Do Not Use a USB Headset!

Do Not Use a USB Headset!

If you have a USB headset, you won't want to use it with Voice Buddy 3. And, since USB headsets cost about 3-4 times more than analog headsets, this is very welcome news.  I discovered that using a USB headset conflicts with VB3-VOIP technology due to the way USB headsets control the microphone. Using a USB headset will prevent Voice Buddy from working with VOIP clients such as Roger Wilco.

Use only analog headsets for full VB3-VOIP compatibility. Analog headsets certified by eDimensional for best results with Voice Buddy include the new eDimensional Audio FX (see details below) and Plantronics Audio 90. In order to enjoy the VB3-VOIP simultaneous communication feature, you will need an analog headset with a good quality microphone that is certified for voice recognition applications. For this review, I used both the Plantronics Audio 90 that came with Voice Buddy 1 and the new Audio FX that comes with Voice Buddy 3. Both worked perfectly. You don't want to use a USB headset because the USB interface is incompatible with simultaneously using Voice Buddy and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) clients such as Roger Wilco. We tested this fact using a top quality USB headset manufactured by Andrea, one of the very best producers of first class voice recognition headsets. There is nothing inherently bad about USB headsets. They just don't work with simultaneous voice recognition and VOIP.

A good quality headset is critically important for accurate voice recognition and USB headsets usually give you much better signal-to-noise ratios than analog (see our test results below). Cheap headsets are very noisy, have poor quality microphones with poor quality noise cancellation properties. A bad microphone will cause Voice Buddy to misinterpret your commands. With a good microphone and proper voice training and setup, I discovered Voice Buddy recognition is extremely high at well over 98% accuracy.

Audio FX Force Feedback Headset

Voice Buddy 3 is available with the optional Audio FX force feedback headset: The Audio FX from eDimensional which our ad guy affectionately called the 'headbanger.' The Audio FX has a force feedback system that synchronizes the vibration effects with the sound and brings new excitement to flightsimming, music, movies, gaming and any other audio experience.

The "Headbanger" Headset

The Audio FX allows you to turn on an amazing force feedback system that synchronizes the vibration effects with the sound. It's awesome when you crank up the rock-and-roll. OK, I'll admit to being a Baby Boomer rocker. When I cranked up George Thoroughgood's "Bad To The Bone" with this headset it gave a whole new meaning to the term "head rush." According to Our Man in Blackpool, it also thrilled IFC conventioneers when they cranked up the sounds for their favorite aircraft. Mike said, "I could tell by the beatific and wide-eyed looks on their faces that the headbanger effect was a big hit."

The eDimensional Audio FX headset has built-in noise cancellation that blocks unwanted ambient noise and prevents it from interfering with your voice commands. It has a high-quality, voice recognition certified microphone and a fully adjustable microphone boom. The boom, by the way, is a perfect place to put the TrackIR3 Pro tracking dot. Much better than on your forehead or cap.

Audio FX creates a unique force feedback envelope that is synchronized to the sound action of your game, music, DVD, or whatever sound comes though the headphones. It also has flashing lights on the headphones that scale to the sound intensity and vibration effects.

The overall feel of the Audio FX is surprisingly comfortable considering that it is larger than the Plantronics Audio 90. The Audio FX looks and feels more like an actual pilot headset. The ergonomic design, combined with the large padded headband and excellent balance make it very comfortable to wear for long flights. The soundproof padding on the headphones effectively blocks out all ambient noise. This immerses you into an audio envelope that is impressive to say the very least. It's hard to describe in so many words. You just have to try it and see for yourself.

Combines the Best of Analog and USB Technologies

If you've ever priced USB headsets, you know how absurdly expensive they are, often costing over US$100. While costing much more, USB headsets sound the same to me as lower cost analog headsets. So, I don't get it. On the other hand, USB enables designers to supply power to USB connected devices. The Audio FX does not use batteries to power the force feedback system. The headset gets it power from your computer's USB port. So, it blends the economy and excellent sound/voice signal qualities of analog connections with the convenience of USB electrical power and still comes in at a very low price point. I think this is excellent engineering for price performance.

As shown in the photo, the Audio FX has three jacks:

• The speaker jack is marked with an orange label and the letters SPK.

• The microphone jack is marked with a pink label and the letters MIC.

• The rectangular black jack is the USB connector which supplies the power for force feedback.

The Audio FX also has three controls on an inline switch console. From left to right:

1. Vibration control that enables you to adjust the energy of the sound produced that synchronizes with the vibration action and the flashing lights on each headphone. This thumbwheel controls the intensity of those combined effects. When using Voice Buddy, I recommend that you set the vibrations effects to a medium or low level.

2. Vibration On/Off switch which enables you to instantly turn the vibration effects on or off.

3. Volume control which adjusts the sound volume. Sound volume will also influence the synchronization of the vibration effects. The louder the sound, the greater the vibration effects. You can combine volume and vibration to achieve just the right balance of audio force feedback.

Audio FX Makes Voice Buddy a Unique Value.

Voice Buddy comes in two versions: software and Audio FX headset or software only. According to eDimensional executive, Michael Epstein, "You must make sure to use a top quality headset that is certified for voice control. Right now, we only certify two headsets: our new Audio FX and the original Plantronics Audio 90 that we shipped with Voice Buddy 1.0."

"Good voice control requires a very good microphone," Epstein explained. "We improved upon our original concept by creating the world's first force feedback headset. So now, you not only get excellent voice recognition qualities and stereo sound, but you also get an exciting new force feedback effect that gives new meaning to the term 'head rush'."

Once again, Epstein was right! The Audio FX vibration effects are quite amazing. At first, I cranked them to the max to get the feel of it all. I soon found that to be a bit too intense and dialed them down a bit to better suit the sound environment I wanted to create. Sound is very important on the flight deck. It tells you when all is good and also alerts you to impending doom.

The Audio FX alone is an excellent value. But, when you consider that it's included with Voice Buddy for the US$79.95 price, it's a real bargain.

Wholesale Flash Drives to Store Your Useful Information

There have been a number of wonderful inventions during the 20th and 21st century. Some of these creations have been both massive and minute. Very few of mankinds modern creations have revolutionized working life so much as the USB flash drive though. Ok now that might seem a bit much for some people but the reality remains the same – USB flash drives have made the working lives of millions of office workers, teachers, students, IT and other professionals massively more simple. If you already one (or a few) USB flash drives then you'll know just how incredibly useful they are. If you don't already own at least one USB memory stick then hopefully this article will help convince you of their absolute usefulness in both your working and personal life.

(One Sample of HOT SALE Flash Drive from LinkChina)

USB Flash Drive is Small, Reliable, Tough, and Mass Storage. The first USB thumb drives only offered between 16MB and 64MB of storage space. The incredible popularity of these drives has driven the desire for more and more storage space to new heights every few months. Currently 8GB USB drives are becoming pretty common and it won't be long before the 12GB and 24GB models hit the market. To put this in perspective 8GB is enough to hold 2 full DVD quality movies or about 2,700 high quality MP3 files – surely this is enough for you? No?

The portability of the USB flash drive combined with reliability and the more than generous storage provided by such a tiny device make them the smart choice for anyone who needs to move files between PCs or simply just keep a second copy of their most precious data on a secure and reliable storage device.

How do you think of the Flash Drive above, or you can view more USB flash drives from LinkChina, LinkChina.com is a globalized B2B wholesale center that collects made-in-China merchandise all over the country from sellers directly link to the manufacturers. Most of our products are straightly from factories, which mean the lowest prices and perfect quality. Buyers could contact the manufacturers directly and immediately.

Humping USB Dog

Down Boy!

Harley and Duke are naughty doggies. They won't eat out of their food bowls; they track mud all over the place; they are constantly burying our pens; and they have a peculiar naughtiness whenever they spy a free USB port. They...well...they sort of, kind of, um... "go to town," if you will. And they won't stop until you um...separate them from the source of their affections.

Why are they like this? We have no idea. It doesn't serve any purpose, but it's what they do. They are insatiable. And that's all we really have to say. Harley is brown and Duke is black, and you can take your pick. Oh, and don't worry - if the kids ask what the doggie is doing to your computer, just say, "He's trying to jump over the computer, but he got a little stuck," or "The computer is giving him a piggyback ride." Either will suffice.

Each dog is about 2.25" tall and requires USB power to get turned on. Sorry, we had to.

Who's your doggy?

Disco USB Hub

If you are a proud owner of the MP3 Disco Lamp, you might want to extend your colorful flashing gadgets collection with this 4-port USB hub.

There is no information about if it's USB 2.0 compliant or not. The hub is compatible with Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP and Vista, and it flashes – that's about it.

The USB 4-Port Flashing Light Hub is yours for $9.99 from the GizFever.com website.

Mr.Gadget 1GB USB 2.0 Executive Watch

What is the Mr.Gadget 1GB USB 2.0 Executive Watch ?

Click to enlarge It's here! The Mr.Gadget 1GB USB 2.0 Executive Watchexudes both style and substance. With this on your wrist, you'll have access to your valuable data wherever and whenever (a USB port needs to be handy). Look out James Bond! Features of the Mr.Gadget 1GB USB 2.0 Executive Watch (Limited Edition): - 1GB Data Capacity - Ultra fast USB 2.0 data transfer rate, USB 1.0 compatible - Stainless Steel construction - Japanese Citizen Precision Movement - Timer/Stopwatch - USB cable included - Plug and Play with most Windows and MAC operating systems - 2 year warranty System requirements of the Mr.Gadget 1GB USB 2.0 Executive Watch: - IBM compatible Desk PC, Notebook PC, Mac  - USB port: Support USB version 1.1 or 2.0 - Hard Disk Free Space: approximately 10MB - OS Support: Win 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP, Mac OS  We only have limited numbers so get in fast!

USB Scripting Tutorial

Hey guys, back after a long time. This time a simple trick for playing with your USB drives on your computers (Hackers cn think the same for others computers as well) .

The autorun.inf file is the key to getting your USB drive (or CD-ROM drive, for that matter) to perform certain actions automatically and customize it's look in My Computer. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on how this can be done.

Autorun.inf Structure

The autorun.inf file is a simple text file that can be opened up in any text editor (e.g. notepad). It always starts with a section header of:
[autorun]
Below this header is a list of different options. Each of these options is in the following format:
option=value where option is the option that you want to set and value is the value that you are setting for that option. So, if you had an option foo and you wanted to be set to bar, then you would enter:
foo=bar
(Do not use foo=bar in your autorun.inf file as it is only an example, not a real option setting.)
That is all there really is to understand about the structure of an autorun.inf file. On to doing some actual cool stuff with it!

Setting a Custom Icon

To create a custom icon for your USB drive, use the icon option. Set it to the name of the icon file.

Note: Since drive letters can change for USB drives, the file path is relative to the root of the drive. This means that if your USB drive is presently mounted on U: and your icon is located at U:\Icons\MyIcon.ico, then you would enter \Icons\MyIcon.ico for the value of this option.

For example, if you had an icon on the root of the USB drive called coffeecup.ico and you wanted this to be the icon that showed up for the USB drive, you would enter:

icon=coffeecup.ico

You are not limited to .ico files. If, for example, you have an executable with a nice icon, you can specify it as the icon file. For example:

icon=DCoTopen.exe

This is valid as long as DCoTopen.exe is available on the root of the USB drive.
Some files have more than one icon embedded in them. If this is the case, you can select which icon to use by specifing the index number after the file name. For example:

icon=iconlib.dll,2

This will use the second icon in the iconlib.dll file.

Naming Your USB Drive

If you would like your USB drive to display a specific name othr than the drive label created when it is formatted, use the label option. For example, if I wanted to call my drive DCoT Drive, I would add this to myautorun.inf file:

label=DCoT Drive

Now, when you look at your USB drive in My Computer, it will say DCoT Drive by the drive letter.

Setting AutoPlay Options

AutoPlay is a relatively new function of Windows XP. It allows you to set up what file is run when the USB drive is plugged into the computer and the message that you are prompted with. There are two options that work in conjunction with AutoPlay. The first is open. It specifies the program that you can run automatically with AutoPlay. So, if we wanted to run a program called DCoTopen.exe, you would add the this to your autorun.inffile:

open=DCoTopen.exe

The second option that we add is the message the user is prompted with. To set this, we use the actionoption. If we want the message to say DCoT Open Program, add the following to autorun.inf:
action=DCoT Open Program

Once you have added this information, AutoPlay should look something like this:

Adding Context Menu Items

There are certain basic options such as Open and Explore that are available when you right click on a USB drive. But, wouldn't it be cool to add your own? You can using a couple of lines in the autorun.inf file.
The first thing that we need to do is create an action, give it a name, and a message. We do all of this using the shell\verb option. For example, let's say that we would like to create an action called lost. It does not matter what the actin is called. It can be anything you want. We would also like to show the message Help! I'm Lost! in the context menu. We would simply add this line to autorun.inf:

shell\lost=Help! I'm Lost!

This will display Help! I'm Lost! in the context menu so that you can click on it. But, it doesn't know what to do when you click on it. Tell the system by using shell\verb\command option. In our example, we want to run the Lost.exe application. Adding this line will do the trick:

shell\lost\command=Lost.exe

You can add as many of these line pairs as you want to make the context menu as custom as you want.

Changing Default Action

When you double click on your USB drive, by default it will open up the drive so that you can browse through the files. Often, it is advantageous to perform some other action when the user double clicks the USB drive icon. You do this with the shell option. If we wanted to run the Lost.exe program from the previous section automatically when we double clicked on the USB drive, we would add this line:

shell=lost

because lost is the name of the action that was specified in the earlier lines.

Viewing a File

If you wanted to view a file on your USB drive in the default application instead of running a program on the drive, you can substitute the open option for the shellexecute option. For example, if you wanted to open up a website called, oh, I don't know, say http://www.hackplanet.in in the default web browser, you could user the following:

shellexecute=http://www.hackplanet.in

 
This will work for any file. This is the equivalent of using Start - Run… and then typing in a file name and clicking OK.

World's Smallest USB Flash Drive?

The polished chrome Pico USB flash drive is only 31.3 x 12.4 x 3.4 mm in size, but it is still capable of storing an impressive 8GB of data.

Store four full length ripped movies, five days worth of music, more than four-thousand 5 megapixel photos, or eighty-meters worth of shelved books. Sure, it's so small you could easily lose it, so we've included a chain to help keep it around.

Features:

• Smallest size yet largest capacity USB flash drive around
• 8 gigs, yet the size of your fingertip
• 31.3mm x 12.4mm x 3.4mm
• Polished Chrome finish
• Shock and water resistant
• 200x speed, 30MB/second
• Mac, Windows, and Linux compatible