Slashdot Mirror

Video over USB:
http://www.everythingusb.com/targus-usb-3.0-dual-video-adapter-21477.html

Audio over USB:
http://hifimediy.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=107

Controls over USB:
http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Technology-NA16029-Multimedia-Controller/dp/B003VWU2WA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375463450&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+volume+control

Show a picture of the side or rear of the device and it ceases to look anything like an iPad. Samsung has a long history of ripping off designs from other companies. RIM previously sued Samsung over a BlackBerry knockoff that Samsung endearingly called the BlackJack. Whether or not you agree such copying is wrong, legally or morally, there's no denying that Samsung borrows quite heavily from the designs of other companies and has done so for quite some time.

lol, whut?

damn, I only turned up toys... guess I've got another project for the todo list...

http://www.everythingusb.com/seagate-freeagent-xtreme-1.5tb-external-hard-drive-15790.html

This product seems to be "better" but it's also over $500. Thats certainly out of my price range and probably out of the price range for the majority. On the other hand it supports 128bit AES encryption. It supports HARDWARE encryption and you don't have to write down any passwords. I'd say it's a great external drive but once again $500+ for a 1.5TB drive?

Bigger drives have their purposes but overtime the bigger the drive the harder it is to organize all the data. If you know how to use regular expressions and desktop search you can solve the organization problem but then you end up with the problem of how to secure the data. You can encrypt the data with a password but to be secure it probably has to be written down which defeats the purpose. And none of these drives seem to be solid state drives. This means backing up files is usually slow as hell.

It's very useful to have 3TB backup. I'd say any serious user would need something like this, but it's better to go with speed and security for the price if you have to make a choice.

For example: http://www.everythingusb.com/microsoft-lifecam-vx-7000-14105.html

Or use a point-and-shoot with a webcam mode.

That said, you'll likely have to massively trade off frame rate for image quality, particularly when you're dealing with an embedded CPU doing the compression.

That's not what the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 FAQ seems to imply.

N/T.

But if you want a more detailed description, I'll acquiesce.

I've had 3 flash drives fail.

One failed because of cheap manufacture. The repeated use finally caused the solder to crack where the USB plug was mounted on the PCB. I was able to resurrect it with some careful soldering, but it eventually happened again, and I eventually wasn't able to get it working again. AFAIK, the actual device was fine, other than the loose plug. The body was made of cheap plastic, though, so it wasn't really a huge surprise.

The 2nd and 3rd flash drives that failed were a bit more of a disappointment. Apparently they had some sort of on-board firmware that got corrupted, because somehow they were totally bricked. The computer wouldn't even recognise that a device was plugged in. The blue LED would very briefly flicker when they were inserted, then nothing. I got the first one replaced under warranty, and when the same thing happened to the second one within a month, I basically said fuck this. I blame it on loose USB connectors in the lab computers I was using, but still - a loose connection shouldn't brick the device. Data corruption would be understandable, but the entire device dead? Not so much.

Also, the FLAC SourceForge page lists some portable/handheld players with FLAC support, but it's obviously not exhaustive since no Samsung players are listed.

There are these things called radio waves. They're used to transmit and receive data without the need for wires. You should try 'em, I've heard they're all the rage! I've even heard they can make the receivers/transmitters really small. Personally, I'm pretty sure this a just a fad.
STOP
I'll stick with my telegraph, thank you very much.
STOP

Creative MP3 players ship with virus
Apple Ships iPods with Windows Virus
Seagate Storage Units Ship with Virus
Sega Dreamcast console game spreads virus
Maxtor USB Hard Drives Ship Virus Infected
Digital photo frames ship with computer virus
Sony Ships Rootkit

I would guess that the added cost of creating a standard for doing this, putting the connectors in for this (versus soldering everything in) would make it not cost effective.

A Dell laptop can be found for $400-$500 entry level. If They are going to add the ability to put in a better video card, then they also need to allow for upgradeable power circuits (or do that from the beginning) to carry the draw of whatever video card you may put in. This would include the brick and any circuits on the mobo that may not be designed to carry such a load.

Then you have to account for the additional heat. So you either need to allow the user to upgrade the fans, or have the ability to cool the laptop for the hottest video card from the get go.

So how much more will that Dell cost to allow for all that? Would it be worth it to be able to upgrade, when in 6 months you are likely better off just buying a new laptop to get faster/bigger HDD, better LCD, faster CPU/RAM too? Would you have been better off just buying a laptop with a decent video card to begin with (at 2X the cost?)

If anything, I'd like to see a standard output jack that would allow me to plug in an external video card. I'd like a multimedia laptop ($1000 range) with a power saving video card built in, but a jack to allow me to game when I am at home.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/28/ati-to-release-power-hungry-external-video-card/
http://www.everythingusb.com/iogear_usb_2.0_external_video_card_12787.html

Unfortunately, you cannot use this under Linux until someone writes a driver. The monitor installs this driver via an autorun virtual CD drive when you first plug the USB connector in. SEE HERE.

Currently only Windows XP and Vista are supported. Can't say I blame them.

They can sound better if you have a good turntable with a good cartridge, a good preamp and amp, and good speakers that are capable of resolving the differences between digital and analog audio.

The ones I laugh at are the ones who get a USB turntable because they don't like digital sound and want the analog experiance.

They get better sound simply because most vinyl isn't in the loudness war to kill the dynamic range. A CD with about 96 DB of dynamic range should sould better than the about 65 DB dynamic range of a turntable. Unfortunately the advantage of the CD format is often engineered out to sound louder.

The irony is a USB analog turntable outputs a digital signal on the USB cable. Often the sample rate is the same as a CD. Even more often they are sold to the clueless without even listing the sample rate or bits. Quick, can you tell me if this is an 8 bit, 16 bit, 24 bit, sample size at 16K, 44.1, 48, 96, 128 Ksamples/sec?
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/mp3/90a0/
They advertise it on a geek website without posting the important specs.. Guys, what's the wow & flutter and rumble levels?

For me, I'm sticking to my 1980's moving coil linear track turntable with a good reciever plugged into a quality mixer (to set levels) which is then fed into a pro USB a/d converter. I capture at 96KHZ 24bit and downconvert to CD quality to burn CD's. It works for me.

Here is another USB turntable with no specs listed.
http://www.amazon.com/Ion-iTTUSB-Turntable-USB-Record/dp/B000BUEMOO
and another;
http://www.amazon.com/Numark-TTUSB-Turntable-with-USB/dp/B000G3FNVM

Here is one that is reviewed and the A/D stats are known..
The sound quality was as good as can be expected from old, scratchy records. The built-in audio card records 16-bit at 44.1khz
http://reviews.cnet.com/turntables/stanton-t-90-usb/4505-7860_7-32417457.html
Wow, no better than CD quality...

Some of these turntables get poor marks for their conversion to digital quality.
"The TTUSB10 as a Turntable
After my disappointing experience with the TTUSB10 USB turntable's recorded sound quality, I plugged it into the phono input in my stereo, hoping for some sweeter sounds. This time around, the TTUSB10 did not let me down: smooth, rich audio came through the speakers and my test headphones without a trace of the harsh digital noise that plagued my test recordings. It would be a bit of a waste of money just to buy it as a standard turntable, but if nothing else, the TTUSB10 makes for an excellent unit for playing your vinyl music collection on your stereo system."
  http://www.everythingusb.com/ion_ttusb10_usb_turntable_13231.html

If the defense doesn't succeed and "making available" becomes the standard for prosecution, I'm wondering what the limits will be.

I have a USB memory key that fits into an MP3 player. Back when MP3 players (and flash memory) were more expensive, I was able to buy the player for about $25 and use the 1GB memory key I already had.

I ripped a few albums onto the memory key and would listen to them on the plane when I was traveling. At a relatively low bit-rate, the MP3s took up very little space, so I just left them there as I used the memory key for moving data files to and from the clients I was working with.

At one point, I gave the memory key to a client to transfer a file. He took a long time to do it, so I checked back to see if something was wrong. I found him adding all my MP3's to his collection. I politely asked him to delete the files, and subsequently deleted the MP3's off my memory key.

So, did I "make [those files] available" to him by giving him a memory key that happened to have the files on it?

I can't find the exact article, but you should read this one about the effective USB 2.0 speed. It states that the effective maximum speed is only about 40MB/sec, and that 60MB/sec can't be achieved due to overhead/software limitations; not sure if this is true now.

These are much better looking....
1) http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/selfdestruct-bu tton-usb-hub-188135.php
2) http://www.everythingusb.com/usb_self-destruct_but ton_v2.html

Plus, these give functionality to those of us running an OS that doesn't require resetting regularly.

Haven't you read http://www.everythingusb.com/software.html ? The users doesn't have to install their programs every day...

A lot of programs can run from USB memory sticks, so you would get the best of all worlds. A clean install to get the machine running, and the users could use Thunderbird etc. without messing up the machine.

Flash drives are a case in point: my flash is several years old, but it is build far, far batter than the ones they sell today. It appears to be steel, and has a 1/4" coat of rubber that is stiff enougt to retain a fingernail impression for half and hour, but doesn't scratch at all. The keyring part is a rounded rectangle on the back, built the same as the rest of the body (instead of the delicate metal or plastic loop). The light is brighter than some flashlights.
The only problems: the cap is a separate piece, only 256MB, and transfer speed is pretty lame. But it's tiny size makes up for the speed, at least for me.

Mine:
http://www.everythingusb.com/images/list/sandiskcr uzermicro.jpg

Compare that to a new one:
http://www.easylaptopshop.co.uk/shopimages/product s/normal/sandisk-cruzer-mini-4gb.jpg

It so...flimsy. You can hold it in your hand an feel the cheap, plastic feel. Now, I admit that the Titanium series is good, but still not as good as the good ol' days.

Buy a cheap USB joystick and have it emulate a mouse using Joy2Mouse. It's quite similar to the buttons on some laptops, and is what I use at work. As for a keyboard, try one of those split keyboards, personally I like the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.

They can just run it off a thumbdrive ;o)

...does it have a watch? If not, I'll patent my own (referencing this one of course) that lets you sync the watch to the PC (and vice versa). Anyone else seen these plush drives from the same guys too?

You can see it from another site at http://www.everythingusb.com/news/index/6039.htm

That is slow for me, too, and the picture doesn't load at all. This article seems to be about the same thing: http://www.everythingusb.com/news/index/6039.htm

Here's another story about this keyboard from almost a year ago...

http://www.everythingusb.com/news/index/6039.htm

I reviewed this thing a month ago, and while the battery life and ergonomics are great, the wireless is problematic and the IM/Email notificiations while useful for telecommuters or people AFK only works with Outlook/MSN, not my cup of tea.

BTW how is this news if it was covered on Slashdot already?

I wonder if it can power my handy USB noodle strainer in space!

Don't miss the Full-Sped USB!
"The G7 and G5 are Logitechs first computer mice to leverage full-speed USB. "

Now checking on http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm , we find that
"Full Speed" refers to USB 1.1, while High-Speed (Or "Hi-Speed") refers to USB 2.

So Logitech are bragging about their USB 1.1 mice?

Just read a news release about ADS & now it seems Macpower having a solutions as well. http://www.everythingusb.com/ www.macpower.com.tw I can only find the specs on MP's M9! Has anyone come accross the specs for the Mini Mate or this ADS enclosure? Would love to know more details. Please let me know the url if you find it. I can only see a 3D drawing on the news sites?

You can see the layout here, if this thing is real that is.. the layout
and the same picture

As DpReview pointed out, they were not first

The Rio Riot was the first HD unit by Rio. I own one myself, and it was a terrific audio device until a mishap with a homebrew car docking cradle fried the system board. I attempted to fix it, but when it was apart, I accidently tore the thin plastic LCD connector (which had its "grain" perpendicular to the conductors, and thus tore in a way I can't repair). I really miss it for music, but the good side is that I now have a decent battery for "projects" and a 20-GB harddrive which I am trying to mate with my Sharp Zaurus SL-C860 PDA.

Sonic Blue, however, is horrible with support. They released very few software updates, and the device only worked with MusicMatch Jukebox. But the interface was awesome, and the sound quality was quite good for a portable unit.

The Xenarc screens are supposed to be better than the Lilliput screens FWIW. I've purchased a 7inch version with vid capability as well as VGA for under $400 off of EBAY.

I've been looking into this in order to monitor what's going on with my car's standalone EFI system. Since that EFI system's software allows me to build "dashboards" I can do LOTS of interesting displays. I have been collecting URLs and you can see pics of other's progress and discussion here -> http://forum.aempower.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=9604

Some URLs I've collected in no distinct order or organization:

http://www.logisysus.com/catalog/product_info.php? cPath=74&products_id=189
http://logisysus.com/catalog/product_info.php?prod ucts_id=334
http://www.kingyoung.com.tw/s620.htm
http://littlepc.com/
http://www.diamondsystems.com/
http://www.viaarena.com/
http://www.media-car.fr.st/
http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/index/Griffi n_RadioSHARK_AM-FM_Radio.htm
http://www.xmradio.com/xmpcr/ (I bought one, have added optical output, and have purchased TimeTrax!)
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvr usb_datashee t.htm> (have one on the way, thanks EBAY!)
http://store.karpc.com/cat-LCD-Touch-Screen--lcdmo nitor.htm
http://www.mp3car.com/
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy2NX/
http://www.carbotpc.com/products/
http://www.powerstream.com/DC_PC.htm
http://www.powerstream.com/mini-itx.htm
http://www.media-car.fr.st/
http://drivesoft.net/
http://www.gnetcanada.com/
http://www.lighttek.com/talisman.htm
http://skylab.org/~chugga/mpegbox/MPBS1/
http://www.compucar.be.tf/
http://www.autonode.com/ig710specs.html?
http://www.trc12volt.com/
http://www.intraplexcorp.com/tx3.asp
http://www.sfftech.com/
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/
http://www.dashmatics.com/forum/faq.php

Hopefully some of those will be of help to others considering this sort of thing, I'd be interested in working with others to research this! My plans are to mock up something with the touchscreen and front-end software working with the WINTV, XM PCR, my MP3 collection, GPS mapping, the RLTC software, and my AEM datalogging software. IF it works well (or even halfway well) THEN I'll buy hardware to put IN the car. No sense spending the money if the interface turns out to suck or be too distracting while driving. I'll likely be able to play DVDs too but honestly that's pretty se

From my reading of the question, it looks like the "other device" is a USB slave device, and the author wants to make a USB host to connect to it. If you can find me a USB host device that lets me speak RS232 to a USB-only slave, please, speak up!

On a somewhat related note, Delkin and Macally have USB bridges which play host to two devices simultaneously, shuffling files back and forth.

This site will interest most(all?) of Slashdot readers:
http://www.everythingusb.com/
.

How is about developing & using this kind of device instead of pci/agp cards? That might be able to support more "terminals"...

if there is a linux driver for this

cool looking $180 bug ridden coastermaker, troubled software included won't recognize some brands of media, including some maxwell disks I went and got lots of. It comes with direct cd maker which it tells you not to use because it has bugs, and the other software included is an old version of adaptek which has frequent burning errors turning media into coasters, a real dissapiontment From Jacob Zammito, July 15, 2001

Whenever you buy a computer you trust and have faith in a lot of companies (those same companies that everyone hates because they're globalising). You trust that any manufacturing fault would occur on all units produced, and so other people would complain. What if just your one is manufactured bad?

It was a cheap £30 ($45) webcam - his site says a "ToUcam" webcam from phillips (Possibly This one

And it transfers with USB 2.0, which is both faster than the iPod's FireWire, and is also more commonly available on the PC platform.

I don't want to throw a monkeywrench in here, but I might as well try:

How is USB 2.0 support more ubiquitous for x86 in terms of OS-level support? I was under the impression that it's still being tweaked for Linux (but it's there) and that Windows support was confined to Windows 2000 and XP. At least, that's the impression I get from the Microsoft KB. For other x86 operating systems, I have no clue.

Somehow, I suspect FireWire support is (potentially) a bit more common, though it does require additional hardware for most x86 PCs. Beat me with a stick, but I seem to recall there being FireWire support in the OS for earlier versions of Windows, so at least it's an option (where it isn't with USB 2.0).

I also suffer from the delusion that USB 2.0 requires USB 2.0 hardware ports for full transfer rates. I would think most consumers are still stuck with USB 1.1 interfaces and so, with sub-optimal transfers relative to FireWire.

So, how is it more commonly available on the PC platform again?

The IBM Microdrive is a CF form factor hard drive with sizes from 350MB to 1GB. Maybe that's what you found in your pocket?

Or maybe it was a USB hard drive?

Or maybe, since it has onboard ethernet, you could just have it nfs mount its root directory?