Manhattan 28 Port USB Hub (161718)

I admit I've had this hub for only a few hours, but I'll be back to update / correct if anything "funny" turns up.It "just works" right out of the box, which is a LOT more than I can say for some (ahem) other vendors' products. The combination of on-board USB 3.0 and 2.0 is brilliant.This is actually called the MondoHub, made by Manhattan Products (per the product insert in the box).My system:***- MacBook Air (2012 model) w/max memory, two USB 3.0 ports and one Thunderbolt port- 10 USB 2.0 devices connected to this hub: four kinds of printers, USB audio, external keyboard with mouse plugged into the keyboard, DVD-RW drive, Epson scanner, 1 Jawbone bluetooth headset in its charging connector, and an occasionally connected iPhone- 3 USB 3.0 devices (2 external hard drives, 1 USB 128gb thumb drive)***I have tested all of these devices attached together to the MondoHub and they are all working perfectly. In particular, the external drives (2 TB each) are doing the critical backups (both Time Machine and other) on the system, and are "talking" to one another and the laptop very reliably.(You can count, so you can tell I have a lot of USB ports still available.)Is it enough to have four USB 3.0 ports? In my case, absolutely. Think about it: what do you need the higher speeds of USB 3.0 for? For data drives, of course. You don't need it for printers, keyboards, audio, and other such basic devices. So why pay for all-3.0 when you don't need it?Plus, by far the vast majority of device types are still USB 2.0 anyway: it's everywhere, universally supported, and very stable. For many years the odds are that most brand-new devices you buy will still be USB 2.0. Now you've got one hub to rule them all. (Sorry, couldn't help myself.)I'm enthusiastic partly because, for many years, I've had to gang together several 2.0 hubs, but with wildly varying results. When I was running Windows, it was pretty ridiculous -- devices dropping off and coming back on for no apparent reason, taking forever to connect, etc. After I switched to a Mac a couple of years ago, things got instantly better. But things were still messy, and I still didn't have USB 3.0.I just did my own personal benchmark, and can affirm that I am definitely getting the same speeds from the MondoHub's USB 3.0 ports as if the same drives were connected directly to my on-board ports on the MacBook Air: 6 mins. 33 seconds to transfer a 9.86 gb file (an iPhoto library) from the MacBook to the external drive. And this was even while the system was doing a large Time Machine backup to the 128gb thumb drive also attached to the MondoHub.I haven't decided if the on/off buttons for each port are a big help or not. (I imagine they would be if, for some reason, you wanted to reboot a USB connection.) And the USB cable from the hub is hard-wired, so you can't just jack in your own (longer) cable. (Now that I think about it, this is a big plus because it means that The Worst cannot happen: the main cable to your hub accidentally slipping out, and trashing all the live connections to all your external drives all at the same time. THAT thought makes me shudder.) OK, so the built-in cable is fine for my needs: about 3 feet long.So far, all I really need to know: it works. (And I was highly skeptical it would.)The only thing that at first concerned me was, on first boot-up after connecting it, my MacBook took a couple of minutes to finally boot. This has NOT happened on subsequent boots, which are very fast, presumably because the first boot involved drivers being configured for the first time.CONCLUSION: THIS IS INDEED THE HUB YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR. I sure as heck have -- for years. It's great to get an item exactly "as described". Thanks to Manhattan Products for FINALLY solving a longstanding personal computing problem that no one else has noticed yet.I will update as new information arises.________________UPDATE - OCT. 27, 2012: Seems to work great under Windows as well. I boot my MacBook Air to Windows occasionally to work with my one essential work application that is Windows-only. I realized I hadn't tested that.As usual with booting to Windows, I found it best to first unplug the hub from the laptop, then do the boot-up. (As with all other hubs I have used in this scenario, if I boot with any hub plugged in, Windows takes FOREVER to boot up. Plugging in after the boot clears that up.)But, once booted and plugged in, all devices I tested work fine: trusty black-and-white laser printer, external sound card, keyboard and mouse combination. But, most importantly, ALL of my USB 3.0 external drives were there (as well as one USB 2.0 drive that I keep formatted for NTFS). I certainly don't use all of my USB 2.0 devices under Windows (as I only occasionally need Windows), but the tested ones work great.So, I continue to say about this hub: Go for it!________________UPDATE - MAY 28, 2013: Not much new to report except that all is still well and working as described above. As the manufacturer notes clearly in the product documentation, this hub (like all others I've seen) does not output sufficient voltage to charge an iPad. With an iPad, you are always best off using a dedicated iPad charger, or your on-board USB port. Still a great hub and very glad I found it.________________UPDATE - Sept. 11, 2013 - USE THE GREAT MAGNET MOUNTSThis hub comes with magnets embedded in the feet on the bottom. I bought a 12"x12" M-D Building Products 56032 1-Feet by 1-Feet Galvanized Steel Sheet, screwed that to the credenza on my desk, and it worked great! The hub is now mounted vertically with the magnets and I can pop it off anytime to plug in a new cable. Nice feature to help with the clutter.

While you get "28 high speed USB outlets," you only get 4 USB 3 outlets. Maybe I missed it in the description, but that was not the impression I had when I ordered my Manhattan. Also, while there are numbered switches to turn on and off each outlet, none of the outlets are numbered and so you have to figure out by trial and error as to which switch goes with which outlet.The unit comes with rare earth magnets on the bottom to attach the unit to a metal cabinet. This seemed pretty cool. The only problem is that the magnets are held in place by their little bitty magnetic fields to small screws. Three of mine were loose in the packaging and when I attempted to replace them in their holes, I passed too closely by a couple of the other magnets and sucked them out of their holes. In short, the magnets need to be glued in place to work properly. Otherwise once you stick the Manhattan on a metal surface and try to remove it, all the magnets remain on the metal surface because the metal surface has more surface area than the little screws on the unit. So the magnets are a waste if you don't glue them in place and it is probably best that they be removed if not glued in place so that they don't potentially corrupt any of your magnetic media (assuming you have any that is loose and susceptible to magnetic fields). All my magnets are now holding pictures to my filing cabinet.Otherwise, the unit seems to function just fine. I definitely had to add on the (included) power supply in order for the unit to charge up my cell phone, but that certainly worked as designed. I needed the Manhattan for the additional outlets and it is doing the job as desired. Given the cost of the unit compared to some others, it seems to be a reasonable deal. If you need more than just 4 USB3 outlets, however, then this unit is not for you. If you are like me and have mostly USB 2 peripherals, cell phones, cameras, external hard drives, thumb drives, etc., then this unit is very handy!