Why hasn't USB 3.0 Caught-On?

Over the last few years, the Universal Serial Bus (USB) has become the universal interface. Starting in 1995, when USB 1.0 could only transfer 12 Mbps (Megabits per second), the standard started up slowly. But when USB 2.0 came along in 2000, with its 480 Mbps, the days were numbered for PS/2, serial, parallel, and even the FireWire interface. So, why hasn't USB 3.0, also known as SuperSpeed USB, with its 5 Gigabits per second (Gbps), become the interface of choice since its introduction in 2008? Well, there are several reasons.

This is pretty simple. It's fast. It's even faster than eSATA (External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment). When I tested USB 3.0 against eSATA last year, I found that in practice neither was quite as fast as their specifications suggests -- on reads my USB drive averaged 90 MBps, while the eSATA drive came in at 75 MBps. But, when it came to writing to the disk eSATA still processed data at 75 MBps while the USB drive dropped to 62 Mbps.

USB 3.0, like the other USB standards before it, also has the advantage though of being able to supply power to its devices. An eSATA device requires a separate power supply.

The USB 3.0 standard also uses interrupts instead of "polling" when a device is plugged in. With polling, when a USB device is plugged into the port, the computer keeps checking on it to see if needs anything. This keeps the computer from going into low power states and can quickly drain a battery. That's bad news on a laptop. By using interrupts, USB 3.0 doesn't waste time or energy on an idle device, this in turn saves battery life.

When a device does need power though. USB 3.0 supplies 50% more power draw. That means instead of just thumb drives you can power up external drives.

In addition, even if your PC doesn't have a USB 3.0 port, you can buy a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) card with two ports for about Rs. 1,000. There are already multiple USB 3.0 compatible external hard drives and case enclosures from vendors such as Buffalo Technologies; Seagate and Western Digital.

So, put it all together and you can see why USB 3.0 should be popular.

But it's not. It's still a fair amount of trouble to find computers with USB 3.0 built in. Today, HP, Sony, and Dell offer only a handful of PC withs USB 3.0.

Why USB 3.0 hasn't caught on

USB 1.0 and 2.0 ports and devices were interchangeable. Of course, any such combination would only go as fast as 1.0's 12Mbps. But with USB 3.0, even though the plug and PC connection look the same at a casual glance, they're not really compatible with the older models.

Instead of four wires, the USB 3.0 cable has eight wires. One is power, one is for the ground, two for USB 2.0 data ), and four wires for SuperSpeed data. If you take a closer look at a USB 3.0 cable you'll see that one edge of the plug is colored blue. The end that plugs into your USB 3.0 drive, scanner, printer, or camera, however, is not the compatible with a USB 2.0 device. So, while you can plug a USB 2.0 device with a USB 2.0 cable into a USB 3.0 port or a USB 3.0 device with a USB 3.0 cable into a USB 2.0 port, you can't use a USB 3.0 cable to connect a USB 2.0 device. Got that?

In short, you can't switch out USB cables willy-nilly if you're using USB 3.0. Since, at a quick glance you may mistake a USB 2.0 cable for a USB 3.0 one, it's a small, but vexing, problem.

By itself, that's not a big deal. Far more important is that Windows 7, even with SP1, still doesn't natively support USB 3.0. You can use USB 3.0 ports and devices of course, with the right device drivers, but in 2011, what Windows user worries about device driver compatibility? Mac users have the same problem. Even Snow Leopard doesn't have built-in USB 3.0 support. It's another annoying hitch. Ironically enough, Linux, which is always getting grief for not supporting this or the other device, is the only operating system with USB 3.0 support baked in.

On top of that, even though Intel was a member of the USB working group that helped create the USB 3.0 specification, it was only at Computex in Taiwan on May 31st 2011 that Intel finally committed to supporting USB 3.0 on an actual product line. Intel will ship the "new" USB on its Ivy Bridge chipset.

Don't get too excited yet though. Ivy Bridge, the successor to Sandy Bridge, has just had its release date moved back to March 2012. If you want a motherboard with USB 3.0 already built in sooner than next year, you can look to AMD. The other CPU chip giant has announced that its A75 and A70M Fusion chipsets will include USB 3.0. These chipsets are already shipping.

So why has Intel been such a stick in the mud? Well, Intel has its own high-speed interface agenda to push: Thunderbolt, formerly known as Light Peak, which Intel first showed at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in September 2009.

Thunderbolt is a fiber optic wire connection. It uses the same size connector as USB but even thinner wires. Unlike USB 3.0, which in theory can reach out to three meters with Gbps speeds but in practice goes to about two meters, Thunderbolt can transmit data up to 50 meters.

Thunderbolt can also be used with PCI Express and DisplayPort. Thus, it can be used both for devices and for display high-definition video. Intel also promises that you'll be able to power devices through it.

On top of that, Thunderbolt, although it's not here yet except in labs, can transmit 10Gb of data per second bidirectionally, twice that of USB 3.0. Need I add that it too is going to be included on the Ivy Bridge chipsets?

Unlike USB 3.0, though, which is an industry wide standard, Thunderbolt is Intel specific. So, while in many ways Thunderbolt does sound like it will better than USB 3.0, you'll only be able to use it with Intel equipment and with hardware that's been manufactured by vendors under an Intel license. Historically, proprietary inputs and outputs don't do well in the mass-market. You'll recall that, FireWire, Apple's take on the IEEE 1394 High Speed Serial Bus, never really took off even though it was far faster than its competitors.

So what's a user to do? Well, even though USB 3.0 has not taken off as quickly as many of us thought it would, I believe in the long run it will win out and become the next universal PC input/output (I/O) system. While Apple, Intel, and Microsoft have all failed to support it properly, it's still the most flexible, high-speed and open I/O out there and I foresee trouble ahead for Thunderbolt getting the kind of universal support that earlier versions of USB have gotten.

Times of India Launches App on Ovi Store

The Times of India (TOI), one of India'™s leading dailies, announced the launch of a specially tailored app which will be available for free download on the Ovi store (soon to be rechristened as Nokia store) for Nokia smartphones. The app is created by MobiMonster, a Delhi based developer firm.

The application will provide latest coverage national and international news, business, politics, city, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, health and science and technology news on the move. The TOI application supports both portrait and landscape orientations and also advanced gestures such as scroll and swipe.

The app also connects to social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter so that users of this app can share the links online. An auto update widget feature updates the app on its own whenever latest updates are released.

Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet Limited said, "We are excited to launch The Times of India app for Nokia smartphones. This partnership is an important and strategic one for us as both brands lead their respective segments globally with India being a significant contributor to their overall businesses. With this app millions of Nokia owners across the globe will be able to access news on the move, updated on the hour, with The Times of India".

Viral Oza, Director, Marketing Nokia India, said, œMobile users everywhere are consuming more and more content daily from their mobile devices. Our partnership with Times of India is a big step towards providing readers easy and simplified access to news from their mobile devices. Times of India'™s unique content and Nokia'™s unparalleled reach now offer readers the chance to be completely up to date with news from India and the world, no matter where they are.

Twitter Likes it Short, Unveils Official URL Shortening Service

Third party URL shortening services such as Bit.ly and TinyURL may be hit by the news that Twitter has now introduced their official t.co URL shortener. With the new shortening service, Twitter users can include a link in their tweets and they will be automatically shortened to 19 characters. As a result Twitter users will no longer need to rely on third-party services and will not need to leave Twitter to get their links to fit within the 140 character limit.


Twitter explains the decision to offer the service as something that will "protect users from harmful activity, to provide value for the developer ecosystem, and as a quality signal for surfacing relevant, interesting Tweets." However, unlike the third-party services, t.co can't be used a general URL shortener and will automatically come into play only on Twitter.

Creative recently announced the launch of the Creative D80 Bluetooth wireless one-piece speaker.

"The adoption rate for Bluetooth enabled smart devices with built-in music playback has grown phenomenally over the last few years. Most people today store their music in portable Bluetooth enabled devices like the iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry or tablet computers like the iPad or Creative ZiiO, and the Creative D80 is designed to be the perfect compact Bluetooth speaker to go with these wireless devices. What's more, when you use the Creative D80 with Creative's highly affordable ZEN Style M300, you'll get one of the lowest costing wireless music systems money can buy," said Ernest Sim, Regional Sales Manager for the Indian Subcontinent at Creative. "The Creative D80 speaker is so compact that it can easily be carried anywhere throughout the home or almost everywhere in a backpack, and it’s priced for everyone."

Some of the key features of the D80 are that it plays audio through any stereo Bluetooth devices, offers fast and easy Bluetooth connection and integrated aux for connecting to other audio devices.

The D80 is available in white with a pink, or blue, or green grille or black with a black grille for Rs. 2,699.

Unlocked Apple iPhone 3GS 8GB Now in Stores

Ever dreamt of owning the iPhone? Your dream might just come true.Apple has launched the two-year-old iPhone 3GS for a much lower Rs. 19,990.

This means that competition in the mid-range smartphones segment just gets hotter. Samsung's Android-based smartphones Nexus S and Galaxy i9003 SLCD which were sitting pretty on top of the pile now have a new competitor in the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 3GS is still a good phone and the plus point is that it is upgradable to iOS 5 when it is launched in the future.

The 3.5 inch screen of the iPhone 3GS has a resolution of 320x480.  It has a 600 MHz processor, and 8 GB memory. It runs iOS 4.3 (upgradable to iOS 5) and in terms of connectivity, the handset is capable of reaching speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps on 3G HSDPA.

Nokia's Windows 7-based Smartphone Codenamed Sea Ray

All those waiting eagerly for the announcement of Windows 7-based smartphones by Nokia have some good news. In what looks like a marketing strategy, Nokia revealed a prototype of their first Windows 7 phone codenamed Sea Ray.
CEO of Nokia, Mr Stephen Elop, displayed the phone in a secret event. In spite of his repeated attempts at controlling the dissemination of this news, somebody from the event captured the video and put it up on youtube. The crystal clear video quality has been the major cause of speculation in the online world where people are saying this is Nokia's very own marketing strategy.

The device looks very similar to the Meego-based Nokia N9 which Nokia unveiled recently. The Windows Phone 7 smartphone from Nokia shows the same "pillow" back design, and features Gorilla glass and a Carl Zeiss camera in the rear panel.

6 Registry Hacks to Make Your PC Faster

Tweak Your System Speed

The Windows Registry is a database that holds your operating system's configurations and settings. This includes everything from how long your mouse must hover over a taskbar icon before the preview pops up (in Windows Vista and Windows 7) to performance settings.

Windows 7 (and Vista) have more eye-candy features built into the operating system, but a number of Registry hacks and tweaks can speed up--or, at least, appear to speed up--the performance of your computer. Before we start mucking around with your PC's guts, however, we're going to make sure that you have a reliable backup of your Registry in case something goes sour.

Though editing the Windows Registry is not nearly as scary as it sounds, making an incorrect change can cripple your system. To ensure that this doesn't happen, it's important to take the precaution of backing up part, or all, of the Registry before you proceed.

Back Up the Entire Registry

To back up your Registry, you can use the free Registry-specific backup tool ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT). ERUNT is simple to use, more reliable than System Restore, and works with Windows XP, Vista, and 7 (even 64-bit versions). ERUNT also saves each restore point independently of the other points, unlike System Restore (in System Restore, all restore points are dependent on other points).

Back Up Part of the Registry

If you're changing just one part of the Windows Registry, and you know which part that is, you don't have to back up the entire Registry. Instead, you can back up the part you plan on changing using the Registry's export feature.

First, go to Start, Run, type regedit, and press Yes. This will open the Registry Editor.

Next, find the part of the Registry you're going to change. Right-click on the Registry key you plan on changing, and click "Export." The Registry Editor will prompt you to save a .reg file to your hard drive.

To undo Registry changes, just find your .reg file and double-click it. The .reg file will reset your Registry values to their existing values (but will not remove values that you've added).

Hack Your Registry

Now that you've backed up your Registry--perhaps more than once--it's time to start hacking away. To get to the Windows Registry, go to Start > Run (in Windows Vista/7 you will have to type run into the Start menu search bar and press Enter). Type regedit, click Yes, and the Registry Editor will open.

Hack 1: Speed Up Aero Peek

Windows 7's Aero Peek lets you see the desktop when you move your mouse cursor over to the "show desktop" button at the end of the taskbar. The standard delay time for the Aero Peek preview is 500 milliseconds, or half a second. Here's how to speed it up:

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.

2. Right-click on the right pane and click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new DWORD "DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime."

3. Double-click on DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime to open it. Under "Base," click Decimal and then enter the delay time (in milliseconds) in the "Value data" field. Click OK, and your Aero Peek time will be set. You can set the value to higher (a longer delay time) if you're activating it too often by accident, or to lower (a shorter delay time) if half a second is just too long.

4. Log off and log back on for the change to take effect.

Hack 2: Speed Up Taskbar Previews

When you roll over taskbar icons in Windows Vista and in Windows 7, little previews appear. The standard delay time for these previews is 400 milliseconds, or just under half a second. If this is too slow (or too fast) for you, you can adjust the delay time with an easy Registry hack.

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.

2. Right-click on the right pane and click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new DWORD "ExtendedUIHoverTime."

3. Double-click on ExtendedUIHoverTime to open it. Under "Base," click Decimal and then enter in the delay time (in milliseconds) in the "Value data" field. Click OK to set the time (default is 400 milliseconds).

4. Log off and then log back in for the change to take effect.

Hack 3: Speed Up Menus

If you'd like to speed up the menus in Windows Vista or Windows 7, try this easy Registry tweak:

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop.

2. Find MenuShowDelay and double-click to open. Adjust the value in milliseconds (the default is 400 milliseconds, or just under half a second).

3. Log off and then log back on for the change to take effect.

Hack 4: Prevent Reboots

If you have a habit of leaving your computer on all the time (as do I), you'll occasionally run into the problem of automatic system reboots. These usually happen after Windows downloads some sort of important update, and will usually be preceded by a notification (that gives you about 10 to 15 minutes warning, unless you click it away). If you're not around to see said notification, and you have a lot of windows or important documents open on your computer, these reboots can be a hassle.

So here's how to keep your computer from automatically rebooting with an easy Registry hack. This hack works for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows.

2. Right-click in the right pane and select New > Key. This will create a new folder. Name the new folder "WindowsUpdate."

3. Open WindowsUpdate and right-click in the right pane (there will be a value already in the pane called "Default"). Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name this DWORD "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers."

4. Open NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and change the Value data to 1. Do not change the Base button to "Decimal"; instead, keep it at "Hexadecimal." Click OK.

5. Exit the Registry Editor and log off and log back in for the settings to take effect. Your system will now never force a reboot without your explicit permission.

Hack 5: Disable Notification Balloons

If you hate pop-up notification balloons on your Windows Vista or Windows 7 taskbar, you can disable them using a simple Registry hack:

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.

2. Right-click on the right pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name your new DWORD "EnableBalloonTips."

3. Double-click on EnableBalloonTips and set the Value data to 0. It doesn't matter if you have Decimal or Hexadecimal clicked under "Base," because 0 is 0 in both decimal and hexadecimal.

4. Log off and log back on for the change to take effect. You'll no longer see any annoying notification balloons from the taskbar.

Hack 6: Boot XP Faster

Is Windows XP booting too slowly? Here's how to speed up your boot-time with a quick Registry tweak.

1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > ContentIndex.

2. In the right pane will be a value called "StartupDelay." Double-click on StartupDelay to open it. Change the "Base" from Hexadecimal to Decimal, and enter 40,000 (the default setting is 480,000).

3. Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer. Your computer should boot up considerably faster--while this worked for me on my Windows XP laptop, values lower than 40,000 didn't produce a noticeable difference.