T3 Hub - $33.95, Dr. Bott
My PowerBook G4 has two USB ports. I often use an external USB mouse and an iMic USB audio adaptor with the computer. Sometimes I need to print documents, and my printer connects via USB. Sometimes I want to copy MP3s to my portable MP3 player, and that hooks up via USB. That's four USB devices vying for two ports already, and I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting. While it's not so hard to plug and unplug devices, it's a pain, and there are times when I want to print, listen to music through the iMic adaptor and use my external mouse all at the same time. What's a USB-laden PowerBook user to do?

The answer lies in a USB hub. A hub takes one of your USB ports and turns it into several of them. Ports don't do much beyond that, so you want a port that's reliable and cheap. And if you're a PowerBook user, you want one that's small and lightweight. Enter the T3 Hub from Dr. Bott. The T3 is a three port hub that's shorter than my index finger and probably weighs less than it, too. (Dr. Bott claims it weighs less than an ounce.) The powered hub has no external power supply and snaps into one of the USB ports on your laptop (or desktop -- it will work with any USB-enabled Mac), or connects via the included extension cord to save wear and tear on those ports and provide easier accessibility for connecting and disconnecting devices. Each of the three ports on the T3 has an LED indicator light, which is useful for troubleshooting bum peripherals.

Simply put, the T3 is tiny and it works. That makes it a winner in my book. The T3 hardly takes up any room in your travel bag, and is an indispensible accessory if you use several USB devices on a regular basis. And get this: It comes in three colors, Graphite, Ice and Titanium. A three-pack is available for $99.95, which is a savings of two whole dollars in case you've got a trio of TiBook-toting cousins you want to be nice to this Christmas.

The T3 Hub is available from Dr. Bott at www.drbott.com or 1.877.611.2688

Boostaroo - $19.95, Boostaroo
Ever try to watch a DVD on your laptop while sitting in an airplane? Can be kind of hard to hear, right? Ever wish you could turn the volume up just a little louder on your iBook while listening to MP3s over headphones in a crowded coffee shop? Ever wish you could share the music with that cutie sipping herbal tea at the table next to you? Fear not, the Boostaroo has arrived to solve all of your problems.

The Boostaroo is a simple device - A combination signal splitter and amplifier, it plugs into the headphone jack of your laptop (or MP3 player or any device with an eighth-inch headphone jack) and turns that single jack into three signal-boosted 1/8" outputs. If you've ever tried to split a headphone signal with a Y-Jack splitter, you know that the two resultant signals are noticably quieter than the original audio was. The Boostaroo takes care of that. Powered by two 'AA' batteries, this handy little device gives enough of a boost (the company claims it's up to 40%) to let you listen to your movies, music and PowerPoint sound effects over the din of an airplane engine or noisy cafe, and of course, lets you share the sound with that special someone.

I field-tested the Boostaroo when I was making music on my PowerBook with a friend of mine and the power went out in my apartment. Though my laptop kept running off of battery power, my external speakers wouldn't work without juice from the wall. I pulled out a couple of pairs of headphones, hooked up the Boostaroo, and voila! My friend and I kept rocking the beats, shouting things like, "That sucks!" and "Sounds like Moby, dude," to each other so we could be heard through the headphones. Sound quality through the Boostaroo is excellent, and while larger than the T3 Hub, it won't take up too much room in your road bag, either. As the sun went down and the still-powerless apartment grew dark, we feared not -- the Boostaroo is battery powered, so we lit some candles and kept churning out the hits until we couldn't take it any more.

The Boostaroo is available direct from Boostaroo.

CoolPad and Podium CoolPad - $19.95/29.95 - Road Tools
It's no secret that Apple's Titanium laptops get hot when you use them. The rear right-hand portion of my TiBook gets uncomfortably hot to the touch - mainly on the bottom, but also on top around the power button - about 45 minutes after being turned on. Road Tools has produced a clever set of products designed to keep your PowerBook cooler by circulating air underneath the machine. By elevating your Mac up off of the tabletop, the Coolpad series also keeps your precious Mac clear of food, drink and whatever other sticky, dirty messes might be lurking below.

The CoolPad works much like a lazy suzan: A rectangular plastic surface is connected to a second plastic rectangle which spins freely atop it. So while the bottom rectangle sits still on the table, the top rectangle holds your laptop and allows you to rotate it as needed while you work. Rubber grippers keep the CoolPad firmly in place on the table and also elevate your laptop and hold it secure as you type and use the trackpad. And the trick about cooling the computer by circulating air under it? It works. It doesn't work a hundred percent -- the aforementioned hot spot to the rear of my TiBook still gets warm -- but it does make a big difference as compared to laying the computer flat on a table or my lap. The CoolPad also keeps the bottom of my PowerBook clear of whatever might get spilled on the table below, a handy feature if you happened to ingest vast quantities of caffinated beverages while you work. Drinks spill sometimes, trust me.

CoolPads come in two versions - standard ('Traveler') and Podium. The Podium is larger and comes with extra rubber feet that snap on to four pegs on the top surface of the CoolPad to allow you to adjust the height and angle of your laptop. My only complaint with the CoolPad is that these rubber feet tended to snap off when I wasn't looking (likely when taking the CoolPad in and out of my travel bag) and I quickly lost a few of them. While both versions work with my TiBook, the wider surface area of the Podium keeps the machine much more stable, making it more comfortable to work with. The standard version may be better suited to working with the narrower iBook 2001. Even having lost a few of the rubber feet, the Podium is still more adjustable than the standard model, which makes it a better buy in my book. Both models are available in white and black, and while one would think that molded plastic could be sold for half the price, the CoolPad is a very handy accessory that's worth buying, especially if you tend to work in places like coffee shops and the kitchen table that aren't always as clean as the bottom of your laptop would like them to be.

The $19.95 CoolPad and $29.95 Podium CoolPad are available from Dr. Bott.