As I’ve said before, computer geeks are packrats by nature, and chances are you have an old clunky PC (or laptop) somewhere in your dwelling that you would like to put to good use but can’t because the hard drive is dead, and you really don’t want to spend the cash on one given the old computer isn’t worth much. Given the fact that 32GB...

Not all USB microphones develop hissing/white noise sounds when plugged into a USB hub, but it’s generally true that with headsets, the microphone isn’t exactly what you’d call ‘premium’ quality. The reason for this is because more expensive USB microphones do have built-in physical filters to cut noise like that out, while on...

There’s a lot of USB stuff out there and a lot of it is great, but some of it is total crap. These 5 are things you should never buy – not even for someone else. Let’s start with 5 and work our way down to 1. 5. Darth Vader USB hubJust because it’s Star Wars themed doesn’t mean it’s good, and this isn’t. What once was...

At certain times you may get "adventurous" with your USB stick and do something to it which makes it unreadable – meaning to the point where you can’t even format the thing anymore. It also could be you have a USB stick so old that it has a really difficult time initializing. Should you toss the stick out at that point? No, there is one...

USB sticks are great. They’re cheap, plentiful, available everywhere and can store a few DVD’s worth of data while still easily fitting in your pocket. But are they safe to synchronize data to? It is true that Flash memory can fail without warning, but unless you’re USB stick is a few years old and/or gone through some heavy use, the likelihood...

Sometimes you come across a product where you say to yourself, “Wow. That makes a lot of sense.” One of these is the USB 7 port hub with power switches:I’ll admit up front that yes, this thing is bulky compared to other hubs without the switches, but the ability to power/un-power specific at whim would be a mighty convenient thing to have for...

Whenever you connect a USB storage device in Windows, an icon is present in the taskbar allowing you to click and "remove safely" with a right click:The only real annoyance here is that the icon for it is tiny; it’s too easy to accidentally click on another icon near it. The alternative method for disconnecting a USB storage device is to use...

The original spec for USB 2.0 is 60MB/s (or 480Mbit/s) raw data rate; that’s the fastest it was designed to transfer data across the wire.  Prior to 2005, USB 2.0 was pretty speedy for most purposes. The spec had already been in existence for well over a few years by this point, and vendors loved it as did consumers. Everyone was happy. Today in...

Many of you out there have old clunker computer boxes using XP where their sole purpose in life is to be home file servers. An issue with older BIOS chipsets on those old clunky boxes is there’s a smattering of them out there that will not recognize any hard drive that is over 128GB in size. But did you know you can plug in a hard drive using external USB,...

Currently you can purchase USB 3.0 cables. A 3-footer is about $9 and a 6-footer is $12. But what about cards, cases and motherboards? I checked out NewEgg to see what was currently available. Cards This is most likely how the majority of you are going to delve into the world of USB 3.0. Fortunately the starting price for a PCI Express card is $19.99. The PCI...

2010 has had a bit of a rocky start. Apple’s iPad isn’t even for sale yet and everybody hates it. Google Buzz has ignited such a privacy firestorm that many claim it’s the worst product launch the big G has had in 12 years. Ouch. Microsoft continues on its trend of choosing the worst possible product names, this time with Windows Phone 7...

The U in USB stands for Universal which is a very good word to use considering the vast array of devices which work via these plugs. For those of you who like to hack your own hardware, you can build your own USB powered devices. For some ideas and help on getting started, check out this MaximumPC guide. The guide has several other projects you can try, but I...

Netbooks by nature do not have optical drives, so the way to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix, abbreviated UNR, is to use the usb-creator program to create a bootable USB stick.This program is on the UNR 9.10 ISO image itself. To access it, burn the UNR image to a CD or alternatively use an ISO mounting program in Windows, such as Virtual CloneDrive (free, works...

The USB port is an amazing thing. You can plug almost anything into to do a variety of tasks, one of which is recharging batteries. While this may not seem useful at first, it can come in handy for situations such as the airport. If your MP3 player runs out of battery power, you can just charge the batteries from your laptop. Of course, you will be trading power...

As USB flash drives continue their trend of both getting larger capacity and cheaper, you might find yourself with several smaller devices just laying around. So what do you do with these extra 128/256/512/etc. MB devices? Rather than throwing them away, here are a few uses I can think of:Give them away/donate them. Load it up with a Linux live distribution....

You’ve heard a lot about USB 3.0 spec. You’ve heard how fast it is. How great it is. How when it arrives that everybody will want to have it (and trust me, people will.) Well, wonder no more. Buffalo will be shipping the first USB 3.0 hard drive this month. And yes it has a controller card available to purchase with it since nobody has USB 3.0...

Flash memory on a USB stick is easy enough to understand concerning the way it works. The memory is a type of EEPROM and non-volatile, which is the reason it doesn’t require a battery or external power source to retain the information stored on it. But if you ever asked the question, "Is there a difference between brands?", the answer is yes and...

USB flash drives have become so standardized and normal that people don’t think much of them anymore. Whereas they used to be fairly expensive (considering), nowdays you can easily get 8GB drives for as little as $20. Reminds me of the old days when we had to use floppy diskettes and we thought we were rocking out with modern technology. Since there is...

On the PCMech Live show I am asked at least once each broadcast what I use for a headset and why it sounds so good. The answer is simple: It’s a USB-based headset with microphone. Specifically, the Logitech ClearChat Comfort USB (wired, not wireless). The cost for one of these at the time of this writing is between $25 to $35 depending on where you...

When most people think of apps that run from the USB stick alone, they think of PortableApps. However there is another choice, and it’s called LiberKey. I will admit up front that this doesn’t look as good as PortableApps does, however I will say it runs faster and is easier to get to the apps you want quicker. The first notable difference is that...