It is said that no matter your age or sex, there is one commonality among all humans – the fascination in all things robotic. From olden days of yore, songs have been written about robots, our mechanical selves have been invented to help us go through life easier and not to mention the popularity of movies like The Terminator and I, Robot. All these things make the Mr Roboto USB Hub extremely marketable. This is the USB gadget of the future and of course it helps greatly that it is extremely adorable.

Colour wise, I love the baby blue that mine came in. Still, you can opt for other far out colours including neon pink, green and yellow. The sky is the limit where Mr Roboto is concerned and you should certainly take advantage of this! Mr Roboto’s chest and back portion opens up to reveal USB ports which you can then use to connect your device.

One main attraction of this USB Hub is that it multi functions as a windup toy as well. Simply wind him up and watch him walk away. Be cautioned though – this is extremely addictive and probably not a good idea to do in the office else you might end up with a mini Mr Roboto race with your colleagues. It would be fun for you but not so for your watching boss!

The best part of the deal is that Mr Roboto can be yours for only $14. Now, who said that you can’t get functional things at good bargains?

[Source: Fred Flare]

We have a lot of devices that connect via the USB cable and most of the time, our computers just don’t have enough USB ports to insert them in. We are often faced with this problem and it’s just so troublesome to switch between various USB ports when you don’t have enough for each and every one of the devices in the first place.

The Contort USB Hub is not like any other ordinary USB hub. Many of the USB hubs have less than four ports but this one, it has four! With this, more USB devices can be plugged to your computer at the same time! It has no solid cable lining so you won’t have to worry about the USB hub cable breaking since the neck has 360 degrees mobility and is able to rotate freely.

The rubber neck is flexible and has a TPE material that protects your devices from being harmed or any unwanted damages that may accidentally occur. The Contort USB hub has a built in cord management with four anchors to coral your cables. One thing that is unique about this USB hub is that it can be extended to accommodate more cables. It is compatible with many types of USB cables such as the iPod Dock connector cable, mini USB and Micro USB and you can use all three at once if you also want to charge an mp3 player or your iPhone.

The Contort USB hub is small, compact and handy USB Gadget. It can be easily carried around and will also fit in your bag perfectly as it does not take up a lot of space. The USB hub is about 35 mm long and can be extended up to 36 mm.

Available: Thinkgeek

Price: $24.99

Is your office too cold in the winter or even a bit chilly in the summer due to air conditioning? If so you may find this office gadget quite handy, it is called the USB Heated Shawl & Lap Blanket. The USB Heated Shawl & Lap Blanket is a perfect solution for those who are always complaining their office is cold. To warm the blanket up, simply plug it into your USB port to your desktop PC, Mac or laptop and it will help to keep you warm for whole day in your cold office.

The USB Heated Shawl & Lap Blanket is placed around your shoulders and also has a button to hold it in place around the shoulder when you are working on your laptop or desktop in the office hours. The device can also be used to drape over your lap to keep your legs warm. It can also be used as a heated blanket for your back, just fold the blanket up and place it at the back or on the back of the chair.

The USB Heated Shawl & Lap Blanket is made from the soft velour electric heating pad. The size of the blanket is small thus it can be stored just in your desk drawer very easily. It gives a nice warm feel and makes them long boring days in the office a little more comfortable. The dimension of the blanket is around 31 L x 17 W inches and the cord is 4 L. Temperature of gadget is 100 F – 113 F. It has two levels of heat where you can use 1 USB plug for low and 2 USB plugs for high.

The USB Heated Shawl & Lap Blanket is available to purchase at a price of $28.95. From today you can  be warm in the office whilst still feeling geeky with the USB Heated Shawl & Lap Blanket.

[Source: Cgets]

The mouse has proven itself to be one of the most useful devices for navigation on computer screens and it has since evolved from cables to wireless. However, even the wireless mouse has its limitations as it does not work on every surface. All you mouse enthusiasts can take heart at the introduction of a new type of mouse which might just be able to work on any type of surface; the Genius BlueEye-tracking wireless mouse.

This nifty little device is designed to work ergonomically and has an extremely responsive 1200 dpi optical engine. As its name suggests, it utilizes the BlueEye tracking technology which enables it to function on all types of surface. This includes marble and glass, of which preceding wireless mice have failed.

The Genius BlueEye-tracking wireless mouse can be connected to your personal computer or notebook via a wireless and anti-interference 2.4 GHz RF frequency which is made possible by a Pico USB receiver. This tiny receiver can be left inside the USB port of your notebook so that it will not be damaged when you carry your notebook around.

The BlueEye-tracking wireless mouse is compatible with the Windows 7, Vista and XP and Mac OS X 10.4+ operating systems and comes with a Stick-N-Go mount for you to stick the mouse to your notebook for convenience of mobility. It only requires a single AAA alkaline battery, which comes with every purchase, to work and has a power switch to help conserve battery power when not in use. If you are particular about its look, fret not as the BlueEye-tracking Wireless Mouse is available in black, blue, yellow, ruby and the limited edition snow beige colors.

Available: TigerDirect

Price: $34.99

Scanners are important gadgets regardless of what our occupation might be. At some point in our working lives there is an occasion where important documents need to be scanned, and preserved in our memory card for future reference and information.

So, we’d like to introduce you to the Portable Handheld Scanner. This handheld scanner is jet black, slim, sleek and portable. For the regular user, a portable handheld scanner is indeed valuable and efficient. With one swipe of the gadget you can store documents, photos and letters as a digital content in the memory card which can be retrieved when needed. Scanning your passport for example, will take around 5 – 10 seconds. It is efficient and time saving for the user.

The advantages for this portable handheld scanner include light weight, small in size and also its portability. It is definitely useful for any individual who does a lot of travelling in their occupation. This gadget is also very beneficial for college students when there are important assignments and exam papers to be scanned.

The platform for this scanner is both MAC and PC. The scanner is compatible with the following operating systems, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista Apple MacOS X 10.4 and Microsoft Windows 7. For its portability, the power source of handheld scanners are AA batteries which are easy enough to find.

A potential disadvantage of the portable handheld scanner is scanning a good image may take some practice and  patience. Initially the scanned images may be blurred, but the quality of the images scanned will get sharper as the user learns how to properly hover the gadget over the document.

Available: Hammacher

Price: $99.95

I’m pretty sure that many of us have accidentally misplaced or lost a USB flash drive before and some may even contain documents contain sensitive material. Confidential documents such as reports, designs, and login details can all be compromised due to a lost USB flash drive. Well, now with the Aleratec ProtaStor Secure USB Flash Drive, even if you lose valuable information that is private and confidential, you won’t have to worry about it being viewed by some stranger because the Aleratec ProtaStor secures all the files in the USB flash drive and no one can gain access to them.

The ProtaStor is a new model from the Aleratec 256-bit AES encrypted USB flash drive. The ProtaStor Secure model of USB flash drive comes with a folder meant for confidential files, and any file that goes into that secured folder will be encrypted with a time proven, always on hardware encryption that is commonly known as the 256-bit AES which has been approved by the National Institute of Standard and Technology. So basically, all the data that are placed in the encrypted folder is practically useless for anyone else who doesn’t have the authority to access it. The folder will automatically reformat itself after 6 login attempts. Now that’s high security protection!

The ProtaStor has a quartet of capacity to choose from. The price range for capacities available is 2GB for $40.99, 4GB for $42.99, 8GB for $58.99 and 16GB for $75.99. Each flash drive can be installed without the need for any additional software whatsoever.

[Source: Aleratec]

Check out these awesome USB sites

• USB Wikipedia - Universal Serial Bus Information.
• HowStuffWorks – Introduction to how USB works.
• ThinkGeek - USB devices

I remember at school thoroughly enjoying looking at bacteria and small objects under a microscope. Since those days the technology has improved considerably and now more powerful microscopes are available for lower prices.  Today’s USB gadget is called the Zoomy Handheld Digital Microscope by Learning Resources and is available at Amazon.

With a magnifying capability of 35-53x, images can be displayed on your computer screen via USB as you move the microscope over an item being closely looked at. This process beats my memories of staring down an old fashioned microscope trying not to poke myself in the eye with the viewing lens.

The Zoomy Handheld Digital Microscope is easy enough even for a 3 year old to use. This gadget will help make science fun and interesting for kids and students of all ages. Videos and images can also be recorded on the computer by pressing the button positioned on the Zoomy digital microscope.

Zoomy Handheld Digital Microscope Specifications

• Easy enough for children aged 4 and above
• Handheld digital microscope
• Displays digital images on your computer screen, captures photos and even records video
• Download images and videos directly to your computer
• No batteries required
• Provides clear and sharp images via high-quality resolution
• Features 640 x 480 pixels (interpolation up to 1200 x 1600 pixels)
• Illuminates dark segments on objects
• Ergonomically designed for perfect fit in children or adult hands
• Compatible with computer featuring USB ports, i.e. Mac or PC

Available: Amazon

Price: $59.99

Today’s USB gadget, called the USB Porn Detection Stick is a very useful gadget. If you are a parent, an employer, a school or anything where you want to prevent access to pornographic material on a computer then this gadget will be ideal for you. It is made by Paraben and is a thumb drive which searches though images on a computer scanning for pornographic material.  Once detected a report is produced with details of the suspect files. If the user has tried to hide their activity, for example deleting history and recycle bin there is no need to worry, the Porn Detection USB Stick will still scan them. There is no need to worry about the suspect finding out about your anti-porn searching procedures as no software is needed, simply plug the USB drive in and away you scan.

One of the features that makes the Porn Detection USB Stick so useful is that it is fast, capable of searching a 500 GB hard drive in less than 1.5 hours (up to 70,000 hours). On top of this fast searching, it is highly accurate using its advance image analysing algorithm to detect facial features, flesh tone colors, and body parts with less than 1% false positive results.

Available: Paraben

Price: $99

In winter and cold weather you always prefer to stay warm whole the day. One most common way for warming is to drink hot tea, coffee and your favorite soup. So the USB Heated Mug is one gadget that can fulfill your need in cold weather. The USB Heated Mug keeps tea, cocoa coffee and soups delicious and hot, when you are sitting at your desk or doing some urgent or important work.

The USB Heated Mug is not only useful in the home but also when you are travelling in the car. Most of people uses a flask for their hot drink when they go somewhere through their vehicles but after a short time period you have to spit out because you find it is cold. The mug comes with two adapters which help to keep it heated up even you are driving your car. The mug can be plugged into USB port of your computer or can be connected to your 12-volt power socket of your car to warm the drink. The 12-volt travel mug instantly starts to heat up for maintaining the desired temperature.

The USB Heated Mug is specially designed for travelers who are on the move for a long distance with kids and its use makes thier journey easy and hot. The mug is double insulated for added preservation of heat when not plugged in. This useful gadget is made up of stainless steel and also has a spill proof lid with the feature of an Open/Close thumb slide. The volume of the mug is 16-ounce and it comes in two colors Red and Blue.

This USB gadget can be purchased at the price of just $19.95. With the use of this standard travel mug, you can able to enjoy hot drinks in your office as well as in your car.