The Wall Socket PC (aka Jack PC)

No this isn't some futuristic high tech. light switch, this is actually a computer that is housed in a wall socket and boasts some surprising features considering its size.

Now you might be worrying that it might need a power adapter, but no fear because this bad boy is powered entirely by Ethernet. Ethernet lines carry a miniscule 5 Watts of power which nothing in comparison to the beefy 500 Watt power supplies installed in many top of the line PCs.

The internals of the Jack PC consist of two layered circuit boards which contain 4 USB channels, audio in/out, and a VGA port. The CPU is an AMD RISC processor that has the same power as a 1.2 GHz x86 processor. Now its important to note that the Jack PC's main purpose is to connect to a server, which performs most of the processing. However, the computer does include Internet Explorer 6 to allow you to access web applications.

The Jack PC is a vast improvement over the old 3Com switch housed in a wall plate that allows you to convert one copper line into 4 ports at your desktop. While this PC isn't for the average joe, its might have application for business and schools who install many decentralized computers. The Jack PC would allow companies and educational institutions to install these machines around their buildings and maintain large servers for the devices to connect to. We'll just have to wait and see how people react to it.

The Jack PC will be officially released on June 14th 2006 at the IT Works Show by the UK company Jade Integration. I first read about this new PC at Gizmodo, another great gadget weblog.