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Literally had no idea they actually made tech. I thought they just private labelled charging cables and sold them on Amazon.
They make a lot of not-top-tier products. The products are usually quite good, but not the best. They're often the best value . (Very happy with my $60 Anker earbuds).
Literally had no idea they actually made tech. I thought they just private labelled charging cables and sold them on Amazon.
It's amazing how (based on polls, like https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/polling-reveals-th... ) the public dislikes it when it's shoved down its throat in unrelated programs and products (as opposed to them explicitly using an LLM or content generation program), but companies keep shoving it and even making a big deal out of doing so. Perhaps the best thing about 2026 Apple is how "behind" they are in "AI In…
I genuinely believe that the people pushing these features live in an algorithmic bubble. The internet supposedly connects us all, but I have to wonder how much hidden segregation goes on behind the scenes.
It's amazing how (based on polls, like https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/polling-reveals-th... ) the public dislikes it when it's shoved down its throat in unrelated programs and products (as opposed to them explicitly using an LLM or content generation program), but companies keep shoving it and even making a big deal out of doing so. Perhaps the best thing about 2026 Apple is how "behind" they are in "AI In…
AI is polarizing. The rest of the world outside of the US and Europe loves AI. China is embracing it fully. Why is our Western media making the public hate it so much? It's almost as if it's a top down edict from all the news giants to constantly dump on AI and make it sound like it'll kill you. If we maintain this view, we're going to get steamrolled. And we'll have deserved it.
Literally had no idea they actually made tech. I thought they just private labelled charging cables and sold them on Amazon.
For instance: Back in the Bad, Old Days, charging phones (especially smart phones) wasn't quite as simple as today.
The aftermarket cables were shit. Brands came and went overnight (they still do, but they did then too), and even if a person eventually found some cables that worked then it was hard to get more of them later.
The aftermarket charging bricks were shit. I had some that would make capacitive touchscreens go crazy. Some that barely worked. Some that got stinky-hot.
The phone might have a USB port that looked about like all the others, but that didn't mean much: Different phone models had different ways for signalling/confirming/accepting charging capabilities, and they rarely lined up with the method a random charging brick used.
Get the wrong combination on this double-locked mystery box, and it was possible to plug a phone and have it say it is charging -- even though the reported battery SoC is dropping before your eyes.
That was the market. It was fragmented and dysfunctional, and the only sane method to simply charge a phone was to use OE cables with OE power bricks, for real money.
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Then Anker showed up, kind of out of nowwhere. And they were all like "Uh, guys? We sell stuff that actually works."
And they were right. They put together cables that consistently didn't suck (which should not be hard, except...). They started selling charging bricks that worked well with most or all of the phones on the market -- fooling them into thinking they were talking to their OE brick so they'd behave themselves.
It had been a terrible mess. A complete crapshoot.
And then, Anker products just plugged in and worked. They did all the things they said they'd do.
They did it so well that they raised the bar for the entire industry.
And, nowadays, it's not so bad. It's easy-enough to get a reliable cable or a charging brick that isn't a complete turd from a variety of names. That's not a thing that most of us think about much, if at all.
But man, it was fucked up for a long time before Anker stuff became common.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They make a lot of not-top-tier products. The products are usually quite good, but not the best. They're often the best value . (Very happy with my $60 Anker earbuds).
Anecdotally, I've always been reasonably pleased with their products. I think I've owned a couple of powerbanks, and a USB/HDMI hub. Of the brand names on Amazon, I do tend to lean towards them a bit more. edit: having said all of that, relating to this article, I don't want AI anywhere near the products of theirs I'm currently buying.
[1] https://us.ankerwork.com/pages/a3319-s600-all-in-one-speaker...
Literally had no idea they actually made tech. I thought they just private labelled charging cables and sold them on Amazon.
They've been first at a few things. For instance: Back in the Bad, Old Days, charging phones (especially smart phones) wasn't quite as simple as today. The aftermarket cables were shit. Brands came and went overnight (they still do, but they did then too), and even if a person eventually found some cables that worked then it was hard to get more of them later. The aftermarket charging bricks were shit. I had some tha…