hub

A few years ago, I bought a fancy home phone so I could set it to forward calls to my cell. Not long after, I found a better and cheaper solution by ditching the landline completely.

I am not alone. According to Nielsen, 17 percent of U.S. households--some 20 million homes--are without a wired telephone, instead relying solely on mobile phones.

This brings up a question of what we should do with that fancy home phone. I do miss the comfort of using the big handset rather than fumbling on the tiny, onscreen keyboard of my iPhone.

Xtreme Technology … Read more

Today in New York, my driver was not happy. He is a New York Giants fan. The new NFL season begins tomorrow, with the Giants hosting the Washington Redskins. Despite being on the waiting list for season tickets since 1984, Tony has given up hope of ever buying a ticket.

"The Giants are moving to a new stadium in 2010," he told me, only one eye on the Lincoln Tunnel crawl. "And they're charging people $20,000 for the privilege of buying season tickets at the new stadium."

The $20,000, Tony explained, doesn't … Read more

Part community and mostly file sharing, DC++ occupies an unusual niche in the P2P game. Unlike torrents, which are direct peer connections, or centralized networks like LimeWire, DC++ manages connections to hubs. Most hubs are built around an interest, such as science fiction or movies. From there, you can chat and share files with other peers who are connected to the same hub.

However, many hubs place restrictions on connections to ensure that users are devoting their attention to the hub. The number of hubs you can connect to depends on how many Upload share slots you give, and you … Read more

Non-Star Wars enthusiasts may find these items utterly tacky on their desktops, but the official R2D2 and Darth Vader USB hubs were designed for hardcore fans who are in a galaxy of their own, far far away. In addition to the four USB ports, the R2 hub turns its head, lights up, and whistles the signature sounds associated with the droid. The Vader model features its own sound effects and glowing red eyes.

Unfortunately, the USB hubs appear to be located in a particular region of the universe called Japan, at least for now. Though we're sure that with … Read more

It seems like yesterday, but it was a year ago that we were in the throes of Transformers mania. For months its merchandizing machine was flooding the market with everything from earphones to shoes trying to capitalize on the blockbuster movie. We thought they'd exhausted all the possibilities, but apparently one was left out near the end of the geek food chain: a USB hub.

It's not as bad as it sounds. Though hardly the most sophisticated gadget, the "All Spark" cube bears a design and significance that true bot-fans are sure to appreciate, as Everything … Read more

If there's something that even arch-rival Giants and Dodgers fans can agree on, it's that there are zillions of USB hubs on the desktop market. But what about for the car? For 12 bucks, Gadget4all is selling a four-port charger that can plug directly into the cigarette lighter socket for all your in-car gadget needs. Because you never know when you might need a snack or a megadose of aromatherapy to prevent a case of road rage.

Being a native of the wasteland that is Southern California, fellow Craver Erica Ogg will take any opportunity to take a cheap shot at a San Francisco sports franchise. We won't lower ourselves to that kind of sniping (other than to say the Dodgers suck) in offering this alternative to the product she used as an excuse to sully the name of Barry Bonds.

Like its "asterisk" counterpart, Brando's "Star Hub II" is designed to avoid the dreaded Port Blocking Syndrome by contorting into different positions and angles as needed. It also doesn't … Read more

I know what I'm getting Major League Baseball's all-time leading home run hitter for his birthday this year.

A big, fat asterisk.

I know, I know. I'm the most generous Dodgers' fan ever, right? Besides being eminently appropriate, and just plain awesome-looking, this asterisk is actually useful. Especially if Barry has, say, a MacBook Air.

This asterisk is a four-port USB hub created by industrial designer Joel Escalona. It's also bright red, and very sleek.

(Note: depending on where your sports loyalties lie, this gift can also work for Roger Clemens, Bill Belichick, or any member of the New England Patriots.) … Read more

If you're an apartment dweller in Manhattan or San Francisco, you might as well skip this item because it'll probably seem utterly useless. But if you're in any other part of the country--with an abode that's more than a closet-sized studio--this device might actually come in handy.

The "Xlink Cellular Gateway" is a networking hub that lets you take your land-line calls on your mobile phone and vice-versa. That means if you leave your Vertu "Signature Cobra" in your library while retiring to the billiards parlor, you won't miss any important … Read more