Saitek Mini UFO Hub
© 2007 Saitek Industries, Ltd.
In an effort to add some zip to putty-gray office cubicles, the engineers at Saitek (www.saitekusa.com) have been combining brightly colored LEDs with every day peripherals. Case in point, last month's Mini UFO Hub, a round four port USB 2.0 expander just bigger in diameter than a silver dollar. For digital frosting the translucent device contains a single LED that subtly pulses through the color spectrum. The small size and snap-in port holder make it good for traveling, and the LED has absolutely no function, other than to cause onlookers to take a second look. This isn't the first example of digital bling from Saitek. Last year's $20 Notebook Optical Mouse was also laced with LEDs, giving the 800 dpi USB an outer space look. The smaller size and quiet glow of these peripherals will show up any darkened lecture hall or coffee shop, where it might be fun to attract a little attention.
$20, Windows, Mac OSX
Teaches: a computer peripheral