The Ostrich Egg: January 2008

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Year of the Rat

The Chinese New Year is right around the corner and I'm quite looking forward to ringing it in with style. Not only is Chinatown right around the corner from here, ripe with the promise of delicious food and huge crowds, but I admittedly have a soft spot for rodents as well.

I loved Ratatouille after all and was very much on the verge of buying an animatronic Remy toy at one point ... but more on that some other time.

Either way, there's just a plethora of rat influence in popular culture and design. And while I could showcase a bunch of different superb examples (check out Banksy's work if you haven't yet) I wanted to focus specifically on neat pair of USB speakers I received in a mail a couple of weeks back.

Presenting the USB Rats Speakers --

I have to admit, these are pretty fantastic. I've been needing a dedicated pair of laptop speakers for a while now, and since I usually have to transport my laptop between home and college having a pair portable speakers sans bulky adapter was my number one priority. Plus having something other than pair of clunky speaker cubes was something I had in mind.

These speakers pretty much fit the bill with so many regards. They're USB powered, they get that umph over my crummy laptop speakers, they light up (and match my laptop), they even have an attached volume control.

A quick run-down on the tech specs for these guys.

Built in amplifier: high quality sound with a 3W+3W power output.

Volume control switch with blue LED indicator, blue LED lighting effect.

Supports Windows XP/2000/ME/98SE, Mac OS with USB port.

Cable length: 6 feet

Simple, just plug it in!

I bought mine through USBGeek for under $30.

If you're looking to buy a pair there're stores selling these all over the web. Just keep in mind, there are actually quite a number of different variations on these: color wise there's a pair in red (with blue LED though ...) and I've seen them sold in both the USB and adapter-powered forms. Also they're called anything from i-Mice/iMice to the "Rats" variant I picked up.

Some action shots for your enjoyment --