My iMac's most profound deficiency is the lack of USB ports: there are only three powered USB ports on the thing, which surely means that there are unused USB headers stashed away inside the otherwise mighty beast. And given that my cult membership would be revoked were I to plop down some ugly Belkin and its accompanying nest of wires, I'm at a loss. Perhaps I should just say "Screw it!" and grab Century's 16-port monster hub, a brick-sized chunk of overkill. Hey, it comes in pearly white!
Something like this or this will have to do, and in a perfect world, Apple would make a USB hub in the same form factor as the original iPod Shuffle. Even then, however, it's unpowered, meaning another unwanted cable dangling from the otherwise pure form of my 24" box of delight. Macally is almost there, but it's only USB 1.1 and doesn't have the Shuffle-like "hard" male connector. Laptop hubs are even better, but carry the same limitation.
Century's CHMP-16 16-port hub also includes a switch, to allow it to be used by two computers (not simultanously). The source mentions nothing of price; such a thing shouldn't be more than $40 or so.
Who Wants It? [Akihabara News via Gizmodo ]
