I have now ordered the "Adafruit FTI Friend", after having read on their web site that they guarantee that it uses genuine FTDI232 chips.
A note to anybody feeling tempted to buy the "fake" FTDI chip breakout, which comes on a red board with just the writing "FTDI232" on its underside --- DON'T!! After prolonged testing, all I can say is that these things just do not appear to work. They are barely five bucks a piece, which seems like a right bargain, but it's really just money down the toilet IMO, because you will simply not be happy with them.
Mine was just completely dead, it was recognized as a COM port device, but that's where it ends. You cannot upload sketches with it, you cannot use any kind of serial port functionality when connecting a microcontroller.
This is the second time that cheap junk from China has turned out to be simply a waste of time. Buy tested and certified brand name breakouts. They may cost $10 to $15 more than the Chinese bargain knock off stuff, but you will - literally - be guaranteed results and you'll potentially save yourself huge amounts of hassle.