Kensington ShareCentral 1

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Julie

July 23, 2008

Have you ever wished that you could easily share a USB device such as a printer, scanner, external hard drive, etc. between to computers, without having to unplug and replug into either computer when you needed to use the device? Kensington is here to help you out with their new ShareCentral USB peripheral switch boxes.

Available in 1, 2 and 5 device switching models, the ShareCentral comes with everything you need to get started sharing devices between two computers.

The next step is to connect the USB device that you want to share between the two computers, to the the lone USB connector on the ShareCentral. I tested this switch box with two iMacs, a flash card reader, my Palm Centro USB charge / sync cable and a Canon flatbed scanner.

To switch the connected USB device from computer to computer, you just press the button on the top of the ShareCentral. The LED will light up to show that the device has moved and badda boom, you can now use the USB device on the other computer. Fast and easy. The only issues that I had with the ShareCentral are related to the fact that I am a Mac user. If you hook up a device like a flash card reader to the ShareCentral and switch it to the second computer without first ejecting it on the first computer, you'll receive a device error popup message. I also noticed that when I first hooked this switch box up to my two iMacs, that the first time that I used it, I also had a keyboard popup message. It was as if my Mac thought I had just plugged in a new keyboard. Weird. This happened on both iMacs a couple of times...

This is a nifty little gadget that is pretty useful. The only thing I would say is that I personally wouldn't fork over $40 for a switch box that can only switch one device. I'd probably spend more and get the ShareCentral 2 or 5. The added benefit of getting one of them is the fact that they can also automatically detect which computer needs to use the printer. No button pressing required. Apparently this added bonus is only compatible with computers running Windows XP or Vista and does require a software installation. But hey, I thought I'd mention it :o)

If you're looking for an easy way to share USB devices between two computers, you really can't find anything easier than the Kensington ShareCentral line of switch boxes.  This modern take on the clunky metal switch box will cut down on having to buy duplicate devices, cable clutter and network setup confusions. It's a definite must have for multi computer families that like to share peripherals.