Click to View

Even the most mobile 21st century professional can't take everything on the road every time. Whether you work at a coffee shop to escape your home office or you travel the world and return to your company's headquarters a few times a month, you no doubt have some devices that sit on your desk. USB devices such as hard drives, keyboards, mice, cameras and music players can quickly fill the ports on many laptops and desktops. When you're ready to upload your day's notes and appointments from your PDA or smartphone, wouldn't it be nice to have a free port?

Enter the USB hub.

For instance, Kensington offers two seven-port models that we recently checke out. The devices allow you to plug all those stationary devices into a hub that then only uses one USB port on your machine. Now you can keep another port always available for your mobile device. Plus, if you're using a laptop, the hub means you have just one cable to unplug to set your laptop free.

A Dome model (see top image) from Kensington, $49.95, comes with a tiny light that can plug into one port but what really distinguishes it from the cheaper, $39.95, version is the weighted base that holds it in place. On the other hand, the PocketHub comes with a carrying case that fits the hub, its AC connector and a USB cable.

Then again, who has room to carry seven USB devices?