Do you like USB rechargeable toys?
Not really - I prefer toys that take rechargeable batteries - if the charge runs out mid-play I can simply change batteries. Unfortunately more and more high-quality toys seem to be rechargeable...
What do you think their main advantages are?
If the toy has to be rechargeable, the advantage of the USB charger over a mains charger for LH is that the same charger can be sold world wide. And I suppose that a simple charging cable costs less than a whole 240 to 12 V transformer/charger. For me travelling the USB charger is no big advantage because I still need to travel with an adapter - for my laptop or phone charger. Though the USB charging cable will take up less baggage space than a mains charger (not that I plan on travelling with my sex toys...)
What do you think their main disadvantages are?
Rechargeable in general:
That the battery cannot be separated from the toy. In my experience (with cameras, cordless drills, laptops and portable phones) it's the weak link of any electronic device - likely to die before the rest of the device. For the above-listed things I can buy a new battery, but not for my rabbit.
Rechargeable batteries can die very quickly (depending on their quality - and therefore price) when they are not used regularly, thus they only make sense in toys that are constantly used.
The issues with recharging batteries: The charge current must not be higher than the battery capacity (I believe I've read somewhere it should only be half or even less?), the charger should switch from charging to maintaining charge when the battery is full (I seriously doubt my phone charger does that), there should be overheating protection, ideally one would only charge empty batteries (at least for Ni-Mh batteries, I believe Ni-Cadmium are obsolete?) but my phone charger (or laptop) does not have a discharge function either. My battery charger has all that...
USB-rechargeable:
The laptop needs to be on for charging and I'm one of the people who switch it off when not working on it (and switching it on just to charge a toy goes against the grain. Neither do I want to work for 16 hours to charge a Stronic Eins...) I only had one phonecharger but a number of toys (and the phone...) needing its port. Now I have a second USB port but it charges at 1000 mA - and practically no manufacturer ever specifies what type of battery is in the toy. Which really pisses me off!!! I want to know the metal composition and I want to know the capacity!
Do you prefer USB toys that plug directly in (like the http://www.lovehoney.co.uk/product.cfm?p=14703) - even though they can't be waterproof?
I hate toys that are not waterproof and very much hope that I won't have to buy one ever again. (No, I don't play in the bath/shower - but I want my toys to be easy to clean!)
Do you mind USB-charged toys that have a wire (http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC003ZM/A) - so they can be waterproof?
I don't mind the wire, though I wonder whether at least toys from one series couldn't be made so that they all work with the same wire? If we can't get world-wide standardization... I believe Fun Factory have the same charging cable for all their toys and went so far as to sell the toys without charging cable - annoying for the first toy, but with my very few rechargeable toys and already a chaos of charging cables I'm beginning to see the sense of it. One cable for all toys (and maybe one cable in reserve in case the other one gets lost) would be enough for me...
Would you prefer a standard mains-charged toy, or a USB-charger toy?
At the same price, mains charged with EU plug.