One of my favorite gadget companies files for bankruptcy.

I was saddened to hear Quirky had filed for Bankruptcy. Quirky produced clever, useful gadgets created by inventors all over the country. Anyway could submit to Quirky for a really low fee of $10, if I recall correctly. The Quirky website members would vote on inventions and offer suggestions to make gadgets better. Everyone involved in a final product shared in the revenue. Quirky developed and manufactured the product. (Or had it manufactured for them.) One of my favorite Quirky gadgets of all time is Pivot Power. It's still available. As a matter of fact, as soon as I heard about Quirky going bankrupt, I bought two new Pivot Power strips to hold for the future.

Here's what Pivot Power can do: It features six pivoting outlets to accommodate plugs and adapters of all shapes and sizes. It can bend to hug furniture so it's easy to place just about anywhere. Even the 4-foot extension cord has a flat, 45-degree plug so it doesn't hog outlet space. The bending outlets solve a big problem.  You know the deal. You buy a power strip and find you can only use half the outlets because those big power adapter plugs ends up covering 2 or 3 other outlets. Pivot Power bends and flexes so you can find the most convenient angle to handle those monster transformer plugs. Because there’s a hinge between every outlet on the strip, you have a lot of flexibility of which way to face the plug. I also like the fact that on the higher end models there's a glowing blue ring that lights when there's power in the strip, so you can tell at a glance that's it powered up. Years ago when I spoke to the folks at Quirky they told me the young man who came up with the Pivot Power idea had already made hundreds of thousands of dollars so far from his invention! It's available online and at stores. I saw it at Bath, Bed & Beyond too. It's here on Amazon for just $12.50 in black. Some colors are higher priced, but I prefer black. NOTE: I couldn't figure out why some models were $10 to $12 while others were $18 to $25. It turns out the higher priced models have a built-in surge protector and the on/off power indicator switch. So the description carefully before ordering one if you want surge protection. My model does not have surge protection or indicator on/off switch. It's model PPVPP. It was $12.50 and was Amazon Prime. Pivot Power is available in many colors too. Also there's a Junior 4-plug model. Amazon link:

Quirky PPVPP-BK01 Pivot Power - Black    

And here's the dark green model I just purchased. It has the surge protection and on/off indicator light switch. It was $14.99 on 9/26/15 and it's Amazon Prime:

Quirky PPVP1-GR01 Christmas Pivot Power 6 Outlet Flexible Surge Protector Power Strip - Green