Japan is Introducing USB Charging Stations

It’s generally a good idea to be skeptical of all public charging stations — even on public transportation. Although charging your phone might be safe on public transit, you should generally avoid public charging stations in other locations. There were many reports last year about the possibility of hackers using public charging stations to hack into a person’s smartphone. Hackers were able to gain control of a person’s phone within minutes, and then transfer a virus onto the victim’s phone.

In order to prevent this type of situation, you’ll want to run regular virus scans on your device. That way, if you do have to use a public charging dock, you’ll be able to scan your device for any malware or security breaches. If you do have malware on your device, and you got it from a charging station, be sure to run a full virus scan on your device, and report the charging station to the authorities immediately. Click here to scan your device for malware now:

It was recently announced that Japan is testing out free USB charging stations on public transit. But how exactly does this differ from your typical outlet on a bus or train? It appears to be taking out the middleman — the “adaptor” needed to connect your micro USB cable to a wall outlet — in favor of directly utilizing a USB port to charge your phone.

Where are the USB charging stations available?

According to multiple reports, the charging stations only seem to be available on a single bus in Tokyo. As to when they’ll be available nationwide and beyond, it’s still unknown. However, London, England, and Singapore have already added USB chargers to areas of their public transit as well. London added multiple charging stations to buses on certain routes last year, and so far, they’ve been successful.

How popular are the USB charging stations?

So far, they’ve been more popular than expected. As you may have guessed, people have been using them to charge their phones or surf the Web on their commutes to and from work. That way, they don’t have to worry about their phone battery dying because they got bored on the bus.