iPhone Gets RFID For Quick Retail Purchase Opportunities

Matt Laboff November 18, 2009 Wireless

iCarte is a snap-on device for the iPhone to allow it to receive RFID signals.Â This is great for all sorts of on-the-go applications.

The iCarte could be used for micro payments, such as public transportation payments or vendy machine purchasing.

icarte

Another application is getting RFID signals for promotional material.Â Such as walking past a movie theater and you would be asked to download the trailer for an upcoming movie.Â Or past a music store and you can get a sample of the latest releases.

Makes you wonder what the world will be like in a couple years, doesn’t it?

UberGizmo rumors that Apple might integrate an RFID feature in the next release, but who knows.

Source:Â UberGizmo.Â Product by: Wireless Dynamics.

New ioSafe Water Proof & Fire Proof 2TB USB Hard Drive

Matt Laboff November 13, 2009 Flash Storage, Security, YouTube Video

For those who need disaster recovery protocols put into place, the new ioSafe 2TB hard drive is your best friend.Â The USB hard drive is both water proof and fire proof making it the most durable drive on the market, and essential for disaster recovery mandates. I can tell you one thing, seeing is believing.Â Check out this 2 minute video where the ioSafe is getting wet and wild and then dried off at over 1,500 degrees.

The USB hard drive ioSafe can be submersed in water for 3 days without damage to the digital content. The ioSafe USB hard drive can withstand fire excess of 1,500 degrees for over 15 minutes without damage to the digital content.Â So how do they do it?Â Continue Reading

AA Battery Charger Via USB Ports – Save 72%

Matt Laboff November 11, 2009 Power for USB, USB News

At the time of this article, Buy.com has a set of AA battery chargers which re-powers via USB at a 72% savings.Â List price went from $24 down to $7 bucks! Great stocking stuffer for the geeky Dad, brother or in-law.

Save the environment by throwing fewer batteries away! This Ni-MH battery recharges with any USB port and has a built in safety circuit to prevents overcharging. LED indicator light lets you know when your battery is fully charged. Grab the Get USBDealz now! Continue Reading

Keep Piggies Warm With XMas USB Heating Gloves

Matt Laboff November 7, 2009 Brando USB, Useless Novelty

Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to turn our energy to Thanksgiving and Christmas.Â Since Thanksgiving isn’t a Brando thang, they’ve got their eye on the biggest holiday – Christmas. So putting aside that I’m in Southern California, for those in Michigan, Wisconsin, New York…hell anyone East of California could appreciate these USB heating Christmas gloves.Â Right?

USB heating gloves, Christams theme

How about your hands freezing and slowing down your reaction when you are playing game? Sure you’d look ridiculous, but you can’t sacrifice your skills.Â Or how about stuck in an air-conditioned office space because your boss is 400 pounds and needs an ice locker to work in, the USB Christmas warming gloves would help.Â Continue Reading

USB 3.0 Flash Drive By Super Talent – The First

Matt Laboff November 3, 2009 USB 3.0

GetUSB has been waiting for this announcement for about 8 months now.Â Super Talent just announced the first [of what we know] USB 3.0 flash drive. Wow.

USB 3.0 flash drive

Wouldn’t you love to have a USB flash drive that could copy files at the rate of 200MB per second?Â Using a separate UAS Protocol driver with a USB 3.0 port this SuperSpeed drive can reach up to 320MB/sec transfer speeds. Wow. It’s a bit large, but hell, who cares.Â Size is 95 x 37 x13.5 mmÂ The USB 3.0 USB flash drive will be shipping with 32GB, 64GB and 128GB sizes.Â No word on price, but let me give you an idea…at the time of this writing, Super Talent offers their USB 2.0 32GB drive for Continue Reading

GetUSB Dealz: Chestnut Hill iPod Speaker System $249

Matt Laboff November 2, 2009 Audio

Chestnut Hill has long put out their sound systems as a premium product.Â If you are in the market for a premium iPod player, then consider the George Audio Speaker System – CHS40001.Â Currently it’s available for $249 and free shipping!

All of GEORGEâ€™s functions are controlled from the remote, meaning you can set an alarm, pick a song, or turn on the radio within a thirty-foot radius of the base unit. Great for desktop or bedside control, GEORGE fits anywhere. Show off your mixing skills using GEORGEâ€™s Jukebox feature, take requests and build a playlist, without ever leaving the party.

With 24 presets spread across four pages, you can mix your Continue Reading

USB Registry Cleaner Tool

Matt Laboff November 16, 2009 Software, USB News, USB Reviews

UPDATE: USB Scrub by Nexcopy now supports Win7, Win10 (32/64bit) and Windows 11

USB Registry Cleaner Tool which is FREE!

Did you know Windows can make over 260 registry entries with a single enumeration of a USB stick? This means for those with multiple flash drives, your registry will get extremely cluttered and bogged down.

With flash drives dirt cheap these days, you’ll find at least a couple dozen going into your computer throughout the year. That would be over 6,240 registry entries.

USB Scrub is a free utility from Nexcopy which performs a deep cleaning of those unused drivers and registry edits.

We gave USB Scrub a try, and it worked great. We went from enumerating a single USB stick in 45 seconds to enumerating that stick in less than 12 seconds.

In addition, if you have a USB stick that doesn’t perform correctly or the Windows OS doesn’t see it, chances are the USB Scrub will clear up those problems and your drive will work once again. This is because a registry entry can become corrupt, and simply clearing it out will resolve your issue.

So let’s take a closer look.

Using RegShot (a free application which takes a snapshot before and after an event and compares only the changed registry values), I took a snapshot before and after a USB stick was connected and ejected. The result was this:

78 Registry Keys created
183 Registry Values added
261 Registry edits in total!

Here is a snapshot. Click the image to get the full text file:

Next, I took a snapshot of the registry before a stick was connected, then ran USB Scrub, then took the second registry snapshot. This is what I got:

1 Registry Key added
3 Registry Values added

Clearly we have a big difference. Clearly we have a great cleaning tool for USB devices in Windows.

USB Scrub cleaning registry after use

If you have a USB flash drive not working correctly, a slow computer, or you are a heavy user of removable drives, give USB Scrub a try. You’ll see a noticeable difference in USB enumeration.

As a closing note, when the enumeration speed went from 45 seconds to 12 seconds, USB Scrub reported that it cleared over 9,000 registry entries.

USB Scrub is a free utility. There is no malware or spyware.

Unfortunately, USB Scrub only supported Windows XP in the past. The maker, Nexcopy, has now updated support for Windows 7 and Windows 10. (Does not support Windows 8.)

UPDATE: Download link now supports Windows 7 and Windows 10 (32/64bit).

Download USB Scrub. Source: EverythingUSB.com.

Not The Cougar We’d Like To Mention

Matt Laboff November 12, 2009 Brando USB

Not the cougar we’d like to mention, but just as hot.Â Brando has a Transformer USB stick that goes from 2GB of storage to Cougar in a couple twists and turns. Granted anyone over 30 probably couldn’t get the stick back from cougar shape to USB shape, but that’s half the fun, right?

Transformer USB

The cougar comes in the black body shape or the spotted white and green body shape. Sure you can grab a 2GB stick for under $10 over here, but for the USB Transformer drive, it’ll more than triple, at $45.

Transformer USB stick

Brando page. Continue Reading

Windows 7 Direct Download Gone For Now

Matt Laboff November 10, 2009 USB Hacks, USB News, USB Tutorials

Last week we posted an article for Windows 7 users to download a utility to make a bootable USB recovery stick.Â Well, looks like that feature is [temporarily] gone. So what gives? It appears Microsoft lifted some GPL code to make their ImageMaster tool for bootable USBs.Â Interesting. We posted how you could make your own nt60 USB recovery stick.Â Check it out.

From eWeek here is a bit of detail: Continue Reading

GetUSB on Twitter

Matt Laboff November 4, 2009 Off Topic

Hello fellow readers and bloggers.Â Don’t forget to follow GetUSB.info on Twitter.Â You know the deal, stay up to date, instantly.

You can also find us on FaceBook – which is the most convenient way to post comments and respond to all things wonderfully USB. Continue Reading

USB Harmonica is 2GBs Of Sweet Soul

Matt Laboff November 3, 2009 Hand Crafted USB, USB Hacks

Backyard Brand is looking to coin a new phrase with their FlashHarp USB drive.Â I’m classifying this under hand crafted USB because it’s a relatively simple mod of a harmonica to include a USB drive. Granted, Backyard came up with the idea, so props to them.

usb harmonica

They do a good job of selling the concept with: “Even if you never master the art of blowing the harp, you’ll never have to throw this harmonica in the back of a drawer. Sweet gift for anybody, young or old, who really likes music.”

USB harmonica

If this stick gains any kind of traction we can expect china to knock off a plastic version of this in about 3 months or less.Â Granted, it’s not your typical custom USB drive, but for those looking to get the original mod, head over to Etsy and grab yourself a 2GBer of sweet soul for $44USD. USB Harmonica FlashHarp product page [they should spell it FlasHarp] Continue Reading

5 Ways To Improve iPhone Which No One Has Mentioned – Yet

Matt Laboff October 29, 2009 Apple / iPod

I’ve read several articles about how to improve the iPhone, most notable are CNET’s comments and iSmashPhone comments.Â Both articles have good ideas about improving the iPhone software, but there are five user improvements which I would like to humbly suggest. To me, these are fundamental improvements for an everyday user.Â What do you think? 1)Â How many times have you read an email chain with an attachment?Â With the small screen of the iPhone even the shortest email requires you to scroll.Â With a long email you must scroll forever to get to the attachment.Â Why can’t Apple make a “paper clip” icon at the top to jump directly to it?

improve iphone

2)Â I’m the type of iPhone user that likes to keep everything clean and up-to-date.Â So why is it that I can listen to a Voice Mail from a recent caller, but I still need to click the “Recent” icon to remove the notification.Â It should be removed automatically when Continue Reading