Desktop toys: USB Cafe Pad gets a lukewarm reception

The holiday season is approaching fast. In fact, it seems to approach faster every year. For those of you in the giving spirit around the office, it can be difficult to find that special gift for the person on the other side of the cubicle wall. It cannot be too expensive and it should reflect a certain amount of lightheartedness and fun. I mean, after all, gift giving in an office environment is really about generating smiles and feelings of goodwill with your co-workers.

With that spirit in mind, TechRepublic has acquired several inexpensive yet tasteful and useful desktop toys for review. One of these fine gadgets should appeal to even the most difficult to buy for in your office.

Next on our gift list is a USB Cafe Pad courtesy of Perpetual Kid.

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Mark W. Kaelin

Like the USB Desk Lamp that we looked at last week, the USB Cafe Pad is a very simple device that claims to keep your coffee warm.

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Mark W. Kaelin

• Keep a beverage warm —- check
• On/off switch — check
• LED working light — check
• What! — I can’t smoke a turkey with it? What am I to do with all this tinder on my desk?

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Mark W. Kaelin

The Cafe Pad certainly looks stylish. It would add to the decor of most cubicles I know.

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Mark W. Kaelin

It is as if it was built for our famous TechRepublic coffee mug. The platform is heavy and sturdy so embarrassing spills are not any more likely than normal.

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Mark W. Kaelin

I am concerned with the amount of surface contact produced by the TechRepublic coffee mug. Whatever heating there is will not be distributed to the entire bottom of the mug.

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Mark W. Kaelin

Note the LED (green) light is off — it is probably not a good idea to leave the USB Cafe Pad on overnight. So an light indicating whether the device is on or off is good for those of us who forget such things.

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Mark W. Kaelin

It’s on and working. The only question now is does it keep my coffee warm as promised.

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Mark W. Kaelin

Here is definitive evidence that the sole source of power is a USB 2.0 port. Unfortunately, in my very unscientific tests, the USB Cafe Pad did not keep my coffee warm. The heating element did get warm to the touch with only USB power, but not warm enough to keep the coffee in my TechRepublic coffee mug warm.

My not quite as famous thermal CNET tumbler actually does a better job of keeping my coffee warm. Ummm, coffee.

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Mark W. Kaelin