Hasta La Gadget!

You know that 49-port USB hub you picked up last year? Sissy. Thanko just introduced an 80-port USB hub to charge all of your gadgets from a single location. Fantasy or nightmare? Well, first you have to consider the price (¥14,800, about $165) and the cabling chaos this will bring. Then you must know that the hub seems to charge your devices only: no USB data. And are you really man enough to handle the repulsive stares that a device like this will surely invoke from your family and so-called friends? Who cares! When a gadget promises this:

“When viewed from the side of the port in line, you feel powerful and somewhat like a soldier in the army.”

You’d be crazy not to want it.

80-port USB hub makes you feel like a powerful soldier originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Thanko  | Email this | Comments

If there’s even a faint need for a recharging solution, there’s a decent shot that Sanyo will have an Eneloop device to fit the situation. Take the newly announced music booster, for instance, which is designed to sit alongside your Tube Screamer, TU-2 Chromatic Tuner and RV600 Reverb Machine in order to keep the juice flowin’ even if a breaker trips mid-solo. Truthfully, the device could be used to energize pretty much anything that taps into a 9V power source, and if you’re concerned over noise interference, Sanyo assures us that you shouldn’t be. The unit — which goes on sale in March 2010 — can be fully regenerated in around 3.5 hours, and depending on the drain of the device(s) it’s powering, can keep things going for anywhere between 2 and 50 hours. Rock on, as they say.

Continue reading Sanyo’s Eneloop music booster keeps stage musicians effect-ed

Sanyo’s Eneloop music booster keeps stage musicians effect-ed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink HotHardware  |  Sanyo  | Email this | Comments

The Powermat may have slung “inductive charging” into the mainstream (at least to some minor extent), but it’s still far too niche to be taken seriously by any electronics aisle in Target. Take that same technology and shove it into wood, however, and you’ve got something that each and every table owner on the planet could appreciate. Jason V decided to retrofit a Powermat charging pad into a slab of wood, and while it wasn’t the easiest of tasks, the fact that he managed to successfully integrate it opens up all sorts of possibilities for the woodworking crowd. If you’re hungry for more details, hop on down to the how-to guide at Instructables; otherwise, the demonstration vid is just past the break.

Continue reading Powermat retrofitted into plank of wood, new world of opportunies discovered

Powermat retrofitted into plank of wood, new world of opportunies discovered originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Instructables  | Email this | Comments

Google has its PowerMeter, Microsoft has its Hohm and Obama has his “smart meters.” Got it? Good. Around two years after UK taxpayers began footing the bill for in-home energy monitors, it seems as if America’s current administration is looking to follow suit. While visiting the now-open solar facility in Arcadia, Florida today, the Pres announced that $3.4 billion in cash that the US doesn’t actually have has just been set aside for a number of things, namely an intelligent power grid and a whole bundle of smart power meters. Aside from boring apparatuses like new digital transformers and grid sensors (both of which are designed to modernize the nation’s “dilapidated” electric network), 18 million smart meters and 1 million “other in-home devices” will be installed in select abodes. The idea here is to give individuals a better way to monitor their electricity usage, with the eventual goal set at 40 million installed meters over the next few years. Great idea, guys — or you know, you could just advise people to turn stuff off when they aren’t using it, or not use energy they can’t afford. Just sayin’.

Filed under: Household

US government lays out cash for wall-based, in-home ‘smart meters’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Wouldn’t it be nice if your home phone charger could double as a charging device itself when taken on the road? Yes, yes it would. Technocel undoubtedly agrees, as its PowerPak does just that. When plugged into a standard wall outlet, it can simultaneously charge whatever USB device is plugged into it (amongst others, considering the bundle of tips that are included) and juice up its internal cell; once unplugged, the integrated battery can provide enough power to a dead mobile to let you yap for around three hours, or just enough to make it through whatever sobfest your ill-willed SO has planned for you next week. It’s expected to go on sale in around a fortnight at various retail locations and Sprint stores.

Continue reading Technocel PowerPak pulls double duty as portable battery and home charger

Filed under: Peripherals

Technocel PowerPak pulls double duty as portable battery and home charger originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments