Neat Features

I am forever turning off power strips.  This drives my wife nuts.  But I can’t help it.  I’m one of those people who hates wasting electricity.  Not because of the environmental impact, although if you can do something nice for the environment, why not?  But because I just hate paying for things I’m not using.  And thanks to Phantom Power (the electricity our TV’s and Xbox’s use when turned “off”) it pays to pull the plug.

Some people extreme coupon.  I extreme power save.

Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

But admittedly there’s a problem with that strategy.  Every time I turn off the power strip to the TV, it means the cable box, VCR (yes I still have one of those) and several other things all lose their programming.  It’s a pain to have to let modern cable boxes boot up.  And it’s annoying to have to reset the flashing 12:00 on the VCR.

Enter the plug that has its own switch.

Now I can turn off the individual device (like at TV or a lamp) and let everything else stay on.  No more reprogramming for me!  Although since this is only a proof of concept device, I may have to continue turning off the power strips, and hope my wife forgives me!

(Of course I could just buy separate power strips, but if I do that, it kind of defeats the purpose of saving money through unplugging.  It takes a lot of phantom power to pay for a $50 power strip!)

It’s hard to believe sometimes. But our lifestyles are radically different then they were even five years ago. Just a mere five years ago most people had only a single computer in their home. Maybe, if they had saved up, they had a laptop instead of a desktop. Now, it’s not uncommon for people to have several laptops, a media server, a desktop computer for video games, a few iPod’s along with a couple of smart phones.

To further add to this change, Apple has spawned an entirely new type of computing device: the iPad.

While this has been great for our lifestyles and leisure, it’s been a challenge to power all of these devices. If you look at an old house it’s not uncommon to find only one or two electrical sockets in any given room. Why? Because 50 years ago (and certainly a hundred years ago) you only had to worry about a few electrical devices. Maybe a few lights or a TV and phone. But these days, all of our entertainment devices need plugged in.

That’s where the U-socket comes in to play. If you like gadgets, or have someone in your family who does, you know that there’s always a constant search for wall plugs. No matter how many USB ports your computer has, it’s either not enough or inconveniently located.

So what if instead of walking to a bed room or office to charge your iPhone you walk over to a wall socket and plug it in just like you would any other device.

Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it.