“which is how you end up with things like an ice cream maker with a built in bluetooth speaker and selfie-cam, or a flashlight-on-one-end-stick-blender-on-the-other/UV-light cleaning wand.”
Didn’t a few of these come up in the last meh-re-thon?
Soooo…Either Anker has a new model or… people are traveling less, hence fewer family road trips, and they saw sales of this dwindle during the pandemic? People (including myself) are gonna travel again soon enough. This looks like a solid…
/buy
If I drove an Uber (or Lyft), I would be out of business now and couldn’t buy this for my riders. So sad to think all those riders not able to charge their phones.
I have had one of these for years, in black. Lets you charge your phone, your passenger’s phone, your power bank, etc, at the same time. If on a road trip with a full, car, you might need all 5 ports.
It is out of stock on anker and no longer listed on amazon, so maybe it’s being replaced, but I don’t see a new version.
@Bandrik The order number words seemed promising but I expected more slime and more… electricity. I gave up and settled for this, because dinosaurs. Why not. Rawr.
I first heard about Anker from a friend years ago (RIP mrbill) and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. There’s barely a room in the house that doesn’t have something of theirs in it — a charger, a power bank, a pile of cables, or something. All of it solid gear that works without issues.
We don’t have a use case in our cars for these… however, we have off grid dwellings on rural property with solar power. These USB port multipliers will be ideal there. Not only for mobile device recharging but also for various micro-USB charged lighting and fans.
Great for long car rides & trips with multiple people that you can’t do anymore because fucking Covid sucks ass stuck in the house wanting to kick babies and eat humans. Overall a nice deal today. Well done ERK
@arosemena Yeah, I suspect that’s why they are here at this price. Not that there is much difference for MOST devices, like newer iPhones — would be pretty much the same.
I’m pretty sure any new model coming out would have some USB-C ports and support some of the extra capabilities that provides.
Recently pulled out a 15 year old mainstream model Toshiba laptop and a similar era Dell. Booted up fine. Those machines were far more solid than the mainstream crap-build plasti-laptops today.
Anker has outstanding customer service - if there is a failed product, it’s no fuss replacement… And they actually get back with you later to be sure the replacement is working properly, and want to know details of failure, as feedback for product redesign potential in future…
I once bought a charger from this manufacturer for a friend who was going on a trip. The item blew up his phone battery. Anker refused to do anything about it. Since then, whenever I see that name in a sentence, I pass over it without reading it.
@robcass that’s unfortunate but I can’t think of a more reliable charger brand with solid customer support than Anker - perhaps RAVPower approaches Anker. We have lots of both brands’ products and they’re all solid.
@TomDavidson I suspect that would be a function of the car’s computer to cut off power to the accessory power ports when the ignition is off. The charging station would have no way to know whether the ignition is on or off - only whether it has 12VDC on its input or doesn’t have 12VDC on its input. I’ve owned vehicles that work both ways.
@TomDavidson Don’t leave devices plugged in and it won’t drain anything, whether your 12V power port is on or off. It’s basically just an extension cord. It doesn’t draw power. It just sits there.
UNLESS it has an LED to indicate whether it’s powered up or not. But that would probably take months or years to drain a battery.
The cord is a little short at 36 inches so maybe that’s why they are discontinued. My current car charging solution for road trips is cheap and doesn’t have the watts to really do the job. Sure.
Specs
What’s in the Box?
Price Comparison
$39.98 at Walmart
Warranty
1 Year Warranty
Estimated Delivery
Tuesday, Sep 21 - Monday, Sep 27
Meh Pass
Anker is a solid manufacturer
I manage mobility for a Fortune 500 and deploy tons of their accessories
@jmhsrv yep, they are really solid. they are my go to for Bluetooth speakers too.
@jmhsrv Yes they are. I use one of their 10 port desktop chargers to run a few older Raspberry Pis. If I needed a car charger I would grab these.
“which is how you end up with things like an ice cream maker with a built in bluetooth speaker and selfie-cam, or a flashlight-on-one-end-stick-blender-on-the-other/UV-light cleaning wand.”
Didn’t a few of these come up in the last meh-re-thon?
@caffeineguy That was my thought too!
I do love Anker products, but I just don’t need this much charging ability in my car okfineIllbuyit.
The Saudis love this!
https://www.amazon.sa/-/en/Anker-PowerDrive-Charger-Mobile-Phones/dp/B084GWTQ2Z
But how long is the cable from cigarette lighter?
@RedOx I wondered the same. This review says it’s 36 inches: https://www.chargerharbor.com/review-anker-50w-5port-car-charger-powerdrive-5/
@mr_crash_davis That’s exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks!
Soooo…Either Anker has a new model or… people are traveling less, hence fewer family road trips, and they saw sales of this dwindle during the pandemic? People (including myself) are gonna travel again soon enough. This looks like a solid…
/buy
@shiranissosexy It worked! Your order number is: gusty-waxy-battle
/image gusty waxy battle
@shiranissosexy My thoughts as well.
This:
“Like, it’s a subscription box of watch batteries, or you take 20 minutes filling out an only survey so a “virtual charge stylist””
Should say:
"Like, it’s a subscription box of watch batteries, or you take 20 minutes filling out an online survey so a “virtual charge stylist”
Note ‘only’ vs ‘online’.
You can’t just depend on a spell checker.
If I drove an Uber (or Lyft), I would be out of business now and couldn’t buy this for my riders. So sad to think all those riders not able to charge their phones.
I have had one of these for years, in black. Lets you charge your phone, your passenger’s phone, your power bank, etc, at the same time. If on a road trip with a full, car, you might need all 5 ports.
It is out of stock on anker and no longer listed on amazon, so maybe it’s being replaced, but I don’t see a new version.
Anker is a sure bet. I could use these for road trips where everyone wants to charge something.
My order number is also kind of on theme. Nice.
/giphy slimy-electrical-wish
@Bandrik The order number words seemed promising but I expected more slime and more… electricity. I gave up and settled for this, because dinosaurs. Why not. Rawr.
I first heard about Anker from a friend years ago (RIP mrbill) and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. There’s barely a room in the house that doesn’t have something of theirs in it — a charger, a power bank, a pile of cables, or something. All of it solid gear that works without issues.
/giphy fantastical-lethal-turkey
@kensey Related to the gif: has me wondering what movie this burning turkey is from. Think it is from The Santa Clause?
We don’t have a use case in our cars for these… however, we have off grid dwellings on rural property with solar power. These USB port multipliers will be ideal there. Not only for mobile device recharging but also for various micro-USB charged lighting and fans.
Great for long car rides & trips with multiple people that you can’t do anymore because fucking Covid sucks ass stuck in the house wanting to kick babies and eat humans. Overall a nice deal today. Well done ERK
Why?
@somf69 Why ask why? Drink Bud Dry.
Ugh… I wasn’t gonna do it. I really wasn’t.
/buy
@Faulkin It worked! Your order number is: uncovered-wonderful-broccoli
/image uncovered wonderful broccoli
Already have Anker car chargers with enough ports, otherwise we’d be interested.
This thing is so old that the only references I could find show it charging an iPhone 6, a Galaxy S6 and a iPad Mini 2.
@arosemena Yeah, I suspect that’s why they are here at this price. Not that there is much difference for MOST devices, like newer iPhones — would be pretty much the same.
I’m pretty sure any new model coming out would have some USB-C ports and support some of the extra capabilities that provides.
@arosemena hey!?! Old isn’t necessarily bad!
Recently pulled out a 15 year old mainstream model Toshiba laptop and a similar era Dell. Booted up fine. Those machines were far more solid than the mainstream crap-build plasti-laptops today.
Good for our pop-up camper.
/image shiny-festering-gull
But… but… but… why do I need 2?
@olsmeister
@olsmeister
@olsmeister so you can leave both in random places and improve the odds of finding them when you need one.
Anker has outstanding customer service - if there is a failed product, it’s no fuss replacement… And they actually get back with you later to be sure the replacement is working properly, and want to know details of failure, as feedback for product redesign potential in future…
@yorrick yep. I have 2200 mobile users and I supply them all with anker products
Does it support Quick Charge?
I once bought a charger from this manufacturer for a friend who was going on a trip. The item blew up his phone battery. Anker refused to do anything about it. Since then, whenever I see that name in a sentence, I pass over it without reading it.
@robcass that’s unfortunate but I can’t think of a more reliable charger brand with solid customer support than Anker - perhaps RAVPower approaches Anker. We have lots of both brands’ products and they’re all solid.
@robcass Might just as easily been a problem with the battery.
Do these sense when the car is off and not draw power? In a northern climate, failure to do so can easily lead to a dead battery.
@TomDavidson I suspect that would be a function of the car’s computer to cut off power to the accessory power ports when the ignition is off. The charging station would have no way to know whether the ignition is on or off - only whether it has 12VDC on its input or doesn’t have 12VDC on its input. I’ve owned vehicles that work both ways.
@TomDavidson Don’t leave devices plugged in and it won’t drain anything, whether your 12V power port is on or off. It’s basically just an extension cord. It doesn’t draw power. It just sits there.
UNLESS it has an LED to indicate whether it’s powered up or not. But that would probably take months or years to drain a battery.
@TomDavidson all of our vehicles’ relays cut the power to the accessory charging ports we use. So no risk of that.
Check your car’s 12 VDC port.
I don’t have a car, but the sales pitch has sold me on Anker.
It took me far longer than it should to wrap my head around how these would benefit from having an antenna… Why does this charger need wifi?
oh… I’m retarded.
I’ve always been a fan of Anker Management.
The cord is a little short at 36 inches so maybe that’s why they are discontinued. My current car charging solution for road trips is cheap and doesn’t have the watts to really do the job. Sure.
/buy
@Vertabrae It worked! Your order number is: disrespectful-grainy-lettuce
/image disrespectful grainy lettuce
Never been disrespected by salad before. That actually doesn’t look bad at least on the phone screen. Mmmm salad.
/buy
@CrazyJeff It worked! Your order number is: acoustic-occasional-relation
/image acoustic occasional relation
/giphy entertaining-vicious-hawk
/buy
@t0nyc0tt4m It worked! Your order number is: resilient-unhealthy-ant
/image resilient unhealthy ant
10+ days stuck in “snowy” Atlanta?!? Slow boat from China more like it. Come on Meh.
Say things only once, insist on them listening the first time and not repeating same questions.