Manifest Tech Blog

If you're tired of wrangling power cables for your various devices, especially when packing for trips, take a look at today's universal chargers -- just one power cord, plus individual adapter tips for your specific devices. You can find a wide variety of these -- small and large, for cell phones to laptops, with and without batteries.

But if you have a bunch of handled devices, check out the Callpod Chargepod -- a power hub that simultaneously charges up to six devices.

Adapters are available for devices including cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, music players, PDAs, portable gaming systems, digital cameras, and other mobile electronics that operate in the 5 to 6 V range.

The hub itself is small and light (around 2 1/2 in. diameter and 1/2 in. thick) -- the power brick is larger (2 x 3 1/4 x 1 1/8 in.) The hub has individual LEDs on each port, which light up when an adapter is connected (although not necessarily charging).

The base unit is around $49 without adapters, or $89 bundled with a car charger and 6 popular adapters. Individual adapters are $9.95.

See my Portable Power Accessories Gallery for information on power chargers and adapters.

    Find the Callpod Chargepod on Amazon.com

While the Apple iPod line defines portable media players, there are a lot of other options if you're interested in alternate features, form factors, and designs -- see, for example, AnythingButiPod.com.

SanDisk is focused on portable flash memory players, Creative has a broad range of models for specific needs, Samsung has developed some stylish designs with new features like Bluetooth, and the Microsoft Zune has entered the market with Wi-Fi connectivity.

But if you're looking for something beefier -- a personal media player with a bigger screen and built-in speakers so you can share your music and photos and videos on the go -- then look to the Archos Gen 5 line.

ARCHOS specializes in upscale players with similar designs: widescreen, 4" to 7" screen, some touch-screen, high capacity hard disk storage up to 160 GB, and a docking station for A/V capture. But the most interesting ARCHOS 605 and 705 WiFi models have full Internet connectivity with Web browsing, media playback, and e-mail.

The ARCHOS Gen 5 line was introduced last year, and this month ARCHOS has significantly enhanced the line with new firmware upgrades, plug-ins, and add-ons:

Web Browser Playback of Flash 9 and WMV 9 Videos

Free firmware update to enhance the Web Browser plug-in ($29), which already plays common video sites. Now supports the newer Adobe Flash 9 and Microsoft Windows Video 9 formats to view social networking sites including YouTube and MySpace, plus media on sites such as CBS, NBC, PBS, MTV, and BBC . (Free upgrade, 5/08)

Web TV and Radio Plug-in

Search and play Web radio and TV stations, streamed live over the Internet. Access more than 9,600 Web radio stations, 600 Web TV stations, and 110,000 podcasts. (Available 5/08, $19)

TVportation Plug-in - Stream live TV

Use the ARCHOS TV+ WiFi Digital Video Recorder as a streaming media server. View live home TV over the Internet, change channels. (Does not currently support recorded / stored content, or files shared over the home network.) Also can use an ARCHOS 605 or 705 WiFi with DVR Station as the server for live TV. Clients for ARCHOS 605 and 705 WiFi, Windows PCs / laptops, Windows Mobile smartphones. (Available 5/08 - free download of server for ARCHOS TV+, $49 for ARCHOS 605 and 705 WiFi)

GPS In-Car Holder for ARCHOS 605 WiFi

In-car windshield holder with GPS antenna. Software provides full-fledged navigation system with TeleAtlas maps. (Available 4/08 - $129 stand-alone, or $399 bundled with 30 GB ARCHOS 605 WiFi player)

See my Portable Media Players Gallery for more information on portable players, from music to video, flash memory to hard disk, tiny to widescreen.

    Find the ARCHOS 605 WiFi on Amazon.com

I love flash drives for carrying data files, saving photos, and quick backups when travelling. But for long trips, and especially when I'm shooting video, it's definitely worth bringing along a portable hard drive for the much greater storage and faster transfer rates.

For example, check out the LaCie product line for a nice selection of colorful and fun designs, to find your preferred capacity and size, using hard drives that are only 1.3" to 1.8" to 2.5" around. Each has built-in USB connectors with short cables that also power the drive.

Starting small, the LaCie USB Key Max is shaped like a credit card, and comes in black or day-glow orange. Two years ago, LaCie used this design to offer 4 and 8 GB of hard disk storage for $99 and $149. Today the same size and weight holds up to 40 GB. (LaCie prices are list, retail are lower.)

Credit card:
    LaCie USB Key Max
30 GB $109, 40 GB $139.
1.3" drive, 3.34 x 2.16 x 0.23 in., 2.1 oz.

The LaCie Little Disk, designed by Sam Hecht, has several models that share the same clean design, black with glossy finish, with a removable end cap to access the extractable USB connector.

The smallest Little Disk 30 / 40 GB uses a 1.3" drive to provide up to 40 GB of storage in a box that you can wrap in your fist.

Match box:
    Little Disk 30 / 40 GB
30 GB $119, 40GB $149
2.64 x 1.69 x .67 in., 3 oz.

Or double the size with the LaCie Little Disk 60 GB to move up to a 1.8" drive with 60 GB, still in the same price range.

Or double the size, and weight, again (but with about the same thickness) with the LaCie Little Disk, 80 - 320 to use a 2.5" drive, offering serious capacities of 80 up to an impressive 320 GB -- starting at $80 and up to only $159. This larger size is also available with dual USB / Firewire (1394) interfaces.

Cigarette case:
    Little Disk 60 GB
60 GB $129
3.15 x 2.52 x.71 in., 4.44 oz.

Shirt pocket:
    Little Disk, 80 - 320 GB
80 GB $79, 120 GB $89, 160 GB $99, 250 GB $139, 320 GB $159
5.08 x 3.19 x.71 in., 6.88 oz.

You still can't beat flash drives for their tiny size and ruggedness. But hard drives offer significantly more capacity at similar prices, and better performance. High-performance flash drives from companies like SanDisk offer read speeds around 15 - 25 MB/sec and write speeds around 10 - 18 MB/sec. In comparison, the Little Disk hard drives spin at 3600 to 5400 rpm, with burst transfer rates up to 30 - 35 MB/sec.

See my Portable Storage Gallery for details and comparisons on flash memory cards, USB drives, and hard disk storage.

    Find the LaCie USB Key Max on Amazon.com
    and the LaCie Little Disk 30 / 40 GB, 60 GB, and 80 - 320 GB

SanDisk has made a nice business expanding from its roots in flash memory with its SanDisk Sansa line of MP3 music and now video players. With lower prices for larger capacity, it's quite feasible to use memory-based players for video clips -- like the Apple iPod nano, with 4 GB for $149 and 8 GB for $199, playing 340 x 240 videos on a 2-inch screen in an amazingly thin design.

Meanwhile, SanDisk has developed a common look across the Sansa line, with clean black designs with rounded edges and blue highlights -- including a thumbwheel controller framed by a glowing blue circle. The older Sansa e200 from way back in 2006 has been joined by the larger-capacity Sansa View and the new smaller Sansa Fuze. The new players are thinner, with a simpler thumbwheel and button, and support higher-capacity microSDHC cards.

SanDisk Sansa e200 - 2 GB $99, 4 $119, 8 GB $149
    1.8" screen, QCIF+
    3.50 x 1.70 x 0.52”, 2.6 oz / 20 hours music

SanDisk Sansa Fuze - 2 GB $79, 4 GB $99, 8 GB $129
    1.9" screen, 220 x 176
    3.1 x 1.9 x 0.3 in., 2.1 oz / 24 hours music, 5 hours video

SanDisk Sansa View - 8 GB $149, 16 GB $199, 32 GB, $349
    2.4" screen, 320 x 240
    4.29 x 1.95 x 0.35", 2.9 oz / 35 hours music, 7 hours video

The View's screen has a portrait layout, great for scrolling though long menus when you have a large library of clips or lots of photo thumbnails, and with plenty of room to show song information with the album art. But when you display photos and videos the screen flips to landscape orientation so you can hold the player on its side for wide-screen images -- and the backlit button icons cleverly switch orientation to match.

These players all include a built-in microphone, FM tuner, and voice/FM recorder. And they all include a card slot for additional removable storage --1 or 2 GB microSD cards ($19 and $29), plus the newer players add 4 to 8 GB with the new microSDHC cards ($49 and $139).

The newer players directly support JPEG photos; various forms of MPEG-4 video; and MP3, WMA, secure WMA, WAV, and Audible audio; plus subscription music from sources including Rhapsody. The Sansa View also plays H.264 and WMV videos. While the older e200 used the Sansa Media Converter application to transfer photos and videos, you can transfer media to the View by simple drag and drop (if already in supported formats), or through media management software including Windows Media Player (to include album art and convert formats as needed).

See my Portable Media Players Gallery for more information on portable players, from music to video, flash memory to hard disk, tiny to widescreen.

    Find the Sansa Fuze and Sansa View on Amazon.com

Microsoft has announced new software features and content for the Zune online store, music community, and Zune Pass monthly subscription service.

The Zune video store is expanding to include downloads of more than 800 episodes of popular television shows that can be downloaded and synced to a Zune device.

The TV shows, from sources including Comedy Central, MTV, NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Starz, Turner, Ultimate Fighting Championship and VH1, are priced at launch at 160 Microsoft Points per episode (approximately $1.99).

The Zune online store now offers more than 3.5 million tracks, two-thirds of which are available in pure MP3 format, 800 television shows, 4,800 music videos and 3,500 audio and video podcasts. The “Zune Social” music community Web site has had more than two million users join in its first five months, so music fans can discover new music, browse each others’ playlists, and comment on their discoveries and tastes.

Members of the Zune online music community get a free, customizable Zune Card, a playlist which automatically reflects the songs played on a Zune player or Zune PC software. Previously, this only resided on the Web, but now has become portable. Consumers with the Zune Pass subscription now have the ability to take what their friends are listening to from the Zune music community on the go via Zune Card personal playlists. The Zune Pass subscription allows access to millions of tracks for $14.99 per month.

The new updates to the Zune online music community include drag and drop syncing of Zune Cards to a Zune device -- subscribers get the full tracks on their Zune, while nonsubscribers have full album information and artwork. There are also social networking updates for sharing and searching Zune music community profiles, posting artist and albums reviews, earning reputation badges, and connecting via Windows Live. Zune Pass subscribers can set up automatic, real-time feeds of the music their friends are listening to.

The Zune software also has been updated based on customer feedback. Users now can browse their video collection by genre and series, edit track or album information quickly via multi-select and drag-and-drop, sort by genre, sync to multiple Zune players simultaneously, and enjoy gapless playback both on their Zune device and in the Zune software.

Press releases:

May 5, 2008 - Zune Expands Beyond Music to Deliver Integrated All-in-One Entertainment Experience
    New software updates bring popular television shows to online store, enhancements to online music community and subscription service.

May 5, 2008 - Zune Community Brings New Shared Experience to Music
    Spring release adds features that inspire people to explore, discover and discuss their favorite music

See my Portable Media Players Gallery for details and comparisons to other players.

    Find the Microsoft Zune 80 GB and Zune 8 GB on Amazon.com

USB is not just about data connections any more -- it's also becoming the standard way to power up your portable devices as well. When you plug in to your computer to sync with a MP3 player or PDA, you're also feeding power over the same cable to recharge your device. Some portable devices now even don't bother to include a wall charger in the box -- instead they include a USB cable and a USB wall adapter.

This trend makes it a lot easier to travel with multiple devices, since you don't need to bring a separate custom wall charger for each device. Instead, just pack up the USB data cables for your products that use custom interfaces (like the Apple iPod), and add a standard mini-USB cable for devices that just use the USB interface (or even micro USB for small devices like Bluetooth headsets).

Yet while you then can charge these devices from your laptop when you are on the road, this still can get clumsy when you are dealing with multiple devices -- for example, when you need to charge a mobile phone and Bluetooth headset while you are using a USB mouse and storage drive.

Again, Belkin comes to the rescue with two clever ideas to manage and power multiple USB devices (see previous post).

The Belkin Swivel USB Hub splits one USB connection into 4 ports (all high-speed USB 2.0) -- so you can access and power multiple devices at the same ($29 list, around $19 retail). It also includes a power adapter if needed for power-hungry devices.

Yes, you can find smaller hubs (but with an additional connecting cable), and larger hubs with more connectors -- but this Swivel Hub is travel sized, and has a handy two-way adjustable swivel connector. Rotate it sideways so you can still access additional USB connectors on your system, angle it up along the side of your system for easier access when you're inserting and removing devices, or fold it down to lie flat for storage.

And for powering multiple devices, the Belkin Mini Surge Protector / USB Charger provides three AC outlets, plus two powered USB outlets, all with surge protection ($25 list, around $19 retail).

The USB outlets are for power only -- they do not serve as a hub for transferring data. The product includes a mini-USB cable to charge many compatible devices, or else you can use the custom connector cable that came with other devices. The hub also has a rotating plug which locks at each 90 degree position.

See my Portable Power Accessories Gallery for other power systems, battery packs, and universal chargers that offer adapter tips for a wide variety of portable devices -- including cell phones, music players, cameras, and game machines -- so you can charge them all from USB power.

Also see my Portable Peripherals and Accessories Gallery for more fun devices, organized by company.

    Find the Belkin Swivel USB Hub and Mini Surge Protector on Amazon.com

The NPD Group has released new market share numbers for portable MP3 / media players. The Apple iPod line continues to dominate the market at over 70%, and the SanDisk Sansa line remains a clear second at around 10%. Meanwhile, the Microsoft Zune gained one percentage point to 4%, as Creative declined further to 2%.

Company	Q1 08	Q1 07	(Q2 06)
Apple (iPods)	71%	70%	75%
SanDisk (Sansa)	11%	10%	10%
Microsoft (Zune)	4%	3%
Creative	2%	4%	5%

See further analysis from Wired.

Microsoft recently reported that it has sold 2 million Zune players since its launch in November 2006.

In comparison, Apple reported that it has sold 10.6 million iPods in the first quarter of 2008, and iPhone sales were 1.7 million.

See my Portable Media Players Gallery for details and comparisons of media players.

Got a slot? SanDisk would really like you to notice that your cell phone, your PDA, and your MP3 player (though not if it's an iPod) probably have a memory card slot that you could be taking advantage of -- for more storage and more fun.

Wake Up Your Phone

SanDisk has been promoting the use of microSD flash memory cards in its Wake Up Your Phone advertising campaign. The accompanying website provides information about how to use the memory card slot to add more storage capacity to your mobile phone -- from finding the right kind of card, to transferring downloads to your phone.

With removable storage cards, you can "sideload" media files from your PC to the card to play on your phone, or transfer photos and other files from your phone to your PC. You can currently get up to 8 GB on a microSD card, to hold some 1,000 songs (128 Kbps MP3), 1,200 photos (2 MP), or 21 hours of video (MPEG-4 at 384 Kbps).

Mobile Ultra Memory Cards

Conveniently, SanDisk has a broad line of tiny little memory cards for mobile phones, in microSD and Memory Stick Mobile (M2) formats, including larger capacity / higher performance microSDHC (currently up to 8 GB for $99). To access these tiny cards on your computer and other devices, there's also microSD Mobile Memory Kit with SD and miniSD adapters, and compact MobileMate Readers (USB card adapters)

SanDisk recently announced Mobile Ultra premium memory cards for mobile phones in microSD and Memory Stick Mobile (M2) formats, bundled with its tiny MobileMate Micro Reader (press release) which handles microSD, microSDHC, and Memory Stick Micro cards.

SanDisk describes the Mobile Ultra line as "high-performance" cards that provide fast side-loading speeds -- though it does not publish transfer rate specs due to the broad variability in performance between different devices.

Suggested retail pricing for the Mobile Ultra microSD cards plus reader is 2 GB for $34, 4 GB for $59, and 8 GB for $119.

Sansa Sessions Card

But SanDisk's vision for flash memory goes beyond added storage. Memory cards can also be pre-loaded with content distribution format. SanDisk is making this point with its Sansa Sessions free music promotion for its new Sansa Fuze media player.

Purchase the 8GB Sansa Fuze (in snazzy silver, list $129) before August, and SanDisk will send a free microSD card preloaded with DRM-free music from new and emerging artists (press release).

The 500 MB card has a Music folder with the music tracks from 55 artists (with associated album art), all in non-copy-protected MP3 format (mostly at 128 and 256 Kbps). Plus there are Photo and Video folders with a handful of additional music video clips (MPEG4 in AVI files).

There's even a little space left over for you to store your own files.

See my Portable Storage Gallery for more on storage formats and devices.

    Find the SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC Card on Amazon.com

    Find the SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8 GB MP3 Player on Amazon.com

The never-ending mess with Windows and viruses and spyware is an embarrassment to the IT industry -- Even as a computing professional, it's a pain to try to keep my own system safe, much less help friends and grandparents set up a simple system to get online to send e-mail and check the Web without running into trouble. Technology like protected operating systems and hardware virtual machines have been around for decades, but on today's PCs it's still horribly easy to accidentally click the wrong thing and suddenly find your entire system under attack.

Even worse, it's a pain to keep up the effort to try to defend yourself -- loading and managing multiple (and sometimes conflicting) applications, clicking through incomprehensible warning pop-ups (and nags to buy upgrades), and then suffering through slow-downs as the software sucks up your processor running scans and downloading updates.

A better answer is to off-load all this checking and scanning onto another device, like an enterprise gateway server for businesses. But you still need to be able to defend your personal systems, and your business laptop on the road.

So check out Yoggie Security Systems, which has developed a security engine that off-loads your system by running on a USB stick, and now in an ExpressCard device for laptops.

The Yoggie devices are miniature stand-alone computers -- 520 MHz Intel processor, 128 MB RAM and 128 MB Flash memory, Linux OS, plus 13 security applications built directly into the miniature device (see below). Yoggie offloads all the security processing so that your machine boots and runs faster, and automatic handles security updates and upgrades. (The products include one year of updates, then most have a $30 annual subscription.)

The Yoggie product line includes several USB devices that you plug in to your system:
- Firestick Pico - $119 - Firewall only, no annual subscription
- Gatekeeper Pico - $149 - For consumers
- Gatekeeper Pico Pro - $199 - For corporate, with VPN and centralized management

Plus Yoggie is now adding the same capabilities in a laptop card that you can insert and forget, instead of having to plug in a USB device:
- Gatekeeper Card Pro - $199 / $159 - Security computer in a ExpressCard

Yoggie also offers two corporate devices that are physically separate from your computer on your network connection, and which can be remotely managed and monitored by the IT organization:
- GateKeeper Pro - $220 - For corporate, with pass-though network connection
- Gatekeeper SOHO - $249 - Network protection for up to 5 computers.

See my Portable Storage Gallery for details and comparisons on memory cards, USB drives, and hard disk storage.

    Find the Yoggie Gatekeeper Pico on Amazon.com

More on the Yoggie software ...

Memory cards have become incredibly popular as a convenient, rugged, and more affordable storage medium for a variety of uses, from mobile phones to high-definition video cameras. Compared to tape, optical disc, and even hard disk storage, solid-state memory provides immediate access to files, and does away with expensive and sensitive mechanical transports and flying read heads.

And capacity continues to rise, with prices for 8 GB SD cards falling under $50 -- That's more memory than Windows XP can effectively use on a desktop workstation!

So it's not surprising that SanDisk, the world's largest supplier of flash memory data storage products, has announced a new format for professional uses -- the SanDisk SD WORM card, a Write Once Read Many (WORM) digital memory card (see press release).

(image is the SanDisk Video HD card)

Digital data written to the SD WORM cards is stored permanently; there is no physical way to alter or delete individual recorded files. Yet the cards are readable in any standard SD slot, attached to a computer or other SD-compatible device. SanDisk estimates a 100-year archive life, when kept under appropriate storage conditions.

This is important for applications that require tamper-proof recording, especially to meet legal requirements for genuine and original records, such as police photography and other court records, cash registers and other tax records, and medical devices and other patient data.

SanDisk is working with the SD Card Association for approval of SD WORM as an industry standard. Writing to the cards does require new firmware, so SanDisk is partnering with manufacturers of digital devices including cameras, digital voice recorders, medical equipment, and electronic cash registers.

The SanDisk SD WORM cards are available now in 128-megabyte capacity, and are expected to be available in higher capacities later in the year.

See my Portable Storage Gallery for more on storage formats and devices.

    Find the SanDisk 8GB Video HD SDHC Card and
    SanDisk SanDisk 8GB MicroSDHC Card on Amazon.com