Your friend likes to explore the world and regularly posts pictures from different countries? Or maybe your colleague often travels for business? It can be tricky to find a good present for experienced travelers. Of course they already have travel sleeping pillows, passport covers and all sorts of luggage tags. So give the gift of security and convenience, as these are the most important things on the road. Here are five gift ideas for your traveling loved ones.
Following the recent release of the brand new iPhone XR and XS models, we wanted to check out what’s new and how they perform in comparison to each other. One of the most interesting facts you’ll notice is, when comparing the technical data of the new iPhone XR with that of the iPhone XS and XS Max, the iPhone XR battery actually lasts 2-3 hours longer (with up to 15 hours of internet use.)
All of this is interesting, but what we really wanted to know is how the new iPhones compare in terms of charging speed… According to Apple, all new iPhones support “Fast Charging” (albeit only when using a Lightning to USB-C cable in combination with a charging device which also supports Fast Charging.)
Once you start to notice that your phone charger is starting to get a little bit worse for wear, it’s definitely time for you to start thinking about getting a new one – and quickly. A damaged charging cable can cause serious problems in your home, as well as physical harm to you or your loved ones.
Although it may be a rare and exciting occasion for some, for others, travel is just a part of their day to day life. Many business people are often required to travel long distances to get to important meetings, present at trade shows, or attend conferences etc, and there’s no denying it can sometimes take its toll.
Travel is stressful, and while there’s no real way of preventing the inevitable, we’re always looking to make things easier for you! We’ve put together ten awesome travel hacks to try and make your next journey miles easier…
Small and fiddly, the Micro USB charger is without a doubt one of the most annoying cables out there. We all know the struggle of constantly swapping and changing to fit the connector in correctly – especially as this little cable is used for charging the majority of smartphones, power banks, tablets, and more!
The team at tizi had had enough of battling with this chaotic cable, and so they created: The brand newtizi flip USB-A to Micro-USB cable! Reversible and flexible, this awesome new charger works both ways – not only on the USB end, but on the Micro USB end too! Simply plug in and enjoy top charging speeds for all of your gadgets.
tizi flip Micro-USB
› Flip connectors at each end – works both ways
› Available in 15cm and 50cm lengths
› Choose your color: Red and black available
› Syncs and charges all Micro USB devices
The iPhone 8 has finally arrived in all of its high-tech glory. While Apple is touting the new processor and camera features, there’s one hidden gem they have kept on the down-low. The tizi equinux team investigates:
Older iPhones were equipped with “regular” charging. But in the iPhone 8, Apple has quietly added completely new charging circuits.
The iPhone 7, iPhone 6S, and iPhone 6 charge with 5V and slightly above 1A. The iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6S Plus, and iPhone 6 Plus can charge with 5V and just over 2A maximum. The charging circuit can supply about 6W for an iPhone and about 11W for an iPhone Plus.
The resulting charging times at maximum charging speed were just under two hours for a normal iPhone and just over 3 hours for an iPhone Plus.
What makes the iPhone 8 extra special?
As soon as we got our hands on the new iPhone 8, our equinux tizi hardware team took a closer look in our hardware lab.
We discovered that both the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus have a USB Power Delivery charging circuit. Simply put, it is now possible to charge the iPhones faster. Much faster.
The first high-speed charging iPhones
The new iPhone 8 can charge with up to 14.8V and 0.9A, for a total of 13.3W
The new iPhone 8 Plus can charge with up to 14.8V and 1.3A – a total 19.2W
This is more than twice the charging speed of the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, with the potential to cut your charging times in half.
We were surprised to find that Apple still only includes the same old Apple USB charger with 5V and 1A with both brand new iPhone 8 models. To take advantage of its full fast-charging potential, you will need to use another charger and the Apple USB-C to Lightning cable.
Fully charged in under an hour!
With the right USB-C PD charger, the iPhone 8 will charge in about 1 hour – roughly twice as fast as previous models. But: you need the right charger to double your charging speed.
Chargers that support USB-C PD include:
tizi Tankstelle 29W
Apple 29W MacBook charger
Apple 61W MacBook Pro charger
Apple 87W MacBook Pro charger
Beware of cheap third-party chargers. The market is crowded with products that do not work with the Apple USB-C to Lightning cables. In our tests, only Apple’s USB-C to Lightning cable was capable of fast-charging the latest iPhones and iPads.
Important to know: If you use a USB-C to USB-A adapter, it interrupts the USB PD power delivery profile, which means that your iPhone will not charge at its fast potential speed or it may not charge at all.
So why did Apple only include a 5W charger?
So why has Apple included their old 5W charger when the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus can charge at up to 18W? The included charger only offers 27% of the potential charging speed?
This could be a strategic move for Apple: Get Customers used to the slow 27% charging speed, then Apple can introduce the Apple AirPower charging pad – a fast wireless charger that everyone will want to get their hands on. Let’s face it – anyone who pays for a premium AirPower pad will want it to offer something special – faster speeds.
How to cut your iPhone 8 charging times in half
We recommend all iPhone 8 and 8 Plus customers get a USB-C Power Delivery charger like tizi Tankstelle 29W. Other tizi chargers with Power Delivery capabilities will follow shortly.
Fast, slim, smart: The tizi Flachmann Express, is a thin and elegant portable battery. Thanks to the Auto Max Power™ technology inside, the speed and performance even surpasses many smartphone chargers. Make sure to reserve a space in your pocket for this one.
#jeansgate: Finally, a portable powerbar that doesn’t leave a bulge in your pants. The glossy tizi Flachmann Express easily fits into tight jeans or a shirt pocket.
Turn it on, plug it in and boom! It doesn’t matter if it’s an iPhone, a Nexus, a Galaxy or a One, thanks to Auto Power On, the tizi Flachmann Express automatically starts charging. The cool blue status LEDs display how much power reserve you still have.
Express yourself! Last longer and enjoy more freedom. Somehow every smartphone always seems to be running on empty. With a whopping 4000 mAh, you can completely re-charge your smartphone up 2x! Now that’s performance.
The super portable tizi Flachmann Express is available now at a special to-go price of only 19.99 Euros. You’ll also get a 12 month tizi/club membership as welcome bonus. Who doesn’t need power in their pocket?
With the introduction of new USB-C peripherals for the iPad Pro, our engineers took a closer look at the charging capabilities of the latest iPads. And since we know a lot of you are eager to know what the iPad Pro is capable of, here’s a sneak peek of what we’ve discovered.
iPad Pro 12.9″: Charge twice as fast
The larger iPad Pro supports the very latest USB-C charging technology, also known as USB-C Power Delivery. This means a device can request more voltage from a power supply, allowing it to be charged faster.
The big iPad Pro initially starts charging with at 5 volts and then switches to Power Delivery mode, drawing a massive 12 volts and allowing to to be charged twice as fast as previous iPads.
Interesting note: It looks as though the iPad Pro 12.9″ will charge with 12 volts up to about 90-95%, then it switches back to 5 volts to top off the battery.
If you try to charge the iPad Pro through the new USB 3 camera adapter, it will not charge at 12 volts.
The smaller iPad Pro does not support USB 3 Power Delivery, so with the right power adapter, it’ll charge at 5 volts like previous iPad generations. Given the smaller battery size, that’s still fast enough to charge it pretty quickly.
Apple sells a USB adapter as well as an SD card reader for iOS devices. The SD card reader isn’t quite as flexible, but has the advantage that it, well – reads SD cards.
The USB adapter can read photos from a camera, but if you plug in a USB card reader, you’ll usually get an error message that the device needs too much power.
But if you have Apple’s new USB 3 adapter, you can get it to work anyway. Here’s how:
Internal corporate and networks in educational institutions are often restricted to devices with ethernet access and in many hotels you can often get much faster internet speeds over a wired network connection. But what if you’ve got an iPad or iPad Pro – how can you get on a wired network with that?
Luckily, we’ve been working on a solution to make that possible, here’s how it works: There’s a new Apple USB adapter that supports USB accessories as well as an additional power source. Combine that with our upcoming tizi ethernet adapter, and you’re all set:
Connect the USB adapter to the Lightning port on your iPad or iPhone
Plug a Lightning cable into the adapter and connect it to a charger
Connect a tizi USB ethernet adapter to Apple adapter
That’s it. Now you just plug in a network cable and you’re ready to go.
The iPad doesn’t give you any sign or icon to let you know that you’re connected over ethernet – it just magically starts working
The tizi USB 3 ethernet adapter supports USB 3 and Gigabit Ethernet speeds – and so does the big iPad Pro
This setup works with all iPhones and iPads that have a lightning port – the big 12.9″ iPad Pro will support Gigabit ethernet speeds, all others will support up to 100 mbit
Travel tips: For a more mobile setup, you can also use a tizi Flachmann powerbank as your power source.
The tizi USB 3 ethernet adapter is coming soon and will be available in two versions:
tizi USB 3 ethernet adapter: Suitable for iPad, iPhone and all Macs with a regular USB port
tizi USB C ethernet hub: Designed for the new 12″ MacBook and all devices with a USB-C port.
Sign up and we’ll let you know when it’s available.
