Someday, everything will be wireless. Chances are, it won’t be within the next decade, much less the next couple of years. Hence, you need something to manage that mess. For power cords, the Plug Hub makes for an excellent solution. For taming the cable clutter on your desk, the CableDrop should work nice. For tidying up cabled peripherals while not in use, though, we haven’t quite seen anything as good as the Recoil Cord Winder.
Designed to hold headphones, chargers, connecting cables (USB, HDMI) and the like, the cord winder collects all the wires into its shell, with only the ends of the cables sticking out. Not only will they let you keep your tables neater, you can also travel with a bunch of cabled peripherals without having to put up with untangling them before using.
Unlike similar products that address the problem, the Recoil Cord Winder will swallow up all the cords automatically. Simply fold the cable in half, loop it over the hook, tug a bit and the winding mechanism will fire off on its own. It comes in three sizes: small (for earbuds and other small accessories), medium (for headphones with inline mics — yep, it reserves space for the plastic thingies in the cord) and large (basically, for everything else that won’t fit in those two).
Since the ends of the cables stick out, they can be used while most of the cord stay wound on the contraption. That means, you can make each unit a permanent housing for the cable you put in it, allowing you to pull out just as much cable as you need — no more clutter.
The Recoil Cord Winder is currently still listed at Kickstarter. They’re more than fully-funded, though, so expect this to go into retail soon. Price is $8, $9 and $10, depending on the size.
