Be Connected - Electronics

To be honest, this stuff isn’t cheap, yet not ridiculously expensive. But if you have the dosh (cash), the following recommendations are truly the best USB gadgets that money can buy today.

1) The Largest Flash Drive Ever
If you absolutely must have the largest flash drive and have $400 to spare, the Corsair Flash Voyager GT is for you. With 128GB capacity and close to 30MB read/write transfer rate, the shock-proof and splash-proof thumbdrive housed in Corsair’s signature rubber coating colored red and black is as fast as it is rugged. Last but not least it comes with the ten years of warranty that people come to expect at this price.

2) 8-channel Audio Gaming Headset
Gaming headsets are great only if they are comfortable, comes with positional audio boom stick that actually works, and plays nice with AAA title games. Razar Megalodon can easily meet these requirements if you don’t mind the price tag, at $150 MSRP. Its circumaural pads covered in breathable fabric and the overall lightweight design helps to alleviate pressure exerted on a gamer’s ears and neck. As a self-contained 8-channel USB audio, all the positional audio is handled through the headset’s firmware, and the benefits are twofold: no CPU hog and driver-free installation. Expensive as it maybe, the Megalodon is by far the best USB gaming headset.

3) Fireproof External Drive
Your external hard drives may come equipped with state of the art hardware encryption and even an extremely durable chassis, but nothing can safeguard your data against fire and water. Here’s where the ioSafe Solo USB External Hard Drive comes in handy. The 15 lb. (!) external USB storage can survive 30 minutes of flame and up to 3 days of immersion in water without skipping a byte. ioSafe didn’t go into details of the physical protection measures, but at $330 for the 1TB (the drive is integrated into the unit), we bet the rich paranoids you know might be interested in this ultimate backup system.

4) A Mind Blowing Keyboard
Pro-gamers and WoW fans are all aware of the importance of a good keyboard. It’s been several years since the first gamer keyboard debuted, and now Logitech has apparently made the best one (yet). The Logitech G19 is totally out of this world with a color GamePanel LCD, 20 G-keys, multi-color LED backlighting and support for six simultaneous keystrokes. The LCD itself is designed to serve up bit-sized chunks of info like game scores, but different applets have surfaced to support YouTube, RSS reader, media players and CPU/memory monitor. The G19 is definitely worth dropping two Benjamins.

5) Rock Solid TV Tuner for Mac
Getting jitter-clear digital HDTV on your Mac requires a tuner with top notch hardware quality. The El Gato EyeTV Hybrid is a USB TV dongle that delivers rock solid stability and user-friendly EPG / PVR software bundle. Combined with fast channel switching, ability to lock onto low-signal ATSC stations and tight integration with iTunes, the EyeTV is a sound investment for mouse potatoes with a loose budget.

Guest Blogger: Ian Chiu (Everything USB)