After Hours

Desktop toys: Power Station to the rescue

By // December 18, 2006, 4:44 AM PST // markwkaelin

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  • The holiday season is approaching fast. In fact, it seems to approach faster every year. For those of you in the giving spirit around the office, it can be difficult to find that special gift for the person on the other side of the cubicle wall. It cannot be too expensive and it should reflect a certain amount of lightheartedness and fun. I mean, after all, gift giving in an office environment is really about generating smiles and feelings of goodwill with your co-workers.
    With that spirit in mind, TechRepublic has acquired several inexpensive yet tasteful and useful desktop toys for review. One of these fine gadgets or gizmos should appeal to even the most difficult to buy for in your office.
    Next on our gift list is the Power Station, which comes to us courtesy of KlearGear.com.

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    Mark W. Kaelin

  • As you can see, even before you open the box, the Power Station is a fairly simple concept. It is essentially a power strip or extension cord surrounded by a plastic case. It is by far and away the most practical desktop toy TechRepublic has covered so far this season.

    &copy CNET Networks, Inc.
    Mark W. Kaelin

  • There is not much in the box. There are very few parts and the documentation is only one sheet of paper long.

    &copy CNET Networks, Inc.
    Mark W. Kaelin

  • The Power Station is very light plastic. It is sturdy enough, but I wouldn't sit on it or allow it to fall to the floor too often.

    &copy CNET Networks, Inc.
    Mark W. Kaelin

  • Stylistically, the Power Station is about as minimalist as you can get. But it does what it is supposed to do.

    &copy CNET Networks, Inc.
    Mark W. Kaelin

  • You can plug in adapters, like our camera battery charger pictured here, into the inside tray or use the small extension cord that ships with the Power Station.

    &copy CNET Networks, Inc.
    Mark W. Kaelin

  • While the adjustable tabs for holding your devices in place work adequately enough, they do approach the task with a certain lack of imagination. Odd shaped devices will take some manipulation to stay in place. Once you get a configuration that works, I would stick to it.

    &copy CNET Networks, Inc.
    Mark W. Kaelin

The holiday season is approaching fast. In fact, it seems to approach faster every year. For those of you in the giving spirit around the office, it can be difficult to find that special gift for the person on the other side of the cubicle wall. It cannot be too expensive and it should reflect a certain amount of lightheartedness and fun. I mean, after all, gift giving in an office environment is really about generating smiles and feelings of goodwill with your co-workers.
With that spirit in mind, TechRepublic has acquired several inexpensive yet tasteful and useful desktop toys for review. One of these fine gadgets or gizmos should appeal to even the most difficult to buy for in your office.
Next on our gift list is the Power Station, which comes to us courtesy of KlearGear.com.

&copy CNET Networks, Inc.
Mark W. Kaelin

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After Hours Innovation Hardware Tech & Work

By Mark Kaelin

Mark W. Kaelin has been writing and editing stories about the IT industry, gadgets, finance, accounting, and tech-life for more than 25 years. Most recently, he has been a regular contributor to BreakingModern.com, aNewDomain.net, and TechRepublic.