There Are Some Crazy Novelty USB Accessories Out There!

Flash drives. LED lights. Mini-fans. The USB lamp. With every passing month, the variety of novelty USB accessories increases. If you’re not paying attention, an entire USB fad can explode into existence, flicker wildly for a few weeks, and vanish without a trace. But some unusual ideas have made their way mainstream for anyone to acquire and adore.

The USB Air Purifier — just like your normal air purifier, only smaller, significantly cuter, and powered by your computer. The USB air purifier is no Ionic Breeze™, but it’s a noticeable improvement over stale office air – even if it’s a home office. By combining both ionic and ozone oriented purification, you can get a sphere of breathable goodness out of a surprisingly small package.

The USB 2-Fan Laptop Cooling Station — for laptops that overheat, this useful little device clicks onto the bottom of a laptop and provides it with a pair of fans to suck the heat away. Powered by the laptop itself, they can drain the battery if it’s not plugged in, but they’re perfect for taking the term “laptop” literally.

The USB Illuminating Webcam — Ever tried to use a webcam in the dark? If you’re trying to hide the fact that your room is messy from your Skyping grandmother or you’re just trying to put on a spooky show, the USB Illuminating Webcam is your answer. Four bright LEDs shine out from around the lens of the camera, brightly illuminating the subject while leaving the background to the imagination.

The USB Silicon Keyboard — For those people who are prone to slipping on last Monday’s pizza box as they carry their 3-liter bottle of Root Beer and this Monday’s pizza box over to the computer for a few hours of Elements: The Game. You can type, play, and generally be around your computer no matter how sticky your hands or spilly your glass, because when you’re done, you can dip your computer into the kitchen sink and wash it clean.

There are plenty of USB fads that have come and gone, but some things – even in the world of zany USB accessories – have proven to stand the test of time.

4 Clever Uses for a USB Fan

A USB fan is a special mini-fan that hooks to, and gets its power from, the USB port of your computer. Like any fan, it moves air, but unlike any fan, it needs no electrical outlet, takes up very little desk space, and it’s available to be used any time your computer is on. The downside is that your computer must have a working USB port, and the fan pulls just enough power that it won’t work on a hub that has a few other high-drain USB items plugged into it. For most of us, though, it works just fine.

The aesthetic of a USB fan is widely variable; there are classic custom USB fans that look just like normal fans and there are zany fans that look like anything from a racing tire to a robot. Some even have LEDs in the blades and make hypnotic patterns in the air while they spin! Price-wise, however, they all tend to fall into the $5-$20 range.

Here are four things you might do with a USB fan that you might not think of:

• Cool Your Soup. While not all USB fans are on the end of long, flexible sticks, a surprising amount are – and they can be bent over a steaming bowl of udon or pot pie and used to speed their descent into thermometric edibility quite nicely.
• Heat Your Cubicle. Most people think of a fan as a cooling device: you point it at your head, and you cool down. But if you arrange your fan behind your computer tower, it will take all of the hot air that’s getting blown out back by your power supply’s fan and shoot it into your cubicle’s main airspace. You get to cool your processor and heat yourself at the same time!
• Make Beautiful Music. All you need is a tiny windchime, available from any hardware store – or just make your own. Set the fan to blow toward the windchime, and fill your workspace with Zen tinklings that will turn your mind to ‘ease’.
• Shred Your Documents. This requires a fan without one of those annoying wire cages, but it’s entirely self-explanatory. Enjoy!