USB drives are pretty ubiquitous these days and you can get them in some pretty big capacities. In fact, they’re so cheap that you can get a gigabyte of storage for $15, and two for as low as $25. Once you get past the 4 GB mark though, prices sky rocket and the selection becomes pathetic. To solve this, a pretty simple and cool solution was concocted: have thumb drives connect together, forming little snakes of thumb drives. This is definitely one of those “why didn’t I think of that and patent it then sell it for millions” inventions.
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From the same people who brought you the R2D2 DVD projector comes a neat web cam. Again, it’s R2D2 styled and mobile, but it’s somewhat smaller being designed to fit on a desk.

The remote control for it is a full scale model of a light saber but also doubles up as a USB phone. Al saw it immediately coined the term “SkypeSaber” - I have no idea what they’re calling it officially but I like our term anyway!

Here’s something a bit different. The Tornado is a USB file transfer device that contains software very remaniscent of laplink (if any of you go back that far…). You plug the USB cable into each machine and press the button on the device. That launches the software, which immediately goes full screen on each PC showing a tree view of the drives and files on “this machine” and “other machine” (obviously context sensitive based on which machine you’re looking at).
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The iRecord Personal Media Recorder is a very cool device. It’s designed to get media onto your portable device. Any portable device in fact and that’s the trick it’s got up its sleeve. Things don’t get much simpler than this - to use it, you just plug your TV/DVD player/whatever into one end of the box and plug your portable media device into the other end.
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Tired of grey and black colored Flash drives? USB flash drives are now candy colored thanks to Transcend’s Jetflash V60.

The drives are available in four colors, with each color corresponding to a different storage capacity: orange is 512MB, blue is 1GB, red is 2GB and green is 4GB. All the Transcend drives come with basic security software including a program capable of locking your PC from prying eyes and wayward fingers alike.

A Transcend press release for the Jetflash V60 claims that “Now everyone can transfer to a paperless society.” Yes, Western civilization was just waiting for the V60 to appear in order to be convinced that a paperless society was viable.

Technical Details

• Fully compatible with Hi-Speed USB 2.0
• Easy Plug and Play installation
• Driverless (Only Windows®98SE needs the enclosed driver)
• USB powered. No external power or battery needed
• Partition & Security Function: Create a private partition with password protection
• Write Speed: 2 MBytes per Second
• Size (L x W x H): 61 x 18.6 x 9.8 mm

digg story | methodshop

Yeah, so there are waaayy too many Apple Rumors coming around prior to Unky Steve’s upcoming announcements.

Sadly, I don’t want what’s likely to be offered, here’s what I want.

A Macbook Pro Tablet!!!

This is exactly what Apple has been missing (in my opinion), however, these are people that still sell mice with 1 button (umm what’s simpler than a stylus?)

As a designer, I have stayed away from the Apple platform due to it’s lack of interoperability with my beloved SolidWorks. It’s a solid 3d modeler that works great, and works with everything! (plus it’s compatible with the next engine, but this article isn’t about that).

Here’s what we kinda know from Kevin Rose (digg.com)

there’s a 4Gb and 8Gb iPhone, they work with all the cell providers, one’s got a slideout keyboard, and one is a virtual clickwheel model.

What we know for sure is NOTHING!!! (I love that Apple can really keep a secret, it makes people drool needlessly! Hysterical!

So here’s what I want. (keep clicking kids!)

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USB hubs are generally pretty boring objects but this one from LaCie due in earlier 2007 brings a much needed and interesting twist.

The LaCie Hub provides 4 flexible USB 2.0 ports and also has 2 FireWire 400 ports. To finish off the alien octopus look it has flexible tenticles ending in a USB light and a USB fan.

The Hub is available on pre-order for $79.99 and might just have to be the first thing on next years Santa list :).

We have already covered two different USB mouses that have a special dedicated feature of warming the users hands, more exactly there was one from Thanko and another one from USBGeek.

While the last one had more features and looked like the perfect peripheral to keep the hands-not-cold during the winter, there is a new thing on the market that with the help of one of the previous mouses can really keep your hands warm forever – it is the USB Warming Mouse Pad.

It is made of wool and cotton and as the name suggests it works with USB, just plug the mouse pad on a USB port and you’re good to go. The 120cm of cable length will probably be enough to reach the desired USB port on your computer or laptop, if not you can buy a USB adapter and make a 2-in-1 connection if you know what I mean…

For security reasons there is a maximum temperature which is 42 degrees, I’m guessing that after reaching that level the warmer shuts itself down just like it happens with some electrical blankets. For each 5 minutes passed there is a temperature rise of 15 degrees, so in 10 minutes you can go from really cold to really warm – perfect for people that live in Antarctica.

The product image might not be the best one (advice to check other images) but the way to use it is simple - insert the mouse and your hand inside the mouse pad. One of the bad things is that it might become a bit difficult to control the mouse movement on those conditions…

PS1 - it costs $22 and comes with blue fish design/shape.

PS2 - I would love to have one of these mouse pads right now, it is extremely cold in Portugal!