If you’ve been to Europe or Japan, you’ve probably seen the source for this uniquely designed USB hub. In the US, exit signs are just the word “EXIT” in a boring block font with a red and white color scheme. Whoopdie-doo. You’d think with all of the different nationalities that call America home, the US would have a more universal way to announce just where you should run in case of an emergency. Sadly, this is just not so. In Europe and Japan, they have this little green fella to tell folks where to dash in case of a need to leave quickly.
Now, this universal green man can also represent and exit from a lack of USB ports.
Sorry, that was a supremely bad segue.
ANYway, so this USB hub features four ports and a single LED to let you know when the thing is plugged in and ready to have things plugged into it. The ports are interestingly dispersed throughout the hub. One is on his leading hand with two on his brief case. The final fourth is in the leading edge of the base.
So, now you can invoke the cool, uniqueness of the green exit man on your desk every day. Sadly, it’s not all cool with this little guy. After all, it’s not like he will neaten up your desktop’s cable situation. Having USB ports in his briefcase and hand mean that your cables will be more visible than ever. Conversely, plugging in your USB device will be a few inches more convenient.
Another thing to note is that this hub doesn’t come with an AC adapter, so it’s not a powered hub.
A silver version of the green exit sign man USB hub is available for under $8 at DealExtreme.com. There doesn’t appear to be a US vendor for the green version of this cool accessory. Perhaps no American distributor figured that anyone would know what the green running man meant so the point would be lost. Then again, a silver running man USB hub makes no sense either to Americans, so who knows what the heck is going on here.
Of course, the price does make it one of the more affordable novelty USB hubs.
