The tech is applied to things like USB ports, which in 3.0, will go from polling (clock based, always checking) devices to being managed via events, so they can sleep whenever not being used. And graphics, when the page isn't changing, can be run out of a frame buffer so the GPU and video RAM can sleep. When I say more sleep, I mean for additional milliseconds or longer. This adds up, over the course of a day when people stop to read or step away from their computers. In the past, the OS controlled the power savings, and that required power to process in turn, so you were using the system's power to manage power, keeping those other components from ever really turning off. By doing power management with more granularity, in hardware and software together, you can switching things on/off fast enough to fit in lots of "naps" and you can also do it with less processing overhead.

I'm excited for this tech to go everywhere where there's a chip.

Users can then manage any connected Smart Plugs from any web browser, be it one their PC or phone. A light the you accidentally left on can be easily turned off and plugs can be set to die at certain times, or it appears, even at certain predefined power guidelines.

The SmartPlugs will run about $45 each but only be available with a $260 AlertMe subscription. It's pricey tech for the time being, but it can only get cheaper from here. [AlertMe via Smart Planet]