Now your Mac has everything...including a cup holder

On paper, the UBoard seems cool. It’s a desktop shelf with a built-in USB hub and even a cupholder. Once we got it set up, however, its many shortcomings quickly became apparent, and it ended up taking up more desk space than it saved.

Yep...that's a cupholder.

UBoard comes flat-packed in a box and only took a few minutes to assemble into a shelf 22.9 inches wide by 8.3 inches deep and 3.1 inches high. Though the white plastic legs and glass shelf are sturdy enough, we were disappointed to find that the UBoard is too tall to fit under the edge of our iMac--it is called “Multiboard for Your iMac,” after all. We placed it in front of our iMac, but that obliterates the main useful working area on our desk. Instead, it seems the best use for the UBoard is as a laptop stand with your external keyboard tucked underneath the shelf until it’s needed.

UBoard sports three USB ports built into the left side, but unfortunately they’re bus-powered, so they’re really only handy for low-power uses like flash drives and card readers. An option to power the hub via an AC adapter would make UBoard much more useful.

The hard plastic legs also tended to move around quite a bit on our smooth desktop, which is problematic when connecting and disconnecting USB devices--some rubber feet would help keep everything in place. UBoard also features a cupholder on the right side, but its placement toward the rear of the unit and its fairly small size made us wary of spilling our drink while trying to use it.

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If you have a serious space crunch, it might help, but 50 bucks is steep for what you get.

UBoard USB Multiboard for Your iMac
COMPANY: Pyramid Distribution
CONTACT: www.pyramidistribution.com
PRICE: $49.95
REQUIREMENTS: USB port
Adds two USB ports to your setup.
Too tall to slide under an iMac. USB ports are bus-powered. Drink holder isn't all that useful.