Digital Home Thoughts: Never be Short on USB Plugs Again!

"The concept is simply brilliant, eliminating the need for USB hubs by allowing peripherals to connect to each other at the jack level, just like you would multiple strings of Christmas tree lights. Users with limited ports (such as on a laptop) won't be forced to hot-swap devices or purchase a USB hub."

The idea looks neat, but I suspect that the concept has been patented, limiting the amount of devices that would use this concept. In a more practical world though, notebooks tend to have just barely enough USB ports, and for those that do not, there are an incredible selection of USB hubs available. The downside of the infinite USB plug concept is that if you need to disconnect something that is earlier in the chain, you would have to unplug everything past that. This is not true with USB hubs, which may be why this idea has not come up earlier. Besides, can you imagine hooking 7 devices up in sequence with that setup? You would have a long USB stick that is just begging to be snapped!