Simon Schoeters <p>The <a href="http://www.theecostrip.com/" title="A power strip to turn off peripheral devices when the computer is turned off" class="ext">EcoStrip</a> is a power strip with a <abbr title="Universal Serial Bus">USB</abbr> plug for a computer and its peripheral devices. Connect the <abbr title="Universal Serial Bus">USB</abbr> plug with the computer and the power strip will turn on or off all other devices when the computer is turned off. A great way to conserve energy.</p> <p>The press release in <abbr title="2007">2007</abbr> was picked up by many popular blogs like <a href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/powerstrip/ecostrip-saves-energy-polar-bears-305105.php" title="Ecostrip Saves Energy, Polar Bears" class="ext">Gizmodo</a>, <a href="http://www.everythingusb.com/usb_ecostrip_13422.html" class="ext" title="USB Ecostrip Saves Power">EverythingUSB</a> and <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/09/ecostrip_power.php" title="Ecostrip Power Bar Coming to North America" class="ext">TreeHugger</a>, amongst other. There is even a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/EcoStrip/65117837795" class="ext" title="EcoStrip Facebook fan page">Facebook group</a> with 161 fans.</p> <p>So far so good but... to me it looks suspicious. I was looking for a European version of the EcoStrip as I wanted to buy one so I tried to contact them via the contact form on their website. I never received a response. Looking at the website in a little more detail revealed some other strange things: there is no address, no name of a responsible and the last news item dates from <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20071221082546/http://www.theecostrip.com/" class="ext" title="Compare the current site with the 2007 version in the Wayback Machine">2007</a>. I added one to the shopping cart but there is no checkout button. Is this company legit? Did anyone buy an EcoStrip?</p> <p>The only reference I could find is the number at the bottom of the website which leads to a <a href="http://www.google.com/patents?id=-0wOAAAAEBAJ" class="ext" title="Patent 6586849 in Google Patent Search">US patent</a> on the name of <span class="vcard"><span class="fn">Morton Tarr</span></span>. A Google search on his name did not return anything relevant.</p> <p>Do you know anyone who bought an EcoStrip or do you know similar power strips I could buy in Europe? Leave a note in the comments.</p> 2009-05-30T22:56:21+02:00 56 8 fishy-ecostrip 2009-05-30T22:56:46+02:00