Back in the day a pen was a pen, know what we mean? You could trust it to just about reliably open on command, and then maybe, if there was an R in the month, it would write something out for you, under your expert guidance of course. Nowadays that’s all ancient rubbish, if your pen doesn’t do at least three things other that write before breakfast, it’s considered to be an antique.
Behold therefore the Connector Pen. Yet another of the new breed of what we call ‘fancy pens’, which do much more than just scribble on paper. This little beauty, for instance, comes with a stylus at one end which is designed to let you mimic the touch of a finger on smartphone or tablet screen. Fancy is definitely the right word.
But the real kicker comes when you open her up, as nestled inside the guts of the creature is a discrete and oh so very useful charging cable, designed to fit between your phone and the nearest USB power socket, be it laptop, power socket adapter or your gran’s solar battery pack. Plug the micro USB connector into the phone, and the other standard USB into a laptop and you’re rocking the re-charge. As they say. It also includes a Lightning adapter for those funny iPhone things. Priced at $24.49 / £14.99.