Though the firm has been eclipsed by the likes of Sony and others in recent decades, the brand has made a bit of a comeback lately with its capable budget-friendly LCD TVs. Now the company is throwing its support behind Green Plug.

PC World tells us:

"We know we're not the largest [electronics company] but we are the first, and somebody has to be first," said Darwin Chang, CTO of Westinghouse, which makes LCD televisions, computer monitors and digital photo frames.

Besides helping the environment, the Green Plug technology will also help Westinghouse to cut its costs, Chang said. Eventually it could stop shipping power adapters with its products because customers will already have a universal adapter at home, he said.

For customers, salvation comes in the form of just one adapter for all their gadgets - goodbye unsightly wall warts. Plus there are energy savings to be had since the device goes all Buffy on power vampires via its own Green Talk protocol and chips that support it, which is why it's important to get other electronics makers on board if they hope to make it a standard.