iLounge

Company: BlueLounge

Website: www.cableyoyo.com

Model: cableyoyo

Price: $4.99

Compatible: All non-headphone iPod cables

BlueLounge cableyoyo Ultra-Thin Cord Manager

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By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Thursday, July 21, 2005
Category: Clips and Cord Managers - General

Pros: Ultra-modern cord manager that comes in three attractive colors, winds medium-thickness cords (such as iPod FireWire/USB cables and standard audio cables) to prevent home/office desk clutter.

Cons: Adhesive pad is attached when it arrives; should have been left off and attached at user’s discretion. 

In all honesty, we could take or leave most of the cord management accessories we’ve seen: the idea of accessories for accessories has never really appealed that much to us. But Sumajin’s SmartWrap (iLounge rating: B) was a notably good exception to this rule, and two somewhat similar accessories we’ve looked at are also worthy of brief mentions. Here, we look at BlueLounge’s cableyoyo (decapitalization theirs, $4.99), and separately look at Tunewear’s TuneClip in another review.

While not intended to be portable, the cableyoyo is one of the nicest-looking desk-mounting cord managers we’ve ever seen. Though it’s designed to look almost like an old floppy disk, the cableyoyo is in essence a flat spool, around which you wind cables the thickness of Apple’s USB and FireWire cables for the iPod.

BlueLounge actually makes three versions of cableyoyo: one black, one white, and one silver. The one we tested was the silver model, which looks like metal despite the fact that all three versions are made from plastic. White and black cableyoyos have a glossier, iPod-esque look.

Each package includes a flat, relatively lightweight cable manager, and an adhesive pad to hold the unit in place on a flat surface. The pad ships attached to its back, our one and only gripe; it would have been better if separate, so you could attach it only if you wanted it there.

Winding your cord around the cableyoyo is easy, and once done, you can have one side stick out of the unit’s top while the other lies flat on your desk. This orientation is ideal for certain cable situations, while a more traditional flat wind may be better if you’re going to mount the cableyoyo on its side against a wall or side of your desk using the adhesive. Either way, it looks good - certainly better than having the cable dangling.

While we wouldn’t compare cableyoyo directly to Sumajin’s SmartWrap, the two products are equally useful for their intended applications - SmartWrap when carried around with headphone wires, cableyoyo when sitting on a desk managing thicker computer wires. BlueLounge scores higher for its efforts because of its stylish design, which in silver wonderfully matches the modern look of aluminum Macintosh computers and some iPod minis, and in glossy white or black goes well with iPods and U2 iPods. It’s a truly cool product at a reasonable price.