Hello Kitty USB and Nick Notebook

Exposing kids to new technology these days doesn't seem to be that hard compared to the olden days. They get to see it both in the cartoons they watch and the people around them. They're basically a goldmine for tech companies if somehow they convince the kids and their parents that their product is best for their child. Below are just two products that will just make your young child giddy with excitement over new technology.

Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition

Since Spongebob Squarepants burst into the scene, the kids who religiously watch his antics on Nickelodeon have increased as time went on. Now some of the kids who used to watch his early shows are either young teens or even parents already. It's a treat to both of those groups that Dell and Nickelodeon is producing the Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition.

Designed specifically for kids, the Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition sports Nickelodeon's trademark green slime yet is loaded with entertaining and educational content that will also appeal to moms and dads. Designed with kids in mind, the Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition is wrapped in an eye-catching, Nickelodeon-inspired slime artwork scheme. Based on Dell’s popular Inspiron Mini 10v netbook, it features a bright 10.1-inch color LCD display and built-in wireless Internet access.

It will be available October 2009 and specs will come shortly before that.

Hello Kitty USB Flashdrive

If you thought Nickelodeon had a big following, Hello Kitty is even bigger! Hello Kitty's fans are even more older and diverse. It's noteworthy to say that she will be celebrating her 35th birthday on November 1, 2009. To celebrate that occasion, Hello kitty and her friends will be immortalized in MIMIBOT fashion.

The crossover collaboration with Mimoco will begin with Hello Kitty® and expand to include SANRIO friends Badtz-Maru®, My Melody®, Kuromi®, Keroppi®, Chococat®, and TuxedoSam™ in MIMOBOT form ranging from 2GB to 16GB capacities. The MIMOBOT flash drives will also be bundled with the mimoDesk™ personalization suite of SANRIO-themed wallpapers, screensavers, icons, and avatars, as well as videos and other digital surprises. The line will be available for purchase at MIMOBOT.com and SANRIO.com, select SANRIO boutiques and other specialty retailers.

More information will be available next month.

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Rainbow Keyboards and Panda Speakers

Welcome to the end of the week, it's been quite a doozy for most of us, and we would like nothing more than some cool news to bring us into the weekend, yes? No hacking or destroying certain mobile phones out there, but more on the positive or quirky note at least. We've got some colorful and cute news coming your way.

Alienware M17x: rainbow keyboards

If you remember our report on the laptop for hardcore PC gamers, the Alienware M17x, then you'd be pleased as peach to know that Gizmodo showed a picture on how cool it is to work or play with the M17x even in the dark:



Matt told me the Alienware's m17x notebook was blinged out like it "just landed on earth after a long trip from a planet populated entirely by a evolved race of disco lights". I guess this is what he was talking about.

Yes, the keyboards glow in the dark in the colors of the rainbow. Will it heighten your experience in fragging your enemy combatant or PKing your guild's enemies while on the field? We're not really sure how it makes it easier to play a game in the dark with such choices in colors, but we'll trust Alienware and hope they know what they're doing. If you can't trust Alienware to make your gaming experience much better, then whom can you trust?

Mini Panda USB Speakers

Tired of the same old speakers to your laptop or mp3 player? Do you want to spruce it up? Need a conversation piece on your table? If you think that your laptop or mp3 speakers seem to be too bland for your funky tastes, then it would be best to check out the USB Mini Panda Speaker.



Product Specifications:

Mini panda head lovely design
On/Off switch
LED indicator
Can be connected to computer, iPods, MP3 and MP4 players
Battery can be recharged by USB
Size: 45*45*42mm
Weight: 50g
Packages:

USB Mini Panda Speaker
3.5mm Audio Cable
USB Cable

There you have it some of the more colorful and coolest gadget-related news this Friday. Hope you have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday!

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The Car and Wall USB Power Charger

This is a small gadget that would definitely come in handy. It’d be one of those things that makes traveling or even your day to day life a bit more simple. It can charge all of your USB gadgets and it does so in a versatile manner. Making it so you are unlikely to ever be somewhere that you can’t charge it up. Just plug it into your car and you can charge up your iPhone or iPod while you’re on the go.

It also can be plugged into the wall as well, so if you’re not able to get access to a computer someplace that has an outlet, you’ll still be able to get charged up. It doesn’t require a three prong outlet either, so if you’re visiting family that lives in a house where three prong outlets are scarce, this would be great to have handy. There is also a status LED light that lets you know that the outlet is providing the power you need to charge your gadget. You can purchase the Car + Wall Plug USB Power Charger for $12 from USB Geek.

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The PC Mouse Ladybird

Although this isn’t likely to appeal to the average geek, it might appeal to the very girly female and especially to young females. This cute ladybug works as a mouse and gives your computer a less boring look. After all, so often computer feature nothing but blacks and grays, which is fine, but it does get a touch monotonous. It also doesn’t have quite the cartoon-like look that the other ladybug mouse I’ve seen had. Since it’s not so cartoonish, it makes it a better prospect for women who enjoy anything with a ladybug theme.

It’s a mouse, so the specs are pretty basic, it’s thankfully an optical mouse. I have on occasion come across a novelty mouse that wasn’t optical. It connects through your USB port and since it is just a mouse it will of course work with either a PC or a Mac. It’d be a great mouse to take to work if you can get away with it. Just to add a little more color to your office environment. The mouse is being sold through Lazy Bone UK and not at a bad price either. You can purchase it for $28.95.


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The Memory Pill USB Drive

memory-pill

This is one of those drives that you wouldn’t expect it to be a USB drive concealed within. It looks more like something someone would stash a little Tylenol within. Instead it’s a small USB drive that allows for you to store random files inside. It’d be a humorous keychain for nurses and various medical workers to carry around. Of course it won’t discriminate if you’re not within the medical field, it’ll still safely store your files just the same. Plus it can be attached to your keys as a keychain.

Once again this is another one that the keychain part is attached to the cap. Which makes me a little concerned that it would stop clinging to the lid so well and the drive itself, with all of your data, would be dropped and lost. The serious down side of the drive is that it’s only a 64MB drive. That still leaves room for 40 photos though or 30 minutes of MP3s. Still, it’s not exactly a decently sized drive. The drive will cost you £10.95 or about $18 from GiftLab.


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The Mouser is sure to turn heads

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As common as a computer mouse is, there are few that could ever be considered artistic. Some are shiny with LED lights or small crystals, yet they have a certain mass produced look to them. This mouse designed by Andrey Chirkov is one of the few I would call artistic. Surprisingly it’s not steampunk either, that usually is the only way gadgets get a little bit of a creative twist to them. Instead this has a minimalist modern look, while still being pretty.

The down side of such a mouse is that I’d be petrified I would break it, since it does have a flimsy look. You’d almost rather put it on display than mess it up by using it on a daily basis. As of now it’s still a design though, so you won’t be able to purchase it. However, with a look like this I’m sure those with plenty of money to burn will be dying to get their hands on it. Wealthy investors means that this might actually be created for purchase. Even if that does happen though, the general public won’t likely ever see anything like this at their local store.

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Kingston rolls out HyperX Fan

Kingston does not only offer memory products for your computers, notebooks and mobile devices, they also include accessories to keep those said products running at optimal level by being cool. Cool as in the temperature, and not according to what society deems as “in” at this moment in time. Their latest offering? The HyperX Fan that was specially designed to keep Kingston HyperX memory running cool.

The HyperX Fan is made of anodized aluminum and in the same familiar blue color as the HyperX heatspreaders. When turned on, the fan blades are illuminated by eight small blue LEDs. Power use is minimal and noise is not an issue as the fan runs at a whisper-quiet 25 dBA*. The fan is available as a standalone or bundled with Kingston’s 6GB 2000- and 1800MHz triple-channel memory kits with the T1 heatspreaders for Intel Core i7 systems.

Each purchase of the HyperX fan will come with a one-year warranty and free round the clock technical support. It will cost you $23 a pop, but you can get it in a bundle of memory included as well.

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The Gold Bar USB Drive

For some, expensive tastes just come naturally, unfortunately the money to supply those tastes doesn’t always come so easily. Well if you’ve always wanted just one shiny new gold bar, you can show your appreciation for it with this USB drive. It’s not quite as snazzy as having the real thing lying around, but at least it’s better than nothing. It’d also make for a humorous USB drive for a banker to have handy.

The Gold Bar USB Drive has all of 4GB of memory. To hold to that gold bar look, they made it so that the USB drive actually retracts within the gold bar. That also means this is one of the good drives that makes it so that you never have to worry about losing the cap to the USB drive. It’s not made of real gold, which I would think is fairly obvious. Instead it’s built with metal housing surrounding it to keep your data safe and at hand. You can purchase it for $27 through USB Geek.

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Devil Mummy USB Flash Drive

Most people have their own personal version of what a mummy should look like. Some go for the cartoon look and others prefer something a little more terrifying that might be seen in some classic black and white horror movie. Either way though, I can’t imagine many people picture a devil mummy, but now you can own one. Well you can own a USB drive that is shaped like a devil mummy at the very least.

This USB drive is probably going to confuse most people and I can’t imagine those horns are too secure, but at least it’s different. This is just proof yet again that if you can think it up, it’s probably sold somewhere in flash drive form. This comes in a total of three different sizes, 2GB, 4GB and finally 8GB. The 2GB will cost you $16.99, the 4GB $25.99 and the 8GB $40.99. You’ll find this odd USB drive on Gizfever.

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The hi-tech souvenir - Cable Car USB Drive

Typically the search for a souvenir lands you a shot glass, t-shirt or even a goofy spoon that could never actually be used. However, San Francisco is taking a slightly more hi-tech approach to the usual boring souvenirs. Instead of picking up a post card that will only get tossed in a desk drawer and forgotten, you could pick up their novelty USB drive. Don’t worry, it’s not some 50MB drive that could never be used on a regular basis.

No, these Cable Car USB Drives go up to 16GB, giving you plenty of room to toss files onto. It’d also mean instead of having a useless souvenir, you’d have something quite useful. The only downside is that a shot glass is never outdated, however, someday a flash drive will. So although it would be useful now, you might find it silly to hang onto it later. The drives come in blue/red and green/red. Then to top things off, they come with 30+ pictures of San Francisco already on the drive. It retails for $36.99 (for the 16GB drive) on Amazon, or it can be picked up at the Cable Car Museum.

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The USB Hub with a built-in flashlight

I keep going through all the dozens of reasons that this could be useful, but then I end up canceling them out for one reason or another. I thought it might be great to sit at your computer and then the flashlight would be useful for when you’re playing with cords at the back of your computer. However, I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t feel my way around it to figure things out. I’m sure that someone could find a use for this flashlight meets USB hub though.

If you are female and for some reason like to carry around a hub with you, then you’d always have a flashlight handy for various tasks. The hub conveniently tucks into the hub itself when it’s not in use. You can hold it as either a flashlight, or it flips open to be used as a reading light. The LED light is rechargeable, so it doesn’t have to be plugged in to work. The hub itself has a total of 3 USB ports. You can purchase it for $14 from Gadget4all.

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WWF USB flash drives for sale

Active Media Products (AMP) has come to a licensing agreement with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), where the former will develop and sell a series of portable USB flash drives which will resemble the many endangered species on our earth. Each purchase will see 5% of the retail price of this product line enter the WWF’s coffers so that they can continue in their work. A no-brainer candidate would be the giant panda USB flash drive, although this is diminutive in size at just 2.5″ long. Made of PVC-free non-toxic silicone, this lead- and mercury-free drive will come in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities, where the most spacious model is tagged with an extremely affordable price point of $25.

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The Heart Handbag Necklace USB Drive

Mother’s Day usually means tons of very cheesy and fairly cheap jewelry. Well if you are going to pick up some cheesy jewelry, it might as well be useful too. This heart necklace is probably more something a young kid would think their Mom would love, but sometimes moms still love this stuff. It comes covered in crystals, so there’s no doubt that it will be eye catching. Then it also hides away a USB drive.

Thankfully with this there are no worries of losing the cap to it. The drive just slides away to be hidden within the heart. It’s actually a handbag shaped heart pendant. The drive itself is only 2GB, which isn’t anything stellar, but it works. It also won’t break the bank to pick it up either. You can pick it up from Gadget4all in either pink or white for $23. You should probably get rush shipping though since Mother’s Day is right around the corner.

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The Dexim DWP005 Hub Dock Station

Instead of just plugging your usual iPod cord into your computer, there is now this Dexim DWP005. In some ways it initally looks like it’d just take up space. However, it’s slim, it’d keep your iPhone/iPod in the upright position, plus best of all it has other devices built into it. Giving you even more functions and a nice sleek dock to pop your iPod into. Since it is so sleek, you have the added perk of it being easy to just toss into your laptop bag for traveling purposes.

In addition to being a charger, it has a memory card reader and a 3-port USB hub built-in. Plus it has provided cables that work for devices that use micro and mini USB ports to recharge, such as the Blackberry. All around it gives quite a lot of function on a very small device. Sadly though, it is a bit pricey. It’ll cost you $69.99, which does seem a bit on the steep side. However, it offers quite a bit of functionality for that price.

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Jewel Apple Necklace USB Flash Drive

USB flash drives have become essentials in the working world, and it certainly does its part to banish memories of floppies failing during the most crucial of business presentations back in the 1980s because of the fragility of the device. So much so that USB flash drives have even become fashionable icons - take the Jewel Apple Necklace USB Flash Drive for example - it can be worn as a necklace, although it might be a bit too tacky for some. You can pick up this delectable USB flash drive that is all bling for $21 each, where they come in red, pink, blue and white colors.

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Ennova Direct releases newfangled USB flash drive with OLED display

Just take a look at your everyday USB flash drive and see whether there is anything outstanding or not. We thought that the level of progress has stopped when it came to retractable USB connectors (so that you don’t run the risk of losing the cap, of course), along comes Ennova Direct Corporation (DBA ION Technologies) who has just announced to the whole wide world its latest USB flash drive that boasts an OLED display. Great, even USB flash drives now can show off additional information on its content (and we don’t mean just the amount of space left inside), courtesy of US patent number 7,462,044. As if having n OLED display on it is not special enough, we also know that the built-in cover helps keep your OLED display in pristine condition always while featuring an integrated biometric fingerprint scanner which adds to the security level on the USB flash drive. Not only that, the OLED display will change color to indicate the success or failure of a match of the user’s stored fingerprint, while doubling up as an interactive interface which enables the user to select specific files and initiate specific functions.

According to Peter Garrett, Executive VP of Ennova Direct, “With USB flash drive memory capacities now reaching 64GB and higher, user’s are now utilizing their USB flash drives as full external backup drives, making it even more important for users to secure the large amounts of personal data they are storing on their USB flash drives. To that end, we incorporated a biometric fingerprint scanner function into the design of our new Patented Retractable USB flash drive, while keeping with the popular theme of our signature retractable USB connector. We paid special attention to the design of the retractable USB connector, adding an integrated cover that when closed protects the USB connector and OLED screen-biometric fingerprint scanner at the same time.”

Ennova Direct currently has outlined a release date for their new patented retractable biometric USB flash drive that will occur sometime in Q1, 2010. No idea on how much it will cost though.


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Barack Obama Presidential Flash Drive

Yes we can make a USB Flash Drive with Barack Obama’s face on it, and yes, some company can make a few bucks off of it.

Of course, there is more to this flash drive than just a picture of the 44th President of the United States. No, this 2GB flash drive has 30 MB worth of bonus material.

This material includes the famous “Race Speech” in MP3 format which is about a good hour’s worth of audio. In addition to that, there are several other speeches on the thumb drive in PDF format. The Obama thumb drive also includes an official photo of the man himself from the White House, that the user can print and frame.

This reminds me of that Ghostbusters thumb drive that PNY put out a while ago. That one had the movie in DRM format, and I’m surprised that the Obama drive doesn’t have some video footage of the president. I was hoping this administration would be all over that.

So is this the beginning of thumb drives with a theme of world leaders? Why not. I can’t imagine what other countries are doing in light of this. As for now, the Obama thumb drive is available for a low price of just $10. Any of that money going into a re-election campaign?

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Mr Brightside USB Light

Task lighting is always nice when what you’re working on isn’t well lit, sometimes it can become difficult to concentrate. There have been several lights that are powered by your USB ports and this is just one more to add to the list. I do find it a little odd how tiny it is. With other types it seemed like it could easily illuminate something besides your keyboard keys, but with this it seems like it wouldn’t be that bright. However, if you like to plan for anything when you’re traveling, this could easily be stashed within your laptop bag.

Hopefully it’s brighter than it looks, from the picture it seems to be only as bright as one of those weak keychain lights. The light comes in a variety of colors, black, cherry, lime and blueberry. You can even choose to purchase a pack of three in all the same color for slightly cheaper than the individual price. For one it’ll cost you about $9 and for the pack of three it’ll cost you $20. Then if you lose one, it won’t be expensive to replace it.

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Tape Dispenser-4-port USB Hub

Although like many people I have tape tossed in the back of my desk drawer, some people use it more often. For those that do, it may end up staying out on your desk quite often. Then if you have to have a USB hub on top it, you’re slowly acquiring more and more clutter on your desktop. If you like things nice and simple then an overwhelming amount of clutter can make it difficult to concentrate on work. Especially if you have to keep shoving things out of your way with every task.

Instead of keeping two items out on your desk, you might as well combine them as one. This tape dispenser not only holds your tape, but offers 4 USB ports. Of course if you don’t use tape as often, this might be something silly to invest in. With hubs though, you can be exceptionally picky about your needs and still eventually find something that fits you. The dispenser is only sold in the clear shown here and will cost you $21.99 from USB Fever.

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Wireless Tiny Keyboard With Trackball

Brando is back with yet another interesting device for those who do plenty of traveling - the USB 2.4Ghz RF Wireless Tiny Keyboard With Trackball. With this combination device, you won’t need to tote a mouse with you any more, although folks who deal with more precise movements in their line of work on their notebooks will think otherwise. The keyboard comes with 56 keys alongside 29 hotkeys, where it is connected to your computer through the 2.4GHz spectrum. Being small enough to be carried around (with at least half of it sticking out of your jeans pocket), the USB 2.4Ghz RF Wireless Tiny Keyboard With Trackball has an operating distance of 10 meters. We would’ve liked to see the USB receiver come in a much smaller size though. You will have to fork out $55 a pop for this.

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