Mu, the Awesome Folding UK Power Plug, is Now Shipping
The design that blew our minds three years ago is back, and this time it's a real product.
A few years ago, the design of one Royal College of Arts student caught the attention of the tech world. It took the usually bulky, three-prong British plug and turned it into a slimmer, sexier, more compact design. South Korea-born Min-Kyu Cho was the man behind the design but he has since teamed up with businessman Matthew Judkins to bring it to life. Now, three years later, the product is coming to market. Last week it was announced that the Mu, as it is now called, had finally hit pre-order status. It ships now.
At the moment, the Mu serves as a USB adapter for charging cables, but wouldn't it be great if this unique design eventually ended up on laptop adapters, lamps, and pretty much anything else with a plug. It may be wishful thinking but that cool folding design looks like it might finally eliminate the special kind of pain that comes from standing on a UK-region plug.
The Mu costs £25 and is available from the official website.


what? lol
anyway, having moving parts will most likely cause some trouble after some time. they better build it good
As a weapon the UK plug has few equals, I hear even the Klingons banned their use.
US/CAN charger with folding plug, and many have this design now.
Agreed, a more horrible common plug for a country there does not exist. Plug fail. You would think they would eventually call for a complete redesign, but I guess that might be a pain. Heck they did it with light bulbs, why not plugs.
http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=23899&minisite=10021
The plugs are fused because they CAN provide more then the 13 amps(2a 3a 5a 10a) standard devices use. This is almost a needed safety.
Many US/CAN higher power devices can have a integrated circuit breaker on the plug as well.
The BS 1363 is however as you say VERY safe. And they adopted those safety shutters very early.
While we(US/CAN) can not get as much power(due to the lower voltage + higher current needing much bigger wires). We do still have 20 amp 110-120(12 gauge wire) volt plugs as well. After that, well we break out the 240 volt stuff too
Check this out.
http://www.slimplug.com/