GoKawiil
Tech News
Older iPods can double as external storage once a hidden 'Disk Use' option is switched on via Finder on a Mac or through iTunes or the Apple Devices app on Windows. After enabling it, the iPod shows up like any USB drive, letting users drag files onto it, though those files remain invisible on the iPod's own interface and share space with its music and system data.
A tech how-to explains that plugging an external USB drive into a router's USB port and enabling file sharing in the router settings can turn that drive into a makeshift Network Attached Storage (NAS) device accessible to every device on the home network. The guide notes this approach lets users share photos, documents, movies and other files locally without needing a computer to stay powered on, unlike some streaming setups such as Sonos' current folder-sharing method.
Google offers ChromeOS Flex, a free operating system that can replace Windows on older machines meeting modest specs: an Intel or AMD CPU, 4GB RAM and 16GB storage, though chips from 2012 or earlier aren't supported. Installation involves using Chrome's Chromebook Recovery Utility to create bootable media on an 8GB-plus USB drive, then booting the target PC into its boot menu to install or trial the OS.
Japanese researcher @dydt_Nao successfully demonstrated a dinner-plate-sized USB flash drive built from magnetic core memory, transferring both a text file and a small monochrome bitmap image between two PCs. The device, which uses a Raspberry Pi Pico as its controller, stores only 128 bytes of data and displays activity through a 32x32 LED array that lights up as each magnetic core is accessed. The creator plans to showcase the device at Maker Faire Tokyo 2026 in early September.