Google offers more ways to make your broadband beautiful
TP-LINK and Google’s OnHub router gets new shells – and now you can even make your own
Broadband routers are generally pretty ugly. I can see mine from where I’m writing this and it’s a nondescript black box covered in dust and surrounded by a decidedly foul-looking spaghetti dish of cables.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Back in August Google launched OnHub, a router it had designed in conjunction with TP-LINK. Simple to set up and use, it’s also far more attractive than 99 percent of its peers, being a smooth cylinder with a single dimmable status light on top. And now Google has made it even easier on the eye.
Firstly, there are three new shells for the OnHub: black and silver; white and gold; and a fetching bamboo. As with the OnHub itself, they’re not available to buy in the UK yet, but are priced between US$29 and US$39 at the US Google Store.
But it doesn’t stop there. Google has also introduced OnHub Makers, a gallery of shells created by artists, designers and, well, makers. Think papercraft, glassblowing, resin and more.
You can even cast yourself as an OnHub Maker, because Google has released all the information you need to design and build your own shell (download the Maker Packet PDF here).
All this creativity has got us wondering when the OnHub will make it to British shores. Given that it’s been four months since it was announced in the the US, we’re not holding out hope of an imminent arrival, but fingers crossed we’ll hear more in the new year.