I just coil my cord up and rubberband it tightly. This keeps it at about the same length as the product above, but doesn't cost me 8 dollars.

What a useless addition to a travel bag. Like commenter #1, above, I don't carry an extra cable but rather keep my standard-length cable bound to any length I want. I do, however, avoid the rubber bands by using some of Belkin's great little Velcro cable ties. I usually cut them into two or three slices and use them for the really small cables in my bag.

Amazon carries them in a bundle for $3.99 - half the price of the single, short cable shown here - and provides about a dozen wraps if cut properly. A far better investment, in my opinion, than an $8 cable.

http://amzn.com/B00000J1SC

I bought a fully retractable USB cable for my smartphone on ebay for $5. It can be short when you want it and long when you want it and cost less.

Shhh, Eric. Don't you realize that cool tools is here to push overpriced crap? Don't you just love that iStubz also sells a long version for $1 more? I hear they are also gonna make a shorter version of the long version for $10, but don't tell anyone...

I have one of these for my Ipod and a mini usb cord for my Blackberry that I keep in my briefcase. Both are great - like them more that the retractable versions I had earlier. To each their own, but this solution works perfectly for me. Highly recommended.

This is even better.

http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/iphone-accessories/scosche-flipsync-retractable-iphone-cable-i-want-one-iphone-accessories

Sorry, I knew Cool Tools to be better than this... A short cable? That's what we're getting excited about these days? Next we'll be asking for TVs with concave curved screens, low-volume speakers and laptops with short battery life (so you're forced to be more productive and finish your work before it dies on you).

^ I couldn't resist, and I also didn't expect Cool Tools to post something like this - there are plenty of better posts on this blog.

Got mine at meritline for $1.00 shipped.

I've been really disappointed in cool tools lately. When I discovered it a year or two ago it was one of the best websites I'd ever found for collections of cool, little known items.

Now they'll post just about anything as a cool tool. $500 laptop bags, golf clubs, and now a short usb cable?

I got something like this from monoprice for, well, less than $8.

@ SS -- Yeah, the site's really gone downhill since they started letting readers comment.

I love this blog but this post stinks. Get a regular cord on ebay for a couple of bucks and band it or something to the length that suits you. This is kinda stupid.

Does anyone make a Mini-USB to iPod adapter? I already carry around a USB to Mini-USB cable for my cellphone, it would be nice to just use that cable plus a small adapter instead of carrying around a whole cable.

The short length is nice, but it's still just another cord to get tangled up with other cords. For me, the best solution is the retractable ones, like the ones made by ZipLinq (http://www.ziplinq.com/products/Prod_Individual3.aspx?groupcode=S3073)

RETRACTABLE! It's the answer to everything. Trust me.

Lowmichl - Best comment ever.
I have to ask, SS, Chris, Abhimanyu Ghoshal, and Kevin: Why did you take the time to read this post, which was so uninteresting to you? And why, for gosh sakes, did you take the time to comment? You may have noticed that a half-dozen other people were interested, or bought it, or offered an alternative. This site is not called "Tools that are Cool for Every Reader." In order to be varied enough to be interesting to a wide audience, it will have to be occasionally "hit or miss" with everyone. Clearly, the original poster thought it was interesting/useful. So at least one person says "It is cool." We can assume that at least one other thinks "It is not cool," even if they don't write that. Let's all agree to the following: "Cool Tools is not always cool to all readers." Done! Now we don't have to read "Not a cool tool" anymore. Glad we got that settled.

short cables are great if you have those little zippered storage section in your laptop. a 2 ft cable rolled up wont fit in the storage area.

also this cable looks cool and this site is called 'cool tools'...not 'cheap whinning tools'.

I don't use an iPhone myself, but think any purchase under $10 that can make a workspace or laptop bag a little tidier is worth checking out. The great thing about Cool Tools is that you can alter the content if you're not seeing what you want, or not liking what you see. E-mail me, send me a recommendation, for a power tool you love, your favorite podcast, a cable shorter than 7cm, something useful that isn't already in the substantial archives under the Categories heading.
elon {at} schoenholz dot com
--Elon

The only thing cool about this is that someone is making $ from selling it. Good for them.

It is not a tool, it does not enable you to do anything that you couldn't before, and I doubt anyone with a brain is saying, "what a fantastic idea, I had never seen that before", as most of the old-school cool tools used to do for people.

The iPhone ITSELF is a cool tool however.

Wow, so many haters. What people neglect to realize is that the comments here are worthwhile when you ignore all the hate and vitriol. I find it personally super cool that when the editors post up something they think is cool, all these people chime in with alternative ideas (rubber band guys, you totally missed the point and yours is not a solution. I've used your "solution" for years and it is not a good one if you are looking to declutter and avoid tangles).

Folks who chimed with alternative sources to buy similar products. Bravo.

Folks who chimed in about retractable cables and where to get them. Bravo.

For everyone else -- stop the hatin, just because you do not find something useful or cool does not mean others do not.

I travel a lot with carryon only -- I'm a onebag.com fan (there's a cool tool web site already ;-)

Replacing the many long, bulky and heavy cables with short, light or thin ones really helps with size and weight when you carry them around all the time.

I found my short USB/microUSB/miniUSB/iPod cables from dealextreme.com for approximately nothing. I got some very thin ethernet cat6 cables at a local reseller. I have found retractable cables unreliable and they are actually bulkier and heavier than short/thin cables.

I just bought a Samsung 1.8 inch USB hard drive and it came with both long and short USB cable -- perhaps the manufacturers are wising up to this market segment themselves...

Try this sometime: Weight and measure the bulk of all the cables and other stuff you carry in your laptop bag -- I think you will be surprised.

@CT Lover: Why did I post? Because this site frequently does have cool tools, but as others have mentioned, it has appeared to have gone downhill. I hope the editors pay attention to these posts and refrain from posting overpriced crap in the future.
@MikeY: You want an alternative idea? A while back, Cool Tools posted the Velcro One-Wrap (http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/002744.php) and LifeHacker responded touting Belkin cable ties which are $3 for a 6-pack (http://lifehacker.com/378850/cheap-and-easy-velcro-ties). You can find velcro cable ties similar to the Belkin ones at dollar stores; they come in packs of 8 or 10 for $1 and you get assorted colors. I sew the fuzzy end around one end of the cable I want to shortened (usually the end going to the wall or computer), and voila, a cable that I can wrap up short without fuss. Rubber bands can do the trick as well, but they are a pain to unwrap and can snap. Some of the colors in the package are pretty ugly, but they can be used to color-code all your cables (I use the dark green for all the power cables which can be hidden, yellow for visible power cables, black for black cables which are in view, white for my GF's iPod cables, etc).

Speaking of the velcro post, I am a huge fan of actually useful stuff that isn't a ripoff - like the Velcro plant ties (http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000663.php).

I LOVE THIS!!! Yes, it's pricey, but there's a usb plug in my glove box, and rubberbanding up my charger cable is clunky, not neat and tidy. I like neat and tidy, and don't mind spending a few bucks for it. I will definitely research the cheaper websites.

My husband is a rubber band guy.

It is a solution. It is cheap. It is not cool. Rubber bands are simply not ever cool. They are only cheap.

Get your definitions straight. Go to Cheap Solutions dot com (if it exists) if you are so inclined.

Short cord when you need it - cool. Rubber band - cheap.

@SS:

The definition of tool doesn’t require that it enable you to do something you couldn’t do before. (I can drive a nail with a screwdriver: does that mean a hammer isn’t a tool?) Most tools provide incremental benefits, which this does. Whether or not that benefit is worth $8, well, we can each decide that for ourselves.

The metadiscussion here warrants some development of fair play, if you're going to criticize a CT entry. A long time ago before spam, alt.hacks was a great place to read up on how coat hangers and solder could make your life easier, or just solve a hairy problem.

I think if you're going to comment on a CT entry with a cheaper/ hack solution, just mark it as ObHack and then mention your dollar store counterpoint. There's no need to decry the CT entry as uncool or untool -- your opinion on that should stay between your ears, because it's not really helpful. It's noise. The CT entries are vetted by someone who is presumably evaluating these on merit. If you have *better* entries, submit them. If you don't like the entries, what is your objective when you criticize the entry? To teach the editor(s) what? How to do their jobs better?

If so, lemme ask this: where were you when KK was looking for a editor? Sidelined? Or did KK find you wanting, and now you're here to make us all suffer with your POV? Because in my estimation, if you're not here to help move this forward, maybe 4chan is more your style.

-given armorer

I'm surprised at all the haters. I looked for a short cable for a long time before finding something even shorter than this one - it's an ipod-usb adaptor that doesn't even have 8" of cable in it. it's essentially just the connectors on either side.

I keep it in my shoulder bag and I love it. I can only assume the people who don't see the point don't have anything but dedicated computer bags or don't need to carry a bunch of little items. (okay I don't NEED to but I do...)

Retractable cable for $1.97 shipped. Mine has been going strong for 3 years.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.22486

My, we are cranky today. It's a good tip, not a great one. I love my shorty cables for travel. I use some short ones, some of the wind-up variety. Main reason is that they are compact and don't tangle.

I get mine from dealextreme to save $.

Hmm, looking at my desk here, I am thinking I should be using shorty cables here!

If you're a frequent traveler, short cables are great. I have one for my iPhone and one for all of my mini-usb devices from http://www.fruitshop.us. They're even smaller than the iStubz shown above. The difference in volume occupied by the full sized cables vs. the shorties is dramatic and they don't get tangled with each other. I just wish I could find one for my Zune.

I think this is a great find. I use a retractable iPhone cable, myself, and find retractable cables to be a definite Cool Tool; but, if those didn't exist, I'd use this one. Reasons it is superior to a tied-up regular cable: it is more flexible (no stiff portion from the wadded up cable), can't unravel, doesn't require a separate tying up piece, and can't snag on other tied-up cables. It is inferior only in that it can't replace a long cable, for example, for wall charging use.

It's also not that expensive, people. Apple charges $20 for an iPhone cable, and off-brand ones are usually at least $5 (and those super-cheap Monoprice/DealExtreme type deals come and go, and there's no reason to think short cables like this won't eventually make it there). An extra $3 for a genuinely useful accessory to a $500 phone doesn't seem like it should elicit much outrage.

$5.29 shipped for the above item PLUS a similar versions that adapt USB mini to USB A AND USB Micro to USB A. Perfect for those frequent travelers who carry both an iPod/iPhone and a BlackBerry. There are millions of us who do this!

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.34370