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Of all the stupid
great ideas out there, the USB Air Purifier is one of the latest. One more USB device isn’t going to kill your computer, but it might help clean the air around it. There’s no mention of how it cleans the air, but since there’s not much room for a filter, we can surmise that it operates as an ionic model. If that’s the case, in exchange for supposedly cleaner air, your little air purifier will be sitting on your desk happily churning ozone into your immediate vicinity. Excess ozone is bad for you, but whatever it’s method of air purification, we can all use cleaner air, and for a small area this tiny critter just might do the trick. Priced around $27 USD.
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So you have this burning desire to commit every one of your hundreds of books into electronic form? Instead of wasting the better part of your life scanning the books one page at a time, or practically destroying them in order to accomplish the task faster, turn your sights to the Atiz BookDrive Book Scanner. The $35K scanner will automatically turn the pages of the inserted book and scan in whatever you request of it. Need to quickly plagerize a few pages for that school project you have coming up? Pop in the desired book, tell it how many pages you want scanned and away it goes.
Obviously the intended market for this scanner isn’t your average home user. Government institutions, libraries and schools are the intended recipients, and the BookDrive should help save countless hours of tedious work. Other book scanners exist on the market, but one of the main selling points of the BookDrive is that it’s portable. Rather than drag a huge pile of heavy books to a stationary book scanner, tote the scanner to the books.
Elecom MF-DU204G 0.85” USB Hard Drive
Posted by John Goulden Categories: Accessories, USB, Peripherals
Flash memory USB drives are a dime a dozen these days, at least until you start getting into sizes larger then 2GB. Once past that “magical” barrier, the price escalates enormously due to manufacturing costs for such dense flash memory. Hard drives, even very small ones, are typically lower in cost per megabyte than their flash-based cousins. Therefore we can postulate that Elecom is trying to capitalize on that cost savings with their newest product - the MF-DU204G. The MF-DU204G is a USB memory stick with a hard drive instead of flash memory. With a size of 68x30x13mm at 44 grams in weight it’s not as small as a flash-based drive, but extremely tiny for a disk-based model. Software is included to password protect the drive in case it should fall into the wrong hands, and should it fall (literally) the durability of the drive is certainly questionable. The nice thing about flash memory is that it almost thrives on abuse, whereas hard drives do not.
No word yet on pricing or availability but we can presume that the price will be below a flash drive with an equivalent capacity or Elecom’s new product has zero advantage going for it.
Read More | Elecom (jp) via Akihabara News
Radtech Impact Hard Drive Enclosure
Posted by Frank Bisono Categories: Accessories, USB, Peripherals
For those of you who may have upgraded the hard drive in your laptop, or maybe just happen to have a spare 2.5” drive laying around, this is a great gadget to make good use of that drive. Radtech’s Impact HD Enclosure offers maximum protection for your data by incorprating 64bit encryption via the use of a physical layer of security. The drive enclosure offers a unique 64 bit encrpytion hardware key, which plugs in via a FW400 type of port. The key works in real-time, so encrytion doesn’t affect performance. The drive offers USB 2.0 and FireWire 800, although we personally would have like to see the FireWire 400 port which is more popular and found on most devices. FireWire 800 just doesn’t seem to have caught on as well, which is evidenced by Apple’s recent launch of the MacBook Pro, which dropped the FireWire 800 port.
The Enova X-Wall engine provides real-time, hardware-based encryption and decryption. X-Wall shuttles encrypted data as fast as a standard enclosure.
Unlike easily circumvented and platform dependent software-based encryption, Impact enclosures strong encrypt (DES) every bit and byte on the hard drive. The included Secure Token is a physical key which must be present to read from, or write to the drive. Without the secure key, the drive and its data are rendered useless and unreadable - 2 keys are included with each enclosure.
The enclosure is made from a lightweight heat-dissipating 1mm thick extruded 6075 Aluminum alloy, and offers a decent amount of shock protection making this a pretty rugged drive with some corporate strength security to boot. James Bond would be proud. All the details can be found over on Jason O’grady’s PowerPage.
Read More | O’Grady’s Powerpage
MPLAT USB FlashPhoneF2K For Skype
Posted by John Goulden Categories: Accessories, USB, Internet, Wireless / WiFi
If you’re a fan of Skype, then you might be interested in the MPLAT Flashphone F2K. With a size similar to that of a USB memory stick, the F2K includes a built-in soundcard and flash memory in sizes from 128MB up to 512MB. Operation couldn’t be easier as you simply plug it into an available USB port, plug in the headphones and launch Skype. All necessary software remains on the Flashphone, and no traces of activity are left behind on the host computer which makes it ideal for the paranoid among us. Obviously this isn’t the most ideal method for making a call as it requires access to a computer, but if you don’t have the monetary resources for a PDA, or are just a diehard Skype user, the F2K may just do the trick. Be sure and read the review though as upgrading the software on the F2K may be akin to rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time - not impossible, just difficult.
Read More | MPLAT via Top Tech News
VoIP Headset Sale at Amazon
Posted by Frank Bisono Categories: Accessories, USB, Hot Deals, Peripherals
Holy smokes, Amazon has lost their minds. Amazon is currently selling the Plantronics DSP-400 headset for $40.94 with free shipping! I personally own this headset and I can vouch for the fact that it is absolutely kick-ass. If you use Skype or any VoIP service, or maybe do a little podcasting, this headset is definitely a must-have, and at these prices, it’s insane not to go grab one. I remember this headset costing upwards $120+ not even a year ago. Grab ‘em while they’re hot!
Read More | Amazon
As if most people don’t have enough things crammed into their wallets, Wallatex has developed a flash drive that is the size and thickness (pretty close anyway) of a credit card. The Wallet Flash as it is so aptly named, can be had in a myriad of capacities from 64MB all the way up to 2GB. With ample “real estate” for company branding, the Wallet Flash can easily be used for promotional purposes, and the optional magnetic stripe lends the possibility of a multi-purpose card. Walletex has designed durability into the flash drive as it is waterproof, temperature tolerant, and made of “double laminated unbreakable plastic”. Unbreakable sounds good on paper, but that little USB connector sticking off of the drive is just begging to be snapped off.
Read More | Walletex via Cnet Asia
These USB sticks takes the “stick” part quite literally. Available in flavors of 128MB to 1GB, this is one of the most interesting designs in electronics we’ve seen in a while. You can get a quote on one of these on the OOMS Product Page. While you’re there, check out their wireframe chairs.
Read More | OOMS Product via Treehugger
Non-Ergonomic Nintendo Mice
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, USB, PC / Laptop, Peripherals, Video Games
Calling all retro gaming geeks - now’s your chance to show your roots at the next LAN party while developing a severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome. These computer mice do look cool, we must say. Pretending that your click-fingers are really Mario’s feet stomping the head of the Goomba has gotta be good times. Of course, a Mario version - also lacking anti-aliasing - is available as well. You can grab one for $14.95 USD.
Read More | Lik-Sang via Gadget Review
Live From CES: Game Boy Advance SP DVD Player
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: Accessories, USB, CES, CES 2006, Peripherals
MyFlix was showcasing their Game Boy Advanced DVD player, a device that allows you to plug in a GBA SP through its cartridge slot and play back full DVDs. The quality of the screen was definitely watchable, and they assure me that they’ll be slimming down the actual unit, which itself was just a tad bulky. It will retail for close to $70 and be available in normal retail markets and online in July. Battery life was the one element that I had a few misgivings about—3-4 hours for four AAs. (They suggested rechargeables, natch.) The unit does have an AC adapter and they’re looking to integrate speakers. It also has a standard minijack headphone jack.
In addition to the MyFlix, they were also demoing the MyFrame, an affordable, USB-based digital picture frame. Essentially a tiny, USB-based display, the unit pulls pictures and power from your nearby computer. Adding pictures is as simple as dragging them to their software, and you can control the slideshow details. The unit will retail for about $70 as well, and the way they can get the cost down is by using a smaller, limited viewing angle LCD. It’s about 3.5”, and the easel it rests on is adjustable so you can set it for your normal sitting position at your desk. It’s actually a pretty neat solution for office pictures, and affordable enough to make sense to buy for mom.
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