USB

As news of the iPhone 15 jams up the airwaves, you can also take a trip back to 1984, aesthetically speaking, with this retro desktop hub that channels the questionable beauty of the Macintosh 128K, but offers much more user-friendly modern appeal.

There are numerous devices available to connect a guitar to a computer or smartphone for recording in music production software, and many allow access to digital effects. The Jam X includes an analog compressor for built-in tone shaping.

Home or hybrid working has become the norm for many over the last few years, which inevitably involves video chatting with colleagues. Ahead of CES 2023, Lenovo has launched an all-in-one modular lamp to help fix some of the pain points.

Back in 2014, audio brand Røde released an all-in-one USB condenser microphone that's still a popular choice for podcasters and streaming content creators today. Now the company has announced an update with integrated preamp and onboard DSP.

USB devices are set to become much faster in the near future. The USB Promoter Group has now announced the USB4 Version 2.0 specification, which will double data transmission rates to a blistering 80 Gbps.

The coronavirus pandemic has seen many musicians heading online to perform. But latency issues can make rocking out with bandmates over an internet connection somewhat problematic. Sweden's Elk Audio is aiming to nip lag in the bud with Elk Live.

​Sony has wheeled out a versatile new USB hub geared toward working professionals with a need for speed. The MRW-S3 is packed with ports to support a variety of data transfer methods, but is spearheaded by what the company is calling the world’s fastest SD and Micro SD card readers.

​A new prototype USB stick called the SuperSpeedBlazer is claimed to turn a Mac in to a Windows 10 machine capable of running the latest games. The device is claimed to boot Windows in around 10 seconds.

​​A new charging cable might be able to withstand a few months of being bent into shape, but give it enough time and those wires will start to give way. The USB93 is a rather clever solution to this dilemma, using a rotating ball to avoid undue stress on the cable and keep things in working order. ​

​There's no denying that some synthesizers can be very pricey monsters, but there are quite a few that you can carry around in your pocket. Now the UK's WS Audio has developed a synth in a USB stick, which is claimed to be the world's smallest analog synthesizer.​

​They may be modeled on the human brain, but neural networks are better at sorting through huge amounts of data and identifying patterns. Now to make them more accessible to smaller developers, Intel has launched the Movidius Neural Compute Stick, packing deep learning into a USB thumb drive.

A few months after creating what was claimed to be the world's smallest MIDI synth, which was smaller than the capsule at the end of a 5-pin DIN cable, a self-confessed MIDI lover and prolific electronics tinkerer has managed to cram a tone generator into the black plastic inside the USB plug.