We’ve been promised an exciting future with gadgets perpetually powered by magical fuel cells, and a company called Lilliputian Systems is taking the first steps towards tomorrow with its fuel cell-based USB charger that will soon be available from Brookstone.
Art Lebedev’s studio is best known for its flashy glowing Optimus keyboards, but the firm dabbles in other clever designs too. Like merging a USB flash drive with a safety pin creating four gigs of storage you’re unlikely to lose.
If your system gets a malware infection, booting can be next to impossible — and even if you’ve followed all the best security precautions, sometimes hardware or software failures can render your system inaccessible. Make sure you’re prepared by setting up a recovery USB stick ahead of time.
Korg’s USB-friendly MicroKey keyboards are desired for their ability to quickly interface with MIDI software on Macs and PCs. But now they have a new trick: they can also link up with iPad apps, providing yet another way to harness the tablet’s power.
Like a high-tech version of Boo, this heartwarming little 8GB flash drive is an adorable miniature version of the real thing. Except that instead of taking the internet by storm, it’s content to just store your PowerPoint presentations.
Ah, passwords. Regardless of what system you use, they’re a pain in the arse to manage, remember or access. But maybe there’s a solution. What about making a USB dongle that enters and creates new passwords every time you plug it in?
It doesn’t do USB 3.0, but I can forgive Buffalo for overlooking that functionality since its new four-port hub doesn’t get all uptight when you try to insert a USB cable upside down. It happily goes both ways.