Daily Photo

USB is achieving increasing success … as the universal source of a convenient five-volt power supply. A USB mini-B power plug is now standard for Chinese-made mobile phones. My cheap and crappy cheerful MP3 player recharges through it as well as being a flash disk.

So we get a vast selection of these things, churned out in ridiculous quantities by factories in China. Anything whatsoever that can run off five volts, whack in a bit of flash, profit!

(We have one here, bought for £1 from the high street. My toddler loves it.)

Some of the stuff they make is w0rnger more creative than others

USB 3.0 will give more current, but wants to take it down to four volts. This’ll be fun.

Photo: “USB tree” by Florian Boyd, taken 20 December 2008 on a Panasonic DMC-FX01. CC by 2.0.