What’s this? Oh hello iPhone cable with T-Mobile branding. A tipster sent this to Engadget, but, as Engadget points out, T-Mobile did just make an ad that digs at FaceTime and AT&T’s network, all in the same breath. It’s a weird set of circumstances, but you’d have to think T-Mobile would be happy if it got to sell the iPhone.
The title of this post is a little misleading. USB 3.0 has been out for a while, there just haven’t been many peripherals to support it. Several firms finally released USB 3.0 products today, and though they are certainly cool, certainly fast, I certainly won’t be buying any of them.
Why? That’s my question, actually. Why would I? There is precious little I need to drop onto a thumbdrive these days. Even the raid arrays that launched today are fairly unappealing. My main storage device is attached to my router, and I do nearly all of my backups over the air, which USB 3.0 isn’t going to improve. Documents? Pictures? I have Google, Flickr, Facebook, insert-cloud-storage-of-choice. The days of carrying around the few things I really need on a thumbdrive are long gone, replaced by the convenience and security of offsite backups in duplicate or triplicate.
Don’t get me wrong, USB 3.0 will be around and become increasingly prevalent over the next several years, but my guess is the general public will hardly notice. The one thing consumers understand about the new transfer technology is price, and it’s a price that’s hard to justify when it only gives you faster transfer rates on hardware connected devices.
Kingston’s new 16GB thumbdrive is $89. The 64GB, a whopping $270. A USB 2.0 64GB stick can be had for half that price, and when the holidays roll around, likely a fifth. I can think of precious few consumer applications that would require the 60Mbps write speed that USB 3.0 will provide. So few, in fact, that I couldn’t even name one.
I’ve covered some iSkin products here in the past and been very pleased with them, so I’m happy to pass along the news about this upcoming Back-to School contest from iSkin. By entering your name and the school you’re headed for in the fall, you could be eligible to win up to $1000 worth of iSkin products to furnish that new dorm room.
Here’s what you win:
– Apple iPad 64GB 3G
– iSkin Vu for iPad
– iSkin silo Messenger Bag
– iSkin Eartones
– iSkin Cerulean RX
That’s a hell of a prize package if you ask me. The contest is only available to US and Canadian residents.
I placed the order for my free Apple Bumper case last week and it’s already here. Having the Bumper on the phone makes me appreciate the flat surfaces on both sides. I would have killed for a case like this on my 3GS – it’s small and unobtrusive, it still looks great, and you aren’t covering up the Apple design that has made the products so coveted.
The best part, of course, is that it was free. I would be hard pressed to drop $30 on one of these things, even with how much I like it. I should probably also mention, if you make a habit of dropping your phone like a good friend of mine, you should either invest in a good, sturdy case, or just assume that you’ll be paying a couple hundred bucks every few months to replace your phone.
Which free case did you go for?
We’ve written about the nPower PEG (that’s “Personal Energy Generator”) a lot over the past year or so leading up to its release. Well, the day has finally come that you can order the PEG and make it your very own.
The PEG comes with the standard kinetic charging stick and your adapter of choice. The device runs $149.99, which seems a little steep considering it’s meant for use with multiple devices but only comes with an adapter for one. Still, it’s a nifty little charger, especially if you do a lot of walking throughout the day, and the company is from Cleveland. Who doesn’t want to support The Cleve, am I right?
Check out the full range of options at the nPower PEG official website.
© 2026 Gadget Teaser
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑