In early May 2014, I posted my review on a product called LockedUSB adapter. It is basically a USB adapter to prevent data transfer. The idea is to protect people from the danger of public chargers. In airports, hotel rooms or other places outside our home, we often see USB plug to charge our devices. But is it true that those USB ports are actually providing power only? Smartphone chargers use the same port as data transfer. So the public USB ports that seem harmless can actually be used to (potentially) access our data. Surely our device’s operating system will have some sort of security protection to prevent that. But let’s be realistic, any software can essentially get hacked. It’s just a matter of difficulty level.
Another reason that we might need such device, is that sometimes we want to charge our devices (smartphones or tablets) with a computer other than our home computer. For example I sync my iPhone to my home desktop computer. But I also need to charge it at work computer and at my laptop. Having an adapter that will only allow power to go through (no data connection) will help me to charge faster and without answering dialogs about sync.
To put it simply, LockedUSB adapter works to deliver the functionality they promised, but they failed to deliver the product’s look and feel. The adapter looks ugly and bulky, and I end up never carried it anywhere. Now another group started a very similar project in Kickstarter. Another adapter to prevent data transfer and to accelerate charging process. This new project is called Umbrella USB. It’s essentially the same idea with very little differences.
One, Umbrella USB actually delivers good looking product: slim and lightweight. Two, the color is bright yellow. It might seem silly, but it does help me to quickly grab it because I have a lot of other adapters (of different purposes), most of them are either black or white.
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