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GIGABYTE ON/OFF Charge brings the juice for iPad and more

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With iPad users learning their standard PC USB ports can’t quite meet that tablet’s thirst  for amperes, GIGABYTE is stepping up to the challenge of powering the latest gadgets with their ON/OFF Charge system, which, as the name suggests, works whether your PC is on or off.

Nicole at Netbooknews.com has a video comparison and demonstration of the new motherboard system pitted against the current standard, a mere half amp. A half amp is fine for most gadgets, but bigger devices like the iPad and its competition to follow require more juice for charging. Even the iPhone requires a full amp for fast charging. GIGABYTE ON/OFF Charge manages to push a little more than that when the PC is on and just under when it’s off.

Hope to see this type of functionality become a standard soon, not just a premium feature as we have in some notebooks. And also see the amperes bumped up to two, which the iPad needs for fast charging. Hungrier USB-powered devices are upon us.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Nameless

    04/24/2010 at 6:40 am

    Sounds nice, but most unfortunately, my GA-P35-DS3P Rev. 2.0 isn’t on the supported list. I guess that’s what happens when you still use a two-year-old motherboard.

    I’d be surprised if it couldn’t handle it already, though…and if not, I’d think that Apple would have the sense to provide an AC-to-USB charging adapter like I think they do with some iPods.

    • Sumocat

      04/24/2010 at 7:00 am

      Actually both the iPad and iPhone come with AC adapters, while the iPods, including the touch, do not. It’s really the inability to sync and charge that this addresses. Note, the iPad will charge on half an amp, but very slowly and not while the screen is on.

      • Nameless

        04/26/2010 at 1:42 pm

        Oh, I get it now: sync AND charge. Simultaneously. An AC-to-USB adapter wouldn’t allow for that.

        Actually, it just hit me as to what they SHOULDN’T have cut out after the fourth-generation iPod (the first hard drive model to have the current “click wheel” design up through the Photo model with color screen, but incapable of playing video): FireWire (IEEE 1394) support.

        Even basic FireWire 400 has better sustained transfer rates than USB 2.0, and it’s also designed to deliver more power. (That is, unless the system is stuck with the small 4-pin ports that don’t deliver any power whatsoever, which is a startlingly common implementation of FW on PCs, if it’s even there at all.)

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