[ReligiousFlames]

I use a cheap, no-brand 7x 18650 cell USB battery with a seemingly gimmicky solar panel that actually works from Amazon. It both charges and discharges slowly, but it works good enough for now and it's TSA-compliant to pack in carry-on. It's really poorly designed in that all sides are symmetric and the manual power button lacks an affordance... it does have automatic power-on based on USB draw.

As a similar potential business model, Monoprice seems like a great business for the customer, as cables are/were the highest margin items in electronics store, but I wonder if they're making enough money to be viable: anyone can knock-off cables and compete to the bottom worse than DRAM ($.75 USB cable, where's the profit in that?)

I'm wondering if Anker is potentially investable or if it will at least earn a comfortable living for workers, suppliers and owner/s. Differentiating a-la Zappos but beware of an inherent lack of long-term defensibility and brand-crowded marketplace.

I'll give em a try when I need that next thing that normally would be an Amazon/Newegg/Fry's purchase.