Belkin Intros Its Own Wireless USB Hub for Under $200

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) has been the most popular computer interface for the past few years, but it also has a few problems, mostly related to the fact that any USB hub has to be placed in the relatively close vicinity of the computing system, as their cables are not exactly very long. However, since we live in a more or less wireless era, it was to be expected that the first wireless USB hubs would be developed at some point and so they were, in the first half of 2007.

Belkin is not the first manufacturer to roll out such a device (the first ones were launched by Icron and Gefen earlier this year), but its product is certainly a lot more attractive than anything the competition had to offer. Thus, the USB Wireless Hub has a very sleek and elegant look, something not found in the case of the 2 devices mentioned earlier.

Even if it looks a little better than its competitors, the hub from Belkin works in exactly the same manner. It consists of 2 separate components, namely the Wireless USB Hub (which is not connected to a computer and thus requires its own power source) and the Wireless USB Adapter, which is inserted in a computer's USB port.

This wireless connectivity system from Belkin works with a wide range of devices, from USB printers to cameras, scanners, flash drives, portable HDDs and more, practically with anything that connects to a computer via USB. Moreover, it can also "accommodate" data transfer rates of up to 480 Mbps and works on a 10 meter (30 feet) radius, which makes the "weakest" of the three wireless hub models mentioned in this articles (the versions from Icron and Gefen provide 30 meter and 18 meter ranges, respectively).

Besides being the best looking, Belkin's USB Wireless Hub is also the cheapest such device released on the market. Thus, the device will hit the shelves in late August 2007 with launches in Asia, Europe and Australia to follow, for around 200 US dollars, a lot more affordable than Gefen's $400 device and Icron's $394 version.

We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .