The thin-and-light notebook market is booming, sure, but designing a laptop that fits into, say, a 2kg form-factor requires that certain luxuries be foregone.
Taking my personal Dell XPS M1330 as an example, it ships with just two USB2.0 ports, which is fine for everyday use but can become restrictive at shows such as CES, where a number of USB-powered devices need to be connected concurrently.
The easy answer is to invest in a small USB hub, thereby extending the number of ports - via optional daisy-chaining - to the number you'd like.
A far more elegant and simple solution would be to incorporate a USB hub within the ubiquitous USB dongle, and that's exactly what RIDATA has done.
The Y-shaped Yego serves as a traditional USB stick with capacities up to 8GB. Further, the stick adds in security options via a password-driven menu, much like most other manufacturers.
The kicker here is that, as you can clearly see, the Yego carries another 2 ports and an integrated hub, doubling what's already present whilst still providing USB-based storage.
You can, of course, keep daisy-chaining Yegos for increased storage and connectivity. Right now, an 8GB Yego costs around $99, making it around double the price of the cheapest currently available.
Still, it's innovative if nothing else.
All HEXUS CES 2008 content
