You may have seen the term Steampunk before, you may even have seen this USB Steampunk drive before - it’s a fantasy like design based off steam power for this USB gadget.  Enjoy the detailed pictures then brush up on Steampunk history at the footer:

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Get your funk on with this USB plasma tube from Brando.  Using the latest plasma technology this little rod turns into a glow fest upon USB power up.  It pulsates and jams with the beat of the music to create a psychedelic like atmosphere.  The USB plasma tube is also a good tool for testing your rhythm, something us tone-deaf folks would have a hard time with.

You can chose a USB plasma tube with either blue, green or red light and just $15 each you might as well get all three.  At just 56 x 78 x 214 mm you’ll need all three too.

USB plasma tube product page.

Joe from USB Geek sent me an email about his new USB washing machine alarm clock, I thought we hit the mother-load.  We didn’t.  But lets stop and think for a minute, could we - one day -  have a USB washing machine?  It’s possible if the USB 3.0 spec really boosts the power over the bus to 12v.  Until then, the USB washing machine can only be an alarm clock.

The USB washing machine plays four crappy alarm clock sounds along with an hourly chime and LED signal.  Perfect for late night slumber.

In case you have a military friend you can set the hours for 12 or 24 and power the gadget via USB or two double A batteries.

At just $20 you can please any gadget lover who’s a germaphobic and likes to sleep in.

Visit the USBGeek web page and get a sample of the alarm clock sounds.  Music to the ears [not].

USB washing machine alarm clock product page.

Gadget4All generally has some useful USB gear they sell, but today in my inbox was a USB flower fan that was nothing short of gadget crap. Sorry guys.

Powered by USB or AAA batteries you can clutter up your office space with a pink or green USB flower fan. Granted it’s only $12 to buy, but sometimes it’s just more fun taking random items from around your space and creating something yourself…example: this USB fan.

BUT, if you are looking for a colorful and playful looking fan to prop up on your PC for the kids during the hot summer months, than please reconsider the USB flower fan. Or if you’ve got a lady friend who’s totally into Disney trinkets and anything gay and colorful like that.

USB flower fan product page from Gadget4all. Good luck on this one guys!

Accordian USB drive, are you kidding me?  This is nothing more than silicone wrapped around a USB adapter port.  Sure you could slap some marketing gargon on there, like accordion USB drive, but we’ll all see past it.

None the less, I didn’t think of it so kudos to Jacek Ryn for such an idea.  You can see his little gadget trap at Poland’s Fine Arts in Gdansk.

The concept is fairly simple and straight forward.  Put a USB port and memory device into an accordion shaped silicone casing and call it something new.

Sorry, but this stuff kills me.Source:  Core77.

The typical UFD sticking out of your laptop is probably nothing more than fancy shaped plastic, or possibly wood or even gold ($6,000). Today we look at the softer, fuzzier side of UFDs. Paul from Technabob uncovered these fuzzy little USB critters, created by a design artist Nifer Fahrion.

Nifer Fahrion has two version of her fuzzy USBs. The one above is called Maggie the Maggot and the one below is named Gizzy the Data Worm. I’d opt for Gizzy if I had to choose.

Honestly, I think these fuzzy guys are an example of what some kids could do on a rain day to kill some time. Grab some material, glue and let the imagination run wild. I’m tempted to try this myself and turn it into a USB tutorial, but I don’t think anyone would care or try.

SO, with that being said - if I’m off base and you digg this kinda stuff, hop on over to Technabob’s post or Nifer’s site and get ready to drop your $66 on a 4GB original.

Source: Technabob.

As an after-thought, if you are looking for another home-project, how about turning a Pez dispensor into something interesting.

MSN has this exclusive i-Buddy design for their instant message customers.  The idea is providing a visual message when a new instant message arrives.  Akihabara reports the i-Buddy will perform various motions when an new instant message arrives which corresponds to the emotion of the sender.  Not sure how that works, but…

The i-Buddy connects via USB port and cable and stands about 3″ tall.  I’m not clear about the details, but it seems you must be apart of the i-Buddy community to use the i-Buddy USB figure.  All features provided by the i-Buddy Community are free of charge, exclusively to those  members. i-Buddy customers can login to express themselves through the innovative functions designed it.

Don’t get too excited for this IM buddy, as Japan will be the first to try it, before the i-Buddy community rolls out to other countries.

All major browsers are supported by i-Buddy.com, including Microsoft Internet Explorer 6/7, Mozilla Firefox 2, Safari 3 and Opera 9. However, to ensure maximum compatibility, we recommend users to use either Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+ or Mozilla Firefox 2.0+. Flash player is required to browse certain parts of i-Buddy.com

Source:  Akihabara News.