(FORTUNE Magazine) – If you bought a PC in the past 18 months, you may have noticed a couple of mysterious little slots on the back. The slots tap into a set of circuits inside your PC called the universal serial bus, which may be the key to making digital desktop computing more manageable. For starters, USB makes installing devices a whole lot easier: Plug in any compatible gadget--videocamera, monitor, printer, scanner, speakers, mouse, or CD-ROM--and Windows 98 PC recognizes the device instantly. You can even "daisy chain" the devices, plugging one into another, and the PC will recognize and work with each one individually. Designed for high-speed, two-way communication, USB ports are much faster than the serial ports and more reliable than the parallel ports on older computers.

The USB idea has been around for a while, but only with the release of Windows 98 (which has built-in USB support) is it getting implemented. In the past few months, dozens of USB devices have come onto the market, and hundreds more will be available soon. These new devices take advantage of the USB technology in interesting ways. Here are a couple that do a particularly good job:

Altec Lansing's ADA 70 Powercube speaker system can make your PC rock with great sound. The 34-watt system sells for $149, which gets you a pair of three-inch desktop speakers and a six-inch bass subwoofer that sits on the floor. With USB, it's a breeze to install. Better yet, the sound is superb. In most current PCs, a sound card converts the ones and zeros of the CD you're playing to the analog audio signals that most speakers require. But the USB circuits pass digital sound directly from your computer to the ADA70 speakers, which process the data themselves. That means less work for your computer, less chance for distortion, and potentially, less cost--soon you may not need an expensive sound card in your PC. For a small system, the ADA70 delivers excellent sound, with clear midrange and treble and fine bass--a big step up from standard PC speakers. For info, call 800-258-3288, or surf over to www.altec.com.

Moving from sound to pictures, check out Kodak's new digital camera for your PC. The $170 Kodak DVC323 is a tiny camera that sits atop the PC and comes with software that makes PC-to-PC videoconferences a snap. You can also capture and edit video and still pictures, and send them via E-mail. Since USB circuits were designed from the start to smooth the transit of digital data, the Kodak camera delivers remarkably smooth video at a variety of screen sizes. For information, check out the company's Website at www.kodak.com/go/dvc, or call Kodak Digital Science at 800-235-6325.