So, say you have a lot of handy gadgets. And say most of these gadgets came with a USB cable that you’d love to use for charging them, but all of your USB ports are always full of other Very Important Stuff like your cup warmer, humping dog and desktop aquarium toys. And since you can never charge them, those handy gadgets are always dead, leaving you completely disconnected from the wondrous world of technology. Oh no! Don’t let the lack of handy USB ports defeat you – do something about it. Instructables member Hextor posted instructions on turning one of your standard outlets into a two-port USB hub. All you need is about $10, 30 minutes and a healthy appreciation for the outlet of the future.

If you’ve been electrocuted one too many times to fall for yet another do-it-yourself wiring project, and you have a few months to spare, you might just want to pre-order the TruePower outlet with built-in USB ports instead. It’s not shipping until it gets final UL approval, probably in early 2010, but Fastmac is confident enough to have it available for pre-order now. It costs about the same (not including shipping) and you get to keep two standard power outlets in addition to the two USB ports. Bonus.