Ok, there are several items we need to discuss about the USB eye warmers.
First – the picture is classic. Guy looks like sleeping at work – not a good image for selling product. At least put the subject in a hospital bed or white background so the first image running through your mind isn’t sleeping at work.
Second – Warm your eyes to reduce fatigue and tired eyes. Isn’t that called sleep? There might be some obscure medical research to back up the notion of warmth to the eyes [while not sleeping] reduces fatigue, but doubt it.
Third – The website reports:
User controls temperature by hand and switching power on/off.
That statement is ridiculous. No sh!t power on/off would control temps.
In Conclusion – Because of the items listed above, I’ve made a proclamation as editor of GetUSB.info: The USB eye warmer is the most useless product I have ever seen. Period.
If you feel differently here is the link to the $13 gadget.
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I wrote about the Yoggie Security System a while back and today found a special deal for the standalone USB security stick. To peak your interest here’s short quote from my previous article:
The Yoggie Pico device is a self contained mini computer on a USB stick which runs and manages 13 different security applications. At first thought – doesn’t seem like much – why not load up 13 security applications on your computer and save a USB port? Well, the beauty lies within the combination of a self contained unit, a processor to run it self and the combination of hardware and software to protect your computer.
CES 2008 is a couple weeks old and after poring over the gadget blogs, press releases and manufacturer websites it’s clear Wireless USB or WUSB will be hot in 2008. For that reason, I thought it would be the right time to revisit: What is Wireless USB?
WUSB is a high-bandwidth wireless extension for short range communication between computers, devices and gadgets. The WUSB specification claims a transfer speed equal to USB 2.0 of 480Mbit per second. Although that has yet to be seen (even with USB 2.0 wired products).
The USB Implementors Forum based this wireless technology off the WiMedia Alliance’s Ultra-Wideband or UWB platform. WUSB will work up to 9 feet away and then slow down to 110Mbit/s with a max range of 30 feet. WUSB works on the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency range and spreads communication over an ultra-wideband of frequencies. For this reason you will not see wireless interference between WUSB and Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wireless networks.
If I have peaked your interest for Wireless USB, check out some other WUSB articles.
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Click – Hard drive locked and encrypted.
Click – Hard drive unlocked and ready for use.
Yup, that’s it for security when using the RFID USB hard drive enclosure. The enclosure is designed to hold any number of 2.5 inch hard drives and with the embedded RFID technology a simple RFID ringkey is all that holds your data safe and secure.
Upon connection to your system, the RFID key identifies the USB hard drive for setup and connection, from that point forward the USB enclosure needs the same RFID signal to lock and unlock the drive.Several LED light configurations provide status: Red for lock, Green for unlock and Blue for write process.
With all this high tech RFID security, you can still be a knucklehead
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Steve Jobs announced an update to the Apple TV at Macworld San Francisco this week as well as iTunes Movie Rentals, which were already rumored to be part of his Macworld keynote speech.
Jobs admitted that Apple’s online video plan had been a disappointment and that users didn’t take to watching online video the way Apple had expected. When Jobs first announced the Apple TV last January, Apple’s initial video plan was too complicated for many people. Getting a movie or TV show onto your Apple TV required customers to buy the video from the iTunes Store, download it to their computer, then sync/stream the file using an Apple TV.
Although Apple has already sold 7 million movies, Jobs said: “That’s more than everyone else put together, but it did not meet our expectations.”
Apple plans on overhauling their strategy by making 2 major changes:
Adding a new online movie rental service
Updating the Apple TV’s software so that viewers can stream movies direct from the internet sans (that’s Latin for without) computer.
Jobs thinks that viewers would prefer to rent movies, not buy them. As a result, the new Apple TV software will allow users to
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I hope you didn’t buy a new Apple laptop recently. Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Air at Macworld today.
The MacBook Air is the “World’s Thinnest Notebook” – even thinner than the Sony TZ, which is 0.8 to 1.2 inches thick. It’s so thin it fits in a manila envelope. Seriously. See the image below! Apple’s goal was to make a high performance 3 pound laptop, with a full size keyboard, and large display.
The MacBook Air is so thin, it only has 4 ports: USB 2.0, Micro-DVI, headphone jack and a MagSafe 45w power adapter plug.
So what did Apple leave out?
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It’s always been a gas to report on those strange USB drives floating around and I thought we had seen it all with the Spongebob drive, Biscuit drive and Star Wars Pez drives, but today I bring you yet another.
Minimoo brings us four new USB animal drives to place into our “useless novelty” category [although not useless, sure is goofy]. As the flagship product we have the USB turtle, Göran.
Next up we have Fredrick the USB gorilla, Jan the USB sheep and Maud the USB pig.
The common USB sizes are available which are 1, 2 & 4GB with prices between $43-$75.
I’ve got a brother-in-law scared to death of turtles, so I’d love to get him Göran. The look on his face when a USB turtle is sticking out his USB port would be legendary. Although probably not to funny to you.
Anyway – getting your veterinarian a “thank you” tech gift or starting your own USB animal collection would never be easier, thanks to Minimoo of course.
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I’ve never given geo tracking my pictures much thought, not until I came across Coolest-Gadgets post about putting GPS to your JPEG images. This gadget would especially apply to those frequent travelers, or travelers who love getting lost in the details during family slide shows.
The picture geo tracker is a standalone device that allows a photographer to tag their photos with GPS location. The Photo Finder is pocket sized and has software which syncs GPS location data into the saved photo file without PC connection or editing. Coolest-Gadgets reports the Photo Finder only supports JPEG at the moment, with plans to support KML route files so you can not only geo tag and plot your pictures, but sync up your
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Gadgets and the size of those gadgets have always been inversely proportionate. We want the bigger and better technology features with a smaller physical size. Here I bring you a classic example: the USB digital voice recorder.
At the size of [about] a credit card – 6.5mm – this digital voice recorder can record up to 69 hours of audio. The USB digital voice recorder is a 1GB storage device with a flip-out USB connector and flush mounted controls for recording, pause, play, rewind etc.
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Not that domino’s has traditionally carried the “geeky” stereotype, but putting some flash memory and a USB connector on would definitely capture a Geek’s attention.
Although the USB domino is just a design, the creator wanted each domino dot to represent 1GB of memory. Not too far fetched for the lower end, but what about the box-car 12 USB domino? That’s over a TB of data.
The other question which comes to mind, is what kind of coin will you drop to get a full set to make the USB domino collection worth…shall I even say it?…playing with.
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Our good friends at GizmosForGeeks cruised through CES’08 this year and one of their highly recommend products was the Pinnacle Video Transfer unit from Pinnacle Systems. The point of this device is making the record, copy and transfer of your favorite video (TV, DVD etc) to your iPod [or other hand held device] quick and easy.
As seen here, USB is the answer for plug-n-play connection and the Video Transfer box gives three settings for video quality. Your setting choice will dictate the file size and resolution quality. The video input options include S-video or Composite video.
The Gizmo guys had a moment to demo the unit and reported the unit was easy to use, compact and simple in operation.
The Pinnacle Video Transfer box will be available later this month for just $129.
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ATP is a northern California memory manufacturer who’s just launched the most “green” USB drive you’ve ever seen. The EarthDrive is designed and built using the maximum amount of bio-recycled materials resulting in a fully recyclable product.
I’ve been meaning to do something about recycling USB drives as I purchased recycleusb.com domain a while back and intended to do something about recycling. I still plan on doing it, but ATP has sure come up with a great environmental plan for USB memory recycling.
ATP doesn’t stop with just a bio-recycled drive either, part of the purchase price of the EarthDrive includes a contribution to American Forests, a world leader in planting trees for environment restoration. ATP doesn’t disclose
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