Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks
And many powered USB Hubs supply a wall wart only good enough to power ONE port device (500mA) 
The specification is 500mA maximum PER port. Any device that can not do this should have their USB logo invalidated 
Some devices now support USB+power (originally created for the POS industry, More 5V and 12V(green coded plug) and even 24V (Red Coded plug) for power hungry accessories. Expecting 2 USB ports to share nicely  is naive design. |
I never said it was the greatest design since flush toilets. But most newer computers can put out more juice in the USB than the older ones did. Manufactuers of peripherals like the optical drive I have for my netbook want to capitalize on that added power to increase speed, etc. (nothing wrong with that; it's called progress). The double USB cable is an inexpensive kludge to maintain compatability with older machines or ones that have less power by design, like netbooks.