Belkin Corp. on Wednesday announced the USB 2.0 7-Port Hub, which sports two top-loading 480 Mbps ports and five horizontally mounted 480 Mbps ports. The hub will begin shipping in North America on Sept. 30 for US$49.95.
About as thick as two candy bars, the USB 2.0 7-Port Hub is backward compatible with USB 1.1 devices, though, of course, they’ll still run at the slower, 1.1 rate. You can monitor device activity with the hub’s LEDs for master power status and all port activity. It also sports over-current detection features.
Apple has only recently begun adding USB 2.0 ports to their hardware. The new Power Mac G5s were the first systems to offer such connectivity; it’s also now included in the new versions of the 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBooks.