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That nifty little Targus AH63US 4 port hub I mentioned in my previous post isn’t as nifty as I thought: it had flaky behavior for a few hours than promptly died.

Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, items are sometimes DOA, it happens. I’ve had a few things over the years that were DOA, and the manufacturer promptly replaced the item….. however Targus expects me to pay for the shipping to send it back to the factory. Need I remind you, this is still in warranty (as it is less than a week old), and they sold the item (through Newegg) in the first place.

Here is the email from Targus about my query on having my warranty honored, which by the way, it took them almost a week to answer. The last paragraph is the most damning…

Dear Patrick,

I apologize for the delay in servicing your request and greatly appreciate your patience with this matter.

I have created a Return Authorization for you. Your tracking number is (edited out)

Please include a copy of this e-mail with your return. Note, if the email is not included, it will delay processing of your replacement.

Name: (edited out)
Company: (edited out)
Street Address: (edited out)
Suite or Apartment Number: (edited out)
City, State, Zip: (edited out)

Phone: (edited out)

If you wish to change anything in the information above, you can update your profile through the “My Stuff” tab on our support page. You can also check the status of your questions or update them there. ((edited out internal URL)).

Please include a copy of this e-mail with your return. Note, if the email is not included, it will delay processing of your replacement.

You are responsible to ship your product to us. As per the Targus replacement procedure, you would have to ship the defective product back to our warehouse with a copy of this email. After receiving the defective product back at our warehouse, the warranty process can take up to 10 business days. Since Targus cannot be held liable for lost or misdirected mail we strongly suggest that you use a trackable method, like UPS. If you are unable to print this email, please include the Reference number on a piece of paper with your name and shipping information.

Warehouse please warranty: ACH63 Super Mini USB 2.0 4-Port Hub (1)
Date of Purchase: 12/11/2007
Place of Purchase: Newegg

Needless to say, I am contacting Newegg over this situation because they need to advise customers of future Targus product sales that the company will not honor the warranty in any useful manner.

Update: Newegg replaced the hub, and the new one works fine. I refuse to recommend Targus products due to their bad customer service, however.

New HD: Well, I finally got around to replacing the hard drive the Powerbook came with… what once was a 60GB Hitachi is now a 120GB Samsung Spinpoint M. Samsung Spinpoints are the quietest, lowest power using, and coolest drives on the market in the 2.5″ market, and they perform similarly to other drives of the same class.

Enclosure: My old drive is now in an Icydock MB663UB 2.5″ enclosure, and through Newegg right now its $8.99 total until December 31st. The enclosure is basically a box of high grade aluminum, with no wiggle room inside (touches drive on all four sides), and is only a tiny bit longer than the drive itself. Although it has a built in 2 inch USB cable, it also comes with a two-headed several foot cable for non-mobile applications (or for drives that won’t spinup in under 500mA). Its the best HD enclosure I’ve ever owned, in my opinion.

Memory: I’ve upgraded the Powerbook’s memory from 1GB to 2GB, and I have to say, Leopard runs a lot smoother… not that it is noticeably slower than Tiger, but its like a new machine with more memory. Between the new HD and the more memory, booting takes about half the time (not that I often do that, sleep is damned useful). 2GB is the maximum on these Powerbooks, otherwise I would have gone for more.

VNC: Leopard 10.5.1 has “fixed” the VNC bug to an extent… connecting with x2vnc no longer makes AppleVNCServer crash, but it just makes it chew all available CPU time and barely work. This does not happen using an normal VNC user (less than 10% CPU time on average), but I expect x2vnc is doing something weird that it should be.

Smallest USB hub: Powerbooks only have 2 USB ports, and I have at least three devices I want to plug into it… so I bought a hub just for the Powerbook: a hub that happens to be smaller than 2 by 2 by 0.5 inches, Targus ACH63US Super Mini Hub. I mean, this thing is damned tiny… its so small, that you could throw it into your spaghetti nest behind your computer and not even know you have a hub. It may be a tad expensive, but I didn’t want yet another box hiding on my desk somewhere… instead, I have it tucked behind my printer (which already has too much stuff behind it). The hub also comes with a two headed cable like the Icydock did, but the heads are far enough apart that they can reach both USB plugs on my Powerbook (one is on one side, one is on the other, instead of both being on the same side… Powerbooks don’t have rear ports).

Oh ho ho! The hub arrived half dead (which soon became totally dead), and Targus is giving me shit over having the hub replaced under warranty.

I originally planned the Powered USB article as two parts, one explaining why USB took off, and another explaining why USB isn’t the best solution because it can’t power large devices plus why Powered USB isn’t the greatest solution either because it isn’t in consumer electronics yet and has the different plugs for different voltages issue as well.

What I didn’t plan on was all the Firewire fans popping up and saying I was wrong for pushing a Powered USB/USB 3 combo. For the record, I’m also a Firewire fan but haven’t gone to the fanatical levels some people have. Part 3 is for you guys.

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The Universal Serial Bus, or USB, is right now the most common serial peripheral bus in existence. Allowing all the most common devices to connect to your computer, to each other, through hubs, and now even wireless USB has become the dominant method of low bandwidth communications between devices and their peripherals.

However, USB is not without flaws, in fact, it has tons of issues that other less accepted standards have already solved, and USB has either not solved them or solved them only recently. One of those problems is that, although USB does provide electrical power to peripherals, it is rarely enough to run devices that suck juice like no tomorrow. Powered USB exists to solve this problem.

I will tell you why Powered USB will never be widely accepted, and also why we need it. However, to do so, this article is split into two three parts: the first part discusses the history of USB and previous peripheral ports, and why it it became widely accepted, the second part contains the meat of my argument on why Powered USB is both needed, yet failing to be accepted, and the third part describes a possible future USB 3 specification in detail.

This is part 2. Part 1 is available here, and part 3 is available here.

(more…)

The Universal Serial Bus, or USB, is right now the most common serial peripheral bus in existence. Allowing all the most common devices to connect to your computer, to each other, through hubs, and now even wireless USB has become the dominant method of low bandwidth communications between devices and their peripherals.

However, USB is not without flaws, in fact, it has tons of issues that other less accepted standards have already solved, and USB has either not solved them or solved them only recently. One of those problems is that, although USB does provide electrical power to peripherals, it is rarely enough to run devices that suck juice like no tomorrow. Powered USB exists to solve this problem.

I will tell you why Powered USB will never be widely accepted, and also why we need it. However, to do so, this article is split into two three parts: the first part discusses the history of USB and previous peripheral ports, and why it it became widely accepted, the second part contains the meat of my argument on why Powered USB is both needed, yet failing to be accepted, and the third part describes a possible future USB 3 specification in detail.

This is part 1. Part 2 is available here, and part 3 is available here.

(more…)