The new Mu's are out and they're bigger and better

TheMu came to the worlds attention with their UK plug folding USB charger (they wanted to do a folding plug, but that never came into commercial fruition). The Live and Neutral lugs swing 90 degrees so it's flat and the side walls then fold to cover. Unfortunately due to the vastly over-engineered UK plug specifications, the side wings have to be of a certain size while the Earth, Live and Neutral pins have to be of another, so the side wings can never completely cover them. The earth pin protrudes quite a bit, but it's plastic so shouldn't damage anything. The other pins only protrude a very small amount and it's only really noticeable on the curve of the side wing.

The original only had enough power capacity to charge your phone and tablets were left out in the cold.

Now The Mu comes in two more varieties the Mu Duo and

The Mu Tablet

They also now come in black and white variations.

Both support USB 5V at 2.4A which is enough to charge your iPad. The Mu Tablet is designed to do just that (and it should also charge your iPhone faster), the Duo can charge two phones, though it can also charge a tablet if only one USB port is used.

That should the Mu Tablet closed and the protrusion of the pins.

Then with the side flaps open and the live/neutral pins rotated.

It's a shame the UK plug standards are so strict (BS 1363 if interested), however the Mu does it's best to be as flat and small as possible and it would be relatively simple to build a cover that covers those protruding pins (maybe someone could start a business selling Mu covers or construct something with Sugru).

Aside from the small protrusions the Mu's will just slip into laptop bag without much danger of scratching anything which is MUCH better that a normal USB charger like the Apple standard one which is a normal UK plug with the electronics in the top and all pins protruding ready to scratch all your nice shiny Apple (or other) gear. Being thin and flat they'll also slip into a backpack pocket too.

The original Mu costs £15, with the Mu Tablet £20 and Mu Duo costing £22 from their on-line shop.

Definitely recommended if you want a higher power charger that will slide into a bag/backpack etc without scratching everything to pieces (or being bulky width ways).

Mu USB charger, not quite what it should be

In 2009 design student Min-Kyu Choi designed a folding plug that became a big hit on the Internet, though many people were sceptical it would ever become a reality as it wouldn't meet the strict British Standards required for UK mains plugs.

Choi then joined forces with Matthew Judkins to form Made in Mind to develop folding plug systems.

The first product released is the Mu USB smartphone charger (though they say they'll be releasing a tablet charger later in 2012 followed by the folding plug designed to power laptops).

The Mu is actually 14mm x 55mm x 60mm, so almost square and quite thin (suitable for putting into a laptop case pocket). Unfortunately even when folded the earth pin protudes from the end by about 5mm - though it is plastic so shouldn't scratch anything - one of the live/neutral pins also extends just beyond the curve of the Mu and this could scratch something as it's bare metal.


The charger is very easy to use, just open the side flaps and twist the live/neutral pins through 90 degrees (so they move from vertical to horizontal, which also locks the flaps in place) and then it can be plugged into a mains socket.

The charger will support most low power USB devices such as smartphones as it supports 5V at 1A.


Not perfect

The protruding plastic earth pin isn't ideal and the protruding live/neutral metal in is definitely a flaw. If the case was 1mm larger then the metal pin wouldn't protrude at all and a 5mm larger unit would mean the earth pin wouldn't either. The earth pin could also have been linked to the opening of the flaps so it extended when they were opened and contracted when closed (the earth pin is plastic and is just there to open the live/neutral gates on a UK mains socket, it's not needed for the USB adapter to work in terms of circuitry).

Future

Though Made in Mind say they are going to produce a folding mains plug, the industry is still skeptical whether it will meet the very strict requirements of BS 1363 covering UK plugs.

The unit is available for order at TheMu and will ship on 28/02/12 and costs £25.