Getting Charged Up Over Chargers at CES (Video)

First we look at Skiva Technology and their Octofire 8-port USB charger that pulled in nearly five times the requested amount from a Kickstarter campaign. (The 'pulled in X times the requested Kickstarter amount' is becoming a common product boast, isn't it?) Then, for MacBook owners who are tired of having their chargers or charger cords break, we take a brief look at the Juiceboxx Charger Case. These two power-oriented products and WakaWaka, which we posted about on January 9, are just a tiny, random sample of the many items in this category that were on display at CES 2015. Timothy was the only Slashdot person working CES, so it's shocking that he managed to cover as many (hopefully interesting) products as he did, considering that even the biggest IT journo mills don't come close to total coverage of the overwhelming muddle CES has become in recent years. (Alternate Video Link)

Comments

chargers and battery life

[turkeydance]

W10, so what? for how long is what interests me.

That thing is enormous

[Guspaz]

What advantages does that 8-port charger have over competing chargers? The thing is incredibly enormous when compared to, say, a 6-port anker charger... and it doesn't really offer any more power per port than the Anker charger either.

5x the size for an extra 2 USB ports seems absurd.

Re:That thing is enormous

[bolt_the_dhampir]

+1 for the Anker. Seems a much better alternative. I'm getting one.

Re:That thing is enormous

[munwin99]

Got mine the other day. Works like a charm charging a Galaxy Tab 8, 2x Galaxy Nexus' and an iPod touch all at once. And it's small and nicely designed. No complaints here :-)

Re:That thing is enormous

[Coren22]

Most likely, the difference is in the electronics.

The best Anker also only does 60W max, 2A per port, the octo charger pushes 96W, 2.4A per port.

From the Octofire information on their site:

Intelligent overheat, overcharging and over-current protection built-in.

Only charger that can charge eight tablets simultaneously at 2.4A per ports with Smart detection of devices for optimal charging.

International Compatibility - Octofire takes 100-240VAC 47-63Hz power input. That makes it work in all countries. Octofire Turbo comes with a 1 year Replacement Warranty.

Re:That thing is enormous

[Guspaz]

The difference is minor. You're talking about 10W per port on the Anker product, and 12W per port on the Octofire. This does not explain the enormous size of the Octofire product.

You could practically take half a dozen Anker charges, consuming less space, and get 360W of charging... not that there'd be much value in that.

Re:That thing is enormous

[Coren22]

Proper cooling for more power being delivered. Every watt passing through the device produces heat, so the more wattage, the more surface area to dissipate heat. You asked what the difference it, I answered. Your charger can't charge tablets at full rate (2.4 amps), it is limited (2.0 amps). This means it can be smaller as it is dissipating less heat (60 Watt power supply vs 96 W power supply). It may work for you, but they are hardly the same product, converting electricity from 120-240 VAC to 5 VDC and providing that much power does require some heat dissipation.

Chargers?

[DogDude]

I don't see what the big deal is. I plug my phone into whatever computer I'm sitting at. I'm at a computer for most of my waking hours.

Re:Chargers?

[thegarbz]

I'm not, and even if I was the current state of computer charging makes it incredibly slow. I go out of my way to look for wall chargers to plug my phone into. The only exception being overnight where I use a simple wireless charger, because screw messing with USB plugs in the dark.

Re:8 port charger?

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. Part of the allure of the modern smart phone was that it could replace many of the various existing devices. It's a phone, camera, music player, and game machine all rolled into one. Never mind that there are plenty of other, more niche devices that it can replace as well.

It might not be a bad thing for coffee shops or other places that might want to provide a charge station.

Re:8 port charger?

[neminem]

I've definitely been in plenty of situations where I wanted to charge 2-4 devices at once (my phone, some other device of mine, my wife's phone, some other device of her's). I've never been in a situation where I needed to charge *8*, though... that said, if we were a family with kids, instead of just the two of us, I could totally see it.

Reverse Octofire

[lucm]

What about charging a single USB device from 8 adapters? If it would charge 8x faster maybe my Kindle would charge completely overnight...

Re:Reverse Octofire

[QuasiSteve]

Sorry, device charging doesn't work that way. If it did, you'd just hook your mobile device up directly to your car battery and have it charged in minutes.

The device itself determines how fast it gets charged by drawing a certain amount of current. Based on passive or active measures, it might draw more current (say, 2A max) from e.g. a wall charger than from a computer USB port (say 500mA max), but if you decided to just wire two wall chargers together, the device isn't magically going to draw 4A.

As for your Kindle, depending on the model you have (Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Fire? big difference), it really should charge in just a few hours to the point where it decides it's charged (based on LiPo voltage levels). Sounds to me like the internal battery in your unit may be worn and either the charge controller is dropping charging current way too early, or the battery's voltage level takes too long to reach the 'charged' state during the voltage phase. If it's within its warranty period, try exchanging it.

Of course the other possibility is that your nights are very short :)

Re:8 port charger?

[rgmoore]

I assume that some of it is about not wanting to plug in different charging cables all the time. I have several devices that have special cables or docks, and I'd rather not swap those all the time. Having plenty of ports lets you keep them all plugged in even though you aren't going to charge all those devices simultaneously.

Right

[justthinkit]

This seems like more of a big deal to me.

Missing the big picture

[Anonymous Coward]

USB Type-C
Between the slick new connector, usb power up to 120W (plenty for a laptop), the 10Gb USB3.1 speeds, and the DisplayPort alternate mode, this is shaping up to be the one port to rule them all. And if Apple throws their weight behind it (as the rumors of the 12" MacBook seem to indicate they will, at least for Macs (it would be great if they went to standard connectors on iOS devices as well, but that may be less likely)) this could be a quick transition.

Rezence
Magnetic resonance charging (which gives you somewhat more leeway in where you position your device than iinductive), combined with the various Bluetooth an 802.xx wireless data transfer technologies, could eliminate a whole lot of cables over the next few years. And with Intel throwing their weight behind it, this could also be a quick transition.

You know...

[Gibgezr]

Every dollar store sells USB wall chargers. I just don't see, given I can buy as many wall chargers as I want for between one and two dollars a pop, why we care that CES had companies selling overpriced chargers.

Re:You know...

[bill_mcgonigle]

Every dollar store sells USB wall chargers

Speaking of that - maybe everybody knows this already but it had escaped my attention - I was getting annoyed that my phone charges very fast with the Samsung charger/cable but rather slowly with the well-rated 2A charger I bought off Amazon.

The issue was my dollar-store cables. Long story short, there is 28/28 gauge wire inside cheap cables and the resistance means they can only pull 500mA. The electronics at both ends are smart enough to figure this out. What you need is a
28/24 cable and then you can get a fast charge.

I'm using Galaxy Charging Current Lite to measure my existing USB cables and tossing the ones that can't handle at least 1.3A. This helps with my over-stuffed box of USB cables too.

Re:You know...

[swb]

Thanks for the info. I've suspected this before when I've tried to use a USB A-A extension cable but get annoyingly slow charge times. I figured the length of the cable increased resistance but didn't know they made them with bigger wires.

Re:You know...

[markass530]

I prefer these things, they're just a couple bucks and you also get the voltage - you won't believe how often usb ports and other usb power sources are under volted

Re:You know...

[markass530]

crap, forgot the link

http://www.amazon.com/Breett-D...

Re:You know...

[mlts]

Not all chargers are alike. There are reviews about how clean the 5 volt DC power is on various models, especially when one plugs and unplugs devices... and it varies from quite good to pure crap.

A lot of them only handle 500 milliamps, making them worthless for newer devices, some of them require 2.1 amps in order to even bother charging.

There are many brands that are decent. If I am going to use a wall socket, I want as many ports as possible, so I like the Lumsing five port model, assuming there is space. This way, I can leave a set of charging cables in place, so regardless if the device is a BT earpiece, a smartphone, a tablet, or an external battery, it can find a teat to suckle on.

I am not into the "boutique" chargers. There comes a point where you get what you pay for, then hit diminishing returns, similar to audio equipment, with the audiophile exponential price curve at the high end, with little back in return [1].

Of course, there is the one invention I'd like to see. A decent charger that has a very good, replacable battery pack (at least 20 ampere-hours). This won't be a small device, but it would definitely come in handy camping/RV-ing, especially with the 40 watt USB bulbs available. One can provide enough light for reading, a few can provide light for the entire camper. It would also be useful for power blackouts since when the battery gets discharged, it can be swapped with another.

[1]: This is audiophile stuff. Studio/professional stuff can get expensive... but there is good reason for it, other than "it uses a rare substance that only discerning ears can tell."

Juiceboxx Charger Case

[QuadEddie]

This might save the cord fray near the charger, but it doesn't save the connector end (which fails every damn time).

Self-congratulations, anyone?

[Half-pint HAL]

"Timothy was the only Slashdot person working CES, so it's shocking that he managed to cover as many (hopefully interesting) products as he did, considering that even the biggest IT journo mills don't come close to total coverage of the overwhelming muddle CES has become in recent years"

Isn't it a bit much to start telling all of /. how wonderful /. is in TFS? It's kind of preaching to the choir, but in such a way as to make the choir think the preacher's actually a bit full of himself, and make them want to give up the choir....

Re:8 port charger?

[Half-pint HAL]

Indeed. Part of the allure of the modern smart phone was that it could replace many of the various existing devices. It's a phone, camera, music player, and game machine all rolled into one. Never mind that there are plenty of other, more niche devices that it can replace as well.

That depends on your usage. I don't use my phone as a cycle satnav due to battery life worries. When I go on a cycling holiday, I have (at the very least) my phone, my GPS, and an ebook reader. When I camp for the night, I have a very narrow window to get some charge into the devices while reception is still open, or I have to use the razor sockets in the washrooms and risk stuff getting nicked. Because of that, I also like to take a high-capacity USB battery pack, so I might have 4 devices that could do with a simultaneous charge. If I want music on my next trip, I'll probably buy a separate (keyring sized) MP3 player, which means possibly having 5 devices that I might want to simultaneously charge.

I will always try to avoid that situation (and now that I have a solar panel, that should be easier) but topping up the phone and GPS daily is a must, so I think what I need is at least a 3-port charger.

Re:8 port charger?

[mbourgon]

I actually own a product that came out several years ago that did it. Two big problems with it:
1) buying replacement cables SUCKED. It's why I abandoned it. Something like 18$ each.
2) You do NOT. SAVE. ANY. SPACE. Look at how much room that takes up, then realize that even empty, it still uses about most of that.

Re:8 port charger?

[mlts]

I would love an 8 port charger, especially for two people. It could top off both of our iPads, both our phones, my BlueTooth headsets (one earpiece for the road if I'm not using my car, another for stereo listening), my Kindle (an e-Ink model which is easier on the eyes for long reading), and an external battery so when I'm camping/RV-ing, I have the ability to keep my phone topped off.

On a computer where I'm using multiple external hard drives, having USB ports becomes more critical, preferably USB ports on different cards, so I can run drives on separate buses.