Hasta La Gadget!

Love comic books, but think that reading is for dumb jerks? Jonathan Robson has your back. The Scotland-based designer has created this minifigure-inspired helmet, which will help you make it through that sequential tome while protecting your head from lightweight falling debris. The helmet has volume control and a page skipping button on the side while, on the back, there’s a port for plugging in a Lego USB flash drive loaded up with audio content. The helmet is designed for kids, of course, but it should also work for tiny-headed grownups sick and tired of all of those pesky word bubbles. Another view of the concept after the break.

Continue reading Lego-inspired helmet concept protects your brain, reads comics so you don’t have to

Lego-inspired helmet concept protects your brain, reads comics so you don’t have to originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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USB 3.0 shocker! Supersonic Magnum thumb drive rocks 200MB/s read times, sure to be rather pricey originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s already changed the behavior in Windows 7, and Microsoft has now finally rolled out an update for earlier versions of Windows that prevents a program from executing automatically when a USB drive is plugged into a PC. That behavior has been blamed for the spread of malware in recent years — including the infamous Conficker worm — and Microsoft had actually already made it possible to disable the functionality back in November of 2009, albeit only through an update available from its Download Center website. It’s now finally pushed the update out through the Windows Update channel, though, which should cause it to be much more broadly deployed (particularly in large organizations). As explained in a rather lengthy blog post, however, Microsoft has decided to simply make it an “important, non-security update” rather than a mandatory update, as it doesn’t technically see AutoRun as a “vulnerability” — it was by design, after all. That means you’ll have to look for the option in Windows Update and check it off to install it — if you choose, you can also re-enable it at anytime with a patch.

Microsoft rolls out long, long-awaited Windows update to disable AutoRun for USB drives originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Feb 2011 23:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The world’s fastest high-capacity CompactFlash card? Yes, please! SanDisk has just taken the CF game to an entirely new level, doubling the capacity of its current highest Extreme Pro offering by dishing out a 128GB model here at CES. The Extreme Pro is definitely the card of choice for the high-speed cameras here at Engadget HQ, and for those who’ve outgrown their twin 64GB setup within their D3S, you can soon pop in a pair of these bad boys for a nominal fee. The card touts performance as high as 100MB/sec (write), a Power Core controller and a UDMA-7 interface, perfectly suited for capturing hours of 1080p footage. Oh, and speaking of that nominal fee — it’s expected to hit retail “later this year” for $1499.99. Yeah, a grand and a half. But hey, you get what you pay for. In less enticing news, a pair of new flash drives are also being launched this evening, the SanDisk Ultra and Cruzer Edge. The Ultra offers transfer rates as high as 15MB/sec, ships in capacities ranging from 8GB to 32GB and will cost between $44.99 and $109.99. The Cruzer Edge reaches from 2GB to 16GB and will set you back between $12.99 and $79.99. Check out the full releases after the break, and though we shouldn’t need to advise you, we’d recommend you start pinching those pennies dimes soon.

Continue reading SanDisk reveals $1500 128GB Extreme Pro CF card, Ultra / Cruzer Edge USB drives

SanDisk reveals $1500 128GB Extreme Pro CF card, Ultra / Cruzer Edge USB drives originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At present, there seem to be three strategies to embracing the potential of USB 3.0 — go all out with an external SSD, introduce a hulking RAID-on-a-stick, or settle for a single-chip USB key with ho-hum maximum read/write speeds of roughly around 80MB / sec and 60MB / sec. There are a number of these barely-better-than-USB-2.0 flash drives floating about, but Patriot decided not to settle for that — its new Supersonic flash drive uses the mythical “quad channel” technology (and a native USB 3.0 controller) to eke out some extra speed. That allows Patriot to beat down the USB 2.0 straw man with 70MB / sec writes and 100MB / sec reads, and possibly justify a pricing premium if the company can’t manufacture them on the cheap. If the Supersonic sounds like the best of all worlds for your portable data, you’ll find it in 32GB and 64GB configurations starting Q1 2011. No word on price quite yet.

Patriot intros Supersonic USB 3.0 flash drive, milks 100MB / sec from a single chip originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Dec 2010 03:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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