News flash: Some USB phone gizmos are useful

Brando's Ultra-Smart Cable

(Credit: Brando)

Believe it or not, instead of hanging that Hello Kitty charm on your mobile phone, you could actually put something useful there. That point was made with the Triforce stylus featured earlier this week, and now there's another one--the USB Smart Cable.

It may not have as much personality as the mouthless cat, but this lanyard from USB Geek can charge a mobile phone using its USB connector so you won't have to worry about running out of juice as long as there's a free port nearby. It also has a microSD slot that works as a card reader too.

Brando's Ultra-Smart Cable (pictured above) does it one better (hence the "ultra" prefix) by providing the ability to sync data. It costs more, though neither is going to break the bank at $14 for the Ultra-Smart Cable and $9 for the USB Smart Cable. But if the soft economy has left you feeling particularly frugal, you can always wait for Dealextreme to carry something similar.

(Source: Crave Asia)