Originally Posted By: K447
As far as I know Apple does not sell a simple USB hub of any kind that might support the 1amp or 2amp charge rates. I don't know whether the USB ports on something like the Thunderbolt display can do it, but that would be a $1000 hub!

Must an iPhone or iPad be directly connected to a Mac in order to utilize the higher charging rates? Or is there a way to do so through a (very up to date) USB hub?

It should be possible to make a hub to provide more power, though I didn't have much luck finding one for sale when I searched two years ago. The previous 27 inch Cinema Display has a hub in it, and it will provide up to 1A per port. This was my solution during the pre iOS 5 days for charging, both the iPhone and iPad sat on two of the monitor ports. (Now they sit in a dual charging dock in my bedroom and sync via WiFi). The Thunderbolt display has a full USB2 controller and root hub in it, and also provides 1A per port.

One possibility might be a USB 3 hub. The base port is supposed to offer up to 900ma of power, though I'm not sure if the port would offer this to a USB 2 device.