Home & Small Office Computer Guide

If you’re in the market for a new cell phone or mobile phone then this will certainly interest you.

Wirefly an online leader in one-stop comparison shopping for cell phones and wireless service plans, today released its current list of best-selling cell phones. Of the 10 most popular phones going into the holiday shopping season, the top 7 are camera phones.

The top ten are:

1. Motorola RAZR V3 (Camera Phone)

2. Motorola E815 (Video and Camera Phone)

3. Samsung PM-A740 (Camera Phone)

4. Motorola V330 (Video and Camera Phone)

5. Audiovox 8910 (Camera Phone)

6. Motorola V220 (Camera Phone)

7. Motorola i850 (Camera Phone)

8. Motorola i710

9. Motorola V188

10. Motorola V260

After my wander into the world of the weird and whacky as it relates to USB I thought I should hurry up and make sure that you understood that this really was a serious technical blog.

And so to prove my bona fides I offer you this - it’s known as the Monster Drive and it really does offer some serious data storage and transfer capabilities.

The Monster Drive is made by US Modular and the base model - a 2GB version costs about the same as a 512MB flash drive.

It fits in the pal of your hand and has enough storage capacity to hold around 600 MP3s or over 350 photos.

It also comes in 4GB and 6GB versions and can be used with Windows or Macintosh without the need for any drivers.

And for the ultra techno geeks here are the technical specs:

2GB, 4GB and 6GB high-capacity, high-performance USB Portable Pen Drive
Industry standard USB 2.0 interface

Reliable storage performance for any device with a USB port, including PCs, digital media players, handheld computers & other portable devices

Low power consumption

1500G shock resistance rating

Ultra lightweight & compact (weight 16 grams)

Media type: Glass

Rotational speed: 4,200 RPM

Media transfer rate: 52.4-99.6 Mbits/sec

Transfer rate: 3.3-6.5 Mbytes/sec

Seek time (avg.): 10 msec

Error rate (unrecoverable): 1 per bit

Head load/unload cycles: 300,000

Voltage: 3.3/5.0 VDC +/- 5% Auto Detect

Current (write): 275 mA

Current (idle): 18 mA

Dimensions: 42.8 X 36.4 X 5.0 mm

Temperature: 0° to 65° C operating

Relative humidity: 8 to 90% operating

Shock (half sine): 175G (2ms) operating

Vibration (swept sine): 1G 0-pk (5-500 Hz) operating

You can find out more about the company behind the product and some of their other state-of-the-art storage devices here

And you thought that USB was all about data transfer from peripherals to the PC?

Well maybe these three little numbers will change your mind.

Here’s a USB cup warmer - ideal for keeping your coffee hot while you’re lost somewhere out on the Web

You can find out more about it here

How about a massage ball to help relieve the stress and tension when that script isn’t working or your ISP has suddenly gone down in the middle of a upload?

You can find out more about them here

And then for just $US69.00 you can have a USB Aroma Generator. It comes with three different cartridges and each will last for around four hours. Hmmmm.

You can find out more about this one right here

Well it depends on who you talk to as to whether this is really a laptop or a tablet PC or as Gateway calls it, a Convertible Notebook.

Whatever you might call it it’s just been released in the US and if I lived in the US then I could definitely see one in my future. After all, if it’s good enough for Bill then it certainly is good enough for me

You can find out more about it right here

How’s this for a rather wild computer mouse. It’s thhe latest offering from Logitech and it features include:

Cordless

USB

Scroll Wheel

Application Switch

Tilt Wheel Plus Zoom

Rechargeable

Laster Techonology

Not only does it talk to the computer but the computer also talks to the mouse via a 2.4GHZz wireless connection. It comes with two rechargeable battery packs and the packs can be swapped on the fly. There’s even a battery level indicator that you can see on the top left hand side of the mouse.

This mouse will work with IBM or any compatible computer runing Windows98, 200, Me or XP that has a USB port.

The Logitech G7 mouse is rated at 4 times faster than conventional mice and is aimed at the gaming market. It’s also aimed at people who are prepared to pay for a quality mouse and retails for around $US100.00

I’m sure that there are a lot of people out there who have heard about Konfabulator and their widgets before. If you’re one of those people then I guess that you’ll just have to humour me because I only found out about them on Friday.

Konfabulator popped into someone’s brain back in 1998 when that person thought it would be cool to have a skinnable MP3 player. From there it was only a short step to thinking about skinning any information you wanted to see on your desktop and that is how Konfabulator came about.

Kofabulator is a fairly quick download and an easy set up and once you have it you can then go to their site for the widgets that you think you will need. A widget is a simple script that can display information on your desktop.

There are currently over 1300 widgets to choose from and they include games, dates and times, news feeds, systems utilities, webcams from around the world and a lot of other stuff too. There are even several widgets for cricket scores.

Downloading the widgets is pretty simple too and most of them are self-installing. Once they are on your machine you can have them running on your desktop continuously. They consume little in the way of resources and disappear into the background when you’re working.

At the moment, because the novelty hasn’t worn off yet I’m running six widgets on one of my screens. There are

a couple of system utilities

an analog clock

an interesting little widget that shows which parts of the world are in darkeness (that might sound useless to lots of people but we work constantly with clients all round the world so it helps to know when they’re asleep)

a picture frame that cycles through any image directory I might point it to

a headline reader that shows me the latest offerings on slashdot.com

I think it’s a great idea and most people will find something useful in amongst all those widgets. Yahoo thought it was such a great idea that they bought the company.

Have you ever wanted to play your MP3 downloads on your car stereo? Of course if you have one that will play MP3s you won’t have a problem but not many cars are rolling out of the showroom with a stereo system that has the ability play MP3s.

But now, for some, this little gadget will solve the problem.

It’s an adapter that will allow you to connect your portable MP3 player to your car stereo … as long as your car is one of a variety of VWs, an Audi built no earlier than 1996, a SEAT built no earlier than 1998, a variety of BMW models built no earlier than 1997, a Mini built no earlier that 2000 and some post 2000 Rover models.

You can find all the technical specs and an order form here

Looks interesting doesn’t it? It’s a USB thumb drive … but it’s different. This one has a brain … and can perform limited functions away from the USB port on your computer. It can connect to anything that has a USB port - including another Flashpoint thumb drive.

And when it’s connected it can exchange data with whatever it’s connected to. Got some great MP3 recordings you want to swap with your friend? If he has one of these units it’s a simple matter of connecting them together and the job’s done!

It’s small and lighweight and comes complete with it’s own rechargeable and removable battery.

It comes in five different sizes:

128 meg

256 meg

512 meg

1 gig and

2 gig

And all of them connect to a normal USB thumb drive as well.

You can order your very own right here

Never let it be said that the Home and Small Office Computer Guide is so lost in it’s own geeky world that it doesn’t know when Christmas is coming. We know that it’s coming soon and so here is a gift suggestion for the lady in your life.

If you haven’t quite worked out what it is let me tell you that it is a 128 meg USB thumb drive done up in a package that resembles a lady’s lipstick.

It’s available from Digital Era in the UK and if you
follow the link it will take you right to the information page.

ATP Electronics Inc. has announced the release of its USB ToughDrive. The ToughDrive is a high speed USB 2.0 flash drive sporting a stylish, yet functional rubber housing. Water resistant and extremely shock resistant, the ToughDrive also features a 30MB/s data transfer speed for faster file transfers and seamless multimedia streaming.

The ToughDrive was designed with the main goal of performance along with functionality for users in a variety of environments. Its robust, rubber housing offers protection from water and moisture, as well as shock absorption from accidental drops and other rough treatment. Grip lines along with this texture are intended to make the ToughDrive extremely easy to grip while maintaining a slim, compact size storable in any pocket or purse.

The ToughDrive has been designed with DuraSkin construction. DuraSkin is a protective compound layer which completely encompasses all internal components, offering a second layer of protection against extreme temperatures, and additional protection against the elements.

The ToughDrive data transfer speed of 200X or 30MB/sec is designed for high quality multimedia streaming and less lag time for file transfers. Using the same high quality flash components as ATP flash cards, the ToughDrive also offers a read and write lifetime ten times longer than other standard USB flash drives.

The ATP USB ToughDrive will be available everywhere in the capacities of 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB in the middle of September. Look for a 4GB ToughDrive to be available soon.