I’ve been seeing a number of articles recently on the power that is drawn from dongles, battery/device chargers, power supplies, and the like, even when they’re not actually in use. Cumulatively, it’s not an insignificant amount. The Mini Power Minder (US$15) is a surge-suppressing and “smart switch” outlet designed to address such issues. Plug a power strip into the bottom socket and when you turn off your computer, a USB connection to the Mini Power Minder tells it to shut off the bottom feed (killing power to all the peripherals, chargers, and anything else that’s plugged into the connected power strip). We’ve had several pieces here on Street Tech about building your own power-switching relay, but at $15, this is a cheap out-of-box solution.
