USB Fever is thinking outside the box on this one.  Going away from standard box USB hubs, this hub is all cable.  To continue along the lines of abstract thinking USB Fever includes a separate power cable to extract juice from the system bus solely for the purpose of powering up those peripherals.

So we are looking at one upstream USB connection, a 4 port USB hub held together by cables along with a dedicated power line (red cap) for those thirsty gadgets.

You should note, one of the four USB ports is a mini USB connection.  All this for just $14 + $3 shipping.

USB Cable Hub product page

FilterMyRSS is another website I run. This website is an RSS Filter utility to help people manage the amount of information flowing through their reader. Today I’ve added a new feature: exclusion via keyword.

This new feature allows you to filter out articles based off keywords. A simple example would be filtering out content with profanity.

The RSS exclusion function is very easy to use. Simply place a negative sign in front of the keyword for exclusion. Example: Lets say you are sick-and-tired of hearing about the iPhone. You could filter out articles based on that keyword by typing “-iphone” into the filter field.

Check it out: www.filtermyrss.com

So who cares about RSS filters anyway? Well, just about anyone who reads their information via a RSS feed reader.

Lets say you are Paul from Technabob who wants to only post articles about “gadgets” Using FilterMyRSS he can subscribe to 100s of RSS feeds, from a variety of genres, and only read information related to “gadgets.”

Or maybe Max from SiteHoppin loves to read up on blogging and social networking, but can’t stand to hear another word about “Stumbleupon.” Using FilterMyRSS, Max can subscribe to any feed he wants and filter OUT anything related to “Stumbleupon.”

If you haven’t started using RSS readers to get your daily dose of information, you should start. It’s a lot easier than visiting dozens of sites each day. It’s a lot easier than managing your email inbox too. Spice things up with a RSS filter and get EXACTLY what you want.

Don’t know how to get a RSS link? It’s easy, look on any homepage for the RSS logo (or text) and click the link. When the new webpage is displayed copy the link and paste into FilterMyRSS, enter some keywords and begin getting your filtered RSS feed.

It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s fun…and best of all, it’s free!

Still confused - check out my explanation of RSS feeds and how you can use them.

Happy Earth Day.  Over the years, GetUSB has reported on a number of green friendly products.  Today we’ll take a quick look at what some of those are.

For example, how would you like to listen to music with a hand crank MP3 player while making your way through a jungle?  Not adventurous - well you can still do your part with the Go Green USB Earth Drive.  But even that might be a little extreme for you.  We do have a selection of wood flash drives which might not be the best “go green” decision, but it would cut down on plastic.

Probably one of the most useful things we could collectively do is stream line production and consumption and go with one standard for power connections.  This would reduce the number of useless cables and connectors made for all different types of electronics and we could just settle for one cable which does it all.

As a closing note, we could monitor our electricity consumption a little better with a USB temperature and humidity logger.  After all, keeping a closer eye on how often that air condition goes on would not only help the environment, but reduce your electric bill.

To read up on Earth Day please visit the official website for more details on how to clean up our mess.

GetUSB.info has been translating our posts into Spanish for quite some time now.  Our Spanish site isn’t an automated translation engine either - it’s the real deal.  Carlos is my Editor in Chief for GetUSB.info Espanol and is relentless in his punctual translations.  Located in Panama, Carlos not only does the edits for spanish.getusb.info but also runs Panama Live, an online travel and tourism magazine for Panama, and Adarte Studio, an online community for designers, webmasters and SEO professionals.

Carlos just reported some interesting statistics about his visitor base and I wanted to take some time to A) say “thanks” to Carlos for being a great editor and B) share the visitor statistics.  So here we are:

Our next step is changing over the old GetUSB design to the new, fresh look of the English site.  We feel the English version is easier to read, quick to navigate and less intrusive advertising.

So, if you like what you see at GetUSB but would rather read it in Spanish hop over to spanish.getusb.info.  You can also grab our Spanish RSS feed here.  (Need an RSS Filter for those keywords?)

Once again, Thanks Carlos for a wonderful job!

Greg
GetUSB.info Editor in Chief

A Japanese company called Solid Alliance is selling an Apple iPod cover that’s designed to look like RAW MEAT. It comes in a cellophane-and-Styrofoam package just like meat does. We’ve reviewed plenty of iPod/iPhone cases before, but this one gets bonus points for originality. I wonder what my dog will think.

iPod… It’s what’s for dinner?

More info at rakuten.co.jp and therawfeed.com

methodshop

Getting odd results off your Wi-Fi network?  Maybe getting no results at all?  The boss is pissed, co-workers can’t work, what do you do?
Get the Wi-Spy spectrum analyzer, that’s what you do.  The Wi-Spy is the world’s smallest 2.4GHz spectrum analyzer and is specifically designed for troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks.  The Wi-Spy records data traces over the wireless network and also plays them back for analysis.

This isn’t the first version of the Wi-Spy, BUT the hardware has been redesigned to increase the frequency and amplitude resolution with an added reverse-polarity SMA adapter. Wi-Spy 2.4x is packaged with a powerful little antenna, so it’s good from the start but it’s also (more…)

Power plug that charges USB style - I thought of this idea probably two years ago, no joke, but forgot about it just as quickly.  Well, yesterday I saw Technabob do a post about this exact concept - the power plug which charges via USB [from Eneplug].

As you may [or may not] know, USB will become the standard for cell phone charging.  I foresee USB branching out into other electronic gadgets as the main connectivity for juicing up.  So, this obviously means the power plug which charges via USB will only become more popular.

I think it’s a great idea, because as time progresses we can all use only  a single power cord to charge any device.  [For now, lets forget about the fact manufacturers need to jump on board with my line of thought].

In addition, I would think any serious traveler would jump at a device like this.  Look at how small it is.  This is all you’d need to charge your cell phone, iPod, PDA and even your laptop.

Eneplug is the company which makes this device and it’s currently available in Japan, but I see it coming over to the states in no time.  Shoot me an email if you see anything here - or I’ll update this when I find a US source.

Speaking of Source:  Technabob.