By David Ponce

As Uncrate points out, being the “world’s first” often results in your having to charge an obscene amount for your wares. That said, we kind of like Imation’s wireless USB hard drive, if only because once again, any effort to ditch wires is welcome by us. Featuring transfer speeds of 15MBs/second and a range of 30 feet, the drive can store up to 1.5TB of whatever you think worthy of keeping around. If your main workstation is a mobile computer you can see how this setup can be useful as you won’t have to actually walk to your drive and tether your computer every time you want to back something up.

Sadly, ditching the wires on your external drive will cost you a pretty $450.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

Besides the themed packaging that just screams Disney, the only thing that brands these USB to USB-mini cables as coming from the ‘house of mouse’ is their non-beige/black/grey colors, and a plastic molded Cars/Princess/Mickey/Toy Story/Stich design on one end of the cable. But surprisingly even though they are tied to Disney, they’re each still a rather reasonable $7 from online stores like Brando. So I guess the only branding that leads to unreasonable overpricing is the term ‘Monster.’

[ Disney USB Cables ] VIA [ Chip Chicklets ]

I’d like to make a comment about how in this day and age of modern technology and electronics it’s sometimes nice to just sit back and listen to an old-fashioned radio, but this USB stick AM/FM tuner is pretty much useless without a laptop, so forget that idea. It does however allow you to record radio broadcasts with its included software to be later enjoyed on your MP3 player, and since the flash drive doesn’t even include any storage space, I guess that’s pretty much it… Price TBD.

[ Logitec USB Radio Tuner ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

And now for something completely useless for those of you who like a whole bunch of extra crap running on their PCs, and every single USB port to be used. The Disney/Pixar Cars USB Email Alert connects to your PC and will alert you as to when a new email arrives with Cars sound effects and light-up features. It does require you to install an extra piece of software and login to your email, whether it’s Gmail, Yahoo or any POP3 account, and the device is available in your ‘favorite’ Cars characters like Lightning McQueen, Mater, Doc Hudson and a few others you’ve probably already forgotten. $33 from USB.Brando.com.

[ Disney Cars USB Email Alert ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

While I certainly applaud the concept behind festooning random gadgets with solar cells, I have to question how useful it actually is. I mean, even with dedicated solar chargers with lots of panel area you have to make a special effort to leave them out in the sun for them to be useful. Still, I guess hypothetically a little tiny solar cell that spends most of its time in your pocket is better than no solar cell at all. This particular befestooned gadget is a USB key called the Sun Drive, available in capacities of 2^1 gigs, 2^2 gigs, 2^3 gigs, and 2^4 gigs. The solar cell and associated battery make it way fatter and less convenient than it needs to be, but fully charged, it can give your cell phone an extra 100 minutes of talk time or power one of those budget MP3 players for an additional 35 hours through some kind of interface that looks suspiciously non-friendly.

The biggest redeeming factor of the Sun Drive is the fact that it starts off at only $23, so worst case, you just end up with an overpriced flash drive, and best case, you get useful little portable and eco-friendly gadget charger.

[ AVing (Translated) ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Chris Scott Barr

The era of USB 3.0 will soon be upon us. Devices are slowly being talked about, and compatible motherboards being announced. Of course unless you’re planning on building a new machine in the near future, you’ll either have to live with your old 2.0 ports, or buy an add-on card. Asus has announced such a card that not only gives you two of the latest USB ports, but also a pair of SATA 6.0 ports.

The card allows you to experience the full power of both new standards, provided you have a free PCI-E port on your motherboard. Sure, it’s probably still a little early to really start thinking about USB 3.0, but this is a case where I really don’t see an issue with it. The card is only $30 (USB 2.0 cards were at least twice as much when it came out) and you’re going to get SATA 6.0 ports to boot. According to Asus, the card will be out “soon.”

[ Asus ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

There are lots of ways to charge USB devices on the go using disposable or rechargeable batteries, but none of them are as small or as cheap as this DIY one. It’s basically just a female USB connector stuck to the top of a 9v battery, with a voltage regulator in the middle to make sure that there’s only 5 volts coming out. Total cost? If you have a soldering iron and a scrap female USB cable, the voltage regulator will run you about $1.59 plus tax at RadioShack (which I refuse on principle to call “The Shack” like they want me to). The real beauty of this thing is that you don’t have to use a 9v battery. You could use a whole series of D batteries, for example, and go on vacation for a month with your iPod.

Now, yes, you do have to know how to solder if you want to make one of these yourself. But seriously, soldering is easy. And it’s fun! You get to MELT METAL! You can pick up a basic soldering set at The Shack for all of eight bucks, and there are a bazillion beginner guides online (try Instructables or even YouTube). So, have a fun afternoon and learn a useful skill while making a handy little gadget at the same time. Or, you can always just do it with glue, you wimp.

[ AnythingButiPod ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

Thanks to the likes of Brando and other companies, USB microscopes are plentiful and easy to find these days. But being tethered to your PC with a USB cable limits where they can go. Not this wireless model though, the only limit of where you can use it is your imagination… and possibly good taste.

It uses a 2.4GHz wireless signal with a switch on the cradle/wireless receiver for choosing one of 4 channels, and the optics are able to magnify whatever it is you’re looking at from 10-200x. It’s also got a ring of 8 white LEDs around the ‘lens’ for added illumination, a built-in Li-ion battery that charges when placed in the cradle, and is available from ThinkGeek for $139.99.

[ Wireless USB Digital Microscope ]

For just $18 Brando will sell you a USB Foot Switch that comes with software allowing it to reproduce any keyboard shortcut when you tap your foot. Now off the top of my head I can’t really think of a keyboard shortcut I’d need to pass off to my foot, but since you can connect more than one switch to any given PC I assume there has to be the potential for something useful here. Internet? I pass the buck to you to figure out what it is.

[ USB Foot Switch ] VIA [ Pocket-lint ]

By David Ponce

October 22nd is just around the corner and with it the launch of Windows 7. Retarded promotional videos aside, this OS has a few people excited as it might actually not suck. So if you’re thinking of buying a new PC running the new OS but are afraid you’ll have to painstakingly transfer all “user accounts, Windows settings, files and folders, pictures and photos, MP3s and other music, videos, program settings and program data, and e-mail messages, settings, and contacts” to the new PC, Belkin’s got you covered with this Easy Transfer Cable. Designed to work with Windows 7’s Easy Transfer utility, it’ll simply automate the entire process. Plug one end to the old PC, another to the new and run the included software.

Once the transfer done, a post migration report is generated, which gives you a comprehensive view of everything that was transferred. Because of possible incompatibility issues, programs and applications are not transferred to the new computer. Instead, the utility provides a list of all the programs and applications that were installed on the old PC along with links to the latest versions of the programs if they are provided by the software developer.

The cable is about $33 and available in North America starting October 23rd. Q1 in Europe and Asia.

[ Amazon Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmag ]