If you have numerous devices about your office and/or main computer that you never think about shutting down when not in use, then the TrickleSaver can save you some money, by automatically cutting the power to them. However, before you rush out and buy one, you should consider whether or not this makes sense for you.

Perhaps the best way to understand the TrickleSaver is to take a look at this schematic of how you would plug devices into it and attach it to your PC.

At about $17 for a PC TrickleSaver, and assuming that your electricity costs about $0.15/kWh (kilowatt hour), then you would need to save 113kW of power in order to break even. That’s 113,000 Watts. Many electronic devices use less than 1W when in standy mode, which means that if you only had 1 device plugged into your TrickleSaver, it would take 113,000 hours of standby use to break even. That’s over 12 years!

However, 5 or 6 devices that have more significant standby (or vampire) power draws will have you saving money in a few months. If this equation is important to you, we recommend that you get a power meter (like the Kill-a-Watt) to take accurate measurements. Another option is to use TrickleStar’s online calculator.

There is of course another aspect to this – you may not care as much about the cost and simply want to reduce your carbon footprint. In this case, devices like the TrickleSaver are a must-have.

TrickleSaver works and once you’ve set it up, you can forget about it.

There are some additional minor things to know about if you’re considering a TrickleSaver:

• Its built-in electricity sensor depends on whether or not the USB ports on the computer still get power on shutdown. This depends on the motherboard. For example, I ran a test with a Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 mobo and it continued to power the USB ports with the machine ’shut down’. The only ways to cut that power was to toggle the power switch on the power supply or yank the power cable completely. This means the TrickleSaver would not work with that particular machine. However, this is a rare condition.
• A follow-up to the above point is that sleep mode is not usually the same as shut down mode, and usually motherboards still continue to power its USB ports. If you’re a fan of sleep mode, then this will not work for you. Hibernation mode is a toss-up and again, depends on the motherboard.
• There are some devices that you may not want to power down abruptly and would not want to control via a TrickleSaver. External hard drives come to mind first. However, devices like speakers or power adapters are usually safe.
• You may need an additional power strip to plug in your various accessories, as the TrickleSaver only has a single grounded outlet that you can plug stuff into.

The 2nd TrickleStar device that we tested was the TrickleSwitch which is useless by itself, but works in conjunction with the PC TrickleSaver to let you power on/off your accessories without powering down your computer itself.

It is simply a switch that goes inline between the TrickleSaver and your USB port. There is not much to say about this device except that it works, is a nice-to-have, and ideally should be bundled for free with the TrickleSaver.

Overall, we like the TrickleSaver, but feel that there are some improvements that can be made. It is a solid device that works, is attractive enough (even if it gets lost in your cables behind your desk!), and helps you conserve energy. There is also a similar gadget geared for your TV and AV devices called the TV TrickleSaver.

They’re starting off in China and Brazil, but hopefully will release a handset stateside soon.

The object is to move a ball around with fans, and platforms, while avoiding obstacles like chutes and baskets.

If this interests you, then you may be interested in the brain trainer and the Star Wars brain training game.

Buy now!
Price: $99.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Great stocking stuffer for the geeky Dad, brother or in-law.

Save the environment by throwing fewer batteries away! This Ni-MH battery recharges with any USB port and has a built in safety circuit to prevents overcharging. LED indicator light lets you know when your battery is fully charged.

Grab the Deal now!

Illustrator Carla Berrocal created this wedding invitation that is pays homage to the blocky graphics of the Atari era of video games. Nicely done Carla.

via Switched and BuzzFeed

The goal is to get more people familiar with Bing and hopefully get them using it. The Bing team is working with JiWire which works with 60-70% of the WiFi market for airlines and hotels.

This is probably going to cost MS some dough, but they have it and it can potentially reap significant rewards. However, they’ll need to keep running creative ad programs like this if they want to really dent Google’s market share in search.

Well those days are over. The Towel-Matic Sensor Paper Towel Dispenser senses when your hand is near and auto-rotates a paper towel your way. Once the paper towel is rotated into position, it locks it in place so you don’t get the runaway effect you normally do with your traditional holder.

Prevent wasted paper towels, save time, and stop spreading germs with this sanitary gadget. Operates on 4 D batteries.

Buy now!
Price: $50
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Of course, if you can’t wait, you can still get an iPhone at Wal-Mart or Best Buy OR you could get yourself an Android handset instead.

LaCie have released their new sleek multimedia entertainment system – LaCinema Black – a system that allows you to play movies, photos and music on your HDTV, play media from networked computers and generally just have a bit of fun with your multimedia. This comes in 2 versions – PLAY or RECORD. PLAY can simply play your movies whereas RECORD enables you to record, pause, rewind live TV. They both feature 1080i upscaling. The 500GB model comes in at $400 for the Play and $450 for the Record, and the 1TB comes in at $450 and $500 respectively (probably worth just buying the RECORD for the extra $50). If 1TB just isn’t going to be enough, both devices can be expanded via an external USB hard drive to give almost unlimited storage.

Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer

Price: $499.99 (1TB RECORD), $400 for 500GB RECORD
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

In particular, they’ve teamed up with Smashwords and Author Solutions, 2 online companies that let independent authors (and small publishers) self-publish books without the need for a larger vetting publisher.

Expect Amazon to follow up quickly with a similar offering.