Imagine how much harder it is for those who don’t, or who don’t anymore. But to make things more organized and a whole lot safer, there’s these Braille Electric Plug Tags, designed by Shuwen Chen. These tags would be made from hard fabrics with Braille letters, device icons and abbreviations embossed onto them. Each tag would have Velcro sewn onto the back, making them easy to put on and remove from cords as needed.

The Braille Electric Plug Tags are yet another winner of the 2011 red dot design concept competition.

[via Yanko Design]

How about all those different appliances with the exact same power cord? How believable. Still, the picture does drive home the point of the accessory.

Each set comes with 10 multi-colored detachable plastic identifiers, along with 24 icons and 12 blank sheets so you can make your own icons. There are also specialized sets available, like one that has more icons for gaming devices and one for home entertainment setups.

Dotz Cord Identifiers are available on Amazon for $6 (USD). Head to Dotz’ website to check out their other cord management products.

[via GadgetGrid]

The Hub will fit cords up to 3mm (about 0.12″) thick and 3.77ft. long such as USB cables while the Mini Hub is made for cords up to 2mm (about 0.08″) thick and 4.9ft long, like headphones. I’ll wait here while you go measure your cords and make those numbers mean something. No? Not going to measure? Okay then, let’s just watch this video:

If you want to see the awesome push-button action again, I suggest you watch this video instead. It’s just the demo minus the talking part. Both containers are made of aluminum, but the inventors – Chadwick Parker and Joe Huang – have yet to decide whether they’ll be shiny or anodized.

Head to Kickstarter and pledge at least $30 (USD) so you can be the first to own a Hub and Mini Hub. As of this writing the concept still hasn’t reached its target funds, but with almost two months to go and with such a sound idea, I’m willing to bet my life savings (i.e. nothing) that the Hub and the Mini Hub will see the light of day. And if the actual products end up being shiny then they’ll reflect the light of day to your eyes, promptly blinding you, rendering your touch-operated devices moot. At least your cords will be organized.

[via designboom]

Before we could graduate with a BS degree in Chemical Engineering, we had to complete our thesis for one course and design a plant (the plant that you build, not the plant that grows) for another subject. For the first one, we worked in groups of three, while for the design project, we were a group of five.

We spent countless days and nights toiling away together in the room with our laptops in front of us, only leaving the room to go to the bathroom or to take a quick nap. We would be cramped so closely together since we needed to constantly charge up our laptops and there was only one extension power cord and as you probably already know, laptop charging wires aren’t exactly a mile long. I just wish I knew about the Pod Power extension cord back then (although it didn’t exist back then) because it would’ve made my life (and my groupmate’s lives) a whole lot easier.

Pod Power is composed of five pods that bring an outlet to you. The cable is 15 feet long, with an outlet every 3 feet – with 5 pods total. And since each pod has a cord reel on it, you can wind up any slack too. This seems like a great idea when you’re working in a group and have various devices that you need to keep plugged in. It’s also great for those conference room meetings where everyone at the table has a laptop to plug in.

The Pod Power is fitted with a standard three-prong outlet with a keyhole on the back of each pod for easy mounting. Pod Power is available from Quirky on pre-sale for $34.99 (USD). They need to sell at least 2000 to go into production, and they’re nearly half way to that goal already.

[via Geeky Gadgets]

The hub is called the Contort. Its integrated USB plug is on a flexible head made from TPE rubber. The hub has four ports on top and the middle section is expandable to handle USB cords. The device measures in at 34mm W x 142mm L x 24mm H and it can expand to 36mm H to hide more cables.

The Contort also has integrated cord anchors and those anchors can hold more than one cable if needed. Most of Quirky’s gear is pre-order and the Contort is no different. So far, 29 of the 1650 Quirky wants to build are spoken for at $29.99 each. If you want one, you can pre-order here.

The thing is called the Cable Collar and it is a plate that looks like those rings you hang a water hose on to me. Rather than going on the outside of your hose, the Cable Collar goes behind the faceplate to your outlet and allows you to wind the extra cable around it for a tidy install.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It has six holder slots around the collar to clip those cables and is large enough to hold up to 24-inches of extra cable. The plastic is heat resistant and it won’t affect the usability of your outlet. Quirky wants to build 3000 of them for $6.99 each and 118 are already sold. Get in on the pre-sale action now.

A new accessory is now available for the iPod, iPhone or any other device that uses headphones called the iLocket. The little plastic thingy has a hinged lid that covers a cord wrap you wind the extra cord around to get just the length you want.

On the back of the iLocket is a clip that you can clip to your clothing to keep the cable from flopping around while you exercise. The thing is pretty cool and I might actually try to exercise with my iPhone again if I had one. You can grab one on Amazon for under $5 (USD).

Unfortunately this solution also brings about a problem of its own, one that I also hope will be a thing of the past: jammed zippers.

[via GadgetReview]

Designed by Jason Amendolara for Fred & Friends, the »REW cord caddy looks like an old-school cassette tape (or more like a microcassette, IMHO), and lets you conceal all that unsightly extra wire inside.

No word yet on pricing or a release date yet, but if I were to make a bet, I’d check out Perpetual Kid to see when they start stocking ‘em, as they often carry products from Fred & Friends.

June 1st marked a milestone for robotkind, when Willow Garage alpha robot PR2 successfully made his way through 8 – not 1, not 2, but 8! – doors, and some pesky humans, and then plug its power cord into 9 outlets. How long do you think would it take you to go through 8 doors and plug a cord into 9 nine outlets? 5 minutes? 15?

Well PR2 took all of 58 minutes. Not an hour. Those are two different values.  I guess we could say that PR2 savors every minute of its life. If it’s even alive. Okay enough with the lame jokes, here’s PR2 in (super fast forwarded) action. He’s a good ‘bot.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Listen to them applaud. If I went through our office opening doors and plugging cords into outlets I’d be laughed at. Maybe even punched in the face. But hurray for robots! Store this timestamp in your drives, and remember: we applauded your door-opening, cord-plugging antics, like parents at Little League games we cheered for your mediocre shit. So when you’re all grown up don’t kill us all or enslave us okay?

[via robots.net]

This wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve seen a cord wrap for headphone wires, but this little guy is definitely my favorite.

There’s just something about these ninja bunny rabbit dudes that makes me smile every time I look at them.

These pint-sized, cable holding guys come to us courtesy of Korea’s J’Story (also featured this morning for their wonderful, whimsical organizer tabs).

Unfortunately, these cable manager ninja bunnies are only available in Korea at this point. If you want to get your hands on one, you’ll have to head on over to Korean retailer DCX, and hope you can find a way get them shipped them overseas. In the mean time, you’ll just have to admire them from afar.

German Designers Catarina von Matérn + Lisa Lindström created theses clever floor lamps for Elmar Flötotto which store their power cord around a central axle when not in use. A 16-meter (52-foot) long red cable rolls around the middle of the lamp, letting you move it far, far away from the wall if need be.

The lamps are made of durable white transluscent Polyethylene, and measure about 18-inches in diameter. And thanks to plenty of flat surface area, I don’t see any reason you couldn’t lay the lamp on its side to serve as an illuminated side table.

You can get your fingers wrapped around on the YoYo lamp over at Questo Design for €232.80 (appx. $367 USD). If that’s too much money for you, maybe you should just stick with one of these.

Until you turn on the Multibook, it looks a lot like an ordinary book. But with a digital clock and calendar embedded in its spine, along with bright illumination along the sides, it’s much more than bedside reading material. In addition to the red 7-segment LEDs which power the clock/calendar, another 74 individual LEDs provide ample illumination for a bedside table or as an accent lamp.

Once you flip open the book’s cover, you’ll be able to plug in three power adapters for your mobile electronics, keeping them out of sight when the cover is shut.

The Multibook comes in four colors: black, white, lacquer red and blue, and is available from Questo Design for €152.25 (appx. $217.53 USD). Unfortunately, it’s only available in a 220-volt configuration at present, so if you live outside of Europe, you’re out of luck for now.

[via acquire]

While I’ve tried to use my real cat to keep my cables in order, all he does is try to chew on them. On the other hand, the pint-sized Cable Cat hangs on for dear life doing his duty to prevent your cord from snagging.

It’s available from Belgium’s Kado-Fix design store for €5,50 (which works out to a little more than 7 bucks.)

ID Pilot Wire Identification Labels feature icons of everything from blenders to computer monitors, and cost $6 per “theme” pack. There’s one for office gear, another set for electronics and home entertainment and a third set for kitchen and household items. They’re made out of durable white vinyl and should even stick to irregular surfaces.

[via The Uber-Review]