You know what's lamer than the thought of just how close 7:00AM on a Monday morning is from now? These five gadgets. Things are really neck-and-neck in this edition of the world's poorest attempts in the consumer electronics space, with everything from a brick-colored satellite dish cover (is drunk designing the new drunk dialing?), a ladybug-shaped multicard reader and a carpal tunnel-inducing aircraft mouse. Oh, and lest we forget the "Big Time" watch table and cellphone wristband, both of which are also very worth candidates for this round's most pitiful. Give each a look below, and after you're through chuckling / vomiting, exercise your right to vote on the best (worst?) below.

Read - Brick-colored dish cover
Read - Ladybug multicard reader
Read - USB aircraft mouse
Read - Giant watch table
Read - Gadget wristband

We're big fans of SATA HDD docks that let you quickly access whole drives like noisy, overgrown memory sticks. An earlier unit offered just USB connectivity to your Mac or PC, later adding eSATA before rounding out its options with FireWire. Now we have a new model that still accepts bare 2.5- and 3.5-inch disks on top, but ditches the FireWire connectivity on the back in exchange for a card reader and two-port USB hub on the front -- perfect for plugging in storage of the smaller and quieter variety.

Been looking for the perfect card reader to complement that ExpressCard-less MacBook Air of yours? Well here's exactly what you aren't looking for, the ImageRouter from Delkin. This thing is built for professional photographers who need to dump pictures in a hurry, and one of these $149 monstrosities can read up to four CompactFlash cards simultaneously over a USB 2.0 connection. But wait, there's more! You can plug up to three ImageRouters into each other for a total of 12 CompactFlash cards in UDMA transfer mode all at the same time, perfect for all those 25 megapixel shots you've been snapping, or that RAID array you've been meaning to build. Delkin's shipping this thing in March, and it also comes in a $249 version with some bundled BackupandBurn software.

[Via SlashGear]

We've been bored by the entirely too utilitarian concept of multi-card readers ever since they were hosting our SmartMedia and xD cards, but Earth Trek seems to have revitalized the concept for 2008. The 2-in-1 rotary multi-card reader has a patented swiveling USB 2.0 connector to let you come at it from all angles -- not exactly going to revolutionize your memory card experience, but a nice touch. The reader also includes a plug and adaptors for charging your phone, which seems random but useful. No word on price or availability.

Hey there Ansel Adams -- we know you're shooting all your news pictures in an ultra-detailed, millions-of-megapixels format. Unfortunately for you, it's hard to show off your breathtaking work to friends and family. Well, a company called Hama hopes to change all that with its PhotoPlayer 1080i, a curious device that serves one basic function: it allows you to view your photos on an HD television. Basically, the little contraption is a 35-in-1 card reader which also outputs images (via component hookups) to your favorite 1080i-equipped display. The PhotoPlayer comes with a tiny remote for flipping through your majestic vision, and also includes a USB jack (for hard drives and the like), so you can go for a really, really long haul during your presentations. We can hear the "oohs" and "ahhs" already. Available now, no word on price.

[Via PhotographyBLOG]

Looking for storage you can take with you? How about ugly storage? Well, prepare to be semi-covered on all ends with the fancy new Xs-Drive Vision 2500. The mysterious box rocks all kinds of funky options, like a 60GB or 160GB internal hard drive, a 320 x 240 LCD display, support for CF type I and II, Memory Stick, SD, miniSD, microSD, MMC, and xD cards, video in / out player and recorder, MP3 playback, ADPCM voice recording, plus JPEG viewer, TXT reader, and USB 2.0 connectivity. No word on a street date, but the whole fantastic fantasy starts with the price tag of £139 (around $285) for the 60GB version.

At first glance we thought, "sweet, a makeshift SSD for all of our disparate memory cards." That is, until we figured out from the machine translation that the MR-C12 series of card readers from Elecom has more in common with a cigarette case than a solid state drive. So in addition to providing a convenient-if-bulky place to tote all your memory cards around, it also features a baked-in USB 2.0 cable and single media slot which accommodates all the most popular formats. No accidental jamming your memory card into the wrong slot here kids. In Japan mid October for ¥2,520 or about $22 in dear departed presidents.

[Via Impress]

Do you ever find yourself staring down at your drive bays, watching as the lazy, single purpose hard drive does its work and think, "Man, I wish I could swap that thing out for a USB hub when it's done spinning."? Well, the clever folks at Lindy have answered your prayers by creating the USB 2.0 Data Dock. The premise is simple: the Dock installs into your standard, 3.5-inch bay and provides two open "slots" which you can use for either a 2.5-inch swappable drive enclosure, a four port USB hub, or a multi-format card reader -- all of which are provided. Additionally, once the modules are swapped out, they can be plugged directly into another system (or the same system) via a typical USB connection. Available now for £49.99 (about $101).

[Via SlashGear]

While we doubt a vast majority of you have gone and purchased a wooden PC just yet, a natural tower isn't necessary to enjoy the stained goods that Marubeni Infotec was showing off at Computex. While details concerning pricing, availability, and construction were all but nil, AVing's crew did manage to get its camera up close and personal with some of the wares. On display was a USB keyboard (complete with Scrabble-influenced keys), a number of colorful USB 2.0 flash drives, a multicard reader, and a four-port (we agree, the fourth port is hiding) USB hub. Click on through for shots so close, you can smell the sap.

Leave it to Brando to upgrade its fine line of chintzy multicard readers yet again, this time adding an additional three cards to its mile long compatibility list and throwing in a USB 2.0 hub as well. Of course, we've already seen the unit acquire Bluetooth and rave lights, but the latest edition doubles as a Bluetooth dongle and provides an extra two USB 2.0 ports to daisy chain your favorite USB-powered gadgetry to your PC. Not a whole lot of reasons to upgrade to this one if you're a proud (or shameful) owner of past iterations, but if you've been looking for the least expensive way to convert your non-BT-enabled machine into one that speaks Bluetooth, all while finding a device that reads and writes to T-Flash, IBM MD, MAGICSTOR, and SDHC (just to name a few), Brando's whiz-bang conglomerate will run you just $29.

Although it's far from being the first USB-enabled SD card to grace store shelves, we're giving OCZ a bit of a break considering that its rendition of the multi-faceted flash card also handles microSD on the side. The aptly-dubbed Trifecta purportedly functions as any standard SD card should in your camera, PMP, or toilet, but it also acts as a flash card reader or USB thumb drive without any extra fuss. The three-in-one device will be shipping in both 1GB and 2GB flavors before any additional expansion via microSD, will sport a 66x read rate, and will be covered by a five-year warranty to boot. Unfortunately, we've no idea when to expect these little guys to actually arrive, nor how much they'll run when that day comes.

[Via EverythingUSB]

As if you needed any more card readers and USB hubs in your life, TrekStor is busting out this new DataStation maxi t.uch hard drive at CeBIT this week, with a 9-in-1 card reader and a pair of USB ports in tow. The drive comes in 250GB and 400GB versions, and is capable of automatically backing up its own data. This should provide a nice bit of convenience for photogs looking for a quick and convenient way to offload pics from flash memory cards, and the powered USB ports are always nice, but neither addition is earth shattering. You'll be able to pick up a a drive soon, with the 250 gigger going for €120 ($158 US) and the 400 gig at €175 ($230 US).

X-Men fans wouldn't want their Wolverine any other way than pumped up and ready to dominate, but PMP fans aren't exactly looking for the most inflated device on the block. Still, Wolverine's multifaceted ESP 5160 retains the rather bulky 5.3- x 2.8- x 0.9-inch enclosure of the previous (and less capacious) models, but bumps the internal storage capacity up to 160GB. Photographers will still be gawking at their offloaded JPEG, RAW, BMP, or TIFF files on the 3.6-inch 320 x 240 display, and users can also zoom, rotate, and view EXIF data in slideshow mode with tunes jamming in the background. Aside from offering up on-the-go slideshows, this hero also maintains its solid media playing functionality, handling MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, WAV, and CDA on the audio front while tackling Motion JPEG, MPEG1/4, XviD, and WMV9 on the video side. Furthermore, you'll find a built-in speaker, NTSC / PAL video out, USB 2.0 connectivity, FM radio, a 7-in-1 flash card reader, integrated microphone, audio line-in, and the ability to record directly from a TV or camcorder if utilizing the optional docking cradle. So if you're looking for just about everything a non-internet-enabled PMP / photo storage device could offer, the 5160 isn't a bad option save for the size, but (literally) deep-pocketed consumers can snap this one up now for $549.99.

Either those or some pretty dang huge keys, or this new USB Micro Drive for microSD being sold by Brando is most likely "the world's smallest microSD reader" it claims to be. There really isn't a lot to know: it runs at full-speed USB 2.0, measures 5mm thick, weighs a tenth of an ounce and reads microSD cards. With this kind of size, you could just leave your microSD card inside the $14 reader for a DIY thumb drive, or use it as a card reader all normal-like, but that's about all that's going on here. Fire this thing up with one of those fancy new 4GB microSD numbers and watch the sparks fly!

If you're the type who'd rather lug around a 2.5-inch HDD enclosure instead of dozens of easily mixed up flash cards, well, you're probably not alone, and SavitMicro has just released a device to make prolific shooters all the merrier. The company's USB 2.0 HyperDrive SPACE may look like your average Korean-bound DAP at first glance, but actually houses your choice of 2.5-inch hard drive, and can automatically transfer pictures or media from a smorgasbord of flash memory directly onto the HDD to keep your card ready for more. Aside from touting a blisteringly fast 1Gbps transfer rate (maximum), the rechargeable Li-ion purportedly lasts long enough to fill up a 100GB internal HDD, and it even sports a 1.8-inch LCD to control the action. This bad boy plays nice with CF, MicroDrive, SD, SDHC, MMC, xD, MSDuo, MSPro, and nearly every other proprietary format that Sony has kicked out. Although pricing details weren't readily available, the HyperDrive SPACE should hit webstores within the month.

[Via AkihabaraNews]