Tired of packing a huge mess of cables every time you go on a trip? The Magic Cable Trio is a 3-in-1 cable designed to cut down on your clutter. It lets you power and sync a wide range of devices ranging from phones, iOS systems (e.g. the iPad), music players, and compact cameras. Just make sure your device uses miniUSB, microUSB, or an iPhone dock connector. The three connections are daisy-chained, making it uber-compact and easy to manage. They cost $20 over at Innergie.

Magic Cable Trio (via Wired)

USBCELL batteries might look like ordinary AA rechargeable batteries upon first glance. That is, until you see how they’re charged. Rather than use a battery charger, the batteries are charged using the standard USB ports on your computer or laptop. They could come in handy on trips where you need power for your camera or flash, but want to avoid the hassle of a separate battery charger.

USBCELL AA Rechargable Battery [Amazon]

Here’s a funky fusion of analog and digital: Etsy seller newfocus repurposes 35mm film cassettes by using them to house USB flash drives. You can buy a 2GB one for $19 or a 4GB one for $24 from their Etsy store. They would make pretty fun gift for a photography-lover you know, and if you don’t want to buy one you can try your hand at building your own!

Flash drives are a dime a dozen, but the Fuuvi Pick is a bit different — it functions as a flash drive but doubles as a camera for both still photo and video! There a USB connector on one end, and microSD slot on the other. It shoots 1280 × 1024 (1.3 megapixel) photographs and 720 x 480 video at 30fps. To transfer photographs, simply plug the camera into your computer — like you would with a flash drive or with a Flip camcorder — and it will be recognized as a drive. You can pick one up over at AudioCubes for $60.

Fuuvi Pick (via Trendhunter)

The Flashkus by Art Lebedev is a cheap, disposable, and environmentally friendly cardboard USB stick that might one day make sharing event photos with friends much easier and cheaper. While many websites are geared towards photo sharing, transferring gigabytes of data to friends is still difficult to do via the Interwebs, so people often choose to burn DVDs or use pricey USB drives. The Flashkus would make the process easier by allowing people to simply tear off a USB drive, dump photos onto it, scribble a note onto the front, and hand it off to their friends. Once the photos are downloaded, the drive can be reused or thrown away.

It’ll be available in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB but currently seems to be in the concept/design stage. Hopefully Art Lebedev adds it to their online store soon.

Flashkus (via Wired)

In the current world we live in, it’s often the case that one person taking photographs for a group might promise to share the images as soon as they can but end up forgetting the images in some corner of their hard drive, never to be enjoyed by the other people in the photo. Enter the Samsung UCIM concept camera, designed by Jung Eun Park. Rather than store images onto a memory card owned by one person, it records images onto USB flash drives through three USB ports, allowing two other people to instantly receive the captured images.

It’s an interesting concept that turns the way we think about shooting and sharing upside-down.

UCIM Concept Camera (via Engadget)

When Apple designed the iPad, they opted for simplicity and omitted things like a USB port or memory card slots. This made it more tedious for photographers to transfer a large number of photographs onto their iPads, since the Camera Connection Kit needed for USB and SD Card support comes in two separate dongles. Luckily, there’s a made-in-China knockoff that can ease a little of the pain — the 3-in-1 iPad Camera Connection Kit combines the two dongles into one nicely designed apparatus. Available in both black and white, it comes with a USB port, a SD Card slot, and a Micro SD Card slot. Pick one up over at the M.I.C Gadget store for $29.90.

3-in-1 iPad Camera Connection Kit (via Engadget)

The Flip Video camcorder has had a convenient built-in USB connector for quite some time, so why not compact cameras? Today Samsung announced the PL90, a 12.2 megapixel compact shooter that offers a convenient USB plug built into the body of the camera. Gone are the days of carrying around a separate cable or card reader, or having to have a computer with built-in card slots.

Aside from the nifty connection, the camera is pretty ordinary on other fronts. It has a 2.7 inch LCD on the back, offers 4x optical zoom, and supports 640×480 video recording at 30fps or 15fps (what? no HD?). It’ll hit the market next month at an entry-level price of $150.

We’ll likely see more and more compact cameras offering this kind of connection in the near future.

Here’s a unique way to keep your photographs close at hand (literally): USB flash drive cufflinks. Removing the lid on each cufflink reveals at 2GB flash drive, for 4 gigs of total storage. They’re available in gunmetal and gold finishes, and can be customized with an engraving. Sadly, these novelty items are usually absurdly expensive, and these cufflinks are no exception — the pair costs a whopping $195.

4GB USB Flash Drive Cufflinks (via Wired)

This might be old news for some of you, but I just came across it so I’m guessing many of you haven’t seen it before either. This is a 4GB USB drive that looks exactly like a miniature Canon 5D Mark II, with an EF 24-105mm lens as the drive, and the camera body as the case.

You can find them on eBay by searching for “canon 5d usb“. These little things will set you back about $94 apiece, including shipping.

Don’t need that much power in a USB drive? There’s also a 2GB flash drive that looks like a Canon 450D (AKA Rebel XSI). It actually costs more ($110) and seems to be a bit more rare. The USB drive is also in the body rather than the lens, and it comes with a kit lens rather than a nice L lens:

Seeing as the lens ship from Hong Kong, Canon probably doesn’t have anything to do with these lenses, just like the Canon 24-105 coffee mugs that appeared when the Canon L lens mug became a crazy Internet hit.

Anyhow, if you want to say you have a full frame USB drive and don’t mind spending semi-big bucks for one, this is the way to go.