Digital Home Thoughts: U-Socket by FastMac

"FastMac's U-Socket may have veered perilously closer to vaporware territory after what seemed like an endless series of delays, but it finally started shipping out back in January to those patient enough to hang onto their pre-order, and we recently got our hands on one to see if it was really worth the wait."

It's almost spring cleaning time. One to spruce up your house is by replacing your old wall power outlets with the U-Socket from FastMac. The U-Socket is a unit that contain the standard double three-prong outlets but then also integrates two USB ports for charging you various devices without the need for the converter/transformer.

Installation time depends on your existing setup. Engadget found that they had to change their electrical box to a 16-cubic-inch one in order to fit the U-Socket. If you have the bigger boxes already it should be a matter of remove and replace. If not, it might take you a few minutes more as you will have to replace the whole electrical box. The biggest barrier of entry to me seems to be the cost and availability of the U-Sockets. They cost between $23-26 and is only available from FastMac. Shipping is listed as four to six weeks after ordering.

To read the full review by Engadget click the read button.