A pair of cufflinks that conceals a USB drive was once considered the geekiest way possible to jazz up your dress shirt. That’s no longer the case.
If you’ve got $250 burning a hole in your pocket, you can now buy an even geekier pair of cufflinks. As with previous designs, one link opens up to reveal a 2GB USB drive. But the other pops open to reveal a USB-connected Wi-Fi hotspot.
Note that this isn’t a wireless dongle in the sense of either a receiver for a wireless network, or for receiving a 3G signal. Instead the dongle takes the internet connection from the computer it’s plugged into and then shares it wirelessly. This means it’s only really of use in specific “emergencies”, namely cases where you’ve got a computer with a wired connection but need wireless access.
The Wi-Fi hotspot appears to require special software to be on the host computer, though of course you can carry the file about on the other cufflink’s USB storage. The software does likely mean you can’t use the cufflinks for wireless tethering on a USB-enabled phone.
These are hardly the only geeky cufflinks on the market of course. For example, one company released a pair of Facebook-themed links with the Like button and the (sadly not yet real) Dislike button.
Personally I’m still holding out for a set of cufflinks made from old-school typewriter keys with my initials. And yes, friends and family reading this, this is a hint.
