Subculture fans will line up for a new USB flash drive featuring Halloween Town’s fearless leader, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington. Famous from the movie The Nightmare before Christmas, this movie tie-in thumb drive is going straight to the top of our our favorites. The spooky effigy of Jack from the digital clay-mation cult favorite hides a USB connector and 4, 8 or 16GB flash drive. Made of impact resistant plastic, the Jack Skellington drive is effectively waterproof and shockproof. Reenact the movie and remove Jack’s head, and jack him into your USB port for quick access to flash storage.
A-Data has conveniently included a few trial pieces of software which are woefully unrelated to Jack’s dark image. A Marilyn Manson album or Rob Zombie MP3 would have been much more suitable for this fun flashback drive. These applications are free from A-Data’s web site as well. The USB drives are available at favorite gadget provider Brando’s online store for $30, $47 and $72 depending on the amount of storage you want.
Archive for the Category ◊ USB Flash Disk ◊
If you’ve wished you could connect your external hard drive to your computer without having to use the USB cable, now you can.
Imation announced Thursday the availability of the first wireless USB external hard drive, the Pro WX. The hard drive works just like any other USB hard drive, with one exception: it doesn’t require a USB cable.
Wireless USB has been under development for about five years, and some of the first products were demoed at CES 2009. This technology allows you to connect USB 2.0 devices to a computer wirelessly from up to 30 feet away with a throughput speed of up to 480Mbps.
The Pro WX system, which provides 1.5 TB of storage capacity, works within a 30 feet range of a user’s computer, and uses a dedicated one-to-one connection that stops a signal being intercepted.
The USB drive automatically backs up data whenever the user’s device comes within range. Operating at 15 megabits per second, the company said that the USB drive can backup a typical CD in under 50 seconds.
The wirless USB drive features an integrated stand for vertical or horizontal orientation, a low capacity indicator to tell when it is nearly full, and a built in sleep mode for energy conservation. The wirless USB drive, which supports the PC and the Mac, also includes a synchronization button for automatic data backup. It sells for $449.99 in the US.
The device may be the first wireless USB unit, but other wireless storage devices are available. Imation offers the StorCenter, a network attached storage device that features built in WPA wireless security.
Alternatively, Linksys features a Storage Link product that will connect existing USB storage devices to your wireless local network. And Asus sells a Wireless Storage Router which includes an internal hard drive.
Samsung S2 mobile hard drive series is unique in its own right. The S2 is different from other portable drives in that it relies on on-board USB technology to reduce the length of the chassis, making it very compact (smaller than a typical passport, according to Samsung). We have to assume the engineers have taken out the SATA native interface and replaced it with USB. So this doesn’t look like you can gut the S2’s shell to remove the drive for other applications.
Available in 4 different colors (piano black, snow white, wine red, chocolate brown, sweet pink & ocean blue), the S2 is also anti-slippery with leatherette back cover. Other features include auto-backup, software data encryption & capacity gauge. It would appear Amazon has started carrying the S2 at around $109 for 500GB; $85 for 320GB; and as low as $65 for 250GB.
Let’s face it – you can’t get enough of storage. When you think your brand new 32GB flash drive has you covered, you will soon find new ways to fill it up, such as backing up the whole system for data recovery on the go. Before you know it, you will be googling your next thumbdrive again. Kingston will be shipping a 128GB flash drive – the largest capacity yet as of this writing.
Designated DT200, the series also comprises of 32GB and 64GB, has a capless design, comes with five-year warranty, and includes data protection that is less likely going to rival that of Ironkey. It’s not going to matter anyway since most recovery software already incorporates some form of AES encryption. Keep in mind the 128GB is build-to-order only, and Kingston asks for a staggering $546, not to mention the drive is limited to USB 2.0. (Where is SuperSpeed USB when we need it?) As for the other two, the same company has been selling 32GB and 64GB that belong to the DT150 at a relatively attractive price.
The fourth series of Mimoco’s Star Wars Mimobot line of designer flash drives has landed. Without much fanfare, the latest installment of the series celebrates the tenth anniversary of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace although none of the characters featured in the themed drives appeared in the said movie. Mimoco brought back Darth Vader, and cut his ears that were found on the original version in the first of the Star Wars themed Mimobot series. This should be a relief for fans.
Unmasking the Darth Vader reveals the scarred countenance of Anakin Skywalker, as played by Hayden Christensen. And one in every six Vader’s will have the classic Anakin face. Either of them is simply more authentic and better looking than the original Darth Vader with dreadful pointy ears. The series also comprises Darth Maul, and Captain Rex whose helmet can also be removed to find the clone’s face beneath. Mimoco so far has created sixteen different Star Wars themed collectible drives.
Super Talent has come up with a very American USB flash drive that mimics a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty. The flash drive component is inside the robed goddess which sits on a foundation (or a dock in this case). The USB connector is revealed by separating the statue from the base.
Even though there’s no word on the scale of the model, souvenir shops will surely stock up a bunch of these for the visitors flocking to Big Apple as soon as economy picks up again. Milking on one of the most recognizable icons of United States is perhaps a better idea for a flash drive than paying a hefty sum for The Godfather license to put the name of the epic film on some ordinary looking flash drives.
What’s YuuWaa? Despite an awkward name, YuuWaa from Gemalto is an all-in-one USB flash drive complete with cloud storage offering online data backup service. As soon as you bring home the YuuWaa (either 4GB drive with 8GB online storage or 8GB drive with 16GB cloud space) and plug it in, you will be prompted to register, and new files will automatically be backed up to Gemalto’s servers via a secure link. You can select which files to share with your friends. This comes in handy if they are video or anything larger than what most email providers can handle.
If you lose the YuuWaa, you can still access the content from a PC, but Gemalto didn’t mention if you can wipe out the flash drive’s content remotely. So, this is very obvious the company is more interested in generating recurring income from the cloud storage subscription (£1.79 for 8GB or £3.99 for 16GB per month after 6 months of free trial) than making money from the drives. Sandisk Cruzer Titanium Plus earlier has offered Beinsync data sync with Amazon servers, but it wasn’t particularly successful partly due to the pricing.
Coming just in time to greet the Transformers’ Sequel trailers is this Ravage Transformer flash drive. Movie tie in flash drives are becoming common place and may some day be just as important as a mouse. One of the best things about custom flash drives like this is the ability to separate them visually and keep track of what data is on them. My NIN MP3 collection would definitely be on the Resident Evil Chainsaw drive and Rampage here would have to hold our Portable Anti-virus software. We’re not sure what data goes on a USB Sushi drive but once you decide on it you’re bound to remember it.
This new transformer drive makes these old ones look like Go-bots. Cold, but true. Ravage holds 2GBs of data and is rated for USB2.0 connections. Actual memory speed is unknown. Of course you can probably expect much better throughput if you connect Ravage to Optimus Prime. Manufacturer’s warranty is void though if you merge him with the All Spark. NB this is an adult toy, not made for children, more for collectors. To suite the collectors they offer special shipping that guaratees the quality of the packaging for those out there that aren’t looking to play with it or use it out of the package. Either way you order it, it’s not due to arrive until September but will only $42.99.
Certified Wireless USB – the most significant change to USB itself besides SuperSpeed USB 3.0 – takes the world’s best known interface into the wireless world. It promises plug and play simplicity without wires, but new hardware, or wireless adapters, will be required.
Certified Wireless USB is the natural evolution and extension of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol, first introduced in 1994. Since its introduction, USB has become the de facto standard in the personal computing industry, with billions of devices in use around the world.
Wireless USB is designed for optimal performance when the devices are less than 10 meters (33 ft) away from the computer. Although speeds of up to 480 Mbps are advertised, this is a theoretical maximum.
Wireless USB work
At the heart of a wireless USB system is the radio and antenna system. Certified Wireless USB employs a wireless technology called Ultra-wideband (UWB), which operates in the frequency range of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. (For reference, 802.11 Wi-Fi networks are commonly operating at 2.4 GHz, the same frequency as some cordless phones, microwave ovens, and Bluetooth devices). One of the key advantages to a UWB system is the low power consumption (great for portable devices) and wide frequency spectrum of operation.
UWB is actually not a new technology – it was invented in the 1960s primarily for military use in secure communications and ground-penetrating radars. Mainly a technology developed under classified US government programs, UWB now enjoys much more research and development attention without classification restrictions.
The ultra-wideband radio system employed by Certified Wireless USB is different from other wireless technologies on the market because it spreads data transmission over a very wide frequency spectrum in the form of brief, low-power pulses.
In short, this allows the wireless system to avoid transmission at troublesome frequencies, such as the 5 GHz range (802.11a, some cordless phones). The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme, developed by the WiMedia Alliance and selected as the exclusive radio platform for Certified Wireless USB, allows the bit rate and signal strength of each carrier to adapt so that good channels get used more than those that hamper transmission.
Computer Systems support
In a nutshell, all major computer operating systems are planned to support wireless USB. However, at the moment, wireless USB functionality is provided only by proprietary software drivers and is largely device-specific.
Over the past few years, several alternate “flavors” of wireless USB have been developed, none of which play any significant role in the market today.
The future hold for WUSB and the competing standards
The first such flavor was released by Cypress Semiconductor in 2003 and is technically the only version that can be called WirelessUSB [tm] because it is trademarked. It is a very low-speed, limited “variant” of USB that was primarily targeted as a replacement for Bluetooth.
The second flavor was pioneered by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly a division of Motorola, Inc.), trademarked “CableFree USB”, and promoted by the UWB Forum and its partners. This variant used an ultra-wideband radio technology called direct sequence (DS-UWB) and its main advantage was that it was built on top of the USB 2.0 protocol in use today.
True competition for Certified Wireless USB will come primarily from Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11n (the latest and fastest variant of Wi-Fi).
Bluetooth became popular primarily for low-speed short-range personal area communications and due to its extremely low cost of implementation. It uses the massively crowded 2.4 GHz radio frequency and currently is limited to a 
maximum datarate of about 2.1 Mbps. Knowing that the maximum throughput would need to be able to scale higher to ensure the future viability of Bluetooth, supporters of Bluetooth selected the OFDM-UWB radio platform for future integration with Bluetooth technology. This means that future versions of Bluetooth will use very much the same wireless technology as Certified Wireless USB, with similar high data rate capabilities for multimedia applications such as video streaming. It will certainly be very interesting to see how this plays out, and whether Bluetooth and Certified Wireless USB will be able to co-exist.
802.11n (and its predecessors 802.11g/b/a), are without question the standard in wireless networking. Originally developed to address the problem of deploying Local Area Networks (LANs) without cabling, it has truly changed the face of mobile computing and is supported by every major operating system, most gaming consoles, and many mobile devices and mobile phones. In its latest iteration, 802.11n, data rates in excess of 100 Mbps are achievable at a range of up to 30m or greater. Starting a few years ago, due to the lack of any other high-speed wireless protocol, many manufacturers of digital cameras and printers proceeded to install support for 802.11 
networking in order to achieve wireless data transfer. Certified Wireless USB would have been a more logical choice, but it was not ready and is still in its infancy.
WUSB products
Everything USB will be bringing you a new Wireless USB section soon. For now, here are the links to some Certified Wireless USB products on this site:
Cables Unlimited Wireless USB Adapter Set – A low-cost adapter that converts a single USB node to wireless
Imation Apollo WX WUSB Hard Drive – World’s first WUSB hard drive with auto-detect incremental backups
Kensington WUSB Dock for Notebooks – Wireless video, wireless USB audio – 15 feet of freedom
Samsung NaBee – Certified Wireless USB add-on for Samsung digital cameras
Samsung WUSB + USB 2.0 LD190X 19″ LCD – Power-saving Certified Wireless USB flat panel monitor
IOGear Wireless USB AV Kit – Adapter set capable of streaming both 720p to VGA and stereo sound to RCA
IOGear WUSB to VGA Kit – Display adapter for steaming HD (720p) within 30 feet radius
Belkin Wireless USB Hub – 4 port Wireless USB hub powered by WiQuest’s solution
D-Link Wireless USB Starter Kit – 4 port Wireless USB hub by WiQuest’s solution
Dell Inspiron 1720 – First laptop on the market integrated with Wireless USB
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 and T62p – First Lenovo’s laptop integrated with Wireless USB
USB flash disks with biometric fingerprint sensors are a dime a dozen. So what makes the Sellgino Dragon Security biometric drive unique? It may be the first biometric-enabled flash disk to use a fingerprint sensor that detects the live skin layer.
Sensors found on other devices scan only the surface of the finger, which means that if your hand is dirty you might be locked out of your disk. In fact, even fingers that are too dry can compromise the detection rate of normal biometric sensors.
By seeking the live layer of the skin, the Dragon Security has a much higher accuracy rate even if you fail to wash your hands after eating chocolate. It doesn’t require any driver installation on Windows XP or Vista and can store up to 10 fingerprints. The only issue we have with it is that the current capacity is capped at only 2GB.