Everything USB - Gadgets, Wireless USB, USB 3.0

Massive S1Digital USB Carousel Gives You the 100 Disc Blu's(sic)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:12:33 -0600

S1Digital has released a new 100-disc carousel disc changer for Blu-ray that is special tailored for media center PCs. This USB 2.0 Blu-ray player holds a up to 100 discs, and can pull each disc up from its cataloging software. As each disc is loaded into the carousel the software locates case art and media and downloads them into your library. This allows for a text, genre or cover art searching for the movie you want to watch. Movies can be played at will, but Blu-ray video almost maxes out USB 2.0 bandwidth, unless S1Digital moves up to USB 3.0.

Another ability this player brings is the ability to download the discs to a hard drive. Instead of leaving discs in the player, special software will rip the content to hard drive from which video can be played back. The best part is that the player can be loaded up, and told to rip your entire collection without intervention. That only works of course if your discs are DRM-less Blu-ray. Each disc can take up to an hour to load so you could fill and rip them all in about 4 days if you happen to have 3TB of storage handy. In 6 months that won't be much, but today that's still a little heavy. Also heavy is the price tag, $1500 to get this massive amount of Blu-ray content at hand.
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Ultra-compact Canon SD3500 IS Eschews Buttons for Touchscreen

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:41:53 -0600

Today may mark another landmark in the evolution of electronics, the death of the button. While it may be premature to pronounce buttons dead, the iPhone and now the Canon SD3500 IS have all but removed all buttons from their devices. Canon's latest camera doesn't support multi-touch, but it does have gesture support, similar to the one found on Samsung DualView. The menu system is completely touch driven and intuitive functions like picture playback are easily controlled with finger movements. Defined gestures allow you to move from menu to menu with ease. The design is so unusual that it's looks wrong somehow. While the front of the Canon looks like most of their current sub-compacts, the back is all LCD. 3.5 inches of touchscreen and that is all there is to the back. There are still a few buttons on the top but the back is void of features.

Turning the camera on reveals menus and controls galore but we have to wonder whether holding the camera by the touchscreen will cause problems. Canon also adds a new aspect of face detection with the Wink Self Timer. Once in the shot and situated the photographer, now the subject, winks at the camera and the camera detects this facial expression and snaps the photo 2 seconds later. It can also be set to wait for a new face to enter a group and capture the image then. Up to 35 faces can be tracked at once in up to a 24mm wide angle shot, making for a much simpler group photo experience. Canon also improves support for the popular Eye-fi SD cards that helps transfer photos wirelessly once in range of your home network. The polished SD3500 IS sub-compact should hit the streets this month for around $330.
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Gold USB Drive with Michael Jackson's "This Is It" Video Pre-loaded

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:52:30 -0600

If you are already missing Michael Jackson like the rest of us, here's a chance to get a piece of his legacy for you to have on hand always. The 2.5 inch 500GB Gold hard drive has a DRM protected copy of the "This is It" video pre-loaded on it. This is a movie compilation of the rehearsals and outtakes from what might have been his comeback tour. The so-called movie was made during his final months, showing the rehearsals and creative work that went into the sold-out London concerts.

The movie will likely only take up about 9GB of data which should leave you plenty of room for storing your other files and media. Accessory programs for backup and cryptography are easily found and installed for free to extend the function of this memorable high speed drive. There's no current detail about what form the DRM comes as, but you should be able to redeem it as soon as your drive ships. (Beatles on the other hand has gotten rid of DRM altogether with their re-mastered digital album in lossless FLAC format.) This may be a little loud in style, and will probably be a choice target for those with sticky fingers so keep an eye on it. It's currently around $90 dollars and shipping from Europe worldwide.
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USB Fangled Skeleton Key Helps Break into Old Fashion Locks

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:29:45 -0600

A device that might just be a little too late to be useful has shown up recently, a USB Key Impressioner. This James Bond wannabe gadget can be inserted into a car lock and electronically map the interior of the lock. The device scans the position of the tumblers and transmits that information to a computer via USB. The software then takes that information and creates a pattern for a key cutter to make a perfect key for that lock. While this sounds pretty nefarious, unless you factor in common sense, it's not all that useful.

It's also not exactly a quick process and there's nothing really stealthy about a key cutting machine. You won't be gone in 60 seconds, but it could mean less of a problem the next time you lose your car keys. One quick insert and a few hours later you have a new set of keys. So far, the USB Key Impressioner only works on older model Fords with simple metal keys. Even if you had the desire to use this for evil, most modern cars already have this beat with advanced locks and microchip keys. This won't be available to the public at any point. That's just as well, unless you are repo-man working for a used Ford dealership.
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13-port USB 2.0 Hub Might be USB 2 Much

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:57:17 -0600

Anyone using a PC as a multimedia device knows how quickly USB devices start to add up. Here's a possible solution for that mess of cables you have to deal with every day. It's a normal sized USB hub with an amazing amount of ports. Altogether, this new USB hub has 13 total ports to get all your cords into one spot and all plugged in at the same time. Not having to juggle multiple hubs or swapping devices in and out due to port limitations should easily be worth the $33 it costs to get one of these home. The 13 port hub has 4 USB ports on each of its 4 sides except one which presumably has power and the upstream connection to your PC. There's also a flip up 13th port on top for quick access to flash drives or any other connection you make and break often.

There's only a few drawbacks to this great new toy. The 12 main ports are packed pretty tightly together, over-sized dongles will have trouble fitting or may completely block 2 adjacent ports. This is great for keeping devices all connected, but not if you plan to use them all at once. Even with USB 2.0's generous bandwidth, 13 devices running on one pipe your PC would fill up pretty quick. Of course, this kind of hub seems to be better fit if the interface is USB 3.0 rather the aging USB 2.0. Hit their store to pick up yours if you have the need.
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SPYRUS Releases Windows Embedded-hardened USB Virtual Privacy Machine

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:21:24 -0600

Looks like Virtual Privacy Machines might finally be getting enough momentum to take hold with the release of SPYRUS' Hydra PC Secure Pocket Drive for mobile workers and the security conscious. This flash based mobile OS already has a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 security certification due to its heavy encryption and tamper evident packing. While relatively unknown to most, these are the folks behind the recent Kingston Data Traveler 5000's on-board security system. This part of the SPYRUS technology protects and encrypts all the data that is being stored on the flash drive. This includes tamper-proofing and destroy the cipher on too many failed attempts.

The Hydra PC expands and modularizes the design, gaining a distinctly future-proof system. Windows Embedded Standard 2009 version is running the show; it will only boot once all the memory and files have been checked to ensure validity. The embedded OS is stored on firmware, and the data files are stored on removable microSD/HC cards. This gives the easy ability for the hardware to grow with the times and be expanded if your needs grow. Up to 16GB cards are currently supported. The Hydra also has technology to pair the USB drive to a restricted computer or group of computers so that the locations of its use are completely controlled. There's no word on price as these are likely sold in bulk to corporations but having the option of Windows is going to be worth quite a bit. We love Linux but sometimes you've got to have Windows.
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MS LifeCam Cinema HD Webcam Review

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:43:55 -0600

High Definition. Those two words are the very soul of what's driving consumer electronics and pushing broadband Internet, and Microsoft's sleek LifeCam Cinema is no exception. As one of the first webcams to boast an magnificent 1280x720 resolution with a price that doesn't break the bank, it won't be long before we're able to marvel at the next Star Wars Kid with each and every one of his clogged pores clearly visible. Now that's entertainment! But to get back to the webcam side of business, we put Microsoft's latest gizmo to the test and found the results to be quite resounding. Find out why after the break.
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MS' "Ghost Buster" SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard is Strangely Affordable

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:50:12 -0600

Following on the heels of their mild mannered Arc Keyboard, Microsoft launches a similar snoozer keyboard with the SideWinder X4 gaming keyboard. This luxury model has got it all, we're talking A through Z as well as 1 through 9. All these come standard, but the X4 edition even packs the oft misunderstood zero for no extra charge. Additional keys are included for the working types like = and *, but underneath all that pizazz it's really just a plain old keyboard.

Seriously though, this gaming focused SideWinder series has quite a few gaming features that might move you to replace your old one. Its all black keys have adjustable levels of back-lighting for night play (and having a cool accessory to impress friends). There's 6 programmable macro keys which can be programmed to function independently or as part of a key profile. These profiles can be set to favor certain applications and when they are active the keyboard software will automatically switch. With this, mappings for Excel can be different than mappings for BF2142. The other anti-ghosting feature is starting to become popular. The SideWinder X4 is built for games that require several keys to function and be pressed simultaneously. Up to 26 keys can be pressed and transmitted at the same time. Last time we checked there are more fingers, toes and noses that come standard on most model humans, so we aren't certain how one can hit more than 10 at a time, but hey, who are we to argue with MS. The SideWinder X4 should be hitting shelves in March for the reasonable fee of $59 dollars.
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USB X-Ray Reader for Dentists and Little Bones

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:45:09 -0600

UXSight has a new scanner that is finely tuned to work with pictures of your pearly whites. Working with X-ray films about 2 by 2 inches, this little unit, powered exclusively by USB can enlarge and capture images from standard X-rays. You can interact with them on the screen or just convert them to images for later review. Images can be viewed at up to 50x magnification without loss of fidelity.

This is a consumer class version of what your dentist has already. The effluence of this technology will make it easier to start carrying your own personal medical information with you or online. You'll likely want to couple this new ability with some serious encryption for privacy. So smile big for the dentist and get a few wallet sized prints of those choppers and put the rest on a flash drive to go. Amateur dentists and X-ray-tech hobbyists (do those exist?) can order one of these for $145 once they come off back order.
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SPHEREtouch Stainless Steel, Titanium & Platinum Mouse Looks Like a Pinball

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:37:02 -0600

Looking more like a pinball on a tether, the SPHEREtouch mouse isn't really designed for retro gaming nostalgia. This highly polished laser mouse ball is a unique sight to behold. Available in satin finished stainless steel, titanium and platinum, they are a little pricey, but definitely make a classy minimalist statement. OreObject's creation has mouse buttons that are part of the smooth form, complemented by its ceramic base which should make for a nearly frictionless contact with your desk.

The price is the only thing that is not so smooth here. Starting at $155 for stainless steel and up to $225 for the platinum plated finish, it's hard to justify for what is probably an uncomfortably small mouse. While there's no denying the slick polish and finish actual use would leave fingerprints all over it. They do include a micro-fiber cloth for cleaning it but it seems like you'll be doing that a lot if you really want to show it off. If you have a strong compulsion for this ball bearing mouse you can get it at their online store.
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Kingston Presses on with its Highest Security Flash Drive Yet

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:21:07 -0600

Unfettered by recent setbacks to certain drive models, Kingston puts out another line of secure flash drives, the Data Traveler 5000. Obtaining a FIPS 140-2 level 2 certification already, the drive's data has been secured and hardware encrypted to high government standards. The drives also manage to fold in anti-spyware software as well. The advanced functions of this drive are accomplished with a dual partition similar to that of U3. The first partition is read-only and loads the encryption software and, if successfully authenticated, mounts and decrypts the AES-256 encrypted data partition. One of the most overlooked problems with personal encryption standards is brute force password hacking. If someone gets a previous-gen drive, eventually a password can be guessed by simple scripting programs. This might take time but fast computers can make quick work of most passwords. Not true for the DataTraveler 5000 drives, 10 unsuccessful password attempts and the encryption key is destroyed and the data becomes almost completely unrecoverable.

The Data Traveler 5000 is also waiting to get its FIPS 140-2 level 3 certification, which rival IronKey S200 has already obtained earlier. It should be just a matter of testing time for the tamper evident features of the drive to receive passing marks. Special seals on the drives clearly show whether the drive has been altered while out of your sight. This sealing may also contribute to the fact that the drive is also waterproof. There's definitely a premium to be paid for this level of security. The drives range from $111 to $400 for drives only having 2 to 16GB of storage. This is about 10 times the price of normal drives but many companies are finding out that their secrets are worth many times more than that.
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iBin Protects Your Files on Flash Drives from Accidental Deletions

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:42:00 -0600

As many of us have sadly found out, the Recycle Bin, temp storage for deleted files, doesn't work for flash drives. Delete a file on a flash drive and decide you need it later and there's a good chance you are SOL. Standard Windows drives are protected, yet network and flash drives are not. iBin is an Autohotkey script that can be run off of your flash drive to protect any of the files from accidental deletion. Run this program and any files that are intentionally deleted are moved into a user configurable space on the flash drive and kept until the space is needed. This extra recycle bin can be managed from the application and emptied or expanded as you see fit. All deleted files stay on the drive even when moved from computer to computer.

There are other ways to recover some deleted files from flash drives, but most of those only work if the space doesn't get reused. Also note that this only protects files that you manually delete, files that get deleted by other programs or processes they won't be picked up. Check out the parent project AutoHotKey for a huge variety of programs. AutoHotkey and AutoIt are very handy scripting programs that have a very active user community turning out dozens of very handy script-lets like spell checking and a slick program launcher. Besides being free and open source, AutoHotkey is perfectly portable, easily running from a flash drive. Come up with a script you really like, the included compiler allows you to turn it into a stand-alone executable. Pick up iBin here and AutoHotkey for your own dabblings here.
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Get Your Game on with Old-skool, New-tek Atari 2600 Style Joystick

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:41:18 -0600

Most us that remember and love the Atari 2600 gaming system revere, but may not adore, its iconic joystick. Suffering several disfiguring side effects of said joystick myself, newer and more ergo devices come home with me far more often than they should. Reflex Audio returns this venerable device to us with an new un-paintjob and a blue LED glow to set it apart. Black plastic and orange buttons have been replaced with clear acrylic. Listen to Kajagoogoo, do the Safety Dance and play your favorite yesteryear games like Tennis and Combat - the good ole days when there were so few video games they didn't need to have flashy long indecipherable titles like Super Karate Monkey Death Car 3: GOTY edition. Adventure, that was a name that said it all.

DIY-ers will swoon over the controller chip inside the Joystick chassis. This chip can be the brains behind a MAME cabinet's controller panel. All powered by USB with drivers for PC and Mac, both camps can enjoy classic emulation and nostalgia at the same time. $29.95 gets you the crystal joystick a CD containing a greatest hits collection of Atari Roms and an emulator.
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Best of January & CES 2010 - Everything USB

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:40:59 -0600

USB 3.0 Stuff

Top Stories

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SoundGraph Turns USB Touchscreen Monitor into Optimus keyboard

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:03:33 -0600

Korean manufacturer SoundGraph has expanded the idea of the USB monitor and made it more of a touchscreen dashboard as the FingerVU 706 & 436. You can set shortcut controls for applications without moving the mouse over to the touchscreen USB sub-monitor. All of the unique functions of the two FingerVU models can be isolated from your other monitors. More of a collection of widgets with touch and media capabilities the FingerUI makes the tiny monitors much more useful despite their size. Dubbed the FingerUI, the software makes the 7" ($179) or 4.3" ($129) version into a video based controller similar to the functions of the Art Lebedev Optimus series keyboards.

The nicest thing about the FingerVU is the price, even with the special software they are priced in the range of other USB monitors. The FingerVU-series USB monitors are also based on the same DisplayLink hardware that is powering most of the Mimo styled monitors that are coming out. The DisplayLink drivers have become very stable with recent releases, and are very convenient to use needing no power cables. Video demo after the jump.
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Creative's USB Digital Drum Speaker for your Bongo Hero Amusement

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:23:38 -0600

There's just not enough noise makers in the world and here's Creative to ruin the quiet. Coming out in China shortly, this USB drum kit is fun for the whole family near the computer or on the go. The included software makes it a breeze to start up your own drum solo with just about any kind of percussion instrument you can imagine. The software with an as yet untranslated name can synthesize traditional Chinese drums, rock drums and cymbals, bongo drums and more. All this can be captured and recorded for your own personal Stomp (the performance group, not the fetish) style masterpiece. There's also a guitar hero-esque set of games you can plan on the USB connected drum for fun and even a little fitness. The drum's skin flexes and feels like real for comfort and extended play sessions.

The USB drum also works as a speaker. You can select up to three sound types and play them along with your music or more with hot keys. Aesthetically, you can just leave it on your desk as a simple PC speaker to complement your other trinkets of pan-Asian flare. Price and release date are unknown as of yet, but Creative doesn't usually make us wait long after their announcements. Unfortunately, this might not be released outside the Central Kingdom.
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Hardbox - First 'Novelty' USB 3.0 Hard Drive

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:55:46 -0600

It's definitely a landmark for a technology to have hit the mark where bleeding edge gives way to fun. Hardbox has released another external hard drive in the shape of a book. It may not be a true novelty drive, but it's the coolest we've got so far, comparing to some commodity drive. The Hardbox would fit in just fine on any book shelf except for the fact that we're not really racking up books on our shelves like we used to. So this may stand out like a sore thumb next to your junk mail and gum wrappers but it still looks good. That's ignoring the USB 3.0 sweetness in sizes from 1TB to 3TB.

Sarotech has been making this particular style drive for awhile and knows the external harddrive game. If you are thinking about storing data at anywhere near those capacities, you definitely need to be putting some money into USB 3.0. Anything else would just be ridiculously time consuming. Sarotech should be shipping the Hardbox drives in February.
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DACport - A High-fidelity USB Headphone Amplifier

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:03:31 -0600

DACport has a niche USB sound system that promises to bring increased music fidelity to your computer as well as more volume. Digital recordings that are compressed to popular formats like MP3 and OGG do suffer some of the side effects of being shrunk down; those with an ear for audio miss the fine details removed from their originals. The DACport from CEntrance packs a 24-bit DAC that can improve and restore quality back to your down-sampled compressed digital recordings. Their AdaptiWave technology requires no drivers or software all the work is done inside the hot-dog sized adapter.

Those of you lucky enough to have truly audiophile-class headphones will know that volume traditionally has been a serious problem. Better headphone drivers require more power to push and therefore volume is significantly lower compared to cheaper smaller headphones. DACport to the rescue, it packs a Class A amplifier streamlined to maintain signal quality and power. These two features work together to send more juice to your cans. The only drawback is the price, however. Centrance wants $500 for this ear candy, but if you have to have studio quality sound reproduction on the move this maybe just about the only game in town.
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Geo-tagging Panasonic DMC-TZ10 Camera Packs with 'Travel Guide'

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:43:30 -0600

If travel and photography are your thing, Panasonic has some gear you need. Matsuhita, a.k.a. Panasonic, submits for your approval the DMC-TZ10. This little 12MP point 'n shoot packs an internal GPS system to tag each of your photos with longitude and latitude information, which is already consumed by online services like Picasa, Flickr and alike. GPS information is then instantly processed to show map locations and track trip trajectory. While they are plugging the heart of a navigation system into the camera, they keep most of the rest of one as well. The Lumix DMC-TZ10 camera contains a Navteq geo-location database with 500,000 points of interest, covering over 73 countries. Now your camera can let you know your whereabouts and maybe something else you might be near to go take pictures of (e.g. landmarks).

There's also a slew of other more traditional features like a 25mm wide angle lens, which is capable of zooming up to 300mm. The Lumix DMC-TZ10 doubles as a high-def camcorder, recording video at 720p in AVCHD Lite with audio encoded in Dolby Digital. If you can upgrade to a SDXC, you can afford adjust your video bit-rate up to 17Mbps. Still sporting one of the best image stabilization systems, this new Lumix maybe bound to be even more popular than it's predecessors.
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UWB Now Becomes a Gigabit Specs, Benefits only WUSB

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:36:52 -0600

UWB's fate is pretty much tied to that of Certified Wireless USB, which is only communication protocol that still depends on the said radio technology. While there are already several WUSB devices, from video / audio adapters to hard drives and docking stations, on the market, the adoption rate is a far cry from that of other USB standards. The performance of these wireless peripherals is quite discouraging with real-world transfer rate averaging at just around 15MB/s. Native WUSB hosts can remove some overhead, and likely provide some speed boost, but significant improvement will only come with new specs, just like USB 3.0.

WiMedia Alliance, believed to be in the process of disbanding, has released version 1.5 of the common radio platform specs, which in a nutshell defines the foundation for Wireless USB. The upgrade now pushes speed from 480Mbps to 1024Mbps, doubling the available bandwidth for peripherals that stream 1080p video from a laptop to HDTV. Whether or not this will save WUSB remains to be seen, but the new specs certainly outpaces 802.11n in speed, yet slaughtered by upcoming WiGig 1.0 (7Gbps).
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