Pre-Intro:

    Excited about the upcoming Holidays? How about a snowman that goes inside the house, hooks to your PC, and of course, won't melt. And, how about a Christmas tree that uses very little power? I am talking on a small scale though. But when was the last time you saw something cute that hooked up to your USB port on your computer? Yeah...Enter a USB, LED lit Snowman, and Xmas tree. What? You have got to be kidding? Neat? Terrible? You decide! Come check it out...
   

Intro:

    Welcome to a showcase. It does differ from a review by the following; I'll show you the product, and you decide how it applies to you, the consumer. I'll of course show you the good and bad, but in this case, something so simple, so silly, and which I'll say many times, "cute," in a meaningful way, will bring smiles to faces, and "Where did you get that?" questions I'm sure. In this write up, I'll look at two items. Christmas holiday themed of course. And you thought LED's were just for fans?


Features and specs of both:

The Xmas tree:

    In a simple, yet effective, cylindrical shaped plastic container, is the Xmas tree. Seeing that the artwork, doesn't cover the whole cylinder, you get a pretty good look at the Xmas tree through the clear plastic. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves for a second...

(1) Xmas tree packaging	(2) The product in packaging

A closer look:

    Taking the Xmas tree out of the packaging, which you see below in picture 3. It's just about 5" high, and nearly 3" wide. The the USB cable that powers this is about 45" long. Also, there is a small hook hole, if you will, at the peak of the Xmas tree in the star. Whether that is there on purpose, or part of a pre-existing ornament per say, who knows. It would be very handy if you had a big ol' pine tree on your desk, but I guess if you feel the need, hang it up. I'm sure it'd look pretty cool depending on if you could hide your wiring... You could also use it on your Xmas tree in your house, with an AC USB adapter, but I guess that is your choice. Anyway, this will go on yours, and my desk, just fine without putting much thought into it. Plug it in, and let it cycle once every few seconds or so, through the 6 stated colors. From my estimation they are: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow?, Pink?, Orange?, Aqua? Wait, that is seven...Ah well...Looking at it, trying to make notes, and type this, you get the general idea without me having to retry counting colors right? I'll have a movie below for you. Ok?

(3) There it is	(4) The bottom

The snowman packaging:

    Below, another what you see is what you get. A smaller cylinder this time, but I'll do a size relationship to a normal can later at the end of this write up. Not much to say again here other than what you can see in the pictures. Obvious though is, no real worries about breaking your plastic tree or snowman, and, once again, both are LED powered, so no worries about heat.

(5) The Snowman packaging	(6) The product in packaging

A closer look at Frosty:

    Ok, it's not "Frosty the Snowman." I mean with it's pink hat and scarf, and simulated coal eyes and mouth, and the carrot nose, but, well, it's cute for a Snow woman! It is 4" high, and about 2" wide. This USB cable on the Snowman is about 42"long.

(7) My, what a fine nose you have...	(8) Yes indeed	(9) The bottom

Light it up - The tree:

    Below you can see a few instances of the Xmas tree lit up. Essentially, the tree changes colors about every 3 seconds. The packaging calls 6 colors of LED goodness, but I think it is 7. No matter, it changes colors. Get it?

(10) Tree Pink?	(11) Red

(12) Green	(13) Blue

Light it up - The Snowman:

    Yes, the Snowman changes colors too. 7 claimed on the package, and I agree with that. And yes, it does, (not pictured) turn red too. :) Anyway, you should have an idea by now perhaps of the colors? There are links to shockwave videos below, and my Windows Media Movie, which will explain more. Since a picture is worth a 1,000 words, hmm, how much is a moving picture show worth?

(14) Snowman Green	(15) Blue	(16) Aqua? Light blue?

SWF Product movies:

    Located on the USBGEEK server, in a more lit environment, the Snowman animation is here (on the product page), and the Xmas tree is here (on the product page.) FYI, both of them are around 400kb. I was going to put them locally on my server, but I, well, didn't end up doing that. So give those pages a bit to completely load, depending on your connection speed that is.


My movie:

    I did my own video capture with my camera. The flick runs about 30ish seconds, is compressed with Windows Media Player codec, and is zipped. I trust if you are reading this, you can figure those things out if it doesn't play for you. Click the pic below for the link. It's about 880kb...

The Movie!

Summary:

    I was excited to see these two items in action personally. Ok, yes, they are simple, cheap I'm assuming, on the wholesale end, but they are just, cough, cute. I hadn't seen anything like these products before, and you probably hadn't either before this year. I can see these as a cute stocking stuffer here. You?


Pros:

   • No heat when in use
   • Very low energy consumption
   • Would make a great Geek Gadget gift
   • Colors cycle


Cons:

   • Somewhat expensive at $16.00 USD
 

Outtake:

    As stated previously, you'll get a better understanding of a size when both the Xmas tree, and the Snowman are compared to a 12 ounce can of, uh, grown up soda...I know how hard it is to visualize size when just given measurements, that us, Americans use. And for some it's hard to visualize with Metric measurements too. (Wait, that is us Americans again, heh.)

(OT1) This Bud's for you!

Closing:

    I'd like to thank USBGEEK for sponsoring these products for this write up. They do have many other neat USB orientated gadgets, cables, even cell phone data cables, and more. Check it out! Even USB power from AC Power, and USB power from your car charger. How cool is that? Anyway though, thanks for coming by! Until next time...
 

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