After creating a Twitter account last week, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is full of predictions on the platform, as he has just shared that the Cupertino company could be readying a new 30W charger for its products.
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“Bigger and better” has been a safe sequel strategy for years, but “smaller, lighter, and slightly more affordable” sequels began to take off when Apple debuted the iPod mini and iPod nano a decade ago. Anker relied upon “bigger and better” for its insanely powerful 25,600mAh Astro E7 battery, and now is using “smaller and lighter” with PowerCore 20100 ($40), a sequel with nearly 80% of Astro E7’s power. But Anker’s diverging from Apple’s formula on one key point: PowerCore 20100 sells for only 50% of Astro E7’s price. It’s still capable of recharging many iPads twice, which is more than enough portable energy for most people. Given its more manageable size and excellent price point, it’s likely to be an even bigger hit than its predecessor.
Anker has also released a “you’ll never need another USB charging port again” solution called PowerPort 10 ($40, shown above). PowerPort 10 steps up from Anker’s excellent 60W 6-Port USB Charger (reviewed here), which was recently renamed PowerPort 6. For only $4 more than PowerPort 6, PowerPort 10 gives you 4 additional USB ports for charging. Ten ports is enough for a family full of iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch users to simultaneously recharge all their devices. The only hitch: PowerPort 10 has the same 60W power output as PowerPort 6, the details of which I’ll explain further in the review below…
Standardizing on USB was arguably the best thing ever to happen to gadget lovers. Instead of having an unholy mess of chargers cluttering up your home, you just need a few USB cables and something to plug them into. I’ve previously reviewed the Lightning Rabbit Triforce and Truffol Station 5 USB chargers, which offer stylish options for the home or office. We’ve also reviewed a bunch of others.
When travelling, though, I pack light. I tend to just charge everything from my MacBook Pro, which is convenient but doesn’t offer the fastest of charging speeds. The Oneadapter Twist and Twist Plus World Charging Stations are designed to overcome that issue, offering a combined USB charger and international plug adapter …
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USB chargers aren’t sexy, but they’re critically important to iOS users — so vital that every iPhone and iPad arrives with a basic one-port charger in the box. Without USB recharging assistance, these devices would literally be dead after one day of active use. And the more Apple devices you (or your family) use every day, the more valuable a multi-device charging hub becomes. When I travel with my wife and kids, I can’t leave the house without a charging solution for everyone’s iPads and iPhones.
Up until two or three years ago, few families had five or six Apple devices. Moreover, early multi-device chargers were expensive: Griffin charged $100 for an early five-port charging station, and Bluelounge charged $100 for a four-port version. But that’s changing. iPads are cheaper than ever, iPhones are more ubiquitous than ever, and Apple Watches are about to add “one more thing” to the list of Apple devices requiring a daily charge. Thankfully, great multi-device chargers have become affordable; RAVPower’s Bolt 6-Port USB Wall Charger impressed me last year for $27, and a slightly less powerful version now sells for $25. Over the past week, I’ve been testing something even better: the most powerful home and travel charging hub I’ve ever seen.
Correctly billed as “family-sized,” Anker’s 60W 6-Port Desktop USB Charger ($36) features an intelligent power management system that lets any of its ports recharge any iPad, iPhone, iPod, or other USB accessory at its top possible speed, sharing 60 watts of power across them. You can recharge six iPad Airs or iPad minis at peak 10W speeds, or five older, power-hungrier third- and fourth-generation iPads at their peak 12W speeds. There’s no need to confirm that you’re using the right type of port for your device, as all of Anker’s ports self-regulate power up to 12W as appropriate. Read on for more details…
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Back in stock! WD My Passport Ultra 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive $80 shipped (orig. $140) http://t.co/fb0lXR6ioQ pic.twitter.com/Z4EnlDn0TR
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) March 3, 2015
It seems pretty much every gadget in the world these days–from phones to bicycle lights–is charged via USB, so you can never have too many USB charging points in your home.
The Lightning Rabbit Triforce is a simple device with two goals: to charge your devices quickly, and to look cute (if quirky) while doing so.
At the rear, there’s just a figure-of-8 power socket (with a supplied power cable). At the front, there are four USB sockets, all of them delivering the same 2.4A power as an Apple iPad charger, ensuring that devices are charged as quickly as possible.
For lower-powered devices, there is no harm in having the extra power available–power draw is determined by the device itself, the charger just delivering whatever is requested.
I’ve been using it to charge a variety of gadgets over the past week or so, all of them charging as quickly as with their supplied chargers but with a lot less clutter and a far prettier box. At its official price of $60, you’re paying a pretty steep premium for that cute design, but it’s worth bearing in mind that most multi-port USB chargers give you one 2.4A port at most.
At the Amazon price of $47.79, it’s still not cheap, but if you have more than one power-hungry device, and share my love of the design, you may well find it worth the outlay. If wood is more your thing, check out the Truffol Station 5 charger instead.
The White Lightning Triforce 48W 4-port USB charger is available from the company’s Amazon store for $47.79.
We all have a ton of gadgets these days that are charged by USB, from iPhones and iPads to things as diverse as cameras, scanners and GPS units. The challenge can be finding enough USB ports to keep up, which is why I resort to a powered USB hub. It’s plastic and not exactly pretty, hence my interest in a rather beautiful-looking product from Truffol–the company behind the reversible USB cable we looked at last year.
The Truffol Station 5 is not a USB hub: there’s no socket to connect it to a Mac. It’s designed for one purpose only, and that’s to charge up to five USB devices at once. It differs from most other such devices in two ways: form and function …
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We take utter simplicity for granted when choosing wall chargers for Apple devices. Apple’s adapters each have one USB port and a relatively clear label identifying the device the port will charge. Most of RAVPower’s largest multi-port chargers are very clear about what their multiple ports can do: each port is either iPhone (1-Amp) or iPad (2.4-Amp) enabled, period. But SwitchEasy, an infrequent dabbler in electronic accessories, has overcomplicated its new four-port charger Power Amp ($50), sometimes styled PowerAmp. While it cosmetically looks almost as if it could be an Apple design, its ports are packed with confusion.
On the positive side, it’s relatively compact, and if you can look past its confusing labeling, its performance isn’t bad. Read on for more.
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Today’s can’t miss deals:
Amazon GoldBox: 20% or more off popular Belkin, WeMo, and Linksys home automation products
Audio-Technica QuietPoint Noise-Cancelling Headphones (black/silver) $125 shipped (Reg. up to $186), more
$50 iTunes gift card for $40: save 20% on future apps, music, movies, more
Apple Deals:
Small States: This is Ground perfects craftsmanship with a purpose, giveaway worth $450, 15% discount
Other new deals:
Linksys Dual-Band N750 Router refurb: $35 (Reg. $140), AC Gig Router $60 shipped (Reg. $139) http://t.co/2WVEDJobGT pic.twitter.com/i6nZtd3WrJ
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) September 3, 2014
More tech deals still alive:
Apple Deals:
Home/fashion/magazines/games/media:
New products/ongoing promos:
Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.
Today’s can’t miss deals:
Last Call Updates:
Apple Deals:
Sony DSC-QX10 smartphone attachable lens kit w/ WiFi $84 shipped (orig. $250) –refurbished option available for $79.
Bose IE2 in-ear headphones $70 shipped (Reg. $100)
Small States: This is Ground perfects craftsmanship with a purpose, giveaway worth $450, 15% discount
Other new deals:
More tech deals still alive:
Apple Deals:
Home/fashion/magazines/games/media:
New products/ongoing promos:
From 9to5Toys.com:
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Best Buy is taking $125 off the price of MacBook Airs for the next three days to celebrate Mother’s Day. That yields some of the lowest prices we’ve seen. The retailler knocks off $100 across the board, then using code MOM25 knocks off another $25.
Prices after discount:
Best Buy is also offering a $100 iTunes gift cad for $85. (Free Money!) That is a total savings of 15% off future purchases of Apps Music, Movies and any other content on the the App Store, iTunes, Mac App Store and iBook Store. This is the first iTunes deal we’ve seen in nearly 2 months and a perfect opportunity to surprise Mom on Mother’s Day.
More at Best Buy’s Mother’s Day sale and Smart Buys & Gift Ideas for every type of Mom in our Mother’s Day Gift Guide
iMac $150 off sale on most current generation configurations, now starting at $1,150 shipped
Just a few weeks ago we saw an unprecedented sale from Best Buy on current generation iMacs and now Amazon has stepped up and surpassed that deal by offering a staggering $150 off 3 out 4 standard configuration iMacs.
Other amazing 9to5Toys.com deals from around the web:
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