USB News

SmartFish's ErgoMotion has finally gone from an actual concept to actual, shipping product, as a mouse. (The keyboard and game controller utilizing the same technology wail have to wait until Q1 2010.) Hardware-wise, the ambidextrous laser mouse features chrome finishing, has a tilt wheel, and ships with a 2.4Ghz nano-sized USB dongle for wireless connectivity.

What's unique about this ergonomic mouse is that it's the industry's first to sport a 3D-axis motion base so that mouse can swivel and pivot to adapt to your hand position. SmartFish claims this promotes a more wave-like fluid moment, so your wrist and hand are never in a fixed position, hence reducing risk of the irritating Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI). While the ErgoMotion mouse may not have glass-tracking sensor and a precision wheel found on Logitech Anywhere MX, it maybe the answer to healthy mousing. The wobbling mouse is expected to be found in retail for $49.99 anytime now, though, you have better chance of getting it from Amazon.

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While it makes us uncomfortable when we hear that a new venture from movie legend Morgan Freeman is called Digiboo, we still love the concept. Those Redbox kiosks all over the place that rent movies (without having to interrupt some pimpled teen text'ing their BFF) has just gone digital. Digiboo, partnering with Freeman's Revelations Entertainment, is launching a digital self service system akin to the photo printing stations found in many stores. They have also partnered with Hollywood video and are looking to launch with a selection of over 1000 movies.

This should be similar to any other trip to the video store except that you won't have a bag at the check-out you'll have a flash drive. Users will be able to complete their transaction by attaching a PMP, gaming device, cell phone, flash drive or any other type of USB storage. DRM is promised to be included which will probably be handled by a combination of the player and file similar to iTunes. Pricing schemes are still being worked out and may change. These would be a HUGE hit in airport terminals or the latest Colin Farrell movie premiere, any place you have a few hours to kill. Look for them abroad soon.

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Casio wants to give you a camera you can take everywhere. The Exilim EX-G1 is shock resistant camera, likened by Casio its immortal G-Shock digital watch, and can withstand multiple drops from 7 ft. unphased. The camera can survive freezing temperatures as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit. As for waterproof, the point-n-shoot can handle being submersed up to 10 feet for a full hour. As rugged as it is, the EX-G1 is merely 0.78" thick. Movies however are recorded in odd resolution at 848x480.

The best part of the EX-G1 is the soft features included with the camera to help you take your wildest shots. The camera has an unattended Interval Shooting that you can set and forget. The EX-G1 will then take pictures every 10, 30, 60, 180 seconds until you stop it or it runs out of memory. It's perfect so you can catch that perfect rail-slide, jump or flip that you've been practicing for weeks. Couple that with the Best Shot scene setting and you've got a recipe for great pictures of all that crazy stuff you do, anywhere you do it. MSRP is a little high at $299, but that should come down sharply after a few months and become a real gem and extreme sports partner/witness.

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Like your coffee shaken not stirred? Well too bad because Brando is going to keep it hot and swirly. The USB Whirl Wind Cup Warmer can heat your favorite beverage to a snappy 40 degrees Celsius. The high tech thermos is powered by a Lithium battery. The rechargeable battery is powered up by USB and charge status is displayed via LEDs on the front. Snap on the lid and take it with you wherever you like.

The heated mug also contains a handy contraption to constantly stir your beverage of choice. The built in agitator can run along with or without the heater. So go ahead and drink your coffee or your kool-aid precisely the way it was meant to be enjoyed. This won't crush ice or stir soup but it should be fine for most drinks. You'll only have to shell out $37 for this java warmer but that's nothing compared to the value of making that free coffee at the office last all the way through the day.

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One of the most obvious avenues for USB 3.0 speed to make our lives a bit better is as an external hard drive access. Sharkoon, of Germany, is releasing an immediately useful SATA hard drive station with USB 3.0 connectivity. The Sharkoon SATA Quickport USB 3.0 is an upright drive station that should make cloning, migration and forensic drive analysis much faster. USB 2.0 drive stations are incredibly popular in those functions today and a 10-fold increase in speed will be welcome to all their devotees. This simple drive station allows for drives to be quickly inserted and removed quickly. Both 2.5 and 3.5 inch drives are supported and quickly locked into place.

Unlike the mighty all-in-one station, Sharkoon's Quickport is simple and to the point with only 2 LED indicators and a single eject button. Sharkoon only ships with a AC adapter but they probably should include some sort of seat-belt, not for the drives, but just for the break-neck speed we are greedily awaiting. The SATA Quickport should be available next week for about $73.

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Thin client appliance has always been on the roadmap for Displaylink, notable for its USB video invention. Today, Displaylink makes a joint announcement with MS and HP to roll out its virtual graphics for Windows Multipoint Server 2010 and HP MultiSeat Thin Clients. Essentially, they all work together to make thin clients more appealing to cash-strapped schools, which are already struggling with a problem of replacing aging PCs.

MS Multipoint Server 2010 allows any PCs to become a server which is connected to a small group (max. 10) of HP MultiSeat Thin Clients via USB 2.0. Each appliance can have its own keyboard, mouse, monitor and audio. Oddly, the only peripheral connections on the appliance are PS/2, which is effective in preventing hacking by rogue students using USB drives. The package also includes TeachNow for easy system admin and SchoolCloud for tracking students' usage and managing their apps as well as data (e.g. homework). HP MultiSeat is expected to become available in early 2010. There's no word yet on pricing.

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Not to be outdone by Microsoft, Creative launches its own HD USB webcam. The true high-def Live! Cam Socialize is able to stream 1280x720 video at 30fps. That is, of course, HD video streaming to your computer, but not necessarily to the other party in a video chat session due to possible bandwidth constraint.

Together with out of the box cross-platform support (being USB Video class-compliant device) and avatar / voice morphing software bundle, the Live! Cam sounds quite impressive and fun until we found out that its mono microphone, fixed focus lens and cheap plastic build are a let down. MS' LifeCam Cinema, in contrast, comes equipped with noise-canceling stereo mic, auto focus glass lens and an aluminum body for enhanced protection while traveling. Best of all, the Cinema goes for much less than the Creative USB webcam.

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Imation - one of the believers in Certified Wireless USB - is giving UWB-based standard another shot with the Pro WX wireless hard drive. The Pro WX was meant to be released a year ago, but after losing its OEM WiQuest, Imation has put the product on hold, and went on with other projects, such as WUSB Project Link. It wasn't until recently Staccato - one of a handful of survivors in the industry shakeup of last year - that offered to resurrect the WUSB drive. The external drive houses a Seagate 3.5" Barracuda 7200-rpm 1.5TB, and has an antenna sticking out of it. You'll also find a HWA WUSB dongle as well as Memeo backup tool. And surprisingly, Mac support is built-in. Taking account of an early adopter premium, a very large 7200-rpm drive and some costly WUSB components, we can see why Imation puts a staggering $449.99 price tag on the drive.

Performance wise, the Pro WX tops at 15MB/s, and Imation makes sure you see it on the retail box, likely to avoid confusion that some consumers expect the WUSB drive to perform as as fast a wired counterpart. So, 15MB/s is more close to first gen. USB 2.0 storage, however, such speed can only be achieved at close range (between 3 to 5m). Compared to Wi-Fi- NAS, a major advantage of the Imation Pro WX is a dedicated incremental backup connection that bypasses snooping and avoids traffic congestion. But seriously though, Imation needs something close to 30MB/s for this to compete with 802.11n NAS offerings.

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Nexcopy, one of the leading manufacturers of USB copiers, is releasing USB Scrub as freeware today. This tiny package is designed to remove the excess registry entry that flash drives leave behind in Windows. Technically every piece of hardware you attach to your computer creates extra registry entries in windows. The makers of USB Scrub show that 260 registry entries get made every time a flash drive is connected. These entries slow down the process of inserting a USB drive into your computer. In Nexcopy's tests an overused system's accessibility lag went from 45 seconds to 15 seconds. That's the time it takes to go from plugging in a drive and then finally being able to use it.

USB Scrub will go through and clean out all those extra entries. Once you've cleaned out all the superfluous entries flash drive enumeration could be vastly improved. Currently only available for Windows XP but Vista and Windows 7 support are destined to arrive shortly. USB Scrub is completely free of adware and is nag free. It contains a link to Nexcopy's site, and that's it for ads. Available here for all to find.

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UV disinfectants aren't terribly new but they are only gradually getting more widely used. That may change with Thanko's dual powered UV Toothbrush Sanitizer. The UV light emitted from this can eliminate the majority of bacteria and microorganisms with just a few minutes inside this portable container. Not much bigger than a normal travel toothbrush this can be easily packed in your travel bag or laptop bag.

You can power the sanitizer from either included USB cable or 2 AAA batteries. The USB cable is included but batteries are not. This should help you keep away from the swine flu or the regular flu for that matter. A great idea if family members are sick and you can't shut them away in quarantine. Available at GeekStuff4U if you are ready to have done will all the litter critters growing on your toothbrush. $40 should be about what you will need to spend before shipping to get it. This is about twice what you'd spend on a non-USB one.

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Shrinkage from silky smooth sound seller Bowers and Wilkins makes the sibilant news today. They have compressed their enormous high fidelity Zeppelin speakers for iPod into a size that is just right to accompany a laptop. The B&W MM-1 speakers are fueled by USB for both digital audio and power. The speakers have B&W's signature sound processing system handling all of the audio creation from digital source. This removes the problem of low quality on-board sound systems tainting the music. The built-in amplifier takes care of everything else with up to 36W per speaker.

The speakers also sport a line-in jack for connecting directly to MP3 players and a very handy headphone jack for private listening. There's also a wireless remote which will probably only control the volume. Due to the speakers actually being a USB audio device, the remote is capable of much more than just volume but no details have surfaced at this time. You can still expect to empty your piggy bank to get these on their way to you but at least the shipping costs won't be as much as for the Zeppelin. We'll hope for more details on price and functions closer to February of next year when the MM-1's are expected to ship.

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AT&T rolls out this week a new HSPA USB dongle for its 3G network this week, the Lightning. The new modem is set to connect on its HSPA 3G band. This band promises 7.2Mbps speeds which doubles the previous maximum of 3.6 Mbps. They are only rolling this out in limited areas so you may have to wait to get it in your area but Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami will be knee deep in new speeds by year end. Hong Kong is currently rolling in 21Mbps, but this isn't a competition right? The Lightning stores its connection software on flash memory within itself so all you have to do is plug in the card and it will start installing the software automatically.

The Lightning has a swivel hinge on its USB connector for convenient connection and LED indicators to show connection status. A dual function device, the Lightning will also switch between HSPA 3G and Wi-Fi. Customers with eligible plans will also get free access to AT&T's 20,000 Wi-Fi hot spots. If you lock yourself into a 2 year contract your total cost will be $99 - $100 gift card for a net total of -$1. Their minimum data plan is also being lowered to $35 per month for 200MB usage. Speeds going up, prices going down and free stuff, what could be better?

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The Yeti USB microphone from Bluemic - the same company that makes Eyeball - is THX certified and ready to put your voice on the ether in the highest quality possible. Bluemic, who obviously focuses on quality sound recording, is one of the first prosumer level microphones to carry the THX certification banner. The several possible tiers of THX certification help warrant the sound range, reproduction and low Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). This microphone may be overkill for home uses but anyone who makes a living communicating on the internet, whether it's from podcasting or delivering webex training. You have 3 choices of microphone array modes. Each of the different modes will help enhance the soundfield for the best possible representation of your voice.

Another key feature is a built in headphone jack for for zero-latency monitoring of what is getting recorded. You don't have to worry about an echo or a delay any longer using this monitor port. The microphone also sports several easy to access controls for volume, mic gain, mic pattern and headphone volume. Even with all these features, it still might be slightly out of reach for most people at $149.

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Brinell heralds forth the next evolution in designer USB drive enclosures. Many manufacturers have tried to obscure them or make them a little less nerdy but none have dared to try and make them stylish. The PureStorage line uses high quality materials draped around 160GB to 500GB hard drives. The drive maker is undisclosed, but probably one of the usual suspects, and USB 2.0 performance should be expected. PureStorage (2.5") and PureStorage (1.8") are available in all of the following lines: Understatement, Engineered and Elegant.

The Understatement is a chrome and wood veneer finish is for the super classy. The Elegant is a chrome and light-tan leather covering for the truly fashionable. The Engineered series for the true techie is available either brushed steel or carbon fibre. The prices of these modern looks is between $280-$340, and are available for order at their online store.

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We love flash drives, and we see a lot of them each day. We thought we'd take the time to round up a few of our favorites. There's a lot of things that can make a flash drive stand out. Sometimes there's a novel design, a movie tie-in or just plain thinking outside of the box. Recently, we've seen more than a few drives that have scored style points. Putting the Flash in a flash drive can make that tag of the IT tech support geek into something a bit more fashionable. Here are our picks for best bang for the buck, best features, quality, usability or just plain unique flash drive of the past few months.

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There's no such thing as too much of a good thing. Okay, yeah there is and this is it: The OpenOffice Mouse. This wired USB mouse packs 18 programmable keys and a joystick. Not that the teal color scheme isn't bad enough, you can barely tell which of the buttons are supposed to be the regular mouse buttons. Only the scroll wheel is discernible amongst dual 10-key keypads that invaded this mouse. While a little on the fugly side, the idea isn't bad and has been done recently, albeit with a little more charisma.

The idea is to be able to download a preset bundle of macros specific to office applications and games. Of course, given the name, many of the applications with macro profiles are open source favorites. GIMP, OpenOffice.org, WoW and Call of Duty are already available with more on the way as support grows. The mouse comes with 512k of flash memory to hold profiles on mouse which makes it travel friendly. The software that powers the mouse is set to be an open source project for Windows, Linux and Mac but the mouse isn't free. You can order it for $74.99 as soon as their online store opens.

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No stranger to the ubiquitous pointing device, Logitech boasts an impressive 20+ year history building mice and computer peripherals. Having surpassed the one billion mouse mark back in 2008, they are the undisputed leader in electronic rodent computer peripherals. New for 2009, the Logitech Anywhere MX wireless mouse combines wireless connectivity with unique "Darkfield" tracking technology for a mouse that is said to be able to track on pure glass and other highly reflective surfaces. Designed to be a fully-featured portable workhorse, the Anywhere MX also brings a rather unique scroll wheel to the party. How well does it all work in the cold, cruel world? Come to our glossy new labs to see if the Anywhere MX can track straight and true.

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MP3s killed the mod tracking star. The Novation Launchpad makes composing digital music a much more interactive and almost into an art. The 64 button 'keyboard' integrates into the Ableton Live software to help you conduct multi-track music compositions using sampling, looping and dynamic patterns in real time. Each of the 64 keys can actually have many functions controlled by the 16 other function buttons. Check out the video, once you get to know the pad you can hop between sampling, patterns and mixer functions on the fly with ease. The back-lighting system illuminates the keys along with the song. The combination of easy control and visual feedback make this a fantastic tool for both composition or live mixing.

Back in the mid 90s mod tracking was really starting to get serious. Music wanted to be free but sound compression hadn't come around and a 9600 baud modem was what most people used to connect to the Internet. Sample based music had a big following and GUI tools were starting to make it easy for just about anyone to take a stab at making serious music. Ableton's software is crazy serious about enabling serious use of its tools for these same ends. It will support up to SIX of these pads at once for instant visibility and control of your technological symphony. The software is available at about $199 for both PCs and Macs.

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Sanwa's got a new monster hub that just missed Halloween, the 400-HUB009. Sporting an almost unprecedented 12 ports, this round octopus hub should definitely be able to the handle the needs of all but the most USB addicted users out there. The hub's circular shape gives every USB port plenty of room, so that all shapes of devices can easily be plugged in. There are 10 available ports around the edge of the disc as well as 2 extra top mounted ports which are ideal for plugging flash drives in and pulling them out quickly. The hub is fed by a mini-USB type input plug and an almost mandatory power adapter. Trying to run off of bus power would be horribly ill advised.

The only problem with the hub is the 360 degree mess that you will have if you manage to fill all of the available ports. With the average cable sticking out at least 2 inches front and back this scary spider will take up about 12 inches of desk space. Still, this might make for some great niche applications and is reasonably priced at around $55 if it every makes it outside Japan.

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You say you want a revolution? There's no question that the Beatles were a revolution, changing the face of music and arguably the world in their wake. That's why it's no surprise to see a one of a kind USB drive loaded with Beatles music arrive. Apple and EMI are cooperatively releasing this Beatles inscribed, apple shaped 16GB flash drive with all 14 released LPs and 13 mini-documentary films. This is one of the very few digital distributions of the Beatles music to the public. The rights owners have been very cautious about release the fab foursome's music in soft formats to date. We hope to see more soon. The music is included in both 24-bit 44.1Khz FLAC and 320 kbps MP3 format, and has been digitally remastered prior to encoding. The drive is also packed with album art and liner notes. It probably should have been a yellow submarine drive but at least it is finally here.

Only 30,000 of these will be manufactured and they should start shipping on December 7th. You can preorder now at their online store. The drive full of yummy Beatle goodness and a tiny apple dose of vitamin-C will run you $330.

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Klipsch today evolves a new version of its computer high powered computer system speakers called the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Wireless iPod/Computer Speaker. This 2.1 channel sub+satellite system provides more than enough power to complement any HTPC or gaming desktop. The speaker set is fed by a USB sound card which is about the size of a normal flash drive. This dongle then wirelessly transmits sound to the base, just like the Bose SoundLink. The subwoofer distributes signal and power to the dual driver satellite speakers. The USB sound transmitter is of the plug and play variety and should work on PC and Mac systems, without drivers. The satellites have an 3.5mm input for plugging in an iPod or other media player.

The wow factor comes from the 200 watts of power housed in such a compact unit. This system makes for a perfect mate to a laptop that can't sit still or for desks with limited space. Only one cord is needed to bring massive amounts of sound to any system. The power cord runs into the subwoofer and that's it. You'll have to shell out $199 to get this into your hands and start pumping the jams. Available for order now from Klipsch's web store.

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Your wait for a uber-fast USB 3.0 flash drive is over. Super Talent RAIDDrive will be the first thumbdrive to use USB 3.0 specs; under SuperSpeed USB mode, it will deliver an impressive 200MB/s with regular legacy BOT driver and reach a jaw-dropping speed of 320MB/s when paired with a UASP driver. UASP stands for USB Attached SCSI, created to leverage transfer rate of the new interface. Oddly, UASP driver isn't included. We will have to find out why.

The company claims the RAIDDrive employes patented "multiple pairs of differential serial data lines technology" for optimal NAND performance. In comparison, the RAIDDrive is five to eight times faster than the top-of-the-line Corsair Flash Voyager GT and Pretec i-Disk Tango, both of which hover at around 35 to 40MB/s. At top speed, filling up a Super Talent's 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive would take a little over 3 minutes. The same task would take 26 minutes over a USB 2.0 port. There's no word on pricing, but expect retail availability of all three models (32GB, 64GB & 128GB) in December, the same month Asus, Gigabyte and Dane-elec will be shipping their USB 3.0 gear.

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There's more drama today around Intel's recent USB 3.0 announcement. Intel last week announced it is postponing work integrated USB 3.0 technology into its mainboards. Nvidia, extreme veteran of the video game 3D hardware arena, accused former partner Intel of stifling innovation. Not quite as biting as an accusation of unfair business practices, Nvidia claims that as Intel has quashed its abilities to enter the chipset market, Intel is now going to sit on its hands. They claim that, with the absence of any major competitors, Intel is slowing down its innovation. Looking at the timeline of competition and developments by Intel while challenged by Nvidia, you can see their point. Intel made major advances keeping up with nVidia who was trying to push its own nForce chipset. The fierce competition and market turn has led nVidia to return to its mainstay and effectively exit the motherboard chipset race.

While the pain felt by Nvidia is understandable, business is business. Competition drives innovation, and silicon behemoth isn't a charity. We do hope they will continue to innovate and we'll have to look to AMD/ATI to really bring the pain to Intel and keep prices low, features high and the bytes flying.

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Not everyone wants to deal with the complexity associated with setting up NAS and tweaking network settings just to show high-def movies on his HDTV. The easiest way to playback the media is undoubtedly a player with all the necessary HD format and USB drive support. WD TV HD is insanely popular because it works seamlessly with MKV and H.264. Now, other solutions have emerged to perfect the USB media box. Viewsonic VMP70 is one of them.

The Viewsonic VMP70 can read literally every video codec out there, including DivX/XviD, H.264, VC-1, WMV9 and RMVB. In the audio department, OGG is most welcome among anime fans; built-in DTS decoding is here for those without an amplifier; and FLAC will be appreciated by audiophiles. Unlike the WD TV HD however, the VMP70 doesn't read HFS+ so Mac fanboys can skip this one altogether. Virtually all the buttons are moved to the remote so don't lose it or the VMP70 just becomes a 1 lb. paperweight. As of this writing, Viewsonic is offering a special holiday pricing of $98.99; street price should be pretty much the same even after the promotional period.

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Keian, has released what promises to be a fun toy for the start of the gift giving season. Wireless E-Darts is a computer enhanced game of darts. The dart board is the safe kind with the dulled tips and receptacle holes that are supposed to catch the darts. These are supposed to be kid-safe but don't tend to catch the darts as well which makes scoring hard. That's where the beauty of this item comes into play. The dart board links to a USB wireless receiver and send the location of each dart strike even if it doesn't manage to stay in the board.

Besides tracking the darts, the software also keeps score with multiple players on 10 varieties of the game. There's 12 darts included with the package and about 40 replacement tips to last through some normal wear and tear. The board itself requires only 2 AA batteries and is capable of sending signals to a PC up to 30 ft. away. Software is currently only available for PC and only obtainable in Japan. If you happen to locate a grey-market exporter you can expect to pay around $140.

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As GPS systems get smaller and smaller they find more and more uses. Hiking and outdoor adventurers have latched onto the GPS as a unique tool for safety and recreation. The Thanko Watch Guider GPS watch makes it just that much more easy to get the benefit of GPS technology without having to lug around an extra device. The watch is by no means thin, it's about twice the size of a normal watch, almost twice the size of a G-Shock. The extra thickness packs the GPS sensor and a separate lithium battery. The battery means that the GPS and the watch can function independently. Once charged and within range of enough satellites to get a fix, your location, direction, altitude and speed. All this can be replayed later on your PC as well as uploaded to Google Maps.

Besides recording the watch can also carry a finite number of destinations. Select your destination and a discrete set of LEDs set around the face of the watch will point you in the right direction. A fully charged GPS battery will last around 21 hours and it takes about 5 hours to recharge through the concealed USB port. If they ever ship outside of Japan, you can expect them to cost in the neighborhood of $200.

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Must Read

• Gigabyte Mobo Triples Power for USB 3.0 Ports
• Asus Moves USB 3.0 to Brand New Mobo
• Intel Might Delay USB 3.0 Chipset Roll-out
• Pretec i-Disk Tango - Usain Bolt of Flash Drives
• First USB 3.0 SSD Hits 240MB/s
• Dane-Elec Readies 2.5" / 3.5" USB 3.0 Drives
• Real Ajay Bhatt Appears on Tonight Show
• Creepy Halloween USB Gadget Round-up

USB News

• Palm Picks Fight with USB-IF
• StarTech USB Video KVM, Made for Datacenter
• EyeBall 2.0 - A High-end USB Mic or a HD Webcam?
• USB Soldering… This is for Real
• e-Ink Finds its Way into WD MyBook USB Drives
• Album Released on a USB Uzi…
• Star Trek Film on a USB Communicator Badge
• USB WriteBlocker Makes Drives Read-only
• JVC Joins Handheld YouTube Camcorder Battle
• Logitech G110 Keyboard - Stripped Down G19?
• 10-port USB Hub Bar for Utilitarians
• Samsung 22" HD USB Monitor Maks it to USA
• You can Now Flash your Gang Sign
• SNEGA2USB Mounts Legit Game Cartridges
• A Real Porsche USB Key Fob
• Official Tool Enables USB Install for Windows 7
• Software Boosts Thumbdrive Speeds. Myth or Reality?
• Pioneer's mini 3D USB Display

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Traveling these days is getting complicated. We rely on more electronic devices than ever before and if your travel includes flight then space can become really limited. Scoshe has a new 2 in 1 charger that can really help you cut down on travel cords. The Scoshe PowerFuze is a wall charger that has a both a USB plug and 12v vehicle cigarette lighter plug. This way you can use any of your car chargers during the day and use them indoors at night. This way you don't have to buy or carry an extra indoor charger.

The PowerFuze ships with a PowerPlug 12v car to USB adapter as well. With these 2 items you can eliminate yet another cord or charger. If you have a computer charger, you can use that in your car and then in the hotel. Use the PowerPlug in the PowerFuze and you have 2 USB ports open for chargers. This opens a lot of doors for heavy use, very important devices like GPS's, phones and headsets. MP3 players and your PSP or DS can also be a lifesaver on long trips. The $39.99 PowerFuze Pro ships both a PowerPlug and an iPod/iPhone USB cable.

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Tomorrow is Halloween so let us check out these creepy gadgets made for mouse potatoes. Full list after the jump.

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Hot on the heels of the Gigabyte announcement yesterday, Asus has re-announced its production of a pair of motherboards packing USB 3.0. Great news on the heels of the Intel production delay last week. The two Asus motherboards, the P7P55D-E and P7P55D are built for Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 processors. The P7P55D-E is the big dog of the two and carries USB 3.0 and the new 6GB/s SATA support on-board. The P7P55D has the same 2 hot new features but only when accompanied by their U3S6 expansion board. This mobo actually was announced 2 months ago along with the SATA 6GB/s expansion card. Whatever setback they had on the original P6X58, which was unexpectedly cancelled, has been overcome on the P7P55D-E as well as being added to the daughter card.

Asus, we still love you, you still have our hearts from the eee. But considering that Gigabyte hasn't broken our heart, we're putting you on notice. One more mix up and we'll drop you like a hot soldering iron. The Gigabyte mobo boasts most of the same specs. The race is on now between the P55A and the P7P55D motherboards to see who will be the first on sale. Pricing for the Asus P7P55D-E is set at a respectable $299 and the daughter card at $29.

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2009 marks the unofficial eleventh anniversary of the flash memory based portable media player (PMP). In that time, we've seen capacities balloon 1000-fold from 32MB up to 32GB and beyond, with 100+GB promising to be commonplace in the not-too-distant future. The bottom-end of the market now boasts up to 3" diagonal screens, with full touch control and video display as well as music playback. Packing all of this into the sub-$100 category is the Archos 3 positioned as a step above the postage stamp screen media players but also steering well clear of iPod touch territory. Read on for the full review.

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3D display technology keeps taunting us from around the corner. Pioneer brings it a lot closer today. One of many manufacturers showcasing new technology at the Digital Contents Expo in Japan, Pioneer's next generation 3D display is actually available for order as we speak. The display, called Floating Vision, is able to float a 3D image in its USB connected display at 640x480 resolution. Drivers and software are available for both Mac and PC. The 6 inch device has fairly narrow, 10 degree, viewing range currently, so its applications will tend towards a single user.

Why? The display is geared towards a few niche markets which may take some time to develop. Video chatting and instant messaging is one. The device bears microphone and a pair of speakers, but no 3D camera. Digital modeling for medical and artistic uses are facilitated with the aid of motion sensors which allow you to physically interact with the 3D images. The most immediate use will likely be as a virtual catalog capable of letting potential buyers view and interact with products. Although the display is available now it only ships with a very simple 3D viewing program. The Floating Vision will play/create special images and videos, but Pioneer warns that you need to purchase this with the intent to develop applications. You won't be using this for much out of the box. So if you've got the stones to take on a serious project like this, you can get it today for roughly $540 but you'll need to find an importer as it's only available in Japan for now.

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The days of government spending and the $900 hammer are all but over (or at least obscured from view) but this mouse begs for their return. The ridiculously priced wireless mouse breaks the bank at a whopping $1200. Never has a mouse craved so much cheese than the one bred from the artists at Intelligent Design. This mouse skillfully rendered to our desktops might more suitably find a home in a Ferrari or a Tesla Roadster with its hand-crafted titanium (not sure how that one works) form. It sports the requisite 3 buttons and a neodymium scroll wheel. The rare earth neodymium has long been known to promote better spending err spinning, it's about time it was included in a mouse.

To give you just a little more for you money they include a USB BT dongle for pairing with this elegant. Although, that may be little comfort to you as you commit a house payment for this fancy clicker. They also graciously include the 2 AAA batteries it runs on. When you add up the value of all those freebies it brings the price down to... well it's still pretty much $1200. Currently, this mouse isn't for sale it's on display. If you are interested in buying please have your butler kindly click this link for you.

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Until GPS becomes standard feature on digital cameras, we have to rely on various geotagging solutions to sync location data with our photos. GiSTEQ is particularly proud of their first PhotoTrackr, and now it's shipping a Mini version with a more compact form factor, RAW photo support on Mac and better satellite signal reception as well as an affordable price tag.

From the looks of it, the PhotoTrackr Mini is also capable of USB re-charging of its Li-ion battery that boasts 17 hours of operation in continuous mode. The PhotoTrackr's built-in antenna has sensitivity of -160dBm with an update rate of 1Hz. The bundled software with integration of Google Map includes native support for Flickr, locr and Picasa and SmugMug, and naturally has the capability to write GPS info to the pictures. Interested? The PhotoTrackr Mini is already shipping at a MSRP of $69.

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Able to leap small setbacks in a single bound, USB 3.0 bounces back in a pair of Core i5 and i7 motherboards. Gigabyte is beginning to ship its P55A-UD6 and P55A-UD4P motherboards, and they have a few USB surprises on-board. They are one of the first makers to launch a USB 3.0 motherboard and have done so with an NEC controller. This is a great piece of news since the admonition by Intel that it is tabling some of its efforts with SuperSpeed USB.

Besides just including USB 3.0 support, Gigabyte is also going above and beyond on the power requirements. Both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 certified minimum power outputs from the USB port have been tripled on these boards. This increases maximum current for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 to 1500mA and 2700mA respectively. That means that any device that has an optional power supply more than likely will be fine without it. Look for these super-powered SuperSpeed USB motherboards in November pricing is still TBA.

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While we tend to distrust anything that's too good to be true, the USB SuperCharger appears pretty legit. Easy Co is apparently selling licenses now, per flash drive with gigabyte tiers, for USB write-optimizing software. The SuperCharger essentially targets the small file writing challenge faced by flash drives. While most MLC flash drives can actually turn out pretty good read speed and decent write speed for large files, small files are a major problem. Try and copy a folder with a few MB's of icon files, clip-art or fonts and you'll find yourself stuck in molasses. Without getting too technical, the USB SuperCharger changes the way data is written to the drive, and should be able to add some serious snap to small files and portable applications. Most applications are designed to read and write freely from the drive, moving an application from a normal HDD to flash makes many applications unusable. Changing the file pipe-lining could open many doors for more portable applications, virtual servers and IO "chatty" applications. This technique should also reduce the wear on your flash drive, significantly reducing the number of writes which slowly degrades memory.

The only downside, besides their Microsoft-esque licensing scheme, is that it's only currently available for Microsoft platforms and only works on non-NTFS drives. A Linux variant is in development, which means Apple versions will follow as well. SuperCharging an 8GB flash disk will run you $12. This really isn't bad considering that truly fast flash drives are scarce and still fairly expensive.

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Microsoft has finally owned up to the exciting new tool it's releasing with Windows 7, a bootable USB Installer creator. Aimed squarely at netbook owners, which have eschewed the venerable optical drive for weight and battery life. Microsoft's tool will let you take your downloaded install files and turn a sufficiently sized USB drive into a bootable installer. Be prepared, if you've never tried to put a few gigabytes of files onto an average flash drive in one sitting, you're probably in for a bit of a wait. A USB hard drive is probably a better bet but not as cool. The program may also be called Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT).

Microsoft's site describes the process as downloading the installer directly to the USB drive. We'll have to wait for a few people to report back to find out exactly how it works. Having the option will definitely help netbook owners as well as system administrators. Being able to do away with CDs and DVDs for installs would definitely make support installs and server installs go a lot faster. It's available now at Microsoft's online store for download and purchase.

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Intel has weakened the struggling arrival of USB 3.0 again. Intel announced recently that it would not be integrating USB 3.0 into its chipsets until 2011. This is a huge blow for technology as Intel adoption is virtually the only way to get new technology into the mainstream. Intel's silicon is everywhere and piggybacking onto it is how most emerging technologies finally make it into the world en masse. USB 3.0 device manufacturers will still have a venue for their wares, but it will require 3rd party chip makers to step up production. This investment in the wake of other announcements may be slowed as well. Certified Wireless USB has been pronounced terminal by some and other connectivity systems are being developed. For those truly longing for USB 3.0 it should be as simple as buying an add-on card or having to shell out a few more dollars for an integrated motherboard. This announcement all but insures that both options will likely take a while.

One has to wonder whether to cry foul on the recent appearance of LightPeak. With Intel's promised near-term production all but assured by the unveiling teams. This joint venture with fellow titans, Apple and Sony, may seem more lucrative than the open standard USB 3.0. Only time will tell, and it seems that as of today USB 3.0 may have a bit more time to wait.

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New owners of the tasty Porsche Panamera are being surprised by the arrival in the mail of a special package, a sweet USB flash drive shaped that bears a striking resemblance to their key fob which may have some owners chucking them out the window. The free key fob in the mail is closer to a $200 gift compared to a probably $50 USB flash drive. Nonetheless, it's very cool to see car manufacturers hopping on the computer bandwagon and getting into some tech. Source 'Autoblog' also makes the suggestion to manufacturers to switch to USB ignition keys. It's a very tempting idea indeed but we reckon the security issues would outweigh the gain. "Security through obscurity" has always been "key" for preventing high-end auto theft. Giving every script-kiddie access to USB-hack their way into a new Porsche would be far too tempting.

We would love to see more adoption of the standard in other areas though. Music and Navigation updates are trickling into dash mounted GPS systems and some car radios. Very few of the possibilities are realized until you set up your own carputer, but those are pricey and still require some serious DIY. Until then we'll just have to settle for putting a tiny sticker on our this USB drive. "My other drive is a Porsche too!"

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If you were looking for that super finishing touch for your MAME arcade machine, it's here. The SNEGA2USB will let you plug in your Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo cartridges into it and mount them as a regular USB 2.0 storage device, no drivers needed. The game ROMS and (SNES SRAM saved games) will show up as files on the drive, and then you can point a console emulator at them. You should also be able to backup your games and play them offline, but absolutely, positively, no sharing them with your friends or online. Once you get your rig up and running, you can play all your old favorites on any PC screen with up to 4 players by USB game pads. According to recent updates, the cartridges are even hot-swappable.

This is still a fledgling project and production isn't exactly in full gear. You'll have to pre-order at $90 by October 31st but shipping isn't expected until December. There's also a 'group buy' option that is trying to get some critical mass required to get enough units preordered to lower the price significantly. Video demo after the jump.

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Well, you can flash a gang sign but we can't promise it will net you a whole lot of street cred. You can finally stake out the local computer lab as your 'hood for you and your posse. No longer will people have to wonder to whom they owe protection money, when you label your USB port prominently with an "East Side" USB flash drive. These 2 GB flash drives will let you mime "East Side", "West Side", "Love" or "Change" loud and proud out of your USB pizzle. Depending on your local translations you can also flash; "Fight the Power", "Heavy Metal Rules" or "I have advanced arthritis in my hands".

They have thoughtlessly left out their disclaimer denying responsibility for any gang wars that might be incited by their products. So get one early and sue often. It'll only cost you $35 to get yourself gunned down like Tupac. What's a couple of dollars to become a posthumous rap legend?

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Geeks in America longing to try out USB 3.0 will be delighted to know Dane-Elec will start shipping their So SuperSpeed USB hard drives on December 11th alongside with add-on cards for desktops and notebooks. Their line-up includes the aptly-named SoMobile (500GB, 640GB 2.5"), SoReady (from 500GB all the way up to 2TB 3.5") and SoPremium which houses Intel 2.5" M-25 solid state drive. Dane-Elec's Jon Christeson said users should expect somewhere between 80 and 90MB/s for the SoMobile. That's approximately 3 times faster than the latest USB 2.0 drive. As for the prohibitively expensive SoPremium ($799 for 160GB), users are paying for top speed: 250MB/s.

When asked about the system and cable compatibility, Christeson told Everything USB that all their USB 3.0 drives and cards will work on Windows XP / Vista / 7 32-bit or 64-bit. For clarifications, regular USB 2.0 cables will work with the SoReady 3.5" desktop drives, only at lower speed. However, the same cables won't work with the SoMobile 2.5" portable due to changes to the mini-B receptacle in the USB 3.0 specs. Keep in mind that you will need bundled USB 3.0 cables (as well as the optional upgrade card) to see the performance gain. Detailed pricing after the jump.

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No one really need any extra stuff cluttering up our already crowded office space. That's largely the reason the Japanese has come up with some mousepads that pull double duty or even triple duty. Here's a versatile USB mousepad from Sanwa; it comes with quite a few features including a tiltable multi-slot card reader compatible with SD and MS cards of all sorts; a storage compartment for the cards; an optical mouse-friendly precision surface; and a leatherette wrist rest.

Sanwa even throws in a 80cm retractable USB cable. Interestingly, there's also a web-key that launches an application. Winter is closing in so something like a USB Heating Mousepad might be what people need to endure months of cold weather in front of their PCs.

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Samsung Lapfit LD220G is one of the products that were put on hold for release in America while the 21.5" USB monitor has already been shipping out to Asia and Europe for several months. Now Samsung gives the green-light for imminent availability of this rather unique USB display. For starter, the Laptfit LD220G is touted as a perfect secondary monitor rather than a replacement monitor to begin with. Samsung replaces typical monitor stand with an integrated kickstand to match the height between the screen of Lapfit and that of notebooks, hence creating a seamless expanded desktop view.

The lack of HDMI and DVI also tells you something about the product nature and target market. Primary interfaces are analog VGA and USB 2.0, the latter of which is based on DisplayLink DL-195 video chipset. And since the DL-195 is HD capable, the Lapfit natively supports up to 1920x1080 in 16:9 ratio. The Lapfit however lags behind in response time at 5ms, but still manages 170-degree viewing angle. Expect the LD220G to hit retail shelves fairly soon for a MSRP of $249.99.

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We know what you are thinking. Why would anyone (even a geek) need a USB hub that closely resembles a utilitarian power strip? The 10-port USB hub you see here doesn't have much of a design. It can easily trip over with all your USB cables are connected and weight leans on one side. The USB ports are also too close together so large USB dongles such as USB TV stick and a large capacity flash drive cannot be plugged next to each other.

There's one thoughtful eco-feature - the ability to selectively turn on and off power for ports from 1 to 6 and from 7 to 10. So you can you have the first 6 ports connected to PC-centric peripherals while the last 4 ports reserved for cellphone, camera and MP3 player chargers. The purpose of this feature is to eliminate vampire power wasted when PC is off. This is another Japan-exclusive USB gadget, and it goes for 4,980 yen.

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Logitech has released an update to their PC gaming keyboard series today with the G110 Gaming Keyboard. This new model brings several hot new USB enabled functions. The USB 2.0 keyboard now features on-board USB audio as well as custom-color back-lighting with its red and blue LED; on the back of the keyboard, you will find a USB 2.0 port on the back for flash drives or low-power USB devices. Additionally, it also sports has 2 audio plugs for a headset. Plug headphones and/or a microphone in and the USB audio device powers on and shows up for Windows or Mac. Unplug your headset and the audio device powers off and returns sound control back to whatever other device you have on your PC. It's just basic USB sound, so don't expect any Dolby Headphone effect found on the G35.

The G110 gaming keyboard comes with 15 programmable keys for a total of 36 macros. You can set these macros up with their included Profiler software. This same software is required to adjust the red and blue hues of the main keys. So any shade of purple is at your fingertips. They did remove one USB plug and the LCD screen present on previous models, like the G19 and G15. The G110 should be available in mid-November for $79.99. You can pre-order it at Logitech's online store earlier if you just can't wait.

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Belkin has a new Windows 7 USB Transfer Cable that is designed to complement Windows 7's built-in Easy Transfer Utility. The two-ended USB cable plugs into your old Vista or XP computer as well as the new Windows 7 machine. Then you launch the Easy Transfer application shipping with Windows 7 inside "Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools". Once there, you can migrate files, users, bookmarks and emails onto your shiny new rig.

Programs are another problem altogether. Due to compatibility issues that can come up with this major overhaul of the windows OS, programs won't be migrated. However, you will be presented with a report that will provide links to new versions of the software if such are supplied by the vendor. This will likely be hit and miss for fringe software but mainstream software should be readily available. You can pick one up now if you like for $39. Windows 7 isn't officially released until October 22nd. *N.B. If you do plan to upgrade, make sure to check for the status of USB drivers for your favorite gadgets. Windows 7 requires signed drivers that might not exist for any of your unique USB devices.

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There are plenty of flash drives that are fast by USB 2.0 standard, but they hover around 30MB/s. Now, for the first time in the industry, Pretec brings us a thumbdrive that actually maintains a sustained transfer rate at 40MB/s read and 30MB/s write. The Taiwanese NAND company attributes the breakthrough to the "massive parallelism" of quad-channel flash controller, and effective wear-leveling and interleaving.

Like the Corsair Flash Voyager GT 128GB, the Pretec flagship 128GB i-Disk Tango also employs MLC to lower the cost from insanely prohibitive level (but still out of reach for most consumers). The i-Disk Tango is 8MB/s faster than the Corsair; so for every minute, the 40MB/s champion can transfer 480MB more data than the latter. We are certain the i-Disk Tango will hold on to the fastest USB 2.0 flash drive title for a while since rest of the industry is likely focusing on USB 3.0 thumbdrives.

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JVC has a new pocket camcorder for us today that packs a digital punch. The Picsio Pocket Camcorder looks like teen girl's bedazzled cell phone, but its much more than high-school hot. This little wonder shoots 1080p HD video like the Kodak Zi8 and Samsung HMX-U10, and at up to 30fps and 720p at 60fps. As usual, videos are saved in H.264 format, and are easily transferred from the USB 2.0 connection which also conveniently charges the battery. The battery should be good for about 70 minutes of recording time.

The JVC Picsio handheld camcorder is also capable of 8MP stills, native resolution, not interpolated. Both video and still modes benefit from image stabilization, which will supposedly even handle recordings with the digital zoom maxed out at 4x. Video and stills can be previewed on the 2" LCD screen with simple controls. The included software is built onto the Picsio's limited internal memory which seems to be able to run directly off of the memory (perhaps without installation). The software is designed to allow almost one-touch upload to YouTube. You'll however need to provide your own SDHC cards for storing data; the Picsio supports up to 32GB. MSRP is set at a reasonable $199 and should be available soon. Video demo after the jump.

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Building on their line of USB Transformer cable as well as their Traveler backup USB card, ClickFree announces today the C2 Backup Drive. The drive comes in either 250GB or 500GB model, which are both sleek glossy and available in white or black. Looking very much like a modern PMP, they are almost featureless on the surface with a blue activity LED on top and a recessed USB cable tucked underneath. Their backup software is preloaded on these devices and will autorun as soon as they are connected to either a PC or Mac (except Windows 7). Portable, they don't need to install and retain your settings on the Backup drive as you move from PC to PC.

Once launched the software will seek out and categorize your sensitive files. After the quick scan you will be presented with a few options for backing up your files. Restoring files or sharing them onto other computers is even faster. Select from the proffered bank of backed up files on the drive and files are quickly copied to the new computer. Other options include backing up file attachments from emails. There's also photo upload support for Facebook and iPod music backup support. The ClickFree C2 is available now for $140 - $190 depending on capacity. Video demo after the jump.

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WiebeTech today fixes one of the few glaring holes in USB storage devices. The USB WriteBlocker is a flash drive based USB pass-through connector which allows Mass Storage USB devices to be read and prevents them from being written to. Simply plug any USB drive into the WriteBlocker and plug the WriteBlocker into a PC or Mac. They also make a software utility (PC Only) for use in conjunction with the WriteBlocker that displays information about the connected drive. This will be of great use to forensic investigators trying to preserve the contents of a hard drive during investigations. Too often, operating systems leave traces of their connections on slave drives which can compromise the legal chain of evidence or alert a suspect they are under scrutiny. The devices claims to be able to process mono-directional data transfer at up to 10MB/s. This is not as fast USB 2.0 but internal processing of the data imposes its own limits.

Some operating systems will complain about not being able to write at least some data to attached drives. When the operating system gets confused or encounters too many errors it may freeze up. They include a simple toggle button to disconnect and remount the drive to help cope with those errors. We've often wished for the ability to write-protect USB drives. This would allow someone to use them for antivirus without worrying about getting infected when updating portable virus signatures. Unfortunately the price is pretty steep at $199 but it for many it's worth it.

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Abrams' version of Star Trek is credited as a wildly successful reboot of the sci-fi series, despite of some weird plot holes. Now that the film will be released on physical media (i.e. DVD and Blu-ray) on November 17th. At the same time, a limited quantity will also be made available for fans who would love to own a digital copy of the movie on a flash drive that resembles the signature Starfleet communicator badge.

The individually numbered flash badge has 4GB, but only 1GB of which is taken up by the DivX-certified DRM protected movie. You can authorize unlimited layback on up to five devices, and you are allowed to burn the movie on DVD. Seriously though, the publisher could have compressed the Blu-ray version into a 720p that will make good use of all the storage rather than waste it for nothing. Regardless, you still have plenty of time to decide whether to drop £17.99 on a so-called movie collectible.

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Hardcore techies were treated with a special interview on Conan O'Brien last night. Playing off the Intel commercial that appropriately deified Ajay Bhatt, the co-creator of USB. The actual commercial used an actor but Conan had access to the real McCoy. Now I'm not sure he showed the man the respect he was due but it was a very lighthearted albeit heavily sponsored interview. Conan made no secret of the financial incentive he had to do the interview but it was still pretty fun. The chit chat was pretty one-sided with Conan doing almost all the talking. He did his best though but still had to reference a note-card for his one technical question. It wasn't without it's humor trying to hype the fight between firewire and USB.

The interview did end up pretty cute, reenacting a bit of the commercial. You can see why they were forced to use a nerd stunt double as he is a bit stiff. With any luck someone with some geek-cred will interview him again, like Fallon. Head over to NBC's site to see Conan's brush with true greatness and a very humble legend. Video interview after the jump.

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Now that digital music releases aren't shocking any longer expect to see a few more of these on the digital horizon. Rap trio, Get Busy Committee (GBC), is releasing their latest album "Uzi Does it" on a USB flash drive shaped like an Uzi machine gun. The Uzi will likely have just enough space to hold the album's tracks in MP3 format and no more. The memory stick fits into the Uzi as its clip. It would be really cool if the follow up album became available as an extra-mag-only version. That would enhance the environmental benefits of departing from the CD and DVD distribution industry. Those "keep" cases and packaging are huge generators of landfill waste and any move away from wasteful is a good one.

Listening to the album the band is definitely trying to move in a slightly different direction from overly "serious" street rap. The Uzi icon makes that a little hard to believe without listening though. The picture of the Koala with an Uzi on the CD cover is almost adorable and only a little disturbing. We're fairly certain they were trying for the latter. The Uzi should hit e-tailers in early November.

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Western Digital has added a slick new feature to its latest line of My Book Elite and Studio external hard drives. In place of the electric blue glow normally emanating from them, you now have an informative e-Ink display on the front. The display is configurable to some degree and shows the drive's label and the amount of free space available. The nicest thing about the e-Ink technology is that the display stays visible even without power. Lexar has incorporated this once on their flash drive.

The Elite and the Studio share the most of their features together. They are available in capacities of 500GB up to 2TB and have built in hardware based 256-bit AES encryption. The Elite line is made for Windows devices, and comes formatted NTFS with a USB 2.0 interface. The Studio line is geared towards Apple users, and is equipped with a Firewire 800 interface. Both ship with WD SmartWare software for drive management and display configuration. They are available now from $169.99 to $279.99 depending on capacity.

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If there is absolutely no need for a device to be USB powered or enabled, you can almost guarantee that Thanko will have it for you. Case in point: the USB Soldering Iron. Should your electronics work space has spilled over into your computer room, this USB powered soldering iron may give you some other options or at least some more convenience. This soldering iron should be able to handle light soldering tasks with its 3 power options. You can use any standard USB cables, but you will only be able to get about 300 degrees out of it. Opt for the included dual connector USB cords, and you can push that up to 350 degrees. That should get you hot enough to be able to work with highly lead based solder.

Conveniently, they include a 3rd rather scary power option. U sing their 9V to mini-USB connector you can jump the all the way up to 450 degrees. This should get you, just barely, able to work with most commercial soldering compounds. That is, unfortunately, for only as long as the 9V battery lasts. 9V batteries do not have a great track record for being long lasting under high drain applications. If you just have to have something that might almost, just barely, be able to do what you are asking, it should only cost you around $30.

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One of the most anticipated products for SuperSpeed USB is solid state storage which can easily max out the potential of the new interface. Active Media's Aviator 312 line of USB 3.0 external MLC SSDs is the first to race into retail before years's end with capacities ranging from 16GB to 64GB. One of the major selling points of the Aviator is obviously speed, topping at 240MB/s read and 160GB/s write. As impressive as numbers are, the USB 3.0 SSDs only make use 40% of the USB 3.0 theoretical bandwidth. So, there are still much room for improvements.

Also appealing is the size, measuring less than 3" long and 0.2" thick. The drive sporting an industrial aluminum design will be the first to employ the micro-USB 3.0 connector. In perspective, the SSD will be smaller than a credit card and easily fits in one's pocket or even a wallet. Why Active Media didn't make a USB / ExpressCard hybrid drive is beyond us. And what's not so welcome is the price tag - $209 for 64GB; $119 for 32GB; and $89 for 16GB. Then again, a 128GB USB 2.0 flash drive is equally prohibitively expensive.

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For a webcam, this is likely the first time we've seen a company paying more attention to the microphone quality than camera itself. Meet the Eyeball 2.0, made by BlueMic that is famous for making high-end audio recording equipment. Those who have seen the Snowflake USB mic may also recognize the Eyeball 2.0 except the latter has a nifty retractable lens. Both share a flexible monitor mount and a high-quality condenser with a frequency rate between 35Hz to 20kHz that is suitable from podcasting to video narration.

The EyeBall 2.0's video camera specs is somewhat confusing though. BlueMic claims the 2-megapixel lens can do HD video, in fact, up to 1600 x 1200. Yet the webcam can only stream 30fps when the resolution is 640 x 480; this is something to watch out for. The EyeBall 2.0 hybrid complies with both USB video and audio class, meaning most video editing programs should accept the input right away. If the mic quality is more important to you, then the $80 price tag isn't too much to ask for.

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Startech's USB KVM may be your new best friend for trips to the datacenter. All those backbreaking hours hunched over racked KVM's that just never have enough ports. Plug this into a VGA port and a USB or PS2 mouse port and server video is piped into your laptop. Since the video comes from the VGA port you'll be able to watch the entire boot-up process and don't have to wait for network or USB software services to start. Perfect for those of us who still have to work on servers that don't have an ILO interface. It also handles video scaling for systems running video resolutions up to 1920x1600. Although if you are wasting server resources on a desktop that size you need to consider a new line of work.

Another really nice benefit of this device over traditional rack KVMs is that you can use this from the back of the rack. So if you are handling issues that require moving cables or network connections which are generally on the opposite side of the rack, this can be a major time saver. This could save you tons of time walking from front to back of the cabinet to make changes and test results. You will have to shell out $470 for this convenience but if you hurry you should be able to get it into your 2010 IT budget. It is available now if you can't wait. Video demo after the jump.

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After a large stink was made last week over Palm alleging that Apple was intentionally misusing the 'open' spirit of USB connectivity. It got slapped back while admitting that, to get around Apple's lock-out of non-Apple devices, it was 'forced' to use software to masquerade as an iPod. The USB-IF promised to review Palm's claim about the spirit of the contract but Palm's actions were citing as very literally violating the contract. With all of its Pre sales finally breathing some much needed life back into the ailing Palm, you had to know they were going to defend their product. Palm has thumbed its nose at the warning and updated the Pre's software to fool iTunes. They've even gone on step further and enabled MORE iPod / iTunes functionality on the Pre. Let the firmware war begin. It's hard to pick a side here. The mp3 market isn't really a noble pursuit to begin with. Mp3's turned more people into pirates than having a peg leg and a parrot. I'll personally worry about whether my mp3s are legitimate when all those impoverished musicians regularly submit to drug tests.

In a haze, we recall the birth of the iPod mp3 player and that non-DRM'd mp3's have always played fine. All those illegal songs found a ...y and stylish home in the iPod. Yes, iTunes has funnelled legitimate sales into the mainstream. It's just a coincidence that all these finally legitimate sales go through their cash registers. How much more market share will Apple need before it decides to lock iTunes to only Apple computers. As Microsoft participates in more and more open source endeavours is Apple trying on shiny helmets and getting fitted for long black capes? Time will tell.

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Cowon engineers probably were trying to make a uber-slim DAP, but instead went back to making a classy thumbdrive. Bearing a prominent inscription that reads "Don't Forget Me", the Cowon UM1 water & dust proof USB drive is about the same length as a clipper and a mere 3mm in thickness. For every capacity (2GB to 16GB), there are two color choices: Chrome Black and Glossy Gold. The little loophole on the thumbdrive also makes UM1 a decent choice for a necklace although that may affect usability to some extent.

Why the Korean company traditionally makes DAP now enters flash drive business is beyond us. While the UM1 may not be as interesting as the iAudio E2, it makes for a great flash drive gift. It's, however, doubtful we will see in the stateside.

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LAlarm (Laptop Alarm) program looks like a pretty serious attempt to be a poor man's version of laptop security. While you are running this program you are able to use just about every conceivable piece of hardware as a tamper alarm. You can rig up a USB drive's removal to trigger any of a number of alerts or countermeasures. You can play a loud sound file, lock your machine, launch programs or format your drive. You have the option of using other hardware devices as well. You can also use the fact that it's been unplugged from the wall or power supply to fire events. We would love to see the USB Missile System wired into this to defend itself upon tampering.

The most impressive piece of this software is the amount of attention has been given to its long term use. It monitors hard drive health and battery status to make sure you are alerted to any condition that might keep it from functioning properly. It can also make sure your laptop is not used outside of your defined network locations using IP address monitoring. Now unfortunately most of these defenses fail if you detach the battery quick enough and pop the hard drive out to get at the data via an external enclosure. You'll need to be doing disk encryption to cover yourself there. For quick alerts from conventional thieves (noobs) and FREE for personal use this can definitely give you an edge on keeping your laptop safe.

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Bigger isn't always better. Sometimes a little extra desktop space is all you need. DoubleSight has been a trendsetter in the area of "more is better" for monitors. Now they are trying something new, "Small". They've launched a trio of USB powered monitors to add to their line of multiple monitor setups. The smallest is a 7" 800 x 480 all USB monitor, the DS-70U. Very similar to the Mimo line that came out a while back, this one is perfect as an attached photo frame, IM client or media player. They also ratchet it up a bit further with their DS-90U, a 9" version, which is basically the same as the 7" with a higher resolution. The DS-90U supports up to 1024 x 600, which puts it above many others. It's evidently one of the highest resolution all USB powered monitors we've seen. The 3rd DS-90UC is 9" as well, and handles 1024 x 600 but it adds a small webcam to make it a great video conferencing solution as well.

All three of these USB monitors are compact, and can be folded flat for easy transport. They have a built in easel-type stand which makes it a really convenient traveling companion. None of them need any sort of external power and all of them make use of DisplayLink's popular USB video chipset. Windows 7 beta drivers have been available for a few months now as well as Mac and XP. Even though a little late to the game, they are priced competitively at $129, $149 and $179 for the 7", 9" and 9" + camera versions respectively now at their e-Store.

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USB 3.0 News

• USB-IF Begins Approving Use of SuperSpeed USB Logo
• Light Peak, Greatest Threat of USB 3.0?
• First USB 3.0 Webcam Prototype
• Freecom USB 3.0 HDD to Hit Retail in November
• First Active USB 3.0 Cable
• Buffalo USB 3.0 DriveStation, Powered by Fujitsu

Gadget News

• Multi-touch Integrated into Wireless Keyboard
• Key PC with $5 USB Key
• Sony 2.1 Speaker Set Receives USB & iPhone Treatment
• Handheld USB Air Conditioner
• USB Drive Enclosure with Auto Drive Ejection
• Lenovo Ultra-thin ThinkPad Keyboard with TrackPoint
• Bicyle USB Charger - Green Version of Cigarette Lighter
• Altec Lansing Orbit USB Speaker
• USB Mosquito Repellent Dongle
• Philips' USB Speaker and Laptop Cushion Get Along Just Fine
• Creative Virtual X-Fi USB Gaming Headset
• Western Digital 1TB Portable Drive has Native USB
• iPod nano, Now Also a Camcorder
• First USB-powered Video Projector
• iTwin - Cableless USB Network Cable???
• Sony A840 - DAP Without Compromise
• Belkin Home Base - Bring USB Storage to DLNA
• OperaUSB Browser Turns 10.0
• Toshiba Wireless USB Laptop Dock Goes HD
• Glucometer on a Thumbdrive
• Palm Admits Violation to USB-IF in Process of Accusing Apple of Same
• Wacom Bamboo Touch - Multi-touch Tablet for Mac & PC
• LaCie's D-class Amp. USB Speakers
• Yamaha Quality Skype Speakerphone

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Lacie tempts us today with another set of avant garde speakers from designer Neil Poulton, the LaCie Sound². Similar in style to other Poulton-LaCie speakers, these speakers have some serious internals that warrant special attention. They may look like the belong in the Pompidou Center but these odd looking speakers will make you feel more like you are in a concert hall than an art center. LaCie has partnered with musical experts Cabasse to match high fashion with sound quality. Packing a pair of 80Hz - 20kHz response drivers and an internal 30W power amplifier these bad boys aren't toys. When running on AC power and USB connected, you'll experience 30W of crisp sound from an onboard sound processor. This enabled when attached to a PC or Mac with no need for drivers. If an AC power source isn't handy you can still power the speakers solely by USB using the attached cable, sacrificing some output power.

The ubiquitous PMP isn't left out of the fun though either. The Bass Reflex speakers also have a line-in port of the stereo plug adapter variety that can pump high fidelity sound for your iPod or other portable device. Astoundingly, the designer speakers with the major thump won't empty your wallet. They will retail for $99 at Lacie's online store. No word yet on the exact release date but you should be able to get your hands on them soon.

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Twilight fans rejoice! Here's the movie tie-in flash drive with digital copy of the New Moon soundtrack included. The 3" thumbdrive (if you can call it that) features the Cullen Family Crest. As for the soundtrack, the 2GB collectible storage includes no less than 15 original songs, including these ones below:

• "The Violet Hour" (Sea Wolf)
• "Hearing Damage" (Thom Yorke)
• "Meet Me on the Equinox" (Death Cab for Cutie)
• "I Belong to You" [New Moon Remix] (Muse)
• "A White Demon Love Song" (The Killers)

We kinda hope the Star Wars' Funko series would receive the same music content treatment. Those who are interested can pre-order Twilight: New Moon drive now for $32.99 and wait for to ship in mid-October. The movie however won't be released until Nov. 20th.

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Besides Freecom, Buffalo is the also one of the first companies to jump into the USB 3.0 bandwagon. Its DriveStation HD-HXU3 offers transfer speed of up to 125MB/s - about 3 to 4 times faster than the fastest USB 2.0 hard drive available to date so you can kiss Turbo USB tweaked driver goodbye. According to USB-IF, Buffalo HD-HXU3 will be powered by Fujitsu MB86C30A USB 3.0 to SATA IC.

If Buffalo's current DriveStation series is any indication, Buffalo will likely activate the Fujitsu IC's AES full-disk encryption engine, and ship with a full version of Memeo AutoSync backup software. Also launched is a USB 3.0 card to take advantage of the new SuperSpeed USB mode. The company will initially ship the USB 3.0 drive in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB as well as the add-on card in Middle East and Europe in Q4 2009. There's no word on the pricing yet.

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Light Peak was demoed at IDF (Intel Developers Forum) recently and it has USB 3.0 supporters up in arms. The demo shows it moving large amounts of files and playing HD video at the same time. The limited amount of press material and obvious implications to USB 3.0 have those looking forward to SuperSpeed USB devices a bit confused. Intel and Apple are allegedly to be in close collaboration on the Light Peak system, which the chip giant says will ship in 2010. While this date may be extremely optimistic, it does overlap with the launch of USB 3.0. Will this chip away at developer confidence and investment in USB 3.0 when Light Peak is apparently at hand? The HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray battle still has companies and consumers reeling and this latecomer may give pause to those who invested the wrong way. Fiber optics do surpass copper in the amount of data that can theoretically be transmitted, but it is not likely to shake USB quickly. The cost of the implementing the technology still puts it out of reach of most applications, for now. While TOSlink and FDDI connectors have seen decent adoption in the world, fiber optic communications have pretty major technical barriers to climb. Fiber optic cables are not currently very flexible and can easily be damaged by being bent past a certain limit. Also, the distance that light can be carried through a medium (without degradation) is much shorter than metal cables.

Optical transmission systems do have many benefits, but penetration into consumer markets will take considerable work. Apple and Sony, who are both rumored to be the major backers of this next step, would likely use this for extremely high bandwidth applications like video, hard drives and networking. Think next-gen high definition video displays, DVR-to-go synchronization of media players and video camera uploads to a computer. Until the hardware is polished, many technical roadblocks are cleared and materials become free, don't expect to see anything more than a very limited adoption of Light Peak in only the most needy of devices. Heed the cautionary tale of Apple's proprietary video connector (ADC) and Sony's mini-disc, memory stick, UMD, betamax,... well, just about everything from Sony (yes, except the CD), before jumping on any bandwagons.

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Wacom, well known for its Intuos tablet writing and sketching devices, has released a finger friendly touchpad for external use. The Bamboo Touch has arrived to meld the features of multi-touch with the comfort of Wacom's large tablet area. The buzz has settled a little about multi-touch technology lately but its adoption is continuing to grow. First experienced by Apple's users on various Macbook models, multi-touch is showing up on more and more devices. A few niche manufacturers have created multi-touch pads, but Wacom is the first major name to bring a device to market. The whole Bamboo line is multi-touch enabled, and the Bamboo Touch is the smallest and most affordable of them.

The Bamboo Touch brings just the large comfortable touchpad experience for a very nominal price. Nine basic gestures are supported by the Touch, including Navigate, Click, Double Click, Right Click, Forward & Back, Scroll, Select & Drag, Rotate, and Zoom. All these gestures are easily and comfortably performed on the 5.4" x 8.2" tablet. There are also 4 physical buttons for clicks or programming functions or launching macros. The touch area is considerably larger than a laptop touchpad, and should make a decent desktop companion. At only $69, you can add multi-touch to your iMac or Windows 7 desktops by giving up a USB plug.

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Palm, enraged by a recent update to iTunes that disconnected Pre users from iTunes, has submitted a complaint to the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). This is the governing body that owns the intellectual property and leases that connectivity to the world, but not without rules. The 8.2.1 update to iTunes basically broke a vital selling point for the Palm Pre. One of the Pre's major selling points was its ability to natively sync with iTunes. Apple decided this was enough of an encroachment on the iPhone sales, and decided to have iTunes reject connections with the Pre. Now thousands of Pre users are stuck and aggravated.

Palm has brought the matter to the attention of the USB-IF with the accusation that Apple is violating the spirit of inter-connectivity that USB was designed to enable. Palm went further and described the efforts it had to go through to spoof themselves as an Apple device in order to regain connection. While the original intention of this hardware ID was to enable PCs to correctly identify drivers, it has become a tool for business to control operation with their software. Unfortunately for Palm, the steps it was 'forced' to resort to are a violation of the letter of the USB-IF's policies. Palm now has to answer for that violation of the letter of the law and has denied Palm's claim that Apple is in the wrong. Hair-pulling and clawing is about to ensue, we're sure. Stayed tuned, the next tantrum will likely land them both on Springer.

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Proprietary notebook docks are things of the past. USB counterparts hit big time with its universal compatibility and more recently the addition of DisplayLink USB video. Kensington has just overhauled its aging sd200v notebook dock with two major upgrades: HD video output and auto install. The new dock, now called sd400v, has been upgraded with DisplayLink's DL-195 to enable display resolutions up to 2048 x 1152. 720p and 1080p are supported if you add a DVI-to-HDMI adapter. The $149.99 sd400v has a DVI-I for video output.

Auto-install is particularly interesting as the sd400v would no longer require users to first install software drivers before plugging in the dock (although installation does happen in the background). This makes the sd400v pretty close to true plug-and-play. You will find 4 USB ports, stereo sound jack, DVI and an 10/100 Ethernet on the back. The audio (headphone and mic) ports and 1 always-on USB port for charging mobile devices even if the notebook is shut down are on the front. This one won't support Mac out of the box, however. There's model without Ethernet and auto-install that goes for $129.99.

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Freecom from Germany couldn't wait any longer to release its USB Hard Drive XS 3.0 which is, as you may have guessed, the first retail SuperSpeed USB storage. Granted, there aren't any motherboards nor built-in OS drivers available, but Freecom has USB 3.0 cards for both laptop and desktop PCs, and these come with proprietary drivers.

Aimed squarely at consumer users, external drive offers speeds of up to 130MBytes/s (or 1040Mb/s); in comparison, the fastest USB 2.0 drive maxes out at 40MBytes/s (or 320Mb/s). Better silicons both for SATA bridge and host will emerge to further improve throughput so it's likely performance of future USB 3.0 drives will double. The Hard Drive XS 3.0 also sports hardware encryption with AES 256-bit strength. Freecom expects to ship the 3.5" SuperSpeed USB drive in mid-November starting at 1TB for £99.99; the USB 3.0 PCIe card and ExpressCard will hit retail the same time for £23 and £26 respectively.

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Accell Cables recently announced its signal corrected long distance cables. Designed to support the high bandwidth needs that will accompany the new SuperSpeed USB mode, the cables contain special circuitry to maintain USB 3.0 signal quality which peripherals are particular sensitive at such high speed. Applications (e.g. video editing) that can make use of the amount of data that USB 3.0 will offer will be less tolerant of errors or signal problems. Accell 's cables utilize corrective circuitry that allows them to reach a length of 6 meters. In comparison, hardware and cables previously being tested started to see fatal amounts of errors and jitter after 3 meters, which is the length limit to passive USB 3.0 cable. The new connective technology requires no extra power, and the cables aren't any thicker than today's USB cables and will be available in a variety of lengths while of course the connectors would be larger to accommodate the extra pins.

Video and storage applications will most likely be the first applications that require cables of this quality. Expect to see advanced peripherals and perhaps even a transformation of the computer altogether. USB 3.0 brings data transfer capabilities that have traditionally been restricted to the motherboard. USB video, notebook docks, audio, add on processing units with parallelism and cheap, secure, thin client systems could hit the scenes very quickly taking advantage of game-changing speed that SuperSpeed USB brings. These cables, available in 3m, 4, 5 and 6m, should be available as soon as USB 3.0 devices make their way into the market.

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Itching to trying your hand at the DJ business? ION Audio is ready to get you started with the Discover DJ system. This dual turntable mixing and scratching deck uses digital music from your PC to put you in control of the beats. It's not able to play actual LPs, you can keep your vinyl in pristine condition and still generate the addictive loops and mixes using MP3s or audio CDs. MixVibes DJ software includes ties your music to the deck and has easy controls for bass, treble and cross-fading to allow smooth transitions from one song to the next. The software has an automatic beat-matching function that will match up the rhythms as well. We can't promise you won't end up looking like Super-Greg while you do this, but it's a great way to learn the controls.

Fire this up at your next birthday party instead of renting a clown with a LoJack and more felonies than balloon animals. The software and Discover DJ USB deck are both Mac and PC compatible and will be for sale soon on ION's site.

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Bayer, a new entrant to the glucose monitoring game, has upped the ante on all of the other big name glucose monitors by having a USB stick Glucometer, the Bayer Contour USB. With the rise in adult-onset diabetes in the world, glucose management is becoming more and more important to many people. Many of them suffer horrible consequences of having diabetes and not finding out until tragedy strikes. Even so, very few people have been willing to get tested as they get older to make sure they haven't developed diabetes. Many advances have been made in the past decade making diabetes management much less stressful. Modern meters require only very tiny amounts of blood and you don't have to prick your finger tips. Many meters are just as accurate with blood samples from the hand or forearm. Once the reading has been taken, it's effectively trapped in the small pager-like device. It's very hard to get an idea of your daily trends or figure in the effects of stress and time of day on the tiny LCD displays. Bayer's Contour USB is the first easily computer connected glucometer.

Accu-Chek's Aviva did come with a built in IR sender but it was not IRDA and required a special IR adapter. All of the other monitors that offer any type of PC connectivity require the purchase of a separate serial adapter cable. One-Touch actually makes a USB connector cable but they all cost almost more than the monitor. Finally, with Bayer's 2nd Glucose reading entrant, direct PC connection is instant. Using the free Glucofacts DELUXE software, you can upload your readings to your PC and you and your doctor can quickly review and adapt your medicine. Staying fit and trim are your best defenses against diabetes and insulin resistance but everyone can afford to occasionally have their blood checked to be sure that nothing sneaks up on them. Kudos to Bayer for advancing the development of this underutilized technology.

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Notebooks have become more integral to our daily lives more than ever before and while in the past they were specifically designed for mobility and battery longevity, today's systems can feature fast discrete graphics cards and high-power quad core processors that will blow away any gaming experience, excel sheet and video editing suite. But all that power comes at the price of heat and the sheer annoyance that you can't even place your notebook on your lap from the fear that it will overheat or lead to pre-mature hardware failures. In the past, I've reviewed Choiix's feature-rich but average cooler and the Antec 200 over-powered notebook cooler, but today I have the Logitech N100 USB laptop cooler in our labs to see what this renowned company can possibly build into a cooler to sway our purchasing dollars their way.

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Buckle up for a new caliber in USB devices as USB 3.0 starts getting exploited. Point Grey wows us with their new video camera which they plan to debut at 2009 Intel Developer Forum. What looks like an HD-wannabe webcam is actually capable of pumping full 1080p video at an astounding 60fps. The widened pipe of USB 3.0 actually may make high bandwidth devices cheaper now that they can push raw data through to the host computer's CPU. Previous devices would have to include additional circuitry to compress the data before channeling to the host. The camera uses a 3 mega-pixel Sony CMOS sensor to capture the 1920x1080 video images.

Since host controllers for SuperSpeed USB have yet to hit the market they've formed a special alliance with Fresco Logic. Fresco Logic's FL1000 controller is used in their test system via a PCI-Express USB 3.0 interface card. We'll have to wait patiently for the IDF 2009 to find out the price on either the card or the camera. The first host controllers we are likely to see will likely be included on ASUS motherboards and Fujitsu laptops, but we're still waiting on confirmation of a production date. Check back with us and we'll update as soon as they are available.

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Yamaha has a new sound peripheral to sell us, a USB speaker plus microphone called the PSG-10S. While not quite the coolest presentation we've seen, and missing anything truly noteworthy at all the company name is the most notable feature of this little bi-functional gadget. Being simultaneously well-known for both motorcycles and high fidelity audio, the latter branch not very surprisingly brings you this device. Marketed almost exclusively for Skype - like the IPEVO Trio, you'll be able to improve the clarity of reception and transmission on all calls that you make through it. The Yamaha PSG-10S uses built-in echo and sound filtering to maintain the highest level sound quality while you speak. It constantly adapts itself to your surroundings and any background noise is detected and compensated for.

When you are done voice-chatting tip the PSG-10S on its side to activate "Relax dode". This turns off the microphone and switches it over to purely a single-piece USB speaker. Either use shouldn't require any drivers and should work equally well on both PC and Macs. The PSG-10S should start shipping this month from the Skype store, but no word yet on an exact date or price.

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Wireless USB got off to a shaky start, and while UWB-based short-range radio protocol is still struggling to gain popularity, Toshiba's new DynaDock Wireless U docking station has some potential that shouldn't be dismissed. The Toshiba WUSB dock with dual antennas pointing upwards is powered by Alereon's AL5100/5350 chipset to cover UWB spectrum from 3.1 to 10.6Ghz. In addition to meeting worldwide regulatory standards, the wireless notebook dock is equally capable as a wired counterpart by offering built-in DisplayLink video; 7.1 surround sound option; 4-port USB hub; 2 Sleep-n-Charge USB ports; and Ethernet.

In details, the DisplayLink video card can deliver up to 1680x1050 thru DVI interface, and Toshiba throws in a second wireless radio to further improve performance. The DynaDock Wireless U also has a convenient one-touch undock button to ensure all USB peripherals shut down properly when undocking. That's certainly better than selecting every connected product to eject individually. The WUSB driver is optimized as well to allow bi-directional isochronous support for wired USB video and audio products. Otherwise, neither USB headsets nor external webcams would work wirelessly. Toshiba DynaDock Wireless U will ship with a WUSB dongle and native XP/Vista support for a MSRP of $299, and Windows 7 driver is slated for release on October 22nd, the same day as the OS launch.

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Until we get a holographic interface, or interactive mo-cap body-suits that don't make you look chunky, gyro mice is about as cool as it gets. Gyration, one of the first to bring us a deskless mouse, is back with the Gyration Air Mouse Elite. Only recently gaining competitors, Gyration is hoping to separate itself from the pack with this latest update to its line. With 100 ft. range via an RF wireless connection, you can control your desktop, gaming rig, HTPC or conference room while you walk around. The USB RF connector can be hidden anywhere without hindrance. The small gyroscope in the 3.3 gram mouse senses motion with great accuracy, allowing you to not only control the mouse but to program open-air gestures.

The Gyration Air Mouse also works on a desk as a normal high-res laser mouse. Besides uses that truly warrant free movement, you might also consider this as an option for ergonomics. Take a break from being hunched over your keyboard and lean back and work in a more reclined position. The $99 price tag might be a little steep, but the cool factor definitely offsets it a bit.

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The PCTV picoStick is a tiny, almost nano-sized DVB-T TV tuner launched today. DVB is growing in its adoption throughout the world, but DVB-T is only widely used in Western Europe. For signal reception, the picoStick comes with an MCX connector and an a small telescoping flip antenna, which can be attached to the device itself or by cable to a free standing antenna stand. Pinnacle's TVCenter 6 adds DVR and time-shifting software for recording shows for later watching. Recordings can be saved in MPEG-2, DivX (off-line transcoding) or H.264 formats for permanent collections or transfer to other devices. They also included some additional software for video editing.

Although only available for Windows XP, Vista and 7, special attention has been paid to making this a low-power CPU, netbook friendly nano device. This is reflected in their hardware requirements minimum being listed as Intel 1.6GHZ Atom and 256MB of RAM. This tiny unit will go on sale next week but only in Europe for around $80. No hint of an ASTC version is mentioned so we are still stuck with these USB TV dongles for the time being.

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Opera, gaining rapidly on the big dogs, is the favorite internet browser of more and more people. Highly configurable, skinnable and portable, Opera has just released version 10 of its able browser, adding a Turbo mode and a handful of other new features to an already extensive list of well polished functions. The new Turbo mode targets netbook users compressing requested images on the way down to the browser greatly decreasing tethered bandwidth delays and data plan usage. The USB variant Opera@USB contains all the features of the original but can run off of a flash drive keeping all your settings and temporary files private and in your possession.

These new features join a huge list of bonus features already present in Opera. While many of the features are available as user generated plugins for FireFox, the most popular Firefox plug-ins are polished and included natively in Opera. Ad-Blocking, Windows 7-like tab preview thumbnails, fast Javascript engine, email, password management, mouse gestures, torrent downloads, skins, and customized searching are all built in and easily customizable. On top of all that, the Opera Link function let's you synchronize your favorites, searches, notes and other settings from your PC or flash drive or smartphone version of Opera. It's available for free download here.

Another popular USB friendly variant is maintained and developed here. It contains all of the same features but is able to run off of a CD or read-only media and uses an alternate method to erase or store personal data.

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Belkin's Home Base has just shown up on the scene to bring a whole lot of network to your network. If you need to play catch-up with Jones' this tiny wonder can leap frog you all the way up to today with style. The slick little white box has WPS, a push button for wireless joining to your home network with 802.11b/g/n, or you can opt for old school Ethernet. The four USB ports in the back are for printer and USB storage compatibility, and it's most simple ability is to allow wireless sharing of USB devices. It essentially combines the wireless capability, network USB sharing and streaming media serving.

Stepping past the ordinary, the Home Base can take your pedestrian USB-only printers, and turn them into wireless printers. Hook up a USB hard drive, and it's a NAS serving up storage for your network. Attached storage also enables the backup software. Now any device on your network can use Belkin's backup software, and start automated backups protecting your precious files. The Home Base will also take any media files you have, and can enable DLNA media streaming. DLNA is the preferred protocol for the XBox 360 and the PS3. Now you can really take advantage of your game console's media capabilities, and have downloaded music and movies anywhere you like. The Home base should be available soon for about $129 where Belkin devices are found.

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One thing obvious about new 2009 Sony tactile-control Walkmans is that they all share a similar three circle button design whether it's S-or the E-series. Now that Sony has debuted this razor-thin A-series sharing the same characteristic, consumers might have even a more difficult time telling them apart. Of course, after another look into the specs, you know what you are paying for.

For starter, Sony A840 has a 2.8" 240x400 OLED versus 2.4" 240x320 LCD of the S540. Note the extra amount of pixels which is for movies and slideshows. Additionally, swapping out the LCD in favor of OLED gives better color reproduction and improves battery life, which in the case of A840, boasts 29 hours and 9 hours of music and video playback respectively. Excess thickness is trimmed down to a mere 0.28", and weight reduced to 2.1 oz. The case looks like it's plastic, but the shiny controls are more like made of aluminum.

Also unique to the Sony A840 are S-master amplifier; noise-cancelling feature (must be used with the bundled headphones); content transfer compatibility with Sony Blu-ray recorders; and lyrics-audio sync (works more like Karaoke); and high bit-rate support for videos (10Mbps for AVC, 6Mbps for MPEG-4 / WMV). Lastly, you can get it with 64GB, but the price tag is a staggering $442 USD. The 16GB and 32GB will also be available at $265 and $331.

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Wondering how you can share your FreeAgent Go with everyone else on your LAN? Seagate has the answer, and it's called the DockStar cradle. Slide a FreeAgent Go into the cradle's slot, and DockStar's Gigabit Ethernet will magically make drive's content available for network access. The DockStar conveniently provides three additional ports for those who have other brands of external USB drives.

The underlying technology behind DockStar is same as Pogoplug. Unlike the PogoPlug, however, the Seagate needs a AC adapter so it isn't as minimalist as the former. The DockStar does offer the same web access to the shared files from any browsers and even iPhone provided you subscribe to the paid service for $29.99 a year. The service also has an additional benefit of making a selected list of files visible on various social sites through RSS feeds. The alternative is to install Pogoplug's software which makes the FreeAgent and other drives whether they are in NTFS, FAT32, EXT3, HFS+ visible to Windows, Mac and Linux. The Seagate DockStar is priced the same as Pogoplug at $99.

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At first glance, iTwin might look like another novelty flash drive with a dual connector. Turns out it's actually latest R&D effort of a new Singapore-based start-up that promises to bring plug and play bi-directional remote access to the mass market. The company bearing the same name of their iTwin 'cableless USB network cable' plans to make file sharing dead easy even for the uninitiated.

The iTwin basically splits into two identical dongles, which are already paired with a encryption key so they supposedly don't need password nor user ID to establish a secure connection. As the developers put it, iTwin is just like two ends of an invisible cable that pair two PCs together via Internet. The video demo shows other PC's drive icon magically pops up as soon as there's a confirmed link. There are still some questions left to be answered such as the underlying technology, scalability (i.e. 2 PC limitations) and physical security concerns. iTwin is planned to hit retail sometime in the first half of 2010 for $99, and of course, it will come in pair.

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LED is really a godsend for projectors as it can prolong the lamp life significantly while minimizing power consumption. It also makes the first true USB projector possible. Sanwa's 400-PRJ001 mobile projector is capable of throwing up a 48.5" image just 2m from the wall, and the fact it can draw power and video feed from the same two USB ports deserves applause for engineering ingenuity. If that's not good enough, the projector weighs at a mere 85g; in perspective, the bundled tripod also is 46g.

Our only gripe is the brightness (10 ANSI lumens) or lack thereof. The aspect ratio and resolution are also limited to 4:3 and 640x480 respectively. So it would be difficult for Sanwa to convince most of us to drop $220 USD on a toy like this. For serious business, better save up for something like a BenQ GP1.

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Audiophile manufacturer Bowers and Wilkins has sculpted a second iPod / iPhone dock speaker with the Zeppelin Mini. The Zeppelin is a dual function device acting as both a USB PC speaker and an iPod speaker. Looking a bit more run of the mill than B&W's usual avant-garde designs, the Zeppelin Mini is about half the size of its enormous, award winning predecessor. Only about 1 ft. wide, the Mini has a top mounted swiveling mount with an iPhone dock connector. You can also hook up any ....og music player to the Mini as well via a headphone sized input jack in the rear.

The Zeppelin line distinguishes itself by using the USB connection and not the iPod's ....og headphone output to stream sound. The digital connection allows it to pull music off your device in full fidelity (as good as compressed music can be) and use its own high fidelity processors to create sound. While connected, the Mini can also act as a USB speaker, and simultaneously charge and synchronize your device. So you can listen to great sound and be loading up your iPod at the same time. Unfortunately, all this tech comes at a price. You'll have to pony up $399 for this high end sound system which should be available in October.

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One of the most prominent characters in American pop culture, Snoopy, has been immortalized in the form of 2 very Japanese gadgets. The 40 year anniversary of Snoopy's arrival as a mascot for NASA arrives this year. Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the Peanuts cartoon and to celebrate both momentous occasions Strapya brings us a pair of commemorative USB toys. The Astronaut Snoopy USB monitor pal. Either clip Snoopy and Woodstock onto your laptop screen or leave it flat on your desk. As soon as you plug it into an available USB port they'll start to move and look about. Basically a USB bobble-head, the Astro-Snoopy is probably best suited to die hard NASA or Peanuts fans only.

Slightly more practical is the Snoopy USB Hub. This 3 port USB hub has Snoopy in his ultra favorite role as an Flying Ace hunting the Red Baron. Fitted with moving goggles when turned on Snoopy dives and climbs with characteristic airplane and machine gun sound effects. The spinning propeller and bobbing motion will nostalgically remind you of the 25cent rocket rides located outside of childhood grocery stores. Watch the video below to check out the action. Know in advance the answer to everyone's question: Yes, it does have a 'mute' button. Pick this one up for yourself or a loved one for about $60 from Strapya. Video demo of the Flying Ace Snoopy after the jump.

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Medion Electronics brings a new entry into their electronics lineup with the Medion Life S4700 HD Sport Camera‏. This rugged little pocket camcorder shoots 720p videos into H.264 format. This iPod friendly format is fast becoming a mobile video standard, but is far from new anymore. Rugged, but not completely water resistant, this splash resistant video recorder should be able to go with you anywhere you go. Capable of 1280x720 still images as well, this should be a good replacement for any would-be cell-phone photojournalists. Unfortunately, the video components don't offer much more than most cell phones, and definitely no features or specifications that would set it apart from any more mainstream vendor's offerings.

Beyond the core features, the Medion Life has USB 2.0 connectivity for transferring movies and images off of the measly 90MB included memory, or off of any SD/SDHC cards that you want to add to it. It does have the ability to output directly to HDMI for recording or display if the 2" LCD display isn't quite enough for you. Available for the not quite competitive $166 now at MedionShop.

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It's clearly there's still room for improvements in the iPod nano as Apple has again refreshed the wafer-thin DAP for the fourth time. Now in its fifth generation, the iPod nano has received quite a few hardware changes, including the addition of a video camera, a bigger screen (albeit only 0.2" larger), a microphone, a pedometer, a speaker, and surprisingly, a FM radio.

The video camera lets you capture in standard def (640 x 480 at 30fps in H.264) with quality that even surpasses iPhone 3GS according to PCMag. It doesn't take still pictures, however. The camcorder function also puts the nano's accelerometer to good use so you can switch between portrait and landscape mode effortlessly. The lens placement, however, makes it too easy for fingers to get in the way; you will need to practice the handling a little more. 15 special effects are available even while you are recording.

The FM radio gets iTunes tagging and Live Pause, the former of which allows you to tag the song you heard on the radio and let iTunes finds it for you for purchase next time you sync. Live Pause basically is like TiVo for FM radio on your nano so you can pause live radio broadcast and return to it as far back as 15 minutes. The nano's integrated pedometer reports back how many steps you've taken and how many calories you've burned after you enter your weight start walking. Last but not least is the VoiceOver reads out the song name and the performer. This feature was introduced in iPod shuffle 3G and has since made it to iPhone and now nano. While there are numerous changes to the hardware department, iPod nano is still offered in 8GB and 16GB and Apple has slashed the price by $20 to $149 and $179 respectively... talking about a big discount taken account into all the upgrades.

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Following the footsteps of hassle-free backup options such as the Apple Time Machine and Seagate Replica, Western Digital has debuted a new line of My Passport external drives shipping with its SmartWare and 256-bit hardware encryption as standard feature. The SmartWare while not particularly exciting is essentially a software suite that not only does incremental backup but also presents a visual display of your backup in categories so you know what kind of files is taking up all the precious drive space.

What is newsworthy about the My Passport is the direct integration of USB interface to the 2.5" drive. This bypasses the USB-to-SATA bridge like the Samsung S2 so you can expect performance bump, and the removal of the bridge makes the drive even more compact (a mere 0.6" in thickness). The new My Passport SE offers capacities in 750GB and 1TB with 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, and 640GB in the Essential series. It's pity that Western Digital only gives us 2 years of warranty for the My Passport while the competitors are stepping up with 5 years of warranty.

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Continuing on the Creative's winning style first seen in the Falal1ty line, the Sound Blaster Arena arrives in royal fashion to take the title as company's top-of-the-line headset. Packed with all the power of an elite sound card into a pair of headphones, the Arena USB headset is made for intense gaming action. Creative paired their X-Fi sound audio enhancing technology with their EAX 3D soundscaping system to come up with a headset that is great for gaming and music. A detachable noise-canceling microphone allows the lucky user to use voice chat features for in-game cooperation.

The software that enables Creative's hardware provides several other key features. For starter, you can change your voice across the whole spectrum from Vader to Madonna. Intelligent filtering will also help eliminate background noise which could interfere with speech transmissions. Lastly, ALchemy repairs games that lost 3D sound function due to a Microsoft patch to Vista. The Arena USB gaming headset will start out at $159 when it reaches shelves as early as next week.

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Philips has released a new laptop stand that is well adapted for extended deskless operation. The soft foam pillow is crowned by hard plastic top which acts as heat shield for you legs. Keeping the laptop on a flat surface will also keep you from blocking the air vents, hence reducing the temperature down passively. Out of the back of the cushion, a retractable USB cord can be extended. This cable connects an internal USB sound system in the cushion to the front mounted speaker. Completely powered by USB, this integrated speaker can make up for the small built-in speakers usually found in portable computers. Netbook and MacBook owners in particular should find their minuscule systems amply amplified.

The speakers are a great addition, but it seems like it would have made sense to include a small fan like the one found on Choiix and Belkin for cooling at the same time. The final evolution of this device would be to turn this whole concept into a carrying case. For now, this will have to do, and it definitely increases the multimedia capabilities of your average netbook. Philips hasn't given any hints as to when this will hit shelves (or price tag), but given the simplicity you should be able to pick one up soon.

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More and more devices are using USB as a power supply despite the fact that they are completely unrelated to computer use. One such recent addition is the USB mosquito repellent dongle. Similar to other electronic pest deterrents, this device generates a repellent field to which some insects are sensitive.

Plugging this into any powered USB port should repel most flying insects according to manufacturer. This technology has not, however, received much commercial success. Even if it has only a limited effect, the repellent USB dongle is an incredibly cheap function to implement. That being said, it's very hard to imagine many situations where having a mosquito repellent while doing computer related work would be of much help. But again, for the six dollars that one of these costs, you could very easily keep one around just in case you found any such coincidence.

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USB speakers are a great idea for what was previously a very cable-messy peripheral. Altec Lansing, no stranger to sound, has a new twist to make them even better. The Orbit USB portable speaker system, packing a big punch in a small package, combines the power wasted by splitting sound into a tight radiating 360 degree sound field so the design represents a significant departure from previous 1-piece USB speaker. As the Orbit is made of slick aluminum and composite components, the solid composition should keep cabinet resonance from distorting sound quality. This should also help it survive more than a few bumps traveling by your side.

Besides the construction and internal quality, some care has been put into the exterior features. The Orbit USB speaker has a small base mounted kickstand that can be used to tilt sound in a particular direction. The base also contains a recessed area for winding the USB cable up. Once it's all wound into a neat little package you can throw it into the included nylon carrying case and attach it to your backpack or bag with its carabiner clip. Available next month for $49.95.

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Dahon, a company known for making folding and collapsible commuter bikes, has developed a suitable add-on for just about any type of bike. The BioLogic FreeCharge takes energy generated by your bike's tires and uses it to charge up your iPhone / GPS / MP3 player via USB. The FreeCharge stores electricity generated by a standard wheel hub dynamo into a small rechargeable battery. the battery then doles out juice for your power-hungry gadget regardless of what speed you're going. Hooked directly to the dynamo you would risk power surges that could damage your precious device.

While most casual bike rides won't generate enough juice to fully charge anything, you can at least pack along your mp3 player without having to worry about it dying before you've gotten where you're going. Long-distance riders should take special note of this accessory as traveling far enough outside of normal coverage areas can increase cell phone battery drain significantly. When that emergency finally rears its head will you be able to use your phone? The FreeCharge should be available for order in 6 months at $99.

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Lenovo is showing off their new ThinkPad External Keyboard to high praise from the public, but that's little wonder since the public is who designed it. Crowd-sourcing is going on in software development circles with some limited success, but crowd-designing is a whole new game entirely. Lenovo surveyed some 800 users to come up with suggestions on how to improve their keyboard. Taking these tips Lenovo went about updating their designs. The new keyboard, meant to be paired with the diminutive ThinkPad notebooks, provides added comfort during long typing sessions on laptop computers. Conversely, ThinkPad users can attach it to a desktop PC to retain the familiarity of your laptop.

The changes over the previous versions are subtle and far from revolutionary. However, they are different enough from more commonplace keyboards that it might inspire more creativity in this stagnant interface. The Delete and Escape keys have been enlarged. The touchpad has been completely eschewed in deference to the TrackPoint touchstick. It's spill resistant, having drain holes that run through the keyboard to keep liquids from pooling into sensitive areas. Also gone is the numeric keypad (like the Apple Keyboard), which for some reason remains upside down as a vestigial comfort to users of the 10-key adding machine. Meanwhile phones and every other keypad are arrange the opposite way. At the end of the list, the removals outweigh the additions, leaving it with a lower price tag which is always the right direction for numbers to go. Pick one up at Lenovo's store for $59.

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Brando has started carrying the E-Blue Gladiator USB Hard Disk Station in its online store. This external drive enclosure has more 'smarts' than others especially similar products designed for hot-swapping drives. While most enclosures will drop connections and corrupt data writes if the drive is removed, the Gladiator does not. It will not release the drive until the write cycle is complete. This protection comes with some serious style. The two tone chassis releases the drive by a touch sensor button on the top of the drive which activates the motorized door exposing the drive. The Gladiator doesn't just protect your data, it also has the environment in mind. It features an advanced hibernation mode which will power down the disk drive while not in use but maintains the drive's presence as a external hard drive on your PC. The drive is powered up as soon as a request is made to it. The enclosure also makes use of Turbo USB mode which should require drivers for most machines. Turbo USB - found on Buffalo Ministation - boasts performance increases up to 40% but real world tests have seldom supported those claims.

The hands down best feature of this drive is the name. This product is the September winner of the Random Product Name Award. The E-Blue Gladiator is not; "E" network enabled at all, "Blue" in any shape or fashion, nor does any part of it resemble a "Gladiator". No Shield, No Sword, No Russell Crowe endorsement, nothing. Maybe the "E" is Eco-mode but that would be green, right? If you can stand the conundrum this makes a great desktop enclosure at only $65 dollars provided the drive door mechanism is well built and long lasting and that the unlisted "drive type" feature is SATA. Video demo the glorified USB enclosure after the jump.

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Even though summer is almost over, keeping cool is important all year around. iTWorks is ready to lend a hand with the HandyCooler. USB powered and about the size of a soda can, this little swamp cooler can blow a cool breeze on you where ever you go. Swamp coolers are an old trick for keeping cool, using air flow to help evaporate water and lower temperatures. Modern air conditioners use the same principle with freon or other substances in a closed system which manages to recycle the coolant. With the HandyCooler you need to soak the sponge every so often to keep it from just blowing regular air. If you need to use it on the go you can run off of 4 AA batteries for about 5 hours.

The HandyCooler can be used at just about any angle when held by hand (and handstrap), or using the adjustable output while standing it upright. The USB power option is provided by an included USB to DC adapter cord. An optional AC adapter is available for purchase as well. They come in 3 stylish colors and can be had for $39.99.

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Sony has produced a handful of me-too iPhone docks and accessories, until now, nothing too notable. Today, they unveil the SRS-GD50iP that looks more like what you would expect from the Sony juggernaut. This USB speaker system like the Logitech Z Cinema is a great accessory for any PC to get more sound and a little more quality out of your computer system. The 2.1 sound system provides a total of 60 Watts of power (peak). Additionally, it also syncs and charges your iPhone / iPod while it's docked. This packs considerably more punch that the single speaker models flooding the market but is still small enough to travel if needed. The set should work with Windows and Apple computers without the need for drivers since it consists of generic USB audio-class components.

The integrated USB audio system should also be a decent upgrade for notebook or on-board audio. Check the listed models for exact compatibility with your iPod. Also keep this in mind when considering the purchase: you're getting a USB sound card, a pair of speakers, a sub-woofer, a handsome dock for for your precious iPhone, desktop controls for music and volume, and a tiny wireless remote. Expect to shell out about $200 for the whole package when it hits shelves in the very near future.

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Creative is rolling out the second generation Vado HD digital camcorder this week. The new 2nd gen version adds Apple's iMovie support and... and... and... well a slick new paint job. While the 'upgrade' isn't much of one, it does look sharper. The newer model still packs all the same features of the previous model. It has 1280x720 video recording (720p) at 30fps in the H.264 format, the same swiveling USB connector, and a 2" 640x240 LCD for real-time previews. You'll only get about 2 hours of recording per charge which you can easily do via USB when you upload your videos to YouTube or iMovie.

There is a slight price drop for one of the second generation models being release but it's at the cost of half the 8GB storage memory. The biggest update is the Vado Central software which will let you work with your Vado directly on your Mac. As the Apple market share increases, expect to see more devices cross the PC divide to include Apple. The 4GB models will run around $179 and the 8GB models $199 and are available for pre-order now. Shipping should start later this month.

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We're very excited to see USB 3.0 get closer and closer to being a reality. We were dealt a heavy blow by the cancellation of Asus' first USB 3.0 sporting motherboard. Today we celebrate, the USB-IF has published its form for attaining official SuperSpeed USB 3.0 certification. This certification should effectively guarantee that all SuperSpeed USB logo-labeled products will work together seamlessly. Ask anyone who has purchased one of the 17 versions of draft-N wireless products and tried to get them to work with any other version.

The tests and specifications were developed by SuperSpeed USB Platform Interoperability Lab and they also have helped produce the tools used to test the hardware which should be in high availability now. With the number of USB 3.0 devices expected to be sold in the next 3 years estimated at 900 million a lack of certification could be really messy. For those interested the form is located Here. The rest of us consumers will just have to wait a bit longer to get real SuperSpeed hardware.

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• DJ Mouse, for DJ
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• MS True 720p LifeCam Cinema
• Logitech MX Mice Overcome "Glass Barrier"
• Razer Naga Gaming Mouse for MMO
• Terminator T600 USB Flash Drive
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• USB Multi-touch Numpad
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• WintoFlash Moves CD/DVD Installers to USB Drives

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Of the many uses for USB flash drives, one that is only starting to get explored, is security. Predator, written by one Richard Goutorbe of France is contributing one of the most mature looking implementations of USB keys for security. His software writes a unique key file to your flash drive and the program constantly checks for it. If you remove the drive, the software dims your monitors and hides all your programs. The effect is a very successful work factor increase for anyone hoping to monkey with your workstation. The method doesn't feel uber secure, but it should work for all but the most paranoid needs. Upon installation you are required to create a password that can be used to unlock your system if you have lost your key.

The software is free for non-commercial use and doesn't do anything to your flash drive except writing and rewriting its keyfiles. Currently, only being developed for Windows OS flavors. Others have cobbled together this functionality with a variety of programs but this is the most mature single solution to date. While this is a great step for USB, there are a few more convenient but less secure BlueTooth varieties emerging.

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The multi-touch invasion continues and your options now include a wireless keyboard with a built-in multi-touchpad by Speed. The multimedia keyboard contains all the standard letters you are used to seeing as well as a full complement of numbers to round out your keyboarding experience. The keyboard also packs a total of 24 extra multimedia and function keys. The multi-touchpad is on the right side where the keypad is traditionally found. The keypad is a touch sensor keypad with no moving numeric keys. Use the mode button to switch over to touchpad mode and it becomes a multi-touch touchpad. There are 2 actual physical mouse buttons for keypad control. This easy to handle package would also make for a decent hybrid Media Center keyboard.

It looks like the touchpad is the same that showed up on Brando's site last week with the added greatness of wireless. The wireless dongle fits into the base of the keyboard for easy portability. It's all powered by 2 easy to find AA batteries. Expect to pay around $100 for this if it ever makes it to the states.

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