There’s a new gadget out that will let you charge multiple electronics with only one USB port. I don’t think it’s intended to charge everything at once, and I wouldn’t expect it to. But what a gadget like this would do is cut down on the number of cables you need in your laptop case.
Which could be very helpful, if many of our devices were standard. I have one USB cable for my iPod, one for my phone (a Sony Ericckson Walkman), and one for my digital camera. If I could carry one cable for all three, I’d be a pretty happy camper. I’m always foraging around in the pouch on the front of my laptop case trying to pull out the right cable for the job. It gets annoying, as well as being a time-waster. I carry all three of those devices any time I travel, and to have it all in one cable would be wonderful.
I do wish there was more standardization in the market. There is no reason to have a different style of cable for each device; why can’t all cell phones have a standard charger connection? Back in the day when we were buying a/c adapters, you only had to know the voltage and you could use whatever cord you had that matched that voltage. I often used one a/c adapter on multiple devices to cut down on the clutter.
It’s about time that comes to our electronic gadgets, too.