Dongle Lockbox. The Dongle Lockbox Kit consists of a secure ABS plastic enclosure, 6 foot USB Extender, combination lock with steel locking cable, and Flex Foot & Cable Nut to use as an anchor point. Dongle Lockboxes are available in 2 styles:
  • Single lockbox – secures 1 dongle key
  • Double lockbox – secures 2 dongle keys
The combination lock is user-changeable and as an added free service, Lucas Distribution will maintain a record of new combinations when USB Dongle Lockboxes are registered with them. If a combination is misplaced or forgotten, Lucas Distribution will provide the registered combination after verifying proper identity. Continue Reading

USB Tutorial: USB Spinner or Jog Wheel

Sifting through the Instructables website I came along this retro looking USB spinner wheel or Jog wheel. The USB tutorial project is a bit complicated and requires some technical know-how, so if you are looking to increase your mod skill sets, this might be the project for you. So what is something like this good for anyway?  The jog wheel functions like your wheel on that mouse you have, but larger and has good momentum which is nice when searching through large bits of code, viewing long webpages or searching through numerous documents. A job wheel is also excellent for media editing like sound or video.  You can scroll around in these large files effortlessly and without stressing out your finger from the mouse scroll wheel.  With the heaviness of the VCR head you can get the motion going and it’s inertia will keep it spinning for quite some time and when you’ve found the frame you’re looking for, just hold the wheel to stop it. Enough about the sales pitch of a DIY project, jump over to Continue Reading

Green Lantern Corps Red Carpet Appearance via USB

The up coming Green Lantern movie is one of the most anticipated summer movies of the year. My wife would say it’s because of Ryan Reynolds, I’d say because the Corp’s kick a$$. Either way, the movie is not due out for another 30 days. However, you can get a quick fix with these Mimobot Green Lantern Corps action figures in the shape of a USB drive. Mimobot is a company which has carved out a creative niche for ultra cool and ultra cute USB flash drives with a cartoonish figure. The most recent addition are Hal Jordan [pictured], Tomar-Re, Kilowog and Sinestro. The USB 2.0 drives come preloaded with content you can’t get anywhere else. The reason is that Mimobot teamed with DC Entertainment to put together some collectable content like screen savers, wallpaper, avatars and other digital extras. The Green Lantern Corps ranges in size of 2GB to 16GB. Prices range from $22 to $65 respectively. Continue Reading

Computer On A USB Stick With Processor

For several years we’ve seen many Linux guys post about bootable USB flash drives into portable operating systems like Ubuntu or simplified versions of the OS for children, like Strawberry from SugarLabs via donated USB flash drives. In the spirit of ultra portable operating systems – over the weekend – we learned of Raspberry Pi.  The Raspberry is not only an operating system from a flash drive, but it includes the processor too!  This means the Linux OS is not high jacking the hardware of the host computer, but rather using it’s own processing power to boot into Linux. The developer, David Braben, are shooting for a target price of the Raspberry USB computer to be around $25.  The above prototype isn’t pretty, but hey – what prototype is?  David and his team started this project in the effort to bring ultra low cost computers to less fortunate kids who need and want computer access. A long long time ago, the One Laptop per Child was a program to get $100 computers into the hands of kids who’d otherwise never get a computer. To give you an idea of what this mini USB computer can do, here are the specifications of the prototype:
  • 700MHz ARM11
  • 128MB of SDRAM
  • OpenGL ES 2.0
  • 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
  • Composite and HDMI video output
  • USB 2.0
  • SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
  • General-purpose I/O
  • Open software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)
If you are looking for video to spoon feed you this information, check out the video after the jump: Continue Reading

How To: Make Your Own USB Keylogger

USB keyloggers are always a good idea to have around. Sure you could make the argument that it’s incroaching on someone’s space, or that it’s flat out illegal to track someone without them knowing…but forget all that.  To many ups sides. What about keeping check with your kids?  Or making sure employees are keeping honest?  What about some backup or recovery and you need to know where you’ve been? Well in any case, for the DIY folks, here is a nice tutorial on taking a standard PS/2 and converting it into a USB keylogger.  What I like about it is the simple fact the average computer user wouldn’t notice.  We all see the PS/2 on the back panel, so why investigate it to see if there’s mod to it? The full tutorial can be found at Instructables.  Only tip is that you need some good soldering skills.  Other then that, not a hard task at all. Continue Reading

DIY: Wallet With USB Pocket

Not everyone keeps their flash drive on a key-chain or in their pocket.  For many, using a ultra slim USB flashdrive and sticking it into your wallet is your form of portability.  For those who do this, read on for a good DIY to insure the stick doesn’t get lost. First off, if you are using something like the Kingmax Super Stick, the drive is so small you’re more likely to lose it pulling keys out of your pocket then forgetting in the computer USB port.  For this reason, the USB wallet is a DIY project to stitch the drive into your wallet. You’ll need:
  • wallet
  • tiny USB flash drive
  • piece of Velcro
  • thread, needle and a thimble
In addition, this method of storing your drive will provide extra protection from the slim stick getting damaged. In short, you’re going to use the lanyard loop of the stick and some thread to stitch it a piece of Velcro which is then put into the wallet.  This design allows the drive to be some-what permanent, yet you can pull it out completely when needed. Continue Reading

Review: Nexcopy 3.0 USB Duplicator

Review: Nexcopy 3.0 USB Duplicator

Nexcopy USB duplicator product photoEverythingUSB posted a review of the Nexcopy 3.0 USB Duplicator with a bunch of “thumbs up” marks.  Let’s take a closer look.

Design and Build Quality

As far as USB duplicators go, the Nexcopy SSUSB160PC is actually pretty stylish. Its form certainly flows from its function, but Nexcopy has made it look engineered like a German car. Because of this form-from-function design, it’s rather rectangular with flat boxy sides. However, Nexcopy added some flair where they could. For example, the top slopes downward from back to front, giving it a more aggressive styling. This dash of style also makes it more functional, as inserting 16 flash drives into the USB 3.0 ports on that top surface is easier when they’re slightly vertically offset. It’s also easier to check all 32 status lights (red for bad, green for good).

Where the Nexcopy USB 3.0 duplicator is a serious tool meant for serious work, there is no plastic fascia to be found—only metal. Nexcopy managed to sneak in some pizazz by CnC milling the company logo out of the front panel. This allows air to be drawn in from the front and sides, flow over the internals, and exhaust out the back via a cooling fan. It’s a great example of proper form and function.

USB duplicator with flash drives inserted

Performance and Software

I first made an image file of my freshly installed Windows 7 64-bit flash drive using the included basic software. (Note: The professional version includes advanced features like write protection, partitioning, and setting drives as USB CD-ROM devices.) Once that was done, I created a new batch job, pointed the software to the image file on my hard drive, plugged in all 16 flash drives, and got down to business. With about 30 more seconds of setup, I had started a 16-way duplication process.

From the moment I clicked “start” to when the copy was completed, it took just over 11 minutes—not including the image creation. That’s 128GB of data written in under 12 minutes, which is solid performance, although I had hoped for even faster speeds.

Side view of USB duplicator hardware

The Nexcopy 3.0 USB duplicator is a true force multiplier. The more frequently you run the same task, the faster your process becomes. Most of the time in testing was spent on setup—once you’re past that, the duplicator can crank out 16 flash drives with custom images very quickly. The faster your flash drives, the faster the duplication process. If time is money, then the SSUSB160PC is a money-printing machine.

For the full Nexcopy 3.0 USB Duplicator review, head over to EverythingUSB for more details.

EverythingUSB.com is a long-standing technology website that launched in the early 2000s, focused exclusively on covering USB (Universal Serial Bus) technology and related peripherals. At a time when USB was revolutionizing how people connected devices to computers, EverythingUSB quickly became one of the go-to sources for in-depth product reviews, industry news, and technical analysis. The site gained popularity for its objective reporting and detailed writeups on USB flash drives, hubs, duplicators, gadgets, and even obscure USB-powered accessories.

Run by a small but dedicated team of tech enthusiasts and editors, EverythingUSB carved out a niche by maintaining a sharp editorial focus on USB-based innovations, both consumer and professional-grade. The site helped shape public perception around USB as a universal standard and provided early insight into game-changing technologies like USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and USB-C as they emerged. Though the pace of updates has slowed in recent years, EverythingUSB remains a respected archive and occasional contributor to USB-centric product reviews and commentary.

Continue Reading

Why USB Wins Over Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt is the new technology by Apple which is claiming better performance and speed then our new USB 3 specification.  It all looks good on paper and plan, but will reality let Thunderbolt win? Thunderbolt is the copper wire version of Intel’s Lightpeak technology.  Thunderbolt will produce transfer rates equal to 10Gbps which is about double of what USB 3 will offer. Apple convinced Intel to create a “cut-back” version of their optical light solution with an additional caveat of being the exclusive personal computer manufacturer to offer Thunderbolt.  And this is where the problem lies. As with USB 1 verse Firewire [Apple] the speeds of Firewire where faster than USB 1, but FireWire equipment was more expensive, Apple charged what was considered a substantial royalty per part, and with Macs in general holding much less of the market, meanwhile the Windows-side controllers and drivers for Firewire ran the gamut from lousy to terrible. Intel and Apple jointly developed Thunderbolt, which may actually be part of the problem.  As of June 2011, Apple is the only company committed to using Thunderbolt.  HP has officially selected USB 3 and we suspect Dell will not be far behind.  After all, these guys don’t like to support a technology to a competitive company which holds Continue Reading

Osama bin Laden Used USB Flash Drives To Stay Current

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last 7 days, we all know Osama bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011 by US Special Forces. Reading through many articles that week, it’s interesting to learn the al Qaeda leader kept quite and under the radar for nearly 5 years by living in a solid wall compound and without direct cable access, TV access, internet access. The only direct access bin Laden had was a radio. That said, Osama bin Laden kept current with the outside world by use of flash drives. It was reported his trusted courier would shuffle USB flash drives between his compound and the outside world to communicate, send message and negotiate with the al Queda terrorist group. During the attack on Monday May 2nd the Special Forces recovered nearly 1000 thumb drives which contained all sorts of information about bin Laden and his relationship with al Qaeda organization. What is also interesting is the level of hypocrisy bin Laden had. Along with the report of flash drives – which you can only assume many of them where made by US companies – bin Laden also had Coca Cola brought to his compound as well. It seems extremely hypocritical for a terrorist who’s sworn his life to avenge all American’s, yet indulges in US products during his day-to-day existence. With the hundreds of USB flash drives now in the hands of the Special Forces we should learn a lot more about the habits, plans and leaders of the al Qaeda network. Glad bin Laden is gone from our world. Continue Reading

Off Topic: British Open 2011 Accommodations

British Open 2011 Accommodations

Off topic post about housing accommodations for the 2011 British Open. Are you an avid golfer – or a fan of watching golf on T.V.?  Have you ever been to London and wondering the streets jumping from pub to pub?  Well if either sound interesting and you have a bit of extra cash, then consider going to the British Open 2011 event.  A friend of a friend has a great flat not too far from the Open and it would be an opportune time to experience all this at a fantastic rate.  Read on for the British Open 2011 Accommodations. Danecourt House Location: Deal [map] Bedrooms: 2 (sleeps 4) Garden: Private Courtyard Minimum Let Time: One Week Daily Rent: £150 Distance from Open course: 5 Miles Initial non-refundable booking deposit of £500. Balance 2 months in advance complete payment on arrival. 7 days minimum rental period. Danecourt House is an exceptionally pleasant traditional cottage in central Deal. 500 meters from the sea front, close to Deal Castle and 3 minutes from the nearest pubs and restaurants. Recently decorated with traditional style kitchen and bathroom. Large open plan downstairs living area. 2 double bedrooms and courtyard garden with BBQ. This is a great property in a perfect location to enjoy the wonders of Deal and the Open. On street parking to the front of the property. This property is available throughout the period of the Open and for periods before and after the event. Contact Info: Name:Mr N Ranshaw Email: nicr@cd-writer.com Phone: 0208 293 0777 (office hours) More info and source: Blog CD-Writer. Continue Reading

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