This thing has been sitting on my desk for months. There’s another behind me in the closet still in it’s box which I’ll give away at the end of this post.

Here’s the thing. It’s supposed to be a sleek “Mac-looking” little shelf that gives you more space to work with on your desk. Your Apple keyboard fits nicely under it, you can still type comfortably, and then you have some tempered glass shelving above your hands where you can store/hold stuff. And it’s pushed as a USB hub as well, with 3 ports on the left side. Right. Except it doesn’t work.



I mean, it works as a shelf, sure. It’s a piece of glass that slides into some sturdy-but-still-plastic ABS plastic. So you pretty much can’t fail at working for that part. But the USB ports aren’t powered at all, fine, except even without power they fail to work like any other non-powered hub has for me on this same computer. Devices were regularly blinking in and out of connectivity when I tried to use it; devices with really low power consumption. Like my keyboard. Suddenly, I just couldn’t type anymore if I plugged /anything/ else into the USB ports.

So I tossed the extra one in the closet and put the review unit on the side of my desk (hey it’s still a shelf, right? just not worth [ame="http://www.amazon.com/UBoard-Multiboard-your-Build-Black/dp/B0039O6EBI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1278696796&sr=8-1"]$50[/ame]), and figured I’d move on. Well, I kept getting emails asking when I’d publish the review, and I told these guys the thing just didn’t work very well. Here’s what I was told by the guys at Pyramid Distribution who make the uBoard. “Please excuse these subjects Please assume USB ports are just added in extra.” Heh. They also said they recommend “not using several devices at the same time.” On a 3 device hub. If you check the Amazon link it says “It is not recommended to connect many USB devices that take up lots of power, and it can be the cause for malfunction.” Ok, cool. So the title of the product has Build-in [sic] USB 2.0 Hub in it, but we should assume that may not work. Even for my keyboard. And we should pay $49.95 for it.



The box comes with the parts for the uBoard, some assembly required, no instructions (or anything at all other than screws and parts) provided. Oh and a plastic cup-holder attachment. And if you aren’t willing to spend $50 on it (I wouldn’t recommend you do), leave a comment and on Monday I’ll pick someone and mail you out one of these awesomely bland overpriced shelves. I mean, or you can confuse us all and pick one up on [ame="http://www.amazon.com/UBoard-Multiboard-your-Build-Black/dp/B0039O6EBI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1278696796&sr=8-1"]Amazon[/ame]. “U-Board will give you a brand new experience. Whatever your job maybe, U-Board will simplify your working environment and help you to reduce the working time. Additionally, U-Board’s simple and slim design will fit perfectly into your desk top. “ That should sell you.





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