Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Want To Be Rich? Be Lucky, Know The Right People

[9 min 46 sec]
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October 29, 2012

As the presidential campaign has unfolded, the candidates have traded polemics about wealth, class warfare, dependency and the role of government.

And while it may be uncomfortable to admit, some Americans are simply more financially successful than others. But why do some achieve wealth, while others struggle? And what do we think explains our prosperity â€" or lack thereof?

In a three-part series, All Things Considered host Robert Siegel visited North Carolina's Research Triangle area, to ask people from very different walks of life how they account for their economic station in life. The series begins at the very top of the economic ladder.


Bob Hatley's parents struggled to make ends meet when he was a boy. He says his competitiveness and his drive to emulate successful people eventually enabled him to open his own bank.
Art Sliverman/NPR

Bob Hatley's parents struggled to make ends meet when he was a boy. He says his competitiveness and his drive to emulate successful people eventually enabled him to open his own bank.

Bob Hatley, a lean 6 foot 4, brims with self-confidence. He runs Paragon Commercial Bank, which services midsize businesses. There are no branches or tellers, just headquarters in Raleigh, N.C., and an office in Charlotte.

Hatley, 62, grew up in a small North Carolina mountain town, the son of a "career military guy. ... He retired when I was in the seventh grade," he tells All Things Considered host Robert Siegel. "We never had a whole lot when he retired. We never knew we were poor, but we probably were close to it."

Today, Hatley is nowhere close to being poor. He started Paragon in 1998, and by 2009 it reached $1 billion in assets. He estimates that he's now worth about $5 million.

When Hatley talks about his success, he talks about wanting it â€" in fact, competing for it.

"I like to win," Hatley explains. "I like to be successful. I know people who have done very well in whatever line of work they've been in, and I wanted to be the same way. I wanted to have the trappings of success."

Capitalizing On Whom You Know

One important decision that led to his success, Hatley says, was moving to Raleigh, where he went to work for Wachovia Bank and made a point of meeting the right people.

"I learned a long time ago it's not what you know, it's who you know. Interpersonal skills trump brains," Hatley says.

"I happened to be on coffee breaks with successful people. I was going on calls with successful people. I was picking up the paper, reading about successful people that I would soon be working with," he says. "I attribute so much of it to that."

To Hatley, plain old hard work was also key. "I think there's no substitute for [that]. I don't think anybody can sleepwalk their way through success." He acknowledges that some people "maybe inherited a lot of money, maybe they don't work have to as hard to keep it. But that certainly was not my case."

'You Make Your Own Luck'

I learned a long time ago it's not what you know, it's who you know. Interpersonal skills trump brains.

As a Republican, Hatley says he doesn't have "a whole lot of positive things to say about government programs." But, he adds, "I will say that everybody is subsidized by the government in one form or fashion. ... We all get our mortgage deduction. We complain about subsidies, but we all get them in some form."

When asked about the role of family background, race or gender in achieving in America, Hatley points out that he came from humble origins and had to make his own way. "People who use their family as an excuse not to achieve, I have no patience with," he says.

And luck? When it comes to achieving financial success, Hatley says it's important, but only one part of the equation.

"I think a lot of luck comes into play, but I've always advocated that you make your own luck," he says. "You know, you put yourself in position, [and] the lucky things come to you."

The recession has meant some tough times for Paragon Bank, Hatley says, but he says the company is healthy now. And he intends to make it bigger, and to continue to succeed.

'How Could I Fail?'

Like Bob Hatley, Michael and Amy Tiemann of Chapel Hill, N.C., have also done very well financially. But while all three inhabit the most rarefied altitudes of the American economy, their accounts of how they got there â€" and their political leanings â€" differ dramatically.

Both in their 40s, the Tiemanns live far more modestly than their means would allow on a pleasant suburban street. While visibly prosperous, their neighborhood is not opulent â€" there are no gates, McMansions or Bentleys in sight.

"For the most part, I'd say we live ... a pretty normal lifestyle," says Amy, a writer, media producer and educator with a Ph.D. in neuroscience.

Michael, an executive at the software company Red Hat, was a pioneer of open source software back in Silicon Valley, where he started a company in 1989.

"I spent two years trying to gin up the interest among the business community to start [a] company for me, and I would be a technical resource," Michael says. "I failed to attract any interest whatsoever."

Michael and Amy Tiemann estimate their personal wealth at about $25 million — and say luck played no small part in their financial success.
Art Silverman/NPR

Michael and Amy Tiemann estimate their personal wealth at about $25 million â€" and say luck played no small part in their financial success.

That's when he realized, he says, "that if nobody was interested in starting this company, I'd have no competition. And if I had no competition, how could I fail?"

With that in mind, he recruited two friends to join him, each pooling $5,000 each. "I only had money in my checking account to post the first $2,000," Michael says, laughing. "So I was already $3,000 in debt to my co-founders when we started the company."

But 10 years later, they sold that business to Red Hat for $697 million. And while the Tiemanns are not worth that much personally, they admit â€" with great reluctance â€" to wealth of about $25 million.

'Very, Very Lucky'

To Michael and Amy, luck has played a tremendous part in achieving their financial status. They were both raised by educated parents who paid for them to be educated in turn; Michael at the prep school Andover and the University of Pennsylvania, Amy at Brown and Stanford universities.

"We understand that we've been very, very lucky," Michael says. And luck, he believes, can often be a whole lot more significant than intelligence.

"When I was living in Silicon Valley during the dot-com episode, there were many people who were far less intelligent, objectively, than many of my friends," he says. "And they were spectacularly wealthy because they were spectacularly lucky."

Amy also notes the good fortune of entering their professional lives just as technology was playing an ever more prominent role in the economy.

"When I think of luck, I also think of being fortunate to be born when the Internet revolution, the personal computer revolution, was happening," Amy says. "I think that's just the most extraordinary time to be part of. And obviously there are so many business opportunities tied to that."

A 'Poster Boy' For U.S. Research Dollars

The couple have been generous donors to Democratic campaigns. On their kitchen counter, there's a photo of the couple at a White House holiday party with the Obamas.

When asked about the role of government programs in their financial success, Michael says his original research back in Silicon Valley was supported by government money via the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

"I was a proud poster child," Michael recalls. "I would go to Washington and talk about how imaginative and creative and how empowering U.S. research dollars had been."

While the Tiemanns emphasize luck and circumstance when explaining their financial status, they don't hesitate to point to hard work, as well.

"When I was working really, really hard, I had no time to spend any money," Michael says. "So what little money I was earning I was able to save. And that gave me choices for the future about how much I could afford to reinvest into the company." Money that enabled him to open offices in Europe and Japan, for example.

While the Tiemanns are almost embarrassed to talk about their wealth, they're not at all reluctant to discuss the biggest project they're spending some of it on. Years before Silicon Valley, Michael Tiemann was a choirboy who studied piano. This year, he and Amy opened a recording studio on a patch of Carolina woods.

It's an audio engineer's dream works â€" and perhaps a testament to another impetus to acquire wealth: the passionate desire to do something creative with it.

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In Storm Deaths, Mystery, Fate and Bad Timing

They stepped in the wrong puddle. They walked the dog at the wrong moment. Or they did exactly what all the emergency experts instructed them to do â€" they huddled inside and waited for its anger to go away.

Jessie Streich-Kest and her dog, Max.

Lauren Abraham

The storm found them all.

Hurricane Sandy, in the wily and savage way of natural disasters, expressed its full assortment of lethal methods as it hit the East Coast on Monday night. In its howling sweep, the authorities said the storm claimed at least 40 lives in eight states.

They were infants and adolescents, people embarking on careers and those looking back on them â€" the ones who paid the ultimate price of this most destructive of storms. In Franklin Township, Pa., an 8-year-old boy was crushed by a tree when he ran outside to check on his family’s calves. A woman died in Somerset County, Pa., when her car slid off a snowy road.

There were 22 deaths reported in New York City, where the toll was heaviest, and 5 more fatalities elsewhere in the state.

Most of all, it was the trees. Uprooted or cracked by the furious winds, they became weapons that flattened cars, houses and pedestrians. But also, a woman was killed by a severed power line. A man was swept by flooding waters out of his house and through the glass of a store. The power blinked off for a 75-year-old woman on a respirator, and a heart attack killed her.

And the storm left its share of mysteries. A parking lot attendant was found dead in a subterranean parking garage in TriBeCa, the precise cause unclear. The body of an unidentified woman washed up on Georgica Beach in East Hampton, on Long Island.

Some people died and no one knew, not for hours, not until the storm backed away and moved on.

They did what dog owners do. They walked the dog. They were friends living in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. Jessie Streich-Kest was 24 and Jacob Vogelman was 23. Around 8 on Monday evening, during the howling viciousness of the storm, they ventured out with her dog, Max, a white pit bull mix.

Ms. Streich-Kest grew up with her family in Prospect Park South and was a teaching fellow. She had just started teaching at the Bushwick School for Social Justice, a high school. She had gone through her first parent-teacher conference last week, and was laughing about it afterward with her parents and their friends.

Her father, Jon Kest, is executive director of New York Communities for Change and a longtime activist who has led the battle to unionize carwashes and supermarkets across the city, as well as being a leader in the battle for paid sick days. His daughter was herself a bit of an activist, and helped organize Stop Horse Abuse, which was aimed at the carriage horses in Central Park.

In the wind and the rain, the two strode along Ditmas Avenue, a block of old Victorians and similar sprawling homes beneath a canopy of vast maples, oaks and lindens.

In rapid succession, perhaps within a space of no more than a half-hour, the brutal winds knocked down three trees. There was a booming sound as one fell. Their roots tore up massive chunks of sidewalk.

One of the trees on the south side of the block crushed them. They lay there until Tuesday morning, when their bodies were found.

No one realized that the trees had hit anyone. “We had no idea,” said Pat Atia, whose house faces out onto Ditmas Avenue on the block between East 17th and East 18th Streets. “I was outside taking pictures of my house for the insurance when a cop said ‘back up, back up’ and I saw a young man dead under the tree.”

The dog was bruised but survived. Neighbors were caring for him.

She just wanted pictures. In Richmond Hill, Queens, a power line the length of a block on 105th Avenue between 134th and 135th Streets snapped and crumpled to the ground. The frayed end of the line began sparking wildly.

Around 8 on Monday night, a 23-year-old woman who lived at the end of the block came out to her driveway clutching a camera.

Her name was Lauren Abraham, and she went by Lola. She was a makeup artist who worked for several professional agencies. She maintained a makeup studio in the basement of the house, which her parents owned. The third floor was vacant, and so she used it as a makeshift photography studio for shots to advertise her makeup skills.

She was attending beauty school, but had also been studying at Lehman College to become a social studies teacher.

Elpidio Nunez, a close friend for 10 years, said she was passionate about making her friends look gorgeous before a night out at the clubs.

“She was a beautiful girl, very carefree, she was never depressed,” Mr. Nunez said. “I had never seen her cry.”

Tamica Penn, 22, her best friend, said, “If you ever needed to talk, she would be there.”

The two had spoken at 7 p.m., an hour before she went outside to take her pictures of the downed power line.

The line was still sparking as Ms. Abraham walked down the driveway and into the rain-drenched street. She came into contact with one end of the snapped wire.

She caught fire.

A half-dozen or so witnesses watched in utter horror. They said her body burned for about a half-hour before the police and firefighters arrived.

Mr. Nunez woke up in the middle of the night. He had a sick feeling that something was very wrong. He sent text messages to his good friend over and over to see if she was all right. Nothing came back.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 30, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the beach where an unidentified body was found. It is Georgica Beach, not Georgia Beach.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Hurricane Sandy: Live Updates

  • Full Coverage
  • Comments
  • Photos
  • Game Updates
  • Ask The Times

New York City Evacuation Zones

There are three evacuation zones in New York City that are based on the strength of the hurricane making landfall. Mayor Bloomberg has issued a mandatory evacuation of Zone A.

Sandy

Max. winds 999 m.p.h. Category 4

Max. winds 999 m.p.h. Tropical storm

Updated

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Cities Of The Dead

Beneath the city streets that travellers walk on each day, dark labyrinths of underground catacombs are passageways to the past, to a time when the ghostly tunnels served as burial grounds for millions of people.

The catacombs of Rome, which date back to the 1st Century and were among the first ever built, were constructed as underground tombs, first by Jewish communities and then by Christian communities. There are only six known Jewish catacombs and around 40 or more Christian catacombs.

In Ancient Rome, it was not permitted for bodies to be buried within the city walls. So while pagans cremated their dead, Christians, who were not legally allowed to practice their religion, turned to underground cemeteries, built beneath land owned by the city’s few rich Christian families. The Jewish population was already implementing this practice when Christians began doing so around the 2nd Century.

The use of catacombs in Rome expanded during the 2nd and 3rd Centuries, as the illegal religion of Christianity grew in popularity. Some areas of the tunnels even became shrines for martyrs buried there. But after Christianity was legalized in 313 AD, funerals moved above ground, and by the 5th Century, the use of catacombs as grave sites dwindled, though they were still revered as sacred sites where pilgrims would come to worship.

The Rome catacombs then fell victim to pillaging by Germanic invaders around the early 9th Century. As a result, relics of Christian martyrs and saints were moved from the catacombs to churches in the city centre. Eventually, the underground burial tunnels were abandoned altogether â€" only to be rediscovered via excavations in the 1600s.

Today, travellers from all over the world visit Rome to explore its 600km network of catacombs, spread out over five storeys underground near the Park of the Tombs of Via Latina. Dedicated to Christian saints, they are adorned with some of the earliest Christian artwork in the world, dating back to the 2nd Century, featuring paintings on the tunnel walls that depict ancient life. Sacred catacombs open to the public include the Catacombs of Priscilla (Via Salaria, 430), the Catacombs of St Callixtus (Via Appia Antica, 110-126) and the Catacombs of St Agnes (Via Nomentana, 349). The Vatican provides details on how to visit these and other holy burial sites. A few Jewish catacombs, including the catacombs on the Vigna Randanini and those in the Villa Torlonia, are also open to the public -- though some by appointment.  

Centuries later in Paris, catacombs emerged as a creative and discreet solution to a dire public health problem. In the late 1700s, mass graves in the Les Halles district, such as those in the now closed Saints Innocents Cemetery, were overcrowded with improperly disposed of bodies , creating unsanitary conditions that led to the spread of disease. Saint Innocents was shut down, and in 1786 the Paris police moved all the remains buried in the cemetery to an underground network of ancient limestone quarries â€" the now infamous Catacombs of Paris, located south of the former city gate near Place Denfert-Rochereau.

The eerie tunnels -- a significant portion of which is open to the public as a museum -- took on other uses over the course of history. During World War II, for instance, some sections became hideouts for French Resistance fighters, while other areas were converted by German soldiers into bunkers. Today, Paris’s nearly 300km of catacombs lie 30m under the ground’s surface and still house the remains of around six million people.

The world’s longest network of underground tunnels, extending more than 2,400km, can be found in Odessa, Ukraine, where the catacombs were formed around the 1830s as a result of limestone mining. As in Paris, the tunnels were used as bunkers and hideouts by soldiers during World War II, and a portion of the catacombs is open to the public via the Museum of Partisan Glory.

The catacombs of Malta are designated as a World Heritage Site for their role in Paleochristian history. Carved from the rock underneath the city of Rabat, likely beginning around the 3rd Century, the tunnels show how rural family burials took place among Christian, Jewish and Pagan communities. The complex network of passageways provided graves for 1,000 people and extended over about 5,700sqkm. Heritage Malta provides information on visiting St Paul’s Catacombs located near St Paul’s Church and Grotto. 

In Alexandria, Egypt, the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa were originally built for just one rich family around the 2nd Century, but eventually housed more 300 mummies. Open to the public, the three-story tomb about 30m under the ground, features elaborate carvings illustrating scenes from Egyptian mythology, including one relief depicting the jackal-headed god, Anubis.

Travelwise is a BBC Travel column that goes behind the travel stories to answer common questions, satisfy uncommon curiosities and uncover some of the mystery surrounding travel. If you have a burning travel question, contact Travelwise.

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Monday, October 29, 2012

The Best Times To Buy Clothing

Holger Winkler / Getty Images

If you’re a clothes horse â€" or even if you’re not â€" you may have noticed that the shirts, pants, sweaters, and dresses you want probably cost more than they did a year ago.

In fact, the Consumer Price Index report released last month showed a 2.7% increase in apparel from last September to this one. With the Christmas shopping season right around the corner, that’s bad news â€" but  there are optimal times to buy clothing. Follow these guidelines and you can save a lot of money.

The best day of the week to buy clothing online

The answer depends on what you are looking for. ShopItToMe.com, a San Francisco company that analyzes more than 750,000 sales items a year from more than 200 online retailers. By running averages, the company found the following patterns:

■ Mondays: Shoppers can save nearly 50% on men’s and women’s dress pants, and about 55% on sunglasses.

■ Tuesdays: Expect to save more than 40% on men’s apparel.

■ Wednesdays: Shoppers save about 40% on shoes and children’s clothes.

â–  Thursdays: Save 36% on handbags.

â–  Fridays: Pay 42% less for jewelry, belts and scarves.

â–  Saturdays: Lingerie (37% off) and jackets/outerwear (51% off).

â–  Sundays: Swimsuits (52% off).

The best day of the year to buy clothing

Dec. 26. The day after Christmas is the first day of the best sales week of the year for clothes. If you’re willing to fight through the hoards of shoppers who are returning unwanted gifts, you can find the best deals and the best selection. Wait until Dec. 27 or Dec. 28, and the clothes will have been picked through.

During other seasons, Thursday evenings are the best time and day of the week to buy clothing â€" especially about six weeks after items arrive in stores. If clothes haven’t sold about six weeks after they arrive in stores, managers start lowering the prices. These sales often occur as part of weekend sales, which often start on Thursdays.

The best month to buy a winter coat

January or February. The vast majority of people who need winter coats have them by then, so coats and other  winter clothes often go on sale starting in January. The longer you wait, the lower the prices â€" retailers will need to make room for spring clothing. But the longer you wait, the worse the selection will get.

The best month to buy sneakers

November and April. Check for November sales at big-box retailers, which need to make room for winter boots and shoes. Athletic shoe stores often offer great sales in April, when non-serious runners start hitting the pavement again.

The best month of the year to buy suits

Suits go on sale throughout the year, but January typically is a slow month for suit sales, so clothiers will lower prices to get you in their stores. When you’re shopping, consider all-weather wool suits and timeless styles, and remember that, to some extent, you get what you pay for. You probably won’t have a $100 suit in your closet four or five years from now, but you may have a $500 suit for as long as you’re able to fit into it.

How about swimsuits?

Swimsuit sales tend to start in the summer, but by September, department stores badly want to get rid of swimsuits.

Jeans?

October. Wait until after the post-back-to-school sales end in September, and you’ll see deep discounts, especially during fall seasons when denim is not expected to be a big part of fashion trends.

Long-time journalist Mark Di Vincenzo wrote The New York Times best-seller Buy Ketchup In May And Fly At Noon: A Guide To The Best Time To Buy This, Do That And Go There. This month he released an app based on that book called WHEN; and an all-new, second edition on the best time to buy things, called Buy Shoes On Wednesday And Tweet At 4:00: More Of The Best Times To Buy This, Do That And Go There, was released on Sept. 11.

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Offensive Halloween Costume Debate: Where's The Line?

Culture not a costume posters

Culture not a costume posters

Culture not a costume posters

Culture not a costume posters

Culture not a costume posters

Culture not a costume posters

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • American Apparel features folk legend "La Llorona" in DIY costume guide
  • Folk legends are more acceptable guises than sexy señoritas or Mexican tequila guy
  • "One is mythology, and the other is a stereotype," professor says
  • "We're a culture, not a costume" campaign includes "Appalachian hick" stereotype

(CNN) -- They're familiar characters in the debate over controversial Halloween costumes: suicide bombers, geishas, gangsta rappers, rednecks and sexy nurses.

Such costumes regularly draw allegations of racism, sexism or insensitivity. But where do fully-clothed folk legends fit in?

American Apparel featured characters on both ends of the spectrum this month in its annual do-it-yourself Halloween costume guide. Below a collection of pin-up girl costumes -- including a model donning a breast-baring serape -- was "La Llorona," the ghostly weeping woman who kidnaps wandering children, according to folklore in parts of Latin America.

True, she was wearing a lace bustier under a shawl, but the layers upon layers make her appear more like the haunted bag lady than a sexy spirit.

Read: Sexy Little Geisha?' Not so much, say many Asian-Americans

It's the folk legend's cultural significance -- and the lack of skin, save an inch of midriff -- that, for some, make this costume more acceptable than sexy señoritas or Mexican tequila guy.

American Apparel featured "La Llorona" in its DIY Halloween costume guide.

"One is mythology, and the other is a stereotype that comes with a lot of baggage," said feminist blogger Veronica Arreola, assistant director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender at University of Illinois at Chicago.

It's like dressing up as the Greek goddess Athena and paying tribute to a specific character instead of impersonating a stereotype that doesn't represent the culture as a whole, she said.

"La Llorona is a folk tale, our bogeyman, our witch from our culture. That as a costume is better than the idea of someone dressing up in a sombrero or poncho and deciding 'I'm Mexican today!'" Arreola said.

"We're a culture, not a costume" returns

It's an argument similar to the one an Ohio University student group made last year in its "We're a culture, not a costume" campaign that spoke out against dressing up as racial and ethnic stereotypes. The campaign went viral, generating memes often more offensive than the original images and sparking debate over the line between distasteful and playful.

The response prompted the group, Students Teaching About Racism in Society, to refresh its campaign this year. In response to criticism that the campaign did not incorporate a "Caucasian stereotype," the group added a new image of an "Appalachian costume" representing "hick" stereotypes, said Ohio University senior and STARS President Keith Hawkins.

"[We] decided to continue with the posters because we agreed that they were not only successful last year but actually made a difference on campus and in the global community," he said. "We were told by many professors that students wanted to talk about it, and this is exactly what we were looking to do. So we hoped we could put out another strong campaign this year that will continue the message of racial awareness and inclusively."

Hawkins says the line between playful and offensive falls at the point where the costume plays on negative and derogatory stereotypes of a marginalized culture.

"When the costume portrays a hero or legend in general, I would say it is not offensive," he said. "It is the act of either using the hero or legend (or constructing a separate costume) that over-exaggerates negative stereotypes that often stigmatize marginalized cultures that makes the costume offensive."

Natural part of the "assimilation process"

In other words, it's the way the character is depicted that makes the differences. Like the cartoonish skulls and decorations that traditionally adorn altars on Day of the Dead, the appropriation of La Llorona as a costume is a sign of mainstream America absorbing aspects of Latino culture, said Marisa Treviño, founder and publisher of Latina Lista.

"I think it's a natural progression of the whole assimilation process," Treviño said.

However, that she appears in the American Apparel ad alongside women in hot pants, tube tops and garter belts shows that the tendency to exploit female sexuality for the sake of costumes still prevails, both women agreed.

In some ways, sexism in Latin America's mass media bears some blame for perceptions of Latinas as buxom sex objects, Treviño said.

"Spanish-language media bring in programs from Central and South America on a daily basis that portrays Latinas in this very sexy, provocative way. For people channel-surfing who are not familiar with the Latino community, those images stay in their mind," she said.

It's not just a concern for Latinos, Arreola said. It's something that all women should think about before they decide to dress as a sexy anything: geisha or farmer's daughter.

"There are costumes that take both of those problems and push them together and we need to deal with them," she said. "It's getting outrageous."

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Sunday, October 28, 2012

A Dozen USB Chargers In The Lab

When you buy a USB charger, how do you know if you're getting a safe, high-quality charger for your money? You can't tell from the outside if a charger provides silky-smooth power or if it is a dangerous charger that emits noisy power that cause touchscreen malfunctions[1] and could self-destruct. In this article, I carefully measure the performance of a dozen different chargers, rate their performance in multiple categories, and determine the winners and losers.

The above picture shows the twelve chargers I analyzed.[2] The charger in the upper-left is the cube-shaped Apple iPhone charger. Next is an oblong Samsung adapter and a cube Samsung adapter. The Apple iPad power adapter is substantially larger[3] than the iPhone charger but provides twice the power. The HP TouchPad power charger has an unusual cylindrical shape. Next is a counterfeit iPhone charger, which appears identical to the real thing but only costs a couple dollars. In the upper right, the Monoprice iPhone charger has a 30-pin dock connector, not USB. The colorful orange charger is a counterfeit of the Apple UK iPhone charger. Next is a counterfeit iPad charger that looks just like the real one. The Belkin power adapter is oval shaped. The KMS power supply provides four USB ports. The final charger is a Motorola Charger.

Summary of ratings

The chargers are rated from 1 to 5 energy bolts, with 5 bolts the best. The overall rating below is the average of the ratings in nine different categories, based on my measurements of efficiency, power stability, power quality, and power output. The quick summary is that phone manufacturers provide pretty good chargers, the aftermarket chargers are worse, and $2 counterfeit chargers are pretty much junk. Much to my surprise, the HP TouchPad charger (which isn't sold any more) turned out to have the best overall score. The counterfeit iPhone charger set a new low for bad quality, strikingly worse than the other two counterfeits.

 ModelOverall rating
Apple iPhone Apple A1265
Samsung oblong Samsung travel adapter ETA0U60JBE
Samsung cube Samsung travel adapter ETA0U80JBE
Apple iPad Apple 10W USB Power Adapter A1357
HP TouchPad Hewlett Packard LPS AC/DC Adaptor P/N 157-10157-00
Counterfeit iPhone Fake Apple A1265 "Designed by California"
Monoprice Monoprice Switching Mode Power Supply MIPTC1A
Counterfeit UK Fake Apple A1299
Counterfeit iPad Fake Apple 10W USB Power Adapter A1357
Belkin Belkin UTC001
KMS KMS-AC09
Motorola Motorola AC Power Supply DC4050US0301

Inside a charger

These chargers cram a lot of complex circuitry into a small package, as you can see from the iPhone charger below. (See my iPhone charger teardown for more details.) The small size makes it challenging to make an efficient, high-quality charger, while the commoditization of chargers and the demand for low prices pressure manufacturers to make the circuit as simple as possible and exclude expensive components, even if the power quality is worse. The result is a wide variation in the quality of the chargers, most of which is invisible to the user, who may believe "a charger is a charger".

The circuitry inside the Apple iPhone USB charger

Inside the iPhone charger

Internally a charger is an amazingly compact switching power supply that efficiently converts line AC into 5 volt DC output. The input AC is first converted to high-voltage DC. The DC is chopped up tens of thousands of times a second and fed into a tiny flyback transformer. The output of the transformer is converted to low-voltage DC, filtered, and provided as the 5 volt output through the USB port. A feedback mechanism regulates the chopping frequency to keep the output voltage stable. Name-brand chargers use a specialized control IC to run the charger, while cheap chargers cut corners by replacing the IC with a cheap, low-quality feedback circuit.[4]

A poor design can suffer several problems. If the output voltage is not filtered well, there will be noise and spikes due to the high-frequency switching. At extreme levels this could damage your phone, but the most common symptom is the touchscreen doesn't work while the charger is plugged in.[1] A second problem is the output voltage can be affected by the AC input, causing 120 Hz "ripple".[5] Third, the charger is supposed to provide a constant voltage. A poor design can cause the voltage to sag as the load increases. Your phone will take longer to charge if the charger doesn't provide enough power. Finally, USB chargers are not all interchangeable; the wrong type of charger may not work with your device.[6]

Counterfeits

Counterfeit chargers pose a safety hazard as well as a hazard to your phone. You can buy a charger that looks just like an Apple charger for about $2, but the charger is nothing like an Apple charger internally. The power is extremely bad quality (as I will show below). But more importantly, these chargers ignore safety standards. Since chargers have hundreds of volts internally, there's a big risk if a charger doesn't have proper insulation. You're putting your phone, and more importantly yourself, at risk if you use one of these chargers. I did a teardown of a counterfeit charger, which shows the differences in detail.

I've taken apart several counterfeit chargers and readers have sent me photos of others. Surprisingly, the counterfeit chargers I've examined all use different circuitry internally. If you get a counterfeit, it could be worse or better than what I've seen.

How do you tell if a charger is counterfeit? The fakes are very similar; it's hard for me to tell, even after studying many chargers. There's a video on how to distinguish real and fake chargers through subtle differences. You can also weigh the charger (if you have an accurate scale), and compare with the weights I give above. The easiest way to get a genuine Apple charger is fork over $29 to an Apple store. If you buy a $2 "Original Genuine Apple" charger on eBay shipped from China, I can guarantee it's counterfeit. On the other hand, I've succeeded in buying genuine used chargers from US resellers for a moderate price on eBay, but you're taking a chance.

The following picture shows a counterfeit charger that burned up. The safety issues with counterfeits are not just theoretical; when hundreds of volts short out, the results can be spectacular.

Counterfeit iPhone charger that burned up

Photo by Anool Mahidharia. Used with permission

Indicated charger type

A device being charged can detect what type of charger is being used through specific voltages on the USB data pins.[6] Because of this, some devices only work with their own special chargers. For instance, an "incorrect" charger may be rejected by an iPhone 3GS or later with the message "Charging is not supported with this accessory".[7]

There are many different charger types, but only a few are used in the chargers I examined. A USB charger that follows the standard is known as a "dedicated USB charger". However, some manufacturers (such as Apple, Sony, and HP) don't follow the USB standard but implement their own proprietary charger types. Apple has separate charger types for 1 amp (iPhone) and 2 amp (iPad) chargers. HP has a special type for the HP TouchPad.

The point is that USB chargers are not interchangeable, and devices may not work if the charger type doesn't match what the device expects. The table below shows the type of charger, the current that the label claims the charger provides, the current it actually provides, and the charger type it indicates to the device.

The types of the counterfeit chargers are a mess, as they advertise one power level, actually supply a different power level, and have the charger type for a third level. For example, the counterfeit iPhone charger is advertised as supplying 1 amp, but has the 2A charger type, so an iPad will expect 2 amps but not obtain enough power. On the other hand, the counterfeit iPad charger claims to supply 2 amps, but really only supplies 1 amp and has a 1A type.

 Charger typeLabelMeasured currentWeight
Apple iPhone Apple 1A charger5V 1A1.79A23.0g
Samsung oblong dedicated USB charger5V 0.7A.80A33.1g
Samsung cube dedicated USB charger5V 1A1.17A23.2g
Apple iPad Apple 2A charger5.1V 2.1A2.3A67.5g
HP TouchPad HP TouchPad charger5.3V 2.0A2.4A54.8g
Counterfeit iPhone Apple 2A charger5V 1A.94A18.8g
Monoprice Apple dock5V 1A1.22A67.8g
Counterfeit UK dedicated USB charger5V 1A.57A29.4g
Counterfeit iPad Apple 1A charger5.1V 2.1A1.2A43.4g
Belkin Apple 1A charger5V 1A1.27A43.0g
KMS Apple 2A charger5V 2.1A3.4A99.5g
Motorola dedicated USB charger5.1V .85A.82A38.6g

Efficiency

People often wonder how much power their charger is wasting while it's idle, and if they should unplug their charger when not in use. I measured this "vampire" power usage and found the chargers varied by more than a factor of 20 in their idle power usage. The Samsung oblong charger came in best, using just 19 mW; this was so low compared to the other chargers that I measured it again a different way to make sure I hadn't made an error. On the other extreme, the fake iPhone charger used 375 mW. The Apple iPhone charger performed surprisingly badly at 195 mW. If plugged in for a year, this would cost you about 21 cents in electricity, so it's probably not worth worrying about.[8] In the following table, I use the official charger Star Rating System (yes, there actually is such a thing).[9][10]

I also measured efficiency of the chargers under load.[11] One of the benefits of switching power supplies over simpler linear supplies is they are much more efficient at converting the input power to output. The chargers I measured all did pretty well, with 63% to 80% efficiency. The HP charger was the winner here.

 VampiremilliwattsEfficiencyPercent
Apple iPhone 19574
Samsung oblong 1976
Samsung cube 8677
Apple iPad 6278
HP TouchPad 9180
Counterfeit iPhone 37563
Monoprice 7872
Counterfeit UK 10363
Counterfeit iPad 9566
Belkin 23466
KMS 17969
Motorola 5975

The chargers up close

Apple iPhone and counterfeit

A real Apple iPhone charger (left) and a counterfeit charger (right

The above photo shows a real iPhone charger (left) and a counterfeit (right); the two chargers are almost identical, down to the green dot. If you look closely, the genuine one says "Designed by Apple in California", while the counterfeit has the puzzling text "Designed by California". The counterfeit also removed the "Apple Japan" text below the plug. I've seen another counterfeit that says "Designed by Abble" (not Apple). I assume the word "Apple" is removed for legal or trademark reasons, since the word "Apple" is often (but not always) missing from counterfeits.

Samsung oblong

The Samsung oblong charger.

I call this charger the Samsung oblong charger, to distinguish it from the Samsung cube charger.

Samsung cube

The Samsung cube charger is shaped very similarly to the Apple iPhone charger. Internally, however, it turns out to be entirely different.

Apple iPad and counterfeit

A real Apple iPad charger (left) and a counterfeit charger (right

The photo above shows a real iPad charger (left) and a counterfeit (right). The counterfeit has almost identical text, but without "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China", "Listed" under UL, and the manufacturer "Foxlink". Inexplicably this sanitization left "TM and © 2010 Apple Inc".

Real (left) and counterfeit (right) iPad chargers

The above photo shows a real iPad charger on the left and a fake iPad charger on the right, with the plug removed. The most visible difference is the real charger has a round metal grounding post, while the fake has plastic. (The US plug isn't grounded, but in other countries the lack of ground in the counterfeit could pose a safety hazard.)

HP TouchPad

HP TouchPad charger HP TouchPad charger

The HP TouchPad charger has a very unusual cylindrical shape, which is striking if perhaps not practical. The charger twists apart, allowing the plug to be replaced for different countries. (It took me weeks to discover this feature.)

Monoprice

Monoprice USB charger

The Monoprice charger isn't a USB charger, but instead has a 30-pin iPhone dock connector attached. It is a relatively large charger.

Counterfeit UK

Counterfeit Apple UK iPhone charger

This charger is a counterfeit of the Apple UK iPhone charger. They've removed Apple from the text, but left Emerson Network Power, which I'm sure is not the actual manufacturer. The genuine Apple UK charger can be distinguished by a serial number inside the USB connector.

Belkin

Belkin phone charger

The Belkin charger eschews the minimal design styling of most chargers, with a roughly oval cross section, curves and ribs, and a cover over the USB port.

KMS

KMS 4-port USB charger with plug detached

The KMS charger is unusual in providing 4 USB ports. It also gives off a blue glow while in use. The plug can be removed and replaced for use in different countries, similar to the iPad and HP TouchPad chargers. I couldn't find any UL safety approval on this charger, but I did find a report of one catching fire.

Motorola

Motorola phone charger

The Motorola charger has the lowest listed power output, 850mA. The back of it has a holographic sticker (like a credit card), which may ward off counterfeiters, even though it's unlikely for anyone to counterfeit this charger. I wonder though why Apple doesn't use holograms or other anti-counterfeiting techniques, given the large number of counterfeit Apple chargers being sold.

Delivery of advertised power

Each charger has an advertised power output, but some chargers produce considerably more and some produce much less. Your device will take longer to charge, if the charger can't put out enough power. This table shows each charger's ability to deliver the rated power, based on my measurements of maximum power. While most chargers meet or exceed the power rating, there are some exceptions.

The counterfeit chargers perform extremely poorly, putting out a fraction of the expected power. Charging your device with one of these chargers will be a slow, frustrating experience. In particular, the counterfeit UK charger only produces a third of the expected power. Although the label claims the charger works on 100-240 volts, it's clearly not designed to work on US power.

The iPad is a surprise, putting out less power than expected. Despite being nominally a 10 watt charger, the label says it provides 5.1V and 2.1A, which works out to 10.7 watts. However, the maximum power I measured is 10.1 watts (4.4 volts at 2.3 amps, as shown in the Power section below). Since the measured power is slightly less than advertised, it only gets four bolts.

 RatingLabelWatts from labelMeasured watts
Apple iPhone 5V 1A5.06.0
Samsung oblong 5V 0.7A3.54.0
Samsung cube 5V 1A5.05.5
Apple iPad 5.1V 2.1A10.710.1
HP TouchPad 5.3V 2.0A10.611.4
Counterfeit iPhone 5V 1A5.02.7
Monoprice 5V 1A5.05.7
Counterfeit UK 5V 1A5.01.7
Counterfeit iPad 5.1V 2.1A10.75.9
Belkin 5V 1A5.05.6
KMS 5V 2.1A10.510.9
Motorola 5.1V .85A4.34.3

Power quality

In this section, I measure the quality of the power produced by the different chargers. I analyze it for voltage spikes, high frequency noise, and line-frequency ripple. The following table summarizes the results in three categories. Spikes indicates extremely brief large voltage spikes in the output, while Noise indicates high-frequency noise in the output, and Ripple indicates low-frequency (120 Hz) fluctuations in the output.[12]

 SpikesNoiseRipple
Apple iPhone
Samsung oblong
Samsung cube
Apple iPad
HP TouchPad
Counterfeit iPhone
Monoprice
Counterfeit UK
Counterfeit iPad
Belkin
KMS
Motorola

The following oscilloscope traces show the output signal (yellow) and frequency spectrum (orange). The left images provide high-frequency information on the output voltage. The right images show the low-frequency information on the output voltage.[13]

The desired voltage graph is a flat, thin yellow line indicating totally smooth power. However, some factors mess this up. First, any ripple from the power line will show up as 5 sinusoidal peaks in the first (high-frequency) yellow line. High-frequency noise will widen the yellow line. Voltage spikes will appear as vertical spikes in the yellow line.

The plots also show the frequency spectrum in orange, from 0 at the left to 230 kHz at the right. The desired graph would have the orange spectrum near the bottom of the screen. Thus, the power quality exponentially gets worse as the orange line gets higher. The left (high frequency) spectrum generally shows noise at the switching frequency of the charger (and harmonics). The right (low frequency) spectrum typically shows spikes at multiples of 120 Hz, caused by ripple from the 60 Hz power.[5]

Apple iPhone

High frequency oscilloscope trace from Apple iPhone charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from Apple iPhone charger

The ripple is clearly visible as the waves in the yellow trace on the left and as the spikes (at 120 Hz and 240 Hz) in the orange trace on the right.

The iPhone charger performs extremely well at filtering out spikes and noise, the best of the chargers I measured. Apart from the 120 Hz spikes, the noise spectrum (orange) is flat and very low. The power quality is so good, I checked the results several times to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Samsung oblong

High frequency oscilloscope trace from Samsung oblong charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from Samsung oblong charger

The Samsung charger's output has a lot more noise than the iPhone charger. This is visible in the thickness and jaggedness of the yellow output curves. The orange frequency spectrum on the left shows large peaks at harmonics of the switching frequency. The 120 Hz spike on the right is a bit lower than the iPhone charger, so the ripple filtering is a bit better.

Samsung cube

High frequency oscilloscope trace from Samsung cube charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from Samsung cube charger

The Samsung cube charger shows some noise in the output (yellow). The frequency spectrum shows wide peaks at multiples of the the switching frequency, about 90kHz. There's some ripple.

Apple iPad

High frequency oscilloscope trace from Apple iPad charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from Apple iPad charger

The iPad charger almost eliminates the ripple; only a small blip is visible in the orange spectrum on the right. The noise level is low, although appreciably worse than the iPhone.

HP TouchPad

High frequency oscilloscope trace from HP TouchPad charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from HP TouchPad charger

There's no ripple visible in the HP charger spectrum on the right. The overall noise level is good.

Counterfeit iPhone

High frequency oscilloscope trace from counterfeit iPhone charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from counterfeit iPhone charger

The output from this counterfeit charger is a wall of noise. In order to fit the waveform in the display, I had to double the scale on the left and increase it by a factor of 5 on the right, so the yellow curve is actually much worse than it appears. On the left, note the huge ripple with massive high-frequency noise on top. This output is not something you want to feed into your phone.

Monoprice

High frequency oscilloscope trace from Monoprice USB charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from Monoprice USB charger

The output from this charger is very noisy, as you can see from the thickness of the yellow line. Note that the frequency spectrum (left) has very tall but narrow spikes at harmonics of the 28kHz switching frequency, showing a lot of high-frequency noise. On the positive side, there is hardly any ripple.

Counterfeit UK

High frequency oscilloscope trace from counterfeit UK iPhone charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from counterfeit UK iPhone charger

This charger has very bad output. The large degree of ripple is visible in the waveform (yellow, left) and the very large spikes in the spectrum (orange, right). The thickness of the yellow waveform shows the large amount of high-frequency noise, which is also visible in the very high peaks in the spectrum (orange, left).

Counterfeit iPad

High frequency oscilloscope trace from counterfeit iPad charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from counterfeit iPad charger

This counterfeit charger has so much noise in the output that I had to double the scale on the left to get it to fit. Note the very large spikes in the output (yellow). The spectrum (orange, left) is much higher everywhere, indicating noise at all frequencies. Surprisingly, it has only a moderate amount of ripple; the manufacturer seems to have done at least one thing right.

Belkin

High frequency oscilloscope trace from Belkin phone charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from Belkin phone charger

The Belkin charger does well at eliminating ripple, but has a lot of noise otherwise. The spectrum (orange, left) shows large peaks. The yellow output is wide, showing a lot of noise, combined with many large voltage spikes of about 1/3 volt.

KMS

High frequency oscilloscope trace from KMS charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from KMS charger

The KMS charger has fairly good output, with a small peak in the spectrum (orange, left) at the switching frequency. It has no detectable ripple. However, it has many large voltage spikes in the output, over half a volt, as can be seen on the right.

Motorola

High frequency oscilloscope trace from Motorola phone charger Low frequency oscilloscope trace from Motorola phone charger

The Motorola charger has a lot of spikes in the output (yellow) . The spectrum (orange, left) shows high frequency noise at the switching frequencies. There's a moderate amount of ripple (yellow, left and orange, right).

Summary

The quality of the output power is radically different between chargers. The counterfeit chargers are uniformly bad, with hardly any effort at filtering the output. The other chargers vary in quality with the iPhone charger setting the standard for noise-free power, but surprisingly poor filtering of ripple. The power quality is a key factor that affects the performance of chargers; spikes and noise are known to interfere with touchscreens.[1]

Power curve

In this section I look at the voltage and current output by the charger as the load increases. The first rating is Voltage Sag, which is the undesired drop in output voltage as the load increases. The second rating is Current Sag, which shows how the current fluctuates as load increases. Finally, Regulation shows the overall stability of the output from the charger.
 Voltage sagCurrent sagRegulation
Apple iPhone
Samsung oblong
Samsung cube
Apple iPad
HP TouchPad
Counterfeit iPhone
Monoprice
Counterfeit UK
Counterfeit iPad
Belkin
KMS
Motorola

The graphs in this section need a bit of explanation, which is provided in the diagram below. The voltage/current load curve shows the performance of the charger under different loads. Each point on the curve shows the current (X axis) and voltage (Y axis) produced by the charger under a particular load condition. Follow the yellow curve clockwise from the upper left to the lower left to see the effect of increasing load. The upper left point of the curve shows the voltage produced by the charger when there is no load on the charger. As the load increases, the charger is supposed to keep a constant voltage and increase the current (i.e. horizontal line), until it reaches the maximum power (upper right). If the load continues increasing, the charger switches to a constant current mode, dropping the voltage while continuing to provide the maximum current (i.e. vertical line).[14] At the lower right, the charger has reached its shutdown point due to excessive load, and rapidly drops to no output in the lower left corner to avoid damage.

Example Voltage vs Current graph for a phone charger

[16]

Apple iPhone

Voltage vs Current curve for Apple iPhone charger

The output from the Apple iPhone charger is surprisingly non-constant under load. The charger starts off with 5.2 volts with no load, dropping to 4.6 volts as the load increases, resulting in the downwards slope of the top yellow line. As the load increases, the current keeps increasing, resulting in the slope of the right yellow line. Note however that the yellow line is relatively thin, so the regulation is pretty good at each point.

Note that because this charger has a high current output, this chart has a different current (horizontal) scale than most of the charts to fit the whole trace in the image. Stretch it horizontally to compare with other graphs.

Samsung oblong

Voltage vs Current curve for Samsung oblong charger

For this charger, the voltage is approximately flat, except for a bump under no load (upper left) which is probably a measurement artifact. The vertical yellow line shows the current stays nearly constant as the load increases. The charger shows good voltage and current stability under changing load. The yellow line is a bit wider than the iPhone charger, showing a bit less regulation for a fixed load.

Samsung cube

Voltage vs Current curve for Samsung cube charger

The voltage curve sags slightly under load. The right hand curve shows the current stays stable, but the line is moderately wide, showing a bit of weakness in regulation.

Apple iPad

Voltage vs Current curve for Apple iPad charger

Similar to the iPhone charger, the iPad charger shows a lot of voltage sag. The voltage is about 5.1 V unloaded, dropping to 4.4 volts and 2.3 A (10.1 W) at the corner. Unlike the iPhone charger, the iPad charger has pretty good current stability. The regulation is solid, as shown by the narrowness of the yellow trace. Note the scale change due to the high current output.

I'm puzzled by the steep voltage sag on both the iPhone and iPad charger. Since the designers of the Apple charger went to a great deal of effort to build a high quality charger, I conclude they must not consider voltage sag worth worrying about. Or, more interestingly, maybe they built this sag as a feature for some reason. In any case, the chargers lose points on this.

HP TouchPad

Voltage vs Current curve for HP TouchPad charger

The charger has some voltage sag, but the current (vertical) is nice and constant. The yellow line is relatively thin, showing good regulation. Note the scale change due to the high current output.

Counterfeit iPhone

Voltage vs Current curve for counterfeit iPhone charger

This counterfeit charger shows extremely poor regulation, as shown by the very wide yellow line. It's hard to fit a voltage-current curve to this picture. The amount of power supplied by this charger seems almost random.

Monoprice

Voltage vs Current curve for Monoprice charger

The Monoprice charger shows reasonably straight voltage and current lines showing good constant voltage and current outputs. The vertical line shows some width and noise, suggesting the regulation isn't totally stable.

Counterfeit UK

Voltage vs Current curve for counterfeit UK iPhone charger

For this charger, the upper line doesn't get very far, showing that this charger doesn't output much current. My suspicion is that it was only tested with 240 volts so it performs poorly with 120 volts, even though the label says it takes 100 to 240 volts. The width of the yellow line shows very poor regulation.

Counterfeit iPad

The output of this counterfeit charger is so poorly regulated that it's hard to tell exactly what's happening with the voltage and current. It looks like the voltage is roughly constant underneath all the noise.

Belkin

Voltage vs Current curve for Belkin phone charger

The Belkin charger shows voltage sag as the current increases. In addition, the output is fairly noisy.

KMS

Voltage vs Current curve for KNS phone charger

The KMS charger shows a lot of voltage sag as the load increases. In addition, the output is all over the place, showing very poor regulation, more like what I'd expect from a counterfeit charger. Note the scale change due to the high current output.

Motorola

Voltage vs Current curve for Motorola phone charger

The Motorola charger shows a bit of voltage sag, but good current stability. The regulation is good but not perfect, as shown by the width of the yellow line. (The gaps in the vertical line are just measurement artifacts.) Note that the maximum current output of this charger is fairly low (as advertised).

Conclusions

So what charger should you spend your hard-earned money on? First, make sure the charger will work with your phone - for instance, newer iPhones only work with certain chargers. Second, don't buy a counterfeit charger; the price is great, but it's not worth risking your expensive device or your safety. Beyond that, it's your decision on how much quality is worth versus price, and I hope the data here helps you make a decision.

P.S. How about some teardowns?

My previous iPhone charger and fake charger teardowns were surprisingly popular, but if you were hoping for teardowns on the full set of chargers, you'll need to wait for a future blog post. I haven't torn the chargers apart yet; if I need to take more measurements, I don't want to have just a pile of parts. But I do have some preview pictures to hold you over until my teardown article.

Counterfeit Apple iPhone charger internals

The above picture shows the internals of a counterfeit Apple iPhone cube charger. The two boards stack to form the compact cube shape. This charger blatantly tries to pass as a genuine Apple charger; unlike the "Designed by California" charger, this one exactly copies the "Designed by Apple in California" text from the real charger. Note the very simple circuitry[4] - there are no components on the other side of the board, no controller IC, and very little filtering. Also look at the terrible mounting of the transistor on the front right; clearly the build quality of this charger is poor. Finally, note the overall lack of insulation; this charger wouldn't meet UL safety standards and could easily short out. But on the plus side, this charger only cost a couple dollars.

Inside a cheap USB charger

The above $2 charger is notable for its low-profile design; it's about as thin as you can make a charger and still fit the power prongs and the USB port. The transformer is very short to fit into this charger. Like the previous charger, it uses a very simple circuit,

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