This USB Hurricane Lamp plugs directly into one of your computer’s spare USB ports.  It does not require batteries to operate or special drives to install.

Once it’s connected and powered the lamp will illuminate your surroundings as it cycles through seven different colors.

The lamp uses LED bulbs which draw less power from your computer.

It’s available from uxsight.com for $9.69 by clicking here.

A lot of people are going to a laptop only computing experience.  There are even some that are going to a netbook only experience as a netbook is all they need.  Sometimes, however, it is nice to have a screen that is bigger than what a netbook can provide.  The same can be said about the touchpad and the keyboard.  Wouldn’t it be nice to plop your laptop or netbook down and have it attached to a 24 inch LCD?  That’s where this dock comes in. Continue Reading

How small is too small? When you’re talking about USB drives, The Active Media Wink might just be there.

Small enough that you will most certainly want to keep its included key chain looped through the drive’s hole to keep from dropping it when inserting or removing from a USB port, the Wink is available in denominations up to 16GB.

Prices start at $7.95 for 2GB, and you can expect to pay $37.95 for the 16GB.

The Wink is available from Amazon.

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USBFever is a great site with a wealth of USB devices for sale; pretty much everything that you could want that plugs into a USB port (and many items that don’t), from memory sticks to sync/charge cables to hubs.  But they go well beyond the “usual” USB gadgets into the well… odd.  I often shake my head at some of the items they have, which are mostly (but not always) USB-powered and often (but not always) utterly gratuitous.  Sure, they’re fun and could possibly be useful in a particular situation; they just don’t have the obvious usefulness of most USB items. — and maybe that’s the appeal.  You’d be hard pressed to truthfully say you need this stuff, but it’s easy to want it.  Take for example, some of their newest items:

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Blue Microphone has introduced their first THX certified USB Microphone.

The legend of the Yeti continues with the most advanced and versatile multi-pattern USB microphone roaming the wild today. The Yeti features tools and recording capabilities usually requiring multiple microphones and devices, all with the simplicity of a plug and play USB microphone.

Unlike the Icicle adapter I reviewed earlier, this microphone has a headphone port on the bottom.  This one also has 3 capsules arranged such that you can select the specific patten you would like between Cardoid, Omni Directional or Bidirectional.  This looks like a perfect Mic for those who do solo podcasts.  The Yeti will be available in December at a MSRP $149.99.  It will be sold by Apple,  CompUSA, Fry’s Electronics, Guitar Center, other fine pro-audio and consumer electronics retailers and online at Amazon.com.

So you have Windows 7 and you are all fired up about installing it on your netbook. The problem is that your netbook doesn’t have a CD or DVD player built in which means that DVD media that Windows 7 comes on is pretty much a coaster. You can solve the problem by popping $80-90 bucks on an external drive, but what if you could make that 4GB USB flash drive do the magic for you? Well you can, and it is pretty straight forward to do. All you need is a 4GB or bigger USB flash drive, a little bit of patience and your Windows 7 media.

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Whether you’re running a small business or a small household there’s probably one area – data backup – where you’re not paying close enough attention. Just yesterday I had a client who hadn’t backed up their server in well over a month. While a lack of backup is great business for consultants and data recovery businesses it’s really a bad idea to leave yourself vulnerable to a hard drive crash. Many of my clients have started touse inexpensive USB drives such as these from HP to make quick backups to supplement their regular nightly system backup. While these drives serve as great supplemental storage for images and media they’re also a great way to create a backup by plugging in the drive and dragging off  files or directories you need to backup.

HP Personal and Pocket Media Drive Sale via GearSponsor Logicbuy

Mini Cooper USB Drive – Special for Mini 50 years old

To celebrate Mini Cooper’s 50th birthday, ZeroBasic will launch a special edition Mini Cooper USB drive at the end of October, with union jack painted, and ‘50′ on the roof. Limited edition of 2000 pcs produced. Memory size ranging from 2GB to 8GB.

Mini is a registered trademark of BMW AG. Licensed by British Motor Heritage Limited. Licensing Agent LMI. Manufacturer: Redismo Fine Products Ltd.

Visit www.cooperusb.com or www.zerobasic.com for more information and products.

For $36 you get not only a comb but a 2GB USB storage drive. Who’d want one of these – and more important why? Which brings me to my main question about this item. Is there any good reason for turning a comb into a combination USB drive and hair care tool? Now if you could plug the comb into the USB port, have it heat, and then use it as a pseudo curling iron. Then you’d have something.

2GB USB Comb via Raw Feed

Mophie, the company known for it uber-popular external batteries the Juice Pack and the Juice Pack air, has released some new charging accessories which work with USB compatible devices.

Three of the new items stand out:

The Low Profile USB Car Charger, which sells for $14.95, is very slim and should remain relatively unnoticeable in your car’s dash.

The Hybrid Wall and Car Charger, which sells for $24.95, combines a car charger along with a standard wall charger.  The wall charger’s prongs rotate 270 degrees to ensure you’ll be able to plug it in anywhere.

And finally, the Dual USB Wall Charger, which to me looks the coolest, allows you to charge two USB compatible devices simultaneously. It sells for $19.95

You can check out all the new devices on the Mophie web site.

Last year Judie reviewed the Altec Lansing Orbit speaker.  It was a interesting speaker that can be used with any device sporting a normal 3.5 mm headphone jack.  The downside to using such a speaker with a laptop is that the internal sound card in most laptops can be a bit noisy.

Altec Lansing recently sent me a sample of their  Orbit USB iML237 speaker. It solves the sound card issue perfectly.   Continue Reading

If you have a netbook then you know it can be a pain at times to use, thanks to the smaller keyboard and display.  Kensington has released two new docking stations that use DisplayLink technology to add a VGA or DVI monitor to your netbook and more.  The only thing you’ll have to connect to your netbook is a single USB cable, instead of connecting a monitor cable and some USB cables.

The K33926US supports driverless install, where the K33930US will require the installation of a driver.  Prices will be $129.99 for the K33930US model that supports the Mac and Windows, and $149.99 for the K33926US which is Windows only.  The K33926US is now available, and the the K3390US is available for preorder through Kensington.

This 4-port USB aeroplane does more than connect up to 4 of your USB peripherals to it’s fuselage. This nifty hub also makes airplane noises through a speaker located in the plane’s underside. The fan really works and could be useful for those offices that are always just a little too hot. Only $12.99 and the USB ports are 2.0 but do not seem to be powered so don’t try plugging any power hungry gadgets into these ports or the plane may lose an engine and crash.

USB Aeroport 4-port USB Hub – $12.99

Need an easy way to lock partitions your hard drive so others using your PC (like the kids) don’t go in and delete all of your cherished photos, your music library, or just flat out crash the computer?  Want to painlessly restore your PC when your buddy “accidentally” visits a site full of nasty viruses and malware?  USB Fever’s Windows IceBox aims to make it just a bit easier for you in a convenient USB dongle.

Just plug in the Windows IceBox to an available USB port and software is automatically launched to let you customize exactly what you want to protect — or freeze.  If something is lost or if you find your computer plagued with malware, just reboot the computer and plug in the USB dongle — you’ll be able to easily restore back to the computer’s previous working, problem-free state.  At under $20, the Windows IceBox USB dongle looks like it would be a great gift for for someone who just needs an easy way to keep their computer problem free (without relying on you for tech support ).

USB Fever – Windows IceBox (Freezer) – $18.99

Altec Lansing announces a new addition to the Orbit line of small speakers.  This one is different in that it uses a USB connection to attach to your laptop avoiding the noisy integrated sound card in most laptops.  The USB connection also powers the speakers so you don’t need yet another adapter to carry on your next business trip.  The Altec Lansing Orbit iML237 is available for $49.95 from Amazon.com.