http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/ Engadget Comments for Multi-Tab concept elevates power strips to an art form http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 3:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 2:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Apr 20th 2010 5:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 3:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Lets make this happen :)]]>Feb 23rd 2010 3:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 4:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
Unfortunately the monkey gets wrenched when you have to move something in the middle and don't want to lose power to everything after it.

This is probably a good practical demonstration of the different advantages of arrays vs linked lists. ;)]]>Feb 23rd 2010 3:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
The identifiers could either slip in, like a drawer, tray, or similar, or they could be buttons that simply snapped on.
or...
You could also go crazy with it, and put tiny displays in each modular section. If you just had 1 button, you could cycle through 10 or so, different display images quite easily. These could really be any display type: OLED, LCD, e-ink, LED...

If they were sold by areas of use you could program less images into each one. If one of the modular pieces was for home theater the images could be TV, Stereo, Amp, EQ, etc. If a module was for computer components/Home office, the images programmed in could be Monitor, Tower, Lamp, etc.]]>Feb 23rd 2010 10:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 3:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
Ugh. Don't you just hate it when fires?]]>Feb 23rd 2010 3:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 4:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
Guys, try to calm down; contain yourselves. ;)

F I R E !!!]]>Feb 23rd 2010 7:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
1.The labels look like stickers in the video, so they could probably be changed at will.

2.Locking the pieces together, is definitely a good idea.

3.If people plug too many things into their power strip it's their own fault. However, each block could be keyed so that they had to be plugged in a certain order, eventually you would reach the last one and the "daisy chain" would end.

They would have to be keyed so that the end piece was a "skeleton key" and could be plugged in at any time. It would need to work if you were using only 1 other section or if you were using all of them.

Once you decided how many pieces you were going to use, you could then apply the labels to each of the plugs.]]>Feb 23rd 2010 10:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 11:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
Then make units with the plugs turned sideways. This solves the problem of certain transformers that would otherwise take multiple slots.

Then add a ground connection between units, make them latch together, make real on-off switches, make them have plugs on either side, make the interconnects just standard plugs, ...

and eventually it will be perfect.]]>Feb 23rd 2010 12:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
I like the look of it, but i think the plugs might jam as it is no straight movement when pressing the button? And how about a little on-off switch on every block?]]>Feb 23rd 2010 4:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 4:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 5:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/neither is desireable]]>Feb 23rd 2010 5:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 7:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 8:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 9:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
]]>Feb 23rd 2010 9:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Some of the sections should be wider, and connect so that the plug ends up on top, or upside down. Then your wall warts should be fine.]]>Feb 23rd 2010 10:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 9:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
It looked to me like they were switches to turn off (or automatically switch off) individual items. That would be more useful.]]>Feb 23rd 2010 10:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Most devices have their own power buttons/switches.]]>Feb 23rd 2010 10:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 12:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Interesting concept. Now, to make it useful in the *real* world the designer has to double the width of each module to handle those d*mn wall warts.
]]>Feb 23rd 2010 10:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/If they were sold only online, you could just buy the number of sections you need. They could offer double size "wall wart" outlets as an option. If you had 7 devices to plug in and two were wall warts, you could just order the base, and 5 standard + 2 supersized outlets.

Alternatively, if they were sold at retail, each base could be sold with a default number of standard size pieces and customers could buy "wall wart" sections as needed.]]>Feb 23rd 2010 10:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Or even better, they could have another piece that is a 180 degree (rotation in respect to the floor) rotation of one of those units. Then have an alternating pattern of a plug on the front side followed by a plug on the back side. This will keep the plug density while providing ample room for wall warts.]]>Feb 23rd 2010 11:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 12:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/just make it already... it isn't complicated.
by the time they go to market, they'll have competition.

Hype isn't going to make a product like this sell... putting on store shelf's will. (or at the very least, online)]]>Feb 23rd 2010 2:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 3:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 5:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 6:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/Feb 23rd 2010 8:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/multi-tab-concept-elevates-power-strips-to-an-art-form/
but I don't really need any stinkin' labels on my freakin' power strip.

Label your damn cords next to the plug. Masking tape and a damn Sharpie. If it uses an AC adaptor, even easier, just label the brick.]]>Feb 25th 2010 2:55PM