Gizmodo: Power Strip

E-Ball: the Power-Brick-Friendly Power Strip, From Space

Kit Eaton — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Who'd have thought that the humble power strip would warrant so much creative design attention? Not me. But I like this e-Ball power strip design from Mashallah design: it's kind of like the UFO one, designed to deconflict many chunky power bricks, but taken into an extra dimension. In fact, the first thing it reminded me of was the space stations in the amazing old game Elite. But that might be just me. It's a concept, but begging for someone to make it real. [Interior Design Room]

Revolve is a New Spin on Power Strip Design

Kit Eaton — Sun, 18 May 2008 10:20:00 EDT

Power strips sit under all our desks, and they're an oft-ignored bit of kit, with the occasional exception. Which is why I like the Revolve power strip design by Takumi Yoshida. It's a simple and neat solution to the problem of power strip clutter caused by different sized power bricks: each socket can spin around on the column so there's plenty of room to deconflict. It's just a concept, but I'd love for someone to make it real— the fearsome tangle of electrical connections sitting under my desk is a scary fire hazard. [Yanko design]

Cost Control Power Strip: See How Power-Thirsty Your Gadgets Are

Kit Eaton — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:04:48 EDT

The Cost Controller power strip lets you hook up eight gizmos, protects them against voltage spikes, and also shows you how much power they're drawing so you can worry about your electricity bill well ahead of time. It actually shows consumption in kilowatt hours along with the frequency and voltage characteristics of your power line, if you're into that sort of data. At least watching those usage digits mount up on its LCD display might prompt you into eco-friendly behavior, like not leaving stuff on standby. Available now for $99.99. [Computer Gear via Red Ferret]

The ezSpace UFO Surge Protector Gets Price Drop to $29

Jason Chen — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:24:11 EDT

That ezSpace UFO Surge Protector we reviewed and loved last month got a $10 price drop down to $29, making it even more of a good buy. [Review]

Surge Power Strip: Your Power Wastage In Plain Sight

Kit Eaton — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EDT

The Climatized Objects Project think there's a simpler way to make you save energy than clever sockets: "Surge" plops your power sockets and thus energy consumption in open view. Shaming you, and dominating your home. Yup: I'd certainly be tempted to unplug my "on standby" devices if this red surge-protecting beast was draped over my desk, behind my TV and down the stairs. Oh, no: wait— of course I wouldn't, because I'd never use this crazy crapness in the first place. I kind of see what they're getting at, but I'm distinctly glad this will remain just an eco-concept. Spilling coffee with it around would be fatal. [Dvice]

Belkin's Mashup Surge Protector and USB Charger is Perfect, Tiny

Kit Eaton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:00:13 EDT

I was desperate for a product just like Belkin's mini surge protector and USB charger combo yesterday, as I struggled behind my desk with the nest of wires, power bricks and surge protection to find my phone charger. Taking the small-is-neat approach, Belkin looks to have tackled their Dual USB Power Adapter and Monster Power Outlets to Go and made them one handy package. Sure, it won't change the world, but it's a nifty product that might tidy your home up a bit. If only it came with Euro-shaped sockets, I find myself thinking. Out soon for $25. [Belkin and CNET crave]

Tributaries T12 Power Strip Is Overkill With 12 Ports, Eight of Which Rotate

Jason Chen — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:50:03 EST

Tributaries has had a rotating power strip on the market before, but this T12 seems like they're going all out—and by all out, we mean adding two extra ports to the strip. The whole thing comes in at an amazing 12 ports, eight of which rotate at up to 90 degrees so AC adapters don't bump into each other. Plus there's even coax and Ethernet protection. Sounds good, right? Too bad it costs $120, and doesn't even include a UPS battery backup in that price. [Tributaries Cable]

Lightning Review: ezSpace UFO Surge Protector

Jason Chen — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:40:16 EST

The Gadget: The ezGear UFO, a relatively compact surge protector/power strip that holds six distinct AC adapters so they don't bump into each other.

The Price: $29

The Verdict: Definitely worth it if you have a bunch of large and unwieldy AC adapters to plug into one port—say, if you were building yourself a home charging station for all your gadgets. The outlets are upside down because your chargers need to face downwards in order to have enough room to fit, but the slots are angled at such a way that gravity won't be pulling your bricks out of the socket.

At $29, it's $40 cheaper than the similarly 6-ported PowerSquid, and takes up less room as well. You could get the $13, 4-port PowerSquid, but you'd skip on the surge protection (which the UFO has). Would we spend our own money on this? Yes, yes we would. [EZGear]

Socket Sense Power Strip Has the Sense to Slide

Jason Chen — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:15:28 EST

The age old conundrum of AC adapter bricks not fitting correctly on power strips has had many solutions lately, but this Socket Sense seems to be quite a clever one to add to the pile. It looks like a standard strip with the plugs offset at a 45 degree angle, but each socket can actually slide up and down the strip to accommodate larger or smaller plugs.

The Socket Sense isn't big enough to make for a strip made up entirely of AC adapter bricks, but it should fit a good number more than standard strips—a fair compromise unless you're going for something like this. Then again, at $39, you may be better off getting a few normal strips and daisy chaining. [Ideativeinc via The Gadgeteer via Oh Gizmo]

Eubiq Wall-Mounted Power Strip Goes Consumer

Jason Chen — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:56:13 EST

We've known about the Eubiq wall-mounted power strip for a while, but they've just told us that they're making a consumer version that doesn't need to be professionally installed by someone who won't burn your house down.

The concept is the same: a strip that mounts on the wall and allows you to modularly plug in a bunch of gadgets. Each plug slides up and down the strip so you can position it the way you want. You can even remove plugs if you don't need so many. Eubiq has a safety feature on each of them that makes it so you can shove your finger inside as much as you want and not be electrocuted. The plug needs to go in and twist to make contact with the sides of the track to reach the live wire (your finger will only hit ground).

The consumer version sells all by itself and doesn't need to be installed in a wall, which means fewer options for moving the plugs around the track but still more options than a standard power strip. No word on when this version will hit the market. [Eubiq]

Powramid Power Strip Lifts, Separates Your AC Adapters

Jason Chen — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:00:49 EST

Although this Powramid looks quite similar to the flying saucer surge protector we saw last month, this looks a bit more refined in terms of not looking like some guy made it in his garage. The Powramid has the same six outlets that the flying saucer had, but has their outlets facing right side up, meaning your adapters will hang naturally instead of dangling backwards. And best of all the thing will be only $17-$25, meaning that it's not that much more than a standard power strip. [Blast Magazine]

Raise Me Up Powerstrip Provides Ease of Use For the One Handed

Jason Chen — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 20:00:33 EST

Whenever we need to unplug something when one of our hands is busy holding a croissant, we have two solutions: use our feet to hold the power strip or put down the croissant. Yoo-Kyung Shin has another idea, however, and designed a Raise Me Up powerstrip that you can de-plug with just one hand. All you have to do is click the lever down and the plug pops out, allowing you to unplug stuff all day while still enjoying your croissants. Damn, we really want a croissant right now. [Yanko Design]

Flying Saucer Surge Protector Keeps All Plugs Separate

Jason Chen — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:40:13 EST

There have been many solutions to the problem of fat AC adapters clogging up your surge protectors (like this), but this ezSpace UFO flying saucer protector from ezGear looks like it can actually be filled with all AC adapters without colliding. The secret is that it's pretty huge and shaped like an flipped-over bowl, but it does the job in four- and six-plug versions. There's even a wall-mounted version as well. The first products will ship in January. [EZGear]

Tributaries Flexible Power Strip Bends 90 Degrees

Jason Chen — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:14:31 EDT

We've seen our share of interesting power strips, but Tributaries' PWRS-T10 has five standard outlets and five twistable outlets that give you a good way to plug in multiple large AC adapters at once. Because each one of the five slots can be twisted at up to 90 degrees, you can position them at say, 0, 45, 90, 45, and 0 degrees so your plugs don't fight. In addition, there's also coax, RJ-11 (phone) and RJ-45 (Ethernet) cables to surge protect as well. No pricing on this yet, but we're guessing it's much more expensive than the $5 power strips you can pick up at Fry's. [Tributaries]

Plugging Your PS3 Into a Surge Protector Doesn't Void Your Warranty

Jason Chen — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:40:16 EDT

A PlayStation forum poster claims that a Sony customer service rep told him his broken PS3's warranty was voided because he plugged the console into a surge protector and not a wall socket, and that he'd have to pay $150 to fix it. When reached for comment, Sony said this wasn't the case and that your warranty won't be voided if you use a power strip.

Even if the forum poster was told that his warranty was voided, it could have been a result of a customer service rep not wanting to deal with this guy rather than some kind of company policy.

We've also heard that Microsoft's recommended usage is to plug your Xbox 360 into the wall, and not a power strip, because a poorly made surge protector or an overloaded strip can cause damage to your console from not supplying enough power. We're still waiting on official word from Microsoft to see if it's against their warranty to plug a 360 in this way (it's probably not). [Wired]

Seiko EM-49 Car Socket Power Strip

Travis Hudson — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:40:06 EDT

This device from Seiko easily falls into the "Why didn't I think of that?" category. The Seiko EM-49 is simply a power strip for the 12V power adapter in most vehicles. It also includes a USB port for charging your MP3 player, cellphone, etc. It goes for a cool $19, if you can find a way to get one over here from Korea. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via AVING]

Smart Power Strip Auto Shuts Down Peripherals

Travis Hudson — Fri, 18 May 2007 17:57:49 EDT

This power strip has surge protection, noise filtering and a microprocessor capable of turning off all the peripheral devices when the main device is turned off. So, when you turn off your PC, it can shut down your speakers, printer and other extras, too. It is available for $35, which isn't too bad for a quality surge protector that's smarter than average. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Red Ferret]

Design Concept: E-Rope Modular Power Strip

Charlie White — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 09:42:30 EDT

The E-Rope Modular Power Strip is a 2006 Idea Award winner designed by Chul Min Kang and Sung Hun Lim. Still in the design concept phase, this is an idea that's bound to take off because not only does it look great but it's functional, too. Its blue lights glow to indicate power is flowing, and if you rotate the socket section 90 degrees, it turns off the current, saving you from that power-sucking standby mode that's so prevalent in many of today's electronic devices. Plus, its modular design lets you add just the right number of outlets needed.

While we're really digging our PowerSquid, the multi-tendriled power strip device thingamajig that gets the job done while offering plenty of separation for all those wall warts, we could use about a dozen of these E-Ropes, too. – Charlie White

E-Rope [BusinessWeek]

Design Concept: Electrici-tree

Charlie White — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:33:29 EDT

This design concept for an unusual power strip was cast from tree branches, separating each receptacle to make way for those oversized wall warts. The back of each socket is magnetized so you can tack it onto anything metal. Along with the design comes a bit of tree-hugging eco-porn:

"Electrici-tree is a physical representation and reminder of how much electricity we are using. Its organic aesthetics are a gentle reminder of the nature around us, and what we are polluting with our over-use of power."

Yeah, perhaps that is something we should think about every day. Maybe they'll actually manufacture these things before all the electricity is gone.

Project Page [Vahakn Matossian, via Core 77]

Just Two More: AC Adapter Splitter

Charlie White — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 08:47:26 EDT

If you have a tangle of cables that looks like a spaghetti bowl under your desk and you've used up all of the outlets on your power strip—we know the feeling—this $16 AC adapter splitter will give you two more receptacles. That might be just enough to keep you from needing another power strip. And we heard you were already using two. We'll keep that our little secret. – Charlie White

Product page [Brando.com]

Magnetic USB Power Strip

Jason Chen — Thu, 25 May 2006 20:10:52 EDT

What's better to go with your magnetic USB hub than a magnetic power strip that can be controlled via PC? The power strip plugs into your PC using USB and has an extra USB connector so it doesn't eat up a port. Now, you can shut off lights, monitors, heaters and iPod speakers from your PC. No more reacharounds! – Jason Chen

USB Power Bar that Turns Peripherals On & Off [Everything USB]

This Just In: Power Strip Smarter than Tara Reid

gizmodo.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 14:41:06 EST

Here's a power strip worth mentioning. The color-coded Smart Strip is designed with the PC user in mind. See that big blue plug? That's where your main PC power cable goes. The other red ones? That's for stuff like your monitor, printer, and speakers. When you turn off the PC (or whatever is connected to the blue plug), it shuts off power to the red sockets as well, to help you conserve energy and not rack up your electric bill because you forgot to turn off your monitor when leaving your apartment. There are also other plugs for regular items you want on all the time such as an alarm clock. A handy item indeed, the Smart Strip is for anyone using a lot of peripherals with a PC setup. It's available now for $31.

Smart Power Strip [Cool Tools]

Pricing and purchase options for Smart Strip [Amazon]