LIVEdigitally

Advanced Media, Inc., manufacturer and marketer of the popular RIDATA brand of recordable CD and DVD media, electronic storage products, and digital media accessories, is adding yet another advanced product to its lineup of electronic storage media. Its new high-speed RIDATA Laser Pointer USB Drive features a USB 2.0 flash drive with a laser pointer. It is set to be shown at the upcoming 2006 International CES show.

“Our new, easy to use RIDATA thumb-sized portable USB flash drive with laser pointer enables users to securely exchange huge amounts of data between computers or notebooks with a USB port,” stated Harvey Liu, Advanced Media president. “Its plug-and-play simplicity makes connecting to any computer a snap, allowing access virtually anytime, anywhere. No power supply or external cables are required.”

The versatile USB drive also features four new useful functions:

Auto Login: This is a convenient application that automatically enters IDs and passwords from a database created on the USB Drive to Web sites. With Auto Login, users can carry all IDs and Passwords on the USB Drive.

Bookmarks: This feature saves the user’s own Web bookmarks to the device, allowing easy access to them from whatever computer that is connected to the device.

FLASH Mail: A small Email software program, that allows users to access email from the USB Drive.

Secret ZIP: Creates a Secret folder and a Zip folder. This allows users to zip a file by simply dragging the file to the ZIP folder, or a encrypted Zip file by dragging into Secret Folder.

With high storage capacity and blazing fast speeds, the handy RIDATA USB Flash Drive with laser pointer is an ideal choice to replace floppy disks, ZIP disks, and hard disks. This high-speed USB flash drive performs data transfer at a rate up to 19MB/s for read and14MB/s for write in dual-channel mode, and up to 10MB/s for read and 7MB/s for write in single-channel mode.

It supports multiple operating systems: Windows® ME, Windows® 2000, Windows® XP, Mac TM 9.x or later, Linux TM Kernel 2.4 or later (no driver needed); Windows® 98 and Windows® 98SE (driver enclosed). It also comes with a security lock (Safety Zone); is shock proof; and has power-saver functionality. An advanced software package is included.

The class II laser pointer has an average wavelength of 650nm, and will make a 0.4-inch spot from approximately 11 feet. It meets TUV, FDA, and ROSH requirements.

The RIDATA Laser Pointer USB Drve is available in 128MB, 256MB, 512MB , and1GB capacity sizes. It has an MSRP of $69.99 based on 512MB capacity.

This sounds like a great idea for a combo item. I always carry a USB flash drive, having a laser pointer handy would be a plus. I’m also intrigued by the email and bookmark utilities included on the device as I see these flash drives making it easier for users to take their settings between computers. We’ll work on getting on of these in the lab for a full once over!

Here at LIVEdigitally, we love most anything USB. Jump drives, thumb drives, flash drives, keychain drives, they all drive us crazy. I can’t say we’ve tested out a duck drive, a sake drive, or a Barbie doll drive. (I would like to test out a sake drive however, lately I’m a fan of the unfiltered kind.)

Fosfor Gadgets has a top ten list, which I’m also a big fan of, lists that is, titled “The Top 10 Weirdest USB Drives Ever”. They aren’t lying. I don’t know what Mikan Seijin is, but there’s a usb drive that looks like a yellow tomato with a painted face. Apparently it’s a mandarin alien, those kooky Japanese sure know just what I like!

There’s also an alarmingly high number of asian food usb drives. Dim sum, sushi, battered and fried shrimp, a human thumb, who does this? Weird.

As the joke goes, on the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog. But although anonymity has been part of Internet culture since the first browser, it’s also a major obstacle to making the Web a safe place to conduct business: Internet fraud and identity theft cost consumers and merchants several billion dollars last year. And many of the other more troubling aspects of the Internet, from spam emails to sexual predators, also have their roots in the ease of masking one’s identity in the online world.

Change, however, is on the way. Already over 20 million PCs worldwide are equipped with a tiny security chip called the Trusted Platform Module, although it is as yet rarely activated. But once merchants and other online services begin to use it, the TPM will do something never before seen on the Internet: provide virtually fool-proof verification that you are who you say you are.

There are some definite benefits to keeping track of users: online transactions and cracking down on cyber crime come to mind. However, one of the attractions of the ‘net has always been the anonymity associated with it. Even is discussion forums, chat rooms and instant messaging, we have anonymous identifiers like “cyber guy” or “user456.”

If these TMP chips are such a good idea, how come we’re only hearing about them now? Which of the computers out there have this chip? It sounds like they’re assuming that the chips can’t be modified; recent experience with the XBox would indicate otherwise. What about a crime committed by one user, on another’s computer? I think we’re opening Pandora’s box here and things may get kind of muddy for a while.

From MSNBC.