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The En vogue USB speakers are another collaborative effort from designer Neil Poulton and LaCie. They had such a hit with the FireWire speakers that they decided it was a partnership made in heaven as far as speakers go.

The trendily named ‘En vogue‘ USB speakers plug neatly into your Mac or Windows PC / Laptop via USB (as the name suggests ^^) relying on a single USB connection rather than traditional audio cables. The speakers do have a DC-in on the underside for an external power option but no adapter is included.

Stylishly designed and sticking to the minimalistic theme favoured by Neil Poulton and LaCie, the En vogue USB speakers will look pretty good on your desktop (as long as your desktop is as neat as the glamour shots, which we are doubting…).

The white and black finish on the speakers, make them look rather similar to half-constructed igloos. Speaking of cool (^^) a more glacier-like set of speakers couldn’t be found than the Harmon Kardon GLA-55 Speakers. Guess summer is well and truly over….

You can get your hands on the En vogue USB speakers for a reasonable $60, out now.

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We’ve all been to meetings and conferences’ where everyone is wearing the same lame stick-on or pinned-on name badge. How about we spice things up a bit with these USB LED Message Badges from our favourite purveyor of all things USB, USB.Brando.com.HK.

The USB LED Message Badge comes in either blue or red LED flickering lights and can scroll or even animate your name (or other choice messages ^^) for all to see.

Slightly on the pricey site at $42 for the red badge and $54 for the blue badge (why the price differentiation) but no doubt the USB LED Message Badge will be able to provide hours of office banter at your next oh-so-interesting board meeting….They also look a bit bling if i’m honest and will no doubt be making an appearance at a few fancy dress parties….

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USB.Brando

This concept Solar Cell Tree Charger doubles-up as a home ornament whilst giving you all the cheap energy you need to charge a multitude of devices.

Designed by Vivien Muller, the tree branches that form the tree are modular and interchangeable so you can ‘prune’ and rearrange the charger into the tree image of your choice (a must for the customization fans).

This concept has 54 photovoltaic panels along with an internal battery that laps up the suns heat-rays during the day to create solar energy. USB compatible it can then be used to charge a multitude of devices making it not only a pretty useful gadget but environmentally friendly as well.

I can see a novelty gift shop picking this concept Solar Cell Tree Charger up and bringing it to a gadget-store near you pretty soon…

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Wireless USB microphones are nothing new but we like the styling of this Retro Wireless USB Microphone. Looks like something you would find in a 1940’s club with a chromed out case and a mini stand.

The retro styling is cool the fact that it is USB and wireless is cool and the only thing that would make it cooler is if it glowed but considering how close you would have to get to the microphone to speak; maybe that’s not a good idea (don’t fancy burning my lips).

You can use the Retro Wireless USB Microphone wirelessly up to 3 meters away from the USB hub so you can get your groove on from a distance. Plug and play technology, Windows and Mac compatible and weighs in at 80 x 80 x 160mm (approx.)

Pick it up for $29 over at usb.brando

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The market for portable USB sound cards must be smaller than, well, portable USB cards but somebody must be buying them otherwise Creative’s new Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! wouldn’t have a home to go to.

The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! is a plug-n-play sound card for when your on the go and have to use a crappy computer with limited sound capabilities. Just whip out the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go!, pop it in the USB port and your good to go.

At $40 for one of these you have to love your sound quality in order to splash the cash for one. Technical specs include EAX Advanced HD 4.0 and OpenAL support for gaming, 24-bit Crystallizer enhancement, CMSS-3D processing, and pre-loaded Alchemy and WaveStudio software.

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USB speakers are ten-a-penny but add some crystal and they bump up the price. These USB Crystal Speakers from thinkgeek look like little blocks of ice sitting on your desktop and under 2 inches (1.6 inches to be precise) they claim to be the smallest stereo speakers you can get your hands on for your PC or laptop.

Able to ouput crystal clear audio frequencies, you can get your own set of USB Crystal Speakers for $40 but at only 1watt per channel, don’t expect ot be bumping those beats too loudly…

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Batman fan? Got no money to afford the Dark Knight Xbox 360? Well then this USB Dark Knight Lamp is just the thing you’ve been looking for.

Commissioner Gordan may have the gigawatts to spare (and City Hall’s money to pay for the electric bill) but all you need is a few spare hours and some household raw materials to get Batman to come to your aid with your very own USB Dark Knight Spotlight

Yes my friends, GadgetHeat has gone all Ikea on you so you have to put this thing together yourself but if you follow the instructions on the Instructables website (http://www.instructables.com/id/USB_Batman_Spotlight/) you’ll be done in a jiffy. Having just finished our own USB Dark Knight Spotlight, we’re waiting for the Dark Knight to turn up with our pizza and try to make Galactus give him a tip…

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LG Korea have launched this rather cool looking portable HDD, the LG XD1. Weighing in with a capacity of between 120Gb and 320GB, this 2.5inch pocket hard drive looks like it would be a rather cool accessory.
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The LG XD1 portable hard drive comes in ’sunrise’ gradients of Black Pearl and Red Wine and even allows buyers the choice of a USB 2.0 version or USB + e-SATA combo to take advantage of its SATA II interface.
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This looks like a Korea only release at the moment and price wise the LG XD1 portable hard drive is expected to retail for between 90,000(KRW) and 170,000(KRW), depending on the model you opt for. Going back to its looks, if you think this is good looking, you should check out the Packard Bell Chroma, probably the prettiest HDD we have ever laid our binary eyes on….

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Work From The Beach

We have featured a few pretty cool chairs at GadgetHeat including the web surf chair by Kenneth LyLover and this concept Tech chair by PC world has a few gadgets of it’s own hidden down the back.
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The chair comes with every connectivity device you can think of including Bluetooth, long range Wi-Fi, USB ports and a dock for everything from your iPod to your camera and games console. In the interest of being a self contained unit it even comes with solar power panels and an LCD screen.
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Now I know that the internet dream is to work from a beach running your web empire while sipping a cool beverage so this tech chair looks like the perfect office once you’ve made it. With all those electronics and circuit boards though, you better hope it doesn’t rain…If you’re looking for something with the same amount of tech and more coverage, you may want to check out the WiFi Teepee..

All things Apple are cool at the moment and with the impending release of the new iPhone, the temperature is about to drop some more (if you want the new iPhone for free and before everyone else gets it, GadgetHeat has the perfect solution).
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Jumping whole-heartedly on this bandwagon is the iPod USB by boysstuff. You can get this in a 2GB or 4GB versions for $40 and $50 respectively and what do you get for your money? A cutesy USB with a squeezy cover and a greater affiliation to what is possibly the gadget of the century, iPod (saying that though, you should check out our current gadget of the year, the R2D2 DVD projector).
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The iPod USB stick is USB 2 compatible for speedy transfers and it’s pretty cutesy so what more do you want eh?


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