Macworld 2010: Fastmac's USB-enabled wall outlet

Great idea, but I would also want inbuilt surge protection as well. I don't plug any gadget into an unprotected socket/extenstion cord, colour me paranoid, but it gives me peace of mind.

I'm agreeing with Andy and Dave here. It really needs to have some sort of surge protection. No way will I plug in my iPhone into that.

My problem with this is that it would still lack surge protection. I would never plug in my very expensive electronics straight into the wall where it's susceptible to surges or brownouts. My Belkin Mini Surge Protector with USB is a better, cheaper option.

On the off-chance that someone from FastMac is reading this: your website makes this product almost unfindable without a direct URL. You are doing yourselves a massive disservice by burying the product both in the store and in the public side. Just my .02.

Actually I think this is fantastic. As a life long electrician I have been thinking about this a lot. The next step would be to standardize this, have some of these USB outlets in each room, and have a small solar array with batteries to supply just these USB devices.... If manufactures standardized these transformers to work off these USB ports then we could effectively get these devices off the grid. The cost of this would be pretty small, adding perhaps 10% to the cost of wiring a new house now.

> Personally, if I was a homeowner instead of a renter, I wouldn't hesitate to replace every outlet in my house with one of these.

As a homeowner myself, you'd be surprised at how your priorities change. Personally, I don't really see the need to go out and replace every outlet but maybe just a couple key outlets where I would charge my devices...bedroom, living room, etc.

Maybe I don't have that many iDevices to make it worthwhile but I would still be a little leery of buying a v1 product in the first place especially without GFCI... as walter mentioned above you can piggyback the devices but unless you know how the other outlets are wired, you're at the mercy of the older wiring. (I recently replaced a bunch of older 2-prong outlets in my home with GFCI outlets which was the only sane solution to get grounded outlets because the older wiring in the home so for those who us with older homes, unless you feel like redoing your home's wiring...)

That said, it should be interesting to see if this actually takes off. I wonder if they're trying to help standardize the usb plug as a common power source. David Pogue wrote a piece awhile back on how he was frustrated with the lack of a standardized charger for say, cell phones, etc. At least with Apple stuff they all connect via usb which is one less thing you need to worry about if you travel.

"Does it come in black?"

Seriously, if it's just white then that's a deal killer for me since all our outlets in the house are black!

Stupid and irresponsible. This device will increase your power usage and therefore increase global warming.

How can you turn it off? Does no-one realise that transformers use power even when there is no device plugged into them?

I have thought about this for about 2 years now. Not the sort of thing I have the capacity to really act on though in any meaningful way.

So it's great someone has. Kudos.

And let's just hope they have thought about the danger of a transformer in the wall.

I'm curious as to why the price has doubled since it was announced in December...

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/05/10-usb-power-outlet-leaves-no-plug-behind/