Radio USB

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By David Ponce

Dongle dongle on the wall, who is the dongle-est of them all? If you’re asking me, I’d have to settle on this simple gadget from, uh, Thanko, I think: the Radio USB. It’s an FM transmitter that already comes loaded with the appropriate drivers, so all you have to do is insert in your laptop or computer and you can instantly broadcast an FM signal. You can select the frequency through the included software.

The point? Go to a groovy bookstore that likes to stick the radio to, say, soft rock, then innocuously sit someplace with your laptop. Set the transmitter to the radio’s frequency, hijack the station and replace KD Lang with “Beautiful People”. Then, watch rich pampered folks’ expressions. It’s good for a laugh or two.

Before you start screaming and say you could do the same thing with an iPod and an FM transmitter, I’d have to say to you to be quiet. That no one wants to hear that defeatist blittle blattle. And that, strangely, there are people with laptops… and no iPods.

Now, I’m looking at the site, and it’s replete with all these alien ideograms, instersperced with occasional numbers. It could also be Japanese. In any case, I’m not able to figure out if there’s any room left for storage on this little $25 dongle. Maybe someone can give a crack at it, here.

Story VIA Akihabara.

Update: Forget all about my guerilla warfare. Instead, please start a “Save David’s Brain From Total Meltdown” fund… See, I don’t read stuff. In this case, I should have read that it’s a “receiver”… and not a “transmitter”, making this a completely, totally different piece of technology… I’m going to go die now.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Nice gadget this one, but as for the screens, it looks more like an FM receiver than a transmitter… And it also would make more sense that way…

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