Several years ago the concept of a 2GB luggage tag would be out of the questions. A 2GB drive was about $15 and for that reason, most everyone would consider it too expensive.
Today however, with a 2GB flash drive less than $5.00 it makes plenty of sense to use a flash drive to store your contact information via USB. Sure, you still write your name, address and phone number on the label above, but you can now include additional information. Travel itinerary, medical information and 2nd contact information.
Now, if you want the luggage tag looking USB with label area, it will cost you the full price of $30, but I’d rather take an old USB or a new $5.00 and create my own. Wouldn’t be that hard with some creative material like duct tape.
Just looking at the picture, wouldn’t it be a shame if the Porsche inspired USB hard drive from LaCie got a scratch on it? Not many tech products get designed after house-hold names, like Porsche, but it seems LaCie is making a good business out of it.
The exclusive design is available in 500GB and 1TB size with an even more exclusive size of 750GBs only available at Porsche stores. Wouldn’t that be odd, “Honey, I’m going down to the Porsche dealership to pick up a hard drive to expand the TiVo box.” But, after she saw the hard drive, I’m sure she would understand.
So when you can find a 500GB USB hard drive for about $80, why bother? Drop another $20 and get the LaCie Porsche version. Now that is money well spent.
For the tech folks, it’s USB 3.0 so great transfer rates. For the Uber-Geek, forget about Thunderbolt – sh!t, the spec just came out and I’m sure it took Porsche at least 6 months just to approve the design. So stop getting theoretical
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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:Â 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:Â USB and 5 standard adapters
So here is the price – $299 USD. To learn more, visit
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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A leaked version of Windows 8 has surfaced and there look to be some promising features for the USB lovers out there. First and formost, check out this screen shot of Windows 8 asking if you’d like to run from a USB flash drive.
Is it possible Microsoft figured out the best possible solution for longevity is letting users run their OS from a flash drive, then plug it into any PC they see fit to run their computer? Some storage problesm with that, but never-the-less, a good starting point.
Here are some other things we think might be bundled with Windows 8:
Granted I didn’t think of this concept, but looking back, it’s odd this USB hack took as long as it did. Hacker, Jonas Wagner, was able to rig his Microsoft Kinect to a USB missile launcher. From what we’ve read, Jonas wanted to control a missile launcher with his Kinect, only problem is that he didn’t have access to missiles. Next best thing was a USB missile launcher.
To give him some feedback about position, the first thing Jonas did was mount a video cam above the USB missile launcher. Next step was polish up his Python skills and incorporate the libfreenect library for control.
Using his hands to position the USB missile launcher, Jonas can rotate the base unit, angle the barrel up or down and fire the launcher – all thorugh his Kinect.
Video after the jump of Jonas shooting his brother[?]
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We are really trying to avoid blog posts about USB flash drives as they are everywhere, ambiguous, dime-a-dozen, you name it; however, today we received three emails about new styles and just couldn’t help ourselves.
All along the same genre if you will, of shady, up to no good, stereo types. First we have the USB lock. Lets get your mindset into that of a burglar. Next, a USB gun. Sure if you can’t crack the lock, just point your gun at someone. Last, the USB lighter. Burn the place down after you’ve stolen everything.
USB Lock:
USB Gun:
USB Lighter:
Sure all of the above is a stretch, but interesting all these tips came in on the same day from different companies. Think there is some conflict in our future? Links & price to products after the jump:
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There is news running popping up about a new concept design for rechargeable batteries via USB. Well, the concept looks cool from a design standpoint, but nothing new in the market place.
First, lets review the design. Taking a double A battery case, the concept is to attach a USB cable so the internal battery can be recharged. Nice concept if it came out 5 years ago, but why add the additional USB cable. Why not make the tip a USB connector? Oh wait, it’s been done.
So this brings us to what is already in the market place, the USBCell. This is a rechargeable battery which sits inside the double A battery design case. You can recharge the battery
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There is a good percentage of folks out there who probably store their adult content on encrypted flash drive. They store it this way so their co-workers, wives or girlfriends don’t stumble upon the adult content they are so quietly trying to keep hidden. However, for those a bit more bold, we bring you two USB drives which are a bit funny and symbolically, and ideal way to store your p0rn.
First up are the GigaBoobs. Just as you guessed it’s a USB drive in the shape of boobs.
The next up is the USB condom. Yes, I think it’s stupid too, and probably not even real, just a photoshop job with the USB connector sticking out of the condom wrapper. But it’s a good laugh, don’t ya think?
The gigaboobs are available for purchase.
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The exclusive design is available in 500GB and 1TB size with an even more exclusive size of 750GBs only available at Porsche stores. Wouldn’t that be odd, “Honey, I’m going down to the Porsche dealership to pick up a hard drive to expand the TiVo box.” But, after she saw the hard drive, I’m sure she would understand.
So when you can find a 500GB USB hard drive for about $80, why bother? Drop another $20 and get the LaCie Porsche version. Now that is money well spent.
For the tech folks, it’s USB 3.0 so great transfer rates. For the Uber-Geek, forget about Thunderbolt – sh!t, the spec just came out and I’m sure it took Porsche at least 6 months just to approve the design. So stop getting theoretical
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.
First off, if you are using something like the 
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.
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 
The USB 2.0 drives come preloaded with content you can’t get anywhere else. The reason is that 
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 
Is it possible Microsoft figured out the best possible solution for longevity is letting users run their OS from a flash drive, then plug it into any PC they see fit to run their computer? Some storage problesm with that, but never-the-less, a good starting point.
Here are some other things we think might be bundled with Windows 8:
To give him some feedback about position, the first thing Jonas did was mount a video cam above the USB missile launcher. Next step was polish up his Python skills and incorporate the libfreenect library for control.
Using his hands to position the USB missile launcher, Jonas can rotate the base unit, angle the barrel up or down and fire the launcher – all thorugh his Kinect.
Video after the jump of Jonas shooting his brother[?]
USB Gun:
USB Lighter:
Sure all of the above is a stretch, but interesting all these tips came in on the same day from different companies. Think there is some conflict in our future? Links & price to products after the jump:
First, lets review the design. Taking a double A battery case, the concept is to attach a USB cable so the internal battery can be recharged. Nice concept if it came out 5 years ago, but why add the additional USB cable. Why not make the tip a USB connector? Oh wait, it’s been done.
So this brings us to what is already in the market place, the 
The next up is the USB condom. Yes, I think it’s stupid too, and probably not even real, just a photoshop job with the USB connector sticking out of the condom wrapper. But it’s a good laugh, don’t ya think?
The