Tag: Computing

Geared towards schools and businesses, Nexcopy’s modular 60-port USB duplicator is a Windows-based device that allows for quick and easy data distribution. It’s perfect for making a ton of copies of Linux distros, or perhaps copying student submissions in one go.

Currently in beta, Phoenix Freeze is a program that allows users to use thie Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones as “keys” to their computers. After pairing your computer with your phone, Phoenix Freeze will automatically lock the computer as you go away from the computer, and it will unlock the computer as you go nearer.

This Blaster 4-port USB hub is a minor fail. I mean, it’s cool that it transforms into a laptop (which you can then connect to a real laptop); it’s just that Blaster doesn’t transform into a laptop.

Fresh off the docks – or however gadgets are shipped from China – this slightly weird but nonetheless useful device, a HDD enclosure with a built-in media player. The aluminum enclosure is compatible with 3.5″ SATA drives and even has a built-in fan to ensure your hard disk stays (relatively) cool.

Welcome to the latest edition of Why? Why not?, where we look at concepts and creations that exist for no real reason. Yes folks, I’m talking about products of democracy, of free will, and most of all of too much free time.

I love pocket-sized gadgets – I like to think of my PSP as cargo pants-pocket sized – but recently we’ve seen stuff that could fit in your pocket’s pocket, if it had one. Here we have yet another pocket-pocket-sized device, the appropriately named Nubbin from MvixUSA.

If the Mac Mini’s 5 USB ports are still somehow not enough for your needs (and you don’t have one of these), then get one of these bad boys. As you can see, you can connect this multi-ported monstrosity to 2 computers, but they can only access the hub one at a time.

Brando, producer of gadgets that are mostly devoid of sense, is at it again with their latest flash drive, the “jewel bug necklace flash drive.” Look at all the shiny plastic. Brando is kind enough to include a chain so that you can make a necklace with the bug as its pendant, although why anyone would do so is beyond me.

It doesn’t take a genius to predict that over time, gadgets will be cheaper compared to their predecessors, and they’ll have improved performance as well. And that’s basically what Ars Technica’s 5-page 2009 flash drive roundup reveals: today’s flash drives are cheaper and perform better compared to the ones available in 2005.

From Active Media Products – the folks who make the Obama Drive – comes another gimmicky storage device, the Panda flash drive. But at least this time it’s for a cause: 5% of the flash drive’s retail price goes to the panda-loving World Wildlife Fund.

What shape do you associate with style? Scimitar Computers claim that pyramids = hip & stylish, and so they’re claiming that their handmade pyramid-shaped computer cases are “the solution to the conundrum of how to be a computer nerd and hip and stylish at the same time.”

Seagate recently announced their take on Apple’s Time Machine + Time Capsule combo: an external hard drive that provides effortless automated backups. The backup device is called Replica, which is both what it makes and also what it is.

You’ve probably seen EagleTec’s Nano flash drive, a gadget that redefines “Nano” in terms of gadget size. The iPod Nano’s nanoness cannot compare to the EagleTec Nano’s. What could possibly be more awesome than a tiny flash drive?

Wanna know who fills the hardware needs of covert operatives? Fujitsu. The company will deny it of course, but the sharp eyes over at GetUSB just released some top-secret info regarding Fujitsu’s prototype USB flash drive that can erase the data it contains after a set amount of time, or if someone attempts to copy or transfer the data to an “unauthorized workstation or server”.

Ah, good old Ctrl+Alt+Del: it’s the Heimlich Maneuver of PCs. It’s a key combination used so often one wonders why there’s no single CtrlAltDel button yet for quick resets. And then one realizes that such a button already exists and that it is called the power switch.

If you have a small computer desk, it would be better if you used a trackball instead of an ordinary mouse. Says the guy who still uses a 3-inch mouse. Anyway. Apparently trackballs are very comfortable and can greatly reduce the strain on your wrist.