the.com/powerbank
the anxiety blanket of the digital age, charging your phone while draining your soul of battery dread
means A portable battery you carry around to recharge your phone or other devices when there's no wall socket in sight.
from A transparent compound of "power" + "bank," coined as a marketing term for portable chargers in the smartphone era — the idea being a "bank" where you deposit and withdraw electrical charge, the way you would money. "Power" traces back through Old French "poeir" to a Latin root meaning "to be able," while "bank" comes from Italian "banca," the money-changer's bench or table — a cousin of the same word that gave us "bench."
- airline rule
- banned from checked bags due to fire risk
- hidden math
- capacity loss means you never get advertised charges
- origins
- first portable chargers emerged in early 2000s
- size race
- some now exceed 25000mAh, basically a brick
- failure mode
- the one you packed is always dead too
anker powercore 26800 — most popular portable charger globally, over 2 million units sold since 2015
mophie powerstation plus — premium powerbank with built-in cables, acquired by zagg for $100 million in 2014
goal zero nomad 7 — solar-powered powerbank used by emergency responders, available since 2009