Articles about USB

A few weeks ago I took a look at Lumsing's harmonica battery pack. Now from the same stables comes the lengthily titled DCH-5U 5-Port USB Travel Wall Charger. This is a slightly different twist on the idea of providing power to travellers' devices -- this is a wall charger rather than a portable battery pack. If you're going on vacation, taking a trip, or even just hitting the office, there are your devices to consider. Your phone, tablet, MP3 player, and other bits and pieces all need power, all need their own charger.

Except they don’t. Leave all of your chargers at home, and just take a selection of USB cables -- this 5-port hub allows for up to five USB devices (obviously) to be charged from a single wall power point. The 31W/6.2A unit has two 5V 1A ports for phones, and three 5V 2A ports for tablets and devices with higher power demands. Oddly, the ports are labelled, left to right, iPad, iPad, Samsung Tab, iPhone, and Android. It would have made more sense to simply indicate which of the five were the high-powered ports, but this is a minor niggle in the grand scheme of things.

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Everybody is gaga over the friggin' cloud. Sure, I love the convenience of the cloud too -- I backup my precious family photos to Google Drive just in case. The cloud should not be anyone's sole means of backup however, and if it is, there should be redundancy between 2 or 3 services.

For my important files, I do not trust the cloud exclusively. Believe it or not, I still like to use optical media as a backup medium. However, I no longer use CD or DVD, but 50GB Blu-ray disks. Pricey? Yes, but worth it. In addition to optical media, I also use flash drives, but only ones of quality and performance. In the past, I have had luck with Silicon Power products, and that company announces the M70 flash drive -- super fast and super sexy.

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Listening to music on a computer can be a very rewarding experience nowadays. However, we aren't far removed from the days where laptops and desktops shipped with horrible speakers. This shouldn't be surprising though; while mp3 and streaming audio is commonplace now, listening to music was not always expected on a computer. Tinny-sounding, rattling speakers were OK for midi files, but now we expect much more.

While Bluetooth speakers are very convenient, their sound quality usually does not match a hard-wired set. My favorites for many years are the Logitech Z-2300 -- a 2.1 setup, which are THX certified and pack a 120 watt subwoofer. I still own these speakers, but they are extremely bass-heavy, even with the bass knob turned down to the lowest setting. They can be overly disruptive to the other people in my home, as the walls shake. For a party, they are great, but for everyday use I need something more tame. Today, I am looking at the Cambridge Audio Minx M5 in hopes that I have found that.

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I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for USB. As someone who lived before the invention of the Universal Serial Bus, I realize how much of a game-changer it was. Over the years, I've amassed quite the collection of USB cables, hubs, flash drives, PCI cards -- you name it.

If you think all USB cables are the same, you are mistaken. They come in different lengths, colors and connection types, to name a few. But still, it's hard to get people excited about cables. However, Corning has managed to do just that, with the all-new USB 3.Optical cables. Whoa.

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The European Parliament announced last year that the Internal Market Committee plans to impose a universal charger for mobile phones sold in local markets, that will replace the custom designs that are adopted by manufacturers and accessory makers. This initiative is meant to "cut costs and waste for users", according to the announcement.

The European Parliament just revealed that it is moving forward with this initiative, as the draft law has been approved by virtually every voter. "The modernized Radio Equipment Directive is an efficient tool to prevent interference between different radio equipment devices", says rapporteur Barbara Weiler. "I am especially pleased that we agreed on the introduction of a common charger. This serves the interests both of consumers and the environment. It will put an end to charger clutter and 51,000 tonnes of electronic waste annually".

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If you do not fancy using the App Store or the built-in recovery mode to download and run the large OS X 10.9 Mavericks setup file, Apple gives you the option to create a bootable USB drive to install the operating system on your Mac. It is fast and works even when there is no Internet connection available.

The process is pretty straightforward, and does not require advanced skills, or downloading a dedicated third-party tool (although I will also explain how to use one, in case you decide or need to go down this road). All you need is an 8 GB USB drive (it can be larger), which you may already have lying around somewhere, and a Mac.

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In August of this year, the USB 3.1 specification was completed. This was very exciting news for USB fans. Yes, there are fans of the connector. After all, USB can connect everything from mice and keyboards to hard drives and card readers. Quite frankly, how can you not be a fan of it? Today, the USB consortium announces a new connector -- type C.

"The new USB Type-C connector, built initially on existing USB 3.1 and USB 2.0 technologies, is being developed to help enable thinner and sleeker product designs, enhance usability and provide a growth path for performance enhancements for future versions of USB. This supplement to the USB 3.1 specification is anticipated to be completed by the middle of next year", says the consortium.

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