Say Goodbye To The Audio Jack?

Cyrus Cell Phones

To the confusion and frustration of many iPhone 7 users, the lack of an audio jack is being seen as a step forward rather than back. With the advent of USB Type-C, audio will no longer require a 3.5mm headphone port. Instead, that data can be transmitted, along with videos and power, through Type-C. The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) recently announced its awaited audio specifications for USB Type-C to end the reign of our beloved headphone jack so lets take a look at the new standard.

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Re-imagining the Modern Phone Charger

Cyrus Cell Phones

At trade shows around the world, StoreDot is showing off the Samsung Galaxy S6 with a modified battery and charging port which enabled the device to charge from 10% to 100% in 5 minutes and 25 seconds. This solution isn’t simply faster, the physics within the battery is a new generation of lithium ion batteries which sets it apart from companies pursuing similar avenues to solve the battery inconvenience.

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Read and Write CID Values From SD Media

Mark McCrosky Cell Phones, Flash Memory News, MicroSD, MicroSDHC, SDHC, Secure Digital

UPDATE (Feb 16, 2023):
We learned the company which manufactures this product now offers the ability to write the CID value as well as write protect the Secure Digital media.

GetUSB.info just posted a nice article on how to read the CID (or PSN) from an SD card, or product serial number. Some also call this reading the CID number from an SD card. The CID number is a unique identifier number or serial number created on the SD or microSD media at the time of manufacturing. This is a number which cannot be changed or manipulated by the host computer.

The CID number is most often used for vendors or manufacturers to lock in software to a specific device. Since the CID number cannot be changed or modified, it’s a great way to prevent unauthorized distribution or content or software.

Some manufacturers require to read the CID number from SD media before the software is published and this is what GetUSB.info talks about. For a full description of the article, make the jump: How to read CID number from SD media.

Here is a snap shot of the CID reading tool for 20 SD devices:

The CID number is composed of the following values:

Manufacturer ID: This is an 8-bit code that identifies the manufacturer of the SD card.
OEM/Application ID: This is an 16-bit code that identifies the OEM or the application for which the SD card was designed.
Product Name: This is a 32-bit ASCII code that specifies the product name of the SD card.
Product Revision: This is a 8-bit code that specifies the product revision of the SD card.
Serial Number: This is a 32-bit code that specifies the unique serial number of the SD card.
Manufacturing Date: This is a 12-bit code that specifies the manufacturing date of the SD card.
CRC: This is a 7-bit code that is used to verify the integrity of the CID number.

The CID number is typically used by SD card host devices to verify the authenticity of the SD card and to ensure that it is compatible with the host device.

Nexcopy Inc. is a technology company based in Southern California that specializes in developing and manufacturing advanced USB duplicators, SD card duplicators, and other digital media equipment.

The company was founded in 2008 and has since established itself as a leader in the digital media duplication industry. Nexcopy’s products are used by a variety of industries, including education, government, military, and commercial businesses.

Nexcopy’s products are known for their reliability, speed, and ease of use. The company’s USB duplicators, for example, can copy up to 60 USB drives simultaneously, with transfer speeds of up to 33 MB/s per port. Nexcopy also offers SD card duplicators that can copy up to 40 SD cards simultaneously, with transfer speeds of up to 90 MB/s per port.

In addition to its hardware products, Nexcopy also offers a range of software solutions for USB and SD card duplication, as well as custom programming services for customers with specialized needs.

Overall, Nexcopy is a reputable and established company in the digital media duplication industry, known for its high-quality products and commitment to customer satisfaction.

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Where Are 80 Million USB Modems Going?

Mark McCrosky Cell Phones

Into your home, work place, car and everywhere else, that’s where.Â ABI Research company has forecasted over 81 million USB wireless modems will be sold in 2010.Â Currently over 50% of those sales figures are from cellular companies pushing their services for hotspots and instant wifi connection when out-n-about.

USB modem on PC

The biggest reason for the USB modem is lack of required drivers, as it’s either preinstalled on the device or installs directly from the device.Â In addition, the USB modem is portable and easily swapped between work and home locations. ABI asks whether embedded modem modules in new computers or the recent interest in personal hotspot routers (a la MiFi) can overtake the popularity of USB dongles. Research associate Khin Sandi Lynn points out that, â€œIn the long run, more devices are looking for a network to connect to. The wireless modem market can solve this in many ways â€“ different form-factors, air interface protocols, and increased attention to style and cultural interests.â€ ABI webpage. Continue Reading 1 Comment

Clickfree Traveler Service Backs Up Your Computer To SmartPhone

Mark McCrosky Cell Phones, MicroSD

With microSD cards getting so large, we have seen some create uses.Â This years CES 2010 is no exception.Â Take for example, the new data backup service from Clickfree.Â Clickfree now offers the ability for you to backup PC files directly to your Blackberry smartphone. The new Clickfree Traveler Micro-SD card for BlackBerry comes with pre-installed Clickfree software.Â This enables you to easily backup important files to your BlackBerry.Â The Traveler is tailor made for the business users who are constantly on the go and searching for a better way to backup their data. Once Clickfree is installed your BlackBerry will automatically backup your files every time you connect to the computer via USB cable.Â It also keeps files secure with password protection which is encrypted.Â The Clickfree Traveler works with Windows 7, Vista, XP and Mac OS X 10.5+.Â It will release in February for a price of $89.99 (16GB) and $149.99 (32GB). Continue Reading 25 Comments

Connect Any USB Device To Your Cell Phone

Mark McCrosky Cell Phones, MicroSD, USB flash

Elan is launching an adapter to connect any USB stick to your mobile device via the microSD slot.

mobidapter elan

Elan is a UK based company who developed the “Mobidapter” for mobile power users.Â The connector does not require drivers and will allow any USB device to be seen by the mobile host.Â Further, the Mobidapter doesn’t require a PC, so important tasks like backup, sync or accessing files will be much easier. Unfortunately, there is no word on price and expected ship date is mid June 2009. Continue Reading 4 Comments

Blackberry Storm Ships with 8GB microSD Card

Mark McCrosky Cell Phones, MicroSD

The highly anticipated Blackberry Storm is shipping with an 8GB microSD flash memory card – but there’s only one problem.Â The phone has gotten horrible reviews and lacks the functionality most require for a quality MP3 experience.Â So now the problem – what to do with 8GBs of flash memory.Â Sure you could find something to store up that card, like snaps shots from the 3.2mpix camera or store the entire yellow pages of phone numbers and address,Â but the reality is – without a good MP3 player mechanism the storage isn’t all that necessary.

blackberry storm usb

Sorry for the rant, but to boost the value of the phone with a $20 8GB microSD card isn’t all that impressive. Interested to hear more about the Blackberry Storm?Â You can read the following reviews:

Phone spec: Verizon Storm. Continue Reading

Open Source Linux Phone by Trolltech

Mark McCrosky Cell Phones, neo1973

So we did flips for the open source Neo1973, now we’ve got a simplified software platform. Trolltech has introduced the Qtopia Phone Edition for the Neo1973.

The Qtopia Phone Edition is fully accessible under the open source GPL verison 2 license and supports the Greenphone reference platform for mobile development. Up until now, Qtopia has been ported onto 90 different devices, including 25 phones. There are over 9 million Qtopia-based handsets in the market that also includes mobile devices from Motorola, ZTE and Cellon. Source: TechGadgets photo via Flickr Continue Reading 1 Comment

First Open Source Linux Cell Phone On Sale

Mark McCrosky Cell Phones, Flash Memory News, MicroSD, neo1973

Update: More info here The other day (literally) a fellow blogger and I where talking about why cell phones are so damn proprietary and if someone could develop a phone with the same open-source mindset as say WordPress (this blogging platform) than our world would be much better off. Well apparently I’ve been living under a rock.

From OpenMoko comes the Neo 1973 open-source cell phone based off the Linux kernel.

We selected chips that have complete documentation publicly available, such as the ARM-based Samsung S3C2410 SOC. We added a debug port with complete access to JTAG and a serial console. This phone is designed for open-source development.

With a sporty 640×480 LCD that holds a beautiful 283 dpi the visual from the Neo 1973 should be amazing. Unlike the first version of the iPhone the Neo 1973 will have 128MB RAM with 64MB NAND flash and an expandable microSD slot (bonus 512MB card ships with the phone). So hackers, gadget hounds and side project guru’s I think this is worth a closer look. At just $300 – what a deal. This first run of release units is more geared towards developers so don’t expect any retail phones to hit BestBuy just yet. OpenMoko Neo 1973 home page Continue Reading

Flash Memory Inside the Apple iPhone

Mark McCrosky Cell Phones, Flash Memory News, Mobile Audio, MP3 Player, PMP Units

We tried to escape the iPhone buzz, but recent information came to light after some folks unscrewed the iPhone to see what’s inside. This is what flash memory they found. The Apple iPhone flash memory is comprised of two technologies. NAND flash and NOR flash. Without knowing how Apple used these technologies we can easily conclude (without certainty) how the flash memory is being used. Since NAND flash memory is best suited for re-write and allows an operating system to view the flash memory as a hard drive type storage space, the iPhone most likely uses NAND memory to store MP3 files, photo’s, video and other ‘come-n-go’ files. The NOR flash memory is best suited for storing code where re-writes aren’t as frequent. NOR would be used for storing application information, such as web browser, OS, Viewer files and other ‘stable’ code which wouldn’t change too often. It was also reveled that Samsung is supplying Apple’s iPhone with the main microprocessor chip and NAND flash memory. Intel is supplying the NOR flash memory to the iPhone. Continue Reading