Awesome Stuff: Taming Unruly Cables

Innovation

from the wires-wires-everywhere dept

While wireless technologies are amazing, it still seems we’re stuck with plenty of cables around all the time, from charging cables to headphones and more. Most people don’t do much to organize them, or they go with the simplest route. Personally, I’ve been using twist ties to keep cables organized on my desk and it seems to do the job. I know there are a bunch of cable organizer products on the market already, but apparently a bunch of new ones have recently launched crowdfunding campaigns, so let’s take a look, for this week’s awesome stuff post.

• First up, we’ve got the QooQi, which is a simple device for your desk to organize cables. You have to watch the video to understand how it works, but it’s a very simple and intuitive way of organizing your cables and keeping them in order. It has a nano pad on the bottom to help it stick to flat surfaces easily. The project is already just slightly over its $10,000 goal, and has more than three weeks to go, so chances are it will get at least double the goal.
• Next up, we’ve got the Kordl, which is a very, very simple plastic device that connects to your headphones to keep them from getting tangled. It doesn’t tie them up entirely, but rather just connects the two ends to each other, which prevents tangling. As they explain, they’re using the “rubber band vs. spaghetti theory” in that single strands, such as spaghetti, get easily tangled and tied up, where as loops, like rubber bands, tend not to get as tangled (they haven’t seen my rubber band drawer… ). This one is also well past its target of $7,500, with about two more weeks to go. Personally, $5 for such a simple bit of plastic seemed a bit on the steep side, but I’m sure people sick of tangled ear bud cables might find it worth it to avoid the annoying process of untangling.
• If the Kordl isn’t really what you’re looking for, there’s an alternative, called Loop for organizing a variety of cables, including ear buds, but also power cables, USB cables and more. It’s also a fairly simple concept, but executed nicely. Basically a simple attachment to the cable that makes it easy to wrap up our cables when you’re done. My Thinkpad power cable comes with a similar velcro strip, and I always wondered why so few cables came with something similar, so the Loop looks like an easy way to retrofit other cables to do the same sort of thing. This one has only raised about $1,000 out of $5,000 targeted, but there’s still a month to go. Again, the pricing here seems slightly high — $10 for two — when it feels more like $10 should get you a pack of four or five of these things, but again perhaps I underestimate the demand and the production costs. One other oddity, it appears there’s a nearly identical campaign to the Kickstarter campaign, except it’s over at IndieGoGo, and it’s raised no money at all, with just a week to go. It’s not unheard of to see projects appear on both major crowdfunding platforms but it does seem like a relatively rare occurrence. Even more bizarre: the pricing is more expensive on IndieGoGo. No wonder it has no buyers while Kickstarter at least has a few.

That’s all for this week. Stay organized.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, cables, earbuds, organization