But those with older-generation laptops have been left out in the cold. No multitouch gestures for them. Until now.

The USB Multi-Touch Smart Pad is a simple peripheral that adds multitouch gestures to any computer. Just plug in the USB connector, and you can use two or three fingers to scroll, zoom, rotate, switch windows, and more. As a nifty bonus, the Smart Pad can also use its touch-sensitive trackpad as a numeric keypad, something that desktop users often miss when switching to a laptop.

The only catch is that the Smart Pad doesn’t work with Macs — only PCs. Then again, now that the Magic Mouse has come, Mac users really have no need for an additional multitouch device, do they?

The Multi-Touch Smart Pad is on sale now at ThinkGeek for $39.99.

Image: ThinkGeek.

Post from: EveryJoe

Multi-Touch Smart Pad

Genius, right? I mean, how many peripherals do we all use that are powered by plugging into a computer via a USB cord? Exactly! So why bother your computer every time you need to power-up your iPod, when you could just plug right into the wall?

FastMac.com is selling the “TruePower UCS Power Outlet” for pre-order, with shipping expected to start in January ‘10 (after it passes that pesky UL Approval for safety). The best part? It’s priced at just $10. Come on, at that price you could put one of these bad boys in every room in your house.

Image: FastMac.

Post from: EveryJoe

Power outlet + USB ports: genius!

If I’m going to be looking at replacing a portable drive, why don’t I just plan on upgrading from my 2GB Cruzer Titanium drive to the OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro™ model. It’s the first multi-combo interface device that requires no external power and offers a full terabyte of storage space.

The storage explosion, as well as the affordability of that storage, is absolutely amazing to me. About 6 years ago I purchased my 2GB Cruzer Titanium drive for about $80 if I remember correctly.

Now the 1TB drive is available for just over 3x that amount. A full terabyte. If you’re not sure what that equates to, let’s just say you could more than likely store your entire DVD collection on the device and most radio stations could hold every song they ever play on it.

The Mercury On-The-Go Pro has connection options for FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, USB 1.0. Various versions of the device allow you to choose the one that will work best for you.

The other great feature of the Mercury On-The-Go Pro is that it doesn’t require an external power supply. That always makes carrying it around a much easier affair. If it weren’t for that the AC adapter would probably be about the same size and weight as the entire drive.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a PC or Mac person either. The Mercury On-The-Go Pro will work with both, giving you plenty of room for all those spreadsheets or video edits you’ve been working on all week.

Images: OWC Product website

Post from: EveryJoe

OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable Drive

The iTwin requires no installation, and no logins or passwords because each time the two halves are separated, a unique crypto-key is created and only the two “Twins” know this key. And should you need to sever the connection, all you have to do is unplug  your end of the device from your USB.

The iTwin is currently planned only for Windows-based machines (which may seem like a snub for Mac users, until you remember that two Macs can already communicate with one another easily). No word on whether the company has future plans to allow two different kinds of OSes to connect to each other, which would be a true holy grail of connectivity.

The iTwin will be priced at $99 when it releases in the first half of 2010.

Image: A*Star Singapore.

Post from: EveryJoe

iTwin connects 2 PCs via USB

They have broadband Internet at the house and have it run into a wireless switch which they’re able to use successfully. His office is located across the street at the church. Luckily the office is on the front side of the church that’s closest to the house. They have a wi-fi antennae hooked up that grabs the wi-fi signal from the house and amplifies it and then sends it into the office via a USB cord.

They’ve gotten a USB splitting device that they’re trying to plug the antennae in on one end. Then run USB cables from his desktop and another computer into the splitter on the other end. Their challenge was that they needed a USB Male A to USB Male A adapter to get things to plugin correctly.

I still don’t think this setup will work because of the functionality of the USB and needing to register the devices separately. Does anyone have experience doing this type of thing?

Image: sxc.hu

Post from: EveryJoe

Splitting a USB Wi-Fi Device

To satisfy your data storage needs and your sweet tooth, try this Popsicle Drive, which is available in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB flavors.

I’ve always thought “carabiner” was a weird word. Isn’t it just an odd word for a little claspy hook thing? Even if it’s a strange word, carabiners come in mighty handy. Brando’s 4GB Carabiner is even more useful, and comes in six different colors.

Available only for bulk purchasing, Vavolo’s 2GB Gold Brick is perfect for those who value status above all else. Bet you Donald Trump has a hundred of ‘em.

If your inner geek needs a little love, you can’t get much cooler than this 2GB Transformers Drive, which actually transforms from a standard sized thumb drive into a tiny Decepticon named Ravage. The downside: at $43 it’s pricey, and it won’t be available to own until September.

Green is the new cool. It may not be shiny or eye-catching, but the Recycle Drive is sure to keep Al Gore and those tap-dancing penguins off your back. It’s made up of recycled newspapers, making it perhaps the world’s greenest USB Flash Drive. It comes in sizes that range between 512MB and 16GB.

Post from: EveryJoe

5 crazy cool USB Flash Drives

Employers can download Audit Trails and take the records to their computer to see which employees have been entering and exiting, and when. The device also comes with optional USB Fingerprint Scanner management software, which allows you to scan fingerprints directly from your computer and then set access controls for each individual.

These things are undoubtedly cool, but they always make me think of those TV shows and movies where somebody gets their hand or finger cut off by the bad guys, to gain access…

Image: Brick House Security.

Post from: EveryJoe

USB Fingerprint Lock

The USB 3.0 spec, aka “SuperSpeed USB,” claims that it will offer 4.8Gbps transfers, allowing for everything from crazy-fast file dumps to 1080i HD video streams to external monitors. Like the USB 2.0 specification before it, USB 3.0 will be 100% backwards compatible with prior USB hardware, but you’ll need 3.0 hardware on both ends to achieve the highest transfer speeds.

Image: USB Implementer’s Forum, Inc.

Post from: EveryJoe

USB 3.0 coming later this year

These are very cool drives however, I find it expensive for its 2GB capacity. The thumb drives cost $43 and ships in September. You can add $2 to upgrade to "Collector’s Grade,’ which guarantees that the package is 90 percent mint or better. What?

Anyways, if you are a hardcore transformers fan, grab yourself a thumb drive.

The pre-order is big bad toy store.

Image from big bad toy store.

Post from: EveryJoe

Transformers USB Drive

Gdium Netbooks from EMTEC

The Gdium has the smaller form factor, light-weight and a 10″ screen that displays 1024×600 resolution. It’s also completely based on open source software. What makes the Gdium unique though is that it also comes with the G-key to allow users to travel in more lightly with all of their information in tact.

Unique to the Gdium is the G-Key, a bootable USB key on which the Linux operating system, applications and personal data are stored. The G-Key allows each user to store their personal information and preferences securely, without leaving a trace on the computer.

I like this idea, but I’ll be honest I’m still not sure if the ultra-light, super-portable computer is something really for me. I don’t travel a lot anymore, and when I do it’s usually just to be onsite with clients. The work I’m doing onsite is development work and web site and application design. I need a full-size screen, I usually carry around a 2nd monitor (which I’d like to replace with this), a portable 320GB hard drive, and my Logitech VX Nano notebook mouse. Travelling light really isn’t a big deal for me.

My other challenge is keeping things synchronized. I’m too the point now where I do just about everything on my single laptop and have forgotten about trying to synchronize anything with my personal desktop or sometimes even the server at the office. The G-key is interesting solution though. I could work on my computer as normal, but if I ever needed to travel without it, I could pull the key and boot-up on another machine with no problems and feel like I was working on “my” machine.

What do you think?

Post from: EveryJoe

EMTECH – Gdium Mobile Netbook