nerd!

I would not think you would run into a big deal with bandwidth but the power situation is another matter.

I’ve had tons of trouble with cheap USB hubs, one even blew a mainboard on me a couple of years ago.  This thing sits and just works, no random disconnects or flaky behavior.

I’m generally not using more than one, maybe two devices at once, and in fact most of the time I’m just charging something from the ports.  I plug one each of micro USB, mini USB, normal USB, and just leave them hang off the front of the desk, plugging in whatever I’m working with right then, be it an ebook reader or a logic analyzer.  The rest of the ports host keyboard, scanner, sansa , webcam and a few others.

I know I’m a weird security nut, but that just seems too trusting.

“Output: 5 V / 4 A”

And my stupid machine only has two usable USB ports, so a hub is vital.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRWpuJRrTn4#t=1916s

On further reflection, though, this sort of device would be a godsend to all five bands in the States that copy mp3 files onto USB flash drives and then leave them all over town for people to discover.

I’ve dealt with Manhattan products before…
I don’t even know how they can say Up to 500 mA power, all ports and then only have a 20W input.

Honestly I’d rather seen the power supply placed inside with a standard PC power cord going to it.  Same size cable I suppose, but then I don’t have to worry about misplacing another power brick.

Input:
1 – keyboard (wireless)
2 – mouse (wireless)*
3 – keyboard (wired, for laptop or when wireless batteries die)*
4 – mouse (wired, for laptop or when wireless batteries die)
5 – webcam*
6 – scanner

Output:
7 – headphones (wireless)*
8 – printer

Drive repair equipment:
9 – Serial adapter: 3.5V
10 – Serial adapter: 5.0V
11 – External hard drive caddy (2.5″ PATA)
12 – External hard drive caddy (3.5″ PATA)
13 – External hard drive caddy (SATA)

Etc
14 – UPS*
15 – Modem
16 – 3G dongle
16-17 – Light
18-X – Chargers for phone, etc (varying numbers).
X-Y – Thumbdrives (varying numbers).
Y-Z – External drives (varying numbers).
Z-? – Other stuff I’m doubtless forgetting.

Here’s the thing, though. My case has six ports. My laptop has four. So almost all of these are unplugged at any one time, and any time I need another device, I need to do the silly “plug it in backwards, turn the plug round, try again, realise I got it right the first time” dance that USB damns us to. I gave up on USB hubs years ago because I got sick of the strange blindness that hub manufacturers seemed to have, that dictated they only made four-port ones. What use is just three extra ports to me? Sure I could get *many* hubs, but each one means an extra wall-wart to power the thing (self-powered hubs were crap).

It’s really nice to see someone making a hub that actually deserves the name “HUB”, rather than a mere “splitter”.

http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/legs_everywhere_rejoice_as_dog_humps_usb_port_silly/