I'm a Chinese-American journalist in Hong Kong, covering consumer tech in Asia. Before focusing on this exciting beat, I was a general culture writer and editor with bylines in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, New York Magazine, among others.Voltaic Systems has introduced a portable battery pack with USB Type-C power delivery for a faster charge rate for portable devices.The V88 portable battery allows users to quickly and safely charge laptops, digital still cameras, smartphones, drones and more while not on the power grid. The battery pack contains a high voltage laptop port for traditional laptops and drones, a USB quick charge 3.0 port for smartphones and tablets and a USB Type-C port with power delivery for quick charging to MacBooks and USB-C laptops.Voltaic said the battery pack allows users to fully charge a laptop in under two hours at a charge rate of 45 W using a USB-PD supported charging cable.

The battery pack can be recharged through its solar panel or through the included AC wall charger. In addition, the battery features pass-through charging, allowing the V88 to charge from the sun or an AC outlet while charging other devices.Fundamentally, charging cables are all the same. They’re just copper wire wrapped in a protective sheath, carrying negatively charged electrons towards a rechargeable battery.Yet thanks to the infinite wisdom of device manufacturers, most cables only work with specific devices. This can be really frustrating when you have to carry separate cords for your laptop, phone and tablet.The solution is Double Mag, a two-way charging cable with interchangeable connectors. This useful accessory works with pretty much all phones, tablets and laptops, and you can use it for file transfers too.

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The magnetic design lets you switch between connectors in seconds, and Double Mag comes with an array of useful options. For instance, you can use the Lightning connector to charge your iOS devices, or grab the micro USB connector to charge your drone battery.To make the magic happen, Double Mag has strong magnets at each end of the cable. These hold the interchangeable connectors safely and securely, while still allowing you to make a switch in seconds.The cable itself is more durable than the weedy thing provided by your phone maker. You will notice that the insulation is thicker than on many cables, and the combination of PVC and nylon makes Double Mag pretty strong. Furthermore, this cable is difficult to get tangled.

Double Mag is compatible with Quick Charge 3.0, USB-PD (Power Delivery) and USB 2.0 devices. There are four different connectors to choose from, plus a neat LED light attachment.In addition, the folks at XPower make a magnetic converter that turns a regular micro-USB cable into a universal charging cable.“The XPower Double Mag 2-Way Magnetic Cable is a powerful charging cable that can connect to any device with 10 times charging speed. This magnetic cable supports a wide range of connectors such as USB Power Delivery, micro-USB and LED Bulb.” — XPower on Kickstarter
It has been a long time coming, but it seems we finally have a universal charging cable. Double Mag is durable, easy to use and very versatile.

Foolproof charging?

It’s always worth treating unofficial third-party chargers with caution. While Double Mag definitely looks the part, we await the early reviews with interest.USB-C is fast becoming the default connector for new devices like smartphones, headphones, Bluetooth speakers and tablets. Apple's MacBooks have switched over to USB-C charging, but PC laptops are moving more slowly: you can charge the Surface Go over USB-C, for example, but you can't charge the new Surface Laptop 2 the same way. Since plugging into the wall isn't always convenient, can you carry a USB-C battery bank instead of a charger to get a top-up on the go? Maybe -- but you'll have to choose carefully.

The Iceworks 7000 (£19.99) is extremely portable: it's the size and weight of a smartphone (78mm by 155mm by 8mm and 160g), but has 7,000mAh of power -- more than some bulkier and heavier chargers we've tested. The integral cable tucks neatly into the corner of the portable charger, making a neat little package and meaning you don't have to remember to take the a charging cable with you.USB-C is slightly smarter than earlier versions of the standard: it starts delivering power as soon as you plug it into a device that can draw power instead of you having to press a button, and the power level indicator lights up automatically.

Although USB-C supports two-way power connections as part of the USB Power Delivery spec, you can't charge the Iceworks 7000 with the built-in cable as it's not a USB PD device -- you need to power it through a second USB-C port on the side (there's a cable in the box for that). You can also power a second device from the second port, which means with the right cable you can charge older Micro-USB devices.

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For such a small and cheap device, we were impressed with the power it can deliver. If you're charging a phone, you'll get about two full charges out of it. The 15W (5V/3A) output is on the low side for a tablet or PC, but we were able to use it to power a Surface Go. After using the Surface Go throughout the day, it was down to 10 percent battery. After plugging in the Iceworks 7000 and switching the Windows power plan to 'battery optimised', the Surface Go battery got up to 16 percent after an hour's use, with wi-fi on and OneNote and the Twitter app running. The Iceworks 7000 still had 50 percent of its battery charge left.

On a different day, we ran the Surface Go battery down to 6 percent and plugged the Iceworks 7000 in while running a more demanding mix of apps -- streaming video and browsing web pages with live captions for the video that updated in real time. This time, the Surface Go battery stayed at 6 percent for the next half hour and had charged to only 7 percent after an hour (while we continued streaming video), although the battery bank still had 75 percent charge. When we plugged in the external battery and shut the lid on the Surface Go (which puts it into sleep rather than suspending it), it recharged at about 8 percent per hour.