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Words by Bill Troop
January 2005
Keyspan is marketing one of the greatest product ideas of
all time: cables that retract to a tiny size to take up practically
no storage space. You can now travel with a variety of cables
in a tenth of the space they would normally take. Keyspan's
ZIP LINQ® cables are handy on the desktop too - making
for neater connections between peripherals where space is
at a premium and you don't want heavy dangling wires
all over the place.
There are ZIP LINQS for everything you can imagine and a
few things we couldn't.
Let's take the obvious ones first: USB cables. These come
in every conceivable flavor, including mini 4 and mini 5 connectors.
These all expand to 30 inches. Similarly, there are Firewire
cables in every possible combination of 4 and 6 pin connectors.
Next are Ethernet and phone, which expand to a maximum of
48 inches.
You might not have thought of audio cables, but Keyspan has
them in two types: stereo headset and stereo headset plus
microphone.
More innovatively, there are now Keyspan ZIP LINQS for most
cell phones now, including the HandSpring Treo 600. Just plug
one end into your USB port and the other end into your cell
phone, and you can charge without having to take along a separate,
bulky charger. We tried several of these, and they all worked
as promised. Naturally, there are also synch/charge ZIP LINQS
for most PDAs. No bulky cradle required! Just connect one
end to your PDA and the other end to your laptop of desktop's
USB port, and you can charge and synch at the same time. This
is seriously one of the greatest space and weight and mess
saving products ever.
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Finally, there is a ZIP LINQ mini optical mouse (2 buttons
and wheel), and the USB Travel Light, a flexible lamp to illuminate
your keyboard in dark environments.
Best of all, the ZIP LINQ accessories are very reasonably
priced. Depending on the item, prices range from $10 to $23.
See www.keyspan.com
for the details.
We tested a wide variety of ZIP LINQS over several months.
Although they are made as light as possible, and the cables
must be made rather thin, we never had a malfunction, and
we did not treat them with kid gloves, either. If treated
with reasonable care, Keyspan's ZIP LINQ cables should last
for years.
ZIP LINQS are altogether one of the greatest computer products
of all time. Kudos to whoever thought this one up.
Buy it now!
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