This will probably sound familiar to most of you…In my home, we have a whole bunch of devices that can be charged via USB (two iPhones, a BlackBerry, an iPod Touch, etc ad nauseam). We also have a bunch of USB chargers, each of which has a single USB port on it. I’d like to have something permanently connected to AC power with at least 4 USB ports on it, so we can just plug devices in and don’t need to go looking for a free outlet.
So here’s the question: if I buy a powered USB hub, will that do the job even if I don’t connect it to a PC? Ideally if you have a hub that you can personally verify will be suitable, let me know the manufacturer and model 🙂
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: The solution I eventually went for was this:
Kensington 4-Port USB Charger for Mobile Devices (Europe)
There’s also a US version here:
Kensington 4-Port USB Charger for Mobile Devices (USA)
It arrived yesterday, so I used it to charge the following devices, all at the same time, overnight last night:
32GB iPhone 3GS
16GB iPhone 3G
First-generation iPod Touch
Kensington Portable Power Pack for Mobile Devices
I can’t say anything about the charging speed (as I left it overnight) but all devices were fully charged this morning.
Solution:
Check: Transform a USB hub into the ultimate DIY gadget charger
I’m talking about a standard USB hub–those little accessories that multiply one of your PC’s USB ports by a factor of four, five, six, or even seven. I took a spare seven-porter–the Belkin F5U701 ($20)–plugged its included AC adapter into a nearby wall outlet, and started loading it up with devices. A few minutes later, I was charging six devices via USB with no apparent problems–and I still had a free port available for yet another device.
