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Trust Apple to be courageous<\/a> enough to strip away all of the old-fashioned USB ports. And trust the rest of us to realize that 90 percent of\u00a0our peripherals still run on the old standard. Apple\u2019s retort is to sell you a one-way ticket to dongle hell<\/a>. Then Homey comes along with its Indiegogo campaign<\/a> to show the fruit giant how it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n The elevator pitch is simple: Take a USB-C charger, add three USB-A ports, make sure the two can talk to each other and job done. In effect, what you get is a small power hub that\u2019s also a charger. Or a charger that\u2019s also a power hub. All in roughly the same size as Apple\u2019s own USB-C charger for laptops \u2014 and at the same price-point, too.<\/p>\n The question on my mind becomes: Why the hell didn\u2019t Apple just ship something like this with its laptops? Or at least sell it as a potential accessory?<\/p>\n Take a USB-C charger. Add three USB-A ports and build in a data hub. It\u2019s such a good idea, it\u2019s a mystery why nobody else has done it yet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I tried out a prototype of the\u00a0PowerUp for a little while, and it\u2019s a solid piece of engineering. Transfer speeds between USB-C and USB-A seem reasonable (the company claims it\u2019s USB 3.0, but the speeds I was seeing were a little bit lower than you\u2019d expect from the standard). The one I tried was obviously an engineering sample \u2014 the glue gives it away \u2014 but if the company is successful in scaling up their manufacturing, they may very well be on to a solid winner. PowerUp is a simple product, but then, all the best products are.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a 100 percent home-run, however. In particular, I wasn\u2019t a huge fan of the short cable between the power brick and the USB-C plug: It makes sense if you always work at a desk (maybe your PowerUp should live at the office?), but if you work in plane seats or frequently work with your laptop balanced on your lap, your power brick is going to be dangling from the USB-C port\u2026 probably not a great idea.<\/p>\n The thing that really confounds me is how Homey is able to be first to market with this. To pick an obvious competitor, Anker has been making USB-C and USB-A power solutions<\/a> for donkey\u2019s years, but hasn\u2019t starting including data transfer as part of their solutions yet.<\/p>\n Homey is\u00a0an interesting company, its PowerUp product has comprehensively smashed its $25,000 goal on Indiegogo<\/a>\u00a0and the campaign has another month or so to go. Check it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/05\/homey-powerup-2.jpg?w=300&h=200\")
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Trust Apple to be courageous enough to strip away all of the old-fashioned USB ports. And trust the rest of us to realize that 90 percent of our peripherals still run on the old standard. Apple’s retort is to sell you a one-way ticket to dongle hell. Then Homey comes along with its Indiegogo campaign to show the fruit giant how it’s done. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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