One way to make your and others’ day a bit nicer is to share an electrical outlet. As our personal gadgetry proliferates, so does our need to top-off the batteries while out and about. Unfortunately, many of the places where we use our laptops or have time to charge our phones simply do not have enough electrical outlets accessible to their customers. Until establishments add more outlets or offer some other means by which customers can get an electrical top-off, it is up to the consumers to provide the solution. Here’s one:

Just pick up a 3-outlet adapter or an extension cord and throw it in your laptop bag. The next time your in the coffee shop and all the outlets are in use, ask if you can share an outlet using your adapter. Better yet, if you already have outlet access and you see someone who is in need, offer to share your outlet and make a new friend.

This device is going to make life simpler. I have TONS of wall-warts (i.e. AC chargers) and frequently have to add outlet strips to my already burgeoning supply, just to be able to plug in the charger for my latest gadget. Behold the future of gadget charging:

This little pad will replace the wall-warts and any device that’s configured for WildCharge can simply be placed on the pad and have its batteries topped off. Of course, the catch is that it’s unlikely many of my current devices will be adaptable to the new charging method. Some likely will, like my cellphone.  However, I’ll certainly include this feature in the set of those that are most desirable for my future gadgetry acquistions.

WildCharge is expected to be on the market in early 2007. Look for gadget manufacturers to be touting it in the near future.

How convenient will it be to walk into you home (or even a hotel room or coffee shop!) and simply place your phone or other device on the pad for a quick top-off?! I’m truly looking forward to this tech and hope early adopters of it really push it into ubiquity.

From Canada’s National Post: Xerox Canada helps develop ‘erasable paper’

Xerox Corp. said yesterday it has found a way to create temporary images on paper that would self-erase in 24 hours or less.

The special pages could theoretically be used again and again — as much as 50 times — to give the office recycling bins a rest. Xerox is now trying patent the technology.

…

“You could see there were these documents people only use once or twice or for the day, and then they’re gone. You start to classify them. And from that, you could see that two out of every five [printed pages] are for daily use,” said Paul Smith, a lab manager at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada, the company’s Mississauga, Ont.-based think-tank.

…

The Canadian team designed paper covered with special chemicals. Once the paper goes through the printer, the chemicals are exposed to a light source that causes the text on the paper to gradually fade. It disappears completely in 16 to 24 hours, but can be quickly erased by running it through the printer again.

After all these years of being promised our offices were going paperless, (I think “they” have finally stopped promising that.) here’s a technology that may very well provide significant reductions in the amount of paper used in large and small offices and maybe even homes.