outlet

Con Edison is betting that a modest smart outlet can help prevent the grid from crashing during a heat wave. The same gadget will also let people remotely control their air conditioners.

The New York utility said last week it intends to distribute 10,000 smart outlets from startup ThinkEco to residents in large apartment buildings as part of its peak power reduction program called CoolNYC. A regular air conditioner plugs into the smart outlets and allows for remote control of thermostat settings from a smart phone or Web browser.

People can choose to participate in Con Edison's CoolNYC … Read more

Pin It

With the abundance of USB-dependent devices, it's surprising more cafes, offices, and homes don't have outlets like the U-Socket.

After stumbling upon a photo of an iPhone plugged directly--no AC adapter--into the wall, I soon discovered that USB outlets, or wall sockets, not only exist, but are very easy to install.

Unless you're a helpless tech addict, you won't need these in every room, but the kitchen, bedroom, and office are a few places that would seriously benefit from such an installation, saving the headaches of looking for AC adapters.

U-Socket, and other generic … Read more

Everything charges via USB nowadays: Kindles, iPods, Bluetooth headsets, smartphones...shall I go on?

In a perfect world, your home's AC outlets would have USB ports alongside their three-prong sockets. That way, you could dispense with all those bulky power plugs and just plug each device's USB cable right into the wall.

Until home builders get the memo, here's the next best thing: Lowe's has the RCA USB Wall Plate Charger for $14.99, plus sales tax where applicable. If you don't have a Lowe's store near you, you'll be on the hook … Read more

The average consumer isn't likely to spend much effort managing home energy. Big power users in businesses, on the other hand, will go out of their way cut down on waste.

Start-up company Tenrehte, based near Rochester, New York, launched its PicoWatt smart outlet at CES two years ago, aiming to appeal to green-minded consumers. The idea is that a sub-$100 Wi-Fi-enabled smart outlet would transmit energy data to an online app which would let consumers save money by scheduling things to run at off-peak times.

Now two years later, Tenrehte has changed its focus to industrial and … Read more

Who said Twitter was about sharing and promoting content owned by others?

According to a new study from Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and the George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs, the vast majority of mainstream media outlets--93 percent--don't even consider sharing another news organization's content on Twitter. Just 1 percent of the more than 3,600 tweets examined by the researchers in February contained links to a competing organization's Web site.

"This behavior resembles the early days of the Web," the researchers said in … Read more

eBay is pulling $200 million out of its wallet for brands4friends, a fashion daily-deals site based in Berlin.

The acquisition, announced today, is designed to build up the auction site's reputation as a source for clothing, shoes, and accessories among European buyers.

As Germany's largest online shopping club, brands4friends offers daily deals to site subscribers and features about 600 brands, including Buffalo, Calvin Klein, and Diesel.

Daily-deals sites have taken off among consumers and now add up to around 20 percent of all online fashion sales in Europe, according to eBay. Launched in 2007, brands4friends has about 3.… Read more

Conor Klein, a furniture design student at the Rhode Island School of Design, was inspired by a leech to come up with an ingenious way to prevent unnecessary overcharging. When a device reaches full power, most modern adapters will switch to a trickle charge mode that continues to supply electricity to the machine at a slower rate. Over time, this will reduce the life of the battery and waste electricity.

Klein's Outlet Regulator design is unique in that it comes in two parts--a main unit plugged in to the outlet and a secondary wire to which a device is … Read more

As chargers and power adapters--and the number of gadgets we carry--become ever more unwieldy, a solution like the Cute Cube is going to be less a luxury than a necessity. A necessity that is just adorable!

It's just a concept for now, but it's a Red Dot Design Award-winning concept, which will hopefully help give it some legs. The Cute Cube has rotatable jacks that can accommodate up to six chargers or plugs of any shape, along with indicator lights that tell you which plugs are occupied. Having just spent a week battling with power strips in a far-off land, … Read more