The $70 MSRP is crack smoking, but Amazon’s current price ($26) is just about right for this. It’s basically five $5 off-brand tablet chargers in a single case.
We need a Public Enemy cover: MSRP is a joke.
I’m curious why they didn’t put a usb-b port on the back and wire it up with the ability to function as a hub.
Quality powered hubs are a bit of a rarity, especially ones that can supply that kind of power to the attached device.
Thanks for this reccomendation! I’ve been looking for one of these, but never had the time to devote to finding a good one.
They do make a 4-port version that doesn’t have the cord.
Amazon.com: Anker® 36W Quad-Port USB Wall Charger Travel Power Adapter with PowerIQ™
I have their older corded charger that just has 3 high-power ports and 2 normal ports that resides on my nightstand – have been using it for at least a year.
edited link: apparently the white charger on the page is the old “split” model and the black one is the newer auto-sensing model.
Tell me about it. Try buying a powered hub in a shop.
Non-existent.
I came to the comments to say the same thing. It doesn’t seem like a great technological leap to make this into a hub but there’s nothing like that that I can find.
Oddly enough, I bought mine at Home Depot. Nothing special, but it works.
The problem with trying to make this a hub too is that for some reason, USB devices can either communicate or charge at high currents (over 500ma), not both at the same time. So, if you had this plugged in as a hub with your computer on, whatever device you plug in would handshake with the computer and prevent high current charging.
Besides, if you go to a friend’s house (or even a stranger’s), would you really want to plug your phone in to their computer when all you want to do is charge?
Admittedly, there are covert chargers that have been made that can either slurp info off your device or insert malicious payload. This is where a prison-style clear casing would be useful in assuaging someone that there isn’t something like a Raspberry Pi hiding inside the thing, though custom ARM mal(hard)ware wouldn’t look too out of place.
Certainly, newer versions of the USB specification will allow concurrent communication and high current charging, but that probably will not be backwards compatible with most of the USB 2.1 devices people have to charge today.
Hmm, Home Depot is a few thousand kilometres down the road. I stopped in at PC World and they had a ton of styles, sizes and ports, but nothing powered. Ditto Maplins.
Online only apparently.
You’re not missing much, the HD one I have is pretty cheesy… It didn’t come with a power supply, just a jack for a 5vdc wall wart which I supplied myself. So it won’t actually charge fancy schmancy devices like iPhones or USB3 hi amp devices etc.
I guess the point I was failing to make was that you should try some big box stores rather than computer stores. (Mega-Mart, Where Shopping is a Baffling Ordeal!) The margin’s so razor thin on these things a specialty shop won’t really want to carry them.
They will call it parallel USB… It will utilize two physically separate cables:
Future specifications will offer an all-in-one option:
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