infinate usb plug

[farlo]

simple, but awesome nonetheless

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/infinite-usb-plug-requires-just-one-port

[slaveofconvention]

The pedant in me would point out that you can only link up to 256 (I think) devices off of a single port which is a long way short of infinite.

The paranoid in me would worry about strain on the port once there were more than 2 or 3 plugs in use.

The pessimist in me is thinking "yup, now they have that idea patented, how much are they going to overcharge for them?".

The realist in me knows none of those things will occur to the average joe, and the combination of "cool" apple-esque colours and the apparent practicality of the device will probably make it fairly successful. The REAL realist in me also acknowledges that there's every chance we'll never see this again anywhere :p

Oh and the geek in me is wondering if it's purely a pass-thru device, in which case only one thing would actually work, or if there's a mini 2 port USB hub in each cable.

[Luke122]

As far as physical strain on the port, I wouldnt attach more than one of them directly, I'd use a pigtail connector first, then you can link them as long as needed. I could see this as a great solution if you have 5 devices, and 4 ports or something.. hehe.

USB hubs are good, but it's just one more device to carry around, amirite? ;)

[mDust]

A little too flamboyant for me, but it's an interesting idea. I also wouldn't be plugging more than a couple directly into a USB port. I'm just thinking of the increase in leverage as the chain gets longer...a slight bump on 6th plug and that port could be wrenched apart quite easily. Unless someone has gone nuts with the USB devices, nobody should really have to put more than 2-3 in a chain anyway.

[luciusad2004]

How many usb devices do you guys regularly plug in anyway and how many of you have trouble running out of ports. I could see MAYBE on a laptop... but is there any reason to need this for a desktop? How many modern desktops have less than four ports. Id say most decent machines have at least four rear ports and two front. At least.

I probably have eight to ten ports on my machine. I regularly use two, three if i plug in a flashdrive or my phone.

[slaveofconvention]

My main PC has 6 ports on the rear, 2 on the front, another on the front in a card reader, a 7 port hub on the desk, and a 8 port hub built into the power supply... even discounting the one port i "lose" to the desktop hub, I have 23 available USB ports on my pc :p

[Luke122]

I see this as a solution for netbooks and notebooks. :)

[mDust]

I see this as a solution for netbooks and notebooks. :)

Yeah, I think that's what they were intending this to remedy. My netbook only has 3...if I were transferring files from one external drive to another, that would be 2 in use, it also doesn't have a cd-rom, so an external drive would use the last one. What about a wireless mouse? Damn, something has to be unplugged! And my usb drink refrigerator is not running...I hate warm drinks! Whatever shall I do? First, I'd plug the netbook into the wall since all that junk is going create a drain vortex in the battery. Then check to make sure none of my friends saw me pull out those sissy, colored usb connectors, and then I'd plug a couple into each port...problem solved!

Although, this would never happen since my netbook does nothing outside of a web browser. I did overclock it to 1.74Ghz from 1.33 though! Everything must be overclocked.

[Oneslowz28]

Who makes them?