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Targus Plug-N-Power Charging Station keeps peace in the family
In many homes with multiple iOS devices, charging up those iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches can turn into a battle for dominance over a wall socket. Targus is now selling the Plug-N-Power Charging Station (US$29.99) to keep the peace in your household and ensure that all of your gadgets are fully charged up every day. Instead of requiring you to replace a wall socket like the Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet, the Plug-N-Power simply plugs into a standard US double-socket AC adapter and provides two high-power USB ports and three AC plugs. Those three regular AC outlets are surge protected, keeping your electronics or kitchen appliances safe from the occasional nearby lightning strike. In our household, the Plug-N-Power has become a quick favorite, as it allows my wife and I to charge up all of our gear -- two iPads and two iPhones, and still leave an outlet open for something else we might need to plug in. The Plug-N-Power surge protectors provide 540 joules of protection for the three AC outlets, and the USB plugs put out a full 2.1 Amps of current for rapid charging of your iPad. There's a green LED that lights up to let you know when the AC outlets are protected. The USB ports can pump out 15 watts of power. Sure, it's not the most exciting iOS accessory on the market, but it's certainly a useful one. Check out the official Targus video below.
Cisco unveils Linksys HomePlug AV Powerline solutions, converts outlets into network connection points
Looking to boost network range in remote areas of your humble abode? Cisco is now offering an option that turns your electrical outlets into wired network connections with speeds up to 200Mbps. Each Linksys HomePlug AV Powerline option includes an Ethernet adapter that connects to your router and a second adapter for your wired devices elsewhere -- both of which are plugged into sockets of your choosing to get things started. The Powerline then uses your home's electrical wiring for the system, saving the headache of hiding cables for that home office. The company says that the kit will play nice with most household appliances and 1-port and 4-port adapters are available now for $100 each. Want to connect sans wires? A Powerline 1-port Wireless Extender is coming in March that will create a WiFi signal for the HomePlug system. Hopefully wandering peepers won't be able to monitor activity remotely. Fingers crossed.
Jack PC strikes back
It's been a while since we've seen the Jack PC's smarmy mug around these parts, but it looks like that concept render we saw last year is finally coming to fruition. The wall-socket residing unit lost its DVI port, opting for a plain old VGA connection instead, but still runs Windows CE and a 500MHz AMD RISC processor. With 64MB of flash memory and 128MB RAM, the little unit is quite dependant on a server, and has Citrix ICA and Microsoft RDP clients built in, along with Internet Explorer 6.0 for running around the interwebs. The biggest news here -- beyond the size, of course -- is that the unit can actually run off of power-over-Ethernet, just to make your fellow IT buddies jealous. At $392 you could really get a whole PC for this price, but if the low power or minimal footprint appeals to you, you'll be able to pick one up mid-June.
