via engadget

Very clever, I've always thought that the UK plugs where the safest though from personal experience, since to use one properly there can never be any exposed metal on the business end.

Holy hell that is bloody clever. They even got the fuse in there.

Hooray for innovation!

How COMPLETELY useless. Just go for EN 5007 type of plugs, just as the rest of WHOLE EUROPE. If your electrics where europe standard, you wouldn't need the fuse inside the plug either. Sometimes the uk's protectionism is strange.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug

>> ^conan:
How COMPLETELY useless. Just go for EN 5007 type of plugs, just as the rest of WHOLE EUROPE. If your electrics where europe standard, you wouldn't need the fuse inside the plug either. Sometimes the uk's protectionism is strange.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug


The Wikipedia article you linked to explains why the Europlug cannot be used in the UK. Oh, and there are fuses in UK wiring, the fuse in the plug is just an extra precaution. As to why the UK doesn't switch to the Europlug... can you imagine the cost and the hassle of rewiring everything to meet the new specification? Not to mention millions upon millions of household devices that would need plugs replacing? And safety: with 61 million people rewiring all their plugs, someone's bound to make a mistake and set fire to something.

I dunno about UK, but in US, plugs can be quite difficult to pull back out of the socket. This clever but flimsy-looking fold-out-flap design doesn't seem like it could stand up to the force required to jam those prongs in there or yank them out again if necessary.

1. make europlug The Standard for new appliances and enforce use for new buildings
2. make sure adapters are cheap for use in old houses
3. wait 30 years
congratulations, you now have a country with almost complete conversion to standards that make sense

now only if we could get the metric system to the US....

Am i the only one tho thinks that mechanically it seems hard to do all the motions that are so easily shown using computer animation.

In the real world, it requires some hinge mechanisms, all of which take up room.

Oh c'mon people! ..is this innovation?
Every standard plug I know of today, is horribly bulky. This thing may be a slight improvement, but there has Got to be a better way!

huge plugs, wires coming out all different directions, damn adjacent outlets are blocked because some plugs needlessly take up too outlets, sticking out of the wall way too far, too hard to get in, fall out when you are vacuuming... the fucking Flowbee is more elegant than the plugs of today.

Oh... when I first saw the title I thought it was a video about my penis. Then I remembered I'm not British.

On a serious note, both the UK and the Europlug are unwieldy. The prongs on the Euro are prone to breaking, and the Uk - that's just a huge, bulky bastard with a needless fuse. If they just used better breakers, there wouldn't be a need for a fuse in every plug. The American three prong is the most simple design that I've worked with, (I've worked with all three) provided that the device's plug is smartly made (No huge ass packs with prongs directly on them or plugs that stick out 90 degrees out the back - angle that shit.)

As for this design - too much shit to go wrong. Never mind all that fancy moving part shit. Just make it permanently flat.

of course, the future will look like this...

http://www.videosift.com/video/Wireless-Electricity-Plugs-are-for-losers

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

She has quite possible the most synthesised sounding real voice I've ever heard.