Readdle has announced Christmas sale on their most popular iPhone appications offering high discounts that will last until Monday, December 28th. The products on sale are Scanner Pro, application that transforms iPhone into portable scanner; document viewer, file manager and attachment saver ReaddeDocs and note taking application Take A Note.

Ranked as top paid business application in the US, UK and Italy App Stores in November, Scanner Pro now costs only $4.99. It lets people scan multipage documents into PDF files, send them by email, upload to MobileMe iDisk, Evernote and even Dropbox.

“Christmas is a special time to feel family warmth and love, to give presents to near ones. In this wonderful and magic time many people will get new iPhone or iPod Touch on a Christmas eve,” says Alexander Tyagulsky, Readdle CMO.“ This Christmas everyone who has an iPhone can benefit from the lowest prices we set on our products”

The highest discount is set on ReaddleDocs, application that allows people to transfer documents to their devices over USB, Wi-Fi and 3G in a number of ways, view them on the go, send by email and share with other iPhone users with ease. It’s special price is only $2.99. Other Readdle products on sale are Take A Note, BookReader, OneDisk and Flash Drive which are also priced at $2.99.

Featured Applications on sale:

ReaddleDocs: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/readdledocs/id285053111?mt=8

Scanner Pro:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scanner-pro/id333710667?mt=8

OneDisk: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onedisk-webdav-client/id294152930?mt=8

Take A Note: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/take-a-note/id300241529?mt=8

Flash Drive: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flash-drive-view-save-drag-drop/id300366636?mt=8

Pricing and Availability:
All applications are available exclusively on the Apple App Store. Special pricing will last until Monday, December 28th.

About Readdle:
Founded in 2007, Readdle aims to provide iPhone and iPod Touch users with high quality applications that are missing in a standard application set. Flagship offerings are ReaddleDocs – a complete document and file management solution for the iPhone and iPod Touch; Take A Note – a versatile note taking application with direct access to notes from a PC or Mac computer using Wi-Fi. Copyright 2007-2009 Readdle. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Customizing a USB flash drive is nothing but making it more and more useful than it usually is my providing or rather enhancing the in built features like more data storage capacity and high data transmission rate. Once these flash drives are tailored to cater to the needs of the customers then it’s the job of the marketers to market the product and get them sold. Nowadays almost all every rival company is coming up with the same or even more enhanced technology simultaneously their competitor is already into.

So it’s technically not the matter of good technology products since every company is coming with the same as their peer is doing. It’s the matter of who comes first into the market and who grabs the more market share before his competitor does. Generally the company which enters first into the market grabs most of the market share since the percentage of people who wants to buy a product or a service will be fixed and the one who enters that particular product market grabs the greater or major share of the market and the one who enters lately will have to rest him self with the remaining customer or public who have been left by his fellow competitor.

So it’s not only the question of which technology is better or which is bad; it’s a question of who grabs what share of the market. Customizing USB flash drives is nothing but making it more user friendly or rather to be precise customizing USB is making it easy to handle in order to increase the comfort ability level with the usage of the USB flash drives. Making a product rich in technology or enhancing the existing features of technology rich product is nothing but increasing the technical usability of the product by increasing the number of applications of the product like initially the product or to be specific the technology (USB technology) is used only data store and transfer of data but today it’s being used for the biometric identification and physical identification of personnel in various organizations. So customizing a product has many dimensions to it and these (dimensions) are to be explored to the best possible way.

It’s so hard to keep up with technology as a lay man. You learn something about a new electronic gadget and there comes another one. Some of us come under the armature category when it comes to technology. Just about when we learned how to use a computer we learned about floppy drive, came Compatible Discs (CD), and then came along Video CD and the MP3 CD and the DVD. All of these are used to store data of all sorts from files to movies to songs.

The kind of stuff and the quantity of information that can be stored in these is amazing making life so simple. But there is still something better than all of this. If you are one of those who carry all their music and movies and work files everywhere you go then carrying a bundle of discs can be a pain also considering the fact that they do get damaged easily. What I am referring to is what is called a PEN DRIVE. Pretty accurate to the name because is resembles a small pen or pencil in size and shape. It is small enough to fit into your pocket.

A pen drive is what geeks call \”Universal Serial Bus.\” It is also commonly referred to as USB, the pen drive which is a flash memory device that can be used to transfer audio, video and data files from the hard drive of the computer. A pen drive is user friendly, portable, capable of storing larger amount of data, because of large memory capacity, however they are also available with low storage capacity but still can store a number of files. Using a pen drive is very simple. One end of the device is equipped with a USB connector. The connector needs to be inserted into the USB port on the desktop or laptop and activated. Once the pen drive is connected you can copy files, Video or audio data very quickly. Pen Drives are available with different memory capacity which starts at 512MB and moves up to 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB. While you can store around 10 songs on a 512 MB Pen Drive you will be able to store 3840 on a 16GB Pen Drive.

Do people have tangible photo albums anymore, or are we all images in soft copy?  Snapshots of online sharing within social networks of people that probably would never actually be in a photograph with me anyway?  Optimized discovery at every view, and I recall the excitement of physical discovery itself, ah yes relic rembrance of the nostalgic kind. 

Everything at our fingertips, and I feel like a hypocrite for wishing my record player had a remote.  Nonetheless, my record can play from Side A to Side B in a linear listen and I even get up to flip it to the other side, but yet I could never listen, fully, to a digital album.  (By ‘record’ I mean vinyl, yes dinosaurs of music). I don’t lay on my rug, staring up at the ceiling and daydream of future experiences, and listen to an album from start to finish with an iPod.  I most certainly don’t print out the artwork and put it on my walls. 

Maybe something happened to my earnest filing of memories and dreams, and therein lies the issue?    Photo albums in the bookshelf, books from authors dedicated to me in pencil from friends along the way, music collections that imprinted the soul, and napkins of philosophy and dreams crumpled into boxes; all digitized and flash drived.

Storage, but none of it spends enough time in the soul.  It has become too easy to hit file, save, and connect to a USB that I’m afraid of losing  the simple aesthetic of my real life memory.  Unable to file away with a song and no image to thumb through to prove this moment exists, and let’s face it no blog is sacred. 

My journals used to contain writing, the deep kind, and each year represented in its own journal.  I’ve banged too many keyboards to remember how to write, so my years now piggyback off a single journal.  Three years of life tucked away in one college-ruled leather bound book, not even memorably expressed to exist individually.  Everything condensed to gigabytes and shared into forgotten drives, stored on a flash drive small enough to lose. 

You’ll never hear someone say they will grab their flash drive, iPod, or Kindle in the case of a fire, but they used to say photo albums, journals, and keepsakes.  Then again if you barely have enough time to jump from a burning house in time to save your life, at least your eBooks, music, photos, and documents will all be safely stored online.

I know my posting frequency lately has been rather erratic, but I plan to work out a solid schedule later, assuming all my other assumptions hold through.

If you’re like me, you really want to switch to Linux, but for one reason or another, you can’t really leave Windows. You could dual-boot, but why not try it out first? You could make a boot-able flash-drive, but this is way cooler. With this handy bit of software, you can actually run Ubuntu 7.10 inside your current Windows operating system! Here’s how to do it:

1. Get your hand on a 1 GB+ flash-drive. The faster the better.
2. Download QPU710.exe here.
3.Download Ubuntu 7.10 ISO here (this will take a while, so grab some Pepsi and crank up the Billy Joel).

3. Extract QPU710.exe to your (empty) flash-drive.
4. Copy the Ubuntu 7.10 ISO to the newly created QPU710 folder.
5. Run QPU710.bat and install the QEMU Accelerator to your flash-drive’s root folder.
6. Once it’s done,  Ubuntu should start to boot. Do not close this window!

7. While it’s booting, hit “f6″ to open the boot options and type in “persistent” (without the quotations).

8. Ubuntu will take a few minutes to boot, so in the meantime, learn these shortcuts:

1. Ctrl-Alt to switch between Ubuntu and Windows.
2. Ctrl-AlT-F to switch between full-screen and windowed modes (this didn’t work for me thanks too my wide-screen monitor).
3. Ctrl-Alt-2 to switch to the QEMU Monitor
4. Ctrl-Alt-1 to switch back to Ubuntu.

9. When it boots, have fun, you’re using Linux – inside Windows! Guaranteed to impress your friends!

10. When you want to close Ubuntu, click shutdown and wait to be prompted to hit “enter” Do not remove the flash-drive. When it tells you “System  Halted,” you can Ctrl-Alt back to Windows, close the windows and remove your flash-drive.

Have fun!

Author:
Mike Adams
12/21/2009

The Holidays at the TechHub

Finals are over and the stress of school is gone for a few weeks. Now is the time to pack up and head home during this period to visit the family for the holidays. That’s when it hits you, “I never did any holiday shopping. What am I going to do?” And let’s face it, as a college student you probably don’t have much disposable income lying around to purchase these gifts with. So why don’t you just head over to the UC Davis Bookstore TechHub and put those gifts on your student account. And while you are there, pick something up for yourself and tell the folks it was a book you needed for class…

• iPod Nano
• Apple has turned their popular MP3 player into what is essentially a Flip Cam, and we still have some of the 8GB ones on sale for $139 right now at the TechHub. (Limited availability and available for a limited time.)
• SkullCandy Pipe
• Oh SkullCandy…you and your funny drug-fueled names. Don’t let the name fool you though. This little speaker system will surprise you with the sound that comes out of it. As a bonus, purchase one of these through the end of the month and you can get a free pair of SkullCandy iCon headphones. Score!
• UC Davis Logo “TechWear”
• Want people to see your school pride??? Show them by adorning your laptop, iPod or phone with the UC Davis Logo “TechWear”. Little stickers that adhere straight to your electronic device without leaving any kind of residue behind.
• UC Davis 4GB Flash Drive
• Speaking of school pride, now you can carry your documents around in a heavy-duty flash drive adorned with the UC Davis Logo right on the side.
• Windows 7 Pro
• Why not start the new year with the operating system that should have been Vista? Check out the TechHub for full boxed copies and student licenses.
• Snow Leopard
• It’s Mac OS X…exclusively for those with an Intel processor. Sorry you diehards who are clinging to your G5. Is it worth it though? Snow Leopard freed up 10GB of space on my 80GB hard drive. That alone was worth the $29 upgrade.
• Computer Games
• We all know that as a college student you don’t have much money, so you might be inclined to try and “pirate” computer software. Well don’t do it! The University has really cracked down on that kind of thing, so instead, come grab the gamer in your life a legit copy of Modern Warfare 2 directly from the TechHub. We also have copies of World of Warcraft (and the WotLK expansion), Need for Speed Shift, Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout 3: GotY Edition, and Left 4 Dead 2.

Considerations in Common Backup Processes

There are many ways one can backup data and they all have positives and negatives. If you are using any of them then I applaud you as you are doing more than the majority of people and businesses out there are doing. So that’s the first step. Do something. The next thing you should become aware of are the risks associated with using your chosen process. If you understand the risks at least you know what your up against and where that process could fail. I never rely on one form of backup so I tend to recommend a combination of processes when consulting with my clients. Do yourself a favor and consider that. I’m sure you have heard that you should always have a "Plan B" with anything. Backup is no different.

Let’s jump back to understanding the risks as that is what I wanted to post about. I wrote an article about a year ago that details just that from a non-technical perspective. I’ve added it below so you can continue reading on. The original article can be found on the AutoBackup site here. As always, don’t hesitate to comment or ask questions. Enjoy!

Lost Data Headache

Few of us question the need for backing up our data. It is well known that 43% of all businesses who experience significant data loss never re-open¹ and of those that do, only 51% survive an additional 2 years². Surprisingly, less than 1% of all SMEs have backup processes effective enough to recover or limit their liability and risk from business halting events³. Conflictingly, 91% of them feel that they do have processes effective enough to protect them⁴. How come there is such a discrepancy between those two percentages? This article will introduce some reasons why there may be a false sense of security within our business community.

For sake of simplicity, specific hardware and software will not be referenced. Let’s start by separating backup strategies in terms of internal and external. Internal refers to what you do within the confines of your establishment whereas external refers to the opposite.

Internal Strategies

There are many ways of internally protecting your data. They all revolve around duplicating it from a source to some form of storage medium or device. The most common forms include the use of Optical Discs (CD/DVD), Magnetic Tapes and Hard Disks.

Optical Discs

Optical Disc

Optical discs are relatively cheap and have the advantage of offering direct restoration to any computer equipped with a compatible reader. On the flip side, this media offers limited capacities, which make them impractical for use with large amounts of data. This could influence backup consistency due to increased labour as it cannot be done unattended which, supports the “putting it off until tomorrow” behavior. Additionally, this media is prone to environmental influences such as heat and physical damage, which present a storage issue. Some discs have been known to degrade and lose data within a moderately short period of time.

Magnetic Tape

Magnetic Tape

Magnetic tape is the most widely used backup media but, the least dependable. They offer poor access times and are extremely prone to breakage, dust, heat, humidity, electromagnetic fields, and wear due to use. How they are stored and how often they are used must be considered so they remain effective. A similarity with old 3.5” floppy discs comes to mind. If you recall their continuing to work until one day they were inaccessible. Magnetic tape behaves very much the same way. Furthermore, tape backups are not inter-compatible with all tape readers, even from the same manufacturer. Ensure you have a spare, tested, identical reader should the original be involved in the event causing the loss.

Hard Disks

Hard Drive

Reasonable prices and extended capacities have increased the popularity of hard disk storage. However, recent studies report an annualized failure rate of up to 8.6%⁵ and up to 15 times more than what vendor’s claim⁶. Consider that hard disks today store thousands of times more data than in the past and on smaller surfaces. It makes sense that their failure rate would follow suit.

Solid State Storage

Flash Drive

Known as USB, flash or jump drives, these devices have relatively low capacities but offer excellent portability and ease of use. However, their small size makes them prone to loss or theft which can expose the business to increased liability.

External Strategies

It doesn’t matter how good your internal strategy is if backups are only kept onsite. I must stress this. You are accepting incredible risk by doing so. What use are backups that are destroyed in the same event that consumed the originals? Just look in any media source for evidence of these disasters, they happen more than you think. Protect yourself and insure your backups are always offsite!

The most important aspect of all external strategies is encryption. The loss or theft of any corporate data can bring your business to its knees. Proper encryption can make a loss a non-event! Non-compliance with privacy legislation such as PIPEDA can also lead to severe penalties. Consider the consequences of a public loss of data. Damages could include negative publicity and the loss of confidence with shareholder/clients to name a few. Identity theft and privacy are huge public concerns so encrypt to eliminate exposure!

Always store your data in an environment specifically designed to protect and support the longevity of electronic data, media and devices. As previously described, all storage media have their own inherent weaknesses that need consideration when used in any backup strategy. If you don’t, your data may be unrecoverable when you need it.

Remote Backup Services

Remote Backup

Remote backup is becoming increasingly popular due to automation, extreme flexibility and a set it and forget it ease of use. However, one should be concerned with if and how the data is encrypted in addition to how and where it is stored. The provider must not have access to the encryption key. Additionally, most remote backup services are impractical for large backups due to speed limitations by bandwidth for backup and even more critical, for restoration. Relying on a physical delivery component can make this problem worse. Use a service that can guarantee data delivery when you need it.

Conclusion

Always keep in mind that no strategy is complete without test restoring your data. This should be done routinely as it is one of the biggest mistakes a business can make. You may think you have a bulletproof plan only to find it’s ineffective with meeting your needs at a critical time. Test, test and re-test, your business could depend on it!

Remember, no backup process is 100% effective. Ensure that you consider the risks you currently face and improve processes to limit your liability. Mixtures of internal and external strategies are required to do so. Employing this philosophy will put your business in the top less than 1% that have backup processes effective enough to recover or limit their liability and risk from business halting events.

Anyone who has touched a keyboard has probably heard of computer viruses, spyware, malware, etc.  But do you really understand what those terms mean, and how they can affect you?

This is the first of a three part series on computer viruses.  We will define what different types of viruses are, what they can do, how to remove them,  and how you can prevent future infections.

Definitions

Adware – A small software program, typically installed when visiting certain internet websites, or installing “shareware” or “freeware” software.  Adware can monitor websites that you visit, and transmit that information to marketers for research and targeted advertising.  It can increase the delivery of advertisements in the form of pop-up ads, targeted banners, etc.

Malware – Malicious software that is installed without your knowledge, that is used for sinister purposes, such as gathering information like passwords, installing viruses and trojans, turning a computer into a “Zombie”, and other unwanted actions.

Spyware – Again, software installed on your computer without you knowing.  Spyware can be software installed by an owner of the computer to monitor the activities.  For example, a parent that installs software to log the keystrokes of their kids, or a business owner monitoring their employee’s computer use.  Spyware can monitor internet activity, and can also re-direct users to specific websites.

Trojan (Horse) – One of the more riskier malware programs, a trojan horse virus typically starts out as a small program that seemingly causes no harm, but can give others unauthorized access to your computer system.  They are usually not self replicating, like viruses and worms, and they do require interaction with an outside party, like a hacker.

Virus - A virus is a program or set of scripts that can cause harm to your computer by deleting or corrupting files, disabling security software and other problematic things.  A virus is typically a local program, and can be spread through manual processes, like sharing flash disks or USB drives, as well as email, IM programs, and social networking websites.  The term virus is generally used as a blanketed description for other types of infections, like trojans, spyware and malware.

Worm – A self-replicating program that spreads through networks, e-mail, instant messaging programs and file sharing.  Worms do not usually attach themselves to other programs.  Many worms do not typically cause damage to files or programs, however, they can cause problems with bandwidth because of how they spread and replicate.

Zombie (Computer) – A computer that is connected to the internet, and has been compromised by a trojan, virus or worm.  The computer is then used by someone controlling it, to send out spam e-mails, spread viruses, attack websites, etc.  The owner of the computer does not know their computer is being used in that way.  An estimated 80-90% of all spam e-mails sent worldwide comes from zombie infected computers.

Move over 32 GB flash disks, this is the mother lode of all thumb drives. I want every file I have right in the palm of my hands. For roughly 300 dollars, you can have the comforts of having all you media wherever you go. With this guy, Santa won’t be needing to deliver all my data wishes for Christmas. He could sent it through mail instead.

from perpetualkid.com

I admit it– I’m a USB drive dork. I love these things. Since it’s the holidays Web Urbanist is showcasing a veritable online catalog of USB flash drives, from Pentagon-level security models (IronKey) to the totally absurd (think sushi-inspired). And since I’m such a nut I thought it only proper to share. In the spirit of Christmas. I’m still hopeful I’ll get the Swiss Army knife flash drive in my stocking. (it has a built in laser pointer

This might be a news or not depending on whether you own an iPod touch or not. Toshiba is the first one to be able to squeeze that much storage for an iPod, as earlier versions had only got 32 GBs of data cards for an iPod. This also paves the way to a 128 GB storage card. Lets see when we will listen to that news (It would have been a news for you if you were an iPod user).  (Courtesy: The Apple Blog)

This article explains what a Flash Drive is, how to use it, how to select and purchase one; and gives tips for safe use. USB Flash Drives are arguably the handiest computer storage device ever invented. 

Flash Drives – Rugged Convenient Productivity Boosters
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Samuel_Mela]Samuel Mela

USB Flash Drives are arguably the handiest computer storage device ever invented. They are so small they can hang off a key chain or be embedded into an ink pen. Yet they can easily hold 2 gigabytes or more of data – roughly the equivalent of 1500 floppy disks.

So where should you buy a Flash Drive? What should you use it for? What size Flash Drive should you buy? What precautions should you take in using a Flash Drive? These topics and more are covered in this article.

Flash Drives can be used to back up files created on nearly any computer that has a USB port. This is especially useful if you are using a program such as Microsoft Word at a public library or a university. Flash Drives are also useful for ordinary tasks such as copying files between two computers in your home, or your computer and a friend’s computer. While you can also accomplish these tasks using CD or CD rewrite media, flash is often more convenient and easier to use.

Flash Drives can also hold large amounts of mp3 or picture files. For example, a 1 GB Flash Drive can hold 16 hours of MP3 music or more than 1000 digital photographs (depending on the resolution of the photographs).

You can get a great deal on a flash drive by watching the sale flyers of national computer discount stores such as Staples, Best Buy, CompUSA, Office Max, and others. Most Sunday newspapers contain advertisements for these stores, or you can go to store Websites, and click on the “Weekly Flyer” link. You will see devices with capacities ranging from 256 MB to 2 GB.

256 MB means 256 megabytes and it is about the smallest capacity flash drive sold. 2 GB means 2 gigabytes and this is one of the largest capacity flash drives sold — although larger sizes will be available soon.

Which size flash drive you buy depends on your budget and how you plan to use it. If you want to store lots of picture files, mp3 files, and other media files, then you may want to think about getting the largest drive available.

If your budget is limited, and all you want to do is exchange a few files between computers or back up a few word processing files, 256 or 512 MB should be more than sufficient.

Flash Drives are part of a category of computer peripherals called “USB Devices”. USB stands for “Universal Serial Device”. Nearly all PCs sold in the last 5 years have USB ports. Most computers have four or more USB ports. If you don’t know where the USB ports are on your computer, look in the manual, or any computer-savvy person can point them out to you. They are often found on the back of a computer or in front, sometimes behind a little sliding or popup cover – the ports are little rectangles, approximately ¼ x ½ inch. Public Computers often have a cable with a USB Jack, laying next to the computer.

Flash Drives, like all USB devices, may be plugged in “hot”. This means, than can be plugged into and unplugged from the computer while it is running. But be cautious. It is possible to lose data or damage your file system, if you plug or unplug your Flash Drive when the computer is engaged in certain activities. Luckily, there is a way to be totally safe.

To safely disconnect a Flash Drive, follow these steps:

1. In the System Tray (lower right corner area of your screen), right click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon and select “Safely Remove Hardware”.

2. A Safely Remove Hardware window will pop up. If you have only one storage device connected you can simply select it and click the “Stop” button. If you have more than one storage device, you may need to double click on the individual devices to figure out which one you want to remove, and then hit the “OK” button.

3. If the system tells you that it is ok to remove the Flash Drive, do so, and you are done.

4. If the system says the device cannot be stopped, close out any programs that are using the USB Drive, then try again.

5. If you can’t get rid of the device busy message, then save your work and shut down the computer. It is then safe to remove the drive.

You should also be aware that Flash Drives are as vulnerable to virus attack as any other storage device. In fact, a Flash Drive can be particularly vulnerable to virus attacks because it may be plugged into multiple computers. Exercise caution in regard to which computers you plug in your drive. On a positive note, many commercial virus protection packages (Mcafee and Norton for example) can protect and disinfect Flash Drives.

Here is one final tip about using your Flash Drive. Flash Drives have a property called “endurance”, which basically means the number of times individual bytes in the drive can be rewritten. If you are doing a project that involves a very large number of read/write operations to mass storage it may be best to copy your project from flash drive onto the computer’s hard drive, do your work, and then copy your project back to the Flash Drive again.

So what are you waiting for? Start taking advantage of cheap, portable, convenient, reliable data storage. You’ll be glad you did.

copyright 2006 Sam Mela

Sam Mela tutors math and computer languages, and writes math tutorial guides.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Samuel_Mela http://EzineArticles.com/?Flash-Drives—Rugged-Convenient-Productivity-Boosters&id=276184

Once you’ve made the decision to give away promotional products to help increase your business, you then must choose the right product as a give away. In today’s advanced world, coffee cups, pens, and calendars are just not going to cut it.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Personalized USB Flash Drives
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Todd_Vanguard]Todd Vanguard

Once you’ve made the decision to give away promotional products to help increase your business, you then must choose the right product as a give away. In today’s advanced world, coffee cups, pens, and calendars are just not going to cut it. Instead, offer something better to your customers and consider giving away personalized USB flash drives. However, if you do choose a flash drive as a give away, you will find there are a few important factors to consider:

Manufacturer – One of the most important factors to consider when choosing personalized USB flash drives is the manufacturer. You will find many cheaper flash drives, but they are probably from manufacturers that you and your potential clients have never heard of before. To make sure that your campaign is effective, go with the more popular manufacturer, even if it means going with a small size.

Size – Another factor to consider is the cost. Drives come in a variety of sizes, anywhere from 1 GB to 16 GBs or more. While many often find that their budget allows for a smaller size, you may find better results when you go with a larger size drive. Even a 4 GB drive may get you more attention and secure more business for you than going with a 1 GB drive would. Always take this into consideration when choosing the flash drive you will be putting out there with your business name on it.

Features – Last, you will need to consider the features of the drive. Many come with containers or caps. Unfortunately, these things are easily lost. What you may want to consider instead is going with a swivel design, which allows for easier use. You will also find that they come in a variety of colors and choosing the one that best matches your company colors will help to promote your company in the best light.

These are just a few of the things you will need to consider when giving away personalized USB flash drives. You will also need to consider what you are going to have imprinted on the side of them, as well as what information you will include on the drive itself. Regardless, you are sure to find that this will bring great results for your business.

PrintUSB.com specializes in the personalization and distribution of [http://www.printusb.com/]personalized USB drives that are intended to assist clients in meeting their business initiatives while practicing more environmentally-sound business operations through use of resource-saving “green” technology.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Todd_Vanguard http://EzineArticles.com/?Factors-to-Consider-When-Choosing-Personalized-USB-Flash-Drives&id=3214460

A USB Flash Drive is a miniature storage device just about the size of your thumb. A typical USB flash drive is about 1-4 inches long and is removable and usually, rewritable. A USB drive can have a capacity ranging from 64MB to 64GB, and the price varies with the capacity and features provided with the drive. USB flash drives have become the most popular portable storage solution and are preferred over other portable storage media like floppy drives.
What is a USB Flash Drive?
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Pinky_Mcbanon]Pinky Mcbanon

A USB Flash Drive is a miniature storage device just about the size of your thumb. A typical USB flash drive is about 1-4 inches long and is removable and usually, rewritable. A USB drive can have a capacity ranging from 64MB to 64GB, and the price varies with the capacity and features provided with the drive. USB flash drives have become the most popular portable storage solution and are preferred over other portable storage media like floppy drives.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a high-speed serial communication protocol used for communication between the computer and the USB flash drive. Connecting and disconnecting a USB flash drive is very simple. This drive can be connected to the computer by plugging it into the USB port. There are no other connectors or power cables required. The drive derives its power from the USB connector itself.

Whenever a USB flash drive is connected to the computer an icon indicating the presence of the drive is displayed in the system tray in a Computer running Windows Operating System. However, it is not advised to simply pull out the drive when you are done with it, you must stop the drive before you disconnect it and this can be done by right clicking the mouse over the USB drive icon in the system tray and stopping the device. Once the message asking you to disconnect the drive is displayed, the drive can be disconnected safely.

The computer treats a USB flash drive just like a hard disk, enabling you to perform all the actions that would normally be done in a hard disk. This includes file movement, modification, saving and deleting data and formatting.

Normally USB flash drives are available with FAT32 file system but they can be formatted to work with any Operating System that supports them.

However, defragmenting a USB flash drive is not advisable as it produces no significant improvement in performance and may actually reduce the life of the drive. This is because the drive uses EEPROM storage that can be written only a fixed number of times and the erasing and rewrite of data performed during defragmenting would shorten the life of the drive.

USB flash drives have several security related features built in to protect your data. It is common to see USB drives with write protection or with biometric security features like fingerprint recognition for a valid user. Since they are very small in size they may also come with provision for attaching a tag that makes it easier to carry.

The data stored in a USB flash drive can be stored reliably for as long as 2 years. They are very sturdy and dropping them does not cause you to lose data. The price to storage ratio is also very good. The downside of USB flash drives are that their small size makes it easy for them to be misplaced or lost or just forgotten. They are very sturdy and dropping them does not cause you to lose data.

Ms. Pinky is a Computer Support Specialist for more than 25 years. Has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Engineering, MS Research work in Systems Engineering.

Get more free computer tips on her blog at http://www.computerhelpdeskandsupport.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pinky_Mcbanon http://EzineArticles.com/?What-is-a-USB-Flash-Drive?&id=1823316

A-DATA S805 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive 8GS805BK (Grey)

How to live a dashing life with one’s individuality truly revealed while pursing better life quality and career success has become an important topic for modern people. When you believe in yourself, self-fulfillment is achievable through continuous personal development. That is what we often referred as “Neo Stylism” – a perspective of pursuing nice life style and believing in our own capability. Featuring mountain-climbing sky hooks, the A-DATA’s S805 USB Flash Drive harmonically blend in delicate craftsmanship with a touch of style – making it the ultimate piece for fashion follower like yourself with great passion in sports. Embraced by zinc alloy frame, this sporty S805 USB flash drive also incorporated swivel design to eliminate cap-losing problems. The carabiner of the S805 can be easily clipped on a key chain or a handbag as a mobile storage device. Capacity ranging from 2GB to 16GB, the USB 2.0 high speed transmission provides a perfect solution to carry your documents. Combing the state-of-the-art technology, practical functionality and stylish design, the A-DATA’s S805 is the eye-catching drive for sports enthusiasts, especially for people who practice Neo Stylism.

Customer Reviews

“Great flash drive that may hold up to the riggors of daily use”

I like to keep a flash drive on my key chain but the plastic cases all seem to break after 3-4 months use. The drives themselves still work, but not whatever contraption that it had to hold it to a key chain. With this flash drive, I feel confident it will make it longer. The drive housing is metal and feels very solid. It is also very easy to take off of a key chain which I really like. As far as data transfer goes, it seems fast enough. Not the fastest one I have ever used but works fine anyway. Installed TrueCrypt on it day one for a portion of the drive and it works like a champ. Overall a great drive that I highly recommend.

“Nice Upmarket Look & Feel”

Just got this, so I can’t speak to how it holds up long term, but had no problem copying a bunch of folders with my important reference documents (plus some family photos) onto it. The big difference between this one and most of the others is that it has a “serious” and tailored look. It’s not very big, but the frame of the drive is a nice polished steel which gives it a solid look and a substantial, expensive feel when you hold it. Much heavier than most flash drives — clearly not for those who need to carry around multiple flash drives for storing tons and tons of huge files. But if you’re a relatively light user like me, using it only for business documents & simple presentations(versus photos, videos and songs) this is a great choice to put in your briefcase. It is attractive and “grown-up” looking, not at all rinky-dink if you need to use it during client meetings, presentations, etc. Actually it also has a bit of “camouflage” benefit too since it doesn’t look much like a flash drive when closed, it would probably be taken for a novelty key ring. And the built in hook is extremely convenient for attaching to a key-ring or any other place where it won’t get lost.

“All-in-one, this has everything I wanted.”

I wanted a flash drive that is retractable so I don’t have to risk losing a cap. I also wanted a flash drive that I don’t have to remember where I put. This one has a clip so I always clip it to my key ring and don’t have to remember where I put it. The design is beautiful. I got it in black so it’s unisex. 8 gb is more than enough for me to put everything I want in it. It’s got everything I want and the price is great. I love this flash drive.
See all detials of A-DATA S805 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive 8GS805BK (Grey)

Crucial Technology Gizmo 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive JDOD8GB-730

8GB Gizmo

Customer Reviews

“Mac OS 10.5 on a Flash Drive”

All of you that want a solution to have an emergency flash drive bootable on the Mac have come to the right place. I bought this drive formatted it to HFS + (plus)made it work for Intel Mac machine only, installed the basic 10.5.6 software by doing a custom install only which amount to 4.5GB, after formatting the drive you end up with 6 GB. I’m able to put all my diagnostic tools on the drive including a tool to clone Mac drives. Since I work in a university that supports 80 iMacs with Bootcamp Windows XP on one half, Mac on the other half, I’m able to boot from my flash drive should one of the workstations fail.

In order to make your bootable flash drive you want to partition the drive using Disk Utilities, select the partition tab, then select Other, there you want to change it from Master Boot Record to Apple Gui, then name your drive and load OS 10.5.6 or 10.6 what ever you have available. I’m able to boot a 20″ iMac in 45 seconds from this flash drive. Believe me its fast!

I wonder if you can put Windows XP on a flash drive than be able to format the slave drive, will have to try that next.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you
Dr.Phil SCU

“small, speedy, nice blue LED”

Smaller/thinner than my other USB flash drives, feel sturdy. Cap fits pretty tightly so no fear of losing the cap. Significantly faster compares to my other 3 flash drives: LG, Kingston, and a generic one. Blue LED status is nice. I reformatted with NTSF format, comes with fat32 format I think. Have it for 1 month, so far so good.

“Fastest Flash Drive I’ve Ever Had”

Not much to say about this guy. It’s got 8gb of space and it’s really fast. I noticed that copying files to/from this drive is significantly faster than working with files on my Sandisk usb key. My only gripe with the drive is that it’s made of plastic and has a cap. I would much prefer a metal housing with turtle mechanism for the actual usb connector because I don’t like the idea of putting the cap on my keychain and having the actual body of the flash drive hanging in the wind.
See all detials of Crucial Technology Gizmo 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive JDOD8GB-730

I put my flash drive through the washing machine.  My portfolio images were in it, my grad paper was also in it, my work from my digital class was in it also.  After I panicked for a minute, I calmed down and figured out I could do it all over again.  Thank God I had my images already uploaded.  It would have been a disaster!  Well, lessons learned.  Now I need a new flash drive, preferably one over 1GB.

Klar, ein 64 GByte-Flash-Drive lässt sich nicht für ein Taschengeld herstellen. Insbesondere, wenn es ein Steampunk-Kunstwerk ist. Aber dieser Tarif wäre selbst der GEZ peinlich.

Wenn man 1.000 Dollar für ein Steampunk-Gerät verlangt, muss es schon etwas besonderes können. Zum Beispiel wirklich Dampfkraft absondern. Oder die Welt retten. Oder ein UFO fernsteuern. Aber nur, weil Designer Will Rockwell einen Kingston USB-Stick etwas verschönert, mit einem roten Licht ausgerüstet und seine Signatur draufgeklatscht hat, soll man Steampunk-Fan eine vierstellige Summe ausspucken? Da müsste man noch ein paar Wochen warten, bis man für 1 Euro 150 Dollar bekommt, dann kann man drüber nachdenken.
Immerhin ist es originell, einzigartig und angeblich auch ziemlich stabil. [Ralf]

[Etsy]

Gadget mit Komfort: Sofa als USB-Drive

Diese externe Platte mag es hart und dreckig

Granate: Der grenzscheue USB-Stick

Happy Black Friday to all! I am sure all the stores are crowded. So for those at home relaxing, here is a little something you might like. Readdle has just announced that all there apps are up to 40% off. We reviewed many of there apps so just take a look at out website and you’ll be able to read them. Here are the current prices on the apps.

ReaddleDocs – $2.99
Take A Note – $2.99
Flash Drive – $2.99
PDF Expert – $2.99
OneDisk – $2.99
BookReader – $2.99

Hurry offer ends tomorrow, Saturday November 27. Happy Shopping!

Here is the official press release from Readdle

Readdle announces up to 40% Black Friday Sale.

Readdle has announced Black Friday sale for their popular iPhone products Scanner Pro, application that transforms the device into portable scanner, ReaddleDocs, document and file management solution for the iPhone, and several others. Company offers an extremely high discount up to 40% off the regular prices for the applications that will last until Saturday, November 28th.

Most significant discount is set on ReaddleDocs application, that was named “The Rolls Royce of document portfolios” by O’Relly.com and “One of the apps that makes iPhone worth the price” by Walt Mossberg, it’s special price is only $2.99. Scanner Pro, that was top paid application in Business category in the US, UK and Italy App Stores, also offers very compelling discount to $4.99. Other Readdle products including Take A Note, BookReader and Flash Drive are priced at $2.99.

“To avoid crazy Black Friday crowds many customers are shopping online as a way to take advantage of holiday sale. This year iPhone users don’t have to leave their houses to benefit from Black Friday Sale as well,” says Igor Zhadanov, Readdle CEO. “Millions of the iPhone users will be rewarded with the major discounts on Readdle’s apps to celebrate the popular shopping holiday during the whole Thanksgiving weekend.

Pricing and Availability: All application are available on exclusively on the Apple App Store. Special pricing will last until Saturday 28th of November.

Readdle has announced Black Friday sale for their popular iPhone products Scanner Pro, application that transforms the device into portable scanner, ReaddleDocs, document and file management solution for the iPhone, and several others.

The company offers an extremely high discount up to 40% off the regular prices for the applications that will last until Saturday, November 28th.
Most significant discount is set on ReaddleDocs application, that was named “The Rolls Royce of document portfolios” by O’Relly.com and “One of the apps that makes iPhone worth the price” by Walt Mossberg, it’s special price is only $2.99. Scanner Pro, that was top paid application in Business category in the US, UK and Italy App Stores, also offers very compelling discount to $4.99. Other Readdle products including Take A Note, BookReader and Flash Drive are priced at $2.99.

“To avoid crazy Black Friday crowds many customers are shopping online as a way to take advantage of holiday sale. This year iPhone users don’t have to leave their houses to benefit from Black Friday Sale as well,” says Igor Zhadanov, Readdle CEO. “Millions of the iPhone users will be rewarded with the major discounts on Readdle’s apps to celebrate the popular shopping holiday during the whole Thanksgiving weekend.

Pricing and Availability:
All application are available on exclusively on the Apple App Store. Special pricing will last until Saturday 28th of November.

Check out the Readdle Apps on iTunes using this link.

Who could possibly forget? Black Friday is coming up (it’s this Friday, Nov 27 for those too busy) and there is no better day in the year to drop your money all at once and splurge on that HDTV, Xbox 360/PS3/Wii, surround sound system, USB flash drive, digital camera, DVDs, Blu-Rays or whatever.

Geeks on the net will already have their battle plan mapped out. Black Friday advertisements and deals have been leaking out since the beginning of this month. For everyone else, you should start thinking about it now.

For whatever reason, just go out and spend some good hard-earned cash on gadgets you don’t need but have been lusting for all year. Steep discounts are everywhere. You just need to know where to look.

Here are my top three places to start out:

• Blackfriday.net
• Fat Wallet
• Slick Deal

Quantities will be limited, so get up nice and early or just don’t sleep. Hopefully a repeat of last years Walmart trampling won’t happen again. Remember people, what’s inside the stores aren’t worth a life. Be safe

If for any chance you do miss out on Black Friday deals; can’t wake up that early; or sadly need to work, that’s what the Internet is for. On the following Monday (Nov. 30), slews of online stores will be getting in on the Black Friday madness with a little something they call “Cyber Monday.” It’s Black Friday but ONLINE only – and maybe the deals aren’t nearly as discounted as Black Friday’s, but still discounts are discounts!

Flashspeicher in Form von kleinen Sticks kann man leicht verlegen, verlieren oder sonstwie verschlampen. Bei einem Sitzmöbel als Drive kann sowas nie passieren.

Hier kommt also der Berg zum Propheten, wird also der Mobilrechner rüber zu Couch und Sessel getragen, um gemütlich ein bisschen Datenaustausch zu zelebrieren. Abgesehen davon, dass eine Digital-Leder-Sitzlandschaft natürlich tausendmal cooler rüberkommt als ein Plastikdinosaurier oder der profane Schlüsselbund-Stick, kann es durchaus sinnvolle Einsatzbereiche geben. Man denke nur ans Foyer, ob Firma, Kino, Krankenhaus oder Museum: Wartende Besucher können sich selbst die Zeit vertreiben, Image-Broschüren, Video-Clips, Geschäftsberichte oder den Grundriss des komplexen Gebäudes herunterladen. Produktvorstellungen, die jüngste Rede des Chefs, Ankündigungen von Events oder der Mitarbeiter des Monats sind ebenfalls denkbar. Schon hat sich das Sitzmobiliar doppelt bezahlt gemacht.
Die Speichersofas werden vom Designstudio Cabracega gebastelt. Allerdings dürfte es nicht unbedingt schwierig sein, einen eigenen Mobiliar-Mod zu verwirklichen, um ein kleinen Stick zu integrieren und per USB-Verlängerungskabel nach Außen zu führen. [Ralf]

[TechnaBob]

Kühlschränke zu Sitzmöbeln

Couchtisch kann Tischfussball

A file picture of Chrome creators

Google believes that the Chrome OS will effectively act as a gateway to the web, allowing users to store their filed and documents on remote servers rather than storing in hard disks.

Ever imagined a computer system without a hard disk drive? Well, soon there will be such systems that will need just a few gigabytes of storage, allowing users to store their documents, photos and videos on remote servers through Internet.

At least, that seems the vision of Internet giant Google, which recently demonstrated its new operating system — Chrome OS.

The operating system, which Google believes will revolutionise computing, effectively acts as a gateway to the web, allowing users to store their filed and documents on remote servers rather than storing in hard disks.

Users can access their emails, documents or social networking sites by clicking on application tabs in the browser— like interface and use panels at the bottom of the desktop to send an instant message or view a video, The Telegraph reported.

Computers can boot up faster and get connected with web in just seven seconds through the operating system, termed the “cloud computing” approach, it said.

“We want Chrome to be blazingly fast,” said Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management. “We want it to be like a TV — turn it on and it’s booted up.”

“Chrome will run only on computers that use flash memory solid state drives instead of conventional hard drives.”

“Over the past few years, people have been spending more and more of their time online doing more and more powerful things, and we wanted to build a fundamentally different computing experience built for the way we use the web today,” says Mr. Pichai.

“With Google Chrome OS, we’ve made computing faster, easier and safer than ever before.”

But some experts say Google could find it difficult to persuade consumers. Users will not be able to install their own software or applications on Chrome OS devices — so that means no iTunes, no Skype and no Tweetdeck.

“There’s no doubt that Chrome OS looks fast, but it’s fairly limited in terms of its functionality,” says Annette Jump, an analyst with Gartner. “A lot of work needs to be done to convince consumers that this operating system will be useful to them.”

Another problem Chrome OS faces is its reliance on always-on web connectivity, which might be possible in large cities, with good mobile phone network coverage and plenty of Wi—Fi hotspots, but in rural areas, or on a flight, Chrome will be hobbled.

Google has also released the code to the operating system in the hope that developers would build new products, services and applications, in much the same way as they build apps for the iPhone, or Google’s mobile phone operating system, Android.