WASD Keyboards uses Cherry MX mechanical switches, so after creating your design you’ll choose the color and type of switch you want. You can also order a dampener if you don’t want the trademark clicking sound that mechanical keyboards make. You can also choose the font of the text on each key and whether the text will be engraved or lasered in. If you really want to get creative you can upload your own design or even send custom art for each of the keys.

Above is my design for a Technabob-themed keyboard; you can see more at WASD Keyboard’s website or have a look at the gallery below for more user-created designs.

Head to WASD Keyboards to design and order your own V1 Custom Mechanical Keyboard. Prices start at $140 (USD). The company also sells a Semi-Custom version of the keyboard, which is still brimming with tweakable specs.

[via Gamerfront via The Red Ferret Journal]

The CampStove features a thermoelectric system that will transform part of the heat of the fire into electrical energy by moving the internal fan. There are no batteries or other fuels required. You can charge any USB device, from smartphones to LED lights. The overall device is quite small and packs away easily since it’s about the size of a Nalgene bottle.

It sells for $129(USD) and will be released in the spring of this year, right about when you’ll need something like this when you go out camping.

[via NOTCOT]

Aside from looking neat, the lights also serve another purpose. As you’ll see in the video below, the blinking animation gets slower as the battery of the device being charged nears its capacity, finally fading out when charging is complete.

The Dexim Visible USB cables are available on Amazon, but for some reason the USB-to-micro-USB models are being sold for $60 (USD) – way more expensive than the iOS-compatible variants, which are priced at $15-$20. So if you have an Android phone or any other device that has a micro-USB charging port, you should consider importing one from Sanwa Direct(JP) instead.

[via Digital Trends]

Designed by Benjamin Redford and the OllyFactory (get it?). Olly and Molly are USB-connected, Arduino-powered gadgets which notify you when you have a new message by letting you follow your nose or taste buds. Olly is the smelly one of the pair – and can be filled with a scented oil of your choice – and then emit an aroma as a notification. You can even stack up multiple Ollies so you can have different digital events trigger different smells.

Molly isn’t stinky at all. This little bot holds onto some little candies, and drops one into its little bin whenever your tweets gets retweeted a pre-set number of times. Though it doesn’t look like it can hold too many candies – which is good if you get a lot of retweets. You wouldn’t want to start gaining weight from Twitter now? That’s all we need now.

Both Olly and Molly are raising funds now over on Kickstarter – and they still have a ways to go if you’d like one. The fundraising ends on Feb. 10, and still needs to raise another $27,000 of its $35,000 goal. A pledge of $50 or more gets you an Olly, and $55 or more gets you a Molly. Higher pledges will result in various combos of Ollies and Mollies, as well as the ability to customize the look of yours.

These coffee cup memory card readers from Green House(JP) definitely stand out from the crowd, and will look great sitting on your desktop alongside your real coffee mug. Though at just about 2.3″ in diameter, it’s more like an espresso cup than the big coffee mugs I’m used to drinking from.

They plug straight into your USB port, and can read a whopping 47 different media card formats (many of which are only slight variants and capacities of the same standard). For starters, it supports Compact Flash I/II, SD, SDHC, SDXC, mini SD, micro SDHC, Micro SDHC UHS-I, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo, and Double Tall Half-Caf Cappucino. Just wanted to make sure you were still paying attention there. Clearly, you wouldn’t want to accidentally pour your morning cuppa joe into this thing unless you want to fry both it and your computer.

They’re available from GeekStuff4U for about $43 (USD), and come in the brown, green, violet or white colors shown above.

I usually relieve myself from the stress by going for a massage after work. But why not get a massage while you’re at work? I don’t mean calling your masseuse and booking one of the conference rooms for your break. Why do that when you can just have the uPixie give you one?

This is OSIM’s latest gadget in its product line that includes advanced massage chairs. Now they’re moving into the field of portable massagers with uPixie, which makes use of EMS (Electronic Muscle Stimulation.)

The cool thing about the uPixie is that you can sync the massage up with your computer’s music player, so it delivers a mix of taps, squeezes, and kneads that’s in tune and just right. It’s even compatible with both Windows and Mac systems.

The uPixie retails for $165 (USD), but is current on sale for just $99 at Osim’s site.

[via Gizmag]

Designed by Damian Evans, Lexon’s MINITOTEM is a minimalistic tower-shaped solution to declutter your office. It combines essential office accessories, all neatly stacked up in one place. Inside the MINITOTEM, you’ll get a tape dispenser, containers for pens and paperclips, USB hub, and a clock. In addition to the green, black and red designs shown here, it’s also available in white.

There’s no pricing listed on the website at this point, but it’s probably not that expensive and it definitely looks like an interesting addition to any cluttered workspace. Keep an eye out on the LEXON design store if you’re interested.

[via NOTCOT]

This isn’t the first Transformers flash drive we have seen, back in 2009, an official flash drive rocking Transformers’ looks surfaced, and then there were some cartoony Mimobot drives too. This new flash drive comes with either the familiar Autobot and Decipticon face logos on it, along with a “TF3″ logo that lights up when accessing data.

The face logos are made of die-cast metal, though the rest of the drive appears to be plastic. The USB connector retracts so there is no need for a cap, making for one less thing to lose. You can even flip the metal face up to find another Transformers logo underneath.

The Transformers drives are available on Amazon in 4GB and 8GB capacities starting at $33 (USD).

[via EverythingUSB]

That’s right, with ceramic mighty Aphrodite USB hub on your desktop, your most intimate desires will be fulfilled. Or at least the intimate desires of any gadgets and flash drives you plug into her bust. Boy, that didn’t sound right at all. Or maybe that’s appropriate in this context. Whatever the case, all I can think of now is that SNL technology hump sketch:

Those gadgets must have been connected to the Aphrodite USB hub before they started to get it on. Assuming, that is, that they could have been charged by a bus-powered USB hub like this one.

If you’re ready to make your technology hump, head on over to Fred Flare and grab the Aphrodite USB hub for $46 (USD). Your gadgets will thank you for it.

These drives have a 4GB capacity for anger/data and the USB drive itself is hidden inside the body of the bird or pig that you choose. If you love flinging birds at pigs with a slingshot, then you will probably love these drives.

You can score one for €19.99 (~$26 USD) from EMTEC. That’s not a bad price for a bird or pig USB drive. I think that yellow guy looks like Bert from Sesame Street, but more pissed off, which I didn’t think was possible.

[via Journaldugeek]

The Hub will fit cords up to 3mm (about 0.12″) thick and 3.77ft. long such as USB cables while the Mini Hub is made for cords up to 2mm (about 0.08″) thick and 4.9ft long, like headphones. I’ll wait here while you go measure your cords and make those numbers mean something. No? Not going to measure? Okay then, let’s just watch this video:

If you want to see the awesome push-button action again, I suggest you watch this video instead. It’s just the demo minus the talking part. Both containers are made of aluminum, but the inventors – Chadwick Parker and Joe Huang – have yet to decide whether they’ll be shiny or anodized.

Head to Kickstarter and pledge at least $30 (USD) so you can be the first to own a Hub and Mini Hub. As of this writing the concept still hasn’t reached its target funds, but with almost two months to go and with such a sound idea, I’m willing to bet my life savings (i.e. nothing) that the Hub and the Mini Hub will see the light of day. And if the actual products end up being shiny then they’ll reflect the light of day to your eyes, promptly blinding you, rendering your touch-operated devices moot. At least your cords will be organized.

[via designboom]

The advantage is that the charger actually looks pretty good and can handle your tablet, laptop, and smartphone at the same time without missing a beat. It delivers 2.1A of juice to each of its four USB ports, so even the power-hungry iPad can be charged without a problem. It ships with three short USB to 30-pin cables – though it would be nice if they included four. Guess they’re assuming at least one of your gadgets isn’t an iOS device.

The Kanex Sydnee charging station will be available in two colors, onyx and snow, when it arrives at the end of Q1 this year for $149(USD).

[via Ubergizmo]

Since most USB designs are pretty boring, I’d like to see this idea expanded on. Say, one large spaceship with some smaller ones in the docking ports maybe. I’m sure it will become a reality one day.

[via Likecool]

Aside from the slots for SNES and Genesis games, the Retrode 2 also has four controller ports, a pair each for both consoles. The device doesn’t need any driver so it should work with any operating system. However, like its predecessor the Retrode 2 will only let you access the data inside the cartridges; you’re going to need an SNES or Sega Genesis emulator before you can actually play your games. Although you can easily find free emulators online, the Retrode 2 would be a lot more useful if it already had emulators built-in, so so it could just be plug-and-play.

The Retrode 2 also has controller ports for SNES and Genesis controllers, which you can then map to play with your emulators. on your PC or Mac.

Press start on your browser and pre-order the Retrode 2 from Stone Age Gamer for $85 (USD). That seems like quite a lot to pay, when you can buy the Hyperkin RetroN 3, which is a complete emulator for SNES, NES and Genesis cartridges for just $70.

[via Engadget]

It’s supposed to increase the bass capability of your MacBook significantly, picking up just the low-end, and still leaving mid-range and high frequencies to the MacBook’s internal speakers. A single USB cable delivers both power and sound, which cuts down on wires and clutter. The Bassjump 2 comes with software to customize the sound, including volume and crossover frequency – between 100Hz and 300Hz.

If you tend to use your MacBook Pro or Air as a way to share music with your friends, then this is definitely a good option to check out. The Bassjump 2 costs $69.99(USD) over at Twelve South.

This promotional flash drive comes filled with a tiny bit of beer, complete with foamy head. For the low, low price, of $14 to $17 each, you can order up a batch of at least 25 of these lowly 4GB flash drives filled with this foamy yellow substance that I’m not even sure is really beer. Either way, it’s a crappy low capacity flash drive, filled with some yellow fluid you’d never want to drink or accidentally have spill into your computer. Sounds just like the kind of thing I’d never buy.

[via Fancy]

The flashlight’s internal battery can be fully charged in 1.5 to 2 hours, enough for its white LED to shine for more than 2 hours. Now that’s math we can all get behind.

Follow the light to ThinkGeek and order your own USB chargeable mini-flashlight for $7 (USD). Then make a hand-cranked USB charger so you’re always prepared. Then add a phone-line powered flashlight to your arsenal and go stitch yourself a merit badge. You’ve earned it.

[via The Green Head]

I like to think about this retro-style mouse as the Volvo of mice. Sturdy, utilitarian. Not necessarily sporty or comfortable. At least they updated this model by giving it a USB connection instead of ADB or PS/2, an optical sensor instead of one of those balls that you constantly had to clean to get the cat hair out of your mouse. They’ve also given this retro mouse Three Buttons and a Scroll Wheel, which I believe was a 1980s movie with Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and that guy from Police Academy, and directed by Spock. (Seriously, I’m not making that part up.)

If you’re just desperate to relive the early days of mousing, then head on over to ThinkGeek, where you can get the Retro USB mouse for $19.99(USD).

The LockDown has a touchscreen keypad and LCD screen to facilitate password entry. It uses AES 256-bit hardware encryption, and you can use it with any OS or USB-based device. Here’s Satechi’s setup video for the LockDown:

Turn on private browsing and head to Satechi’s website to order the LockDown. It sells for $99 (USD), which isn’t too bad considering it comes with a USB 3.0 cable, USB-to-DC cable and screwdriver for assembly. Note that the encryption will still protect the hard drive even if you take it out of LockDown, so you can make and swap out multiple encrypted hard drives. Just make sure you don’t lose the enclosure, or you’ll never access your data again.

CloudFTP is a USB adapter that has two functions: it allows you to wirelessly access data from a USB storage device, and it can also back up the data from a USB storage device to a cloud service. CloudFTP is very portable – it’s about as big as a deck of cards, weighs only 3.8oz, and has an internal battery that can power external hard drives for up to 5 hours.

It goes without saying that the CloudFTP needs access to a wireless network so it can back up your data, but you don’t need an Internet connection to use it to stream media or use it as an FTP server. Here’s Chin with more on the device:

Ride a Kintoun Cloud to Kickstarter and pay $69 (USD) to be one of the first to get a CloudFTP device; Chin says it will retail for $100, so that’s a considerable amount of savings right there. My only complaint, if I could even call it that, is that Chin – who already owns a successful tech company – is likely not as fiscally challenged as many of the other people who use Kickstarter to raise funds. Then again, it’s not like he’s forcing people to pledge for his device.

[via GadgetReview]