I had an older Compaq laptop circa 2004 that had USB 1.0 and I remember trying to add over 100 songs to my iPod through iTunes. It would takeforever. I would rather wait to get home from wherever I was to transfer songs because my PC at home had USB 2.0 and the difference in speed was incredible. Now I'm sometimes transferring 10+ gigs of information from a hard drive to an external hard drive, external to a flash drive, etc. Even though USB 2.0 is fast, I still have to wait several minutes for the transfer to complete. I know, several minutes... We are so spoiled. USB 3.0 is said to be 10 times faster than 2.0 while using a third of the power and it's backward compatible. A new major feature is the SuperSpeed bus, which provides a fourth transfer mode at 4.8 Gbit/s. The raw throughput is 4 Gbit/s, and the specification considers it reasonable to achieve 3.2 Gbit/s (0.4 GByte/s or 400 MByte/s) or more after protocol overhead [1]. If you were lucky enough to go to this year's CES you probably heard about hard drives, motherboards, adapter cards, laptops and devices that are now using 3.0 technology. Expect to see a lot more about on USB 3.0 as more and more devices that support it hit the market this year.

[1] Wikipedia

(posted by Carlos Arellano)

 I love my iPhone. It keeps me organized; yet completely distracted at any moment of the day. So, when all the rumors lately have been tablet oriented in regards to what the hell is going on in Cupertino, I was a bit surprised to see some iPhone rumors surface this week. As any good Apple user will know, the iPhone’s launch calendar generally focuses new releases in the month of June. With this knowledge, we should see even more rumors in the coming months.

First of all, rumors this early, or any rumors for that matter, should be taken lightly. With that said, don’t fire up your torches and come after the messengers if this proves to be wrong.

Gizmodo reported earlier this week on a rumor that had me scratching my head at first. According to this piece of scuttle, the next iPhone will have a touch sensitive casing. If this has you confused, think of it as similar to what MacBook track pads are capable of, multi-touch commands and the like, and the new Magic Mouse.

What this could mean is a brand new way of interacting with the phone.

Obvious uses include multi-touch commands where the phone recognizes how many fingers you are swiping across its smooth shell. I would be most excited for this if it meant I could scroll through documents and web pages one-handed; as doing so now often leads to a cramp in my thumb.

Another prospect to consider is what this would mean for interacting with other applications. Obviously, the fewer fingers you have on the touch screen, the better the view of whatever you’re viewing.

Consider this though, and let me know what you think. It has already been tipped that Apple has been working on a 3-D version of iWork. So, imagine what an interface would be like where you can input commands on more than one surface! Applications could display a whole new depth.

So, give some thought to this. Even if it doesn’t come true, it is still very exciting to consider where touch interfaces are headed.

At CES this week, the largest microchip manufacturer in the world, Intel, announced that they have decided to get in on the app frenzy. They've opened a new app store geared towards netbook computers called Atom. That's right. You know those little pieces of software called applications? Well they're no longer just for your cell phone. Can you imagine the possibilities of running applications on a computer?... Oh wait... that's what you're doing right now...



Anyway, what's really exciting is the amount of companies in other parts of the electronics industry that are also interested in apps. Samsung announced this week that they would be opening their own app store for HDTVs, Blu-Ray players, as well as cell phones. Surprisingly enough, Ford Motor Company even announced some apps that would be available in its vehicles late this year.

I think this is fantastic news and a great step forward for technology in general. As modern tech grows exponentially, the microchips that are used in even the simplest of computers are performing way under their potential. Think about the possibilities of television applications for example. They could interact with certain commercials, tv shows and movies. They could learn what kinds of content you like and tailor a playlist for you.  Or the ability to upgrade firmware to increase the performance of your current hardware. The opportunities are endless for clever companies. Look at all the applications on the iPhone that make you say, "hmm, I never would have thought to use it for that."

The future is bright for technology! I can't wait to see where this leads.

If you are on Twitter you probably remember seeing Google Wave as a trending topic last year. In fact, it was the top technology related trending topic of 2009. This was mainly because people were asking for invitation codes to try it out.  That's how I got my invite. I fell in love with Wave long before I had the chance to try it for myself. I heard about Google's next big thing on Twitter, and started doing some research. Google has a video about Wave that is over an hour and twenty minutes long. It demonstrates Wave to developers at their 2009 I/O event. I've been using it since November 2009, and it has made my life so much easier. I've used it as a collaboration tool to have 3 or more users work on a project, or to have a chat room environment for fun. I can see my office using it as a sort of basecamp for our web development projects. The beauty of Wave is that it could be used for so much more than just work. Drag and drop pictures in a Wave to share them with loved ones. Watch the video for examples and several other advantages that Wave has. Google Wave should be going live before the end of this year.

I’m writing this, my first post in my new little corner of the Internet, from a location without reliable wireless. Particularly, I’m writing from Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO, a junior college that is a far cry from the giant lectures and endless hikes across campus I’m used to. All things considered, you would think wireless would be a bare necessity in this day-and-age, especially for a college, regardless of size. This simply isn’t the case and I’m stuck waiting to get home before I can post this.

Naturally, I can still go online and stay connected via my iPhone. Why? It has 3G of course, a service that is quickly becoming the norm for more and more people, even if it is limited to cell phones and those who can afford the mobile wireless hot spots.