Philips SPR550BN: The squid of power awaits you

Water and electricity: that's a winning combination if ever we heard one.

Clearly Philips thinks it's a theme that has some legs--five of them to be precise--because it's created a mains extension socket it calls the "power squid."

Anyone with an encyclopedia would be able to tell you that a squid has 10 appendages--that's 8 arms and 2 tentacles, fact fans. The Philips SPR550BN also differs from aquatic reality in its color, which is black, rather than the more realistic white or slightly translucent skin tone of most squid.

Still, most real squid don't aim to protect your AV equipment from an electrical surge either. Nor do they offer you the opportunity to turn one plug socket into five--which means, despite its unrealistic color and incorrect number of limbs, the Philips power squid scores over nature's squid in a number of key areas.

The power squid should help you keep the area behind your TV a little tidier, which should in turn lead to a happier home life. Trust us, we've had plenty of arguments about wiring in our time.

One word of caution though: despite its oceanic inspiration, the power squid states very clearly on its rear that it can't be used with any sort of aquarium. Perhaps this is to prevent any real squid getting tragically over-excited by this exotic little chap and jumping out of their watery homes.

Could this be the start of a whole range of sea-derived home electronics? Could we one day see the electric eel-themed HDMI cable, or perhaps an octopus-inspired subwoofer interconnect? Only time will tell, but we're hoping so.

The U.S. version can be found here.

(Via Crave UK)