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           -Reviews of USB products/software

Unleash the audio from your PC or laptop

The Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro is a portable USB Audio Adapter with both digital and analog outputs that incorporates a surround-sound simulator for creating an immersive listening experience on standard headphones or stereo speakers. Whether you're listening to a DVD on the road, or piping 5.1 surround sound to your Home Theater System, the Audio Advantage Micro is the perfect way to get the most out of your listening experience.

Easy install and use, just plug in your headphones, and plug the Micro into a USB port, and you've instantly got better sound! Listening to music, movies, and games on the road or at home 'after hours' is enhanced, no matter what you're listening to.

The included Digital Audio adapter allows you to easily digitally connect to home theater or recording equipment. Just plug the adapter in to the Audio Advantage Micro, then connect your equipment via an optical digital cable. You can even pass through Dolby Digital and DTS signals to your home theater receiver to enjoy full-blown digital surround sound!

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro

• Works with USB port on any PC or Laptop
• Stereo analog output- Connect headphones or powered speakers to your PC or laptop.
• Provide a second audio output source or additional headphone output so you can stop fumbling around the back of your computer just to switch from speakers to headphones
• S/PDIF optical digital audio output- Connect your PC or Laptop to the latest high-tech home entertainment equipment with a pure-digital, distortion-free signal, for highest fidelity, low noise audio reproduction.
• Send Dolby Digital and DTS multi-channel DVD sound to A/V receivers or digital speakers. (DTS pass-through is only available in Windows 2000/XP)
• Listen to stereo digital music or movies with the simulated sound of a multi-speaker, surround-sound system using ordinary stereo headphones or stereo speakers.
• Virtual 5.1 Surround Sound with stereo music and DVDs
• Simulated 3D audio effects with games
• Enhance music playback with simulated "big room" effects such as concert hall, hallway, stadium, and more
• Multi-band equalizer with user-defined presets
• Powered by USB bus- No external power supply is required, so it's convenient to carry around with your laptop
• Full functionality requires Win98SE/ME/2000(SP-3 or higher required)/XP
• Mac OSX users can enjoy Analog and Digital audio output capabilities, but cannot use the included software, or enjoy simulated 3-D effects
• Includes Optical SPDIF adapter, USB Extender Cable
• Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year

Buy it at ThinkGeek.com

Need a little fresh air?
Stuffy meetings, crowded airplanes and even taxis in Texas won't wilt you anymore. The FlyFan plugs into a USB port to provide a steady stream of cool air -- without draining your laptop battery.

Kensington FlyFan

• Convert a USB port on your laptop into a source of cool air.
• No batteries required for use; uses less than five minutes per hour of notebook battery charge.
• Compact and feather-light, the FlyFan goes anywhere and fits easily inside your notebook case
• No switches to operate
• Virtually indestructible
• Soft nylon blades are safe, and won't cause injury
• Quiet motor will not disrupt you when working
• Flexible neck lets you position it any way you like
• Small enough to take anywhere
• Dimensions: 2.6" X 11" X .5"
• Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year

Check it out (read: buy it) at ThinkGeek.com

APPLY DIRECTLY TO USB PORT!

Rechargeable batteries are great! They power all our favorite gadgets. Without them, we'd be tossing all these alkaline batteries and their caustic chemicals back into the environment, and that's a recipe for bad times.

The problem with rechargeables is the myriad plugs, ports, sockets and bays you need to have around to keep them filled with electrons. Oh, the battery's dead, but where's that dang recharger? Sound familiar? Then, one day, an enterprising geek built the charger into the battery. Not just any charger, mind you. They used a standard USB port built right into the battery.

Now, when your batteries are flatlining, pop the cap, and jam 'em into your nearest ubiquitous USB port. Whether it's on your computer, laptop, monitor or powered USB hub, all you need is 250mA of juice from your universal serial bus, and a little patience. In just a few hours, you'll have 1300mAH of power!

Two AA batteries per order.

Click here to order from ThinkGeek.com

This computer microscope allows you to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary for hours of fun and learning. View specimens collected around the house, backyard, your desk, or the fridge. Look at the micro-printing on a dollar bill or examine the traces on your motherboard. This microscope provides you an easy way to zoom in on a wide variety of objects to satisfy your curiosity of the world around you. Ever wondered what lint looks like or the mold growing on your week-old bagels? Now you can find out.



Simple plug and play operation with included software that allows you to magnify objects and view them on your PC up to 200X and take snapshots and time-lapse movies. You can also manipulate images with drawing and painting tools. The QX5 microscope is detachable from the stand to allow you to get closer to large objects.

The USB Microscope QX5 has these great features:

• Take snapshots, video, and time-lapse movies
• 3 magnification levels - 10X, 60X, and 200X
• Super-brite LED lighting for bright top and bottom illumination
• Video playback at 15 frames/sec
• Resolution of 640x480
• Software works with Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP
• Handheld mode allows for expanded viewing possibilities
• Comes with: Microscope, USB cable, Stand, Specimen Jars, Sample Slide, Tweezers, Eye Dropper, Slide Clip, and Software CD-ROM

Click here to buy it at ThinkGeek.com

Personal Assistant for Your Monitor

The Pertelian is your monitor's best friend. All day WOW sessions don't leave much time to display essentials like e-mail messages, or stock quotes. This handy backlit LCD display plugs into an extra USB port and gives you all kinds of useful data nuggets while your main display is busy with boring essentials like 3D graphics. Now the revised V4 model offers some incredible new features like monitoring of eBay auctions, streaming IRC chat and updates on the latest posts in your favorite forums. Plus if you've got some programming talents you can even code your own custom apps for Pertelian... and hey it looks great nestled between your quad flat-screen gaming setup.

The Pertelian Display has a budding homebrew community. Visit Pertelian.com for more information on writing custom Pertelian applications for Windows and Linux.

With a single keystroke, PertelianTM Monitor for eBay gives users continual access to eBay item listings. Pertelian displays current bid amounts, remaining time, and highest bidder without the user’s effort. This brings a new edge by providing a centralized item listings manager, complete with options to instantly display outbid and time remaining alerts.

Forum Watcher brings all of your forum threads into one application and gives users the ability to receive alerts when there is a new post or change. This feature assures the only time users check a thread is when there is new content. It also allows users to bring up selected threads instantly via hotkey.

Pertelian’s IRC Support feature will allow users to connect to one of the most widely used methods of chat, Internet Relay Chat. Favorite IRC channels are now accessible without the use of multiple windows and interruption of other applications.

Standard Features

• POP email checking and reading email headers
• Unique IM interface to reply to messages while inside a game or other application
• Full control of supported media applications plus:
• Sophisicated song search by title, artist, or track number for supported media applications
• UltraSeek feature which automatically previews tracks in the middle of the song
• Audio volume adjustment for system and supported media applications
• Sports Scores– giving you real time sports scores
• RSS feed aggregate
• TeamSpeak Support - Finally see who's talking
• Real-Time Stock Ticker with detailed stock information
• Real-Time Network bandwidth usage
• Expansive system information (CPU usage/Memory usage/IP information/Disk drive usage/Processes and thread usage/Uptime, and TONS more)
• World-wide weather information and 10-day forcast
• Quick Memo
• Customizable hotkeys for quick and easy control

Supported Media and Communication Software

• Winamp 2
• WInamp 5
• Apple Itunes
• Windows Media Player 9
• AOL Instant Messenger
• ICQ
• Yahoo Messenger
• GAIM

General Requirements

• Windows 2000 or Windows XP
• Internet Explorer 5.0 or later
• Microsoft .NET Runtime 1.1.4153 or later
• 800x600 or greater screen resolution

Hardware

• Hitachi HD44780 based LCD character display
• LCD inside a compact 4.5" x 2.5" x 0.85" enclosure
• New larger LCD display sporting 20 columns by 4 lines text display with font size 5x7 dots
• Built in characters plus 8 user defined characters
• Electroluminescent light green backlight
• Also includes Velcro attachment
• Includes custom stand
• USB 1.0+ interface
• Communicate over USB interface with attached 6' cable

Click here to buy it from ThinkGeek.com

Enjoy the convenience of powering your iPOD in your car and the ability to use a single charger for many FireWire powered devices. Also, the convenience of charging cell phones, PDAs, other USB MP3 players and even Gameboy Advance SP on the road with a USB charger.

The USB port of the Firepod is regulated to the strict standard of USB power specification; works with popular bus-charging devices such as USB link cable for popular portable devices (PDA, cell phones, etc). The FireWire port of the Firepod outputs a steady and regulated current that is identical to your Apple FireWire port, so you don’t have to worry about battery-butchering power surge from accelerating and braking in everyday commute. Firepod is also bundled with the fireCable, a unique cable that provides universal FireWire bus-power without occupying any precious FireWire data port, great for PC iPOD user who is currently using a 6-to-4 Pin FireWire adapter.

The Firepod also has these great features.

• Designed to match with your iPOD
• Provides FireWire bus-power and USB bus-power
• USB port works with iPaq USB charger, cellular phone USB charger, PDA USB chargers
• Simultaneous usage for both USB and FireWire
• Fits into any 12V automotive DC power source
• Triplet LED to indicate power source, and bus-power usage
• Computer-tested and regulated electrical voltage/current, for both USB and FireWire; prevent battery-life reduction
• Fuse protected against over-current protection
• Bundled with FireCable, Universal FireWire Power System

Click here to purchase this at ThinkGeek.com

Unique, Stylish, and Functional

Turn the computers around on any ThinkGeek computer and you will witness a tangled knot of cables the likes of which would make an Eagle Scout cry. See, while USB is great, sometimes those pesky cables and plugs just don't line up like you want them to.

Rota Rota to the rescue!

This 4 port micro hub, barely larger than two packs of matches, features a male plug that swivels around 360 degrees, and 4 female ports that fan out 180 degrees, allowing for any device, slim or bulky, to happily coexist - sharing 480Mbps of Universal Serial Bus goodness.

Product Features

• 180 degree rotatable
• 4 flexible hi-speed ports
• Fully compliant with USB 2.0 specification
• Backwards compatible with USB 1.1
• Support data transfer rate at 1.5/12/480 Mbps
• Individual port over-current protection
• Friendly and ergonomic design
• Plug and play
• LED indicator
• Support windows 98/2000/Me/XP or Mac OS 8.6 or above
• Dimension: 31x48x30mm
• Weight: 43g

Buy it at ThinkGeek.com

We welcome our Snowbot Overlords...

Color changing scan, eerie Snowbot sound, articulating arms...a ThinkGeek exclusive...

Last December, as we were settling down for a long winter's nap, we were visited by two robots from the future! They spoke to us and now it is time to share their message. There's good news and bad news. The good news is there are tons of really cool robots in the future. The bad news is they are divided into two factions, are waging war against each other, and have "downgraded" humans to pretty much servants and food. We quickly smashed the robots with hammers, and swore to devise a way to save humanity.

Before we destroyed the robots, however, we were able to learn two things. 1. Each army of robots uses a different color scanning light (red or blue); 2. We have no idea which side is in humanity's best interest to win. So we built the Snowbot - a small, winter-themed beacon…and perhaps our only hope. Powered by a simple USB port, the Snowbot has a scanning light just like the robots from the future. You can change the speed of the scan, turn on/off the scanning noise, and (for future protection) change the scan color (red or blue). So no matter which robot army storms your home or office, a quick flick of a switch and you are rooting for the invader's color. Hopefully then the robots will just make you a servant and not an appetizer. Good luck and happy holidays.

Click here to check it out at ThinkGeek.com

Keep your Bawls cool with USB

The USB Beverage Chiller is the only way to keep a drink cold while you're at your computer - and it looks cool on any desktop. With the USB Beverage Chiller at your side, you can keep your beverage chilled and stay at your computer longer. This translates into greater work or gaming productivity - and what geek doesn't enjoy increasing their efficiency.
Just seconds after plugging the chiller into a USB port (no external outlet needed), the coldplate chills to 45 degrees Fahrenheit, the perfect temperature for helping keep your beverage cool.

• Connection via USB
• Coldplate chills to 45°F
• Helps keeps your beverage cool
• USB cable length: 5 feet
• Dimensions: 5.25" x 3.25" x 1.4"
• Bottle of Bawls not included

Buy it at ThinkGeek.com

TrueCrypt Part 04

Below is the formatting screen displaying the progress of the formatted file in my case.

Formatting...
Click to Enlarge


Now the results from the format.


Results.


The next dialog screen completes the formatting process.




Volume created.
Click to Enlarge


This ends Part 04 tomorrow Part 05

TrueCrypt website is here

Part 01 here
Part 02 here
Part 03 here
Part 04 here