Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on April 7, 2011
Four-Way USB-Charger Packs Power-Saving Timer
Toss away up to four chunky USB chargers and replace them with one small, slick charger. That’s the promise of the Green Wall Charger from VogDuo.
At its heart the VogDuo box is a pocketable four-way charger for any and all USB-powered gadgets, and for that alone it probably deserves a place in your travel-bag (you’ll need an adapter, though, as the handy fold-out prongs are US-only). But it also comes with its own special schtick: a timer. Hit the set-button to choose between two, four, six or eight hours and press start. Once done, the circuit is cut and no power is drawn from the mains.
Want to charge your iPad? The charger provides standard five-watt USB ports, which aren’t really enough to charge the iPad (the Apple charger puts out 10-watts). A Y-connector is provided in the package, though, so you can just hook the iPad up to two sockets simultaneously.
The Green Wall Charger will be on show at CES in Las Vegas next month, where we should find out about pricing and shipping dates.
Green Wall Charger [VogDuo]
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on December 21, 2010
Samsung’s Sharing Camera Saves Photos to Three Thumb-Drives
Samsung’s researchers, tirelessly toiling in their futuristic Korean labs to bring us a better future, have solved one of mankind’s peskiest problems: how to share you photos with your friends.
In truth, this was answered long ago by the camera-phone, and later, by direct uploads to Facebook. But should you be hanging out with some more old-school buddies, the UCIM is for you. The concept camera features a trio of USB-ports. When taking snaps that you want to share, you collect up your friends’ thumb-drives and plug them in. Any photos you take are copied direct to all the sticks.
Teasing aside, this is a very nice feature, and easily avoids the two alternative scenarios: One, you take every picture three times, once with each camera. Only one of these photos will have everybody with their eyes open. Second, the person with a camera promises to email the photos, or burn them to a CD. Or something. Only they never send them, or if they do, then you get crappy low-res files, or a subset of all the pics taken. This solves the problem of lazy, lying friends.
The UCIM is also cute-looking, although the USB-ports could be put into any camera, not just this puffy, marshmallow-flavored case. I’m sold. Or I would be, if I hadn’t discovered a great new trick of my own. Borrow a friend’s iPhone, take my picture and then email it to myself. If you try this, always remember to mail the full-resolution version. It’s not your 3G bandwidth you’re using up, after all.
Take Picture, Share Picture [Yanko]
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on December 20, 2010
IPad Five-in-One Dock Adapter: When Will the Madness End?
Just as seemingly every year the number of blades on a disposable razor inevitably increases, so every few months a new iPad dock adapter adds yet another input. In August we saw the 2-in-1 camera-connector, with USB and an SD-card slot. The just last week we were treated to the plasticky wonders of the 3-in-1 adapter, which added micrSD to the mix.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, behold the amazing, nay, astonishing 5-in-1 dock adapter. Slot this overachieving little widget into your iPad’s port and you get all of the above functions plus a mini-USB port (for charging the iPad or connecting to a computer) and an A/V-out port. This last lets you hook up an iPad (or a video-supporting iPod) to a TV.
That’s a whole lot of features packed into one small box and – if experience of these things is anything to go by it will likely break soon after buying. On the other hand, this combines a whole shopping-cart full of Apple products into one, and even ships with the A/V and USB cables needed to use it.
What next? The same manufacturer also has an unholy version that will read Sony MemorySticks, but I’m hoping for something more practical (or plain weird). Comments, please: What oddity would you like to see here? MIDI would be nice for musicians. A crappy but functional webcam would be awesome for everyone. But I’m going to vote for a USB hand-warmer. Given the iPad’s huge battery, this should last at least a day, and keep me blogging from my cold, non-heated apartment.
5-in-1 adapter product page [Anguodz via MIC Gadget]
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on December 20, 2010
Dongle Adds USB, SD and MicroSD to iPad
Apple’s iPad Camera Connection Kit is a wonderful thing, although overpriced at $30. Not only can you use it to inject photos from your camera direct into the tablet’s brain, you can also hook up all manner of USB peripherals, from keyboards to microphones to thumb-drives.
MIC Gadget’s 3-in-1 adapter does all this, and more. It combines Apple’s two small, easy-to-lose widgets into one slightly larger, slightly harder-to-lose package, putting an SD card reader and USB port into one plastic box. The extra is a micrSD slot, which is actually all but useless: the only way it would work is if your cellphone saves its photos into a standard folder named “DCIM”, which is what will trick the iPad into reading them.
There’s one thing that MIC Gadget’s version had in common with the official Apple version: it costs $30. I’d stick with Apple’s overpriced kit: it works, you only have to carry the part you need and it is built to last. It is also available now, unlike this 3-in-1 solution, which ship after Christmas.
3-In-1 iPad Camera Connection Kit [MIC Gadget]
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on December 15, 2010
Easy Hack Enables USB Tethering on WP7 Phones
Windows Phone 7 turns out to be perfectly capable of tethering your data signal to a laptop via USB cable, a feature it was though to lack. To access the secret tethering mode, you’ll need to do some diagnostic voodoo, but its pretty straightforward stuff: more like inputting a video-game cheat code than actual hacking.
First, you need to get into the handset’s diagnostic mode. Right now the instructions are only available for Samsung WP7 phones. To do this, dial ##634# and hit the call button, followed by *#7284#. This will give you the above menu, which lets you toggle between the default Zune sync, a diagnostic utility and, yes, a tethered modem.
Back at the computer, use these settings to let it talk to the new modem:
number: *99***1#
user name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
password: CINGULAR1
Neat, free and fun. What more could you ask for? We’re sure that hacking other, non-Samsung handsets will be possible, too, as soon as somebody works out the proper codes.
According to David K of Mobile Digest, you can connect and disconnect just by plugging or yanking the USB cord. And because WP7 allows Wi-Fi syncing, you don’t even need to change this new tethering setting back – just leave it as it is. I don’t have a Samsung Windows Phone 7 phone to test this on, so let us know how things go in the comments.
Windows Phone 7 Tethers! You Can Do it NOW! Heres How [Mobile Digest]
Samsung Omnia 7 ha il tethering USB! [HD Blog.IT]
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on November 11, 2010
Flush-Fitting SD-Card Reader Swings Both Ways
One of the better things to appear in computers of recent vintage is the SD-card reader, which lets us slot the memory-cards from our cameras directly into our notebooks and slurp off the photographs. But not all computers come equipped with this handy little slit, so we’re forced to use (and carry) an external card reader. Elecom has come to the rescue with the “MR-C25 Series”, a USB card-reader with – literally – a twist.
Elecom’s reader slots into a spare USB-port, but instead of sticking out perpendicular to the side of the machine it lays snug and flat along the side. What’s that, you say? It covers up all the other ports next to it? Sure, but look – it swivels, flipping up-and-over to get out of the way when needed. Thus plugged, it is thin enough to stay in place, even when you slip your computer into its travel-case.
The reader has another trick, too. It reads not only SD-cards (SDHC and SDXC formats are both supported) but also those tiny microSD cards that are smaller than your pinkie’s thumbnail and so popular with the cellphone kids these days.
The reader should start to show up in November, price unknown. Just keep your fingers crossed that the buyer for you local retail chain appreciates a nifty gadget as much as we do.
Elecom MR-C25 [Elecom via Akihabara News]
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on November 2, 2010
Quirky Contort, An Ingenious USB-Hub and Cable Manager
Contort is another crazy-useful looking gadget from the seemingly bottomless idea-pit at Quirky. Like all Quirky gear, it combines simplicity with a re-think of existing solutions. This particular widget is a four-port USB-hub and cable-manager.
At Quirky, they actually are working with a bottomless pit of ideas. A community of internet denizens coughs out an idea and then they work together tirelessly to perfect the design like an army of termites building a dirt-skyscraper, only in this case the termites are you and me and the termite-mound is a handy computer peripheral.
The hub is ridiculously basic. The four ports occupy one side of a reel around which you wrap stray cables, keeping things tidy and tangle-free. The lone USB-plug sprouts from one end and swivels on its flexible TPE-rubber cord, dangling straight from the hole on the back or side of your computer. There are also four cut-out “anchor” points around the circumference to hook cables and keep them firmly tucked in.
Like any Quirky product, you need to pre-order and then, when enough people have committed, production begins. The Contort will cost you $30, and is ready to order right now.
Contort product page [Quirky. Thanks, Tiffany!]
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on October 29, 2010
DIY Friday: How to Make a USB Foot Pedal For Third-Hand Computing
Matt Richardson’s friend Lauren wanted a device to hold down the down arrow and physically scroll through Google Reader, like a sustain pedal on a piano. Matt built it for her using an old USB keyboard, wire, solder and a little DIY invention.
It’s surprising we don’t see foot pedals more often in mainstream desktop computing. They’re a natural, well-established interface: besides analog tech like pianos, drums, bikes or a spinning wheel, think of cars, table saws and electric guitars.
If you’re curious, there are plenty of commercial USB foot pedals available, mostly targeted for disabled users or industry-specific uses. For example, they’re extremely popular in professional digital voice transcription, often coming bundled with transcription or dictation software. These usually have three controls: play/pause (center), rewind (left) and fast-forward (right).
Musicians, too, continue to experiment with foot pedals: we’ve written about AirTurn’s Bluetooth sheet-music turner for iPad, with a special eye towards its potential for disabled users.
Other USB foot pedals are extraordinarily versatile and programmable. But because they aren’t a universal accessory marketed to mainstream users like a mouse or keyboard, all foot pedals tend to be expensive and often highly tailored to individual users’ needs.
Building a foot pedal yourself using a keyboard’s guts is one way to solve this problem. But I can’t help but wonder what a determined hacker could put together with an Arduino board, a weekend and a little imagination.
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on October 22, 2010
Thank You Apple, for Killing the Optical Drive at Last
You know what was the best news at yesterday’s Back to the Mac event? The MacBook Air’s Software Reinstall Drive, which finally spells the end of the clunky optical drive.
Apple likes to drop old tech as early as possible. The floppy drive is the classic example, and caused a fuss when it was left out of the original Bondi BLue iMac. FireWire has been on life-support these last few years, flickering in and out of existence on Apple’s portables. And while the original Air had no way to load a CD or DVD, you still had to use one via a slow and clunky DVD or CD Sharing feature which let you “wirelessly ‘borrow’ the optical drive of a nearby Mac or PC” to install software.
Now, though, it is possible to buy an Mac and never have to deal with spinning media again. Hell, you can’t even buy a MacBook Air with a hard-drive anymore: inside, the only thing that moves is the fan and the clicking trackpad.
So the bundled restore DVD has been replaced with a typically stylish USB stick, something that will certainly come to other Mac in the future. And good riddance to this battery-sucking, space-gobbling piece of legacy tech. Who needs it? Hell, it’s quicker to download a movie these days than it is to rip a DVD.
The one irony here is that the new iLife suite, also announced yesterday, is only available on DVD. Because iLife, unlike iWork, does not require a serial number for activation, there’s no download available. Maybe next year, iLife 12 will come on a USB stick, too.
What’s in the Box (MacBook Air) [Apple]
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on October 21, 2010
Owleye Solar Bike Lights Also Charge via USB
Owleye makes solar-powered bike-lights, but don’t worry if you forgot to leave one on the window-ledge all day – you can quickly juice the built-in li-ion batteries via USB.
The lamp in question is the catchily-named 1996-906. Like all Owleye’s other lights, it has solar-panel on the side which will provide enough charge for 90 minutes if left to soak in the photons for two-hours. LEave it in the sun for four hours and switch the 200-lumen LED to flashing-mode and you can enjoy six-hours of night-biking.
The trick here is that you don’t need to turn the house-lights on if its a cloudy day, or to charge the lamp overnight. With the 1996-906, you can just plug in to a handy USB-port or charger and juice it that way.
The idea is a good one – I hate buying batteries or even swapping-out rechargeables. The lights are also small, so you can keep them handy in a backpack or pocket. They’re not cheap, however. Online, this model is going for $80 a set. If you don’t need the USB option, Owleye makes cheaper, bulkier lamps starting at $20.
Owleye product page [Owleye via Urban Velo]
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Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on September 27, 2010
Boomer: A Rechargeable USB Bike-Light from Knog
I like Knog bicycle lights. They’re cheap, bright, tough and more-or-less waterproof, and their rubbery bodies make them as easy to mount on the bike as they are to toss in your bag. What I don’t like is buying batteries, whether they’re AAAs or button cells. That’s why I’m excited about the Boomer Rechargeable, a USB version of Knog’s 50-lumen Boomer.
The light was spotted by the good folks from Urban Velo on a trip to the recent Interbike show. The Boomer Rechargeable works like every other Knog lamp: a plastic core containing the electronics and LEDs is wrapped in a stretchy silicone cover. The difference is that when you slip the skin off this one, you see a USB plug which you can jack into a computer or charger. It could hardly be better for a commuter who rides to work on dark winter days.
The regular Boomer costs $35, so expect this to be a little more. The lamp isn’t yet live on the site, but (hopefully) will be soon.
Knog Boomer Rechargeable [Urban Velo]
Knog Boomer [Knog]
Photo: Urban Velo
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Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on September 23, 2010
Swimsense Stroke-Counter is Like a Nike+ for Swimmers
The Swimsense from Finis is like a bike computer for swimmers, only instead of counting wheel-revolutions, it counts strokes. The new wrist-mounted computer is waterproof (of course) and contains a motion detector which detects “stroke types, records the number of laps swum, total distance, calories burned, lap time, pace and stroke count.” Phew.
The smart part is that motion-sensor, which uses accelerometers to detect what kind of stroke you are swimming based on your arm movements, differentiating between the stately breaststroke, the blind backstroke, the all-conquering freestyle and the flailing, rescue-me-please-I’m-drowning butterfly. Combining this info with settings for the pool-length and your weight, age and gender, the Swimsense then presents a breakdown of what you have done in an online workout viewer. All you do is upload the data via USB.
My swimming is pretty much limited to splashing from the li-lo to the pool-bar, but the more sporting mermaids and mermen out there can add this to their Christmas list: the Swimsense will be $200 when it launches for the 2010 holiday season.
New Product: Swimsense [Finis Blog. Thanks, Jennifer!]
Swimsense product page [Finis]
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Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on August 31, 2010
USB Typewriter Replaces the Keyboard in Your PC
The clickety-clack of manual typewriters have long been replaced by PC keyboards and even that is now disappearing with touchscreens. But for those nostalgic about old-school manual typewriters, a hack lets you update and make them compatible with PCs.
Jack Zylkin worked for nine months to create the design and schematics for a USB-based typewriter that can replace the keyboard on your PC.
“Typewriters are alasting marvel of classicengineering and design,which are now a casualty of our disposable whiz-bang techno-culture,” says Zylkin who created this project at Hive 76, a hackerspace in Philadelphia. “I wanted to do something to make these beautiful machines relevant and useful again. I have seen machines that are 100 years old and still functional as the day they were made, why should I let them go to waste?”
Zylkin estimates it can take five to 10 hours to mod a manual typewriter, if users follow his instructions. But it seems pretty easy to do.
“Its a weekend project for when you are snowed in with no TV,” he says.
Zylkin posted the step-by-step guide to creating the USB typewriter on Instructables.com and his post is now featured as part of the site’s ongoing back to school contest.
Others have attempted the USB-typewriter hack before, says Zylkin, but those projects “involved endless jumbles of wires, a disemboweled keyboard circuit and a phalanx of momentary switches.”
The USB-typewriter hack isn’t an expensive project.
“On eBay, you can get a quality machine for anywhere between $30 and $60,” says Zylkin. “Sadly,the people who trade typewriters on ebay only want to saw the keys off and make jewelry out of them! What a waste! ”
So Zylkin suggests asking friends and family to get an old typewriter from the attic. He is offering $50 DIY conversion kits that include the printed circuit boards for the project.
But if all that’s too much work for you, Zylkin has some USB typewriters available on Etsy priced at $350 to $500.
See the short clip showing the USB typewriter at work:
Photo: Jack Zylkin
[via Hack a day]
Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on August 30, 2010
IPADock, The Mother of All Desktop Docks
IPADock. Its name may sound more like a place to keep your iRacehorses, but the curiously-capitalized accessory is probably the most useful desktop gadget ever. Plug it into a computer and you can charge and sync a pair of iPads, four iPhones, and various combinations thereof. A universal dock-port can be fitted with the adapter from any iPod, from Nano to Touch, and then things start to get even handier.
Stacked up around the back are slots for SD-cards, MemorySticks, CompactFlash cards and a three-port USB-hub. In short, pretty much anything you might want to dock on your desktop will be served by this surprisingly good-looking and compact device.
The price? $70, although you’ll be ordering it from Japan if you want one.
iPADock product page [Photofast via Cult of Mac's John Brownlee. Thanks, Pedro!]
Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on August 25, 2010
Nikon Digicam Doubles as Computer Projector
Nikon’s year-old S1000pj, a pocket-cam packing a projector, has just gotten updated. The new version improves the old in almost every way: it is smaller, cheaper and way more useful. It also comes in some pretty weird colors, like the lime-green seen above.
The original pj was little more than a novelty. You could project the images stored on the camera, but otherwise it was hard to say why you should pay $430 for it. The new pj has a pixel-count of 14MP, up from 12MP, and the screen has grown from 2.7-inches to 3-inches. Most of the controls are now accessed by touching this screen. The ISO is also rated up to a healthy ISO 6400, a number which we’re more likely to believe a year later, the zoom magnifies 5x and the video is recorded at 720p.
But you came for the show, right? The projector is now brighter, throwing out 14-lumens instead of 10, and you can now hook up the camera to a Mac or PC and use it as a projected display. You can also draw with a finger on the touch-screen and your scrawlings will be overlaid on the image. Great, clearly, for presentations.
The projector also rescues the useless slideshow function found in most digicams, letting you bore your guest with holiday photos without even lifting a finger. The price for this new pj is $350, or 350 ($550) or 414 ($535). Clearly you don’t want to buy this in the UK. Available September.
Nikon S1100pj [Nikon. Thanks, Geoff and Jenny!]
Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on August 17, 2010
Samsung Point-and-Shoot Has Flip-Out USB-Plug
To stand out in a commodity market, a new digicam needs a gimmick. And the Samsung PL90 has a gimmick so sensible and useful that it pops out and stands up to be seen. Literally.
Samsung’s new pocket camera comes with a USB-plug. Not a pathetic little mini or microUSB-plug either, but a full-sized connector which folds out, Flip-style, and hooks into your computer for both charging and image transfer. You should even be able to plug it straight into any USB-charger, meaning one less thing to carry on vacation.
Specs=wise, it comes in at the “pretty good” level, especially considering the $150 price-tag. You get a 29-116mm equivalent zoom, running from 2.8-6.5, which is frankly excellent for this class of camera. The 2.7-inch screen has a lowly 230,000-dots, the movie mode manages just 640 x 480 pixels and the sensor has far too many pixels, counting 12.2MP.
The camera is obviously for the point-and-shoot customer, and includes face detection, a self-portrait mode which detects when your face in in frame and in focus. It even caters for those people who never even upload their pics to a computer, and will sort pictures into smart albums depending on date time and color.
Available September. It would make a great gift for mom.
Company site [Samsung]
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Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on August 5, 2010
Daisy-Chaining USB Cables Add Endless Connections
I’m always running out of USB ports. The problem is even worse because I use a MacBook, which has a mere two holes, and those are so close together that anything larger than standard plug will block off both of them. Sure, I could buy a hub, but what about the more convenient option of forcing every manufacturer in the world to make this great Tandem USB connector?
Each plug offers its own socket at the rear so you can simply slot in another cable, daisy-chaining them until your USB port is drained of every last drop of power. It truly would make things a lot easier if all cables were like this, but I’d settle for a cheap set that I could buy myself. Sadly, the near-death of FireWire means that we don’t get to use the daisy-chaining that is built in to FireWire devices. Remember the hard-drives that had another port on the back for sharing?
Over at Yanko Design, where I found this IF Concept Design Award-winning device, writer Radhika Seth points out the one major flaw with this setup. What if you need to unplug the peripheral that sits in the middle of the chain?
The USB Lineup [Yanko. Thanks, Radhika!]
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Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on July 28, 2010
USB Power-Strip Controlled by PC
Is there any end to the innovation going into modern power-strips? (The answer is yes, probably, unlike my absurd enthusiasm for such things). The USB-Controlled Power-Strip continues the inventiveness by adding a second cable to the four-hole adapter.
This USB port isn’t for powering your devices. Rather, it plugs into your PC and lets you control the sockets from there, cutting and supplying power at the click of a mouse. Because you don’t have to get up to plug in the printer, the thinking goes that you won’t just leave it powered up all the time just for the odd once-a-month use.
Having the on-off switch in software has another advantage, too: automation. That same printer can be automatically fired up when you hit the print button, for instance, or you can put your PC to work powering lights on and off. With a little smart scripting, I’m sure you could use your cellphone to switch on the coffee machine. This efficiency comes with a cost, though. In order to save from this automation, you need to leave the PC on 24/7.
The strip itself is a good one. Each outlet has its own fuse, and the sockets are universal, accepting any plugs you might have. Given that most of your gadgets are from your home country, putting the universal part on the other end might make more sense for travelers.
The strip will go on sale in August for an unannounced mystery price.
Power USB [PWRUSB via Oh Gizmo!]
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Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on July 13, 2010
Tiny USB Mailbox Alerts You to ‘Deliveries’
I’m sure I’ll get slaughtered in the comments for posting about this piece of plastic junk, but it’s so damn cute I’m going to do it anyway. The plastic tat in question is the USB Mail Box Friends Alert from beloved crap-vendor Brando.
The little dongle looks like a tiny red US-style mailbox, and hooks up to a free USB port. Companion software monitors you mail account, your Twitter or your Facebook and lights red or green up to tell you there is an update. You can even have your computer play a little sound at the same time, and the plastic flag on the side will actually raise.
The software is Windows-only (Window 7, Vista and XP) but I’m sure some clever hacker can put together a plugin for the Growl notification system on the OS X. If I could have this hooked up to the Delivery Status app on my Mac dashboard, which monitors real, meatspace deliveries, and have it pop up a warning when a package arrives, then my $18 would already be on its way to Brando’s magic crap-factory.
USB Mail Box Friends Alert [Brando via Oh Gizmo]
Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on July 8, 2010
