LaCie Takes Award-Winning Hub USB-Only

LaCie has introduced a new version of its award-winning, tentacled desktop hub - and this time it's USB-only.

Peripheral and accessory maker LaCie raised a few eyebrows a year ago when it introduced its six-port Hub—then called the Huby—featuring an eye-catching, Medusa-like shape from famed designer Ora-Ïto. Now the company has updated the product, either improving or detracting from it (depending on your point of view) by eliminating the two FireWire 400 ports and increasing the number of USB 2.0 ports to eight. The new USB-only Hub also features a new, completely round base that enables the Hub to wobble around…and, again, whether this is an improvement might depend entirely on your point of view.

“When we announced the original USB and FireWire Hub last November, we knew the design would be very popular,” said LaCie’s accessories product manager Alexis Kobassian, in a statement. Since its original inception, the Hub has won a number design awards including the French “Janus of the industry 2007″ and the “2008 Design Observer Award.” LaCie is very proud of this product’s accomplishments and has spent time with Ora-Ïto to refine the design to make it better.”

The Hub comes with eight flexible, twistable cables that can be used to connect everything from external storage devices and printer to digital cameras, keyboards, mice, and scanners. LEDs indicate when a device is plugged in, and each port sports a different color. If you really can’t get enough of the design, the Hubs can be chained together for—how shall we say this?—greater aesthetic enhancement. The Hubs work with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux systems and can connect up to seven devices simultaneously.

Designer Ora-Ïto has also designed LaCie’s Brick and Golden Disk hard drives.