One Charger to Rule Them All

If you're anything like me, your nightstand is full of electronic devices that need to be charged regularly. Every night I have:

  • Nexus 7 tablet.

  • Cell phone.

  • Kindle Paperwhite.

  • iPad Air.

  • Fitbit.

Granted they don't all need a daily charge, but the two tablets and cell phone certainly do. Although many of you are probably tsk'ing me for buying an iPad, for this purpose, it's a fine example of a device that is finicky about being charged. Many tablets, the iPad especially, require a lot of amperage to charge properly. Enter the Anker 40W, five-port USB charger.

Before buying the Anker, I had to get a power strip in order to plug in all the wall-warts required to charge my devices. Two of those devices (the Fitbit and Kindle) didn't even come with power adapters, just USB cables to plug in to a computer for charging. With the Anker USB charger, I'm able to use a single, regular-sized power cord to charge all my devices. Because it's designed specifically to charge, it has some great features as well:

  • Dynamic, intelligently assigned amperage, up to 2.4 amps per port (8 amps max for all ports combined).

  • Compact size (about the size of a deck of playing cards).

  • Supports Apple, Android and other USB-based charging.

I've been using the Anker charger for several weeks and absolutely love it. There also is a 25 watt version if you don't need the full 40 watts, but I highly recommend getting the larger version, just in case you need more power in the future.

I purchased the charger on Amazon for $26, and although that's more than I'd normally pay for a USB charger, it's more like getting five chargers in one. Check it out at http://www.ianker.com/support-c7-g345.html.

Shawn is Associate Editor here at Linux Journal, and has been around Linux since the beginning. He has a passion for open source, and he loves to teach. He also drinks too much coffee, which often shows in his writing.

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