Weekly Travel Hack: Charge your iPod/iPhone in a TV

4 comments // Written by Stephen on May 15 2013 in Tips & Travel Hacks

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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Weekly Travel Hack.  Last week we learned how to use our chapstick to hide our emergency money and this week we are going to learn how to charge our iphone/ipod with an unlikely source, a TV.

Whether you’re in a hostel or in a hotel room one hurdle a traveler runs into time and again is the amount of outlets they have access too, especially if they are sharing the room with other travelers. When everyone is trying to charge their camera, phone, ipod, tablet, and computer at once it can get pretty nasty when it comes to electric availability, and that’s not even mentioning whether you have the right adapter or not. But with this tricky little maneuver, you can make sure at least your iphone or ipod is always charged.

Usually, most hotels room have a flat screen TV and at the very least most hostel common rooms have a flat screen TV. What many people don’t realize is that these TV’s almost always have an usb port in the back.  By simply using your usb charger cable, like the picture below, you can easily charge your ipod or iphone by plugging it into the back of the TV; a place probably no one is thinking to hook into.

You are now set, wherever there is a TV there is now a way for you to charge your device. Remember, if you charge in a hostel common room/lobby keep an eye on your ipod/iphone, there are many people more than happy to walk off with it.  Also, I haven’t tried, but many cameras now have usb hookups and this could be a clever way to charge a camera as well.  That wraps up this weeks Travel Hack, may your travels be hacked and your phones be charged!

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