Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome to the inevitable yearly cash-in of Saint Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to making single people miserable and couples guilty. This year, the romantically-themed object of “desire” is the Galet, a silver pebble which splits open to reveal a 4GB USB stick.

The Galet, which translates variously to pebble, stone, rock and – most curiously – roller in Google translate, is a collaboration between Lacie and French silversmiths Christofle. Christofle takes a metal puck and coats it with silver in a “150 year-old silvering process” and hands it off to Lacie where it is stuffed with electronics, slipped into a plush bag and dropped into a cardboard box.

As USB sticks go, this is certainly a handsome one, but is it really a gift for the love in your life? After all, as fancy as it looks, buying your spousal unit a USB stick is a little like her buying you some expensive face-cream. It’s nice, but you just don’t care. Instead, give her (or him) the $140 you’re just about to waste, and hand her one of your old 4GB thumb-drives a week later.

An that’s it for my traditional Valentine’s Day rant, with just one thing left to say. I will be spending this Valentine’s Day in a high-tech version the same way I have spent almost every Valentine’s Day since I was old enough to buy liquor: at home, alone, with a bottle of Scotch and a copy of the new Playboy iOS app. Who said technology couldn’t be romantic?

Galet product page [Lacie. Thanks, Audra!]

See Also:

• Pink MSI Wind in Cynical Valentine Cash-In
• Gadget Lab Video Blog: Valentine's Day Gadget Guide
• 10 Gadgets Better Than Dates

This 15.6-inch TFT LCD screen from Green House may look like any other LCD monitor (except that maybe it’s a little smaller than we’re used to), but it has a magic trick: It runs on USB, which makes it one of the largest USB display’s we’ve seen.

With a distinctly average 400:1 contrast ratio and an acceptable 1366 × 768 pixel resolution, this monitor won’t out-perform any other screens you may have, but the gimmick is that it not only receives its image through a USB 2.0 port but is also powered by it. That’s right – there’s no external power-supply needed. The Green House monitor can run off just one USB port, which is more than can be said of the power-hungry iPad.

It’s not particularly cheap, though, at around $215 when it ships in Japan later this month. You could buy a decent 24-incher for less. On the other hand, you could use that 24-incher and this one together with just one port. Or, if you’re feeling a little ambitious, it’s possible to run up to six of these things simultaneously from one computer.

15.6 inch USB Sub Display [Green House via Crunch Gear]

See Also:

• Nine-Inch Touch-Screen USB Monitor is a Great Sidekick
• Tiny External USB Monitor Costs Almost $50 per Inch
• Mini USB Monitors Give Pleasure with Every Tiny Inch

Deep in the bowels of the Las Vegas Convention Center last week, we found Victorinox, makers of fine folding Swiss Army knives.

They’ve made the leap into the 21st century with USB drives that form part of their knives’ complement of tools. What we didn’t expect was just how much data they’ve managed to cram into a tiny, elegant, folding package.

The Victorinox Slim is available in capacities up to 64GB. A larger model, the Slim Duo, includes two side-by-side drives for a maximum total capacity of 128GB.

Both are about as big as three or four dimes laid end to end, and fit nicely into even very cramped USB slots.

Like the Sandisk microSD card we mentioned last year, the Victorinox drives manage to cram so much data into such a tiny space by layering memory chips on top of one another inside the skinny, 1mm thick chip package that forms the heart of the drive. It’s an impressive feat of electronic engineering.

The fact that the drives have an understated Swiss Army knife design is pretty nice, too.

Just when MMT’s 15.4-inch Monitor2Go was getting excited about its big USB display on campus title, Greenhouse Japan has strutted in and ruined the party with its 15.6-inch GH-USD16K USB secondary monitor. True, a resolution of 1366 x 768 won’t give the screen bragging rights over Apple’s 27-inch Cinema Display, but it should suffice for those on the move in desperate need of some quick dual-screen action. Especially since the accessory weighs less than 3 pounds, produces 18bit color depth and has a brightness of 220 nits while sipping just 5 watts of Serial Bus power. Speaking of dual-action, the monitor can also be set to clone or extend the connected computer’s screen depending on user preference. Look for it to start shipping early next month to Japan for an estimated price of $214, glancing over its shoulder until an inevitable 15.8-inch newbie lopes onto the block.

Green House reveals its first 15.6-inch USB monitor, lives large on small charge originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, here’s the situation: you roll into a LAN party in a less-than-ideal section of town. The lights are dim, the bouncer looks suspect, and Mike Tyson’s tiger is situated there in the rear of the room. Even the Ethernet cables are grimy. Everyone’s got their eyes on you and your new Alienware, and that stash of Razer peripherals just feels ripe for the taking. You aren’t about to make a beeline back to your Daewoo, so you wrap each and every USB cable around your right arm just to make sure you go home with everything you came with. Sadly enough, that’s not exactly an awesome way to trample your nearby enemies, but it seems that NZXT has a delightful solution. The company’s new Bunker USB Locking Drive is designed to fit within a spare 5.25-inch slot in whatever tower you own, offering a foursome of USB 2.0 sockets and a potent, daunting locking mechanism. The idea here is that your webcam, mouse, keyboard and USB headset can be plugged in, and you can keep your mind at ease that nothing is going anywhere when you waltz over to the restroom. Unfortunately, critics over at Overclocks Online noticed that the shallow depth prevented all but the smallest of flash drives from fitting in, further proving that this thing is designed specifically for use with PC peripherals. Hit the links below to learn more, and get ready to shell out $24.99 come March if it’s something you’re into.

Continue reading NZXT Bunker keeps your USB peripherals secure, even at dodgy LAN parties

NZXT Bunker keeps your USB peripherals secure, even at dodgy LAN parties originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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