USB Hubs of All Shapes and Sizes

A USB hub is a repeater, or an octopus connection for the USB port.  As such, it’s a non-managing, no maintenance piece of equipment you plug in and forget.  Most cases, a USB hub is used because the user ran out of USB ports, although sometimes the USB hub is there as a repeater because the device’s USB cable cannot reach to the back of the computer.

One problem with the USB hub is that it is a shared resource.  Typically, if you want the digital video camera to perform better in downloading images from tape to the computer, via a USB, it has been suggested to unplug all the other USB devices.  The nature of the USB is like that.  There is only one bus and all the traffic go thought the same path.  Concurrency is not it’s strong suit.  (When downloading video from a mini-DV camera, it would be better to use a Firewire connection instead of the USB.)

With the drabness of its existence, it’s no wonder that all kinds of designs have come out for the USB hub.  There are the plain small 4-port hubs, and the mouse pads which double as hubs, or the USB mouse or keyboard which have an extra USB ports.  I remember the Mac OS 9 keyboard has two USB ports, one on each side of the keyboard.

There are a lot of whimsical designs coming out to liven the computer table.  There’s a rotary phone 4-port USB hub.  It looks like an old rotary phone, where you plug in the USB device to the number.  The numbers on the rotary dial are where the ports are located.

Another recent design which reached the market is the Magical Kid 4-port USB hub.  It’s like Fido Dido, with the ports on the pliable legs and arms.  This creature of whimsy looks like a nice addition to the desktop.

Another new model  is a magnetic 4-port USB hub.  It attaches itself to any metallic object.  This one needs some getting used to.  As the magnet might be a little too strong.  I’ve always thought that computer data stored in a medium is not something you want to get near a magnet.  Though I admit that since this product is now out in the market, you would expect that the manufacturers should have tested the product first.  I am still wary of the idea and I really think that if someone was crazy enough to sell this thing, the buyer would be a whole lot crazier to use it.