We’re at the mid-summer mark of our Greatest Hits series here on Fly&Dine. Today, we go back to examine a solution to your device-charging needs at airports. Check it out!
Have you ever been stuck at the airport with your phone/tablet battery dying a slow painful death and all of the outlets are taken by other jamokes in the same predicament? Of course you have. We’ve all been there. Instead of unplugging one of your power-hungry comrades and starting World War III, you sit there knowing that you’ll be holding a brick of useless metal once that 11% becomes 0%. Bummer, dude. Or is it?
Thanks to ASCII_27 on Reddit, I’ve got a great airport hack to share with you. Find an LCD TV monitor (not attached to the ceiling, of course) and walk around to the back. Once there, locate an open USB port, plug in, and you’ll be fully charged in no time (or at least *double* the time you’d normally charge in because those outlets only deliver about half the power you’d normally be getting). Keep your eyes out for big ad displays that use monitors, too, as those can serve the same purpose.
To charge more quickly, put your phone on airport mode so it’s not using power while you charge.
As a bonus airport hack, start carrying around a usb travel hub so you can save the day and turn every outlet into multiple outlets. That way, if they’re all taken, you can just plug in your usb travel hub, replace the cord that was already there and plug your own cord in, too. EVERYBODY WINS! Also, those usb travel hubs are super cheap (like less than $10 for most of them), so it’s probably a good idea to chuck one in your travel bag from now on.
GENIUS AIRPORT HACK!
For another genius airport hack, check out this.
Image via ASCII_27 on Reddit
Not a bad idea!
From an IT person in the hospitality industry, please don’t try this with a hotel television. Some of the televisions wipe their programming when anything is plugged in rendering the television useless! In other cases, it gets “out of sync” with the remote + box and eventually renders the television useless (although it might not be apparent at first).
… or you can just buy a portable external charger/battery and save yourself the humiliation and not be attached to a random screen in the middle of the terminal for half an hour.