USB

For anyone who has ever needed to give presentations on the go, playing audio from your built-in computer speakers can sometimes be a problem. Battery-powered portable speakers that plug into your audio jack are one possible solution. But I'm inclined to favor this new adjustable speaker from Sanwa, which draws all its power from your computer's USB port. Read More

The popularity of karaoke on home gaming consoles might have been a godsend to those frequenting bars and clubs, but the flipside is that the tone deaf are now free to belt out numbers of questionable taste and with even more questionable talent at all hours of the day or night. If there’s a shared wall between you and such noise-polluting offenders you might want to consider gifting them this USB microphone that provides a veritable cone-of-silence around it. Read More

For anyone who has ever lamented those clunky USB hubs, there might be a far more elegant solution around the corner. Thanks to clever design student Jiang Gonglue, we might not be too far off from seeing something like this 'Infinite USB' connector, which allows an unlimited number of devices to plug into one USB port. Read More

The ever popular partnership of a sunny day mixed with one’s favorite tunes takes on a new meaning with Japanese company Landport’s Solar Sound speakers. Charging up via embedded solar panels the uniquely shaped portable units offer up to eight hours play from a single charge as well as optional USB connectivity for those cloudy days. Read More

USB sticks are great for file sharing, apart from a couple of drawbacks. Sometimes you want to share only some content of the drive, or the drive just isn’t big enough to hold all the information you want to share. The Infinitec Infinite USB Memory (IUM) drive provides you with a way to share absolutely all, or just selected content, wirelessly to any device with a USB port. You can even use it to stream movies from your laptop to your TV. And while it is being marketed as the world's first infinite memory USB memory drive, the device doesn't actually store information, it's really a wireless network device with similar "infinite memory" functions to the Eye-fi Pro X2 we featured earlier this year. Read More

Everyone knows there’s a lot of pornographic material on the Internet. It’s easy to find if you’re looking for it but sometimes it’s just as easy when you’re not looking for it. The use of tricky or confusing URLs and other misleading descriptions can mean opening or downloading inappropriate images accidentally. And in some cases unsuspecting users may be unaware that this material exists on their computers. Paraben’s Porn Detection Stick (PDS) is a USB stick loaded with software designed to find and remove illicit images from your PC to protect your family, business or organization. Read More

The trickle down effect has hit Western Digital’s 2.5-inch Passport external drives in the form of an e-paper display. Customizable always-on e-label smart displays were already available in some of Western Digital’s 3.5-inch external drives, such as the My Book Studio, and have now appeared on the company’s new My Passport Studio portable drive that also features a sleek brushed aluminum appearance and FireWire 800 to complement the standard USB 2.0 interface. Read More

The Lap Chill Mat from laptop accessory manufacturer Targus not only places an angled comfort barrier between you and your laptop but will also help cool your poor overworked portable computer. Its wedge shape allows for air intake through the sides rather than underneath and its decent size sees it comfortably handle anything from diminutive netbooks to 17 inch gaming monsters. Read More

Laptops might have gotten smaller and more powerful but, aside from the weight reduction, they haven’t really improved in terms of comfort while they're actually being used in one's lap. Devices like Logitech’s Comfort Lapdesk address this problem by providing a padded barrier separating a user’s legs from the often hot underside of the laptop. Now, Logitech’s new Speaker Lapdesk N700 has taken the basic Comfort Lapdesk, added a fan to keep your laptop running cool and integrated some high quality speakers to give your laptop some audio oomph. Read More