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           -Reviews of USB products/software

This is the first of many simular posts about strange USB devices... Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Do you get all nervous, hot or tense while working at your desktop or laptop? Create a cool and relaxing environment with this Aroma Digi Fan! This USB powered fan not only dispenses essential aromatic oil but also will keep you cool. Don't let stress overpower you! Relax and unwind with this Aroma Digi Fan!

Features / Specs:

• Pink and beige color
• USB interface (USB 2.0/1.1 compatible)
• Aromatic Fan
• USB powered
• No external power needed
• Dispenses essential oil aromas without heating or burning
• Relax while working at your computer
• Fan Folds down for convenient storage
• Windows and Macintosh compatible

Unit Dimensions:

• 4.75 x 2.75 x 4.5-inches
• 90 g (0.198 lbs)

Regulatory Approvals:

• CE

Package includes:

• USB Powered Aroma Digi Fan
• Instructions
• Relaxation Essence 4g liquid bottle
• Leaf sponge

PC Requirements:

• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
• Available USB port

Macintosh Requirements:

• Mac OS 8.6 or higher
• Available USB port

by: Gillian Todd

The range of mp3 players on the market today is perplexing to say the least but their main benefit is convenience. With the right mp3 player music can be downloaded from CDs or from subscription sites on the internet.

1) So how does the mp3 player work? Basically, mp3 is a method of audio compression that maintains the original quality of the music. Due to the small size of this file, there is a large capacity for storing music.

2) What kind of mp3 players can you choose from? There are two basic types of mp3 player. The first is a flash player, which has no moving parts and is therefore good for people using their player while jogging or in the gym. However, the disadvantage of this is that the memory capacity is quite low. However, this isn’t an issue if you only plan to use the mp3 player for short periods of time. The flash model is able to hold about 200 songs and the popular SanDisk mp3 player is available for about $70.

3) The second choice of mp3 player works by holding their memory on a hard drive, much like a computer. This means that the capacity is much higher than the flash models. These can hold 20GB or even higher hard-drive, which should keep even the most impassioned music fan quiet! Its important to note that you are unable to add memory to your mp3 player therefore it is important to get it right now or it could end up costing you more in the long run.

4) The must have mp3 player currently on the market is the Apple iPod. But it is important to shop around and do your research since there are some good deals to be had. This way you can get a bargain since prices may vary greatly depending on where you look. An online price comparison may be a useful way of finding the best prices available at the current time.

5) Its important not to buy a mp3 player on impulse and you should really do some research first. The best way is to get on the internet and read the reviews of other users and guides from the official literature available. This tells you things that you would only know from actually buying and testing the mp3 player.

6) Another feature of mp3 players is their battery life. Some come with a built in battery that need to be recharged whereas others work in standard batteries. In either case it is important to look at how long the batteries will last. If they constantly need to be recharged or replaced then it won’t be cheap to run or necessarily very portable. It is also important to work out the battery life for yourself since the time quoted by the manufacturers may not be accurate.

7) One of the main reasons for buying a mp3 player is its ease and convenience of use. However, this is not always the case. Consulting reviews of the mp3 player that you are interested in again can assess this.

8) Finally it is important to make sure you have permission to download and play music since not all players work with all download services. You must also remember that it is illegal to trade mp3’s without permission from the song copyright holder.

About The Author


Gillian Todd is an author at http://www.a1-mp3-players.com.

My new laptop is fantastic, with it's nice new squeaky-clean operating system it runs like a dream. But it wasn't long before I had to face the technical challenge of getting all my old data from my old desktop computer (which was bursting at the seams with data!) onto my new laptop.

I was also intending to format and give away my old computer, so I could not afford to lose any of this data in the process.

I sat down at my old computer and listed all of my important files to assess exactly what and how much data I needed to transfer over to the new laptop.

Including my pictures, MP3's, Office documents, work backup's and so on, I was looking at transferring about 20 Gigabytes worth of data, it seems to build up so quickly! Thank goodness for my new laptop's 100 Gigabyte Hard Drive, which will allow me to transfer all of my data to it and still have room for a lot more. I know that the main application programmes (Word, Excel and so on) from my old computer will all have to be reinstalled on to the new laptop from their original install disks, but how do I get all the rest of the data over to the new laptop?

Floppy disk? - no way, even if my laptop had a floppy disk drive I would need about 14,000 disks!

CD or DVD? - Both my new laptop and my old computer have CD ROM drives, to get all my data over using CD's I would need about 30 disks as well as some software to package all the data up nice and tidily across the 30 disks, viable but a lot of work and time needed. DVD's would be better but my old computer does not have a DVD drive! There must be an easier way.

USB Memory Stick? - Not really a viable option, the maximum capacity of the USB Memory Stick that I can afford is 512MB, so this would require about 40 swaps from the old computer to the new and as my old computer is only USB1.1 which transfers at 1.5 mega bytes this process is going to be possible but really slow.

Networking? - Apparently I could network my two machines together with a "Cross Wired Network lead" and a copy of "Networking Computers for Dummies", but unfortunately my old dinosaur of a computer does not have a network card! Network cards are cheap enough but I still don't want to spend any money on this old computer and really don't fancy fiddling around inside the desktop. Although it does sound good to be able to connect the two computers together and transfer the data through the cable.

This is when I came across a very handy cable called a USB Data Link Cable. Apparently I can just plug one end into the USB port on my old PC and the other end into the USB port on my new laptop and then as if by magic, I should have a USB Network between both computers. Now this sounds more like it! Both my computers have USB ports and even though my old computer is USB1.1 and my new laptop is USB2.0 the cable should work anyway, although the transfer rate will only be at the lower USB1.1 speed.

After finding more about this cable on the Internet I found out that it is also known as a USB File/Data Transfer Cable. Once connected, the transfer of data is done quickly and effortlessly by simply dragging and dropping files from one window to another, just as you normally would when moving files around on your system. So I ordered one online right away.

The USB Data Transfer Cable arrived the next day and I got down to the business of getting the thing to work, the hardest part was working out the blatantly "translated" instructions. All I had to do was install the included software from the CD, once only on each of my computers, then plug the cable into a USB port on each computer and run the software. Two Windows Explorer type windows appeared, one showing files on the laptop and the other showing files on the PC, then I simply dragged and dropped files between the two computers.

I was amazed, this USB cable solution was fantastic. It was so easy to set up and turned out to be the cheapest option by far at only £15 and much less hassle than any other option, almost too good to be true, magic!

Article by Iggy Quazi director of Ecommerce business Mouse2House based in Essex, England stocking a wide range of digital imaging devices. For more info visit the Mouse 2 House company website at http://www.mouse2house.co.uk where you will find the latest in digital media products.

I'm not sure when it dawned on me, but there was something very cool about the DOS days when a guy didn't have to worry so much about the program he used. You could just PKARC a program's directory, copy it over to another computer, unarc it and run the program. There was no need to find the installer. There was no need to wait will the installer ran (in those days, waiting was a common thing).

Now, with the advent of USB or flash drives (actually, any portable rewritable storage medium... as some are made of flash memory and others actually have tiny spinning hard drives inside but that is for another post) this concept of a portable app is even cooler. Not only is it possible to move the program around from computer to computer without having to install anything, but it is also able to be run directly from your portable usb drive without even having to copy it over to the PC that you're running the program on.

This collection of programs on usbwarez.com is of portable applications that have been tested and run nicely on a USB drive with no need for installation. We hope you find our site useful. If you have any suggestions for applications that we should review, please send us a link.