usb

ChargeDr lets you charge your tablet from a laptop USB port

LAS VEGAS--Want to charge your tablet while traveling? Hope you brought along a power brick, because a simple sync cable won't do the trick. That's because most laptop USB ports don't put out enough power for a tablet's big battery -- which is why you typically see a "Not Charging" message when you plug an iPad into a laptop.

The Digital Innovations ChargeDr promises to boost the power output of both laptop USB ports and wall adapters. Car chargers, too. The result: tablets can charge up to four times faster, phones up to two … Read more

Amped Wireless intros 802.11ac range extender, USB 3.0 adapter

LAS VEGAS--Amped Wireless has invested a lot in the new 802.11ac standard.

In addition to its first 802.11ac router, the RTA15, shown here at CES 2013, the company also showed off its first USB 802.11ac adapter and range extender, which may be the first 802.11ac range extender on the market.

The ACA1 High Power Dual Band AC Wi-Fi USB Adapter is designed to add long-range 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity to Windows or Mac computers. Amped Wireless says it features two high-gain, dual-band antennas and four total amplifiers to maximize performance. The adapter supports USB 3.0 … Read more

Trendnet intros first USB 3.0 802.11ac adapter

LAS VEGAS--If you are looking to upgrade your existing computer to support 802.11ac, without having to get a new computer entirely, here's something to look forward to.

Trendnet announced today at CES 2013 its first USB 3.0 802.11ac W-Fi adapter, the AC1200 Dual Band Wireless USB 3.0 adapter, model TEW-805UB.

This adapter card supports the dual-stream setup Wi-Fi standard and offers the cap speed of up to 867Mbps, when used with a 802.11ac router. It also works with existing Wireless-N routers and offers up to 300Mbps data rate in this case.

The new adapter … Read more

USB 3.0 to get 10Gbps throughput

A new specification being pushed by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group offers double the current throughput rate while maintaining backward compatibility.

The latest generation of USB 3.0 technology supports data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, and has been one answer to the increasing I/O bottleneck for many peripheral devices, especially high-speed storage solutions.

The backward compatibility of USB 3.0 with prior versions of the protocol has made it quite convenient for users, but it has competition from the Thunderbolt technology from Intel and Apple. Thunderbolt has quadruple the overall data throughput of USB 3.0 … Read more

Double-speed USB 3.0 to arrive next year

Computing industry powers are doubling the data-transfer speed of USB 3.0 from today's 5 gigabits per second rate to 10Gbps.

The move will uncork speed bottlenecks of external SSD storage devices, open up options such second monitors, and help confine the even faster Thunderbolt interface to a high-end niche.

But it won't happen immediately. The specification should be done in mid-2013, which "will enable initial products to appear in late 2014 with a much broader availability of products in 2015," according to the USB 3.0 Promoter Group, which announced the faster Universal Serial Bus … Read more

Get a 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive for $19.99 shipped

Regular readers know that flash-drive prices have plummeted in the past year. But you know what all those dirt-cheap drives have had in common? A USB 2.0 interface.

What is this, 2001? USB 2.0 is over, man. It's the digital equivalent of the horse and buggy. And yet it's still pretty rare to find flash drives that support the newer, faster USB 3.0 spec.

That's why I'm jazzed about today's deal. While supplies last, Ice Monkey has the Super Talent ST3U32ST1K 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive for $19.99 shipped. Elsewhere … Read more

Crave Ep. 103: Dropping burrito bombs on America

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On this episode of Crave, we check out the Burrito Bomber engineered by Darwin Aerospace that literally bombs burritos into geo-tagged locations. We also get some NASA reassurance that the world may not end this month, which means we may actually get the chance to wear Lacoste's awesome polo shirts of the future. Also, dogs that drive? Yep. … Read more

USB tentacle squirms, does nothing else

The single-purpose gadget is very much alive and well. Case in point, this USB tentacle. It squirms. That's all it does.

The USB tentacle is not a hub. It won't open a beer bottle. It won't fire foam rockets at your cubicle mates. It won't charge your smartphone. It just squirms. To improve the visual impact, you might want to invest in multiple tentacles to adorn each port on your computer. … Read more

Digital storage basics, Part 3: Backup vs. redundancy

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series, for the other parts, check out the related stories. This post was updated on March 29, 2013, to add more information on backing up.

One of a storage device's most important roles, if not the most important, is to keep the information stored on it safe, especially from hardware failure. Redundancy and backup are the two popular types of data protection. They are not the same, however, and it's important to understand the differences between the two.

Redundancy

In a nutshell, redundancy in consumer-grade digital storage means using … Read more

Get a Patriot 32GB flash drive for $8.99

I know a lot of people don't care for rebates, but if you shift your perception a bit, they can seem like icing on the cake.

For example, Newegg has the Patriot PSF32GAUSB 32GB USB flash drive for $18.99 shipped. Right from the get-go, that's a great deal.

And here's the icing: a $10 mail-in rebate (PDF) brings your total cost down to $8.99, which is an unheard-of price for a 32GB drive. Heck, even a 16GB drive is a find at that price.

That rebate comes in the form of an American Express prepaid … Read more