Just when you thought you could chitchat with authority about USB standards at your next dinner party, a new one comes along to shake everything up again. The latest USB 3.2 standard is going to be confirmed in September, and here’s what that means for your laptop, your phone, and those new USB-C cables you just went…
USB-C is eating the world, so it’s probably a good idea to invest in quality cables that will last. Anker’s PowerLine cables are our readers’ favorites, and the nylon-wrapped PowerLine+ models are even better. Get a USB 3.0 to USB-C 6' cable for $10 today, or about $4 less than usual.
The benefits of armoring a charging cable with stainless steel should be self evident. Metal is strong, hefty, and looks really cool. But you’d probably assume that a metal-wrapped cable would be too stiff and inflexible to be practical. Well, you’d be wrong.
Anker’s PowerLine Lightning cables have long been our readers’ favorites, and two different models are on sale today on Amazon.
USB-C will take over the world before long, but in the meantime, these Anker discounts can help ease the transition. Choose from reader-favorite Powerline and Powerline+ cables, or transform any two microUSB cables to USB-C for just $6.
The promise of USB-C is great: One cable to connect all of your devices, laptops, tablets, smartphone. Unfortunately it comes with the big caveat that you might end up damaging your gear if you cheap out on a USB-C cable. But Satechi’s new Type-C Power Meter makes it easy to tell if your USB-C gadgets are at risk of…
The microUSB cable that came with whatever gadget you need to charge every night probably works just fine, assuming you take care of it. But ThinkGeek still makes a strong argument for replacing it with this electroluminescent cable that makes the Millennium Falcon on the end look like it’s making the jump to…
Upgrading to the iPhone 7 and lack wireless headphones? Say hello to your new reality. Belkin appears to be the first accessory maker with a Lightning dongle that lets you attach a pair of Lightning connector headphones and a charging cable at the same time. Sigh.
Did you know there’s a special way to wrap your cables that not only keeps them neat and tidy, but also makes them perfectly unfurl without tangling when you’re ready to use them? It’s the de facto way to store cables in the video, film, and music industries, and it can also help lengthen the life of all your cords.
For whatever reason, Nintendo decided not to include a charger with its new 3DS handheld console. You absurdly have to buy one separately, or you could just spend $8 on this new adapter that lets you use your iPhone or iPad’s Lightning charging cable instead.
USB-C is a fantastic new standard for almost everything, unless you have a crappy cable, in which case you might accidentally fry your laptop. The people behind USB-C understandably see this as a problem, so a fix is in the works.
The tangled mess of wires under your desk isn’t just an eyesore. It can also make it impossible to figure out where every gadget on your desk is plugged in. Is it safe to unplug this adapter? Oops, there goes the backup drives. Unless, of course, everything was properly labeled with easy to interpret stickers.
Before USB Type-C replaces every charging cord you have to wrangle, the LMcable promises to play nice with both iOS and Android devices at the same time. Its brilliantly engineered connector supports Lightning ports, and microUSB ports, at the same time, without the need for adapters.
The reversible USB-C cable and charger that OnePlus sells for its OnePlus 2 smartphone is very good at charging that particular phone. But as a Google engineer pointed out, it’s not up to spec for all USB-C devices.
Lining up a USB cable with the tiny charging port on your phone is hard enough during the day. At night it might as well be a MENSA test that you’ll always fail. But what if the business end of your USB cable glowed like a beacon in the night when touched? Now you see why it’s time to upgrade.
Tangled cables are an unfortunate staple of my life, thanks to the five different devices I have to juice up every night. Until good wireless charging is a thing, I suspect that will never change; but this USB hub with its neat cable-management system might stave off insanity a little longer.
There was much griping when Apple replaced its old dock connectors with the reversible Lightning cable, but they’ve made life infinitely easier for iOS users. So the MicFlip, the world’s first reversible micro-USB cable, promises to do the same for Android (and other smartphone) users.
Even before I took to techbloggering, my life was filled with boxes and boxes of tangled cables: power sources to this, connector wires for that, and doubles (or triples) for everything. Could this attractive little solution be my salvation?
Most multi-device charging solutions are kind of an eyesore, but we’re all used to seeing a toaster sitting on a kitchen counter, right? That’s the theory behind the Foaster which camouflages a charging dock as a household appliance.
Leaving home without your smartphone’s charging cable is as disastrous as forgetting the device itself. That’s why ultra-compact charging cables are suddenly so popular, and with 128GB of extra storage onboard, PhotoFast’s new MemoriesCable might be the only one iPhone users will want to consider.
