Available from: Firebox – The Eco Button – Price: £14.95

If you’re interested in saving the planet from the comfort of your desk, then the Eco Button is a must!

One push of the button activates the special software, which then powers down as much of your PC as possible (without turning it off completely), drastically cutting the power consumption – it’s claimed that it can reduce the power draw to a tiny 1.8 Watts!

The Eco Button plugs into a spare USB port, and the idea is that any time you decide to take a break, (frequently if you’re like me!), or leave your desk, one push of the glowing green button puts your PC into a deep sleep power saving mode. Unlike physically turning your computer off, when you are ready to get back to work your PC wakes near instantly and is ready for action – without having to wait minutes for it to boot.

As well as reducing your carbon footprint, it will also save you money as well. Due to the credit crunch - with Electricity prices rising rapidly in the UK, you`ll soon save enough to keep your single bar heater going for another couple of hours this winter (saving the inconvenience of having to wear two jumpers as the head of British Gas suggests!)

As a bonus the Eco Buttons software monitors exactly how much CO2 has been saved by the lower power state, as well as the cost. It also offers a password function for security, stopping authorized people (or kids) from using your computer while your away.

The Eco button will work with any PC running Windows XP, 2000 or Vista , and requires a tiny 5Mb or disk space and a minimum of 256Kb of RAM.

Available from: Firebox – The Eco Button – Price: £14.95

Available from: Firebox - USB Whack It! – Price: £11.95

The USB Whack It game brings the return of the old favourite “Whack a Mole!”, which used to be found in arcades up and down the country.

As the little faces randomly light up, push them with your finger to score points. It’s an extremely simple idea, but proves very addictive! The Whack It games last for 30 seconds to 1 minute, as as the timer decreases the lights flash faster and faster, making it more and more difficult to keep it. Challenge your co workers to see who has the fastest fingers!

At the end of the game, your points are shown on the LCD scoreboard, and then its time to have another go and see if you can beat your high score. A great stress reliever, and a very welcome break from actually doing some work!

The game is powered is either powered by batteries, or through your computers USB port (which is where the USB bit comes in!)

The USB Whack It Game has got to be one the best, and certainly most addictive, USB games available and great for your home or office.

Available from: Firebox - USB Whack It! – Price: £11.95

Available from: Firebox – Creative Zen Stone – 1GB – Price: £27.95

The Creative Zen Stone is the lastest MP3 player from Creative Labs, compact, sleek and at a great price!

Although it’s tiny, the Zen Stone comes with 1Gb of onboard memory, allowing up to 500 songs! With its mini USB connection it’s easy to swap songs with another Zen Stone, or you can drag and drop files directly from your computer, no drivers required.

Features

• USB 2 Port for fast data transfers
• 1GB Onboard Memory
• 10 hour playback time before recharging battery
• Supports MP3 and WMA music formats
• Small and Easy to carry – 5.3cm wide x 3.5cm high x 1.3 cm deep
• Lightweight – weighs only 18.5g!

Available from: Firebox – Creative Zen Stone – 1GB – Price: £27.95

Available from: Firebox – USB Cassette Deck – Price: £99.95

Do you have a massic hoard of cassettes in your loft, and nothing to play them on? Would you like to revive them, and relive all the those old memories of funny clothes, hairstyles and music that “was much better in my day”?

Well now you can with the USB Cassette Deck!

The USB Cassette Deck is incredibly easy to use, plug it in to a free USB port, insert your cassette tape, fire up the Audacity and EZ Tape Convertor, and then sit back as your music is digitized and converted to MP3 format. You can even archive your music into ITunes, with a few clicks of the mouse!

The USB Cassette Deck features twin cassette decks, allowing you to copy from one tape to another, and can convert both Metal and CrO2 tapes to MP3 format ready to be saved for ever! The USB Cassette Deck is completely plug and play with no drivers needed, and works on both PC’s and Mac’s.

So why not give the USB Cassette Deck a try, and start reliving your lost youth!

Available from: Firebox – USB Cassette Deck – Price: £99.95

Available from: I Want One of Those – USB Cell - Price: £12 for 2 AA USB batteries

To kick off the blog, we start with an extremely innovative new invention, USB rechargeable batteries!

Although charging batteries using your USB port is not a new idea, before you`ve always needed an external charger which plugs into your USB port and is another bit of kit to carry around with you.

These USB batteries are the same size as normal AA batteries, but the top lifts off to reveal a USB connector, so the batteries can plug straight into the USB port making them easy to recharge. Great for taking away on holiday, they can be recharged straight from your laptop, without the need to carry round an external charger!

With a desktop PC they are extremely useful for charging up batteries for wireless keyboards and mice (which tend to eat batteries!).

The USB Cells also help the environment, as they can be recharged over and over again, cutting down on damaging waste products from dead batteries, which are often incinerated or buried in landfills. The USB Batteries are made from nickel metal hydride (NiMH), which are more enviromentally friendly than the traditional NiCad batteries, which are to be banned in the EU shortly because they contain toxic nickel cadium. They can also deliver an extra 10 – 25% capacity over traditional NiCads! Because they are unplugged when charged, unlike traditional battery chargers, they can also save energy reducing your carbon footprint (or at least saving energy you can use for other gadgets!).

The USB batteries can be recharged over 500 times, and a full charge takes just 5 hours with an LED indicator telling you when the batteries are fully charged and ready for use. A quick 20 minute charge should be enough to power a wireless mouse for a day.

Currently the British spend over £5 million pounds per week on batteries for their favourite gadgets, so these rechargeable batteries can save you some serious cash! Although the batteries require no external charger, they can be used in a tradional battery charger if required, although the charging time increases to 7 hours for a full charge.

The USB Cell Batteries are available in packs of 2 AA batteries and cost just £12.95, giving enormous savings over non rechargeable batteries!

Available from: I Want One of Those – USB Cell – Price: £12 for 2 AA USB batteries