Speaking of objets d'art, here's a product that actually fits the bill. LaCie's new Huby is a very cool looking USB and FireWire combo hub that is sure to be a conversation piece and its flexible "branches" also might help solve some desktop cable management issues - or at the very least, distract you from the mess.
The Huby was designed exclusively for LaCie by Ora-Ïto. It's decked out in a glossy white polycarb finish and features 4 USB 2.0 ports, 2 FireWire 400 ports, a USB fan and a USB light. Both USB and FireWire extension cables are also thrown in, for good measure. You can pre-order one now for $79 USD but there's no obvious guarantee it'll ship before Christmas, although LaCie does claim that it will be widely available later this month.
What's your take - Hot or not? Personally, I'm a sucker for this sort of thing. As long as it's not crap (like LaCie's portable Porsche drives, which I've found to be very poorly made, no matter how sleek and stylish the enclosure may be), I'll be buying a few.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-01-2006 @ 8:16AM
Martin said...
It won't look so cool with a half-dozen peripherals hanging off it.
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12-01-2006 @ 8:31AM
Zeke Zander said...
Hook up your devices or, you know, hurl it at your enemies! cover it in axle grease and you've got yourself a sticky bomb
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12-01-2006 @ 8:35AM
Spiky-haired Demon said...
Totally hot... Although I'm not sure how well the fan and light will work once the hub is rolled down to accommodate said half-dozen principals. Still, anytime a company puts some actual thought into their design process it's usually a good thing. That's part of the reason we love Macs right?
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12-01-2006 @ 9:35AM
Tom Poston said...
I do wish it had (at least) one FireWire 800 attachment - even if I got a Huby I'd still have the extra cable running directly to the external high-speed drive. Other than that it looks awesome...
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12-01-2006 @ 9:39AM
Teejay said...
Ah yes, the portable Porsche drives. I bought a 80GB via mail order and was shocked at the poor quality of the enclosure, the hole for the led on the front panel could only have been made by a myopic with a rusty nail and the edges of the case were sharp enough to peel fruit with. But its worked fine and silently as a back up for 12 months, and I've now bought a 250GB version which is also silent but has a really poor dc connector. They sure look nice, they do the job, just don't handle them.
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12-01-2006 @ 11:21AM
Eric said...
I could be wrong, but doesn't the plug to the left and a bit down from the fan look like FW800? And it has a little gray thing on it, which none of the other connectors do.
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12-01-2006 @ 11:29AM
Sherman Homan said...
Can I attach the fan to my beanie? Tres chic.
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12-01-2006 @ 12:09PM
Thayne Miller said...
that small connector looks like a mini-usb or unpowered fw400. It's definitely not a fw800. The design is certainly interesting, but I'm a little skeptical that it won't look very cluttered with everything attached. I can also imagine the fan running and chopping into the neighboring cables. I guess I don't really see the point to this product? if you want to get rid of the clutter, why not use the cable yo-yo or something similar that HIDES the cables instead of shows them off?
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12-01-2006 @ 1:16PM
Wheels said...
To me the hub looks like an overgrown version of one of those squeeze bulbs you use to suck snot out of babys' noses or irrigate your ears with. But yeah, it looks like it might keep your cables untangled.
As for the Porsche drives, I must come to their defense....sort of. I agree with Teejay: the power supply connector is inexcusably poor, and the case looks and feels as if it was made in my middle school's metal shop. But, I gotta tell ya, handsome is as handsome does. The 80gig I have just works. I bought an EZquest drive, that looks like it could withstand a nuclear blast, after the Lacie, but it's worthless because I can't keep a power supply fan in it.
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12-01-2006 @ 1:25PM
Donald Burr said...
Heh, looks like PowerSquid's cousin.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/77e6/
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12-01-2006 @ 2:02PM
NorCalExplorer said...
I think it is ugly. What do suppose to do with the fan. If it got that hot around my computer I would have a whole lot bigger fan to cool things down with. The price is a bit much also since I got a 7 usb hub for far less. I do like the flexable cable connections though, but with all of them hooked up it would look like a vase with a bunch of wilted flowers in it. Oh well if your into something artsie then it might be worth the price.
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12-01-2006 @ 2:26PM
Dmitry said...
I honestly think that, while attractive, it's highly impractical. Unless it's very heavy, it for one seems like it will roll off the table due the weight of the connected cables. And besides, it doesn't seem like it will look as cool with some cables actually plugged in.
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12-01-2006 @ 5:05PM
mrkwst said...
My comment is the same as Tom's: why no Firewire 800 connects? All my Firewire peripherals are 800. Too bad. So sad.
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12-02-2006 @ 1:05AM
Mike Anderson said...
This is really cool. The flexible connectors will make life much easier on my crammed desk. Plus, when I put it next to my PowerSquid, it will look like the Octopus tank at SeaWorld. I can hardly wait to get this one!
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12-02-2006 @ 3:34AM
Justin said...
HOT HOT HOT!!!
I so want one.
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12-02-2006 @ 1:18PM
Kevin Kershaw said...
Looks decent on its own but there's an obvious reason they don't show it when everything's plugged in. it would look absolutely awful. Rather than distract from the mess, I think it would just be a complicated tangle of wires and a cumbersome ball that you have trouble keeping still etc...
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