Infamous USB gadget maker Thanko can’t be stopped, it seems. They gave us USB-powered shavers, USB-powered neckties and even USB-powered boob warmers. And today the Tokyo-based company started listing the USB eye warmer [JP] in their online store. As you might expect, it warms your eyes.
Tokyo-based Cube Works, whose products regularly find their way outside Japan (example: the humping USB dog), has announced a mini Yoda figure (the little green guy from Star Wars) that you connect to your computer’s USB port. The power is needed to make Yoda’s cheeks blush and illuminate his light saber.
The Japanese madness for all things USB continues. Today I can give you an Alien figure that you can connect to your computer’s USB port. It then sticks out its nasty tongue at random times, backlit by a spooky red LED. Apart from that, the thing isn’t good for much else
The PogoPlug, reviewed earlier this year, is a simple no-fuss NAS solution. I enjoyed using the product, and so have many other folks. In just the few short months since my review, the crew at PogoPlug have updated the hardware and features, and are rolling out their latest iteration. The new PogoPlug features four USB ports, a new address book feature, global search across all the drives attached to a PogoPlug and all the PogoPlugs associated with a single account, and a host of other improvements. Read More
Heads up, Twilight fans. Now you too can own a piece of the Cullen family empire. Specialty USB drive makers Tymemachines have produced a Twilight product for your purchasing pleasure.
Tokyo-based Thanko has brought us many USB-powered crap gadgets in the past. But in the last few days, the company has rolled out not one but four of those gadgets in rapid succession: A USB shoe dryer, USB eyelash curler, USB toothbrush sanitizer case, and a USB blanket (all links in Japanese). And you can get all of this stuff even if you live outside Japan.
Brando, home of the odd USB device, finally has a product I want to order. No no, it’s not a heated slipper or a spy camera, it’s a Transformers USB drive. How cool is that?
OK, now the USB gadget craze gets really silly. Tokyo-based crap USB accessory maker Thanko has been selling USB-powered slippers and gloves that are supposed to keep you warm in the past, but the new model, Dinosaur foot-shaped slipper(s) [JP] (of all things), is probably the silliest.
My first reaction – when I saw today on Thanko’s web site that the notoriously silly gadget maker from Tokyo is selling USB-powered gloves with built-in heaters [JP] – was: Who actually buys this kind of stuff? I mean Thanko is a real company, they have brick-and-mortar stores in Tokyo (two of them), they have employees etc. But they have been surviving for years now, even though they closed their English online store last month.
There are a few areas of concern to point out about this $24 “USB Paw Heating Slipper” from Brando. For starters, you’re sticking both your feet into one giant slipper. What happens if you get an e-mail saying that there’s free bagels in the break room? In your haste to save $2, you could very easily trip and fall down.
I mentioned a newly released hardware encrypted USB flash drive last week, and promised a full review. Here it is! The Lexar JumpDrive SAFE S3000 FIPS is a hardware-encrypted USB drive that satisfies U.S. government computer security standard FIPS 140-2 Level 3. “Physical security mechanisms required at Security Level 3 are intended to have a high probability of detecting and responding to attempts at physical access, use or modification of the cryptographic module.”
The SAFE S3000 FIPS accomplishes this by means of a Gemalto .NET V2.2 FIPS smart card, which provides “tamper-resistant storage, isolation of all security-critical computations, and strong authentication through a stringent PKI-based challenge-response process.”
The metal casing is water proof, and the entire thing is filled with “military-grade epoxy compound” to thwart physical access. This drive has some serious heft to it, compared to other USB sticks. In a pinch, you could probably cause modest pain to someone by throwing it at them. Seriously, this thing is solid. Read on for the whole story.
Tokyo-based crap gadget maker Thanko is rolling out another USB device, but this time the gadget (kind of) makes sense. It’s a USB mini camera [JP] that can be used for a variety of activities, including shooting pictures and videos underwater. It’s water-proof up to a depth of 20m.
USB media represents a double-edged sword: on the one hand, data portability is an extremely useful thing; but on the other hand, data portability can be a gigantic liability for your business operations. You can try to train your users not to put sensitive data on USB drives, but chances are that convenience will win out over security, and your data will slip out on USB media anyway. And then it’s all too easy for USB media to simply disappear: I can’t count how many thumb drives I’ve lost. New products are coming soon to help solve this problem.
I don’t know how and I don’t know why they do it. But Thanko, the Tokyo-based maker of gadgets no one needs, is now selling a USB-powered soldering iron [JP]. Alternatively, you can use the thing with a 9V battery.
Interesting. This little doodad is called FOTOBOX Plus. It’s an $80 USB apparatus that reads SD cards from your digital camera.
The idea is that you take a bunch of photos on your digital camera and then pop the SD card into the FOTOBOX Plus, which goes into your computer’s USB port. At that point, built-in slideshow software builds an automatic slideshow from your photos.
Storage is cheap, and just keeps getting cheaper. I remember buying my first 250 megabyte hard drive, and paying just under a dollar per meg. Now we’re approaching multi-terabyte drives at retail stores for extremely reasonable prices. The age old problem, though, is how to protect all that precious data. RAID solutions have been around for a long time, but the consumer-grade products haven’t been all that great, and the commercial-grade products have been way too expensive. Things are starting to change, though, and the iStoragePro iT4UFER is a good indicator of what’s to come. Read on for a complete review, and a chance to win a $100 Starbucks gift card!
A kunai is a tool the ancient Ninja used to gouge holes in walls and to kill off people. Now, thanks to Tokyo-based gadget maker Solid Alliance, you can have one of these things [JP], too, if only as a USB memory stick. This is the same company that released the USB Ninja star shuriken back in May.
Every once in a while, Tokyo-based crap gadget maker Thanko does release a gadget that’s not completely silly. This new USB record player [JP] for use with a Windows PC (XP and Vista) or Mac (OS X) is not really that exciting, but it’s one of them.
It’s Thanko time again. Today the Tokyo-based crap gadget company released another of their weird inventions, the Shoubenkozou [JP], a cupid-like mini figure that for some reason is able to “pee”. And needless to say, the thing can be connected to your computer’s USB port.
While it is well known that I once did a burlesque show under the name TrickleStar in Weimar Germany, many of you don’t know that TrickleStar is also a system for shutting down idling hardware next to your TV or PC. I’m here to tell you, my kleine Kuchen, that it’s really great.
Think about your own sad situation: you have a computer or TV that you turn off. The constellation of devices that orbit these central devices remain on or in a standby state. The TrickleStars solve that problem by turning everything off when the main items are off.
