Customize your own charging station with HUB IT

If your household is anything like mine, there are dozens of gadgets that need to be charged every day. In our house, we have iPhones, Galaxy S5s, iPods and even portable chargers that yes, need to be charged.

Most people charge these devices by simply plugging each individual device into a wall outlet. Some luckier people use a charging hub like the POWERQUBE I reviewed a few months ago.

But whether you use a wall outlet or a charging hub, one thing remains the same—you have to use the cable that came with your device to charge it. This often means plugging and unplugging your cable as you travel from outlet to outlet or having a spaghetti mess of wires if you use a charging hub.

Retractable cables and swappable cartridges

The HUB IT by Eggtronic aims to eliminate these problems. Like other charging hubs, the HUB IT can charge multiple devices at once (seven in this case). But that’s where the similarities to other charging hubs ends.

What makes the HUB IT unique is that it has swappable cartridges for each charging port. Each cartridge contains a retractable cable to charge a specific device. When you’re ready to charge a device, pull the cable out and plug it in. When you’re done charging, give the cable a quick tug and it snaps back into place. No messy cables!

Out of the box, the HUB IT comes pre-installed with the following cartridges/connectors:

The beauty of this swappable cartridge approach is that you can customize the HUB IT to fit your specific needs. In my house, my older son uses the 30 pin iPhone connector because he has an iPhone 4. My younger son, who just got an iPhone 5S, uses the lightning connector. And my wife and I share the Micro USB to charge our Galaxy S5s.

But my wife and I don’t have to share if we don’t want to. We could swap out the Mini USB cartridge and replace it with another Micro USB cartridge and each have our own charging port.

And if down the road, my son upgrades to a new iPhone with the lightning connector, we can swap out the 30 pin connector for another lightning connector.

There are additional cartridges available as well that, according to HUB IT, will be available by the end of this month. These include:

Galaxy Tab
Nokia 2 (small tip)
Nokia 1
Mini 8 pin (digital cameras)
Nintendo DS Lite
Nintendo DSi
Sony DC Jack (PSP)

You should have no problem finding the right set of cartridges to suit your needs but just in case you don’t, the HUB IT also comes with 3 USB 3.0 ports for charging any USB device (but you’ll have to go back to using a cable).

Right power and speed

Incidentally, the HUB IT delivers 2.5 amps per port which means everything from your smartphone to your tablet is fair game to use with it. No more worrying about whether or not the charging port has the right amount of juice to charge your iPad.

There’s one last thing the HUB IT can do. It can serve as a high-speed transfer station. Using the supplied USB 3.0 cable, you can connect the HUB IT to your computer. With this setup, you not only can charge your connected device, but you can also transfer photos, music and videos between your device and your computer.

The HUB IT is available now in the U.S. for $79.99 at walmart.com, bestbuy.com, and amazon.com.