By Ian Chiu

When it comes to gaming mice, or even mice in general, not much has really changed in the past couple years. Sure the number of buttons, number of programmable settings and DPI sensitivity may have increased, but when it came to the ergonomics of it, there wasn’t much you could do to change it if a given mouse didn’t fit your hand. Sure some mice allow you to swap out one sized “skin” or covering for another, but even this has always been a very clunky way of doing things and you could just as easily end up with a mouse which was too big instead of too small… or vice versa.

Mad Catz plans to change all that with their Cyborg R.A.T. 7 gaming mouse as this bad boy has more customizable features crammed into it then any mouse ever before! Don’t like where the palm swell is? Change it out for a different one or move it forwards or backwards until is does feel comfortable! Don’t like the pinkie grip? Swap it out for one of the two others which come included! Don’t like where the thumb buttons are? Move the whole freaking area until it IS comfortable. This is what the R.A.T. 7 gaming mouse is all about; or at least that is the THEORY behind it. Is the theory the same as the reality? Everything USB has the full review.

[Everything USB - Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Gaming Mouse Review]

By Chris Scott Barr

I love how people go so far out of their way to fix a problem that barely exists. Take for instance the Flipper USB. It’s a new male USB connector that can be plugged in upside down. This means that instead of having a 50/50 chance of getting it right the first time, you’ll always insert your USB device correctly. This could potentially save you a whole second, perhaps even two!

Alright, perhaps I’m being a bit cynical this morning. I’m pretty lazy myself, and if I weren’t the kind of geek that memorizes the direction that all of his USB devices should be plugged in, I’d probably like this sort of thing. The real question is whether or not this design will ever actually get picked up by manufacturers.

[ FlipperUSB ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Batteries. Let’s face it, you probably can’t live your daily live without relying on them. They’re in your car, your laptop, and even the remote to your TV. It’s likely that the most common ones that you actually have to change are of the AA and AAA variety. These tend to power smaller devices like keyboards, mice, game controllers and the like. They also tend to run out of juice when you need them the most.

If you rely on AA and AAA batteries for a lot of your gadgets, then you’ve no doubt invested in a few sets of rechargeables. This is a great economic way to make sure that you always have a fresh set around (without having to keep buying new ones all the time). Now if you’re on the road a lot with these battery-loving gadgets, you don’t want to clutter up your luggage with another charger, do you? Of course not. Instead, what you need are batteries that can be recharged without a special adapter. These USBCell batteries seem like just the thing.

At first glance, these seem like the perfect solution for the road warrior. They are a set of AA batteries, which have built-in USB adapters. You simply insert each into a free USB port on your computer, and they will start charging up. The question is whether or not they’re actually worth buying.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

At first glance this small, 10-inch LED lamp appears to be yet another crappy USB gadget designed more for novelty purposes than anything else. But it hides a secret that actually makes this lamp a somewhat useful multi-tasker. The shade pivots to reveal a fan that’s hidden beneath its flowery design, so not not only will the lamp provide a bit of extra light for those late-night WOW sessions, but it will also keep you cool in the heat of battle. Not surprisingly it’s available from Gadget4all.com for just $16, which is probably $15 more than it cost to make.

[ USB LED Desk Lamp + Fan ] VIA [ GadgetReview ]

By Chris Scott Barr

If you have a phone with an unlimited data plan, it can be frustrating when the carrier won’t allow you to use your phone as a modem. After all, if you’re paying for unlimited data, why shouldn’t you be able to use it as you please? One company has designed a very special USB cable that claims to let you do just that.

Pretec’s new H220 Intellicable cable has a built-in flash drive, which contains a special suite of software. This allows your computer to trick the phone into thinking it’s a USB modem. Thus, free internet for your laptop. The software takes care of all the necessary communication handshakes in roughly 10 seconds, with nothing actually being installed on your computer. It’s supposed to work with most phones that use either mini-USB or micro-USB. We’re not sure when this will be available, or for how much, but it sounds like it would be worth looking into.

[ Pretec ] VIA [ EverythingUSB ]

By Ian Chiu

Even though USB 3.0 is starting to appear on high end PCs and notebooks, the rest of us are still stuck with slow and old USB 2.0. There’s no point in investing in something that you couldn’t even take advantage of for now. This is especially the case with USB 3.0 flash drives which get a massive boost in performance, but they come at a jaw-dropping price premium. So, there’s still a market for USB 2.0 flash drives even if the room improvement is small.

Corsair’s latest Flash Voyager GTR flash drive – backed by a generous ten-year warranty – comes in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. What makes them special isn’t the sequential read or write speed (which is already bottlenecked by USB 2.0), but the small file write. This is noteworthy since transfer rate tends to drop as file sizes get smaller. The Flash Voyager GTR is able to maintain a respectable 21MB/s during 2MB write test, twice the speed of other drives. The large file tests are equally impressive. All in all, it makes sense to check out write performance as most companies primarily focus on read.

[ Everything USB - Corsair Flash Voyager GTR Flash Drive Review ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I still think the SoundRacer is the coolest replacement for your car’s cigarette lighter, but if you’d rather swap in something more practical, you can’t go wrong with this Micro USB Charger. It basically gives you a USB port that can be used to charge cellphones or MP3 players, and with a design that sits flush enough to look like it blends into your car’s interior, a glowing blue ‘X’ so it can easily be located in the dark and a price tag of just $24, I’m hard pressed to find any reason why a non-smoker wouldn’t immediately want one for their own vehicle.

[ Micro USB Car Charger ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Back at CES we showed you an awesome little keychain that doubles as an iPod connector. We weren’t exactly sure on a street price or date, but now we are. The flipSYNC comes in two flavors, one that caters to the iPhone/iPod user, and the other features Mini and MicroUSB connectors.

Both of these models are now available for $20. They’re the same size as your average key fob for your car, so it’ll fit nicely on your keychain. If you’re someone that is always in need of a charging cable, then it’ll definitely be worth it.

[ Scosche ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I try to see the good in most products, but I’m really having a hard time figuring out why anybody would buy this collection of miniature light up signs that each plug into a USB port. The signs include warnings or phrases like On Air, Fasten Your Seat Belt, SOS and an assortment of others that feature a combination of Japanese and English words, or just strictly Japanese. Besides wasting a USB port, which is still a precious commodity on most computers these days, the signs will also serve to drain your battery. And while you might think you’re impressing the people around you with one of these plugged in, no one outside a three foot radius will be able to read what they say. Available sometime in May from Play-Asia for a yet to be disclosed price.

[ Light Up USB Warning Labels ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]