This review is part of the 1 Pound Challenge – can you find a decent gadget in a pound shop?

For the last of my current batch of 1 Pound Challenge products¹ I have the Livewire USB Hub (with 4 ports). Costing £1 from PoundWorld, this is a blue, translucent plastic hub which has a male USB connector on on end and then bulges out to house 4 females connections. Plug this into the side of a laptop or into a PC and it will convert a single port into 4.

As well as the hub itself you also get a 40cm USB extension cable, in case you cannot plug the hub directly into a port (surrounding connectors, for example, may not allow it).

The hub has 5 green LEDs in it – one for each of the USB connectors (i.e. 1 for the male socket and the remaining 4 for the female connectors at the other end).

So far, so good. Unfortunately, in use there are 4 big problem areas.

1. Build Quality

The plastic case around the male port has come unglued and doesn’t hold together well. As a result the whole circuit board, and the attached USB ports move around inside the case when in use. I’d have put this down as a one-off duff broken one if I hadn’t read reviews elsewhere of people having similar case issues.

Additionally, the USB extension cable has a rubber surround on each of the ends. This appears to be some poor quality rubber which already feels as if its degrading – it doesn’t bode well for any longer term usage.

2. It’s USB 1

Yes, that’s right, with USB 3 on the market and pretty much nothing these days is USB 1, they’ve somehow managed to sneak a USB 1 product out. That means anything connected to it will be slooowwww.

I don’t know if it’s only the device and not the cables that can be USB 1 or 2, but certainly using the cable I had no issues connecting up USB 2 devices.

3. Those LEDs!

The thing about USB hubs is that, unless they have their own power supply² you’re dividing up an already meagre power source – USB devices often struggle when plugging into hubs. That 5v supply is now down to, potentially, 1.25v per socket. However, with 4 LEDs lit that’s even less. The thing is, those LEDs are completely useless. All 5 come on when you plug it in and they don’t appear to do anything other than look pretty, yet, zapping what little power you did have.

4. Poor hardware support

I tried a couple of USB keys and really struggled to get any of them to be recognised – again reading other online reviews of this product backs this up as many other people have found them to be a hit-and-miss affair.

So all-in-all a pretty poor effort and a shame – for anyone wishing to enhance the number of USB connections they had this would have been ideal but all of those downsides above really mean that I can recommend this product.

The packaging shows the product is from ITP Imports, which shares an address with PoundWorld. ITP Imports have been in the news in the past for some suspect pregnancy testing kits and have to withdrawn dangerous items from sale (their “Deadly Dinosaurs” range turning out to be just that).

Summary of Livewire USB Hub

USB 1, seems to be dodgy at recognising hardware, poor build quality and zaps whatever power you may have wanted for your device on lighting unnecessary LEDs. Best left on the shelf.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 30th October 2011.

1. Yes, I need to find the time to head off to a major city and mooch around the pound shops for more products! [↩]
2. which is what I choose for all my own hubs [↩]

This review is part of the 1 Pound Challenge – can you find a decent gadget in a pound shop?

Next up in my quest to find excellent tech for one British pound is the bluefox laptop stand. Available from 99p Stores this is a grey, telescopic plastic stand that sits underneath your laptop, leaning it forward for a better typing position.

Once opened up, it splays in an “X” shape – the rear two legs fit (rubber tipped top and bottom) sit under the rear of your laptop. The front legs go up at the front to snugly hold onto the front of the laptop (otherwise your laptop would unceremoniously slide off each time).

Does it work? Yes – it raises your laptop up by about 3cm at the back, if your laptop is big enough and the underside is flat enough. My wife’s netbook is too small. My Lenovo Edge 11 is just about big enough BUT the underside narrows at the front – this means those upturned front legs have nothing to grip onto. They are about 15mm tall, so if you hold a ruler under your laptop from back to front, you will need the front edge to be no further than 15mm away from the ruler (I hope that makes sense).

I also tried it with a 15″ Lenovo ThinkPad and it worked just fine – certainly a 15″ or bigger laptop should have no problems. 20cm is,  by my reckoning, the minimum depth that you need.

When you’re finished with it the rear legs slide down and the front legs swing round to tuck under them, leaving you with a package just a few inches long.

It’s made by bluefox.

Summary of bluefox Laptop Stand

If you think you have a pressing need to raise the rear of your laptop up for better typing then this works (assuming your laptop is big enough and the underside is suitable). And at less than a pound, it’s another great bargain.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 22nd October 2011.

For those that haven’t come across Usenet before, it’s a discussion and sharing system that’s been around since the 1980′s. As you can imagine, quite a lot of content has built over that time and so a product named Binverse has come along to help you easily find what you’re looking for.

It’s a commercial product costing nearly $30 a month. What you get for that, though is, their desktop client allowing quick access to particular categories of search or download. They also provide no bandwidth capping, allowing you to download as much as you can and as quickly as you can. Finally, the whole thing is totally secure, with encrypted data and no longs held by Binverse.

However, where my review is likely to go a bit differently to others is that I’m now not going to go any further into the quality of the speed or search. Instead, I’m going to concentrate on what this product is for. Illegal downloading.

I’m sure Binverse will dispute this, but I can’t see any other reason. Their categories are such as software, music, videos, etc. Bringing up the most popular results for each gives pages upon pages of pirated content. Yes, you can do a text search but this merely opens up a Google Groups search window and shows the results of that – I don’t need premium software to do that.

If you were using this to find ad-hoc unique, free software you’d probably go to the website. You’d certainly not be bothered by bandwidth and security. In fact, it’s the “no logs held by Binverse” bit that really strikes me as truly highlighting what this software is all about. If this was intended to legitimate reasons they’d be no need for this as an option.

I deplore illegal media distribution in all its forms – software, video and music piracy is wrong. If you can’t afford to buy it either don’t buy it or save up for it until you can. It’s theft and no different to stealing from the shelves of your local supermarket.

Binverse also offered me 10 free licences to offer as competition prizes on my site. Unlike other websites who should really know better, such as Windows Guides, I won’t take them up on this offer.

When I did put my issues to Binverse their answer was…

..there is plenty of legitimate content on Usenet.  And we don’t approve of nor encourage the use of Binverse for any illegal activity.

You may not approve, but you provide it and charge users for premium options to make it easier too.

Summary of Binverse

A premium desktop equivalent to Pirate Bay but with added bells and whistles. Illegal and immoral.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 8th October 2011.