How would you like to connect wirelessly to your iPhone? Imagine sharing your photo’s or [soon to be] video with your TV or monitor without a cable? How about sync your iTunes without the white USB connector, or update contacts, schedules, calendar and more without making a connection. How about getting real crazy and juicing up your iPhone without a plug?
Well, all of this will be possible with the new Alereon wireless USB technology for the iPhone and those who integrate into their peripheral.
The demonstration consists of a small wireless USB peripheral connected to a typical iPhone or iPod’s edge connector. The adapter enables any iPhone or iPod to both provide extra battery power/charging as well as synchronize wirelessly to iTunes whether on a Windows or MAC OS machine. Future enhancements will enable connectivity to HDTVs for displaying photos or videos.
The ultimate vision of Alereon is to have a peripheral device integrated into
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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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NEC has been the leader in USB host controllers over the past five years, and now they are gearing up for USB 3.0 with their uPD720200 USB 3.0 host controller chip. You can expect hard drives, flash drives and solid state memory devices to use the NEC SuperSpeed chip.
EverythingUSB reports the small quantity price will be around $15 USD and include Windows drivers for quick integration. NEC forcastes sales to be several million per month by September and rapid adoption in 2010.
Stay up to date with USB 3.0 SuperSpeed with GetUSB.info
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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.
Pure Digital announced the second gen Flip camcorder. The Flip Ultra is now available in HD. It now includes a transflective display so it’s easier to see playback in the bright light. The FlipHD still has the embedded FlipShare software to quickly and easily share files and of course includes support for both Mac and PC.
Here is a quick run-down of the FlipHD:
Available in black or white. Cost is just around $200. 8GB of flash memory. 2 hours of record time. TV output with widescreen support and 2X digital zoom lens. HDMI output as well. 2AA recharable batteries included.
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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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A UK based company [Cambrionix Limited] has mapped out a single PCB board to house 49 USB ports. Using the typical cascading style of USB typology, the main 7 port hub is then wired to another set of 7 hubs with seven ports…giving you 49 total.
The device is originally designed for testing USB devices in bulk, which is fine, but I see a fundamental flaw in all this. If one Hub chip goes south, the entire board [or portion of it] goes bad as well.
Typically a cascade style is fine because if one hub goes bad you simply replace that one hub, but in this case it’s not so easy. With an entire PCB board, you need solder rework – that takes time and expense. It’s a great concept, but I don’t think it’s very practical. Here at GetUSB
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So what are some basic elements you need to overcome to use the USB spy camera packed up as a cigarette lighter? First, you need to be someone who smokes…or looks like someone who smokes. It wouldn’t be easy to use this product on your friends, if they know you don’t smoke. Second, you need to be willing to let the world know you’re a smoker. This probably isn’t a big deal for most people in the world, but being from California, it’s something no one approves of.
So if you’ve gotten past the stigma, then the cigarette lighter spy camera is a viable option to bust your best friend, wife or boss with suspicious activity.
With 2GB of built in memory, you’ll never have a shortage of memory for audio or video surveillance. In addition, the video quality is fairly good at 640 x 480 pixels and a respectable 16 frames per second [respectable given the size of the device at just 5.3 x 3.7 x 1.2 cm]. Once your mission is complete, and you feel something good was caught on tape, simply download the content via USB and make your case.
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Not that we’d EVER see a USB device in Star Trek, but if we did, it might be a USB communicator like the one from Gadget4All. The Star Trek USB Communicator comes on the heels of the most recent release of Star Trek [May 8th]. The movie is a chronicle of the early days with James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members.
“The Original Series” Replica USB internet phone plugs in and plays to allow users to transfer audio signals via USB. With built-in microphone and earphone, works with Skype, MSN, AIM, Ichat, etc. Includes built-in speaker with 21 different sound effects.
What sound effects you ask? Click the video to find out or drop $44 and experience it live.
Star Trek USB Communicator product page.
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USBFever rolled out a Gothic looking Skull shaped USB hub. Almost good enough to be a prop for CSI, the skull hub includes a tray for collecting your cr&p.
Nothing too extraordinary except the shape…you have 4 high speed USB ports, two on each side making it easy to connect your cables, USB sticks and other gadgets.
The Skull USB hub retails for $35. Shipping is just $3 from Hong Kong. GetUSB.info has received plenty of items from USBFever and you get the shipment within 5 business days of placing the order. Not bad for $3 shipping cost.
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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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The second half of this year will be exciting for GetUSB.info as USB 3.0 products and devices make it’s way into the retail space. Today we are going to start off with one of the first products, the USB 3.0 Cable.
USBFever released their 6 foot USB 3.0 cable for $10. The cable is USB A male to A male connector. The cable looks the same as a USB 2.0 cable, so what’s the difference in a USB 3.0 cable? Read on:USB 3.0 is also called USB SuperSpeed. When data is being transmitted under the SuperSpeed dual simplex signaling occurs, meaning…it’s possible two sets of dataContinue Reading
